
and includes 20 aircraft and 30 handcrafted airports. Microsoft Flight Simulator ships at $60 in the U.S. World Updates regularly introduce a few new handcrafted airports, with the list of airports steadily growing. Initial updates have visited regions in Europe, North America, and Asia, adding new landmarks, airports, and more throughout the virtual globe. While Microsoft Flight Simulator first shipped with 40 handcrafted locations, we've since seen Microsoft deliver regular "World Updates," downloadable expansions free to all users, upgrading world detail for specific regions. This includes recreating various defining architecture, custom lighting models, and better mapping the intricacies of areas to their real-life detailing.

What about the "handcrafted airports?" Microsoft's handcrafted airports refer to those "top-level" locations, with massive creative input over the broader 37,000. What is a 'Handcrafted Airport' in Microsoft Flight Simulator? It's reserved exclusively to iconic and popular locations, with substantial human input far exceeding the data's limitations. These destinations receive additional custom-made buildings and props, aiming to translate their full identity into the simulation.

Microsoft has also discussed a curated variety of "top-level" airports, blessed with a further handcrafted charm over the masses. The result feeds Microsoft's artificial intelligence, stringing the environment together in the cloud, and streamed to your PC in real-time. The approach also allows Microsoft to flag artifacts and visual anomalies from the bird's-eye view, clearing up the input for the world-building algorithm. The dedicated tools allow developer, Asobo Studio, to outline the site perimeter, runway footprint, orientation, and other properties. The Flight Simulator team has discussed the measures to represent each runway, which require additional love to align with reality. Microsoft has 37,000 "manually edited" locales, ensuring faithful reflections of their real-world counterparts.

That includes thousands of airports, ranging from small grass airstrips to top international hotspots. The virtual world of Microsoft Flight Simulator sets out to mirror planet Earth in full, leveraging satellite imagery and mapping data down to the meter.
