Microsoft Flight Simulator has seen a tremendous cadence of post-launch support since taking flight in 2020. In particular, the World Updates have brought improvements to global detail, additional airports, activities, and more for flight sim enthusiasts to enjoy. Now with World Update XVII, MSFS is returning to the UK and Ireland to expand upon one of fans’ most sought-after updates to that region.

On top of improved airports, Points of Interest (POI), and new Landing Challenges, Discovery Flights, and Bush Trips, these enhancements also include new aerial imagery for the entire region utilizing high-resolution DEM (Digital Elevation Maps) for England, Scotland, Wales, and much of Ireland making this the largest World Update the team has ever released for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

This is the first time we’re getting a deeper insight into the improved level of quality that’s available for the Flight Simulator team to tap into as World Update XVII is merging recent aerial imagery, digital elevation modelling (including LiDAR coverage), TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface modeling, and hand-crafted airports, laying the groundwork for what’s coming next to the franchise.

“The world, especially the Big Data world, between Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be shared,” explains Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann. “We are not going to have two different digital twins — cities like London are going to be shared, POIs are shared, the height field (DEM) and aerials are all shared. What’s different in MSFS 2024 is we have optimized how the data is brought to the player. So, there will be a lot more in the Cloud, which allows us to do more. Instead of 23 species of trees, we now have something like 200. And ultimately with that it allows you to be a lot more accurate. There will still be trees in both worlds, but one will be a little bit more generic and the other more sophisticated, but the worlds will be the same.”

Sophisticated is a key word when it comes to describing what’s involved in the latest World Update XVII for Microsoft Flight Simulator. From utilizing improved cameras to more accurate levels of data, the whole project behind this update is driven by utilizing the latest tech which wasn’t available the first time these regions were mapped. It’s not just that this update has been long requested by fans, but it has been identified by the flight sim team as a project they’ve wanted to tackle for a while.

“We had photogrammetry (for the regions), but it didn’t look particularly good. And I think that’s what people saw, right? Sure, the city was there, but it was dark, the building shadows were way too black, and there were all kinds of issues,” explains Neumann. “London was highlighted from the community as a ‘Please, please update London.’ So, I always had that on my mind, that we’ve got to do something with London. And as I was working with the Bing team, we’d talk about it a lot, about wanting to do England correctly.”

“Also, we called it (World Update III) United Kingdom and Ireland, but it really was just United Kingdom. We had very, very few things in Ireland; we had no photogrammetry at all. It was extraordinarily lopsided towards England. So that was another one of those we needed to revisit. I got emails from folks in Ireland saying, ‘Hey, we also have cities in Ireland, and you might want to do a little bit more here.’ This is a community service that we’re trying to provide. We’re trying to listen to our users. And when they say something like that, it’s not like they are trying to be mean. They’re trying to be constructive. So, I said ‘OK, let’s get more planes over to Ireland to get more data.’”

Overall, the scope is much larger according to Neumann, where the team now has more photogrammetry cities — in this case, it’s closer to 16 whereas the typical World Update only includes three or four. A lot of this stems from a positive relationship with the Bing team who have been flying aircraft over England the last two years, testing a new camera that provides much higher resolution imagery than what was available before.

“When we launched Microsoft Flight Simulator, London was sort of a smallish city; the photography of the area was small. Now we have this massive area that goes from Welling to Wembley to Wimbledon and then all Greater London, so it’s like four times the size and the resolution is much, much higher than what we had; London now has around 1,800 km2 of photogrammetry data. On the programming side, the Bing team developed new algorithms specifically for things like roads. So, now the roads are much cleaner, they’re flat. Before they were bumpy and kind of unoptimized. We’re benefitting greatly with this partnership.”

Another element that helped kickstart the development of World Update XVII was that the European Union updated its policies around data. Essentially, if it was information that would be beneficial to the greater public, it needs to be free. What this provided the MSFS team with was incredibly accurate digital elevation maps of the region. Now the height data is closer to around one to two meters to the previously available 20, resulting in much more detailed and accurate elevation of land masses and cities.

