Microsoft Flight Simulator has been soaring to new heights since its revival in 2020, captivating both aviation enthusiasts and casual gamers alike with its stunning visual fidelity and unprecedented global scale. At the helm of this ambitious project is, of course, our well-known Jorg Neumann, whose vision and leadership have been instrumental in shaping the simulator’s evolution.
In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Neumann to discuss World Update 17, which brings a breathtaking overhaul to the United Kingdom and Ireland. But our conversation doesn’t stop at the British Isles. We’ll also explore the intricate relationships between Microsoft and third-party developers, the balancing act of catering to both hardcore simmers and casual flyers, and gain insights into the future direction of the platform.
While anticipation builds for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, set to release later this year, the MSFS team has chosen to reserve major discussions about this upcoming version until after September. As such, our conversation primarily focuses on the current simulator and its ongoing developments, offering a deep dive into the present state of Flight Simulator while we eagerly await news of its next iteration.
Join us as we learn more about how World Update 17 came to be, community expectations, and technological advancements with one of the key figures behind our favorite flight simulator. It’s a long read, but I think it’s worth it!
World Update 17 finally revamps London with new photogrammetry
World Update 3 has long since been consigned to the annals of Microsoft Flight Simulator history as one of the platform’s first regional updates. With it, London received the same treatment that had graced several U.S. cities: aerial-based 3D imagery aimed at enhancing the realism of the scenery. However, London’s photogrammetry cityscape soon became something of a black sheep, with many users clamoring for improvements since its initial release. After more than three years of anticipation, a new and improved London has finally arrived!
The newly enhanced London stands as a highlight of World Update 17. When asked about the lengthy wait for improved photogrammetry of this iconic city, Jorg Neumann’s insights into the complex process behind London’s digital makeover offer a compelling glimpse into the challenges of recreating real-world locations in Flight Simulator.
“Photogrammetry is the result of airplanes flying over cities, which is a pretty involved process,” Neumann explains. The team partners with Vexcel, utilizing their cutting-edge Osprey 4.1 camera – a piece of equipment with a staggering million-dollar price tag. This camera isn’t simply placed on a plane; it requires custom installation, adding another layer of complexity to the process.
But the challenges don’t end with the technology. Neumann outlines a litany of hurdles that must be overcome: “You need to get the right overflight rights. You need to have the right weather and the right season.” These rights often involve negotiations with city governments and sometimes even military authorities.
The team also grapples with the fickle nature of weather and seasonal changes. An in the UK, you can imagine how it goes… “In Europe, we can’t really capture between September and March because the sun is too low, which causes long shadows” Neumann explains.
So, the road to London’s improved representation in the simulator has been a long one. The city’s initial inclusion in World Update 3 back in 2021 was less than stellar. “We bought the data from a company called Blue Sky,” Neumann recalls. They had an older camera and flew higher.” The result was a lower-resolution capture that, for many in the community, left much to be desired.
Recognizing the community’s disappointment, Neumann made London’s improvement a top priority. However, the sheer scale of the task meant that results wouldn’t be immediate. “World Update 17 was planned two years ago,” he shares.
But, as we can now see with WU17, the fruits of this labor are impressive. While the 2021 version of London was limited to the central business district, the new update is nothing short of monumental. “Now, it goes all the way to Heathrow, Wembley, Welling,” Neumann proudly states. “It’s gigantic, like two and a half thousand square kilometers or something like that. We have the entirety of Greater London.”
The improvement in London’s representation is both a matter of coverage and visual fidelity. The results are impressive. “This is now three centimeter resolution, which is about as good as modern technology allows us to do,” Neumann proudly states.
“If you look at some of the cities we had in 2020, they were actually shot from the airplane in 2015. Basically every city going forward is going to be much better.”
A collaborative effort
These enhancements are the result of collaborative efforts between Microsoft’s Bing team and Vexcel, with the Bing team applying sophisticated algorithms to process the high-resolution camera data provided by Vexcel. The Bing team has developed sophisticated algorithms to process this raw data.
Neumann elaborates, “Bing’s programmers write the algorithms to basically out of the point cloud, construct the 3D buildings, attach the textures.” But it doesn’t stop there. “They brought new algorithms to flatten the roads, for example, to undercut under bridges and then also to straighten the geometry more.”
These improvements aren’t limited to London. Neumann assures, “All the cities going forward are going to benefit from this.” In fact, the team is even revisiting older content: “If you look at some of the cities we had in 2020, they were actually shot from the airplane in 2015.” The technological progress in the intervening years means that “basically every city going forward is going to be much better.”
Belfast, Manchester, and Birmingham are missing
Despite these advancements, some notable omissions remain. When asked about Manchester and Birmingham, Neumann confirms they’re not included in this update. “You can’t have everything,” he explains pragmatically.
However, Neumann does express regret about one particular omission: “If I have a pain point, it’s Belfast actually.” He elaborates on the importance of representing the diverse regions of the UK: “When you look at the UK and Ireland, UK actually consists of pretty significantly independent sections like Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. They’re quite different.”
