Der Dodo ist nicht ausgestorben …

Das einem realistischem Flugverhalten am nächsten kommende Hubschrauberaddon ist sicherlich die Bell 206 von Dodosim. Wer 32bit Simulatoren nutzt kann sich immer noch daran erfreuen, allerdings lässt sich durchaus sagen, dass das Addon in die Jahre gekommen ist. Auf der Homepage liest man immer noch: “Current platforms include Microsoft’s fs2004, fsX and for commercial applications, Microsoft ESP. “. Aber es gibt Neuigkeiten …

Aus dem Jahr 2013 datiert ein Thread, in dem die Entwicklung eines überarbeiteten HD Modells angekündigt wird. Der Thread hat inzwischen 12 Seiten, ist aber nicht tot, sondern zeugt von einer fortschreitenden Entwicklung über die letzten Jahre … wenn auch mit Unterbrechungen.

Nicht brandaktuell, aber im Verhältnis recht frisch sind die neuesten Fortschritte, die alle Helipiloten hoffen lassen (Original Englisch):

1) Complete overhead circuit breaker panel.  (Not all work, due to underlying FSX/P3D limitations however, though I’m always looking for ways to prove myself wrong.)

2) Ability to map all cockpit buttons using FSUIPC’s custom event feature (requires registered FSUIPC.)  This is one for the Simpit builders!  You will have set/unset functionality for all switches. No more mapping bizarre native keystrokes to cockpit functions.  (Which is good, because we’ve run out of unused key strokes to utilise.)  Plus:  If selected, a window opens when the flight loads telling you how those switches should be configured before you start.

3) Second sound set of band-passed sounds for a switchable “headphones” mode.

4) Another one for Simpit builders!  HD 2D instruments up to 4x the resolution of the existing aircraft.  So the panel looks much better zoomed to full-screen size when used in a hardware cockpit.

5) Redux’s sounds, including better rotor, engine and starter sounds.

6) And yet another one for simpit builders!  Repositionable pop-up windows.  For simpits where the bottom half of the window is obscured by a hardware main panel, you can now get all the settings/failures,etc. windows to open where you want, and it’ll remember it.

7) Saved flights now permit any configuration of switches and engine states.  So you’re not limited to always loading cold and dark.

8) 64-bit Prepar3D v4 compatibility.

9) Golly simpitters, here’s another: Integrated FSUIPC export.  No need to use our bridging utility to get the correct FSUIPC offset variables anymore.

10) Many minor tweaks to flight dynamics, rotor and engine behaviour.  All thanks to invaluable feedback from commercial customers.

 

In addition, though not particularly relevant to users, is that I’ve rewritten most of the code almost from the ground-up.  So it *should* be more efficient.  (But then PCs are considerably faster than they were back in 2007 when we had to squeeze every last fps out of FSX.)