Third-party developers continue to work to enrich Microsoft Flight Simulator with news and releases of new add-ons.
We start with the highly-anticipated FS Traffic by Just Flight. The package, priced at $39.99 on JF's own store, is the veteran developer's take on adding realistic AI traffic to the simulator.
It comes with 48 models and variants and 700 liveries representing plenty of real-world airlines. It also includes its own manager with plenty of options to adapt it to your needs.
You can see what it looks like in the trailer below.
Next comes A2A, which posted a new screenshot of its Piper PA-24 Comanche 250 powered by the much-boasted AccuSim 2.0 engine.
The aircraft is now in beta and the developers are still "working around the clock adding some exciting new features" so the testing is going to take some time. That being said, comments from testers seem to be very positive.
In the meanwhile, you can see what it looks like below.
Moving on to another interesting aircraft, Sim Skunk Works posted the first look at its Leonardo SF-260 (or SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 if you prefer this light aircraft's old name) . Model and textures aren't yet complete, bit it already looks promising.
We also get an update from PMDG, which released not one, but two updates to its Boeing 737 line today. The updates bring improvements to ground handling and steering, alongside the following.
- 0012223: [Pedestal - Radios/Comms/Navs]introduction of MMRs (GLS functionality pending) (abashkatov)
- 0012251: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Black texture on all VC's (vscimone)
- 0012210: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Captain Footrest adjustment (vscimone)
- 0012253: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Texture clipping on NAV 2 panel (vscimone)
- 0012228: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Comm 2 strange texture (abashkatov)
- 0012173: [Virtual Cockpit - Functionality/Click-Spots] F/O PREV PAGE button not animating (vscimone)
- 0012211: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Right Air outlet needs adjustment (vscimone)
- 0012198: [External Model - Geometry] Light bleeding through front cabin walls (jbrown)
- 0012199: [External Model - Geometry] Hole in front of passenger cabin (jbrown)
- 0012150: [FMS - Performance Pages] Consistent use of custom payload ZFW value (emvaos)
- 0012190: [General - Ground Operations] Stairs 1L Arrive Even if JTWY INH (hvanrensburg)
- 0012175: [FMS - Setup/Options Pages] EFIS/MAP Options still greyed out (hvanrensburg)
- 0012180: [External Model - Liveries] Texture Alignment Between Fuse2 - Fuse3 Left Side (jbrown)
- 0012176: [Virtual Cockpit - Geometry/Textures] Black texture on top of glareshield (vscimone)
- 0012226: [Virtual Cockpit - Functionality/Click-Spots] Switches with PMDG Mouse option (hvanrensburg)
We also learn that the 737-900 has completed testing and the developer is "working to clean up a few last minute details for impending release."
We also get an update about the universal flight tablet EFB, which has been in development for quite some time.
"Additionally, work on the Universal Flight Tablet continues. We are still working to refine the communication methods between the airplane (c++/wasm) and the tablet itself (jscript)- which has been a much larger and more difficult task than imagined due to restrictions placed on C++/WASM projects freedom to use common communications protocols at the platform level. Further we have discovered (through trial and error) that the secure communication channel allowed has a bad habit of turning itself off- and we are waiting on some input from Asobo to see if there is something we are doing that causes this or if the underlying technology needs a bit of tweaking on the platform side.
All of this has required some creativity to work around- such as the creation of an entire communications and language parsing construct to pass text and data across a restricted communication stream only capable of taking numeric data. Not a fun way to spend time, but we are into functionality testing on parts of it and if the current process works it should finally unlock forward progress on the features that need tablet-to-airplane communication. This hasn't been a fun process by any stretch- but it is what it is- and we fortunately only have to invent the wheel the first time."
Last, but not least, TDM Scenery Design released new screenshots of its Almería Airport (LEAM) in Spain, showing work done on the apron, runway and taxiways.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is currently available for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, including Game Pass. If you'd like to learn more, you should stay tuned on TechRaptor as we host daily Microsoft Flight Simulator news to keep you updated on the many add-ons coming and released for the sim.
