Microsoft Flight Simulator: Reno Air Races Teaser - gamescom

[dcc]

I think this could be quite fun, I wonder if they'll be AI racers (?) (probably not) I think it's great to see these vintage planes get some attention as well as air racing, as racing and competition has played a vital role throughout aviation history.

- dcc

 

[DennyA]

I thought from the initial phrasing this would be the case, but Jorg verified this will be paid DLC in a recent interview.

No objection here. Looks like they're doing some seriously detailed content. And I assume the multiplayer improvements will be part of the core sim, with the racing part being the actual air race planes, scenery, and race scoring.

 

[K5083]

The most promising words I'm reading in the interview are: "You can fly these planes anywhere."

Hopefully confirming that the planes will not just be locked into the DLC but will be installed as normal planes.

I'll probably get bored with the racing after a few hours (as I did with watching real racing at Reno), but if it's priced rationally at all, I'll buy it just for the package of planes.

August

 

[dvj]

AK, that would be awesome if in fact that is what they were able to do with these aircraft models!

Re-watching the clip again, I've also noticed now that both the Strega and Voodoo models are indeed individually separate, with each having their own, correct to reality, uniquely designed extended/lengthened rear wing/fuselage fillets (airflow distributors), which again is unprecedented and absolutely fantastic to see the level of attention to detail. On Strega, they extend back all the way to the tail cone/fuselage production break. Also, in the shot showing Voodoo and Miss America flying by, although still unclear, it sure seems like they have modeled Voodoo's re-manufactured radiator scoop intake, which tapers forward more than the stock intake (Strega has a similar mod). This section on the real Voodoo is made from carbon fiber, as are the cowl formers and cowl panels. As I mentioned earlier, I'm really curious to see if they have the Joe Clark/Aviation Partners modified upper wing airfoil depicted on Voodoo as well (added prior to Steve Hinton Jr. setting the speed record a few years back) - I don't doubt it, since modeling that would be very simple compared to so many of the other more complex details they have clearly depicted very well.

In order to properly depict the Mustang's hydraulic system, I imagine there will be new code added as well (hopefully so). I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of a challenge it is to fly Voodoo and Strega, since they have such reduced visibility out of the cockpit (canopies just big enough to barely wrap around the pilot's helmeted head). The most highly modified Reno air racers over the decades have never been flown much, but usually just in the lead-up to and during the races, since so often the big modifications make them unpleasant to fly/not the kind of airplane you want to fly every weekend. I remember hearing about 'Rare Bear' in particular, and how it is never a good experience to fly because of all of the changes made to it for speed (where as a stock Bearcat is a favorite among pilots who have flown them). Over the years, some of the owners of the more stock Mustang racers will put modified canopies, radiator intakes and/or wing tips on them for the races, and then switch back to stock parts when flying the aircraft the rest of the year, and some leave them just as is, fully stock in and out of racing. There is also of course those who put racing-modified Merlins in them, just for the races, and others that continue to run stock (which won't get you to the gold race, but can win you the bronze and silver races). The fuel available at Reno is 160-octane, and this can be increased with additives up to 170-175 octane, which allows for the far higher power output/manifold pressures than normal (normal fuel for these engines today, at your everyday airport, is of course 100LL, which won't even allow a Merlin to run at max wartime/military power - fuel used during WWII was 130-octane and later 150-octane introduced in 1944, which cleared the way for 85-in MP WEP).

BTW, since we already have a Mk.IX Spitfire from FlyingIron, I thought it worth mentioning that Warren Pietsch took the Mk.IX Spitfire MK959 around the course in 2017, but of course didn't push it, placing last in the bronze race with an average speed of 270 mph (the entire bronze race that year was made up of stock warbirds from the Texas Flying Legends Museum, which are now all part of the Dakota Territory Air Museum). I've been meaning to do a repaint of that aircraft too, and I could very easily include a version with the the race #84 decals applied to it, as it had at Reno that year.

I'm impressed. How do you know all this stuff? ;-)

 

[jmig]

I just hope you can open the canopy. That would make me happy.

 

[K5083]

I just hope you can open the canopy. That would make me happy.

Well, now you're just talking crazy talk. You can have exquisite laser scanned 3d models, exact flight performance, and live-recorded sounds, but we all know that opening canopies is just not possible.

August

 

[MrZippy]

I just hope you can open the canopy. That would make me happy.

Easily opened can of peas!

 

[jmig]

Well, now you're just talking crazy talk. You can have exquisite laser scanned 3d models, exact flight performance, and live-recorded sounds, but we all know that opening canopies is just not possible.

