We're now less than two weeks away from the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on Tuesday, July 27, and while the hype is huge, some fans are still concerned about how it will perform.
The game is known for putting even the most expensive of gaming PCs to work, but according to developer Asobo Studio, the 'wow' factor that people are impressed by on a $3,000 PC will be "pretty much unchanged" on Xbox Series X.
"Although the initial product release requires powerful PCs, the Azure architecture will enable the Microsoft Flight Simulator experience on other devices, too—notably Xbox consoles and, ultimately, mobile devices. This device democratization means that the product does not require more power on the device to scale, rather it just needs streaming bandwidth.
Put another way, Azure allows 'every device to punch above its weight,' notes Neumann. 'What you see right now that people are impressed by on a $3,000 PC—guess what? It comes pretty much unchanged to a $500 console, and we are putting things in place to bring it to even lower spec devices, like phones.'"
We can expect a similar level of spectacle on Xbox Series X (and hopefully Xbox Series S) as PC, then, with the biggest difference being the frame rate limitations for non-VRR displays. If your TV can't work with variable refresh rates, the Series X and Series S versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator will be locked to 30 frames per-second.
Team Xbox has already confirmed plans to bring Microsoft Flight Simulator to Xbox One via Xbox Cloud Gaming in the future as well, which will likely be made accessible as soon as the new Microsoft Edge browser rolls out to the public.
Hyped for the release of Microsoft Flight Sim for Xbox Series X and Series S? Let us know in the comments.
[source developer.microsoft.com]
Comments 14
Unfortunately my tv doesn’t support VRR, but I think 30fps is fine for this sort of game. 60fps is more for racing games and first person shooters. Anyway, really looking forward to this!
Do we know how much "streaming bandwidth" it requires?
Makes me wonder if this will struggle for people with lower internet speeds?
I’m worried for the Azure servers.. i hope they can handle the launch.
@blinx01 I have 200 + MBPS internet but in this part of the US like many others, one internet company has a monopoly and a strict data cap - or I can pay an extra $25 a month for no data cap bringing my internet only service to $105 a month. Normal for the US. I miss Europe.
Super excited for this game and even more excited for VRR support.
@TJ81 I feel for people with data caps and no choices like many in the US. The internet infrastructure there is a shambolic set of monopolies.
I'm so looking forward to this. Can't wait to recreate flights I've done.
@Nightcrawler71 I've been playing the PC version locked at 30 and it's fine. I'm a real stickler for framerate and I can't wait for the Xbox version.
We have heard more about bringing the power of the cloud to gaming in recent weeks - although I still feel that many are looking back to the XB1 games that 'promised' to use the cloud - Titanfall and especially Crackdown 3 to 'mock' the potential.
Basically, the Cloud is being used to offload 'some' of the computational processing to the cloud. An example could be calculating all the physics of building collapsing, rubble colliding as it falls - send the data of where 'everything' is to the GPU to draw, rather than bog it (or CPU) down with those calculations.
Obviously, when you have the whole Earth, all the buildings, all the different environments etc at 'high' res, you cannot fit all that onto a Bluray with game-code. Instead of streaming from SSD, they can stream them from the Cloud. Instead of having 'different' versions of the assets depending on 'distance' all taking up 'space' on bluray, they can have all those in Azure...
In my opinion, I think this is what MS had in mind with the XB1 too - but the 'always online' thing scuppered that. There are still people that see 'online' and immediately dismiss the game regardless of what 'online' entails. The landscape has changed in the 8yrs since, with consoles with no physical media player so rely on online purchases, Online Subscriptions (Game Pass) and the growth of Digital purchases so I think its less of an issue to be 'always' online - although I do agree there is a difference between 'forcing' everyone to be online vs the choice. It didn't bother me as my consoles were always permanently connected to my Internet.
The Cloud is going to allow MS to bring next gen games to any device. Whether its streaming the whole game over the internet or playing locally but streaming in some data from the cloud. MS has talked about having Game Pass on smart TV's - either through a built in app or maybe a dongle (just need a Controller), even streaming to XB1 so you don't 'need' to buy a Series S/X to play Flight Sim (or Starfield, Fable, PD etc). Obviously, the 'best' console to play on would be Series X as you play 'locally' as opposed to streaming it and associated latency - but MS want you to be able to play on the devices you have or at the performance level you are willing to invest in - something Sony fanboys still can't get their head around...
This game's release date was the reason I was panicking up until I finally got my Series X. Definitely the next gen game I've been waiting for. The month of August is going to disappear in a haze of sky and cockpits.
I've been waiting my whole life to have a capable system to play a flight simulator and have it on this level of detail.
I'm a Series S owner so i hope it looks good on that as i'm really excited to finally play this, being able to see home in the game and my town will be mind blowing.
@Beagle I'm guessing so because doesn't this use some sort of GPS or something?
@pip_muzz I can't wait to see articles on the various recommended peripherals. This sim definitely deserves a flight stick and throttle at the every least. Excited to then try that on Star Wars Squadrons too.
@Beagle Apparently, it uses Azure to stream textures, to build the world, so I guess this is an online-only game but it's not stated on the website.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator/9NRRJLLXM68V?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
Well, looking at the screenshots it doesn't seem fair to say textures but that you are flying in the real world magically 😁.
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