Microsoft Flight Simulator VR update will be a free upgrade coming out in time for Christmas

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Asobo Studio have a Christmas present planned for all the fans and players of Microsoft Flight Simulator, announcing that the virtual reality update will launch on 23rd December, and that it will support far more than the one specific VR headset that had previously been announced. While originally intended to be an exclusive for the HP Reverd G2 headset, Asobo Studio’s Martial Bossard said in the announcement stream that “We are going to open the VR for everyone. Everybody will get access to VR now, and when I say everybody […] it will also be open to all devices, including the Oculus family, Valve family, really every family of headset are going to be supported there.” That’s a fantastic change compared to what was previously quite a restrictive sounding plan. Additionally, they detailed that the game will be fully in VR, so you won’t have to remove the headset at any point when playing. This includes the pre-flight menu system. VR support will be added as part of Sim Update 2, which changes and enhances many aspects of the flight simulation itself. The first Sim Update, for exmaple, modified how the A320 behaved, tweaked Live Weather, ironed out autopilot issues and more. The late December update sees Asobo settling into a monthly cadence and alternative approach to the game’s continued support. The end of November saw them release World Update 2, which went over the whole of the United States and made numerous hand-crafted adjustments to the Ai generated terrain that the game shipped with.  December will see Sim Update 2, and following that, World Update 3 will arrive on 28th January and add more detail and gameplay to the UK’s many landmarks. Here’s hoping they can capture this island in all its post-Brexity glory… or whatever. While there’s a steady trickle of information, such as Asobo planning to add replay functionality in 2021, multi-screen support within the next two years, and flyable helicopters for 2022, there’s still no word on when the game will arrive on Xbox consoles. The expectation there is that Asobo will have to modify the core of their game engine to support DirectX 12 and make better use of multiple CPU cores, but who knows when that technical hurdle will be overcome. via Polygon