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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024's roadmap for the remainder of 2026 is pretty packed, with multiple updates planned.
City Update 15 is already live, bringing new locations in Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin into the mix, adding major cities Chicago, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. You can grab this update from the in-game marketplace right now for free.
The next big update planned is Sim Update 6. There's no confirmed release date yet beyond a "July/August" window, but it's not that far out either way. Sim Update 7 is also currently planned for October.
Sim Update 6 was detailed for the first time at the recent Flight Sim Expo in Minnesota, alongside a host of other Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 news.
You can watch the full keynote presentation in the video above. As for Sim Update 6 specifically, here's everything we know about it so far.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Downdraft Airflow Visualization
One of the technical features coming with Sim Update 6 is visualization for airflow.
Specifically for downdrafts, allowing visualization of cool downdrafts due to clouds and weather, wind coming down mountain slopes, and vertical wind shear.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Helicopter debug tools for developers
In a push to further helicopter physics from third-party sources, Microsoft is introducing a suite of new debugging tools with Sim Update 6.
The helicopter assistance debug tool is designed to improve tuning assistance and make them generally easier to fly. Visualizations will exist for cyclic assistance, tail rotor assistance, and collective assistance.
The rotor blade polar debug tool will allow developers to see the relationship between lift and drag and visualize the lift polar, drag polar, and real-time alpha of the blades.
Additionally, there will be new tools to debug vortex ring state and phase lag.
None are features regular users will touch, but if you're a fan of helicopter flying, these new tools are built with the intention of making your life better going forward.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Turbulence warnings
When you fly a real aircraft (or sit in the back of one), you can feel turbulence. But in a simulated environment this isn't the case, at least if, like most of us, you don't have an extremely expensive setup that can track motion.
With Sim Update 6, Microsoft will be introducing new visual turbulence warnings that will provide information on the intensity and the cause.
Using the new option will also help provide valuable feedback to the developers. When a player sends feedback on turbulence, they can now include a screenshot of the readout, which will help them better understand it.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Airport night lighting
Sim Update 6 will introduce automatically added apron lighting to 2,236 airports as well as fixing missing runway lights at 452 airports.
The developers have created multiple light poles with different properties that are deployed depending on the type of airport.
Additionally, with runway lighting being provided to all airports, this opens up a wider scope of night missions in Career mode. You'll have a choice of lit and unlit missions to take on.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Career mode
Career mode in Sim Update 6 will also get a new filtering layer that increases the variety of aircraft you'll be able to fly in missions.
When released, you'll be able to fly any aircraft in all compatible missions, and the new layer for the filtering screen will help filter by aircraft.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6: Bush Trips are back
One of the community's most requested features is coming back. Bush Trips are being ported from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 into Flight Simulator 2024, with all 59 made available for free with the update.
All trips across all aircraft will integrate with the EFB and benefit from the improved ground detail available in Flight Simulator 2024.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 5.1 and Aircraft and Avionics Update 5
Sim Update 6 is set to release in the same timeframe as Aircraft and Avionics Update 5, which, among its new additions, will be the classic Boeing 707.
In the same presentation it was announced these updates will be decoupled from Sim Updates going forward, releasing in the following weeks.
Sim Update 5.1 will come before both, with its main feature being the long-awaited arrival of gifting. You can gift content from the marketplace, be it content you own personally or not, as long as you're paying in USD, GBP or Euros. The option will be added to relevant product pages.
So there's lots to look forward to, and along with all of this, we've already seen World Update 22, which is due to arrive on July 4.
In this we'll have a host of American National Parks and Monuments to fly over, and judging by what we've seen so far, some seriously stunning scenery.
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