When a helicopter simulator looks good, it increases the chances that the user will have an immersive experience. The more immersive your experience is, the more you will get out of your helicopter flight simulation activities.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is in a league of its own when it comes to visual appearance. Even commercial flight simulators, some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, do not compare to the immersive visual environment that Microsoft Flight Simulator is capable of providing. Do not think that the attention on visual appearance has come at the expense of other capabilities, it has not. The reason why Microsoft Flight Simulator looks better than most other flight simulators is because Microsoft hired some of the best environmental graphics programmers in the industry. In the entire world, there are only a very limited number of professionals with the skill and talent needed to create these types of expansive environmental visuals. Other simulation providers do not have these types of visuals, because simply put, they lack the capability to create them. They might disagree, but if they can create this quality of visual environment, than why wouldn't they? Every one of their customers wants it, so if they can create it, there is no excuse not to have it. They would have to lure talent from the gaming industry, and most notably Microsoft, in order to catch up in this area of flight simulation. This is not something that will happen quickly, even if they start the process today.

The visual platform in Microsoft Flight Simulator is extremely flexible. It will be impossible for you to judge the full capabilities of this area of the simulation software until you have gained some experience in configuring your software and learning what additional software exists to expand this area of the simulator.

While the basic installation provides an entire world of generally high-quality terrain mesh, airports, and environmental visuals, additional software can be purchased for nearly every aspect of the flight simulation visual experience. There exists software to add high-detail terrain mesh for most populated portions of the globe, replacement graphics for the ground and sky appearance, and data packages that can add extremely accurate roads, rail, and water placement to your flight simulator. All of these packages will be important to you should you wish to maximize your home helicopter flight simulation experience.