Aerosoft Pby Catalina Released

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

The PBY Catalina is most likely the best known flying boat. Designed in the 1930s it quickly changed into the best known PBY-5A model as the Second World War came closer and the need for a long range patrol aircraft was identified. Perfectly suited for the rough life at bases at tropical islands or on the Greenland coast it had a distinguished career saving sailers and airmen and spotting and attacking enemy ships and submarines. Their crews loved them as it was one of those aircraft that seemed to understand what you needed.

Our model is totally state-of-the-art. Both on look as in features. We are so confident on its realism that we actually include a 400 page operational manual of one of the few airworthy Catalinas. Check the extensive product pages to see the complete feature list and the demo video's.

[Heathrow 0]

That's are very cool sceens!!

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

That's are very cool sceens!!

It's a very photogenic aircraft.....

[darem 106]

I have a simple question:

HOW ON EARTH have you been able to produce so much system depth with such impressive framerates????? The Carenado Mooney has lower framerates than the Catalina!

Congratulations. That's an amazing release.

[Andy B. 40]

Now that is saying something as the Mooney from Carenado has better frame rates than many of the default FSX aircraft.

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

I have a simple question:

HOW ON EARTH have you been able to produce so much system depth with such impressive framerates????? The Carenado Mooney has lower framerates than the Catalina!

Congratulations. That's an amazing release.

I got to be very careful answering this as I do not want to pee of anybody, most certainly not one of our favorite partners like Carenado. But okay, here is the recipe.

• Hire a talented games modeler that does not really know FSX.
• Give him the FSX SKD
• Tell him not too get too involved in the existing FS developer scene but keep doing what he done for other games companies.

The result is an FSX aircraft that is not done as if it was an FSX aircraft but as if it would be for any game that you buy. Games where the managers hit the modelers for every polygon that is not totally needed. Games that have budgets hundreds of time the budget of this project was. In short, moving FSX addons from the hobby platform to a fully professional games level. The high end systems regarding engines etc take a lot of time (and love for the ideas) in developing but they don't hurt FPS. Your CPU is very good at handling the XML code we used, we did not even bother with C++ because it would just make it more expensive.

[767pilot 0]

I got to be very careful answering this as I do not want to pee of anybody, most certainly not one of our favorite partners like Carenado. But okay, here is the recipe.

• Hire a talented games modeler that does not really know FSX.
• Give him the FSX SKD
• Tell him not too get too involved in the existing FS developer scene but keep doing what he done for other games companies.

The result is an FSX aircraft that is not done as if it was an FSX aircraft but as if it would be for any game that you buy. Games where the managers hit the modelers for every polygon that is not totally needed. Games that have budgets hundreds of time the budget of this project was. In short, moving FSX addons from the hobby platform to a fully professional games level. The high end systems regarding engines etc take a lot of time (and love for the ideas) in developing but they don't hurt FPS. Your CPU is very good at handling the XML code we used, we did not even bother with C++ because it would just make it more expensive.

Well you seem to have cracked the 'code' so to speak.

I can think of another 5 aircraft you can get your games modeller to create for FSX.

I think I may be buying this aircraft this week. Appears to be an excellent model and so much different from the usual aircraft releases we see nowadays.

Keep up the good work!!

Graham

[JayKae 0]

I am astonished, I have tried it now for about an hour or so and my framerates are amazing and the depth of this bird.... what can one say other than an elongated WOW!!!! x 1,000,000. Impressive, most impressive. Thank you Aerosoft!

[gwolb 0]

Posted this on the OZX forum, to spread the word, WOW, amazing job guys!!!!

I just downloaded after reading some great post, and wow, is this a great plane, and amazing on the FPS, I have an old system that have locked at 20fps, and on external view its about 19.7 FPS, and internal view is about 19.2. As good or better than any of the standard default planes, and the sounds are to die for. Great job Aerosoft.

Couple quick pic's:

one more:

[hknsky 0]

Beautifullllll... One quick question:

On Web site:

System requirements:

....

