Flight Simulation developers shared news today, including aircraft and airports for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and MSFS 2020-
Simulation Daily publishes a roundup every day for all the news across the flight simulation field, helping you keep up to date with the ins and outs of the industry.
Before we move on to the flight simulation news, be sure to check out today’s episode of our “Can You Guess this Airport?” video series, and a story that received its own individual coverage below:
Without further ado, I leave you with today’s flight simulation news.
Pilatus PC-12NG for MSFS 2024 Gets Development Update
SimWorks Studios released a development update on Discord about the Pilatus PC-12NG for MSFS 2024, alongside some tidbits about the PC-12 Legacy.
“As we said in a previous update, focus on the PC-12NG is currently on the electrical system and avionics, as the rest of the aircraft systems are very close to the PC-12/47 (Legacy). At this point, we have most of the “switchology” tied in and working, while bringing in systems from the Legacy and modifying them to fit the differences of the PC-12NG.
One such difference is the radios, which in the PC-12NG are part of the Multi-Mode Digital Radio (MMDR). The MMDR is essentially a digital “box” containing multiple radios such as COM1 and NAV1 and the circuit breakers for #1 and #2 MMDR can be seen in the cockpit sidewalls. If the MMDR is disconnected, the included radios are also turned off. This is a function we haven’t seen before, so we had to re-engineer the electrical system to accomodate this feature, allowing us to simulate the MMDR as a whole, but also independently control the COM & NAV radios. The same philosophy applies to other elements such as the aircraft’s brain, the Modular Avionics Units (MAU).
Another example -more of a quirk- is the Stick Pusher test: in the legacy, after setting flaps and holding the pusher test button you would need to move the power lever past a microswitch, which is at the 5psi torque position. So you don’t actually need 5psi of torque for the test, just to trigger the switch. In the 12NG you have to actually achieve 5psi of torque.
On the avionics front, the Apex plugin for the PC-12NG has most of its functionality dialled in. The main task remaining is creating graphical elements for the lower MFD -as they are not available to us- and hooking them up to the systems above.
Our goal is to have systems integration finished in August, so that the plane enters testing during our Summer break.
The interior model of the PC-12NG has been finished for many months. The elephant in the room is creating cockpit LODs to ensure a smooth transition of the graphics from a the high-detailed cockpit to the lower-detail versions when viewing the model from the outside. We will also do another “beauty pass” to the cockpit textures as some surfaces look dull in FS2024 compared to what they were in FS2020.
The exterior model of the NG is the almost the same as the legacy, with the main change being a different circuit breaker panel in the tail section accessible during pre-flight, that controls some aircraft systems feeding off the hot battery bus. There is also the new engine -will be completed next week- and some refinements to the preflight-accessible areas.
Overall, we want to have the full visuals for the PC-12 Legacy & NG finished at the end of July.
Lastly, an important question from the MSFS forum regarding repaints. A user asked us if repaints for the 2020 PC-12 will carry over to the 2024-native version. Our goal is for them to be directly portable. While there are some improvements done to the exterior, these are subtle and we are trying not to break the existing UV layout. We will report back on this in early August and hopefully news will be great.
We have started on the right foot in that department. The 20204 plane is currently tested with the FS2020 flight model. Not only has it carried over without problems, but in many cases it actually handles better and closer to the real aircraft! We really don’t know what Asobo did, but that was a pleasant surprise!
Still, we are moving ahead with a shape-based flight model for the aircraft. While still early in the process, based on our experience with the Kodiak 100 we anticipate this will improve the aircraft’s handling even further.
Lastly, a few days ago a brand new turbine simulation model was presented to devs by Asobo, expected with FS2024 SU6. This model overcomes most -if not all- limitations of FS2020 turbine/turboprop engines, is extremely flexible and will allow us to roll back several workarounds we applied to get our custom engine to work.
In conclusion, work on the PC-12NG (and Legacy) is progressing steadily and they are on track for their respective release quarters. While there have been some setbacks in the upgrade process, the 2024-native PC-12 will bring several improvements across the board to our most complex aicraft development yet!”
Eindhoven Airport for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and MSFS 2020 Gets New Screenshots
FTXDes is continuing to work on Eindhoven Airport (EHEH) in the Netherlands for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020, and has released new screenshots on Discord.
This time around, we get to see the terminal interiors in the sim.
Dundee Airport Released for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020
UK2000 Scenery released a new airport in the UK, Dundee Airport (EGPN) for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020
It’s available on Simmarket for $18.12, and you can see what it looks like in the trailer above.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our previous roundup article from yesterday.
If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below. As usual, leaving a like and a comment and subscribing to our growing YouTube channel is extremely helpful.
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