Ant's Airplanes Drifter free demo/beta pre release

[anthony31]

Hello everyone

It's been a while since I last posted but today, I have a free demo/beta test aircraft available for you to download.

This is the Drifter Ultralight which I originally made for FSX. I've updated it for 2022 (lots more polygons) and made it an MSFS aircraft. It's a great airplane for MSFS as the flying position provides an incredible field of view. While it's not fast it is agile and can climb at 1,000 fpm.

As this is the first aircraft I am releasing for MSFS I would like to run a wide open beta program to see if there is anything that gets tripped up by people's varying computer setups.

As usual with my aircraft there is a full payware version and a free demo version. The full payware version (which I hope to release before the end of this month) will include the following: GPS and Radio units, floats model, passenger model, preferences options, auxiliary fuel tank, more repaints. Otherwise the free demo here works perfectly fine by itself with no limitations.

So, please download the aircraft, go for a flight and if you have any problems please either email me or post them here.

Don't forget you have to prime the engine.

DOWNLOAD LINK: www.antsairplanes.com/downloads/AntsDrifterDemoMSFSV090.zip (66mb)

Mod Edit:
Full release purchase link: https://antsairplanes.com/msfsdrifter.html
Or SimMarket: https://secure.simmarket.com/ants-ai...ght-msfs.phtml

[ColoKent]

Great news….let’s hope your WONDERFUL T-28 series is next up! Thrilled to hear you are developing for MSFS.

Kent

[Paul K]

I'll definitely try this out. However, may I ask if there's any chance of the CAC Winjeel making it to MSFS ? That's a beauty.

[Snurdley]

Looks great Anthony! I'll second the motion for the T-28 and Winjeel.

[BananaBob]

Great modeling! Going to try it, thanks!

[gribouil]

Downloading as I write!!!

[jankees]

Very good to see you going for MSFS, Ant!
I'm hoping you'll also redo you Tiger Moth, I loved that it all its previous forms.

[Stearman]

Thank you very much for this demo option (the Drifter was my aircraft of choice in FSX for a long time), and I second Jankees' hopes for the Tiger Moth.

MSFS badly needs a Tiger Moth!!

[keithb77]

Thanks for this

And yes, the Tiger Moth would be superb...for a while the FSX-Import version was my goto aircraft in MSFS!
And then the T28...

[YoYo]

Great news, it was pleasure for me to fly on this bird near more than 10 years before ( ! ) http://yoyosims.pl/FSX_Ultralights_Falcon_Drifter.html .

[LouP]

Thanks Anthony, nice to have her in my hanger once again.

LouP

[cavaricooper]

Anthony- thanks for the lovely gift to start 2022, much appreciated! I would echo the sentiments re. the Winjeel and the Moth. I removed the sunglasses and boom mike by setting Pilot weight to 0, but as preferences are non selectable in the demo version, is there a way to eliminate those at least? The only other suggestion I would offer is to make the Yaw String neon as it is hard to see with the reflections on. This is the perfect platform for low and slow in this picturesque Sim.

Looking forward to your releases.

Carl

[LostPilot]

Thank you so much for doing a demo like this, it's awesome to get to try a limited version of the payware, and I'm now much more eager to buy the payware and make this my go-to low and slow explorer.

[Sundog]

That looks great in MSFS. Something to check out when I get home from work. As soon as you're done with the full release, hurry up and get EVERYTHING you did before into MSFS. My favs are the T-28 series, but all of your work will be welcomed. Thanks Anthony.

[anthony31]

Anthony- thanks for the lovely gift to start 2022, much appreciated! I would echo the sentiments re. the Winjeel and the Moth. I removed the sunglasses and boom mike by setting Pilot weight to 0, but as preferences are non selectable in the demo version, is there a way to eliminate those at least? The only other suggestion I would offer is to make the Yaw String neon as it is hard to see with the reflections on. This is the perfect platform for low and slow in this picturesque Sim.

Looking forward to your releases.

Carl

Hi Carl, which camera view are you using? Are you using a VR headset? The pilot model should hide automatically based on the view but I don't have a VR headset so it isn't something I can check. There is a camera definition in the cameras.cfg for PilotVR which should, in theory, hide the pilot model.

I think I'll change the yaw string to a yellow one, I've also found the red one quite hard to see.

