AlphaSim has released the AS365N Dauphin

[papab]

See it here:
http://www.alphasim.co.uk/index.html

[gajit]

Has anyone got it yet? It would be good to see some user screenshots if you have :ernae:

[Quixoticish]

I'd be intrigued to see how quickly the textures load in the VC. Very tempted to buy this one.

[tigisfat]

cool. Not my cup of tea, but it's nice to hear things are moving along up there. I'm also glad that they released the much requested USCG version.

[IanP]

I've got it... It was a fight between my morals and a true FSX helicopter that I'll actually use. The latter won. :engel016:

If no-one else beats me to it, I'll post comments and screenies later.

[IanP]

OK. User report, if not screenshots - mainly as the shots on the Alphasim front page are pretty much "what you see is what you get".

The major controls are - but nowhere near all of the panel is - mousable and clickable in the VC. The aircraft is not fully operable from the VC, as the radios are not adjustable except via the default radio stack pop-up. The "working winch" is on the tailhook command and is not the Accel usable winch. There is no winch or line defined in aircraft.cfg, so if you want to use it as a rescue aircraft in Accel, you'll need to add that yourself.

The throttles and fuel levers on the overhead and the collective are mousable, but the collective and throttle levers are linked - moving the joystick throttle moves both (the helicopter throttle in FSX is actually controlled using the same key or stick combination as the prop pitch in a piston or turbine aircraft - they've basically made what should be the throttles into additional collectives on the ceiling!)

The external model is well done, with one or two exceptions, all of which are animation issues. When moving the cyclic stick, the pilot's head moves. Left = left. Right = Right. Forward = Up. Back = Down. Maybe in pitch he's tracking the horizon, rather than where the helo is going? ;)

Also, shift-e opens the pilot's doors, OK. Shift-e-2 opens the rear doors. All of them. This means that on the N2, to open a door for the winch, not only does the sliding door for winch ops open, but so do the forward "coventional" doors - on both sides simultaneously. That's not so good. Textures are DDS with subtle bump maps and a PSD repaint kit is available.

It felt a little "flappy" and unstable in some areas of the flight envelope during my (not very long) test flight, but was easy to land. Not so easy to take off without pushing the torque into the yellow, unfortunately. Oh, and yes, the model is single, not multi-engine.

Basically, it's like the majority of Alphasim products - functional, effective, but not cutting edge. I don't feel I've wasted my money, but it's not going to win any awards.

Edited to add: The Rotor brake isn't animated or functional (I'm not sure it is on any non-default or Accel helo I have, though) and the sounds are pretty representative, but don't use the FSX "directional" functionality.

[CBris]

Thanks for that decision making assistance Ian. Still I think I know someone else who might be working on a Dauphin or close relative.

I think I'll wait.

[BananaBob]

They really should get someone to take better screenshots though. :running:

[CBris]

They really should get someone to take better screenshots though. :running:

Remembering the "Critique lessons" - something nice first and last

I love the Dauphin shape

Eeeeeuuuuuuwwwww... JAGGIES

...and invisible rotor blades...

...and Hellenique... zut alors!

...and those colours...

But otherwise a pretty helicopter.

coffcoffcoff...

[IanP]

The rotor blades are visible and it is a native FSX model, but they're very (too?) faint (BOB!!!!) and will have a tendency to vanish when downgrading from bmp to jpg and resizing.

[BananaBob]

The page layout is good though. :ernae:

[CBris]

:monkies:

[JIMJAM]

***Edited from 2 paragraphs to be developer freindly and to follow the constructive critcism guidlines.**

Its a Alphasim helicopter.

[Gibbage]

My critique guide was mainly about work in progress, not reviews of products. Just sayin :wiggle:

[JIMJAM]

Well in that case......
Nah these guys have been through alot. I swore em off after they broke the $40 mark,well except for the Blackhawk. :icon29: + Visa = sell.
Actually I miss AS and want to see some of their cold war era jets get the FSX treatment.

[dswo]

Thanks, Ian, for the quick review.

[michael davies]

I did the FDE for the FS9 version and expected to do the same for the FSx one, but communication seems to have become....silent, I did send a FSx version expecting to tune it up in testing when the model was near ready, I still don't have a model to test.

I don't know what FDE is in there, my initial one or someone else's, if its mine I apologies for any quirks y'all might find, I'd expected to round out my Alphasim career a little better than this.

All things considered it is a nice model and falls neatly into the Alphasim mould, y'all know by now what that is so there shouldn't be any hidden pitfalls to bite ya.

Sadly yours

Michael

[CG_1976]

Ouch for me in payware this week. My wife is gonna smack me with a cast iron skillet:isadizzy:. Guess i better brush up on sweet talkin her into letting me have this add-on for FSX as I own the Fs9 one. Cant resist a USCG paint:bump:.

[waka172rg]

the alphasim sea sprite lead me off this nice outside but its where it matters the the cockpit:running:

[hey_moe]

Ian, thanks for the info. I have been looking at this and wanting to buy her but I wanted to see what others had to say about it.I think I will hold off a bit...Mike

[AS Remi]

I did the FDE for the FS9 version and expected to do the same for the FSx one, but communication seems to have become....silent, I did send a FSx version expecting to tune it up in testing when the model was near ready, I still don't have a model to test.

I don't know what FDE is in there, my initial one or someone else's, if its mine I apologies for any quirks y'all might find, I'd expected to round out my Alphasim career a little better than this.