Windows XP / Vista / Windows7 with the latest Service Packs (Vista not recommended)

....

Does that mean Vista at all or Vista with latest Service Pack, and why?

Thanks

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Beautifullllll... One quick question:

On Web site:

System requirements:

....

Windows XP / Vista / Windows7 with the latest Service Packs (Vista not recommended)

....

Does that mean Vista at all or Vista with latest Service Pack, and why?

Thanks

Check this: http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=25437

Basically what I mean with that is that it will work, but that there are problems with FSX and Vista. Always have been and always will be.

[piperpiper 0]

Great work, outstanding VC !

But...no internal shadows? sigh

[VPA159 2]

I have FSX and the Catalina installed on a Vista 32 bit system. Works like a charm. I'll look into Windows 7 next time I reinstall though.

No internal shadows? Isn't that a DX9 vs DX10 "issue"?

I'm EXTREMELY satisified with both the Catalina and the Aerosoft customer relations. Keep up the good work!

[davelee278 0]

Hi,

I love aircraft of this era and am very interested in getting this Cat (I have the Beaver X so am already aquainted with the excellent Aerosoft work) I have a question regarding the controls. Can either a joystic/controller switch or keyboard command be assigned to all of the controls in the cockpit? I have recently contructed some of my own cockpit controls using a joystick emulator card and the FSUIPC 4 program and want to be able to operate all of the VC controls with switches/ levers etc on my controllers. Is this possible with the Cat, or do you need to use the mouse to operate the non FSX standard controls? Using the mouse in a VC is a big immersion killer for me, hence the construction of my own swicthes etc.

Anyhow, next pay day is around the corner and Im very tempted!

Cheers for any help in this regard.

[JayKae 0]

Just letting you know, it works fine for me on W7 RC

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

I have FSX and the Catalina installed on a Vista 32 bit system. Works like a charm. I'll look into Windows 7 next time I reinstall though.

No internal shadows? Isn't that a DX9 vs DX10 "issue"?

I'm EXTREMELY satisified with both the Catalina and the Aerosoft customer relations. Keep up the good work!

We got rather bad results on internal shadowing in the VC. Had a nasty effect on fps even if self shadowing was turned off. Activating it REALLY hurt fps because the vc is detailed and very '3d' In an airbus there is not a lot that makes shadows but that weird complex shape of the Cat cockpit made it very hard. Now we done some market research and we found that only 25% of our aimed customer for this flies in DX10 mode and that a minority of them used self shadowing (for the FPS reason). The issue is not yet fully closed though as we now see a most people get VERY good fps so we might have a bit to play with. We'll see.

But to use self shadowing in the VC you need Vista/W7 and DX10 mode + FSX SP2 (or FSX + Acceleration).

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Hi,

I love aircraft of this era and am very interested in getting this Cat (I have the Beaver X so am already aquainted with the excellent Aerosoft work) I have a question regarding the controls. Can either a joystic/controller switch or keyboard command be assigned to all of the controls in the cockpit? I have recently contructed some of my own cockpit controls using a joystick emulator card and the FSUIPC 4 program and want to be able to operate all of the VC controls with switches/ levers etc on my controllers. Is this possible with the Cat, or do you need to use the mouse to operate the non FSX standard controls? Using the mouse in a VC is a big immersion killer for me, hence the construction of my own swicthes etc.

Anyhow, next pay day is around the corner and Im very tempted!

Cheers for any help in this regard.

No not all controls can be linked to hardware commands. This is simply because only standard FSX events that can be assigned to key commands can be used like this. So if FSX does not have the function (or it is not good enough) we have to make it in code and that makes it unreachable for control hardware. Of course most things will work fine, but things like the aux generator, primers etc simply need to be controlled in the VC with the mouse.

Nothing we can do really about that.

[davelee278 0]

No not all controls can be linked to hardware commands. This is simply because only standard FSX events that can be assigned to key commands can be used like this. So if FSX does not have the function (or it is not good enough) we have to make it in code and that makes it unreachable for control hardware. Of course most things will work fine, but things like the aux generator, primers etc simply need to be controlled in the VC with the mouse.

