It’s almost unheard of these days to hear of a game getting smaller. You only have to look at a copy of Call of Duty to fill a hard drive these days. Actually, if I remember right, Call of Duty got a patch to reduce future patch sizes, then got a record-breaking patch (bigger) shortly afterwards. Huzzah for them I guess. However, Microsoft is really on the ball with their files sizes. The latest optimisation for the full download of the game now sees the base game drop to just 83GB, vs the original file size of 170GB+!
Flight Simulator 2020
The new update, Update 1.16.2.0, adds a few other features too. Firstly, it implements the new AIRAC cycle 2105 and FAA data for its nav data solution, however, given all I do is muck about, I doubt that’ll impact my playing much. Secondly, there’s all the usual bug and crash fixes. Game crashing that is, it’s not going to stop you ploughing a Cessna into a mountain. There’s also some bug fixes to a parking glitch, as well as light traffic adjustments.
There’s also a big update to weather data bandwidth, which I assume is another data saving adjustment. However, they’ve also increased the precision of live snow coverage, and even “decreases structural icing rate by a factor of 15 for severe icing.” which I totally knew needed fixing, as that really bugged me prior to this update (I have no freak idea, honestly).
If you want the latest update to Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can get Patch 1.16.2.0 by launching the client and letting it automatically do its thing.
Check out the update on the Microsoft site, or you can read the full changelog below.
Flight Simulator 2020 Update 1.16.2.0
Some packages in your community folder may not have been updated and, as a result, may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior.
Please move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title if you suffer from stability issues or long loading times.
We performed some optimization for the initial full download of the title so the base game is only 83GB instead of +170GB.
NAVIGATION
New AIRAC cycle 2105 has been implemented
FAA data has been implemented to our navdata solution
Departure gates are now saved in flight plan (.PLN) files
Fixed a crash and other issues when selecting a parking space as arrival and no set departure
Fixed some Live Air Traffic aircraft using the wrong model
Fixed an issue where some Live Air Traffic aircraft had broken callsigns
Increased the density of Live Air Traffic
Aircraft that are not on the ground but that have an altitude of zero will now appear at a default altitude of 5000m
Live traffic stability has been improved
ATC phraseology improvements to FAA standards (wording only)
WEATHER
Reduced weather data bandwidth
Improved precision of live snow coverage
“Visual Effect Only” in assistance now does properly deactivate other weather effects
“Visual Icing” has been renamed “Icing” in the devmode because it impacts the whole icing system
“Icing” in DevMode only changes visual effects if “Visual Effect Only” is activated
Ice constant decay is no longer ignored outside of frost conditions
Accelerated pitot icing model while making it slower to defrost
Fixed pitot icing not scaling with the number of instruments
Fixed overspeed controller vibrations not affected by pitot icing
Decrease structural icing rate by a factor of 15 for severe icing (6 for moderate)
PLANES
ALL PLANES:
Added altitude interception for PITCH HOLD mode
Increased native induced drag amount and improved induced drag precision
Autopilot no longer flies toward a Waypoint removed from the FlightPlan
SimConnect injected traffic (VATSIM, IVAO) should now be displayed in HTML/JS instruments that have traffic displays as well as on the VFR Map
Fixed simvar acceleration not taking impacts into account and returning wrong values on ground
Writing back corrected acceleration values after impact resolutions so that they are exact when pulled as a simvar
Flaps, stall, wing and fuselage updates of flight model
More cleanup of the flaps system. Support multi systems with different number of levels and max angles
Increased threshold to avoid trim fight against elevator to 50% (corresponds to disconnect threshold)
Changed elevator AP with trim to avoid fighting against user input when user input is >50% on elevator
Allow setting the empty CG position out of limits
Fixed more audio not playing on large aircraft
Fixed Autothrottle sometimes disabled by AI
TURBOPROP:
Improved tools to tune prop drag on constant speed & turbo propellers
