Microsoft Flight Simulator: Reno Air Races Teaser - gamescom

[Bomber_12th]

I don't have the Big Radials P-40, I'm afraid. The exterior looks nice, but the interior, based on the screenshots I've seen, lacks details and accuracy I would have liked to have seen. I know it must seem silly to most, but the number one reason I've avoided it is because it lacks the armor glass (or even support rods) on the inside of the windscreen, which no P-40B/C has ever been without, both in original service and as restored warbirds, so it is missing the characteristic view when looking through the windscreen.

 

[jankees]

If you locked yourself away & produced some of your 1st class liveries for the T6, I cannot foresee any reproaches from this forum.
T43

Locking away? mmm, we'll see.

But I keep tweaking here and there
jk10299 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

jk10297 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

jk10293 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

jk10279 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

and John, I agree with you on the P-40 and the armor glass, the cockpit just doesn't feel right like this.

 

[Javis]

Fantastic, Jan-Kees!

Possible to maybe add a little day-glow to a dutch Harvard ?

Thanks for considering!

 

[keithb77]

What we (Ok I) really need is an RAF Mustang II skin for the P-51A...please?
e.g. https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/image_viewer/p51_variants/raf_mustangs/29739421/93378043/6

 

[Handbag87]

No, their encrypted just like any other marketplace DLC planes.
Although I'm not really surprised on these ones as it would enable people to cheat in the multiplayer time trials and races.

Thanks DB, I wasn't aware of that and it does make total sense in terms of cheating.

 

[K5083]

I made the attached images as a ready reference for the different panels available for the P-51D, T-6, L-39 and Pitts S-1. Each image contains screen shots of all the panels with a key to which is which. The stock panel is always at upper left and the others are arrayed loosely in order from most stock/analog to most modern/custom/digital. Useful for when you know what cockpit experience you want, but forget which plane it's in, and don't want to cycle through them in the hangar.

And if you haven't bought the DLC yet and wonder how much variety there really is in the panels, here is your answer.

August

 

[Twice43]

I made the attached images as a ready reference for the different panels available for the P-51D, T-6, L-39 and Pitts S-1. Each image contains screen shots of all the panels with a key to which is which. The stock panel is always at upper left and the others are arrayed loosely in order from most stock/analog to most modern/custom/digital. Useful for when you know what cockpit experience you want, but forget which plane it's in, and don't want to cycle through them in the hangar.

And if you haven't bought the DLC yet and wonder how much variety there really is in the panels, here is your answer.

August

Many thanks for that, Very useful, & it shows the panel diversity in the Reno set.

As an aside, have you flown the Pitts S-1 yet?
I tried 3 different ones today & on take off all 3 stood on the tail wheel then did a wing over into the ground.
No problems with the P-51D, T6 or L-39
T43

 

[jmig]

I made the attached images as a ready reference for the different panels available for the P-51D, T-6, L-39 and Pitts S-1. Each image contains screen shots of all the panels with a key to which is which. The stock panel is always at upper left and the others are arrayed loosely in order from most stock/analog to most modern/custom/digital. Useful for when you know what cockpit experience you want, but forget which plane it's in, and don't want to cycle through them in the hangar.

And if you haven't bought the DLC yet and wonder how much variety there really is in the panels, here is your answer.

August

These are awesome! I saved them to my computer. Thank you for posting them.

 

[K5083]

Many thanks for that, Very useful, & it shows the panel diversity in the Reno set.

As an aside, have you flown the Pitts S-1 yet?
I tried 3 different ones today & on take off all 3 stood on the tail wheel then did a wing over into the ground.
No problems with the P-51D, T6 or L-39
T43

Yes, I love the Pitts. It's the only racing class I'm any good at, and I like the fact that you have to do a takeoff start as part of the race, that helps separate the pilots from the arcade racers.

Mind you, I also enjoyed the 2-seat Pitts and the Extra in the stock game. I'm sure that shortened my learning curve for the racing Pitts.

