Just a game or the new reality for professional training?

During the COVID-19 pandemic the gaming industry was one of the industries that benefitted greatly!

A look at the pre and post COVID-19 developments in Flight Simulator technology in the gaming/entertainment industry and how they benefit professional training scenarios.

Most of Generation Z and Millennials were at a loose end and turned to gaming for social interaction and stimulation with a nearly 40% increase in video games usage. The industry is continuing with its rapid growth and is expected to see a global worth of $361 Billion by 2026. With the increase in demand came an in increase in expectations from the community. The want for detailed realism and high fidelity graphics is reaching unprecedented levels.

The flight simulation community has always been longing for these levels of detail with some models now being granted certification level status and used by multiple flight training schools, military forces and research departments.

iniBuilds Ltd. started developing profiles and liveries for X-Plane 11 back in 2019. It quickly established itself in the community and in late 2020 released a complete high fidelity model with the On The Line series starting with the Airbus A300-600R. Further models were created with the BelugaST and A310-300 including the MRTT variant.

With the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 by Asobo Studios a new era of realism was promised to the community. A combination of live streamed satellite imagery with Artificial Intelligence (Blackshark.ai) populated 3D models overlaid, real world weather injection from meteoblue and software architecture using the latest modelling and texture technology means the views on the screen are breath-taking. Coupled with real world aeronautical data by NavBlue and a high-fidelity model the overall experience is as real as it gets.