All things considered it is a nice model and falls neatly into the Alphasim mould, y'all know by now what that is so there shouldn't be any hidden pitfalls to bite ya.

Sadly yours

Michael

Sure sad...

Same thing in my part, with a basic conversion of the textures from FS9 to FSX. That's a pity because I could make the FSX ones, I mean a dedicated version for FSX with more subtility on the render. But for that I need the FSX version..

Anyway, the conversion is pretty good, so I hope you like the FSX one.
I need to test that as soon as I've put the hand on it :ernae:

[IanP]

After a couple more flights, I'm finding it very unstable at around 100KIAS. It's still flyable, but even the most gentle turn throws it out of balance.

As I said before, it's not bad, but it could be significantly better as well.

[michael davies]

Hmm, thats suspicious, even the basic FSx FDe I sent didn't do that, by nature FSx helos are very stable, you'd be hard pressed to cock it up TBH, not like FS9 which is much more fickle towards Helos.

I'll clone my Beta into the FS9 model and port it over and see what happens, port overs dont worry about FDEs, except the header stuff but that can be worked around.

Best

Michael


After a couple more flights, I'm finding it very unstable at around 100KIAS. It's still flyable, but even the most gentle turn throws it out of balance.

As I said before, it's not bad, but it could be significantly better as well.

[gajit]

All I can say is that its OK - Ian P's appraisal is accurate and well put. For me the VC is a letdown as many of the textures look untextured - yet you can see that someone tried very hard in other in certain places in the VC to make this a good representation of the real thing. The only way I can describe it is that it just looks unfinished. Also I love VCs to have glazing reflections but on this they have just made all the glazing look like a mass of scratched plastic. (see screenshot)

The best thing i can praise is its as good as the default aircraft for frame rates. The FD is more like a robinson rather than a large twin chopper which (ok i have only flown P2 trainning in an A109) are much less of a handful to fly.

I only hope that one of the great repaint artists adds a few more schemes with more attention to shading to make it more convincing. Still - in some lighting it looks appealing....

[tigisfat]

I'm sensing the overwhelming opinion here. Here's what I think: I think we're very lucky and spoiled to be able to downplay any of the visuals on this aircraft. It's a good thing we're able to have such high standards. Nothing really looks wrong with this aircraft, but we have some truly incredible releases these days, like the Aerosoft F-16. Speaking of, I don't think I was allowed to NOT buy the Aerosoft F-16. Is that stealing if it's guaranteed that they're going to take my money and there's nothing I can do about it?

This looks like a decent release, we may just be spoiled.

[michael davies]

Ok, I'm more than concerned about this now, if I'm creditied for the FDE then it needs fixing, I still have no complimentary product and all mails are failing and the FDE sounds like crap, that leaves me with grave concerns.

If the FDE isnt mine then fine, if it is then I would like to know what the hell they did with it as even the beta wasnt this bad.

Best

Michael



The FD is more like a robinson rather than a large twin chopper which (ok i have only flown P2 trainning in an A109) are much less of a handful to fly.....

[gajit]

Yes Tigisfat - agreed.

[gajit]

Hi Michael - I just cant imagine for one second the FDE is one of yours

[michael davies]

Gajit,

Well apart from the intial Seaking in FS9 ( since improved ) and the initial Apache ( improved with help from Jordan Moore ) the rest seem to have been accepted reasonably well, there not Dodosim LOL but they should at least be flyable, what you and Ian describe is a handfull at best.

I suppose with no official communication I should take that as I'm 'off' the case and stop worrying :), just upsets me to see people struggling with something that could so easily be fixed.

At worst if you have the Seasprite then copy over the air file and rename, then take the headers and cameras and gear section from the Dauphin and put them into a copy of the Seasprite, that'll at least give you something more stable.

Kindest

Michael


Hi Michael - I just cant imagine for one second the FDE is one of yours

[gajit]

HI Michael

Good Idea - I will use the Seasprite.

Tx for your suggestion :ernae:

[gajit]

I have been trying to work out why this product has been looking so "dull" and I think it is mainly because of the obvious! No shine on the paint jobs. Surely they use gloss paint on the real coast guard choppers?

[michael davies]

Gentlemen,

After much detective work it appears the Dauphin has an old beta FDE of mine. Attached are revised and correct FDE files to make the helo more stable and flyable.

Apologies on my behalf for any trouble people have been having, I will attempt to send the correct files again to Alphasim for a product update.

Kindest

Michael

[Txmmy83]

thanks Michael for the revised FDE

BR
Tom

[IanP]

Thanks Michael. I'm very sorry that I haven't been able to get back to you - I've only even fired up FS once so far this week, let alone done anything useful with it.

[fsafranek]

I have been trying to work out why this product has been looking so "dull" and I think it is mainly because of the obvious! No shine on the paint jobs. Surely they use gloss paint on the real coast guard choppers?
Absolutely. Sunglasses are required. Unless it's camouflaged I
would expect all of the schemes for this type aircraft to be gloss.
:ernae:

[michael davies]

Ian,

No problem, likewise real life has kept me from Max all week, not even one wheel nut or brake line modeled and it'll realistically be mid next week before I get another opportunity, unless we're very quiet at work over the weekend.

Your take off torque should be better now, if not I can change a few bits for you, full fuel take off is about 60% now in the hover, I believe the standard departure is to stay in the yellow for a vertical hover (ie 70-80%) then below yellow when in fwd flight.

Kindest

Michael


Thanks Michael. I'm very sorry that I haven't been able to get back to you - I've only even fired up FS once so far this week, let alone done anything useful with it.