On takeoff, make sure you know what your trim should be. You have to fly it starting the instant you advance the throttle, and you can take off very quickly. Try using reduced power for takeoff at first, the plane has plenty of power to take off on low throttle settings, although if it's the start of the race, you'll want to floor it and blast off as fast as possible. It is twitchy on all axes and your safest place is away from the ground. On landing, get it really slow before touchdown. You should be touching down with the stick hard back, and I think the stall speed of the Pitts in the game is more like 40 mph than the 60 mph published figure. I have seen plenty of real acro pilots land the Pitts 2-point going pretty fast, but I can't do that with the Pitts in the game, it just won't roll in the 2-point attitude for long without scraping a wing or swapping ends. Could be it's excessively unstable or maybe I just need more practice.

My own preference in racing the Pitts is to qualify poorly, start on the second row of the takeoff grid, and catch up with the field quickly with a good takeoff and first couple of turns. You get a 4-second credit per starting row, so from the second row you can not quite catch up with the leader and still win. He's likely to think he's winning the race, seeing you're behind him and not realizing you have the credit. Meanwhile the sight of planes in front of you motivates you to push harder because you also forget the credit in the heat of the moment. The beauty of the Pitts is that it goes exactly where you point it instantly and loses little energy in corners, so you don't have to plan big sweeping turns.

If you're going to practice Pitts racing in time trial mode, use the plane "Second Hand." That is by far the fastest Pitts, you can tell by the fact that all of the top leaderboard time trials are with this plane. I think the multiplayer racing uses the Second Hand flight model, or something like it, for all planes so you should practice with that bird to get your timing right.

August

 

[K5083]

View attachment 85277What we (Ok I) really need is an RAF Mustang II skin for the P-51A...please?
e.g. https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/image_viewer/p51_variants/raf_mustangs/29739421/93378043/6

Agree! My preference would be for Hollis Hills' AG470 RU-M of 414 Sqn which got the first ever Mustang kill. POF's plane has been painted as his temporarily a couple of times, though not super accurately. And that horse head decal that's on the stock plane would actually be correct on AG470!

August

 

[ryanbatc]

I made the attached images as a ready reference for the different panels available for the P-51D, T-6, L-39 and Pitts S-1. Each image contains screen shots of all the panels with a key to which is which. The stock panel is always at upper left and the others are arrayed loosely in order from most stock/analog to most modern/custom/digital. Useful for when you know what cockpit experience you want, but forget which plane it's in, and don't want to cycle through them in the hangar.

And if you haven't bought the DLC yet and wonder how much variety there really is in the panels, here is your answer.

August

THANK YOU! I was starting to do something similar but yours looks nicer!

 

[Bomber_12th]

A slight problem with painting the P-51A is that the 3D rivets, spread across the aircraft, all share from a selection of just a few colors, and they are setup only for the default "Mrs. Virginia" texture. You can see this issue in Jankees' recently released repaint, where there are white rivets where there is no longer supposed to be any white paint (i.e., everywhere that there is white-painted markings on the Mrs. Virginia scheme).

 

[LouP]

No regrets getting the full pack here.

LouP

 

[grunau_baby]

The reno Air race packs didn´t appeall to me in the first place, but simply had to go for the single purchase T6 "almost perect" and the P-51A. Apart from the complete "troublefree" flightmodel of both and the unreal outdated look of the propdisc on the Mustang I also suffered from sticking trough pilothands and -feet with the t6.

Will try & figure what triggers the leggy emergency air brakes.

Even returning the choice of pilots to default didn´t help, Now there was no more pilot vissible in outside view. Same thing with the pits that came with GOTY.

But since I saw this reno-pilot in all those screenshots and didn´t see the guy within my pilot-choices I did finally succumb and simply got myself the "reno-base-package". AND YEP - the fitting pilot was simply part of this pack. Now he fits in nicely into the t6. Even though pylon racing I will very occasionally enjoy the purchase was good for also giving me the P51-D, the Albatros and the base t6.

