Screenshots

[Tom Clayton]

I did a flight from Lihue to Kahului yesterday evening local time with real time/weather. It's always nice to watch the Hawaiian mountains pass by under me. Because there's a rather sizeable bump in the terrain that gets in the way of a straight in approach from the west, I used the Lanai VOR as a waypoint, then made a left turn to cut around the south end of that mountain. That also gave me a nice view of the windmill farm that runs up the southern ridge. I descended to 2000' to pass over Lanai, which turned out to be just a little tight, but I made it without incident.

[noddy]

[Bomber_12th]

Robert Bruce's FSX Bristol Fighter in MSFS.

[Bomber_12th]

FSX Roland in MSFS.

[Bomber_12th]

[YoYo]

Old planes including biplanes looks fantastic here, great shots!

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you YoYo! They port really well into MSFS (I can't say the same about a dozen other FSX models I've tried).

Here is another FSX model that works really well in MSFS, the Vertigo Studios Stearman.

[Tom Clayton]

Unless I missed it, this latest update finally added the islands in the bay just off of PHNL 8R/26L, but I kinda think someone didn’t really look too hard at the satellite imagery that they used for the water mask…

[Sundog]

LOL, that's hilarious.

[BananaBob]

That's the shadow on the left of the airliner on the right, right? LOL

[jankees]

more metal
jk0395

jk0388

jk0396

jk0392

jk0400

[Javis]

Thank you YoYo! They port really well into MSFS (I can't say the same about a dozen other FSX models I've tried).

Here is another FSX model that works really well in MSFS, the Vertigo Studios Stearman.

Thanks, John, looks mouthwatering indeed ! We can't have enough open biplanes in MSFS, can we !

Could you tell a bit more about the Stearman, how does she behave on the ground and in the air, do all gauges work, how about the sounds, that sort of thing ?

And if, by any chance, you might also have tried Nigel's wonderful Avro 621, how does she come out ??....

Thanks a lot !

[Javis]

more metal

Thanks Jan Kees, this looks absolutely fantastic !

Particularly with all 1950's/60's bare metal aeroplanes in mind, both civil and militairy, the future shines brightly, doesn't it !

[Bomber_12th]

Could you tell a bit more about the Stearman, how does she behave on the ground and in the air, do all gauges work, how about the sounds, that sort of thing ?

And if, by any chance, you might also have tried Nigel's wonderful Avro 621, how does she come out ??....

Hi Jan,

All four of the portovers I've shown so-far fly really well in MSFS, and that is using the "Modern" flight model setting not the "Legacy" setting. The Stearman is a little squirrely on takeoff and demands rudder control with your toes - it does not do well with crosswinds. It lands really well - I recommend 3-pointing it. All of the gauges work. Like any other portover, the switches in the cockpit don't function when you click on them, but they do animate if you use the keyboard commands (such as for electrical power, lights, fuel on/off, etc.). The magneto switch however doesn't animate at all, as I believe its animation was assigned a unique code. I have always loved the 3d visual model and the flight dynamics of the Vertigo Studios Stearman, but I have never liked the sounds, so I will try locating the replacement sounds I had been using with it in FSX/P3D. I'm also going to experiment with the textures that I released for it - somewhat oddly, the areas of the textures that are supposed to be least glossy have a gloss finish in MSFS, and the areas within the textures that were intended to be highly glossy are flat, so maybe an inverse of the alpha channels will reverse that, we'll see. I have yet to try Nigel's Avro Tutor, but I will be doing so later today.

Here are some screenshots flying the George Bush N2S Stearman, one of five known to survive today that were flown by George Bush Sr. during his primary training at NAS Minneapolis in January and February 1943 - open cockpit flying in the middle of a Minnesota winter. NAS Minneapolis was made-up of what is today modern-day KMSP Minneapolis/St. Paul Intl. ("A" Base) and modern-day KSGS Fleming Field ("B" Base), with a number of other outlying dirt field practice strips that no longer exist. This Stearman was restored by AirCorps Aviation to exact specifications as to how it looked when flown by Bush in February 1943 for owner Paul Ehlen, and it is displayed at the Wings of the North Museum at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. When I visited AirCorps Aviation a few years ago, this Stearman was back for its annual, so I was able to take many photos of it, including photos of each of the many stencils and other markings, such as on the propeller blades, which I was able to copy/reproduce all around the airframe.

[ColoKent]

MSFS 2020 is simply a marvelous screenshot generator. As a flight sim...not so much....IMHO. The VCs are like trying to fly an airplane in a straitjacket...external camera views suck, and yet nearly all developers have dropped P3D work like a hot potato in true “SQUIRREL!” fashion. The scenery sure is “purty” though...

