NEW TECHNOLOGY, NEW FRONTIERS

When Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was announced during the 2018 E3 Conference, my mind immediately began spinning with the opportunities. Using Bing Maps cloud satellite data and advanced cloud, lighting, and software world simulation, this new tool allows for recording photoreal footage of any location on the earth in stunning. When I first installed the software, which clocked in at roughly 150 gigabytes and ate up a bunch of my my internal SSD hard-drive space, I still had to wait another few months before I could manage to find a loop hole in the out-of-stock graphics card market and acquire hardware upgrades to enable me to run MSFS.

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When zooming in to particular buildings or areas, the detail can break down and lose its visual fidelity, but aside from these minor limitations, the software has been a thrill to experiment with and use in projects. As you can imagine, capturing pristine cinematic video footage of nearly any location on Earth with full access to lighting and weather controls is a filmmaker's fantasy. From the steep fjords of Norway, to the shining Burj Khalifa, to the Rainbow Mountain range of China, MSFS is an unbelievable tool for our team. If you're interested in running it (which I'd highly recommend), I must caution that it will take an exceptionally powerful PC, i.e. intel i7-i9, 16GB DDR4+, ample SSD storage, and a graphics card such as a 2000 series or 3000 series. I can't wait to see you in the clouds, pilot!

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-Matt