Players will test performance improvements in Microsoft Flight Simulator

Asobo just released the latest development update for Microsoft Flight Simulator over on the sim’s official blog page. This new update doesn’t contain a huge amount of new information, but it does make one special announcement. A new player test for future Microsoft Flight Simulator updates regarding performance improvements is coming soon.

Called the “Flighting,” Asobo will once again invite members of the simming community to test a special pre-release version of the next big update for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This particular test will allow players to experience the “significant updates and data changes to the sim” made by Asobo. Due to these changes, the studio is looking for “a variety of PC setups to help test stability and performance.” And speaking of performance, Asobo made sure to mention that this test will include “significant performance updates” that it wants to get some feedback on.

Asobo wants 300 more participants for this test. Folks who have been involved in previous tests will be automatically added to this new Flighting. Unlike before, players will actually need to apply for the test by means of a Steam branch (even if you don’t own the Steam edition of the sim). Codes will be sent out via email to selected players who will then need to download a test version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Extra storage space will be needed to temporarily house this test version. Registration has not yet began for this new test, but will begin soon.

Ascending updates

The next major update to the sim will be World Update 5, which is set to release sometime in June and will make extensive improvements to the Nordic countries in Europe. Asobo has not stated if these performance improvements will also accompany the new World Update, or if they’re instead being saved for the next big Sim Update that’s coming sometime in July.

Regardless, the fact that there are big performance improvements coming relatively soon is great news. This has been a hot topic surrounding the sim since launch, continuing on until today.

For a few weeks this year, players with even powerful rigs were experiencing low fps in the sim. This issue has since been fixed, though, for some folks (including myself), it’s still not quite as decent as it was a few months ago. So, it sounds like Asobo has found a way to get the sim back up to that level of performance, if not to surpass that level entirely.

This falls in line with its promise to improve the sim’s performance by summertime, going alongside the release of the Xbox Series version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. With that set to potentially be revealed at E3 in a few days, and possibly released not too long after, then that would indicate that better days are right around the corner for PC players of Microsoft Flight Simulator. DirectX12 support will be integrated into the PC version of the sim once the Xbox version is live. Altogether, there seems to be a lot of great things in the works for the sim this summer across the board.