August

So, how will I get out after ground looping and destroying the prop and engine? Just asking. I mean the owner will be mad and I will need to

 

[Bomber_12th]

Unfortunately the Reno Air Races addon for MSFS isn't scheduled for release until mid-November, but the real Reno Air Races are taking place this week, and I've seen numerous photos being shared on Facebook. Here are all of the Unlimited racers that are in attendance this year:

Sea Fury "Argonaut" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Sherman Smoot
Sea Fury "Dreadnought" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Joel Swager
Sea Fury "924" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Dennis Sanders
P-51D "Miss America" - owned and raced by Brent Hisey
P-51D "Goldfinger" - owned and raced by Mike Brown (this is the same airframe that used to be "Risky Business")
P-51D "Lady B" - owned by Fred Telling, raced by Michael Pfleger
P-51D "Blondie/Sparky" - owned by the Seghetti family, raced by Brant Seghetti
P-51D "Bunny" - owned by the Palm Springs Air Museum, raced by Tom Nightingale
P-51D "Speedball Alice" - owned and raced by Dan Vance
P-51D "Sweet & Lovely" - owned and raced by Jeff LaVelle
P-51D "Dolly/Spam Can" - owned by the Planes of Fame Air Museum, raced by John Maloney
P-51D "Wee Willy II" - owned by Steve Hinton, raced by Robbie Patterson
P-51D "Man O' War" - owned by the Ward family, raced by Ken Gottschall
P-63 "Pretty Polly" - owned by the Palm Springs Air Museum, raced by Patrick Nightingale

Obviously a number of these aren't going to pushed too hard around the course. This is the first year that "Sweet & Lovely" is competing, and I believe this is also the first year that "Man O' War" is competing as well.

Unfortunately, Dr. Robin Crandall's Sea Fury, "Sawbones", which lives near me, had to cancel this year, as did Dusty Dowd and his "P-51A".

Of course there is a large number of T-6's racing in the T-6 class. I've got a busy work week ahead of me, but still hoping to catch some race reports through the week and hopefully they'll have some live streams of the final races next weekend.

 

[Sundog]

That's why I'm so interested in the Sport Class now. Some of those planes are making over 400mph. I would like to see a home built class of using the WW2 engines. That way, they can leave the warbirds intact. I realize Rutan and Bob Pond tried that with the Pond Racer (Using Nissan racing engines), but I would just use the WW2 engines as we already know they are quite capable. In fact, I would like to see NG, LM, and Boeing make racers using those engines. It would keep their design groups busy and they would actually get to see something they designed fly. That tends to be a rarity when so many programs can take a decade to a quarter of a century to get going.

 

[ak416]

In the most recent Q&A, Seb (Asobo CEO) and Martial (Executive Producer) showed off some of the improvements that will be coming to the sim thanks to the teams work done on Reno Air Races.

Reno discussion and demo starts around the 18:00 mark: https://youtu.be/r6-2nGEXn0w?t=1077

- Improved rendering of bushes/grass at low altitude and high speed
- Improved ground effect in fast aircraft
- Vastly improved roll rate for appropriate aircraft (allowing for proper snap rolls in aerobatic aircraft)
- First steps towards adding wake turbulence, turbulent directly behind aircraft (will not linger on runways, for example)


Hopefully we get some new videos soon, I would love to see some cockpit footage and hear some sounds.

Edit: Just saw that the next Q&A is on the 20th of October and they will be kicking it off by "going into detail on the Reno Air Races" so that's exciting!

 

[YoYo]

No any improve of rolling on the ground for taildraggers? Lol, it will be funny!

 

[Naki1]

Sea Fury "Argonaut" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Sherman Smoot
Sea Fury "Dreadnought" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Joel Swager
Sea Fury "924" - owned by Sanders Aeronautics, raced by Dennis Sanders
P-51D "Miss America" - owned and raced by Brent Hisey
P-51D "Goldfinger" - owned and raced by Mike Brown (this is the same airframe that used to be "Risky Business")
P-51D "Lady B" - owned by Fred Telling, raced by Michael Pfleger
P-51D "Blondie/Sparky" - owned by the Seghetti family, raced by Brant Seghetti
P-51D "Bunny" - owned by the Palm Springs Air Museum, raced by Tom Nightingale
P-51D "Speedball Alice" - owned and raced by Dan Vance
P-51D "Sweet & Lovely" - owned and raced by Jeff LaVelle
P-51D "Dolly/Spam Can" - owned by the Planes of Fame Air Museum, raced by John Maloney
P-51D "Wee Willy II" - owned by Steve Hinton, raced by Robbie Patterson
P-51D "Man O' War" - owned by the Ward family, raced by Ken Gottschall
P-63 "Pretty Polly" - owned by the Palm Springs Air Museum, raced by Patrick

Pity the Yak 3 "Full Noise" couldn't make it this year ... actually a Yak 3 would make a nice MSFS model!

