SeedyL

Hi @SayAgain, For clarification, there should have been no changes to landing gear LOD culling of AI aircraft between SU4 and SU5. This was adjusted in a previous Sim Update (again, I think it was SU4, but I'm not 100% sure about that and it might have been an earlier SU). The intro video was made at least two years ago using a pre-release WIP build of MSFS 2024 and does not reflect the current release state, so any footage you see in that video is not applicable to the current version of the sim. If you're seeing overly aggressive LOD culling for landing gear on any first-party stock aircraft while in a flight session in SU5, please let us know and be sure to mention which specific aircraft type(s) you're seeing this with. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @SayAgain, The footage in the intro video was recorded using a pre-launch WIP version of MSFS 2024 prior to v1.0 shipping in November 2024. I believe the team made changes to make landing gear LOD culling less aggressive in a subsequent Sim Update (I want to say it was SU4, but I'm not 100% sure about that). If you have video or screenshots of stock first party aircraft exhibiting this behavior in the current live SU5 build, please let us know! Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @sd_flyer, This was always possible in both MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 (SU4 and previous) when using a Tobii Eye Tracker 5. Were you not able to do this previously? Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @Wise87, YMMV, but at least in my case I had to modify the values I was previously using in SU4. In my experience, the new Tobii SDK is more sensitive than the previous version, so I had to reduce the sensitivity of the various pitch/roll/yaw/x/y/z axes in the Tobii hardware configuration menu compared to how I had them configured in SU4. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @sd_flyer, I can confirm that the Tobii Eye Tracker 5 is working properly in SU5 (I tested my own earlier today after updating), but please be advised that MSFS 2024 is now using the latest SDK from Tobii. At least in my case, I had to go into my Tobii hardware configuration settings from the Controls menu in the sim and re-adjust the sensitivity values to get it to where I wanted it. You may or may not need to do the same. Thankfully it took me less than five minutes of experimentation to lock in new settings that feel great for me. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello Fielder, The "advice" you received from AI on this topic has no merit. There is no problem with staying enrolled in the beta when the release version goes live. With previous Sim Updates, the final beta build was the same build number as the release version, so those enrolled in the beta didn't even need to download a new update as they were already using the full release version. If you don't want to automatically enroll in the next beta (i.e. Sim Update 6), then you should exit the beta after SU5 is released. Otherwise, you can stay enrolled and will receive the first SU6 beta build as soon as it is available. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

See my post above. There is only one value for Dynamic Settings (even if you expand the dropdown menu). Max Frame Rate is a different setting entirely.

Max Frame Rate is a different setting entirely and is not related to Dynamic Settings. Think of it this way: Max Frame Rate sets an upper limit on how many frames per second the sim will render. Dynamic Settings sets the floor below which the sim will automatically reduce graphical quality so that your frame rate stays above the specified value.