So for now the dangling limbs on some additional reno aircraft might only be solved by chosing default pilot settings AND owning (at least) the base Reno expansion.

Happy racing.
Alex

 

[Javis]

I made the attached images as a ready reference for the different panels available for the P-51D, T-6, L-39 and Pitts S-1.

Brilliant idea, August, thanks very much! Well done too !

Is the Pitts any good at aerobatics you think ? Can it do a Knife Edge Pass ? (that would be a first in FS!). Waiting for Asobo/MS to integrate an Aerobatics department including Training/Instructor Mode like in Flight Unlimited. That was truly awesome! ( 27 years ago ! )

 

[K5083]

Is the Pitts any good at aerobatics you think ? Can it do a Knife Edge Pass ? (that would be a first in FS!).

I honestly don't know. I don't think I have the skill to do that maneuver, and although I have never been able to do a knife edge in the Pitts S-2 or Extra, I didn't know if that was because of me or the airplane. But all of the planes in the Reno module seem to be able to fly at extreme bank angles for a long time, possibly to a physics-defying extent, so maybe.

August

 

[ak416]

Personally, I think the Extra is better than the Pitts for Aerobatics, but neither are great. It's oddly difficult to do a hammerhead in either aircraft, for example.

If you want aerobatics, the Got Friends Gee Bee R3 Special is about as good as it gets right now. Flat spins, hammerheads, knife edge, you name it this thing can do it. It's also very fast, has a nitrous button to go even faster, smoke, good assortment of avionics and a fantastic 3d model.

 

[K5083]

A slight problem with painting the P-51A is that the 3D rivets, spread across the aircraft, all share from a selection of just a few colors, and they are setup only for the default "Mrs. Virginia" texture. You can see this issue in Jankees' recently released repaint, where there are white rivets where there is no longer supposed to be any white paint (i.e., everywhere that there is white-painted markings on the Mrs. Virginia scheme).

Interesting. I just had a look at the rivet texture files, and I think I see what you mean. You could change, for example, the insignia blue rivet to any other color you wanted, but all of the rivets that are now insignia blue would always have to be the same color as each other.

What if you just deleted (made transparent) some of the rivets in the rivet albedo texture? You'd still have the comp and normal rivet textures, so the rivets would still show up faintly in the right lighting, but they'd be the same color as the underlying paint?

August

 

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, I've been playing around with the P-51A textures this morning, and fortunately you can delete the 3D rivets, simply by blacking out the alpha channel for them (as you also can with the stars & bars and other decal markings). This is fantastic, as it will now allow for the RAF and XP-51 themed paint schemes I'll be doing. The impression of the rivets is still present in the normal maps (which I might work on creating some new ones, with correct rivets/panel lines).

I've got a basic polished metal paint scheme on the P-51A now, in the beginning of my process of working on recreating the current paint scheme and finish of Dusty Dowd's "P-51A" 43-6006, N51Z, which has been made out to look like XP-51 '1039'. Next will be the silver-painted elements, followed by the markings.

 

[Sundog]

Yeah, I've been playing around with the P-51A textures this morning, and fortunately you can delete the 3D rivets, simply by blacking out the alpha channel for them (as you also can with the stars & bars and other decal markings). This is fantastic, as it will now allow for the RAF and XP-51 themed paint schemes I'll be doing. The impression of the rivets is still present in the normal maps (which I might work on creating some new ones, with correct rivets/panel lines). I've got a basic polished metal paint scheme on the P-51A now, in the beginning of my process of working on recreating the current paint scheme and finish of Dusty Dowd's "P-51A" 43-6006, N51Z, which has been made out to look like XP-51 '1039'. Next will be the silver-painted elements, followed by the markings.

That's outstanding news. Anything you create I'll be downloading.