Japan World Update - Coming September 29th

[ak416]

The Japan world update features an upgraded digital elevation map across the entire country, high-resolution 3D photogrammetry for six prominent Japanese cities (Sendai, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Tokyo, Utsunomiya and Yokohama), and six handcrafted local airports (Hachijojima, Kerama, Kushiro, Nagasaki, Shimojishima, and Suwanosejima). Players will also be able to try their hand at executing a trio of exciting new Landing Challenges set at Japanese airports.

[robcap]

Very impressive!
Is this a free World Update?

[Tom Clayton]

Should be. They promised several of these in the future.

[centuryseries]

It says free on the MSFS forum.

Wish it was London, or the UK, but then I'm biased.

[Tom Clayton]

The guy that did the Godzilla mod said he used SFO because Tokyo wasn't detailed. Hopefully he'll do an update!

[UnknownGuest12]

So, this game turns to be very cheap....

[Bomber_12th]

Yes, these are free updates (these have been talked about/described since July, including in this very forum). World Updates, as they are called, are going to be separate from all other updates. Asobo would like to release one every month, but it will likely be closer to one every 2-3 months from what they've stated. Also, it isn't going to cover just a few regions of the world. Their goal is to eventually cover the whole globe with these World Updates, hitting every region/country, but focusing on just one region or country at a time. What each free World Update includes is the latest Bing data and aerial imagery for that region/country, new hand-crafted airports within that region/country, new hand-crafted POI's within that region/country, and new landing challenges and trips within that region/country. Asobo/Microsoft are also referring to these updates as "World 2.0". As they've mentioned, these are meant to also get people to fly in areas of the world that they might not ever, otherwise.

BTW, having submitted reports on numerous airports and some scenery issues on Zendesk, most have had an automated-response from Asobo/MS that describes these World Updates, and therefore alludes to such airport/scenery improvements happening when the region they are contained within are focused on for the World Updates.

[Bomber_12th]

From today's Dev Update:

Today, we were happy and proud to announce “World Update I: Japan” at the Tokyo Game Show 2020. As always, it took a village to produce this update and we had the help of many teams inside and outside of Microsoft to make this happen.

The Bing Maps team delivered 6 incredible photogrammetry cities and an all-new digital elevation map that increases the detail of the entirety of Japan significantly. We also had help from Gaya Simulations, an excellent scenery and airport developer. Gaya created 3 of the airports RJFU – Nagasaki, RJTH – Hachijojima, and RJCK – Kushiro as well as all of the 20 new POIs. Blackshark.ai added a new traditional Japanese building type. Of course, the team at Asobo put it all together and created three additional airports – ROKR – Kerama, RORS – Shimojisjima and RJX8 – Suwanosejima as well as the three landing challenges and all the other elements needed to make the DLC a great experience. We hope you will enjoy this update … Japan is an incredibly beautiful and diverse country.

As we’ve always said, our launch in August was just the beginning. Our goal is to provide you with a meaningful update to the sim every month. In addition to increasing the visual detail of the planet with future World Updates, we also plan to add Simulation Updates every 2-3 months that will further enhance the overall sim experience. On top of that, we are developing some exciting paid DLC that we plan to rollout over the coming months and years, and we will share more information in the future. We are on an incredible journey together and we are committed to work with you, the community, to continue to improve and evolve Microsoft Flight Simulator for many years to come.

– MSFS Team


Much more here: https://www.flightsimulator.com/sept...l-JQxfQp0PdYYI

[Bomber_12th]

And if that wasn't enough, here is an introduction by the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator himself, Jorg Neumann, introducing this first (of many to come) free World Update.