Many people are using the Dynamic Setting feature improperly. You're supposed to set the value to your minimum acceptable frame rate, NOT your desired target frame rate. If you use the Dynamic Setting feature properly, most of the time the sim will run with performance higher than the value you entered for Dynamic Setting. This feature (which is designed to automatically reduce the visual quality temporarily for improved performance in graphically-demanding situations and then return graphical quality to normal when performance is above the threshold) will be automatically turned off most of the time and will only activate itself when the sim detects your performance is lower than the value you have set. If you set the Dynamic Setting value too high, it will reduce the sim's graphical quality even in situations when it's not necessary to maintain a frame rate above your minimum acceptable level. In my case, I set the Dynamic Setting value to 30 fps as I consider that the absolute bare minimum acceptable level of performance. Most of the time I'm getting 60+ fps, so this means Dynamic Setting will always be off unless my sim performance drops below 30 fps. This only very rarely happens but can sometimes occur when I'm flying near a high density photogrammetry city to/from a bespoke airport with lots of nearby traffic (for example KLGA or EGLC). Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi folks, The .23 test build is just a very small update that has a few changes to help developers with testing. There are no user-facing changes compared to yesterday's .22 beta build, and we're only releasing this build on Steam, not other platforms. https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/steam-only-sim-update-5-beta-1-7-23-0-release-notes-april-22-2026/763619 Thanks, -SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi folks, FYI, changing servers only affects which other player-controlled aircraft you see in multiplayer mode. It does not change anything related to data streaming, live weather, real-world traffic, or other online services. Thanks, -SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Yes, we're starting at 1730Z (approximately one hour from the timestamp of this message) on our official Twitch channel. If you're not able to watch the broadcast live, we'll have the VOD uploaded to our YouTube channel within the next day or two. For anyone who is participating in the Twitch chat and has a question for the team, we have five separate Q&A sections planned, each to cover a different topic. We kindly request that everyone hold their question until the appropriate time. The five topics are: General World & Weather Career Mode & Activities Aircraft & Avionics Marketplace Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @Fielder, You can modify the forum theme to choose a light mode theme if you like that better by going to your account preferences and choosing the Light Theme as shown in the image below. Thanks, -SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi folks, I saw a few questions earlier in this thread about this release note: Removed weather panel humidity slider since humidity is no longer used. We followed up with the Asobo dev team for clarification, and they let us know that the humidity slider in MSFS 2024 is a legacy feature from MSFS (2020). Due to changes in the weather system in MSFS 2024, this slider doesn't do anything anymore, so the UI element was removed. Atmospheric humidity is still part of MSFS 2024's weather depiction and simulation. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi folks, Normal service should now be restored. If you're still experiencing issues with authentication, please let us know. Thanks for your patience while our support teams worked to resolve this authentication issue. SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @andy1252, That's the visualization for up/downdrafts. You can toggle it on or off by opening the Weather menu from the in-sim handlebar and then clicking the "Show 3D thermal" button. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi folks, If you're experiencing audio stuttering in MSFS 2024, please respond to this post on the official forums to indicate the conditions during which you have this issue: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/audio-stutters-in-menu-globe-and-on-ground-during-flight/718524/1264?u=seedyl3205 Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @Sonosusto, I won't try to convince you that you should install the Stranger Things add-on when it releases on December 9. If you don't like it, you don't like it, and there's nothing I can say that will change your mind about that. Not every component of MSFS or every new product announcement is going to appeal to everyone. Speaking only for myself, I have absolutely zero interest in flying tubeliners on VATSIM, but obviously many people enjoy that, so I'm happy for them when we release something that isn't for my personal tastes but makes the sim more exciting for somebody else. You don't have to like the Stranger Things DLC, and you don't have to install it. You can simply say, "This isn't my cup of tea," and then go about your day and continue simming just like you always have. I will offer a rebuttal to you describing this content as "seriously a waste of time", though. Hopefully you can look at this from a big picture perspective rather than thinking that anything that doesn't cater only to your individual flight simming interests is unimportant to add to the MSFS ecosystem and therefore a waste of time. If you've been around flight simming for 30+ years, as I have been, then surely you'll realize that this hobby was until recently in a state of serious decline. The genre went from its heyday in the 1990s when there were multiple new civilian and military fight sims releasing every year to it's pre-2020 state where only a small handful of sim titles remained and the overall simmer playerbase was shrinking, not growing. Not enough new people were entering the hobby fast enough to replace those who left. Few new hardware peripherals were being released because there wasn't a sizeable enough market to entice companies to create new products. Software add-ons like third-party aircraft were regularly priced at USD $100 or more because a relatively small simmer market meant that developers couldn't count on high sales volume and therefore needed to maximize their revenue from a small-ish niche user community to stay in business. Then along came MSFS (2020) and everything changed. Practically overnight the home flight sim hobby went from having maybe a few hundred thousand users globally to several million. We are currently very fortunate to be in a golden age of flight simming with so many exciting new hardware peripherals and software add-ons being announced every month because MSFS (2020) re-vitalized the genre and brought in millions of new players. Back in June of 2022, one of my job duties was to watch the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase and document the live viewer reaction to the Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition Announce Trailer. This showcase was primarily watched by fans of Xbox games, so when the MSFS trailer started airing, most of the viewer comments were things like "Booooring" or "Zzzzzzz" or "Who cares, show a real game." BUT THEN... ...at 1:44 into the trailer, the screen fades to black and the iconic Halo theme music kicks in. The Pelican appears flying into the sunrise. Instantly the viewer reaction changed. The chat blew up and went ecstatic. The viewers were so excited to be able to fly the Pelican from the Halo series in MSFS. And if they were already Xbox/PC Game Pass subscribers, they could download it right then and there and start flying immediately without even having to buy the base sim. Meanwhile, I imagine many serious simmers were rolling their eyes and writing angry messages on AVSIM. "Why are they adding this science fiction nonsense to a flight simulator? What a waste of time!" Except it wasn't a waste of time. The Pelican instantly became one of the most-downloaded items from the Marketplace. Many, many people who otherwise had zero interest in flight sims were now suddenly trying MSFS for the first time. "So what," you're probably saying, "they're all console kiddie gamers with low attention spans. They'll get bored of MSFS within a day or two and then go back to playing Call of Duty or Fortnite." And yeah, for a lot of them that was certainly the case. But not for all of them. Some of those Halo fans who never had any interest in MSFS but downloaded it because they wanted to fly the Pelican then said to themselves, "Hey, since I've got this sim installed anyway, let's see what it's all about." And so they completed the in-sim flying lessons and tried some Free Flight sessions. Then they wanted to learn more so they started watching YouTube tutorial videos. Then they discovered the joy of simulated flight and the sense of accomplishment that comes when you learn something new and achieve mastery of a new aircraft or flying technique. And the next thing you know they're browsing Amazon to buy a Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo and supporting some of your favorite developers by purchasing add-on products from PMDG, Fenix, A2A, FlightFX, FSReborn, JustFlight, and more. Now -- thanks solely to this fake science fiction dropship -- we've converted non-simmers into simmers, and the number of people participating in the hobby we're all passionate about has grown larger. And so it will be with Stranger Things. In this very thread you can read comments from multiple different AVSIM posters who have said some variation of, "I have no interest in Stranger Things myself, but my wife/son/daughter/etc. is a big fan of the series and this caught their attention." At a minimum, some of the simmers here are going to have a cool bonding moment with a member of their family who never showed any interest in flight sims before but now wants to see what this Stranger Things x MSFS crossover is all about. I'll even go a step further than that, though. I'll bet that somewhere in the world right now there's a teenager who has a future career as an airline captain or another job as as professional pilot ahead of them and doesn't even know it yet. They love Stranger Things, and trying out this release will spark an interest in flight simming and aviation that they didn't even know they had. If the upcoming Stranger Things add-on doesn't interest you, don't download it. That's totally fine! But it's not a waste of time. Kind regards, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hi @YukonPete, The current beta build (1.6.31.0) is in almost all respects identical to the final SU4 release build (1.6.32.0). The only difference in the upcoming release build is that regular Career Mode progression will be restored (instead of all certifications being automatically unlocked in the beta for testing purposes) and there will no longer be a separate Challenge League leaderboard for those in the beta. https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/upcoming-end-of-the-su4-beta-test/749371 Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

