Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator programs. It is one of the longest-running, best-known, and most comprehensive home flight simulator programs on the market. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from Microsoft's other software. At 37 years old, it is the longest-running software product line for Microsoft, predating Windows by three years. Microsoft Flight Simulator may be the longest-running PC game series of all time.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is discussed as one of the best-looking video games to ever be released, and it contains a photo mode, which in Microsoft Flight Simulator is referred to as a Drone Camera.

MSFS: In this shot the light is created by the AI

Slew Mode

Slew is simply a useful shortcut way of quickly re-positioning your plane if you don't want to fly the normal way.

You can start the plane by enabling all the AI- Modes. If you have reached a stable flight position you can hit pause. Use key 'Y' to enter and exit Slew mode. Then you can move the plane in Slew to where you want it.

F1 to F4 are the slew altitude keys. If you want to Slew for many miles for whatever reason, push your joystick in the direction you want to go, and if it's not fast enough for you, hold down a keyboard arrow key at the same time to go to warp speed.

Drone Camera

• Entered into the Active Pause state (Pause)
• Press the Insert key on your keyboard
• This is how you toggle the Drone Camera on and off.
• You can also activate the Drone Camera by moving your mouse to the top of your screen and activating the top menu, then choosing Camera.

Drone Control	Keyboard	Controller
Toggle Drone Depth of Field	F1	B + Y
Toggle Foreground	F5	B + left on d-pad
Drone Top Down View	Ctrl + Space	X + Y
Attach Drone to Next Target	Ctrl + Page Up	None
Attach Drone to Previous Target	Ctrl + Page Down	None
Toggle Drone Auto Exposure	Ctrl + F4	Y + LS
Toggle Drone Auto Focus	F4	B + LS
Decrease Drone Rotation Speed	F3	X + RB
Decrease Drone Translation Speed	F1	X + RT
Decrease Drone Depth of Field	F2	B + LT
Increase Drone Depth of Field	F3	B + RT
Decrease Drone Exposure	Ctrl + F2	Y + LB
Increase Drone Exposure	Ctrl + F3	Y + RB
Increase Drone Rotation Speed	F4	X + LB
Increase Drone Translation Speed	F2	X + LT
Lock Drone to Next Target	t	None
Lock Drone to Previous Target	Shift + t	None
Translate Drone Backward	s	Left Stick Down
Reset Drone Roll	Space	RB + LB
Translate Drone Up	r	RT
Translate Drone Right	d	Left Stick Right
Translate Drone Left	a	Left Stick Left
Translate Drone Forward	w	Left Stick Up
Translate Drone Down	f	LT
Reset Drone Target Offset	Num 5	X + A
Pitch Drone Down	Num 2	Right Stick Down
Roll Drone Right	Num 9	RB
Pitch Drone Up	Num 8	Right Stick Up
Yaw Drone Left	Num 4	Right Stick Left
Yaw Drone Right	Num 6	Right Stick Right
Roll Drone Left	Num7	LB
Toggle Drone Follow Mode	Tab	Right Stick
Toggle Drone Lock Mode	Ctrl + Tab	Left Stick
Increase Drone Zoom	Num +	Y + RT
Decrease Drone Zoom	Num –	Y + LT
Toggle Plane Controls	c	None

Free Camera Mode

You need to enable the Developer mode from the general settings. Start your normal flight, once you are loaded, in the top down menu, there is a Camera menu, press that and then choose Developer Camera. You can control the camera either from your keyboard or from your mouse by holding Alt + (left, middle or right) mouse button to control the camera. The mouse controls can be summarised like this:

• Alt + Left mouse button controls the orbit's camera.
• Alt + Center mouse button controls the pan camera.
• Alt + Right mouse button controls the camera zoom, height.

Weblinks

Eric Adams is a professional photographer and writer. He is impressed by the possibilities of the flight simulator: "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." [1]