New planes, airports, cities and the DirectX 12 API available in beta.

Released in August 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator returns today in a GOTY edition (Game of the Year Edition). This version includes new planes as well as new manually edited airports. From a technical point of view, Microsoft evokes an updated weather system, new cities that benefit from photogrammetric rendering but also the implementation of DirectX 12 in beta mode.

The video above illustrates most of the new features. On the aircraft side, five new aircraft are taking off: the Boeing F / A-18 Super Hornet, the first military aircraft in the game; the VoloCity; the Pilatus PC-6 Porter; the CubCrafters NX Cub; the Aviat Pitts Special S1S. There are eight additional airports: Leipzig / Halle (EDDP), Allgäu Memmingen (EDJA) and Kassel (EDVK) airports in Germany; The airports of Lugano (LSZA), Zurich (LSZH) and Luzern-Beromunster (LSZO) in Switzerland; Patrick Space Force Base (KCOF) and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station (KNKX) in the United States. Added to all this are new tutorials and additional missions.

Flight Simulator confronted with reality in 4 videos

New features

On the functional side, Microsoft mentions an updated weather system, without further details; When it was released, the title was already benefiting from severe weather effects. In addition, thanks to the partnership with Bing Maps, new photogrammetric cities have been added: Helsinki (Finland), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), Brighton, Derby, Eastbourne, Newcastle and Nottingham (UK) and Utrecht (Netherlands). Finally, Flight Simulator recently introduced the DirectX12 API in beta. For now, the performance gains compared to DirectX 11 would be non-existent based on the videos streamed by the site. DSOGaming.

If you already own Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC and Xbox Series X / S, this edition of Game of the Year comes as a free update. New pilots will start directly with this version of the game.