If you're not interested in Stranger Things, it's not even necessary to disable it; you can simply choose not to claim it from the Marketplace at all, just like every other add-on product from the MP that isn't to your personal tastes. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

My main flight controls are a Thrustmaster Warthog stick/throttle and TPR rudder pedals, but I use an Xbox controller for the drone camera. If you spend any time at all using the drone cam, I 100% endorse @Sky_Pilot071's recommendation to pick up an Xbox controller specifically for this.

Get to the choppa!

Hello @STK, You can scroll through the MSFSOfficial Instagram page right now and find numerous posts promoting the products of several different third-party vendors including Turtle Beach, Orbx, FlightFX, NextLevelRacing, Tobii, Yawman, and more. There are also promotional videos for third-party products on the Official MSFS YouTube channel including Elgato, PMDG, and Honeycomb Aeronautical. On the flightsimulator.com website, you can find numerous articles promoting third-party products from vendors including Thrustmaster, Tobii, NextLevelRacing, and Pimax. None of the products featured in any of these promotional materials hosted on official MSFS platforms were developed by Microsoft or Asobo. Just because we use our platforms to help boost the signal of some products that we think are of interest to MSFS users doesn't mean we were also responsible for creating those products ourselves. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Hello @STK, Nowhere on the page you linked does it state that the Jurassic World add-on was developed in whole or in part by Microsoft or Asobo. In fact, in the very topic of the post it clearly states that this add-on is an Orbx production. The title of the YouTube trailer is "Jurassic World: Archipeligo by Orbx" (emphasis added), and all the promotional screenshots are watermarked with Orbx's logo. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager

Yes, that is 100% the case. The Jurassic World add-on is a third-party mod developed entirely by Orbx on their own initiative. Microsoft did not commission it, nor were we responsible for any development or testing work, nor did any Asobo devs work on it. Microsoft's only responsibility was ingesting it into the Marketplace (a few weeks after it first went on sale from Orbx's own store). It's no different than, say, the PMGD 737 or A2A Comanche in that respect. Thanks, SeedyL, MSFS Community Manager