Today third-party developers provided development updates and assets about upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons, on top of releases.
We start with DC Designs, which published a development update about the AV-8B Harrier II, which should be released between late September and early October.
“I have spent much of this week converting the aircraft to the latest version of the Harrier, which mainly involves alterations to the nose and tail areas. PBR textures have been applied as well as chaff-dispensers on the tail area and some other minor details to bring the model to a more accurate standard.
Also, a few sharp-eyed members here noted that the canopy shape was not quite right. It turned out that the blue-prints I’d used referenced an earlier version of the Harrier with quite a pronounced bubble-shaped canopy, whereas later versions are slightly lower and deeper. Although it’s quite a bit of extra work I decided that the Harrier looked better and somehow a bit “meaner” looking with this profile, so I have reshaped the canopy and canopy frame to more accurately match that profile, and of course added the nose IR sensor.
Although this model is the AV-8B +, a lot of people requested RAF liveries for it so I’m doing a couple of them for the package, but the GR9 variant will not be modeled in the package itself.
The VSTOL system that I previewed last week in the video is now working even better, thanks to CodenameJack. Nozzle position is now governed by the propeller-pitch variable in the sim, which allows the user to map it to an axis on a controller. This means that transition to forward flight from the hover is now seamlessly smooth. However, as per the real Harrier it requires good stick, throttle and rudder coordination to smoothly bring the Harrier from conventional flight into the hover again for landing. ( And not a WASM gauge in sight, meaning the Xbox launch is confirmed at the same time as all other platforms ).All flight characteristics are in place, detail work is on-going in the cockpit ( decals, warning lamps, final display coding etc ) and as you can see from the images I’m working now to add liveries to the package. Sim Acoustics will be adding the custom sound in September and flight testing by our assisting real-world Harrier pilot should begin by the end of next week. We’re on the home-run now and on time and target for a late-September, early-October launch.”