However, criticism also arose for its loading times and some inaccurate rendering of landmarks.įlight Simulator uses Turn 10 Studios's in-house developed game engine, and leverages Microsoft Azure data, containing over two petabytes of data taken from the cloud on demand. Some players received the alpha version as part of the game's Insider program.įlight Simulator was released to critical acclaim, with praise for its graphical fidelity, with it being cited as the "safest way to travel" during the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses the Azure cloud to render visuals, enhance visual fidelity, and simulate real-world data and effects, as well as calculate physics. It is the first game in the series to also get a console release, expected for the Xbox Series X and Series S in mid 2021.įlight Simulator simulates the entire Earth using textures and data from Bing Maps, whilst three-dimensional representations of Earth's features are generated by Microsoft Azure's AI. It was released on Augfor Microsoft Windows. It is an entry in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, which was first released in 1982, and preceded by Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Microsoft Flight Simulator (colloquially known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020)a is a flight simulator developed by Asobo Studio and published by Xbox Game Studios.