“Any mountain in Wales like Snowdon looks much better. And our Scotland Highlands look rugged as the Scotland Highlands really are. We’re just at the beginning of this. The world is full of sensors and these sensors get better and better and better, and that is the transformation that we’re seeing. There will be further technical innovations that will surprise and delight us in this area in the future, no question about that. Having unmanned flying vehicles like drones becoming more common will change how photogrammetry is done. So, we’re mapping the world with flights and seeing the benefits from that, and we will be right there with it and make it as interactive and pretty as we possibly can.”

All this work is born from a passion, a common dream to create the most accurate digital twin of the world possible. A dream that is shared with MSFS’s collaborative partners like Bing, iniBuilds, and Gaya Simulations, who have all helped with contributions to World Update XVII. And this collaboration also feeds back into Bing Maps, as the POIs being added to World Updates are also available to the Bing Maps team.

“The thing that probably turned out the best, and it’s something that means something for the future, was the famous Cliffs of Moher. We flew a plane over it and did photogrammetry and it looks just ridiculous. I was talking to the video team today and they said when people saw the trailer, they thought they were making a documentary about Ireland because they cannot tell anymore that this is not real,” details Neumann.

“The reason why I say this is interesting for the future, is because there’s a lot of sheers in the world, like mountain cliffs, those types of things. That’s where photogrammetry really shines. And I think that’s where we’re going to see the greatest impact in the future, not just cities, but countryside. That’s just the benefits from this data set. So, I think we’re seeing a glimpse of what the future holds, and I think it’s going to be amazing.”

In addition to a refresh of the United Kingdom and Ireland, there will also be updates to several airports: Farnborough Airport and London Stansted Airport in England, Cork Airport in Ireland, Sumburgh Airport in Scotland, and Cardiff in Wales. Stansted’s update from Gaya Simulations has been another one of those anticipated updates from the community that Neumann singled out as being one that fans may be most excited to see.

“It was announced years ago, before we ever started working with them, and I think people will be very happy with this update because it’s a great airport; this is a great rendition. MSFS is a product made for the community and with the community, so we’re trying to listen carefully to what their feedback is, and what they want and we try to fulfill those. I think that’s a reason why there’s such a positive buzz about what we do, is that the community feels heard and they feel like they’re part of the project.”

Beyond the sights, many of the new activities coming with World Update XVII sound extremely fun to experience. The new Discovery flights will be showing you first-hand how much more detailed the regions will look in Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Cliffs of Moher. “You get to know the region, and that’s fundamentally what we’re trying to achieve, right? We’re trying to make the country as authentic as we can, highlight some of the unique places and then show people this is what England is all about, what Wales is all about, etc. and we hope to bring the world to this place and really feel it.”

With this World Update, and with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on fast approach, it calls back to a point that Neumann was talking about earlier. This tremendous level of support will benefit both titles and puts to rest any notion that content support is going away any time soon once the newest iteration of Microsoft’s longest-running franchise launches this November.

“Game Pass brings in new people all the time. And there will also be people that buy Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) years from now. And maybe they don’t have $60 or more, or the latest hardware, but they only have like $20, and they want to play MSFS. Who am I to close the door and say ‘Oh no, no, no, no. The only version you can play is this latest thing.’ So, I’m trying to make sure that people can enjoy flight sims. That’s our mission in the entire endeavor is to bring the dream of flight to as many people as we possibly can. So, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) will live on. It obviously won’t be as technically sophisticated as MSFS 2024, but it’s a great product that people love, and the intent is to make this as good a flight simulator as we can make it.”

World Update XVII: United Kingdom & Ireland is now live for Microsoft Flight Simulator as a free update. You can play Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming. For the latest information on Microsoft Flight Simulator, stay tuned to @MSFSOfficial on social media. To learn more about World Update XVII, visit MicrosoftFlightSimulator.com.