I found an interview of Sebastian on the French site XBOXYGEN. Translation by Google, corrected by me.

Xboxygen: So about the game on PC, is it necessary to have a war machine to run Microsoft Flight Simulator? Is it the fact that the game is connected to the Internet that allows it to be so pretty, or is it the config that does that?

Asobo: The Internet connection makes it possible to have a world of this size with as much definition. In fact it can even make things a little more difficult because it's a lot of data to display and we have an incredible level of detail. We have 20 levels of detail, from the smallest to the largest. As soon as there are things a little distant, we can then lower the level of detail, which helps the graphics cards a lot.

Here [on the stand of X019], we have a relatively big machine but we run in native 4K, ie without upscale. Clouds for example are also rendered in 4K, with a level of detail in ultra. Me for example, I do not have config as big since I take care of everything that is aerodynamic so I need it to be very responsive. I have a 1060 and I play in full HD or sometimes in 1440p. Here [on the demo for the X019] on average we are at 45 fps here and in 4K, and we aim for 4K 60 fps on these big machines. Then it's a game that suffers very little from  upscaling, I personally do not see the difference, and it often doubles the number of frames per second without touching the level of detail. After we have 5 or 6 levels of detail with different options inside.

http://www.xboxygen.com/News/31562-Interview-d-Asobo-pour-Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-2020-la-technologie-et-le-multijoueur

 

 

 

 

The whole interview (translated with deepl)

Xboxygen: Hello Sebastien. We asked the question earlier about the timing of the game. It will arrive first on a PC and then on a console, right?

Asobo: So we announced an initial release on PC on 2020, and Xbox later, without being able to give a date or year.

Xboxygen: Are you already working on it?

Asobo: You can't say it, but in general a console game is quite long.

Xboxygen: So regarding PC gaming, does it take a war machine to run Microsoft Flight Simulator? Is it the fact that the game is connected to the Internet that makes it look so pretty, or is it the configuration that does that?

Asobo: The Internet connection allows you to have a world of this size with so many definitions. In fact, it can even make things a little more difficult because it's a lot of data to display and we have an incredible level of detail. We have 20 levels of detail, from the smallest to the largest. As soon as there are things a little far away, you can then lower the level of detail, which helps a lot with graphics cards.

Here[on the X019 stand], we have a relatively big machine but we run in native 4K, i. e. without upscale. Clouds for example are also rendered in 4K, with an ultra level of detail. For example, I don't have such a big config since I take care of everything aerodynamic so I need it to be very responsive. I have a 1060 and I play in full HD or sometimes in 1440p. Here[on the demo for the X019] on average we are at 45 fps here and in 4K, and we aim for 4K 60 fps on these big machines. Then it's a game that suffers very little from upscaling, I personally don't see the difference, and it often allows to double the number of frames per second without touching the level of detail. Then we have 5 or 6 levels of detail with different options inside.

Xboxygen: We know there's a multiplayer mode planned in the game, what can you tell us about it?

Asobo: In the video we made for the E3, we showed that there were several planes, so yes that's multiplayer between several humans, and we also have live traffic with more than 10,000 planes in the sky.

Xboxygen: Live, that is, in relation to there, now, those in the sky?

Asobo: Yes, so we can turn it off of course, but we have 15,000 live planes, and then we add the virtual players and we can enable/disable seeing only our friends or something else.

Xboxygen: But that's a lot of people then. Are you going to put everyone in?

Asobo: Yes, everyone. On the other hand, the world is a big place, and we don't see everyone.

Xboxygen: But what if 1 million players decide to go to New York at the same time?

Asobo: We have made a system that if there are too many people in the same place, you only see the most interesting players for you. For example, friends first, or players who are in the same geographical area, etc. Otherwise it's not possible. What I like is that when I go to Merignac and there are other planes, we have to wait, they will put us in a holding pattern, then when I land there is another one waiting... I love exploring the world. In fact, we can go to a different place every ten minutes and it will take us years. If you are interested in beautiful landscapes... it's a bit like going on holiday.

Xboxygen: Exactly, that's what I said earlier to one of the developers here. And as far as the aircraft available are concerned, will you have, for example, large pieces like the A380 or Antonov 225?

Asobo: We have a lot of planes planned. There's the licensing side, everything has to be ready, and you have to show what it looks like because it's not interesting to say there's an aircraft without showing it. The list is growing and things happen regularly.

Xboxygen: Does that mean we could have new ones after the game is released?

Asobo: There's also the fact that Flight Simulator has always supported third-party aircraft, and that's something that remains. So even if these are not aircraft made by us, we can imagine that there could be anything and everything since third parties can create them.

Xboxygen: To create the game, did you use old data or did you start from almost 0?

Asobo: When we started the development, we started from Flight Simulator X which we renovated. But as things have gradually disappeared and in terms of data I think there is nothing left now. Data from the world, airports etc. for example. The aircraft data were also redone.

Xboxygen: About the accessories: are there any specific accessories for the release of the game?

Asobo: We can't answer right now. What we can say is that we already support a lot of accessories and that the list is constantly growing.

Xboxygen: Last question: Did Microsoft come to you to develop this new Flight Simulator? How did it go?

Asobo: In fact, we have been working with Microsoft for a very long time, for more than 10 years. We have worked on Fuel, we are crazy about giant worlds and technological challenges and we also love simulation. When the discussions started, Microsoft thought of us because we had the technologies and the passion for this kind of thing and when we started talking about it, I immediately flashed. We generally avoid making games that we don't like to play, but this is even more in line with what we like. But it's not like we never had any contact or if they made "knock knock knock" at the door, you shouldn't see it like that.

Xboxygen: Thank you for these answers and good continuation in the development of the game.

 

Thanks for the translations. It looks like there will be an open multiplayer world mode, this will be interesting and very easily accessible.

If they aim for 4K60 with a 2080 ti, this sim will be a dream come true. At VR resolutions it could be extremely playable. For my 1080p144hz panel this will be amazing.

So he is running a 1060 in either 1080 or 1440 and getting good frames.  And no doubt there are optimizations to happen still. That a good news.

Super interesting on the multiplayer aspect.  An open multiplayer world choosing who to display

Really like the idea of the multiplayer aspect. 

On the new XBOX and a 55" 4K TV should look good and cheap for the price.

Well to me it felt like they were lying when they said they weren't building on fsx but from it, only to say later that they did in fact use a lot of fsx code. Reading this now, I have a better understanding of what they meant. FSX was pretty much a point of reference more than anything, so they really were building FROM it since there's pretty much nothing left of it at this point.

Edited December 3, 20196 yr by Krakin

Shows what LM could do if they wanted and they have the finances to do it for a training simulator. 

Thanks for finding this @domkle From this and the German interviews, it seems they give better details to non-English sources. Though it could just be the timeline means maturing levels of disclosure.

26 minutes ago, Bottle said:

Thanks for finding this @domkle From this and the German interviews, it seems they give better details to non-English sources. Though it could just be the timeline means maturing levels of disclosure.

They also feel more confident I think . The returns from the PR campaign are very good and rich in content. They feel the community better, what we expect, what we'd rather not have etc. Also the project has progressed a lot I suppose, 6 months after the E3 announcement. 

 For the French, they obviously feel more at ease speaking in French, that helps too.

The ATC queuing aircrafts for landing is also very interesting news!