Microsoft Flight Simulatoris a beautiful game whether you’re playing it on PC or on Xbox Series X or S. The planes and the surrounding environments are magnificent.
If you’ve taken to the skies and want to snap a few photos of your destinations, then there are a few different ways to do it, though it’s not as simple as you might first think. We’ve got the tips to help you on your way to incredible snaps.
Adjusting the view
As standard, your view of the world is from the cockpit of your plane. Not the best place to take screenshots of your surroundings.
An external view of the craft usually gives you not only a nifty view of your wonderfully rendered aeroplane but also the local views as well.
Hit escape and go to the general options. Under there you’ll see an option for “camera selection”:
Change that by selecting chase camera and you’ll then see behind your aeroplane.
you’re able to also see look left and right from this position as you normally would from the cockpit and that alone can make for nifty views of your plane, especially when banking or turning away or towards something.
The next issue is then the HUD.
How to remove the HUD
With the chase camera turned on, you’ll see outside the aeroplane but a view of your instruments comes with you in the form of the heads up display (HUD).
Great for flying, not so great for taking in the views. Back in the general options, again under the camera settings, there’s an option to turn the “instrument heads-up display” on and off. Set it to off.
The alternative to this is using the showcase camera or drone camera. You can do this by pressing the INS (insert) button on your keyboard. Alternatively, click the little icon at the middle top of the screen to open the shortcut menu, then click on the camera icon.
From within this menu, you have the showcase option and you’re able to change various different options for the drone. This makes for nice screenshots but be warned that it’s also tricky to fly with the camera in this mode unless you engage autopilot.
Remove points of interest
Another issue you might come across is points of interest appearing on your display. These are handy if you’re trying to find local beauty spots to fly by but not so great for your final images.
Luckily you can turn these markers on and off too. Though we’d recommend waiting until you’ve found and are near the location you want to photograph.
In the options menu, click “assistance” under there you’ll find a section called “navigation aids” - turn these off. We find at a minimum turning off POI markers is very useful for getting good screenshots.
How to take screenshots on Xbox Series X and S
If you’re playing on Xbox Series X or S, the process is super easy - there’s a Share button right there on your controller which will take a screenshot after a single press on its default settings.
you’re able to change the resolution of these screenshots in your console’s settings, too
How to take screenshots in Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC
Alas, there is no easy and obvious way to take screenshots in Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC, but there are a number of different ways to do it.
If you’re playing via Steam, for example, you may simply use the screenshot button then when you’ve finished you’ll be prompted to save and upload them.
Otherwise, there are other options.
Screenshot using Nvidia GeForce Experience
If you have an Nvidia graphics card, then the easiest technique for taking screenshots is to use that to activate photo mode. Be sure to install thelatest Nvidia driversbefore you start to ensure that photo mode works when you load the game.
You’ll also needGeforce Experienceinstalled and the in-game overlay turned on. Launch the app and you’ll see an option to do this and you may access it by pressing ALT+Z to activate the overlay.
When you’re in-game, you can then press either ALT+F1 to screenshot or ALT+F2 to activate photo mode. Photo mode is the easier to use of these two and allows you to tweak settings then simply click “snap” to take screenshots. The best part is you can keep that open when you’re flying and just press snap to take more shots without that overlay appearing in the final image.
You will need multiple hands to do it though without crashing so it takes some mastering.
When you’re finished you can press ALT+Z again and you’ll see the gallery icon on the right-hand side. Click that and you can open the folder location of where the screenshots are stored on your PC.
Print screen and other options
There are other options to screenshot in Microsoft Flight Simulator as well. These mostly only capture an image and copy it to clipboard though, so you’ll need to paste it somewhere and save it.
