microsoft flight simulator this article is about the original microsoft flight simulation series for the similarlytitled but different product launched in 2012 see microsoft flight for all other uses see flight simulator disambiguation microsoft flight simulatorthe logo used for the series since version 50genresamateur flight simulationdeveloperssublogicbruce artwick organizationaces studiopublishersmicrosoftmicrosoft game studiosdovetail gamescreatorsbruce artwickplatformsdos windows mac osplatforms of origindosfirst releasemicrosoft flight simulator1982latest releasemicrosoft flight simulator x steam edition2014 microsoft flight simulator often abbreviated as msfs or fs is a series of flight simulator programs marketed as video games for the microsoft windows and earlier the msdos operating systems it is one of the longestrunning bestknown and most comprehensive home flight simulator programs on the market it was an early product in the microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from microsofts other software which was largely businessoriented at 35 years bruce artwick began the development of the flight simulator in 1977 his company sublogic initially distributed it for various personal computers in 1981 artwick was approached by microsofts alan m boyd who was interested in creating a definitive game that would graphically demonstrate the difference between older 8bit computers such as the apple ii and the new 16bit computers such as the ibm pc still in development in 1982 artwicks company licensed a version of flight simulator for the ibm pc to microsoft which marketed it as microsoft flight simulator 100 in 2009 microsoft closed down the aces game studio which was the department responsible for creating and maintaining the flight simulator series in 2014 dovetail games were granted the rights by microsoft to port the gold edition of microsofts flight simulator x to steam and publish the new title flight simulator x steam edition history history of microsoft flight simulator microsoft flight simulator began as a set of articles written by bruce artwick in 1976 about a 3d computer graphics program when the magazine editor said that subscribers wanted to buy the program bruce artwick set to work to create it and incorporated a company called sublogic corporation in 1977 the company began selling flight simulators for several computer platforms including the 8080 altair 8800 and imsai 8080 in 1979 sublogic released fs1 flight simulator for the apple ii in 1980 sublogic released a version for the trs80 and in 1982 they licensed an ibm pc version with cga graphics to microsoft which was released as microsoft flight simulator 100 it was unusual in that it was not an application program requiring an operating system but contained its own operating system which displaced the installed one as long as the program was running in the early days of lessthan100 ibm pc compatible systems flight simulator and lotus 123 were used as unofficial compatibility test software for new pc clone models sublogic continued to develop for other platforms and ported flight simulator ii to the apple ii in 1983 the commodore 64 msx and atari 800 in 1984 and to the amiga and atari st in 1986 meanwhile bruce artwick left sublogic and founded the bruce artwick organization to continue his work on subsequent microsoft releases beginning with microsoft flight simulator 30 in 1988 microsoft flight simulator reached commercial maturity with version 31 and went on to encompass the use of 3d graphics and graphic hardware acceleration microsoft continued to produce newer versions of the flight simulation software adding features such as new aircraft types and augmented scenery the 2000 and 2002 versions were available in standard and professional editions where the latter included more aircraft tools and scenery options the 2004 release version 9 marked the celebration of one hundred years of powered flight and had only one edition flight simulator x released in 2006 returned to dual versions with a standard and a deluxe edition the flying area encompasses planet earth with varying degrees of detail and includes over 24000 airports there is an evergrowing list of scenery representing major landmarks and popular cities landscape details become sparse as game play moves away from population centers within the flight simulator particularly outside the united states although a variety of web sites offer scenery addons to remedy this the three latest versions incorporate sophisticated weather simulation along with the ability to download real world weather data first available with flight simulator 2000 additional features in these newer versions include air traffic environments with interactive air traffic control functions new aircraft models from the historical douglas dc3 to the modern boeing 777 interactive lessons challenges and aircraft checklists the two latest versions of microsoft flight simulator have a kiosk mode which allows the application to be run in electronic kiosks located in public places like shopping malls microsoft flight simulator has a wide selection of upgrades and addons both free and commercial official and fanmade closure of the aces game studio on january 22 2009 it was reported that the development team was heavily affected by microsofts ongoing job cuts with indications that the entire microsoft flight simulator team had been laid off stating this difficult decision was made to align microsofts resources with our strategic priorities microsoft flight simulator x will remain available at retail stores and web retailers the flight sim community will continue to learn from and encourage one another and we remain committed to the flight simulator franchise for the long term according to former aces employee phil taylor the shutdown was not due to sales performance of fsx but due to management issues and delays in project delivery combined with increased demand for staff in october 2009 two out of over 50 former members of the aces studio formed a new game studio called the cascade game foundry p3d lockheed martin prepar3d in 2009 lockheed martin announced that they had negotiated with microsoft to purchase the intellectual property including source code for the microsoft esp enterprise simulation platform product microsoft esp is the commercialuse version of flight simulator x sp2 on may 17 2010 a developer license is also available for a monthly fee of us995 in march 2012 along with the release of version 13 the pricing strategy was revised the professional edition is now available for us199 with an academic license available for us5995 after