Microsoft Flight Simulator X

Microsoft Flight Simulator X, also known as FSX, is the 10th version of Microsoft Flight Simulator after Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. It includes a graphics engine upgrade as well as compatibility with Windows Vista, having been marketed by Microsoft as the most important technological milestone in the series to date. It is the first version in the flight simulator series to be released on DVD-ROM. It is also the first version in the series to feature a new type of electronic distribution prevention using license keys, removing the need for the user to insert the game disc into their computer in order to run the software.

Features

[edit]Standard vs. Deluxe Edition

A screenshot showing the Cessna 172with G1000 cockpit flying in a multiplayer session

A United Airlines Boeing PMDG 747-400 departing from Miami

A screenshot of the FSX multiplayer radar crowded with airplanes

Flight Simulator X was released in three editions: Standard, Deluxe, and later Gold. The Deluxe Edition incorporates additional features, including an on-disc software development kit (SDK), three airplanes with the Garmin G1000 Flightdeck, and the ability for the player to act as Air Traffic Control (ATC) for other online users with a radar screen.^{[7][dead link]}

The Deluxe Edition features 24 aircraft compared to 18 in the Standard Edition; 45 high-detail airports compared to 40; 38 high-detail cities compared to 28; and 51 structured missions compared to more than 30.^[8]

Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition combines the Deluxe Edition and the Acceleration expansion pack into one.^[9]

[edit]New features

A screenshot demonstrating the high resolution terrain capacity of FSX. In this example, payware scenery is used.

The new features in Flight Simulator X include:

• Improved graphics including enhanced texture resolution, new Earth model facilitating polar flights, true road data, region-specific textures, minimal 3D animals, star constellations, etc. Also, the scenery textures now line up with the automatically generated (Autogen) buildings. Maximum rendering-engine-supported scenery resolution of 7 cm/pixel (not available with default scenery).
• Airports now have jetways that move to the aircraft by the key combination Ctrl + J. (happens for AI aircraft automatically) Airport vehicles also drive around the airport to the player's aircraft and AI aircraft. (Baggage cars, pushtrucks, fuel trucks, etc.)
• The built-in GPS support has been upgraded to include Garmin G1000 integrated glass cockpit, (select aircraft in the Deluxe version only).
• Improved ATC featuring certain non-FAA procedures where appropriate (for example, altimeter/QNH scale in metric units) and numerous minor updates such as an improved progressive-taxi feature.
• Improved and new default aircraft including, for example, an Airbus A321. Default aircraft systems modeling is rather extensively improved, featuring, for example, APU, fire protection, passenger advisory sign switches etc.
• Improved weather system, including better visibility modeling.
• Revamped multiplayer functionality featuring Shared Skies, a feature allowing multiple users to share the same cockpit.
• Tower Controller, a feature in the Deluxe version allowing users to simulate local control at many airports worldwide during multiplayer gaming.
• Revamped sound system with support for 5.1 surround sound.
• Flight Simulator X includes more than 50 different missions in the deluxe edition along with several other missions that can be installed with the Acceleration Pack.^[10]
• Proprietary SimConnect API to allow FSUIPC-like access to Flight Simulator functions and variables.^[11]
• Mission engine allowing creation of dynamic missions with developer control of many simulation variables, sound file playback, AI aircraft traffic etc. in relation to what the user is doing — essentially an evolution over the APL and ABL adventure programming languages featured in previous versions of the software. Dozens of missions ship with the product.
• Most of the vintage aircraft that were a key theme in the previous version have been dropped, with the exception of the DC-3 and Piper J-3. Both aircraft are featured in the default missions that ship with the product.
• The maximum altitude in the game has been increased to 100,000,000 ft. Therefore, FSX maximum altitude is approximately 2.39 times the diameter of the Earth at the equator.
• Camera shake in the virtual cockpit as the aircraft banks, accelerates, brakes, flies through turbulence etc.
• Realistic flexible wings in some commercial airplanes: the wings flex while going through turbulence, increasing rate of ascent or descending, undergoing major plane movements, flaps being fully extended, general vibrations to the plane, etc. An example of an aircraft with this wing movement is the Boeing 747-400.
• New water effect which has 3D waves with curled up object refraction according to the wave movements and with sunshine reflection.
• Ability to easily take a screenshot while in the game. Pressing the "V" key takes a picture of the game and saves it as a .bmp image in the "My Pictures" folder.
• Aircraft can cast shadows on themselves.
• Aircraft interiors and exteriors use different files. This allows an advanced user to take one exterior model and merge it with an interior made by someone else.
• Red Bull Air Race World Championship racing in the acceleration pack only although the standard and deluxe versions include a mission in which the player can qualify for the team.

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