VR for Microsoft Flight Sim 2020?

So with the news of Microsoft Flight sim 2020, most of us who fly in VR, were very excited to see what Microsoft was planning, however there appears to be some confusion on whether or not they are planning to add VR to Microsoft Flight Sim 2020.

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We were also skeptical about this new sim, as the last sim they released was a complete flop. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about FSX. That was an amazing sim that is still being played to this day by many many flight simmers. No, the sim I am referring to is ‘Microsoft Flight’… It was built as more of a game and less of a sim. So this is why there was a lot of worry about the release of Microsoft Flight Sim 2020. This worry was put to rest almost immediately when they advised that this would be a flight simulation and not a game. They emphasised the simulation part of this. Since that announcement, they have proven that they are extremely focused on making this the most realistic sim available today.

What about VR?

So, what about VR, is it going to be available? Didn’t they announce that it wouldn’t be supported initially.

In an interview with Jord Neumann, head of the development of Microsoft Flight Simulation,  said the following about VR.

“Right after the E3 trailer came out there was a lot of people making that exact assumption, that ‘Oh yeah, this better be supporting VR right from the get go.’ It honestly wasn’t our plan,” Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, told AVSIM. “But we are listening, and we heard it, so we will try our darnedest to make it happen. Whether or not we’re going to pull it off for launch, we can’t commit to that at this point in time, but we are aware of the desire, and given that we genuinely want to make the sim that simmers want, we will try to prioritise that over other things.”

So, things are looking good for VR, however that doesn’t mean that we are going to get it on launch as he pointed out in the interview, however we have been heard and it will be available at some point down the road.

It has also been stated that they want to do a good implementation of VR instead of throwing it on as an after thought. So if they don’t release it with the sim, don’t worry, they are probably just making sure that it works properly when it is released.

What about computer Specs?

Well, if you are like me, you have probably had the jaw dropping experience when you first started to watch the videos being released by Microsoft Flight Simulation. The graphics are absolutely incredible, right out of the box. No add on scenery and you would have trouble determining if it was real life or a flight sim. But with this being said, that brings up the very scary reality, that a beast of a computer will be necessary to run the sim. Well luckily they have released the specs, which don’t look as bad as I initially suspected.

Minimum System Requirements

So, this is going to be the bare minimum to get started with Microsoft Flight Simulation, however graphics aren’t going to be great at this level.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200, or Intel i5-4460
• GPU: Radeon RX 570, or Nvidia GTX 700
• VRAM: 2 GB
• RAM: 8 GB
• HDD: 150 GB
• Internet speed: 5 Mbps (0.6 MB/s)

Recommended System Requirements

With this level, you are going to get some decent graphics, however you are still unlikely to be running in VR as VR is very demanding.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, or Intel i5-8400
• GPU: Radeon RX 590, or Nvidia GTX 970
• VRAM: 4 GB
• RAM: 16 GB
• HDD: 150 GB
• Internet speed: 20 Mbps (2.5 MB/s)

Ideal System Requirements

Now this is the area that you want to be when looking at flying in Microsoft Flight Simulation. This is going to be close to what you see in the demo videos.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X, or Intel i7-9800X
• GPU: Radeon VII, or Nvidia RTX 2080
• VRAM: 8 GB
• RAM: 32 GB
• HDD: 150 GB SSD
• Internet speed: 50 Mbps (6.3 MB/s)

So what does this mean for us?

Well, fortunately, this means that most gaming computers on the market should be able to run this flight sim without any trouble… at least without VR. Now once you add VR, you are adding much more stress to your system. So you can bet that in order to run this sim in VR with amazing graphics, you are going to need an absolute beast of a computer. Do I suspect that running the sim on VR with less of a PC is possible, yes, however only time will tell. There are still no specs for VR at this time.

If I were to take a guess, I would say that having at least a RTX 2070 graphics card or equivalent would be necessary to power this sim in VR.

Of course, more is always better.

Hope this helps. If you want to stay up to date on this information and want to keep posted on the newest updates, follow my youtube channel, subscribe to my podcast or jump on my email list. I plan to keep things updated as things progress.

Thanks for reading,

Dan