The long-awaited Airbus A380X add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator from the FlyByWire team is just around the corner. After months of drip-feeding details, the team has formally decided to release the aircraft in an alpha state with the promise of continuous updates that should gradually bring it up to par.
Bringing out the big bird
The Airbus A380 is the world’s largest commercial airliner. It first flew in 2005 and was formally launched in 2007. Meant to compete with the illustrious Boeing 747, the A380 was designed to be the prime option for a future of the airline industry that never truly panned out.
It had a manufacturing run of just 18 years, with the program being decommissioned back in 2021. Less than 300 units were produced, but many remain in active service.
In the world of Microsoft Flight Simulator, no big add-on maker has stepped forward to tackle the project. Thus, the door was left wide open for the team at FlyByWire which has made a name for itself over the years, thanks to its sterling work with its A32NX project.
FBW has been tinkering away with its rendition of the Super Jumbo for quite some time now, and fans have been waiting with bated breath to try it out. Now, on October 31, it’ll be rolled out of the hangar as an alpha release.
Testbed
Such a release format has become increasingly more common. Nevertheless, considering this is an incredibly ambitious freeware project, any issues that arise from having to deal with an alpha release are arguably more acceptable, since players won’t have to front any money to gain access.
In its announcement of the A380X release, the FBW team emphasises that this is considered to be a “developer preview…in open alpha stage.” The aircraft will be able to perform A to B operations, but certain features of its avionics and other systems will be inoperable at launch. As time goes on, more will be added and refined.
Another interesting detail is that the team describes the A380X as “pushing the limitations of the MSFS 2020 engine in both graphical fidelity and system depth.” As a result, players should expect to have a harder time running this compared to most other add-ons, including that of the A32NX which is relatively well-optimised. FBW cites that system performance of the Super Jumbo is about 25% below that of the A32NX.
To run a session with the A380X at Ultra settings and 1440p/4K, FBW recommends a CPU equivalent of the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, GPU equivalent to an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super 16GB or Radeon 7900 XTX 24GB with 32GB of RAM and 20GB of free space on an SSD. Indeed, these are some exceptionally high requirements. But, again, this aircraft is extremely complex, and with this being an alpha release, performance gains will come over time.
A look ahead
Of course, the imminent release of this add-on puts it right at the doorstep of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The team has made sure to address this matter.
In short, the A380X is expected to be fully compatible due to the new sim’s native backward-compatibility functionality, but native new features will not be available at launch. FBW expects it to take a “few weeks or months” to make the required improvements.
If the A320NX project is anything to go by, players should expect to enjoy the A380X. This is a project with over 170 volunteer contributors that’s been a long time coming, and the team has demonstrated its dedication to nailing down details.
For the full rundown of all one can expect, check out the announcement from FlyByWire.
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