Parallel 42 has recently released an update to Flow, their customizable interface for Microsoft Flight Simulator, adding new features requested by the Community, and a fix for an issue brought by the latest MSFS beta update. 

They have listed five key features added with the new update, which are: 

• Center of Attention (all versions): This feature places the Flow wheel at the center of the screen, where they claim our eyes generally gravitate. This feature also works with Otto (Pro only).

• New notepad widget (Pro only): A scratchpad within Otto, useful for online fliers.

• Smart Nameplates (Essentials and Pro): This new feature allows you to customize nameplates in multiplayer mode, with automatic day & night cycle adjustment, display for everyone or just friends, full customization of style, color, size, and the ability to show/hide information such as aircraft type and location.

• Ghost Wheels (Essentials and Pro): Ghost Wheels were implemented so users can run scripts as “background processes” in wheels that are not visible, yet fully accessible and customizable in the editor. 

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• New COMs Widget (Essentials and Pro): The new COMs widget allows easy management of active frequencies, with one-click frequency swapping.

In addition to the updates included in this release, Parallel 42 has also added several APIs for script creators, allowing them to access and customize a range of features in Flow. The complete changelog follows down below:

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NEW

• Smart Nameplates, a customizable nameplate feature (Essentials/Pro)
• Added Ghost Wheels, these only show in the editor view. (Essentials/Pro)
• Added the ability for Flow Wheel & Otto to always span in the center of the screen (Essentials/Pro)
• New COMs widgets (Essentials/Pro)
• Active Pause fix (Essentials/Pro)
• Disables flight controls and eliminates fuel consumption during Active Pause. Can be disabled in the Flow Settings.
• Added a widget to toggle Active Pause (Essentials/Pro)
• Added a widget to toggle 3d thermals. (Essentials/Pro)
• New Notepad widget via Otto (Pro)
• Fix for disappearing icons in the default toolbar (ours and others). (All)
• We’ve shielded properly created icons from being overridden by poor development practices. Panels causing the issue may now show icon artifacts; please contact those respective devs.
• Added a few APIs for script creators (Pro)

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• You can now move the Otto search bar by dragging the Flow logo or title. (Pro)
• Added the ability to always spawn Otto at the center of the sim window (or Flow window in VR). (Pro)
• Added the ability to always spawn the Wheel at the center of the sim window (or Flow window in VR). (All)

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IMPROVED

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• Improved Portal Widget (Essentials/Pro)
• We have improved the experience of teleportation with Portal.
• Enjoy new AI-generated works of art while you wait, and accurately position your aircraft on the ground with our new approach to slewing.
• Improved the weather visualization in the Weather panel. (Pro)
• The Toolbox Manager is now easier to use and understand. (Pro)
• To export scripts, select the ones you want to export from any of your wheels and click the export button.
• Better visual indications when a script doesn’t compile properly. (Pro)
• A script with an error will appear faded in your wheel and won’t prevent subsequent scripts from initializing.

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FIXED

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• Fixed an issue that surfaced with the latest sim update (beta channel)

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Overall, the update to Flow aims at improving the user experience, and the company is confident that the tool will continue to evolve and improve with the input and creations of their community.

Parallel 42’s Flow is available on Orbx Direct, requiring at least 10.26 MB of free disk space to install.

Shout out to DragonRuins for the news scoop! Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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