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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024enters the series with a bang, encapsulating some of the most advanced visuals and mechanics you’ll ever see. As a title geared toward enthusiasts, however, it’s geared towards an audience with sophisticated taste and expertise, preferably with a dedicated HOTAS (Hands On Throttle and Stick) controller and a high-end PC.
Fortunately, the game doesn’t lack technical customization, letting you personalize every detail for a seamless flight. You can go into any category you want — visuals, controls, audio, and more — only to find a boatload of settings you can toggle. Still, it may seem daunting at first, but a quick navigation through them can definitely help you craft a fine-tuned experience.
This guide does not include settings for Controls and Accessibility as these highly depend on your environment, hardware, and personal preferences.
Best General Settings To Make A Smooth Flight
Most of your experience rests in the General Settings, including aspects like visuals, interface, camera, and so on. Although some of these aspects, like camera movement and audio, solely rely on preference, there areseveral settings you can toggle for a net positive, regardless of your specifications or personal needs.
On (If available)
Enable for enhanced brightness and contrast.
Variable (Depends on PC)
Anti-Aliasing
AMD FSR 2 (Quality)
Smooth out jagged edges on objects to improve visual quality. Pick NVIDIA DLSS for RTX GPUs.
100
100%
160
80
8x
4x4
1536
128
Medium
Low
you may only adjust these settings in the Graphics tab if you have Global Rendering Settings set to ‘Custom’.
Controls overall flight dynamics sensitivity (like inertia and drag).
65
Gyro
Sets the gyro effect for tilting the aircraft according to the controller’s positioning.
Adjusts engine torque and propeller effects to simulate real-world behavior.
Shows airflow visualization to understand lift and drag forces.
Enable or disable a cursor when freelooking.
Instrument Name Tooltips
Delayed
Adjusts how a cockpit instrument’s name appears when hovering over it.
Instrument Instruction Tooltips
Adjusts how a cockpit instrument’s description appears when hovering over it.
Shows complete HUD while in External HUD mode.
Best Assistance Settings For Balance
The Assistance settings determinehow much of the experience you want to handle compared to the game itself. Generally, these depend on your familiarity with the mechanics — the more you know, the less assistance you need.
Nonetheless, finding a solid middle ground, beginner or not, ensures you’reneither reducing the experience too much nor overwhelming yourself by it.
Auto-Rudder
On
Assists in leveling flights while in the air and steering while on the ground.
Assisted Yoke
Off
Assists in maintaining flight levels when you leave the controller for too long.
Gliders: Tow plane take-off assistance
Assists in yoke controls (like pitch and roll) for glider planes.
Helicopters: Assisted Cyclic
Assists in cyclic controls (like altitude, airspeed, and direction) for rotorcraft.
Hot air balloon: Accelerated Envelope Inflation
Adjust whether you want the envelope of hot air balloons to be inflated.
Display Active Waypoint Marker
Shows the location of the waypoint in your active Flight Plan.
Piloting and Controls Notifications
Disable Aircraft Stress Damage
Nullifies any damage taken to the aircraft via a high G-Force.
Disable Engine Stress Damage
Nullifies any damage taken to the engine via a high G-Force.
Icing Effect
Visuals Only
Implements the physical and/or visual effects of icing in colder regions.
G-Suit
Simulates the effect of a G-Suit when flying at an extreme G-Force.
ATC Enforce Flight Plan
Let Air Traffic Control judge whether to consider weather conditions during departures, arrivals, and so on.
