The Microsoft Flight Simulator team has said a “mitigation has been implemented” following reports online of users experiencing slow and stalled download speeds when updating to Sim Update 14.
In a statement, the team said: “We are aware of reports of slow and stalled download speeds for Sim Update 14. A mitigation has been implemented to attempt to help increase download speeds for users, and we have teams actively investigating the issue. We will share more as soon as we are able.”
Sim Update 14, released on December 5th 2023, brought a range of enhancements to the sim, including improved ATC, better sky colours, and Working Title’s revamped Cirrus SR22T G6.
Slow and stalled download speeds have been an ongoing problem for Microsoft Flight Simulator; September 2023’s Sim Update 13 faced similar issues, with the team apologizing for the issue and, similar to the most recent statement, implementing a “mitigation.”
The issue was addressed during November 2023’s Developer Live Stream, with Executive Producer at Asobo Martial Bossard saying: “To spread the data globally, we use a CDN. It’s a complex method, and it’s challenging for a client like us to enhance that system. This addresses the distribution aspect…Downloading packages, compressing them, and installing them concurrently while performing other tasks is challenging in our current system. However, we are committed to improving this aspect. The good news is that the architecture for distributing packages has been completely rewritten for Flight Simulator 2024. We hope this will eliminate the complexities and reduce the waiting times during updates and package installations, significantly improving the overall process with Flight Simulator 2024.”