releasing version 2 in 2013 and version 3 in 2015 the team released 64bit version 4 in may 2017 dovetail games on july 9 2014 dovetail games announced that microsoft had granted them rights to develop the next flight simulator in the series dovetail games also announced the release of flight simulator x gold edition on steam for late 2014 named microsoft flight simulator x steam edition microsoft flight simulator x steam edition was released on 18 december 2014 and is a rerelease of the fsx gold edition which includes the deluxe and acceleration packs and both service packs it includes all standard steam functionality and replaces the gamespy multiplayer system with steams multiplayer system flight sim world in may 2017 dovetail games announced flight sim world which released later that month version history history of microsoft flight simulator 1982 microsoft flight simulator 10 1984 microsoft flight simulator 20 1988 microsoft flight simulator 30 1989 microsoft flight simulator 40 1993 microsoft flight simulator 50 1995 microsoft flight simulator 51 1996 microsoft flight simulator 95 1997 microsoft flight simulator 98 1999 microsoft flight simulator 2000 2001 microsoft flight simulator 2002 2003 microsoft flight simulator 2004 a century of flight 2006 microsoft flight simulator x 2014 microsoft flight simulator x steam edition microsoft flight simulator x microsoft flight simulator x microsoft flight simulator x is the most recent version of microsoft flight simulator it includes a graphics engine upgrade and compatibility with preview directx 10 and windows vista it was released on october 17 2006 in north america there are two versions of the game both on two dvds the deluxe edition contains the new garmin g1000 integrated flight instrument system in three cockpits additional aircraft and missions tower control capability in multiplayer mode higher detail scenery for cities and airports and a software development kit sdk for development the main improvements are graphical microsoft has also released a flight simulator x demo which contains three aircraft two airports and two missions it is compatible with windows xp sp2 and windows vista microsoft flight simulator x steam edition on december 18 2014 dovetail games released flight simulator x on steam titled microsoft flight simulator x steam edition it includes content that was provided with the original fsx gold edition which includes fsx deluxe edition the acceleration expansion pack and both official service packs and repackages them in one bundle and a single installation the steam edition includes an overhaul of the multiplayer support to go through steam rather than the nowdefunct gamespy improved stability on windows 7 and 8 and features minor performance tweaks including a complete recompile using vs2013 additionally dovetail games has worked with existing developers and publishers to distribute their content on steam as dlc currently there are over 100 addons for fsx steam edition from over 35 developers available on the steam store including aerosoft captain sim orbx simulation systems real environment xtreme rex carenado virtavia and others microsoft flight microsoft flight microsoft released a new simulator in february 2012 developed and aimed at drawing new users into flight gaming while claiming to be simpler to use for inexperienced users it is incompatible with flight simulator and does not allow the use of existing flight simulator addons including aircraft objects and photographic scenery on july 26 2012 microsoft cancelled further development of flight xboxcom pc marketplace closure xbox live marketplace in august 2013 microsoft announced they would be closing the xboxcom pc marketplace on august 22 2013 and cease sale of all content on the marketplace previous items purchased would still be usable but acquiring new items through the marketplace would be eliminated the flight software may still be downloadable however content will not be available for purchase addons customisation and community involvement see also category microsoft flight simulator addons the long history and consistent popularity of flight simulator has encouraged a very large body of addon packages to be developed as both commercial and volunteer ventures a formal software development kit and other tools for the simulator exist to further facilitate thirdparty efforts and some third parties have also learned to tweak the simulator in various ways by trial and error as for number of addons tweaks and modifications fs can accommodate solely depends on the users hardware setup the number is not limited by the simulator and when multiple computers are linked together with multiple monitors and 3rd party software and controls flight sim enthusiasts can build their own realistic home cockpits aircraft a pmdg beech 1900d of american flight airways in afa express colors individual attributes of flight simulator aircraft that can be customized include cockpit layout cockpit image aircraft model aircraft model textures aircraft flight characteristics scenery models scenery layouts and scenery textures often with simpletouse programs or only a text editor such as notepad dedicated flightsimmers have taken advantage of flight simulators vast addon capabilities having successfully linked flight simulator to homebuilt hardware some of which approaches the complexity of commercial fullmotion flight simulators the simulators aircraft are made up of five parts the model which is a 3d cadstyle model of the aircrafts exterior and virtual cockpit if applicable models consist of two distinct sections the main chassis or core and accessories or dynamic parts such as the landing gear or ailerons the textures bitmap images which the game layers onto the model these can be easily edited known as repainting so that a model can adopt any paint scheme imaginable fictional or real the sounds literally what the aircraft sounds like this is determined by defining which wav files the aircraft uses as its soundset the panel a representation of the aircrafts cockpit this includes one or more bitmap images of the panel instrument gauge files and sometimes its own sounds the fde or flight dynamics engine this consists of the airfile a air file which contains hundreds of parameters that define the aircrafts flight characteristics and the aircraftcfg file which contains more and easiertoedit parameters most versions of microsoft flight simulator include some of the worlds most popular aircraft from different categories such as the mooney bravo and beechcraft baron 58 which fall into the general aviation category the airbus a321 and boeing 