MSFS 2024 SU3 Beta begins testing the long-requested option to download default content locally
Yesterday’s release of the Sim Update 3 (SU3) Beta for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 already caught the community’s attention with a hefty list of improvements, fixes, and new features. But sometimes, it’s the things that don’t make it to the official release notes that end up sparking the most discussion. That’s exactly what’s happening as the community finds out that SU3 quietly introduces the long-requested ability to download and install default aircraft, airports, and other core assets locally!
After months of debate about MSFS 2024’s aggressive streaming-first model, which requires almost everything to be streamed—even default planes and airports—SU3 Beta seems to be taking steps toward giving users more flexibility and control over their content.
For many simmers, this will feel like a correction rather than an innovation. In MSFS 2020, all core assets—aircraft, airports, challenges, and the like—were installed locally by default. Streaming was primarily used for optional data layers such as Bing maps, photogrammetry, or live weather, while the essential parts of the simulator remained fully available offline.
With the arrival of MSFS 2024, that approach changed drastically. The simulator adopted a ‘thin client’ model, where even default content is streamed from the servers. Not only did this cause major issues at launch, as the servers were under pressure from a huge influx of early adopters, but it also led to concerns about loading times, stutters, and the broader dependency on online infrastructure, especially for simmers with limited bandwidth or unreliable connections.
SU3 Beta appears to address those concerns by reintroducing the option to download and install these core assets locally, giving users back some of the flexibility they were accustomed to in 2020. Just be mindful that downloading the full library of default content can require significant storage space, potentially running into hundreds of gigabytes!
However, this wouldn’t be a Microsoft Flight Simulator update without a few quirks. As several users pointed out in a thread dedicated to this topic on the official MSFS forums, the process is far from polished. First, you select the content to download. Then, and only then, you have to manually install it from a separate menu. Forget that second step, and your sim will continue to stream the content as if nothing ever happened.
Indeed, Microsoft and Asobo have yet to officially document this feature in the SU3 Beta release notes. That’s not an oversight, as it’s been confirmed that the feature is intentionally not listed because it’s still unfinished.
Whether you see this as a long-overdue correction or an early attempt at striking a better balance between streaming and local content, one thing is clear: six months after the release of MSFS 2024, the development team remains hard at work addressing many of the concerns raised by the community.