The update does include significant improvements for other major cities: “It’s good to now see Glasgow and Edinburgh and we have Cork and we have Dublin. We have Cardiff.” But Belfast’s absence is keenly felt by Neumann.
Neumann is quick to reassure that this isn’t the end of the road for improving UK cities. “This is going to be one of those where cities that are missing, for example, or that need to be updated, we’ll do via probably a City Update,” he explains. This approach has already been successful: “We’ve shipped a few of those over the last few months… And there will be more. We’re doing more of those.”
Expanding global coverage beyond the US and Western Europe
While Microsoft Flight Simulator has made significant strides in improving its representation of cities, particularly in the US and Western Europe, there’s a clear ambition to expand this coverage globally. Jorg Neumann provides insights into this process and the challenges involved.
Neumann emphasizes the importance of their partnership with Vexcel, describing them as “the leading company in the world for this type of data.” And the Flight Simulator team actively encourages Vexcel to expand their coverage.
“The intent is to go around the entire planet. (…) In the next four years, my confidence is pretty high that we will get to just about every country with the exception of a few.”
Neumann recounts conversations where he’s advocated for new areas: “I oftentimes go to them and say, hey, how about Northern Europe?” This approach has led to the capture of data for places like Norway, which was included in World Update 15.
Neumann’s vision is expansive: “The intent is to go around the entire planet.” However, he acknowledges that some areas remain challenging due to governmental restrictions. Yet, even these obstacles can change over time. He cites India as an example, where previously forbidden photogrammetry is now encouraged through the “100th City Initiative.”
Looking ahead, Neumann is optimistic: “In the next four years, my confidence is pretty high that we will get to just about every country with the exception of a few.”
The Brazil Project
Responding to community requests, the team has also pushed for coverage in Brazil. “I convinced them to send a plane and a camera to Brazil,” Neumann says. This initiative, which began about two years ago, required establishing new relationships with local authorities. “You have to establish relationships with the cities, with the military, with the air traffic controllers because you need to get permission to fly over cities wherever you go in the world,” he explains.
The Brazil data capture has been an ongoing process, with flights conducted last year and this year. “We just got the final data from the cities we were trying to get,” Neumann reports. The team is now in the process of constructing 3D meshes, color correction, and replacing generic “TIN trees” with more realistic vegetation.
New Airports in World Update 17
Shifting focus back to World Update 17, Neumann explains the process of selecting new airports for detailed representation. “We look at the region as almost like a box,” he says, highlighting the need for balanced coverage across the whole region being covered.
Farnborough Airport receives special treatment, featuring an “air show configuration” that activates when the simulator’s date is set to July 22nd (the airshow takes place between 22-26 July).
Neumann highlights the collaborative nature of these developments, mentioning partnerships with developers like Gaya Simulations and iniBuilds. The latter’s proximity to Farnborough allowed for detailed on-site photography, enhancing the accuracy of the virtual representation.
Local Legend 18 is ready but waiting on license from the manufacturer
The conversation then shifted to Local Legend 18, an aircraft tied to World Update 17 that, due to ongoing licensing discussions, is yet to be officially revealed (however, we know it will be a helicopter and it looks like the Westland Scott is a very strong candidate based on a previous leak!).
Despite these legal intricacies, Neumann remains optimistic. “We are fundamentally in agreement what we’re trying to do. They want to do it. It’s really just the last pieces of paper. The aircraft’s done. It’s all done. We’re just waiting on the license” he explains. The team was hopeful for a release today alongside WU17, but that obviously didn’t happen, so we’re left waiting for additional news.
Importantly, Neumann emphasizes that this licensing situation is unique among their planned aircraft. “I’ve planned out the planes for the next almost two and a half years. This is the only one where we have a licensing situation like this. The other ones are basically all signed,” he assures.
Two airliners in the works: the Caravelle and the Boeing 707
The conversation then turned to a “July surprise,” which the team had mentioned leading up to this month. In the last development stream, a roadmap image revealed a thumbnail with “Caravelle” written below it, hinting that this could be the aircraft linked to the kick-off of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Neumann confirms this connection: “That was the idea.” He reveals that work on the Caravelle began over a year and a half ago with Airplane Heaven. “I love the plane. It’s important. To me, it’s the exact equivalent to the Comet in England. It’s at the very beginning of the jet airliner age,” Neumann explains.
Interestingly, the Caravelle is not the only classic airliner commissioned by Microsoft to Aeroplane Heaven. The Boeing 707 is also in the works and was also delayed. Jorg says that the decision to delay the release of both projects is just so the development team has more time to get them right.
This became a natural segue for Neumann to elaborate on the philosophy behind the Local Legends series: “The Local Legends are not trying to be expert-level things with super deep system depth. So that’s just not what they’re intended to be. They’re intended to celebrate planes of a certain region or a certain era.”
However, the team recognizes the 707’s importance in aviation history and the community’s expectations for its representation. “We listened to all the feedback,” Neumann says, “So we basically took a step back and said, are we doing justice to the aircraft? And ultimately, I decided that it needs a little bit more time.”
