New Release: dc-designs-pt17-stearman

I think these questions will even out over time. Right now in year one MSFS and the 3rd party developers are still trying to get their ‘sea legs’ and figure out both the simulator AND the customer base. We have an influx of raw ‘cadets’ as it were and I think everyone needs to recalibrate. Or at least they think they do. I would tell them that they should just try to get things as close to actual fidelity as possible. You can always rely on what’s right -but not always on what’s popular.

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And, sadly, that which enhances the bottom-line the most is not always right.

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It is for the developer :slight_smile:

However, I do sympathise with both sides of the debate - those who want their realistic Stearman, and those who want an easier ride for entertainment. We could add an extra model with its own flight model for greater realism, but it all gets a bit messy in the end and creating controller profiles for airplanes isn’t all that hard really.

I will think about all this though. The Stearmans are a nice and stable package but they’re due an update for later this year which I’m planning at the moment. If I can introduce something new to it that satisfies all users, I will :+1:

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Nice little plane for 6€ (discount + some JF store points), will make fine replacement for the Asobo Savage Cub as no-nonsense VFR plane as I wait for A2A Cub (or similar).

Hard to find such great value, today!

That’s great to hear that you’re thinking about another update! Would it be possible to update the flight model to support the new CFD and propeller physics that Asobo recently added to the game? I haven’t seen any other biplanes get updated yet, and I wonder how the stacked wings would respond to the new physics.

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Quite probably, but we have not had time to investigate the new prop physics yet.

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Does MSFS even properly model multiple wings? I seem to vaguely recall someone ages ago saying it was like FSX where only monoplanes were actually simulated and to model more wings you had to fudge about with the numbers a lot to get it to act like a biplane or triplane. Or was that someone’s uninformed musings or possibly a fever dream?

Looking forward to any updates that might be coming to the Stearman in future. I hope the joystick can be centred properly one day as it’s a bit wonky right now. Also the lining/padding on the sides of the cockpits could do with improving as it kinda reminds me of foam pipe insulation at the moment. Unless that’s the intended effect then I guess it’s well done! I’d also really love to have the option to hand prop the engine. There’s some other addons that let you do this and I think it’s pretty neat. I guess it’s just a click zone on the props mapped to a started switch or something basic like that, so it’s all smoke and mirrors, but hand propping just feels right on an old bird like this and is cool to see. Also some smoke effects from the exhaust on startup would add a lot.

Some more variants with different engines would be awesome but I guess to do that properly would require new audio which I imagine would be pretty costly and out of scope for an update but a boy can dream. Dreaming of crop dusting too! These could be done with a paid addon I suppose. I wouldn’t mind paying for more Stearman stuff but dunno how well that’d sell. FSX and P3D had a few planes with paid addons but will that still fly in the brave new world of MSFS?

I know you have a fair bit on your plate already with a fair few planes in various stages of development but have you thought about doing some more old biplanes at some point in the future?

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Some great ideas in there! The thing is though, the Stearman is a budget airplane, which I created as a lead-in to my others so people could buy a low-cost DC Designs airplane, and decide if they liked my way of doing things. It’s never going to have a large number of variants or multiple sound packs etc as if I did all that, the price would have to go up.

I’m sure others will take on the Stearman in the future with much more in-depth projects that will have more variety in them.

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It was actually buying this Stearman that got me to buy your F-15 and Concorde so mission accomplished with that! I do remember arguing with you a bit back in the early days of this thread but decided to give the Stearman a shot anyway as the price was good and was quite pleased with the result and so you were proved right all along :wink:

Even though the Stearman is intended as the budget ‘gateway’ product, so to speak, I actually fly it a lot more than I do the Eagle or Concorde. I fly it quite a fair bit compared to quite a lot of my planes actually, she’s just real fun to fly especially for short jaunts around local airfields or a spot of sightseeing or pretend crop-dusting.

I’ve bought dozens of addons for this sim over the past 2 years or whatever, a mix of expensive complex beasts and budget simple stuff and everything in-between and while I really do appreciate the more complex and detailed stuff I find myself, more often than not, just wanting to get up in the air with minimum fuss in something simple and fun and not having to worry about much else and the Stearman is one of my go-tos for that.

So cheers for the Stearman and for providing me with hours of entertainment. :+1:

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There’s no way I wasn’t going to buy the Tomcat and the Concorde… the Stearman was a “well, the Tomcat was awesome, so this probably is too” buy, and was one of the most pleasant surprises out of everything I’ve bought for the sim. (Which is a lot.) At that point, the F-15 basically sold itself… (And the F-16 became a no-brainer as well.)

The Stearman is wonderful. I’m okay if more variants are added, but only if the current one isn’t changed, as I love it.

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I’m just gonna park this here - not for any particular reason other than it’s just a beauty example of a nicely modified Stearman

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I think, for those of us with unencrypted versions, a couple of lines to comment/uncomment out for realistic vs arcade would be good enough. For those on X-box, though, I get your point about a different model. Especially because then you’d either have to duplicate all the liveries, or people would complain their favorite livery isn’t accessible.

Things to keep in mind: more features might attract new customers and the old customers of the “beginner” category might be ready for the next step in evolution as well.

Sooo … investing in some upgrades might be worth it. :wink:

My Stearman had been neglected while I’ve been playing with newer toys, so I decided to start her up for a quick sightseeing flight. I forgot how much I enjoy flying this plane in VR! She’ll be getting a lot more of my attention from now on. :slight_smile:

@DEAN01973 and team - Thank you for your continued efforts in making her even better in the future.

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I own several payware planes, but the Stearman is one of the very few I really like and fly with joy!
No other radial powered plane in my collection represents the feeling of a radial engine better! (Although it is closely followed by the Goose…).
I like cruising along the countryside and dipping into valleys and exploring them!
Perfect aircraft for the western coast of the US!!

If it even gets better in the future… mind blown.

Just to chip in that the Stearman is one of my “most flown” as well for all of the reasons other people have given, plus it has been the perfect aircraft for testing our CAM5 air mail beacon scenery add-on.

Looking forward to whatever updates come through.

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Well, Stearmans are quite capable of aerobatics; even the stock 220hp aircraft do just fine. Just not the snappy, high energy acro of something like a Pitts or Extra. It’s all about energy management and understanding that maneuvers are going to be slow, and bleed a lot of that energy. If you do it right, a loop or roll can look graceful instead of lumbering. That’s why it’s fun… maneuvers that are brainless in more capable aircraft require some artistry to end up looking and feeling good in a Stearman. But it can be done ;).

I don’t fault any dev for listening to customer feedback and giving people what they want… that’s actually pretty admirable customer service and not too common these days. It would be different if anyone using the Stearman was rigidly stuck with one flight model, but since this sim makes it so easy for users to adjust things like control sensitivity… meh. Flight models are pretty user-tunable.

FWIW, my experience is that extremity dead zone is the magic setting for adjusting control sensitivity / effectiveness. You don’t want curves or dead zones, and the “sensitivity” setting seems to be more like another curve. But extremity dead zone does it right!

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I was just watching the airventure live airshow feed and saw Vicky Benzing performing in her Stearman. I happened to be flying the aerobatic Stearman in MSFS at the time so I tried following along with her routine. I was surprised that the aircraft was responding basically identical to hers. I was able to keep up with her and it reacted just like hers. Super impressed.

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CodenameJack is very good at his job, folks

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