Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Patch 1.9.3.0 Page
Patch 1.9.3.0 was a solid maintenance update that delivered meaningful stability and quality-of-life fixes. It didn’t introduce major new features but significantly reduced frustration for daily simmers. For anyone experiencing crashes or performance drops in the base 1.8.3.0 version, this patch was highly recommended.
Recommendation: Install if you’re on version 1.8.x. Hold for future Sim Updates if you’re waiting for ATC or AI overhauls.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 's Patch 1.9.3.0, released in September 2020, was a major update primarily known for introducing the World Update I: Japan and delivering a wide range of technical fixes. Key Content & Features
The highlight of this patch was the Japan World Update, which included:
Detailed Japanese Scenery: High-resolution 3D photogrammetry for six cities, including Tokyo, Yokohama, and Sendai. Hand-crafted Airports: Six new custom airports such as Nagasaki (RJFU) and Hachijojima (RJTH) .
Landmarks: Nearly two dozen new custom landmarks and pagodas added across the country. Technical Improvements & Fixes
Patch 1.9.3.0 aimed to address several community-reported bugs and aerodynamic issues:
Aerodynamics: Tweaked ground braking power for more realistic distances and fixed collision issues at negative altitudes.
Autopilot: Fixed energy formulas that caused inaccurate autopilot behavior and addressed "overshooting" altitude during descent.
UI Enhancements: The sensitivity screen was restored to display correctly, and players gained the ability to deactivate music during initial startup downloads.
World & Rendering: Improved ocean rendering (waves and foam) and updated water elevation for major rivers like the Missouri and areas around Toronto. Community & Critical Reception
The reception was a mix of praise for the visual fidelity and frustration over lingering technical hurdles:
Visual Praise: Reviewers on YouTube and forums praised the stunning detail in Tokyo and the improved lighting in other photogrammetry cities like Las Vegas.
Ongoing Bugs: Some users reported "patch-specific" bugs, such as bizarre skyscraper glitches appearing near runways or performance stutters following the update.
Installation Issues: The update required a multi-step process—first a 661 MB file in the Microsoft Store followed by an ~8.7 GB in-game patch—which some users found cumbersome. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 patch 1.9.3.0
Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Patch 1.9.3.0: Japan Arrives and Critical Fixes Land
The skies are getting a major overhaul with the release of Patch 1.9.3.0 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
. This update isn't just about polishing what’s already there—it introduces the first-ever World Update, focused entirely on the stunning landscapes of Japan, alongside a massive list of community-requested bug fixes.
Here is everything you need to know about the latest update. World Update I: Japan
The star of the show is the Japan World Update, which is available for free in the in-game Marketplace after you've updated the simulator to version 1.9.3.0. Microsoft Flight Simulator Enhanced Scenery
: Experience high-resolution digital elevation models and new photogrammetry for six Japanese cities: Handcrafted Airports : Six new handcrafted airports have been added, including Hachijojima Shimojishima Suwanosejima Landmarks and POIs
: Explore nearly two dozen custom landmarks and points of interest, from the towering skyscrapers of to ancient sacred shrines New Challenges
: Test your skills with a trio of exciting new landing challenges set across Japanese airports. Microsoft Flight Simulator Critical Aircraft & Systems Fixes
Beyond the new scenery, Patch 1.9.3.0 addresses several high-priority issues that have been affecting flight operations. Airbus A320neo
: A major fuel flow bug that was shutting down the left engine when using the APU has been resolved. Max thrust display and MCDU runway filtering have also been improved. Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner
: Wing flex visuals have been improved, and a bug that allowed altitude targets to be set to negative values has been squashed. Autopilot Tweaks
: Inaccurate autopilot behavior caused by incorrect energy formulas has been corrected, specifically fixing altitude overshooting during descents. Aerodynamics
: Braking power on the ground has been tweaked for more realistic stopping distances, and collision issues at negative altitudes (often found in areas like the Dead Sea) are now fixed. User Interface and Quality of Life Sensitivity Settings
: One of the most requested fixes is finally here—the sensitivity screen now displays correctly, allowing pilots to fine-tune their controls properly. Mute on Startup Patch 1
: You can now deactivate the music during the initial download on startup, a welcome change for those with slower connections facing large updates. TrackIR Support
: TrackIR users can now easily enable or disable the feature directly from the in-game camera menu. World Improvements
: Ocean rendering has been enhanced with better wave scales and reflections, and water elevation has been updated for numerous rivers and lakes globally. Known Issues to Watch
While this patch fixes a lot, Asobo has noted a few lingering issues:
The game may crash if the VFR Map is not opened immediately after starting a flight.