For everyone else, the Tiger Moth will be next, then the Winjeel as these are the two models which will need to the least amount of updating for MSFS. I'd like to put some more polygons into the T28 models when I convert them as the new sim can handle the extra polys.

[YoYo]

About VR - I have it and will test it .

[cavaricooper]

Anthony-

I do NOT have VR and am just using the MSFS camera system. I set up the view for the pilot looking forward, down, left and right. I believe I have confused the eyepoint arrows, as I have been testing something in P3D recently... so perhaps I was moving the pilot into the passenger seat (behind and above). Sorry for the mix-up. Glad you are in agreement re. the yaw string, and very much looking forward to the Moth!

C

[Paul K]

For everyone else, the Tiger Moth will be next, then the Winjeel as these are the two models which will need to the least amount of updating for MSFS.

As others have already said, I'm very glad you're developing for MSFS now. You've done some very fine work over the years, the Winjeel being a particular favourite of mine - Tiger Moth too, of course.

[DennyA]

Are you using a VR headset? The pilot model should hide automatically based on the view but I don't have a VR headset so it isn't something I can check. There is a camera definition in the cameras.cfg for PilotVR which should, in theory, hide the pilot model.

Hi Anthony! I just gave the Drifter a spin in VR with an HP Reverb G2 headset and it all looked great. Good head position, everything looked and performed flawlessly. The pilot was indeed hidden. It's kind of terrifying to fly over 1,000 feet, though, looking straight down at the ground!

Fun little plane to fly. I have to learn not to flare it. Feels a bit more like "backwards tricycle" than taildragger. Climb is really awesome for an ultralight. Fairly forgiving recovery from a stall, too. Couldn't get iit into a spin, though.

Really, about the only very minor feedback I'd have is to tone down the reflections of the instruments on the windscreen. They seem really strong on my setup.

And count me in for the T-28, Winjeel, and Tiger Moth! I own the T-28 for P3D and really miss flying it.

[anthony31]

Carl, if you are creating you own edits to the cameras.cfg then make sure you include NodesToHide ="XMLVAR_PilotHidden"
in the CAMERADEFINITION. That will hide the pilot in that camera.

DennyA, it will go into a spin but it's not elegant, you've got to keep the full rudder and back stick and eventually it will go. There's a lot less parameters in the MSFS that handle spins (in other words, there's none) and I had to massage the numbers a bit to get it to do what it does. I'll see what I can do about the reflections but I quite close to the limit at only 4% opacity which is the only way to control the reflections. But I'll try 3%, 2% and 1% and see what they look like.

[Stearman]

Been flying it for a few hours now, what a joy!!



Eagerly awaiting for the complete version!!
Thanks once again, best regards.

[cavaricooper]

Anthony- thanks I will give that a go. Additionally, I would second the reduction in reflectivity… if possible. That, and the Neon yaw string will be useful changes. I am appreciating the ultralight platform much more with this release than the earlier offerings, including the one from Asobo- BZ and thank-you!C

[DennyA]

Not a big deal on the spins either way... It's fun when you can recreate the edge of the envelope, but the only reason I even tried it was that that spin video came up when I searched the real plane on YouTube to see it in action. Personally, I think you'd have to be nuts to intentionally spin an ultralight!

Sounds good on the reflections. It might have been the lighting when I first loaded it up, but they were really strong.

Agreed with Cavaricooper... I own a couple of other ultralights on the sim and didn't fly them much. But the flight model here really feels like it captures the difference. I test flew the Drifter with high winds and it really felt like a different experience than larger/heavier planes. Nice!

[anthony31]

I'm afraid there doesn't seem to be much I can do about the reflections. Changing the transparency of the texture makes no difference. I can reduce the metallic to zero and that doesn't do much. The only other option is roughness but increasing that reduces the sharpness (naturally enough). It seems to be an MSFS thing where the angle of incidence increases the amount of reflections and because you are looking down along the line of the windscreen it has very high reflections. The payware version has an option to switch to a windscreen where the roughness is set to max which effectively removes the reflections but doing any sort of intermediate setting produces results that I'm not really satisfied with. Good thing you don't have to actually look through the windscreen though.

[DennyA]

Good thing you don't have to actually look through the windscreen though.

And honestly, I did notice it when I first loaded the plane, because I was looking it it with my "reviewer" eye since you had specifically asked for feedback in your post. Once I started flying the plane around, I easily tuned out the reflections.