Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Mixed Reality. This was discovered when the company added it to a list of deprecated Windows features. The Windows Mixed Reality platform, along with its accompanying Mixed Reality Portal app, and Mixed Reality for Steam VR, are on the list. For now it is deprecated, and Microsoft says that it will be removed in a future release of Windows. Mixed Reality was released in 2017, during the thick of the VR craze in the tech industry, a time when Facebook, having acquired Oculus, and betting big on the Metaverse, an endeavor that cost the company over $20 billion since. Mixed Reality served as a gateway to games and apps in the VR space. The company developed its own HoloLens Mixed Reality headset rivaling Oculus Rift, and got its OEM partners, such as Acer, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, and HP, to invest in ones of their own. In all this, it doesn't look like Microsoft is winding down its enterprise-focused HoloLens 2 headset just yet.

Microsoft Flight Simulator was built from the ground up to achieve three key goals: realism, accuracy, and authenticity of flight. Today, we're excited to share that Virtual Reality for Microsoft Flight Simulator is now available on your favorite VR headset for PC, offering simmers the deepest and most immersive virtual flight experience in the new simulator to date.

The flight sim community has been a very active and insightful partner in shaping how the team approached VR, and continues to be a critical partner in our continued development as we make further improvements and add new features to the simulation. Adding VR to Microsoft Flight Simulator was a direct result of community feedback, and we look forward to continued involvement in the future of the franchise with us.

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 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.