Since the launch of the new Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC last month, developer Asobo Studio has been pretty busy with post-launch updates. Yesterday, the team released another patch to fix several issues that have been reported by the community.
As usual, the patch delivered through the Microsoft Store and Steam should be pretty small, but the game has a built-in update tool that check for updates every time you launch it. We’ve included some of the most important fixes below, and we invite you to check the pretty long release notes on the game’s official website:
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
- 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 memory limited computers.
- Overall performance optimizations.
UI
- Filters and sorting have been improved in the marketplace.
- Manual cache layout has been improved and the download estimated time should now be correct.
- Improved support for gamepad navigation in many menus.
- Case sensitive search is now working properly in control screen.
- Search by axis in control screen has been fixed.
- Active pause button has been added in the toolbar.
- Pause button has been fixed in the Content manager.
SERVICES
- Upgraded multiplayer servers.
MARKETPLACE
- Rating display on bundles has been improved.
- Performance drop after downloading an item in marketplace has been removed.
- An addon purchased outside of the marketplace no longer has an impact on the “Installed” filter in the marketplace as it is considered as a “community” content.
CONTENT MANAGER
- Addon purchased outside of the marketplace now also visible in the Content manager when online, and offline if downloaded in the community folder.
- 3rd Party content thumbnail display improved.
- Pause download during installation is fixed.
WORLD
- Detected buildings that intersect roads are now excluded.
- Longer bridges are less prone to having a gap.
- UK city houses models should no longer appear in US suburbs.
- “In The Wild” Achievement can now be unlocked
Microsoft previously said that it was committed to support this new Flight Simulator game for ten years. A version for Xbox consoles is also in development, though we still don’t know when it will be available. The game is pretty demanding on PC and also requires a fast Internet connection to leverage Microsoft’s Azure cloud service and Bing Maps data.
If you have yet to try it, Microsoft Flight Simulator is free to play with Xbox Game Pass for PC, which is just $1 for the first month for new subscribers. The game is also available to purchase on the Windows 10 Microsoft Store and Steam.
