Ant's Airplanes Drifter free demo/beta pre release

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



Eagerly awaiting for the complete version!!
Thanks once again, best regards.
 
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
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments and testing.

I have now completed the Drifter. You may download the version 1.00 of the free demo here: www.antsairplanes.com/downloads/AntsDrifterDemoMSFS.zip

Alternatively there is the product page which has a download link for the demo and paintkit (I've even updated my website after over 10 years using the old format, the new screenshot gallery is nice).

www.antsairplanes.com/msfsdrifter.html

The payware version should be available very soon (like the next day or two, it's currently the middle of Sunday night in Europe).

Next, onto the Tiger Moth.
 
thanks for the Drifter, Anthony - it's just great!

looking forward to getting your Tiger Moth when you have her ready - it was one of my regular fliers in FSX

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Congratulations on your first MSFS release! Glad to have your aircraft coming to our hangars. I'll buy this as soon as it's available. Edit: Bought it!
 
Pleased to see this in msfs

I'm really happy this has now come to msfs, I had it in FSX and P3D and always enjoyed slow sight seeing it allowed.
With the improved msfs vfr visuals this should be a treat.
 
Anthony- I posted about the Drifter elsewhere, please consider removing “COMING SOON”… it may dissuade a customer.She’s really good- thanks!C
 
Thanks cavaricooper. I forgot to remove that bit. I have updated it now so it says AVAILABLE NOW. You might need to refresh the page though, many browsers cache the page.
 
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

Hmmm, finally installed the demo, but on my view I see pilot, which prevents us from looking ahead (glasses and such as and the body below). Is it possible to remove the pilot body from VC (but leaving it in external view)? Yes, I use VR ... .
 
Hmmm, finally installed the demo, but on my view I see pilot, which prevents us from looking ahead (glasses and such as and the body below). Is it possible to remove the pilot body from VC (but leaving it in external view)? Yes, I use VR ... .
Hey YoYo, I just updated from the beta to the release demo, and I do NOT see the pilot in VR mode, using an HP Reverb G2 headset.

Anthony mentioned this above, in case you're not using the default VR pilot view:
...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.
 
Hey YoYo, I just updated from the beta to the release demo, and I do NOT see the pilot in VR mode, using an HP Reverb G2 headset.

Anthony mentioned this above, in case you're not using the default VR pilot view:

on default position no pilot, right, but for me alwayes default positions are bad, too low or too close, I used custom views (so saved positions, something like in Chaseplane for FSX/P3D). Looks like this body is present on 2D and 3D view. Thx, i’ll try this tip.
 
YoYo-You will see earlier in the thread I had the same issue. I realize the position I was using was actually the passengers view. Once I dropped it down a little bit everything worked OK.HTH- C
 
YoYo-You will see earlier in the thread I had the same issue. I realize the position I was using was actually the passengers view. Once I dropped it down a little bit everything worked OK.HTH- C

Thanks I will try this entry ("XMLVAR_PilotHidden"). Question - can it be done from the tablet in the payware version (removing the pilot's body from the VC view)?
 
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