This decision has had a ripple effect on other aircraft in development, including the Caravelle. While visually complete, the team is focusing on implementing the right level of systems depth. Neumann explains, “It really comes down to what type of systems do we need to put in there to make sure, like it has a parachute thing, it has an INS, and those types of things.”
Neumann reiterates his desire to surprise the community with these aircraft for the Olympics but emphasizes the importance of quality over timing. “Ultimately, I wanted to surprise everybody for the Olympics, but it doesn’t help if the plane isn’t great,” he concludes.
Balancing complexity and accessibility working with third parties
I couldn’t help but wonder about the potential gap between the development team’s goals and the community’s expectations. I asked Jorg about this directly, curious to hear his thoughts on balancing different player preferences.
Neumann points out that while there’s a vocal community that desires highly detailed, “study-level” aircraft, they represent a minority of the game’s 15 million players. “Ultimately, I have to walk the line of making aviation accessible,” he explains.
To illustrate this point, Neumann discusses the interesting case of the Airbus A320neo included in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game initially included a functional but simpler version of the A320neo, which became one of the most popular aircraft in the simulator. Recently, a more complex version was developed by iniBuilds and released as a new baseline A320 with enhanced systems depth.
“Guess which one is flown more?” Neumann asks. Surprisingly, the original, simpler version remains more popular. Initially, the split was 60-40 in favor of the complex version, but now it’s shifted to 70-30 in favor of the original.
This pattern informs the approach to the Local Legends series. “I want the Local Legends, the reason why I’m pricing them so affordably, is because I want people to be able to engage with as many planes as possible,” Neumann explains. The goal is to celebrate aviation and make it accessible to a wide audience.
Neumann reveals that he’s received numerous emails from players asking not to make planes too complex. “Some of us are not interested in that high complexity plane,” he paraphrases from these messages.
Clearly, it’s a delicate balance that the development team must maintain. While catering to aviation enthusiasts who crave depth and realism, they must also ensure the platform remains approachable for casual players who make up a significant portion of their user base – and possibly drive much of the commercial success that transpires to everybody else.
“That is the needle we have to thread,” Neumann concludes.
Embracing different developers for their unique approaches
Some partners who have developed aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator in collaboration with Microsoft have faced backlash about their releases. For instance, Aeroplane Heaven has stirred mixed reactions with their contributions to the Local Legends and Famous Fliers series, but is it really their fault if an aircraft doesn’t meet some expectations, since they’ve been contracted by Microsoft to deliver these planes?
Neumann strongly emphasizes the freedom given to developers: “I’m not telling this developer to make this plane at this level of complexity. That’s not what I’m doing.” He elaborates on the collaborative nature of the process: “What I’m saying is, hey, I’m going to make a Caravelle. Are you guys interested? In this case, it was even different. They told me they had Caravelle and asked if I wanted it. I said, sure, I love the Caravelle. It’s an awesome plane, but I’m not sitting there dictating what they should be doing. People take it as far as they can or want.”
Asobo is not involved in any way in these “first-party” partnerships between Microsoft and other developers to create aircraft for the simulator, but the development process involves extensive support from Microsoft, as Neumann details: “We give them as much information as we can. We do the scanning. If there’s a scan to be done or to photo shoot, we do the audio recording sometimes if they need it. We give them all the documentation from the manufacturers if they need it. And we support them with other things if they need it. Like if they need artwork help, we help them with artwork. Certainly we do the testing for sure.”
Neumann uses the example of Airplane Heaven’s Boeing 307 Stratoliner to illustrate the thorough research process: “I worked very closely with Boeing on that plane and the Smithsonian, by the way, where the last one is placed. They have given us full access to everything that is remaining as far as knowledge about the 307. There is not more information on this Earth that I can find about that plane.”
Despite some criticism on that particular plane, Neumann defends the work: “Both of those organizations tell me that Airplane and Heaven did a great job. So I’m like, hey, you know, I think those people know a lot. Who am I to judge? And ultimately, I think it’s super fun. It looks great. It’s fun to fly.”
Neumann emphasizes the importance of embracing different developers for their unique approaches: “I fundamentally embrace people for who they are. And I think Carenado makes Carenado planes. PMDG makes PMDG planes. Aeroplane Heaven makes Aeroplane Heaven planes. And I think that’s what we should all celebrate. These are all creators that have been doing this for decades now. And I think we should just say, this is for me or this is not for me.”
And that was all, but I still had one final question that has been bugging me since MSFS 2024 was announced, especially when it became clear that it was going to be relying even more on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure:
“Is Microsoft Flight Simulator on a path to become a subscription service?”
Jorg Neumann provided a clear and definitive answer about the future of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s business model. “No, it’s never been the plan.”
Neumann acknowledged that this concern has been present since the simulator’s launch: “I mean, people were afraid of this when we first launched. They’re like, oh yeah, here goes Microsoft, subscription, and here we are four years later. There’s no evidence for any of this so now there’s no such thing.”
