Microsoft’s latest developer Q&A live stream took place on December 4th, 2024, with regulars Jorg Neumann (Head of Microsoft Flight Sim), Sebastian Wloch (Asobo CEO), Martial Bossard (Executive Producer, Asobo), and hosted by Jayne (Sr. Community Manager). The panellists discussed the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and provided updates on how things will improve moving forward.
The main issue faced during the launch was the CDN between the server and client, resulting in long load times, poor quality streaming, and other issues that locked people out of the sim. Jorg explained that they moved the infrastructure to a new setup, which is working much better now.
As for bug fixes, two patches have been released so far, with patch 3 due out next week. Jorg mentioned that any issues with the world, aircraft, or career mode can be fixed server-side without requiring an update for the end user. The team plans to release regular sim updates once a quarter in 2025.
The community asked questions about performance, texture quality, and LOD issues, which Microsoft/Asobo are working to improve through improvements to the cache system, texture streaming, and in-sim updates. They also acknowledged that there is a demand for an offline mode, but it won’t be possible due to the sim’s size and scale.
The team discussed the Marketplace, which has been delayed to early 2025, allowing third-party developers more time to adapt to the new platform. Feedback from the community is being tracked, with top bugs and feature requests reviewed and discussed on the stream.
Working Title’s Matt Nischan gave a brief update on the flight planning tools, mentioning their partnership with LIDO, which provides a huge amount of data. They also mentioned that calculations for performance planning are complete and coming soon.
In 2025, Jorg and the teams plan to release new content, including World Update 19 – Brazil, Local Legend 20: Cap-4 Paulistinha, Famous Flyer 11: Cessna 185F, and four free aircraft as a “make good” gesture for the community. The first two free aircraft are the Cap-4 Paulistinha and the Cessna 185F.
The stream concluded with Jorg thanking the teams for their hard work and the community for providing valuable feedback. He emphasized that they will do better and fix the issues to make Microsoft Flight Simulator a great sim platform it can be.
Source: https://fselite.net/content/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-2024-developer-qa-stream-recap