Insiders will get to test the much-wanted VR support for Microsoft Flight Simulator starting in late October or early November, but the requirements are strict.
Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann took to Twitch for their ‘Monthly Developer Live Q&A’ and confirmed when we can first expect to get our hands on the VR closed beta of the smash success game.
The VR support has apparently been in development for over a year now after fan feedback in 2019 and is ready for feedback.
“We are planning to do a closed beta for Microsoft Flight Sim VR starting in late October, early November, somewhere around that time,” he said.
You can sign up now, but doing so has a few rather specific requirements to satisfy:
- You must own the sim. (No Microsoft Game Pass love here I suspect, although this hasn’t been confirmed.)
- You must own a Windows Mixed Reality VR headset. (Other headsets will see support later down the road in phase two.)
- You need to join the Microsoft Flight Simulator insider programme.
- You need to submit for them your DirectX Diagnostic Tool results.
- Agree to the NDA. (Reasonable enough.)
- You must meet the reasonably hefty minimum specifications. (Including 16 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 1080, or equivalent card with at least 8 GB of VRAM. )
Did you survive all of the requirements? Likely not. Don’t fret, though. You won’t be alone. The base game is already one of the most demanding PC games you can run today, so don’t expect VR support to go easy on your PC. It might save you money on your heating bills.
Expect other additions to come soon. Features like shared cockpits – so you can have a true simulator experience – will be added to the insider programme. The U.S. will also see the free update treatment that Japan received on September 29th. It included the addition of high-resolution 3D photogrammetry for six cities and hand-crafted landmarks.
My Vive headset is currently held together with sellotape, prayers, and frequent expletives, so I’ve personally yet to decide whether I’ll don them for all my flight sim, finding-my-own-house purposes.
