This document describes the architecture and algorithms of a high fidelity fixed wing flight simulator intended to test and validate novel guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms for autonomous aircraft. It aims to replicate the influence of as many factors as possible on the aircraft performances, the Earth model, the physics of flight and the associated equations of motion, and in particular the behavior of the onboard sensors, limiting the assumptions to the bare minimum, and including multiple relatively minor effects not usually considered in simulation that may play a role in the GNC algorithms not performing as intended. The author releases the flight simulator C ++ implementation as open-source software. The simulator modular design enables the replacement of the standard GNC algorithms with the objective of evaluating their performances when subject to specific missions and meteorological conditions (atmospheric properties, wind field, air turbulence). The testing and evaluation is performed by means of Monte Carlo simulations, as most simulation modules (such as the aircraft mission, the meteorological conditions, the errors introduced by the sensors, and the initial conditions) are defined stochastically and hence vary in a pseudo-random way from one execution to the next according to certain user-defined input parameters, ensuring that the results are valid for a wide range of conditions. In addition to modeling the outputs of all sensors usually present onboard a fixed wing platform, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, Pitot tube, air vanes, and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNCC) receiver, the simulator is also capable of generating realistic images of the Earth surface that resemble what an onboard camera would record if following the resulting trajectory, enabling the use and evaluation of visual and visual inertial navigation systems.

There are some wild stats about Microsoft Flight Simulator. In the sim, all 117 million lakes in the world are rendered in their appropriate places. Each plane has more than 1,000 points that respond to a variety of conditions at any given time, including wind, atmosphere and player input. Developers pushed 2.5 petabytes of Bing Maps satellite photo data through Azure's machine learning systems to construct the sim's world. In a chat with Engadget at CES 2021, Flight Simulator head Jorg Neumann said developers basically build the planet every 72 hours, procedurally planting somewhere in the realm of 2 trillion trees and creating 2 billion buildings in that timeframe alone.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a triumph, one that fully captures the meditative experience of soaring through the clouds. But to bring the game to life, Microsoft and developer Asobo Studio needed more than an upgraded graphics engine to make its planes look more realistic. They needed a way to let you believably fly anywhere on the planet, with true-to-life topography and 3D models for almost everything you see, something that's especially difficult in dense cities. A task like that would be practically impossible to accomplish by hand. But it's the sort of large-scale data processing that Microsoft's Azure AI was built for.

Microsoft's latest Flight Simulator entry doesn't do anything small. It's a title that comes on 10 DVDs and allows you to explore the world in almost its entirety. It turns out that scale even extends to its accidental inclusions. Flight Simulator users recently found an unusual landmark: a 212-story monolith towering over an otherwise nondescript suburb in Melbourne, Australia. In Microsoft Flight Simulator a bizarrely eldritch, impossibly narrow skyscraper pierces the skies of Melbourne's North like a suburban Australian version of Half-Life 2's Citadel, and I am -all for it- pic.twitter.com/6AH4xgIAWg

When the original Microsoft Flight simulator was released almost 40 years ago, it was very much for enthusiasts only. Early home computers could barely cope with drawing cockpit instrument panels, let alone scenery – so what you saw as you fought with the controls was a lot of dials and numbers, usually followed by an on-screen message politely informing you that you had crashed during take-off. This is not the experience you will have with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Developed by French studio Asobo using accurate geographic data culled from Bing Maps, a global cloud computing network, and real-time weather information, this is as much a visual spectacle as it is a simulator. And you will want to see as much as you can, because at 10,000 feet, the world looks spectacular (especially on the Ultra graphical settings, where it's almost photorealistic).

… the only way to do that is to use machine learning instead of placing every object by hand — you’ll still find plenty of oddness in the world, too.

Microsoft's new Flight Simulator is a technological marvel that sets a new standard for the genre. But to recreate a world that feels real and alive and contains billions of buildings all in the right spots, Microsoft and Asobo Studios relied on the work of multiple partners. One of those is the small Austrian startup Blackshark.ai from Graz that, with a team of only about 50 people, recreated every city and town around the world with the help of AI and massive computing resources in the cloud. Ahead of the launch of the new Flight Simulator, we sat down with Blackshark co-founder and CEO Michael Putz to talk about working with Microsoft and the company's broader vision. Blackshark is actually a spin-off of game studio Bongfish, the maker of World of Tanks: Frontline, Motocross Madness and the Stoked snowboarding game series.

Microsoft has just provided two new nuggets on information from Flight Simulator, which is about to make its descent onto gamers' systems on August 18 -- now, also on Steam. VIEW GALLERY – 10 IMAGES In a new update, Microsoft explained that Flight Simulator "heralds a new era of data-driven flight simulation". In the update, Microsoft continued: "One of the exciting implications of this is that the data that makes up the world is always improving, and players can look forward to a simulator that evolves over time".The post continued: "Thanks to our partnership with Bing, players will enjoy new, even better terrain, and an ever evolving, machine learning-fueled simulator that grows over time".Microsoft finished up the update on Flight Simulator, adding: "We have so much ahead for Microsoft Flight Simulator, but even on day one simmers will get highly detailed aircraft, a new checklist system, live air traffic, dynamic weather, new aerodynamic modeling, as well as all the many other features we shared in our launch date announcement, all within a beautifully crafted and rendered world. Whether you are new to flight simulation or an aviation pro, the sky is calling in Microsoft Flight Simulator".There will be 3 different …

Microsoft will release the latest edition of its famous Flight Simulator software for PC later this month with ultra lifelike graphics - but it will require a massive 150GB of free storage to install it. The software will make use of satellite maps from Bing as well as live readings from weather stations and airports around the world to create'the most realistic' version of the game ever developed. Users simply upload their desired destination and use the'realistic' training system to navigate the area – the simulator is set to be released for PC on August 18, Xbox shortly after and VR later this year. The simulator lets'pilots' sit in a realistic cockpit, allowing them to learn the ins and outs of a real airplane and travel from or to more than 40,000 real-world airports and visit sites between them. The latest version of the 38 year old software includes 37 thousand airports, 1.5 billion buildings and two trillion trees, mountains, roads and rivers. According to Microsoft it will include live traffic, real time weather and moving animals to reflect the fact Earth is a'living world'.

For a few seconds, it seems real. Then, on the horizon, the landscape gives way to rugged coastline, and, as the plane flies closer, we glimpse the rippling waves glinting in the evening sun. In real life, I have not seen the ocean for five months and, although I'm just sitting in my kitchen watching a virtual presentation of a video game, I feel a surge of emotion. When the latest instalment in Microsoft's decades-old Flight Simulator series was first shown at the E3 video game event last year, it drew gasps from the audience. Using two petabytes of geographic data culled from Bing Maps, together with cutting-edge, machine learning algorithms running on the company's Azure cloud computing network, the game presents a near-photorealistic depiction of the entire planet.