The Cessna Citation Longitude still faces some autopilot climb and level-off regressions. Update Size & Installation
: The update requires a small initial download via the Microsoft Store or Steam (~660 MB), followed by a significant in-game download of approximately 8.78 GB to 9 GB. for the new Japan photogrammetry?
Microsoft Flight Simulator Updated to Version 1.9.3.0 - FSElite 29-Sept-2020 —
The release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 patch 1.9.3.0 wasn’t just a list of bug fixes and performance tweaks. For the sim’s most dedicated virtual aviators, it became legend—not because of what the patch notes said, but because of what they didn’t.
Patch 1.9.3.0 – The Day the Skies Remembered
Elena Vasquez, a first officer for a major European carrier grounded by a real-world strike, had spent the past six months flying cargo runs in the sim. She knew every glitch, every shimmering texture pop-in, every wonky ATC call. But patch 1.9.3.0 downloaded at 2:13 AM on a Tuesday, and when she fired up a night flight from Juneau to Sitka in a Cessna 208 Caravan, something was different.
The aurora borealis didn’t just appear. It moved—curtains of green and violet breathing like living silk over the Alaskan panhandle. Patch notes had mentioned "improved atmospheric rendering." They hadn’t mentioned that the northern lights would now respond to solar wind data pulled from a NOAA satellite feed. Unbeknownst to Elena, Asobo’s silent hotfix had quietly tied real-time geomagnetic activity to the aurora shader.
She sat, coffee halfway to her lips, watching the lights pulse in rhythm with her engine’s drone.
Meanwhile, in a basement flat in Melbourne, retired air traffic controller Graham Whitlam noticed something else. Patch 1.9.3.0 had fixed a long-standing issue where AI traffic would vanish on short final. Now, as he watched from a virtual tower at YSSY, a Qantas 787 and a FedEx 777 executed a perfectly spaced parallel landing—something he’d never seen the sim do without stuttering or ghosting. He recorded it. Posted it. Within hours, the clip went viral under the hashtag #FinalFix. Recommendation: Install if you’re on version 1
But the strangest story came from a teenage flight simmer in rural Nebraska named Leo Chen. Leo was born without a left hand, and he’d spent two years adapting his controls—rudder pedals mapped to a mouse wheel, throttle on a button cluster. Patch 1.9.3.0 included a stealth update to the accessibility API: unbeknownst to him, the sim now allowed analog axis blending across multiple input types.
He discovered it by accident. On a crosswind landing into Denver, his usual compensatory cross-control felt suddenly, impossibly smooth. The aircraft didn’t fight him. It listened. For the first time, Leo greased a landing without a single overcorrection. He didn’t know it was the patch. He thought he’d just gotten better.
That night, three different flight sim forums exploded with threads: “Aurora is alive,” “ATC actually works,” “Did they fix the feel of the air?” Asobo stayed silent. No patch notes update. No tweet.
But across thousands of virtual cockpits, pilots began to notice the same thing. The world of Flight Simulator 2020, version 1.9.3.0, wasn’t just more stable. It was more present. The haze over Los Angeles smelled of ozone. The thermals over the Alps rolled your wings just right. The radio crackle at the edge of service range felt like longing.
Some said it was a coincidence. Others, a miracle of optimization. Elena Vasquez, sipping cold coffee as her Caravan broke through the clouds over the Inside Passage, looked at the aurora one last time before shutdown and whispered to the empty room:
“You’re not a sim anymore. You’re a place.”
Patch 1.9.3.0 never got another update. But for those who flew it, it became the benchmark—the version where the digital sky learned to breathe.
The 747 was notorious for autopilot oscillations. In 1.9.3.0:
While technically a separate download, Patch 1.9.3.0 was released in tandem with World Update VII: Australia. This update showcased the capabilities of the new patch.
This update proved that the engine could handle massive streaming data more efficiently than before, thanks to the optimizations in the patch itself.
For the majority of MSFS pilots, the default Airbus A320neo is the workhorse aircraft. However, at launch, it was widely criticized for poor flight dynamics and an "on-rails" feeling.
Patch 1.9.3.0 introduced the FlyByWire Simulations A320neo. This was a watershed moment in flight sim history. Microsoft and Asobo didn't just tweak the default plane; they replaced the core flight model with data provided by the open-source FlyByWire team. This resulted in:
This move signaled a new era of collaboration between the developers and the third-party modding community.
The UI in the base game was beautiful but slow. Patch 1.9.3.0 injected performance steroids into the menus.
The live weather system was already superb, but this patch squashed two major bugs:
Asobo faced criticism from real-world pilots that ground handling was "too floaty." While 1.9.3.0 did not overhaul the core CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), it did adjust: