This allows the simulator to depict most parts of the world in 3D photorealism, and other parts in high definition. The game's engine utilizes satellite imagery or fly-by image scans as the basis for height and terrain texture data. An offline procedural generation AI then reads these textures based on their own parameters and properly populates terrain with materials, roads, buildings, bushes, trees and more based on brush set assets the developers have made.
Afterwards, graphic artists can further go in and embellish specific locations with even more detail with photogrammetrically captured materials and textures. Flight Simulator features multiple terabytes of texture and height map data.
Using a base mesh and textures, the game uses the Internet connection to stream even higher quality terrain data onto the PC or console through the Azure cloud as the player plays, boosting the game's fidelity and graphical diversity. In rare cases where certain areas are blurred or pixelated on Bing Maps, it "uses procedural techniques to fill in the blanks and make sure there is something in the space."
Asobo has created their own flight model engine, allowing thousands of surfaces and 3D forces and moments to be fully simulated. There are also realistic physics and weather systems, and utilization of real-world weather data. An example used was that if it was raining somewhere in real life, it would be raining in-game.
Individual clouds will have their own behaviors and they will impact aircraft performance depending on its location within the system. Flight Simulator features a 600-kilometre (370 mi) draw distance and allows the player to see storms hundreds of miles away, with lightning cracking inside of clouds.
Through cloud-based technology, Flight Simulator sends data to the computer or console in real time, with AI being utilized to extrapolate geometry from a blend of satellite and flyover imagery.
Other sources of data include terrain data for landscaping, data for foliage density, real-time meteorological data, and air traffic updates. A separate atmospheric renderer simulates accurate humidity and pollution. Microsoft has stated that the player's aircraft feels air as it lifts, drags, or slides as they come in contact with it, accounting for ice on the wings, pollution particles, or how wind moves through buildings or across tree tops, as well as friction of rubber to asphalt when the aircraft touches down, with the aircraft responding accurately to each of these instances.
Skyscrapers cast shadows over each other that darken as the player reaches street level and cities will disperse light at night that radiates the sky. Cloud technology is also used to calculate things such as the way air flows around natural structures such as mountains to cause pockets of turbulence, or stream in air traffic, time of day and weather from the real world. In regards to foliage, the game geometrically renders individual blades of grass and seas also contain waves created by the wind.
Volumetric lighting is utilized for various effects, including illuminating water droplets, some of which will occupy the entirety of the cockpit window, and with everything being simulated in real time.
Light sources such as the Sun, Moon, or city lights scatter through the environment appropriately, pollution levels and humidity affect refraction and overall visibility, and the atmosphere is layered the same as it is in the real world. Clouds are volumetrically modelled, with 32 layers determining shape, density, and “fuzziness."
Flight Simulator makes use of ray-marching. The game's reflection system also at times utilizes ray-marching by retranslating voxels. Otherwise, the reflection system uses a mix of screen-space reflections and cube maps to show reflections on more distant bodies of water.
In addition to a complex lighting system, Flight Simulator makes use of highly detailed shaders. Flight Simulator makes extensive use of screen-space reflections and bokeh depth of field.
Flight Simulator populates the world with animals and roads with vehicles, water flows realistically based on wind direction, grass has individual grass blades and trees have individual leaves, creating the illusion of a living world.
The game world includes over 2 million cities and towns, 1.5 billion buildings, 2 trillion trees, and 37,000 real-world airports. In regards to runways, dedicated tools allow Asobo to outline the site perimeter, runway footprint, orientation, as well as other properties.jargon This approach also allows Microsoft to flag artifacts and visual anomalies from a birds-eye view, clearing up the input for a world-building algorithm.
The result is fed into Microsoft's artificial intelligence, stringing the environment together in the cloud, and is streamed to the PC or console in real time. Flight Simulator features various animal species that can even be viewed at ground level, including birds, elephants, giraffes and bears. It also allows the player to scout, "chase" and interact with real-world storms as they occur in real time.
Gameplay
Before starting, Flight Simulator has a tutorial program that allows the players to learn basic controls, flight instruments, and other basics deemed essential to know before flying, which ends with a takeoff and landing test.
Each sequences of the tutorial teaches different things, for example, the fourth sequence teaches how to land. It also offers 24 landing challenges to some of the most famous and dangerous airports. Grades of a player depends on how center they are to the runway, how close they are to the touchdown zone of the runway when they touchdown, and the feet-per-minute (FPM) at touchdown.
Asobo also announced three "sight-seeing bush trips, which include overflights of Nevada, Patagonia, and the Balkans."
Flight Simulator has an AI air traffic controller, and a virtual co-pilot which can assist players when they are unable to do things like requesting landing clearance or doing checklists. It also has several helper features.
"Assistance" enables waypoint arrows at the taxiways, guiding players on where to go. In addition, "Route & Waypoints" enables markers to guide players in the sky, and "Landing Path" guides players on landing. This feature is not available on challenges.
"Travel To" time-lapses the flight, condensing long-haul flights. "Active Pause" pauses the flight, allowing players to explore the surrounding area. Flight Simulator also allows players to search for faunas in the game, either by searching "fauna" on the World Map, or selecting "Fauna Markers" when in mid-air.
An "Autorudder" feature keeps the plane in the centerline of taxiways and runways when the player is unable to control it. In addition, there is a feature of entering a geographic coordinate to find a location.