 

[ak416]

No any improve of rolling on the ground for taildraggers? Lol, it will be funny!

I don't really have any issues with the ground handling of taildraggers in the sim so I don't really know what you are talking about exactly. But, they do mention in this Dev Q&A and in the Sim Update 6 patch notes that improved ground handling is something they are working on.

The improvements/additions I listed above were made specifically because of the Reno Air Races DLC, not an exhaustive list of everything mentioned in the Q&A.

 

[Priller]

I sure hope that this will become available for us Steam users with an aversion of the place that shall go unnamed!

Dying to get the Ju-52, but I'm not buying through M$...

Priller

 

[ak416]

I sure hope that this will become available for us Steam users with an aversion of the place that shall go unnamed!

Dying to get the Ju-52, but I'm not buying through M$...

Priller

I wouldn't get my hopes up in that case. DLC on Steam is not done via Steamworks, it's all done via the in-game marketplace.

As a brief aside, this is likely done to combat piracy. DLC can be pirated and used with legitimate Steam copies of games using third party tools. You download the clean Steam files, replace a couple of .dll files and Steam will recognize that you are "entitled" to use that DLC.

I don't like it either, but them's the breaks.

 

[Priller]

I wouldn't get my hopes up in that case. DLC on Steam is not done via Steamworks, it's all done via the in-game marketplace.

As a brief aside, this is likely done to combat piracy. DLC can be pirated and used with legitimate Steam copies of games using third party tools. You download the clean Steam files, replace a couple of .dll files and Steam will recognize that you are "entitled" to use that DLC.

I don't like it either, but them's the breaks.

Whatever the reason why they do it (and I don't have that knowledge/info about pirating stuff), what I'm looking for is ease of restore after reinstall or crash. That is why I keep a full copy of my sim (community folder and official) so that after a crash, I can just copy back and things will be working. Call me old skool.

Redownloading every single addon is just not on. And I also think that we (the whole world) already give too much money to M$. For a living, I have to work with these people, and believe me, after a day of two meetings with M$, I need a shower, I feel dirty. M$, they're worse than politicians.

*getting off and dusting my trusty soapbox*

Priller

 

[YoYo]

I don't really have any issues with the ground handling of taildraggers in the sim so I don't really know what you are talking about exactly. But, they do mention in this Dev Q&A and in the Sim Update 6 patch notes that improved ground handling is something they are working on.

The improvements/additions I listed above were made specifically because of the Reno Air Races DLC, not an exhaustive list of everything mentioned in the Q&A.

The issue exists and not solved till now, here you can find more about rolling speed problem:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...h-MSFS-and-taildraggers?highlight=Taildragger

 

[DennyA]

Whatever the reason why they do it (and I don't have that knowledge/info about pirating stuff), what I'm looking for is ease of restore after reinstall or crash. That is why I keep a full copy of my sim (community folder and official) so that after a crash, I can just copy back and things will be working. Call me old skool.

You can do that with the Store install. Just re-download the small base game and point it to the folder where you restored your backup.

Redownloading every single addon is just not on.

You don't have to. If you've backed up your OneStore add-ons, the sim will see them when you point them to the restore.

And I also think that we (the whole world) already give too much money to M$.

I'm happy to spend some money to keep the new world regions, new features, and other stuff coming. Not sure where the anger at paying for products comes from here.

For a living, I have to work with these people, and believe me, after a day of two meetings with M$, I need a shower, I feel dirty. M$, they're worse than politicians.

As someone who spent 16+ years working for MS before I left, I can say the vast majority of the people working there are passionate about creating cool games, making computing more accessible, and bringing tech to the world at large. Yeah, there are some a-holes, as is true in any company with 100K people (or any city with 100K people, or any organization, or...), and I'm sorry you haven't had good experiences. There are people there that I don't like, but they are outnumbered 100 to 1 by cool, smart, enthusiastic people who just want to make cool tech and share it.

I've met Jorg and a number of the MSFS team members, and they're passionate about what they're creating and trying to bring us a cool product and make it even cooler over time. So maybe reconsider the disdain?

 

[Tom Clayton]

Or maybe reconsider discussions of corporate politics... Let's keep this thread (and the rest of the forum) about the hobby that we all love.

Thanks!