Removed fake and completely wrong ITT simulation when prop is feathered or reverse
Fixed reverse thrust problem with propeller (no support of negative beta & induced wind)
Added prop lever debug on engines debug page
Fixed torque increasing with altitude because of N1 / Corrected N1 confusion in FSX turboprop code
Fixed crash bug when scrolling Daher TBM 9300 Flight Plan pag
Torque fine adjustment per POH for the Daher TBM 930
Updated stability and inertia for the Daher TBM 930
Adjusted sea level max torque on the Daher TBM 930
Turbine fine tuning: ITT, Torque, Performance, and Fuel Flow on the Daher TBM 930
Flight model update for handling on the Daher TBM 930
Ground level max torque and torque limiter setting updated. 100% max with inertial separator; 112% max, limited to 109% without inertial separator on the Daher TBM 930
Reduced effect of inertial separator from 25% TQ to 12% TQ for the Daher TBM 930
Tuned stability and inertia on the Beechcraft King Air 350i
Tweaked Idle RPM from 1030 to 1060RPM for the Beechcraft King Air 350i
Adjusted max sea level torque on the Beechcraft King Air 350i
Tuned Beechcraft King Air 350i turboprop engine: ITT, Torque, Fuel Flow and other minor changes
Added ITT debug to engine debug and added density on fuel flow table for turboprop engines on the Beechcraft King Air 350i
Fine tuned fuel consumption per the POH at IDLE, 12000ft cruise and 18000ft cruise on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Fixed ITT, Throttle to Torque Ratio, and Garmin color bands for ITT and TRQ on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Pass on stability and inertia on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Fine tuned Fuel Flow per altitude and adjusted sea level max torque on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Turbine Torque fine tuned per POH on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Control surfaces & handling improvements on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
Prop lever of the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX can now be set in feathering range
OTHERS:
Weather radar now displays precipitation instead of cloud coverage
Fixed contrail behavior on player’s aircraft during windy conditions
Contrails are now displayed for applicable AI traffic planes
Reduced rudder authority based on the Cessna 152
Stability and inertia pass on Cessna 172 Skyhawk and Cessna 152
Flight model handling update for the Cessna 152
Fixed Cessna 152’s rear wheels not touching ground
Pass on engine power & propeller drag. Fine tuned max speed, cruise speed, climb speeds, glide speeds and other minor tweaks on the Cessna 172 Skyhawk
Flight model tuning of Cessna 172 Skyhawk (handling, induced yaw, roll and stall)
Fixed water on windows and tail color on LOD5 for the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner
EICAS now displays “CLB” instead of “CL” when the thrust levers are set to CL in the A320
Fixed an issue which prevented copilot from autocompleting the Securing Aircraft page on the Diamond DA40 TDI
Improved propeller drag and engine drag tuning for the Diamond DA62
Flight model handling update on the Diamond DA62. Made engine effect more important by adjusting rudder surfaces
Increased rudder stability slightly and fixed engine stall in air at low speeds on the EXTRA 330LT
Added a notch more dihedral to increase induced roll a little on the EXTRA 330LT
Fuel Pressure gauges now display correct levels of pressure on the EXTRA 330LT
Fine tune on the 103Solo Engine and implementation of engine clutch below 2100 RPM
Fixed FS Livery on Cessna Citation Longitude disappearing too early on LOD6
Corrected Pipistrel Virus SW121 flaps animation which would not properly play for negative flaps values
G3000 : Map zoom level is now kept constant between Regular and Weather map
G1000 : Airspaces are redrawn uppon change in map orientation
G3000 : Fix PFD display error when a DirectTo is requested
Fixed aircraft spawning with glasscockpits turned off randomly
Fixed FlightPlan displaying passed waypoints when canceling a DirectTo
Fixed FlightPlan guidance not re-engaging properly when DirectTo is canceled or reached
Fixed G3000 and G3X MFD TopBar displaying True Bearing instead of Magnetic
Fixed overspeed strip being too low on airspeed tape
Fixed bug where the flightplan was not displayed properly if the flight was started directly on approach
Fixed VFRMap not updating approach according to FlightPlan
Tactile glasscockpits scrollbars are bigger and can be interacted with more easily
