A new release from Captain Sim:
One livery pack is also already available: Camel Livery Pack 1 – Captain Sim
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I love this thing. The visuals are absolutely exquisite, both the detail in the model and the detail of the textures. The flight model is also surprisingly accurate. Like the real thing, it has very effective elevators and rudder, while the ailerons are there mostly just to balance the rudder in a turn. And, like the real thing, you can’t take your hands off the controls in flight, as it won’t stay in a straight line for long. Also, true to the real thing, you’re not going to get anywhere much faster than about 80-mph in cruise. The engine/airframe performance and flight behavior all seems very accurate. No trim and no brakes, but the tail skid will slow you down. Short bursts of power and full rudder deflection needed in order to turn while taxiing, but it does it. The sounds are from the MSFS Curtiss Jenny which does provide a vintage-era spit/sputter engine soundset that I think is quite suitable-enough. Really, the only thing I can critique is the fact that the spinning rotary engine should be just as blurred as the prop, when spinning, since they’re both rotating at the same speed. Since it’s not blurred, the engine looks static in screenshots even though it’s spinning. That’s just a pet-peeve of mine. For $13, though, I really cannot complain. I hope that Captain Sim continues their line of WWI aircraft, I think they’re brilliant.
6 Likes
Does it work in msfs 2024?
It does work in 2024 as well, but being a 2020 model, you’re limited to 2024 displaying the aircraft with the default MSFS 2020 pilot avitar wearing a baseball cap. Of course if you just stay in the cockpit, you won’t notice any difference. In 2020, I’ve been flying it with one of the vintage pilots from the GotFriends Valor avitar addon.
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This looks pretty great. If it makes it onto the 24 marketplace I’d have to pick it up, and that’s saying a lot because I haven’t bought anything for flight sim in nearly two years.
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It looks brilliant & in the videos I have watched of it, it seems to fly like a Camel but I just can’t deal with the sound set. Rotary engines have a unique sound & also the blip noise. There was an add on from FS9 that was updated for FSX that had an awesome Rotary sound set, that Camel even had the castor oil smoke effect but the sound set really made that aircraft. I even used the sounds on an excellent DR1 model from FSX.
Here’s a link to the FSX version, I wonder if the sound set would still work properly in MSFS…
This is something I haven’t heard anyone get right in MSFS. I hope someone figures it out. The FSW Nieuport 24 has the same issue where the blip switch basically sounds like the engine is gradually cutting off and then gradually spooling back up. It should be nearly instantaneous.
On a whim, I swapped in the sound files from the Wing42 Bleriot XI, and it not only sounds better, the blip switch cuts the engine entirely like it’s supposed to. There are also assorted squeaks and rattles as you roll over the grass.
How do you swap sound files?
Assuming you own the Bleriot, first backup the two files in the sound folder of the Camel. Copy the files from the sound folder of the Bleriot to the sound folder of the Camel, then regenerate the Camel’s layout.json. Note: you want the sound files from the wing42_bleriot_xi variant; the ones from the Gnome and RIP variants do not work.
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Ah, cool… I am going to get the Camel, It’s too nice to pass on. In VR with all that texture & modelling detail, it’s going to feel real… I might try & see if I can get a better sound set for it, I don’t have the Beriot.
The visual modelling on this is near perfection. The flight model does lack the gyroscopic effects that the Camel exhibited and makes it feel more like a reengined radial example than its real WW1 counterpart. Having the pleasure of listening to Roger “Dodge” Bailey, one of the few pilots in the world to have flown a Camel with an original engine (The Northern Aeroplane Workshops reproduction aircraft which resides at the Shuttleworth Collection and is depicted in this package) One, of many, strange characteristic is that a turn left or right both require very nearly full left rudder and if not applied the aircraft can quickly move out of controllable flight. This model feel a lot, lot more docile.
Arguably, no developer has implemented the affects of a rotary engine yet so I’m not sure if it’s even possible. I hope Captain Sim continue with this WW1 line, love to see an S.E.5a or F.2b represented.
3 Likes
I wonder if there’s an editable setting in an XML file somewhere that accounts for gyroscopic precession due to prop rotation? If so, that number could be increased to account for the increased mass of an engine rotating around a fixed crankshaft.
P-factor isn’t the same effect, so adjusting that value wouldn’t really help.
I tried replacing the WWise sound files with the sound folder from the FSX Camel, and it works. The engine sounds better than the Bleriot, but the blip switch doesn’t work quite as well as it did with the Bleriot. There is still an immediate engine cut but there is a lower-volume background engine sound that persists. You lose the spatial effects too with the removal of the WWise sound set. Always a compromise somewhere.
I bought the Camel & messed with it last night, did the sound swap & I wasn’t overly impressed by either.
Seems like the FSX sound file doesn’t work the same as it did in FSX. When throttled back it did the whole stutter blip kind of effect & sounded really good, when I did the swap last night it didn’t sound that great at all & the Bleriot sound just isn’t right, smaller 3 cylinder engine on that aircraft. Maybe it’s the missing spatial effect that’s making it sound terrible at my end too, I use VR with the headset speakers. It’ frustrating as the sound is the life of the Camel.
I wonder how or if the FDE can be modified to a more realistic model… I’d say that CaptainSim have dumbed it down to make the plane more user friendly to the general simming community. It’d be great if they could do a clickspot in the cockpit somewhere to activate a more true to life flight model for those who crave the challenge of the fully simulated aircraft. It’s pretty good flying it in VR, the textures are really nice, the wood external paneling could do with some work on the reflective side as it’s a bit even & smooth looking but the graining itself is nice & the VC is brilliant. It’s a great product!
Did you just swap out the WWise sound files in the sound & sound ai folders with the .wav fsx files then use the layout generator to redo the layout file? Wondering if I’m missing something when I swapped them…