Following the release of the 5th episode of the feature discovery series last week, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020's development team have unveiled a modest update today, touching on tech alpha applications and a chance to update your system specification (dxdiag) files.

Citing a Reddit user's request, over a period of three days anyone will be allowed to edit their system spec file - dubbed dxdiag - through the "My Profile" section on the Flight Simulator 2020 website.

The team are also allowing another wave of applications for preview build testing. To make sure your name is down for the next Tech Alpha, head to the Insider Area and select "Alpha Registration".

Recapping the previous alpha (tech alpha 2) timeline provided in the January 9th Development Update, the team are on track for their current release date of the 27th of January, with all invitation emails sent four days later on the 31st. Here's a reminder of what the timeline looks like so far:

• 01.20 – Begin sending Alpha  invitations (completed)
• 01.27 – All Alpha invitations sent.
• 01.27 – Alpha ready for download, begin sending build access emails.
• 01.31 – All wave 1 Alpha emails sent.

Lastly in this update, news that the next Partnership Series and Feedback Snapshot pieces have been moved back to the next update on February 6th, 2020.

Earlier this week, we analysed episode five of the Discovery Series program, in which we found almost certain confirmation of the existence of shared cockpit multiplayer and of helicopter support from day 1 - two features missing from the simulator as of the global preview event last year. See that article here.

A selection of new screenshots from the development update have been used in this article, in addition to a teaser of rain effects posted on the FS2020 Facebook page earlier this week.

See last week's development update in a previous article.