After a series of delays, the World Update 3 for MSFS, focused on the UK and Ireland, has finally been released today. It’s now available when firing up the sim, in a hefty download that promises to bring many improvements to the region. Make sure to visit the Marketplace to download the free new content!
This much anticipated new update to the base game brings improved terrain with new and highly detailed elevation data, going up to 50cm to 2m resolution, and brand new aerial imagery. Besides these overall improvements in terrain quality and resolution, there are also a series of custom-built airports (Manchester and Liverpool airports are among them), and many new procedural buildings, which will focus a lot on churches and cathedrals.
You will also find some key cities that have been remodeled with photogrammetry textures: London, Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham and Bristol. This should make for much more realistic low-level flights near these cities.
Since the initial release of MSFS, the British Islands were seen as in need of an overhaul. Some crucial landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace, were not present, instead being replaced by office blocks or other generic buildings. That is hopefully being (mostly) fixed now, with the addition of over 70 Points of Interest throughout the whole region, which will definitely enhance the flying experience.
This updated also includes fixes to the way clouds are rendered, making them less noisy, and you will also find new water masks all over the world, hopefully bringing seascapes closer to the imagery seen on the initial MSFS trailers that left everyone drooling.
A word of warning though. There’s a few steps you should take to prepare for a smoother experience after the update:
- If you are using the manual cache feature, please make sure to delete it via the in-game menu and create an updated version as we performed some backend technical updates.
- Some packages in your community folder may not have been updated and, as a result, may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior. Please move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title if you suffer from stability issues or long loading times.
- After you download the newest update for Microsoft Flight Simulator, head to the Marketplace to download the free World Update.
You can read about all that’s new at the official blog post.