Nothing we can do really about that.

I thought this might be the case. I have come across similar issues with other makers of add-on aircraft. Still when payday arrives I will probably give this ago, I do love float planes, and a WW2 one at that! Will see what small lakes I can get this into...

Thanks for the prompt reply.

[piperpiper 0]

We got rather bad results on internal shadowing in the VC. Had a nasty effect on fps even if self shadowing was turned off. Activating it REALLY hurt fps because the vc is detailed and very '3d' In an airbus there is not a lot that makes shadows but that weird complex shape of the Cat cockpit made it very hard. Now we done some market research and we found that only 25% of our aimed customer for this flies in DX10 mode and that a minority of them used self shadowing (for the FPS reason). The issue is not yet fully closed though as we now see a most people get VERY good fps so we might have a bit to play with. We'll see.

But to use self shadowing in the VC you need Vista/W7 and DX10 mode + FSX SP2 (or FSX + Acceleration).

Thank you Mathijs,

I see, an fps issue...

But I hope to get just that "weird complex shape of the Cat cockpit" with Vc shadows; thinking at the real effect with the shadows turning around me while I turn the plane...

[markdon 0]

Looks amazing...any chance of an FS9 version?

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Looks amazing...any chance of an FS9 version?

No, not only because it is commercially not a very good idea but more because it is technically not easy. We would have to delete 3/4 of the aircraft to make it possible to compile the file for FS2004. We would end up with what would look like... well a FS2004... aircraft and we really believe that we should stay at the top of the developments. We would also look the additional sounds, most of the animations, bump maps, the advanced reflections, the flight model that is enhanced with XML code etc.

The amazing look you mention is BECAUSE of FSX, it's just that simple.

[MeatWater 0]

the sounds are to die for

Thanks! But...don't die

[dexdoggy 0]

Well, this is the one I was waiting for. So, was it worth the wait?

Absolutely! This is an awesome plane, in every aspect! Getting home last night I installed it with minimal fuss. Being a sook I decided to use the "standard" engine setup instead of the "realistic" option for the 1st flight! After a successful flight, I turned on the "realistic" option and was very proud to achieve start (eventually!) from cold-and-dark cockpit! Did have a couple of close-calls with engines quitting and spluttering, but managed (more good luck than actual management!) to get them started again before hitting something!

Highlights of this plane for me so far:

- SOUND! Engines just roar, splutter and rumble away beautifully!

- Opening windows and roof hatch. Always important for yelling "CLEAR"!

- Is it my imagination or does the windscreen get dirtier as you fly? I love it!

- Windsceen wipers! 2-speed even better!

- Having the Aussie VH-PDZ restored plane!

- Comprehensive manual.

- Best checklist ever! Very straightforward to use. And isntant!

- Beautiful cockpit! Every time I look to my right I go to duck my head under that big electric motor! (What is that for, btw?)

This ugly duckling is a true beauty! She displays real character and class. Fantastic for VFR, in all weather!

[Tobus 161]

DL'ed it last night and boy what a beauty! Did some VFR with the PH-PBY from EHLE, where the real one is being held in active service today. Simply stunning. Did a landing in IJsselmeer, did a full shutdown ... new startup ... now if I could only get the engines to go again . Back to the manual!!

What a great addition!

[FrankCarr 0]

It's a very photogenic aircraft.....

After trying it out overall I can say that this package is just great Mathijs!. The model rendering is beautifully done and the engine sounds are tops as are the procedures and realistic behaviour of the aircraft.

I have one suggestion for improvement however. The engine prop blur is done using the often used dark wedges approach. I find this somewhat unrealistic since it is not what one sees in reality. It is an artefact created in some movies because of the strobing effect created by the fps in the camera. The most successful prop motion in FSX has been done by the MAAM series of aircraft especially the B25 in my opinion. Perhaps an update of this aspect could be done. Otherwise top marks from me.