Fixed FlightPlan guidance not re-engaging properly when DirectTo is canceled or reached
INPUT
Fixed resetting position peripheral input position when user exits the pause menu
Fixed the unresponsive specific axis on Honeycomb Bravo Throttle
Fixed default mapping for the CH Eclipse Yoke
Fixed default mapping for the CH Fighter Stick
Fixed default mapping for the CH Flight Sim Yoke
Fixed default mapping for the CH Fighter Stick Pro
Fixed default mapping for the CH Pro Pedals
Fixed default mapping for the CH Pro Throttle
Fixed default mapping for the CH Throttle Quadrant
UI
Community Folder Addons will now show up as Installed in the Content manager
SDK/DEVMODE
GENERAL:
Coherent GT’s debugger is now included in the SDK
Speed restrictions and RF center fix information is now available on airport facility procedure data via the JS facility listener
JS facility listener LOAD_* calls now return bool to indicate whether or not an ICAO can be loaded
Facilities.getMagVar added when JS facility listener is loaded which allows one to get the mag var for a given LatLongAlt
Maximum number of JS BingMap views increased from 5 to 9
Ability to intercept and mask key events has been added to the JS key event listene
Preventing the game from crashing if too many virtual netbing maps were created
Fixed the installation of 3DS Max tools
Fixed the font displayed in the release notes window
DOCUMENTATION:
Creation of an Xbox X|S dedicated page in the documentation, which gathers the latest info & best practices to port content on Xbox.
Visual Effects documentation has been added along with a sample. A video tutorial will be added soon.
Major updates were made to The Project Editor section:
Updated main page with more information
New section for Project Asset Types (WIP)
New section for the various project editor menus: Project, Edit, View
Updated Marketplace Data page
Updated Export Window page
Content Configuration now has a section dedicated to Flights And Missions:
Initial documentation for Flight Plan Definitions
Initial documentation for Flight Definitions
Initial documentation for Event Trigger Definitions
Initial documentation for Weather Definitions
A page has been added documenting the new SimObject Stats window.
A page with samples to illustrate model optimization has been added specifically for the Xbox, although the samples shown are relevant to everyone creating add-ons.
A page has been added for Submodel Merging in the 3D Models section.
The Airport Tutorial has been updated to show the Airport Wizard for Creating Or Replacing An Airport
Page on Aircraft Texture Mapping now has a section describing how to set up Ice
Page on the Package Tool XML Definitions has been updated with more information.
Page on the DA62 sample added to the Samples And Tutorials section
New engines.cfg and flight_model.cfg setting documented
PROJECT EDITOR:
Renamed package inspector “+” button into “Add asset group”
In the Marketplace Data Editor, fixed a crash when loading empty thumbnail
Fixed simvar index being lost when loading a file
Disabled a false positive error message box that appeared randomly when building aircraft packages
SCENERY EDITOR:
Fixed a crash when editing runway terraforming profile
Fixed ‘`’ char being filtered in taxiway sign content text entry.
Fixed the “add custom asset group” window which wouldn’t close when creating a new non-templated asset group
Fixed a crash when editing runway terraforming profile
Fixed the windsocks with wrong orientation
Fixed infinite loading for light presets with no mesh
Fixed issues with water polygons
AIRCRAFT EDITOR:
Fixed a potential crash when converting old .air file.
VISUAL EFFECTS EDITOR:
The Visual Effects Editor is now available! You can now create your own effects. We prepared a video tutorial and complete documentation that can be found at http://docs.flightsimulator.com!
FLIGHT MODEL:
Added elevator_lift_coef, rudder_lift_coef and fuselage_lateral_cx to give aircraft creators better control over plane stability
SIMCONNECT:
Added new SimVar “GEAR SKIDDING FACTOR”
AUDIO:
On Wwise Sample Project: Fixed shared IR convolution medias not loaded in remote
You may crash when exiting VR mode. This issue is being investigated but we suspect OpenXR preview runtime (v106) may be involved. So if you experience this problem, we recommend you revert to the official public runtime (v105).
How many of you still play Flight Simulator 2020? Let us know in the comments!
Peter Donnell
As a child in my 40's, I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!