The total solar eclipse that happened in April could only be observed live from a few regions of the globe, but a simulation of this rare astronomical phenomenon recently became available in a new game from Microsoft.
Image source: Steam (ks)
We are talking about the flight simulator Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio. An undocumented feature was discovered by a Reddit forum member under the pseudonym Junior72.
As Junior72 showed, if you set the game to April 8 and the time just before a total solar eclipse, you can watch the simulated Moon pass in front of the simulated Sun.
It is worth noting that similar eclipse simulations could be observed in the 2020 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, but no visual consequences of these phenomena were reflected on the ground, unlike the new game.
Because of this, when viewed from space over the region of North America where the April eclipse could be seen live, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 shows a huge shadow of the Moon (see image below).
Image source: PC Gamer
Users were delighted with such detail in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and noted the superiority of the new game over the old one in this aspect. “This is crazy cool!” — shared by PSPbr user.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was released on November 19 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox Series X and S, and Game Pass. The game’s release was marred by numerous technical problems, but most of them have already been resolved.