Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 enters 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 are several settings you can toggle for a net positive, regardless of your specifications or personal needs.
Graphics
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Display Mode |
Full Screen |
Determines how the game is displayed on your monitor. |
|
HDR10 |
On (If available) |
Enable for enhanced brightness and contrast. |
|
Full Screen Resolution |
Variable (Depends on PC) |
Adjust sharpness according to your monitor. Pick the highest option. |
|
Anti-Aliasing |
AMD FSR 2 (Quality) |
Smooth out jagged edges on objects to improve visual quality. Pick NVIDIA DLSS for RTX GPUs. |
|
Render Scaling |
100 |
Adjusts the internal rendering resolution of the game. |
|
AMD FidelityFX Sharpening |
100 |
Adjusts image sharpness without significantly impacting performance. |
|
V-Sync |
On |
Synchronizes the game’s frame rate with the monitor’s refresh rate. |
|
NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency |
On+Boost |
Reduces system latency to provide a more responsive experience. |
|
Frame Rate Limit |
100% |
Caps the game’s frame rate to a specified value. |
|
Dynamic Settings |
Off |
Manually adjusts frame limit cap. |
|
Global Rendering Quality |
Custom |
Allows toggling visual quality of finer in-game elements (see below). |
Global Rendering Quality Settings
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Impact On FPS |
|---|---|---|
|
Terrain Level Of Detail |
160 |
High |
|
Off-Screen Terrain Pre-Caching |
Medium |
Low |
|
Displacement Mapping |
On |
Low |
|
Buildings |
High |
Medium |
|
Trees |
Medium |
High |
|
Plants |
Low |
Medium |
|
Rocks |
Low |
Medium |
|
Grass |
High |
Medium |
|
Objects Level Of Detail |
80 |
Medium |
|
Volumetric Clouds |
Ultra |
High |
|
Texture Resolution |
High |
High |
|
Anisotropic Filtering |
8x |
High |
|
Texture Supersampling |
4×4 |
Medium |
|
Water Waves |
High |
Medium |
|
Raytraced Shadows |
Off |
High |
|
Shadow Maps |
1536 |
Medium |
|
Terrain Shadows |
128 |
Medium |
|
Contact Shadows |
Medium |
Medium |
|
Windshield Effects |
Medium |
Low |
|
Ambient Occlusion |
High |
Low |
|
Cubemap Reflections |
Medium |
Medium–High |
|
Raymarched Reflections |
Low |
High |
|
Light Shafts |
Low |
Medium |
|
Depth Of Field |
High |
Medium |
|
Motion Blur |
Off |
Low |
|
Glass Cockpit Refresh Rate |
Medium |
Medium |
|
Characters Quality |
Low |
Low |
|
Traffic Airport Quality |
Off |
Medium |
|
Air Traffic |
High |
High |
|
Road Traffic |
Off |
Low |
|
Sea Traffic |
Low |
Low |
|
Fauna |
Medium |
Low |
You can only adjust these settings in the Graphics tab if you have Global Rendering Settings set to ‘Custom’.
Flight Model
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Flight Model |
Modern |
Adjusts flight model options (Modern = allows third-party add-ons). |
|
Global Preset |
Realistic |
Sets overall flight realism. |
|
Generals |
80 |
Controls overall flight dynamics sensitivity (like inertia and drag). |
|
Crash Realism |
65 |
Determines how realistic crash impacts are simulated. |
|
Gyro |
100 |
Sets the gyro effect for tilting the aircraft according to the controller’s positioning. |
|
P-Factor |
100 |
Adjusts engine torque and propeller effects to simulate real-world behavior. |
|
Torque |
100 |
Controls torque-based flight handling. |
Flight Interface
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Aerodynamic Visualization |
Off |
Shows airflow visualization to understand lift and drag forces. |
|
Show The White Dot Cursor In Freelook |
Off |
Enable or disable a cursor when freelooking. |
|
Landmark Markers |
On |
Displays markers for key landmarks. |
|
City Markers |
On |
Displays markers for nearby cities. |
|
Airport Markers |
On |
Displays markers for nearby airports. |
|
Show Preflight Pins |
On |
Shows pre-flight configuration markers, highlighting critical parts for inspection. |
|
Display Labels For All On-Screen POIs |
Off |
Shows on-screen labels for all nearby Points of Interest. |
|
Show Traffic Nameplates |
Off |
Shows nameplates for other nearby aircraft. |
|
HUD In Cockpit View |
Yes |
Shows information regarding critical instruments while in Cockpit Camera mode. |
|
Cockpit Interaction System |
Lock |
Adjusts how you interact with cockpit instruments. |
|
Instrument Name Tooltips |
Delayed |
Adjusts how a cockpit instrument’s name appears when hovering over it. |
|
Instrument Instruction Tooltips |
Delayed |
Adjusts how a cockpit instrument’s description appears when hovering over it. |
|
HUD In External View |
Off |
Shows complete HUD while in External HUD mode. |
Best Assistance Settings For Balance
The Assistance settings determine how 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’re neither reducing the experience too much nor overwhelming yourself by it.
Piloting Assistance
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
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. |
|
AI Auto-Trim |
Off |
Assists in maintaining flight levels all the time. |
|
Gliders: Tow plane take-off assistance |
On |
Assists in yoke controls (like pitch and roll) for glider planes. |
|
Helicopters: Assisted Cyclic |
Off |
Assists in cyclic controls (like altitude, airspeed, and direction) for rotorcraft. |
|
Helicopters: Assisted Tail Rotor |
Off |
Assists in tail rotor controls (like heading) for rotorcraft. |
|
Helicopters: Assisted Collective |
On |
Assists in collective controls (like pitch control) for rotorcraft. |
|
Assisted Controller Sensitivity |
On |
For Xbox Controller: Allows better control over yoke commands. |
|
Hot air balloon: Accelerated Envelope Inflation |
Off |
Adjust whether you want the envelope of hot air balloons to be inflated. |
|
Hot air balloon: Moored Basket |
Off |
Moores the basket of hot air balloons. |
|
Automixture |
On |
Engine fuel mixture is automatically adjusted in the appropriate aircraft. |
|
Gyro Drift |
On |
Gyro drift occurs during a flight. |
Visual Assistance
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Display Active Waypoint Marker |
On |
Shows the location of the waypoint in your active Flight Plan. |
|
Flight Path |
Off |
Shows on-screen gates that lead you to your destination. |
|
Taxi Ribbon |
Off |
Shows an on-screen ribbon for the optimum taxi route. |
|
Piloting and Controls Notifications |
Off |
Displays an always-on notification for flight controls. |
Realism
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Disable Crash Damage |
Off |
Nullifies any damage taken to the aircraft. |
|
Disable Aircraft Stress Damage |
Off |
Nullifies any damage taken to the aircraft via a high G-Force. |
|
Disable Engine Stress Damage |
Off |
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. |
|
Unlimited Fuel |
Off |
Lets you have unlimited fuel for a flight. |
|
Turbulence |
Realistic |
Lets you experience turbulence when flying. |
|
G-Effect |
Off |
Simulates loss of pilot consciousness. |
|
G-Suit |
On |
Simulates the effect of a G-Suit when flying at an extreme G-Force. |
|
AI Radio Communications (ATC) |
On |
Let an AI communicate with the Air Traffic Control. |
|
ATC Enforce Flight Plan |
Off |
Let Air Traffic Control judge whether to consider weather conditions during departures, arrivals, and so on. |
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