Microsoft Flight Simulator is set to receive VR support later this month after a closed beta took place in October & November. VR Support will be available to all Steam VR compatible headsets, not just the HP Reverb G2 and other Windows Mixed Reality devices as originally stated. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a notoriously hard game to run and the addition of VR will require some fast hardware to run. The closed VR beta featured minimum requirements of an i5-8400/Ryzen 5 1500X, NVIDIA GTX 1080, and 16 GB memory. Microsoft is aware of the high hardware requirements and is working to introduce a series of new performance optimizations for the title.

Microsoft has been working to bring VR support to Flight Simulator in time for the launch of the HP Reverb G2 WMR headset later this year. Microsoft is now ready to test VR support in a limited two-phase closed beta. The first phase will focus on Windows Mixed Reality Devices with the second phase expanding to include additional devices. The minimum specifications for VR support were also revealed by Microsoft to be an Intel i5-8400/Ryzen 5 1500X, NVIDIA GTX 1080, and 16 GB ram.

The Microsoft Flight Simulator team is looking for dedicated Microsoft Flight Simulator community members to help test the upcoming VR builds. Participants will require a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator, a compatible VR headset, and sign an NDA to join the beta. If you are interested in being part of these tests be sure to review the criteria and then head over to the sign-up page.

Microsoft have recently released Flight Simulator patch 1.8.3.0 which provides major optimizations, especially in CPU-limited scenarios. The specific improvements include; Optimized cockpit screen display when screens are not displayed on screen, New option available to control cockpit screen update frequency, Tweaked CPU thread priorities to reduce interruption of frame critical threads, Optimized loading system to reduce overall loading times, Optimized heavy airport scenes impact on CPU, Reduced the amount of GPU overdraw to improve GPU performance, Memory optimizations to reduce software memory footprint and improve performance on limited memory computers.

These improvements will provide strong performance benefits to all players especially those who are CPU constrained. Overclock 3D has tested the latest patch and have recorded improvements of 11.4% at 1080p with average framerates increasing from 79.5 FPS to 88.6 FPS on their NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti and an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X test bench. They also noted an improvement in 1st Percentile framerates increasing from 71.3 FPS to 74.6 FPS. These performance improvements will be most notable in "heavy airport scenes" where Microsoft has focused their optimization efforts.

In a recent report from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) they estimate that $2.6 billion will be spent on PC gaming hardware in the next three years thanks to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator. This $2.6 billion will be split across Entry-Level, Mid-Range, and High-End PC gamers with the High-End category contributing the most. JPR estimates that 2.27 million copies of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will sell over the next three years. JPR predicts that these sales numbers will result in $2.6 billion being spent on hardware with the specific intent of improving the game's experience while much more will be spent over the title's complete life cycle.

This estimation includes new computer builds, processor upgrades, display upgrades, flight sticks and throttles, flight system control units, rudder pedals, simulation pit components such as seats and frames, and VR sales. This will benefit all computer components and accessory manufacturers as hardware upgrades are required across the board in most cases. With the introduction of 8K and VR support the game will continue to drive computer upgrades in the years to come.

In the list of typos with extreme relevance to the world, this one doesn't register unless it's at the "comical" side of the scale, but it's interesting, nevertheless, to look into. Recent reports on the recently-released Microsoft Flight Simulator mentioned the existence of an eldritch-esque obelisk in the in-game representation of Australia. This obelisk was nothing more than a 212-story building, which became a visual skyscraper, the top of which where particularly gifted flight simulator pilots managed to land on.

While one could think of this as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke or as a manifest of Robert Silverberg's Tower of Glass, the truth, as always, follows Occam's Razor. Microsoft Simulator makes use of OpenStreetMap data for its Bing Maps service, which runs on Microsoft's Azure servers. The integration of OpenStreetMap featured a bug on that particular building that was introduced, as has been discovered, by Nathan Wright, a university student who, as part of his degree work last year, made an edit to that particular building's specifications. A 2 became 212, and thus the tower was born and manifested in-game. Other bugs have been found in-game, but some of them defy skepticism: turning Buckingham Palace into an office building seems like a particularly snobbish way of criticizing Britain's royalty. As a particular Disney and Pixar character would say, "Coincidence? I Think not!".

Microsoft Flight Simulator has recently launched to mixed initial reactions with many users on Steam frustrated with the current install system. When downloaded through Steam Microsoft Flight Simulator initially installs just a small launcher which then proceeds to download the 150 GB game. The problem is Steam's playtime counter starts when this launcher is opened and with install times taking upwards of 3 hours on a 500 Mbps connection the two hour refund window expires before you can get into the actual game. Players have suggested an extension to the refund time window with many expressing their frustration with negative reviews for the game causing the average to drop to just 6/10.

Microsoft has recently confirmed plans to bring VR support to their upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator which is set to launch August 18th. VR support won't be available at launch and will instead be releasing as a free update beginning fall 2020. This update will bring VR support to all Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) headsets and coincides with the launch of the HP Reverb G2. Microsoft plans to support additional platforms/headsets in the future. Microsoft also announced that the popular optical motion tracking TrackIR system will be supported at launch.