Automatic Server Management Based on Aircraft Location

Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Wishlist
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I would like to propose a feature to enhance the flight simulation experience by creating a seamless global world where players automatically connect to the most appropriate server based on their aircraft’s location, without the need to manually select servers. This will provide a more immersive and cohesive experience.

What: The goal is to implement a system where the game creates the impression of a single, unified global world. Players will automatically connect to servers based on their aircraft’s location, seamlessly switching servers as they travel across different regions, while still feeling like they are in one continuous environment.

Why:

· Enhanced Immersion: Players will experience a unified world without visible transitions between servers, increasing the realism and continuity of the simulation.

· Improved Interaction: Ensuring that players in different regions can see and interact with each other without having to manually switch servers will improve the overall experience.

· Simplified Experience: Removing the need for manual server selection simplifies the gameplay for most players, allowing them to focus on flying rather than managing server connections.

How:

· Automatic Server Switching: Develop a system that dynamically selects and switches servers based on the player’s aircraft location. As players move across regions, the game will automatically connect them to the server best suited for their current location.

· Background Management: Use a background mechanism to handle the server transitions and data synchronization, ensuring that all players’ aircraft locations and flight data are consistent and accurately displayed.

· Advanced Options: For advanced users, provide an option in the game settings to manually select or switch servers if needed, offering flexibility while maintaining a seamless default experience for most players.

Benefits:

· Unified World Experience: Players will perceive a continuous, global environment, enhancing their immersion in the flight simulation.

· Reduced Disruptions: Automatic server management will minimize interruptions and improve the flow of gameplay.

· User Flexibility: Advanced settings allow players to customize their experience as needed, while the default system ensures ease of use.

Do you think implementing this feature would improve the flight simulation experience?

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Servers are selected based on the player’s location to minimize round-trip latency. The only reason to switch servers is to be on the same server as your group, which is already done automatically.

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I don’t get any of it :person_shrugging: :question:

How?

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Hi Vibstronium,

Thanks for your reply. The reason for not selecting servers based on players’ locations is that in MSFS, we can only see other players’ aircraft. This means that latency or ping is not crucial, as it does not affect the experience. The main goal is to have a single server representing the world, but it actually uses several different regional servers. For instance, if you depart from KJFK, the server is set to East USA automatically. As you fly towards KSEA, the server will switch to West USA once you enter a certain region, such as when you are over the central part of the country, like Iowa or Minnesota. This seamless transition ensures that players are unaware of the regional changes and can still see each other, creating the experience of being in one continuous world.

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Hi Baracus250,

What I meant is that players can see each other as if they are all in one world, but this doesn’t mean we have the same ATC services. Player visibility is maintained seamlessly, but ATC services remain separate, so the interaction isn’t unified in that way.

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Let’s say my computer is physically in Miami and the US server I’m on has really good ping time. I fly over Greenland and it switches me to a server near that location with bad pings. Doesn’t seem ideal.

Seems to me that server selection should be based solely on the physical hops between it and my computer.

It would be nice if the server selection could be dynamic, based on load and ping time.

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Hi BegottenPoet228,

Let’s say you start your flight at Miami (KMIA) and are connected to the EAST USA server. As you head towards Greenland, you would still be able to see other players’ aircraft around the East USA region. However, you might not see aircraft around Greenland because your server selection remains EAST USA, while many players might be connected to the WEST EUROPE server.

The core idea of this proposal is to ensure that every player can see each other’s aircraft in the sky or on the ground based on their aircraft location, regardless of the server they are connected to. Bad ping times or latency are less of a concern here because the primary function of the server in this context is to display the locations of other players’ aircraft, not to manage real-time interactions like Live weather.

Live weather would continue to be managed through dedicated weather servers, so it wouldn’t be affected. The main consideration is to ensure that MSFS does not disconnect or penalize players due to high ping times, as the goal is simply to display the locations of other players’ aircraft rather than handling high-bandwidth interactions.

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As I understand it, the location of the Multiplayer server today is not tied to the location of the user’s aircraft. So while switching from East USA server to West Europe server while flying towards Greenland may add some aircraft on the West Europe server that are flying around Greenland, you would loose any users on the East USA server that are flying around Greenland. So, today there is no benefit to changing servers in this scenario.

If in future, if the location of the Multiplayer server is tied to the location of the user’s aircraft, then all users around Greenland will be on whatever server that is, but then, as mentioned, users physically located far from that server will be impacted by greater latencies.

As an alternative, rather than the player automatically connecting to the most appropriate server based on their aircraft’s location, the MS multiplayer servers could simply replicate all flights between themselves. The bandwidth between MS data centers is far higher, and latencies far lower than between users & MS servers.

Of course, the downside of this would be that users would see all players in their flying area. With 15 million users, there would be times (e.g. immediately after WUs & CUs) that certain regions & airports would be swamped by aircraft. Can Munich (EDDM) - not to mention your PC / XBox - handle 50,000 airliners landing, taxiing & taking off simultaneously? :airplane: :airplane: :airplane: :airplane: :airplane: :rofl:

Be careful of what you wish for!! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi SmotheryVase665 :smiley:

Congratulations on the popularity of MSFS!

It’s amazing to see so many pilots in the sky. My idea is inspired by the FlyByWire live map, which is a beautiful display of all the aircraft and players—truly a sight to behold, especially during rush hours!

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Ahhh, that makes sense.

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I just thought of this and I’m glad you said it a lot better than I could have. I think this would be great and really increase the community aspect of the game.

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I think this would be a good idea. I think you might have mentioned it. Microsoft should just have one large server, but it would be spread out across different locations to improve latency.

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