It’s off to Canada for Microsoft Flight Simulator’s World Update 11

rockpapershotgun.com:

Microsoft Flight Simulator is enhancing its version of the planet’s second largest country for World Update 11. Canada is benefitting from the Flight Sim devs fancy scanning tech for the free update, which is live in game now. Glide over coasts, cities, and mountains while watching the trailer below.

I’ve always wanted to go to Canada, but this World Update looks like it might be the next best thing. Twelve Canadian cities have been zhuzhed up with photogrammetry. They include Halifax, Toronto, Montréal, Calgary, and Vancouver. There’s also 87 more points of interest, ranging from Nova Scotia’s Seal Island Bridge to Quebec’s impressive Chateau Frontenac and Olympic stadium. It’s possible to fly over the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa too, and you can take off and land at five more airports. Yay for digital tourism, I guess?

World Update 11 adds some more missions to accomplish. There’s three bush trips set around Vancouver Island, Newfoundland, and the Canadian Rockies. You can also try your landings in challenges at Castlegar, Barkerville, and Calgary. If you just fancy pootling about in your Cessna then relax and take the new discovery flights above Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto. All the improvements to Flight Sim’s digital Canada have been made using digital elevation models, satellite imagery, and aerial photography. You can read full details of what's in the update here.

Flight Simulator already gave the rest of North America the photogrammetry treatment when it tackled the USA for World Update 10. Hopping over the Atlantic, Italy and Malta received a similar glow up in World Update 9 back in May. If highly accurate renditions of reality viewed from a great height aren’t your bag then check out our guide to