737 which fall into the civil jets category the robinson r22 which falls into the helicopter category the air scheffel 738 which falls into the general aviation category again and many other planes commonly used around the world not being limited to using the default aircraft addon planes can be downloaded from many sources for free or purchased which can then be installed into microsoft flight simulator the beechcraft 1900d pictured above is an addon aircraft similarly addon repaints can be added to default aircraft these repaints are usually downloaded for free ai traffic a growing addon category for the series is ai artificial intelligence traffic ai traffic is the simulation of other vehicles in the fs landscape this traffic plays an important role in the simulator as it is possible to crash into traffic this can be disabled thus ending your session and to interact with the traffic via the radio and atc this feature is active even with 3rd party traffic microsoft introduced ai traffic in msfs 2002 with several airliners and private aircraft this has since been supplemented with many files created by third party developers typically third party aircraft models have multiple levels of detail which allow the ai traffic to be better on frame rates while still being detailed during close looks there are several prominent freeware developers some third party ai traffic can even be configured for real time departures scenery fs2004 in the uk lake district with vfr visual flight rules photo scenery and terrain additional components scenery addons usually involve replacements for existing airports with enhanced and more accurate detail or large expanses of highly detailed ground scenery for specific regions of the world some types of scenery addon replace or add structures to the simulator both freeware and payware scenery addons are very widely available airport enhancements for example range from simple addons that update runways or taxiways to very elaborate packages that reproduce every lamp pavement marking and structure at an airport with neartotal accuracy including animated effects such as baggage cars or marshalling agents widearea scenery enhancements may use detailed satellite photos and 3d structures to closely reproduce realworld regions particularly those including large cities landmarks or spectacular natural wonders flight networks virtual flight networks such as ivao vatsim and pilot edge as well as virtual skies use special small addon modules for flight simulator to enable connection to their proprietary networks in multiplayer mode and to allow for voice and text communication with other virtual pilots and controllers over the network these networks allow players to enjoy and enhance realism in their game these networks are for atc air traffic control miscellaneous some utilities such as fsuipc merely provide useful tweaks for the simulator to overcome design limitations or bugs or to allow more extensive interfacing with other thirdparty addons sometimes certain addons require other utility addons in order to work correctly with the simulator other addons provide navigation tools simulation of passengers and cameras that can view aircraft or scenery from any angle more realistic instrument panels and gauges and so on some software addons provide operability with specific hardware such as game controllers and optical motion sensors fsdevelopercom is one website that host a forum style knowledge base aimed at the development of addon items tools and software availability a number of websites are dedicated to providing users with addon files such as airplanes from actual airlines airport utility cars actual buildings located in specific cities textures and city files the wide availability over the internet of freeware addon files for the simulation package has encouraged the development of a large and diverse virtual community linked up by design group and enthusiast message boards online multiplayer flying and virtual airlines the internet has also facilitated the distribution of payware addons for the simulator with the option of downloading the files which reduces distribution costs reception pc magazine in january 1983 called flight simulator extraordinarily realistic a classic program unique in the market it praised the graphics and detailed scenery and concluded i think its going to sell its share of ibm pcs and will certainly sell some colorgraphics adapters microsoft flight simulator version 20 was reviewed in 1989 in dragon 142 by hartley patricia and kirk lesser in the role of computers column the reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars computer gaming world stated in 1994 that flight simulator 5 is closer to simulating real flight than ever before microsoft flight simulator x was reviewed in 2006 by gamespot the reviewer gave the game an 84 out of 10 and commented on how it was realistic enough to be used for reallife flight training awards the success of the microsoft flight simulator series has led to guinness world records awarding the series seven world records in the guinness world records gamers edition 2008 these records include longest running flight sim series most successful flight simulator series and most expensive home flight simulator cockpit which was built by australian trucking tycoon matthew sheil and cost around 200000 to build alphasim flightgear free and opensource flight simulator flightsimcom and avsimcom flight simulator resource and review communities microsoft train simulator microsoft space simulator and microsoft combat flight simulator geofs free online flight simulator simulation game training simulation international virtual aviation organisation ivao virtual air traffic simulation network vatsim boston virtual artcc bva flightsimcon xplane a commercial crossplatform flight simulator lockheed martin prepar3d microsoft flight simulator x product pages microsoft flight simulator insider an official microsoft site lockheed martin prepar3d lockheed martins post microsoft development microsoft flight simulator at curlie the 40 for msdos version ofmicrosoft flight simulator can be played for free in the browser at the internet archive vtemicrosoft flight simulator serieshistorycivilian simulations 2002 2004 a century of flight x combat simulations microsoft combat flight simulator combat flight simulator 2 combat flight simulator 3 battle for europe related articles fs1 flight simulator microsoft flight vtemicrosoft history outline peoplefounders bill gates paul allen board of directors john w thompson chairman satya nadella ceo 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