Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition lands on November 18 with DX12 support

Shawn Knight

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Staff member
Bottom line: Xbox has announced a new edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator due out next month that adds a wealth of content and features including early access to DirectX 12. Best of all, existing players won't have to pay a single penny to upgrade to the Game of the Year edition.

Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, revealed in a recent blog post that the Game of the Year Edition will include five new aircraft – the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the VoloCity, the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, the CubCrafters NX Cub and the Aviat Pitts Special S1S – as well as eight new airports across Central Europe and the US:

Germany

  • Leipzig/Halle Airport (EDDP)
  • Allgäu Airport Memmingen (EDJA)
  • Kassel Airport (EDVK)

Switzerland

  • Lugano Airport (LSZA)
  • Zurich Airport (LSZH)
  • Luzern-Beromunster Airport (LSZO)

United States

  • Patrick Space Force Base (KCOF)
  • Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (KNKX)

The release will also add information about 545 previously missing airports in the US in addition to featuring six new missions, 14 new tutorials, an updated weather system, a dev mode replay system and new photogrammetry cities.

The biggest addition here is support for DirectX 12, which Neumann referenced as “early access to DX12.” Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate, so we’ll have to wait to see what exactly it entails.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition launches on November 18 and will replace the standard edition. Pricing hasn't yet been shared, but the original edition currently commands $59.99, so that's a safe bet. Best yet, it’ll be available as a free update for existing players on Xbox and PC.

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Will it have special sauce treatment for Alder Lake?

Will it be like kryptonite for Zen3? :laughing:
Well, in theory it should be good for both if MT is done properly. But hey, maybe it only supports non SMT cores for anything above 4C….
 
Well, in theory it should be good for both if MT is done properly. But hey, maybe it only supports non SMT cores for anything above 4C….
I was mostly kidding, but since intel and MS are recently buddy-buddy, anything is possible...
 
Will be interesting to see how much it alleviates the CPU bottleneck and what the difference between 6, 8, 12 and 16 cores will be like
There is no that much difference between dx11 and 12, but yeah, maybe some improvements will be visible on cpu constrained systems...
 
There is no that much difference between dx11 and 12, but yeah, maybe some improvements will be visible on cpu constrained systems...
In terms of using multiple cores better, there is a pretty big difference between 11 and 12. Workload is much better spread across threads and it also reduces CPU overhead in several different ways.

For example (just things I found online, not an expert on it), Compute, Lighting and Memory use different GPU resources. On DX11 they run on the same thread, but on DX12 these are split in different threads.

I read that here:
http://www.guruht.com/2015/04/directx-12-vs-directx-11-real-multi.html
 
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one game that clearly shows the benefits of DX12 vs DX11, though the game is pretty CPU-heavy either way
 
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