Third-party developers revealed plenty of news about Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons, while a new airport has been released.
We start with SimWorks Studios, which revealed a new trailer of its upcoming Pilatus PC-12. You can watch it below.
Next, we get a development update and new screenshots from DC Designs about the F-14D Tomcat, which will be added at no additional cost to the existing F-14 package by the developer.
It's worth mentioning that the last image is a comparison between the aircraft shown with the correct perspective and the default perspective with the simulator with the drone camera, as the latter distorts the perspective.
This week I have been working hard on the F-14D cockpit updates. The real F-14D was basically an F-14B with much-upgraded avionics, and the cockpit reflected that with quite considerable changes both in the front seat and the back.
The basic modelling has now been completed, and work on the avionics will start soon once we have time to approach the new coding. The displays you see in the images are from the F-14A/B model, and will be altered to match the F-14D’s displays both for the pilot and the RIO positions, along with the various different controls, scratch-pads, DDI screen functions etc.
I am also going to see if Sim Acoustics will have time to update the sound pack to include the silence ahead of the aircraft when supersonic. No promises on this as I’m not sure how much work it entails, but we will see if they can add it.
Indiafoxtecho provided new images of its own Tomcat made in collaboration with Heatblur and the Panavia Tornado, on top of providing an update about upcoming products.
- F-14 TOMCAT -> Moving to Beta stage
- TORNADO -> Completing the new cockpit model
- EUROFIGHTER -> Moving forward with 3D and avionics... important news soon!
- F-16 FALCON -> Project reorganization... important news soon!
- TA-4J -> Moving forward with new cockpit model and external textures
Interestingly, Blackbird Simulations announced its next project, and it's another Beechcraft T-6A Texan II. No details have been provided, but you can check out a small teaser below.
This is a completely separate project from the one recently announced by Iris Simulations.
Aviotek Simulation Software finally broke its silence about its rendition of Frankfurt Airport (EDDF) in Germany. We get a few early development screenshots and a list of features.
- Animated traffic, ground personnel and passengers, as well as cool animated stuff here and there.
- Full PBR textures up to 4K resolution (optimized for balanced quality & performance) and large use of parallax textures to enhance the user experience without impacting performance.
- Full custom airport and surroundings, including landmarks (like the Berlin airlift museum close to runway 25L, hotels etc.).
- Custom terminal interiors with 3D passengers
- Custom, extremely accurate ground polygons with latest taxiway layout and signs (as an airline pilot myself, this is one of the most important parts from our point of view).
- South terminal in WIP (to reflect the real one as much as possible).
- Tons of other features we will show in the next posts!
Again, this is a completely separate project from the one revealed a while ago by Aerosoft.
Last, but not least, Fly2High released Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (LYBE), serving the capital of Serbia.
It's currently available on iniBuilds' store for $20.64 plus VAT and promises the following features.
- Custom VDGS
- Accurate simulation of the nearest Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport to the present
- Hand-made ground textures (Runways, aprons, paths, roads)
- Accurately modelled and positioned dynamic airport lighting
- Highly detailed models of all airport buildings, objects and surroundings
- Official GSX Profile included
- Good optimization of FPS
Microsoft Flight Simulator can be purchased for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and you can also play via Game Pass. If you'd like to learn more about the upcoming add-ons for the sim, you should stay tuned on TechRaptor as we host daily Microsoft Flight Simulator news on the topic.
You can also take a look at our interviews with Microsoft's Jorg Neumann about the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" and iniBuilds' CEO Ubaid Mussa on the activity of the popular third-party developer.
On top of that, we have reviews of Orbx's Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo Gardermoen Airports, iniBuilds' New York-JFK Airport, and RHDSimulations' Boeing 767-300ER.
