How can we make the Flight Simulator license ever more impressive and immersive for the player with each release of a new opus? Certainly, this question constantly lingers in the mind of Asobo Studios which continues to redouble its efforts to make its game as perfect as possible. If Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 somewhat missed its takeoff, the latest information on its implementation is surprising in the good sense of the word.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 X Planet Zoo: the story of a phone call
Maybe you weren't aware, but Planet Zoo (available since 2019 on PC) lists more than 190 animal species visible throughout your games. If we are talking about this creation by Frontier Development with you, it is quite simply because the studio has agreed to enter into a partnership with Lakshya Digital in order to transpose the animals from Planet Zoo into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
As the developer himself says, this collaboration aims to “offer authentic animal life to the digital twin of our planet”.
Jorg Neumann, head of the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise, recently gave an interview to our colleagues at PC Gamer, in which he explained how he convinced Frontier Development to integrate the animals from Planet Zoo into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, without forgetting the quality of their work.
I worked with Frontier Developments for a long time,” he told PC Gamer. “I called my friend, the CEO. His name is Johnny [Watts]and I said, “Hey, Jonny, I work on Flight Sim, can I have your Planet Zoo animals?” “. And he said, “Yes, why not?” “. We actually took all the animals from Planet Zoo and put them into our world, which is cool.
Additionally, Neumann also revealed that the team's goal was to make on-hand environments “as good as a classic first-person shooter.”
To succeed in this mission, Asobo marked 28,000 100 m tiles on 100 m of satellite data. Neumann also specified:
These are sand, pebbles, small rocks, asphalt, grass, tall grass. We then fed this data into the system.
With such a level of realism, it is certain that fans will spend long hours of flight traveling the globe while improving their piloting technique.
As a reminder, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC as well as in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
