Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)

Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Developers
	Asobo Studio
Publishers
	Xbox Game Studios
Engines
	Zouna
Release dates
Windows	August 18, 2020
Reception
Metacritic	91
OpenCritic	92
IGDB	82
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time, Relaxed
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Simulation, Open world, Vehicle simulator
Vehicles	Flight
Art styles	Realistic
Series	Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person simulation, open world and vehicle simulator game in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is compatible with both windows-based PCs and Xbox X/S consoles. It went VR compatible in December 2020 as part of the free Sim 2 update. On November 18, 2021, the game was upgraded to the Game of the Year Edition for free for all players on all platforms, featuring 5 new aircraft, 8 handcrafted airports, 6 new Discovery Flights, 14 new tutorials, an updated weather system, early access to DX12 and a dev mode replay system. On May 25, 2022, a free expansion was released featuring F/A-18 Super Hornet livery, challenges and missions themed after the film Top Gun: Maverick. On November 11, 2022, the game was further upgraded to the 40th Anniversary Edition for free, with additional aircraft, airports and 24 classic missions from prior titles in the franchise.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Official Forums

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		10 dual layer DVDs. Europe only.
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Play Anywhere
Steam

All versions require Arxan Anti-Tamper DRM and a Microsoft account for both singleplayer and multiplayer.

Version differences

Deluxe Edition includes everything from the standard edition plus an additional five aircraft and five international airports.

Premium Edition includes everything from the standard and deluxe editions and adding an additional 10 planes and 10 international airports.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Different editions include additional aircraft and airports; this content is not available separately from their respective editions.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Replace the video files in the game folder
Download the replacement files from here and paste them in <path-to-game>\Packages\fs-base-videos\Videos (Steam) or %PROGRAMFILES%\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_1.17.3.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Packages\fs-base-onboarding\logos (Microsoft Store).

Use the -FastLaunch command line argument (Microsoft Store)

For the Microsoft Store version, right-click the desktop and create a new shortcut. In the item location field, paste powershell.exe -Command "Start-Process 'shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App' -ArgumentList '-FastLaunch'". Change the default name from 'powershell.exe' to something more descriptive, e.g. 'Microsoft Flight Simulator (Skip Intro)'. Opening the newly created shortcut will launch the game without intro videos.

Use the -FastLaunch launch option (Steam)
For the Steam version, right-click Microsoft Flight Simulator in Steam library and select Properties... Add -FastLaunch to the launch option field.

Using the SDK for the Microsoft Store version

Launch the game as you normally would and enable the developer mode (options menu > general > developers > toggle developer mode on. Towards the top left of the screen, select 'Help' and then select 'SDK Installer'. This will open up a new tab on your browser and prompt you to download the SDK installer. Once the installation is complete, navigate to MSFS SDK\Tools\bin (located in your root C:\ drive folder by default). Opening 'fsdevmodelauncher.exe' will launch the game without intro videos. You can also create a shortcut from it.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Microsoft Flight Simulator\
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\ %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\wgs\<user-id>\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1250410/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\1250410\remote\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1250410/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Hor+ gameplay and menus.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Camera X, Y and Z axis can be changed in Camera settings.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Fullscreen option is borderless windowed, there is no exclusive fullscreen option.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Off, FXAA, DLAA and TAA. SSAA is also available between 30 to 200 in increments of 1.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 2.1, DLSS 2.4
Frame generation		DLSS Frame Generation
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Includes options for 33%/50%/100% refresh rate Vsync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia with high contrast variants

• 
  Camera settings

Input

Mouse sensitivity

Controller sensitivity

Controller vibration found in Accessibility settings

The game support D-Box haptic/motion platforms through a proprietary protocol, but must have "Enable Automatic Start with Game" enabled in the Motion Code setting in D-BOX Game Center.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Shortcuts can be used. Ctrl, ⇧ Shift, and Alt are labeled for the left side. Pausing and menu controls are rebindable. Mouse movement is mappable.
Mouse sensitivity		0% to 100% in increments of 1.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Can be done through binding.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Shortcuts can be used. Pausing and menu controls are rebindable. Analog sticks are mappable.
Controller sensitivity		-100% to 100% for both sticks in increments of 1.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Left stick can be inverted for both Y & X, right stick can inverted through binding it to different camera angles.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger support

DirectInput-compatible controllers
Directinput button prompts

Nintendo controllers
Nintendo button prompts
Face button layout support
Motion sensors support
Connection modes

Tracked motion controllers
Button/gesture prompts

Other controller(s)		Supports flight sticks and rudder pedals.
Peripheral devices support
Additional button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback		Found in Accessibility, 0 and 100 in increments of 1.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 
  Keyboard bindings
• 
  Mouse bindings
• 
  Controller bindings

Audio

Sound settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Voices, Aircraft Engines, Aircraft Miscellaneous, Cockpit, Warnings, Other aircraft, Environment, User Interface and Music sliders.
Surround sound		Up to 7.1. Main menu is stereo only.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Referred to as Mute Audio in Background.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Added in 1.26.5.0.
Dutch				Added in 1.15.7.0.
Finnish				Added in 1.17.3.0.
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Added in 1.15.7.0.
Korean				Added in 1.31.22.0.
Norwegian				Added in 1.17.3.0.
Polish
Portuguese				Added in 1.24.5.0.
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish				Added in 1.26.5.0.
Swedish				Added in 1.17.3.0.
Turkish				Added in 1.31.22.0.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D		Dual-View Rendering Install VRto3D OpenVR Driver. Use SBS or TAB by default. For Interleaved or Anaglyph use with ReShade running 3DToElse. For Frame Sequential use with WibbleWobble. For Eye-Tracked Lightfield displays use with 3D Game Bridge GUI.
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Native 3D for Frame Sequential or Interleaved.
vorpX		Single-View Depth Reprojection (Z3D) Game officially supported by vorpX.

Headsets
OpenXR		VR support was added in a patch on December 22, 2020. Non-OpenXR-compatible headsets requires the OpenXR runtime to be set to SteamVR.
SteamVR		This game might be playable through SteamVR's support for the OpenXR API.
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Windows Mixed Reality		This game might be playable with the OpenXR for Windows Mixed Reality.

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse
Tobii Eye Tracking
TrackIR

Issues fixed

Installation Manager throttled

If you've played Microsoft Flight Simulator previously, such as on another PC, you may have set a Bandwidth Limit in the Settings of the game. If you did this, the Installation Manager will go incredibly slowly trying to stay under this cap (it frequently says "Please wait..." and goes back and forth between that text and information about the file(s) it's installing). Unfortunately, MSFS doesn't provide a way to change this configuration setting before the Installation Manager begins installing files, and so there's no way to fix this via the user interface.

If you have the game on Steam, you can go into the game Properties by right-clicking the game in your library and turning off Steam Cloud. Then, go into your userdata at `C:/Steam/userdata/<STEAMID>/1250410/remote`, and delete the files in the directory (you may wish to create a copy of these files to restore later).

After that, you can boot MSFS and the Installation Manager should no longer be constrained by a data bandwidth limit, because all your settings will have been reset.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12	DX12 support added as of patch 1.21.13.0 GOTY Edition.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Wwise
Interface	Coherent Gameface

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-4460 AMD Ryzen 3 1200		Intel Core i5-8400 AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
System memory (RAM)	8 GB		16 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	150 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 AMD Radeon RX 570 2 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible		Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 AMD Radeon RX 590 4 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.