[Tom Clayton]

Another air taxi run this evening, this time from Key West to Tamiami. Departure was a few minutes before sunset, and with some nice cloud layers (real weather/time), I got some pretty spectacular shots. Route was GPS direct until in range of the localizer, then straight in on 9R. It would have been seamless if not for the idiot that couldn't find a way off the goll-dang runway...


Leaving out of Key West



The colors were unreal



"Sun's gettin' real low..."



Airframe shadows on prop disk



Configured for landing (and my favorite shot)



On final

[Javis]

Hi Jan,

All four of the portovers I've shown so-far fly really well in MSFS, and that is using the "Modern" flight model setting not the "Legacy" setting. The Stearman is a little squirrely on takeoff and demands rudder control with your toes - it does not do well with crosswinds. It lands really well - I recommend 3-pointing it. All of the gauges work. Like any other portover, the switches in the cockpit don't function when you click on them, but they do animate if you use the keyboard commands (such as for electrical power, lights, fuel on/off, etc.). The magneto switch however doesn't animate at all, as I believe its animation was assigned a unique code. I have always loved the 3d visual model and the flight dynamics of the Vertigo Studios Stearman, but I have never liked the sounds, so I will try locating the replacement sounds I had been using with it in FSX/P3D. I'm also going to experiment with the textures that I released for it - somewhat oddly, the areas of the textures that are supposed to be least glossy have a gloss finish in MSFS, and the areas within the textures that were intended to be highly glossy are flat, so maybe an inverse of the alpha channels will reverse that, we'll see. I have yet to try Nigel's Avro Tutor, but I will be doing so later today.

Here are some screenshots flying the George Bush N2S Stearman, one of five known to survive today that were flown by George Bush Sr. during his primary training at NAS Minneapolis in January and February 1943 - open cockpit flying in the middle of a Minnesota winter. NAS Minneapolis was made-up of what is today modern-day KMSP Minneapolis/St. Paul Intl. ("A" Base) and modern-day KSGS Fleming Field ("B" Base), with a number of other outlying dirt field practice strips that no longer exist. This Stearman was restored by AirCorps Aviation to exact specifications as to how it looked when flown by Bush in February 1943 for owner Paul Ehlen, and it is displayed at the Wings of the North Museum at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. When I visited AirCorps Aviation a few years ago, this Stearman was back for its annual, so I was able to take many photos of it, including photos of each of the many stencils and other markings, such as on the propeller blades, which I was able to copy/reproduce all around the airframe.

Thanks a lot for your elaborate report,John, excellent ! This might just be the opportunity for me to have a go at the MSFS Legacy Importer myself. I must have a copy of the VS Stearman in one of my still existing FSX hangars ( i said goodbye to FSX already when P3Dv4 came about..).

Would've been great if Asobo/MS had givin us a default Stearman to fly in MSFS like MS did with MS Flight. I thought they did an excellent job on that one. A joy to fly and looked and sounded pretty good too (plus i always liked the MSFlight trailer and music ;-)

There would've been a chance for maybe a good default open biplane sound that way. (don't know about Asobo but MS Aces never put their best foot forward regarding sounds, did they..)

Yes, i see what you mean with the 'reversed' gloss/flat textures. Particularly noticeable on the prop and engine which are looking quite matt. And then there's the area underneath the pilot's windscreen.Looks like a hole in the coaming (in the fifth screenshot) but it's actually the sky and windscreen frame that is mirrored, right ? That's pretty glossy alright ! ;-)

In any case that yellow Bush bird looks absolutely gorgeous ! Going to install the Legacy importer and see what i can make of it.

Oh, and i can't wait to see Nigel's amazing Tutor in gorgeous (be it portover) MSFS fashion !

Thanks very much again, John !

[Bomber_12th]

Yes, i see what you mean with the 'reversed' gloss/flat textures. Particularly noticeable on the prop and engine which are looking quite matt.

Home from work for a while this morning, I did some experimenting and on the ported-over V-Studios Stearmans, the specular alpha is what is determining the level of glossiness and reflection(!). By inverting the values I had (dark to light and light to dark), I was quickly able to turn the flat surfaces glossy and the glossy surfaces flat. Since the V-Studios Stearman looks great in MSFS, I'm going to rework all of my FSX-era repaints for it so that they look the best they can in MSFS.

BTW, I tried Nigel's Avro Tutor (with a single pass of the legacy importer), but the instrument panel and gauges don't show up, so it will require more work.

[Bomber_12th]

A little currency flight out of Fairford.

[Bomber_12th]

Arches National Park (freeware scenery recently released on Flightsim.to)

[jankees]

Arches looks great!

[Bomber_12th]

[Bomber_12th]

[jackryan172]

For some reason this reminds me of Iron Eagle, maybe somebody could do it with the 152 Aerobat.

Sean

Arches National Park (freeware scenery recently released on Flightsim.to)

[Bomber_12th]