What if… NVIDIA and Microsoft are behind Flight Simulator 2020
This story may not be a story at all, but I have to write it. A series of coincidences do suggest that maybe the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 has NVIDIA as co-pilot. All hidden in plain sight at SIGGRAPH 2019.
The announcement by Microsoft, at E3, of its return to flight simulation, was an absolute surprise for everyone, but the move has been in preparation for a long time, maybe long enough to explain why Flight Sim World was so abruptly abandoned. I wrote about this recently, in another article, but now it is time to explore the idea that NVIDIA and Microsoft are working together on Flight Simulator 2020. Maybe, maybe not, but this is what I know.
Covering, for professional reasons, the recent SIGGRAPH 2019, which is the place to go to better understand the future of the graphics industry, one of the NVIDIA conferences attracted my attention. Although it was not related to video, the subject I was after, its title caught my eye: “Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA: Bringing powerful rendering, simulation, and graphics visualization to enterprises”.
The summary text tells us more. It states this: ”Learn about the innovations from Microsoft and NVIDIA that are enabling you to leverage the cloud to run complex workloads, including high performance simulation, rendering and design with instances powered by Quadro Virtual Workstations. And see how we are making GPU accelerated cloud computing more accessible that ever with Windows Virtual Desktops.”
Azure AI, cloud gaming and NVIDIA
The reference to high performance simulation made me want to know more. We know by now that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will use Azure AI, and it has been suggested that it will use the cloud as source for graphics. Now, I also know, because of the things I write about, that NVIDIA is working on two aspects of the same problem: developing a solution for teams to work interactively, Omniverse, and building a solution to distribute games from the cloud, NVIDIA RTX Server.
You’ll find information about both online, but let me share with you some of the key info for both Omniverse and NVIDIA RTX Server.
Omniverse — A new open collaboration platform that streamlines 2D and 3D product pipelines across industries. Omniverse is built around the latest industry standards for design collaboration. With Omniverse, artists can see live updates made by other artists working in different applications. They can also see changes reflected in multiple tools at the same time. As a result, says NVIDIA, artists now have the flexibility to use the best tool for the task at hand. For example an artist using Maya with a portal to Omniverse can collaborate with another artist using UE4 and both will see live updates of each others’ changes in their application.
NVIDIA RTX Server — The next-generation NVIDIA RTX Server delivers a giant leap in cloud gaming performance and user scaling. It packs 40 NVIDIA Turing GPUs into an 8U blade form factor that can render and stream even the most demanding games at GeForce RTX 2080 performance levels. Cloud gaming performance and user scaling that is ideal for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). From AAA games to virtual and augmented reality, the future is here. NVIDIA GRID vGaming enables up to 160 PC games to be run concurrently, with mobile games streamed at even higher concurrency ratios using container technology. The NVIDIA RTX Server can run the most demanding and graphically intense games in the world at high frame rates, which reduces latency.
Maybe it’s a coincidence
The information above does not say much, but when I looked after more information about Omniverse I was surprised to see the illustration on the page and the demonstration video: aircraft! These could be some of the models coming to Flight Simulator 2020. I cannot confirm what the images used on the page and video represent, but it is not everyday you see technologies related to the development of digital media and distribution of content online appearing close to an announcement as big as Microsoft’s. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it all seems to fit the same puzzle.
Omniverse was introduced in March 2019, that’s a couple of months before Microsoft announced its Flight Simulator 2020. Maybe it’s all a coincidence, but then it’s a heck of a coincidence. And now at SIGGRAPH Microsoft and NVIDIA had a joint conference, on July 30, about the use of Azure and NVIDIA technology to power “high performance simulation”, and make “GPU accelerated cloud computing more accessible”. Can these be things we will hear about during the next updates from the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 team?
