After more than a decade away, Microsoft re-enters the world of flight-simulation and aviation with Flight Simulator 2020. Developed with Asobo Studios, the new program is a hugely significant piece of software that allows you to fly the world in a wide variety of airplanes amid truly stunning, hyper-realistic scenery and weather. The program uses data from Microsoft’s Bing mapping technology, incorporating satellite imagery, high-altitude photography, and other scanning data, processed in the cloud via AI, to create a complete, digitally rendered visual representation of the entire world—the REAL world.

That's great for pilots, but I discovered that it will likely also draw a a lot of unintended beneficiaries, as they discover its innovative capabilities. These include travelers, adventurers, designers, artists, creators, event planners, businesses, governments, cultural institutions, and more. But perhaps most, it will be a powerful tool for photographers and filmmakers.

Thanks to its fast "slew mode" and clever drone functionality, it allows users to move through the earth precisely, and to set up scenes with their preferred time, date, and weather conditions, giving photographers the ability to scout locations remotely in ways that Google Earth can’t even touch. You can experiment with lighting and weather to find out when you want to be there, how much time you’ll have to do your shooting before the light disappears, and what your optimal compositions might be as you slew around the environment exploring different angles and elevations and viewpoints. You can move with spooky ease to find your absolute best compositions.

There's a lot more to unpack here, so check out the video and leave your comments and feedback below. Is this something you'd use in photography or filmmaking--or whatever your field might be? What other applications have I missed?

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