Lagaffe
Resource contributor
- Messages
- 992
- Country
Hello,
Since January 2026, I have been working on a new project regarding the recovery of the "Flight Replicas" sources from their DC-4 to obtain an FS20 native addon at first, then I hope to be able to make a native FS24 version when it is sufficiently advanced.
Of course, this project has the agreement and assent of Mike "CYUL" initial designer of this DC-4.
Without wanting to compete with the Douglas from PMDG, the goal is to make it an addon with more features than the usual addons and to approach if possible a study-level.
This project is carried out by a single person.
The project is realized with Blender 3.6.x and the asobo plugin v1.3.3. For now, the textures used are those of the FSX version, but they will be fully taken over at the end of the modeling to use PBR textures that will be created with Ucupaint and Painter for Blender.
The DC-4 will be provided with a vintage and classic virtual cockpit but the C-54E should have modern equipment (radios, GPS, etc) to meet the various requests made of me.
The aimed version of the DC-4 is the commercial L-1009 and the C-54E will be provided in a cargo version.
The choice was made for versions with 8 fuel tanks. The 4 oil tanks of 20 Gallons in the nacelles as well as the 50 Gallons oil reserve in the fuselage are already modeled and will be managed in "real-time" so that they can have a permanent influence on the aircraft’s weight fluctuations during flight. This management is made in XML and javascript.
Currently, a beta version is already in use by a small team that tests these aircraft under FS20 and also FS24. Microsoft’s official forums are closely monitored to avoid any issues with FS24 that might arise from the fact that it is a native FS20 aircraft (internal reflections on the windshield in particular).
Here are some screenshots to give you a taste of what it will be in the future.
A comparison between at left the DC-4 and at right the C-54E
The L-1009 version will have a compartment for the crew that has been modernized
The C-54E has his VC done at 80% :
External effects are already realized, such as vortices at the back of the propellers in cold and humid weather or the flames in the back of the exhausts, which will vary depending on the mixing settings:
A lot of care has been taken to transcribe the particularity of these aircraft equipped with radial engines: the slow and spectacular starts of these engines.
The CTRL+E command makes it possible to carry out a start according to the manual, respecting the order of engines 3, 4, 2 and 1 while counting the essential propeller rotations as required.
However, Cold & Dark startup is also programmed yet.
As for my way of working, I mainly use the fspackagetools command for my compilations, assisted by the use of a handy utility: Q-dir, not to mention the creation of a Project structure for the files needed for the addon.
This allows me to optimize my development time while using the Quick-Reload menu of the SDK to test and improve my XML files. These are the main reasons that currently make me prefer native FS20 aircraft developments because unfortunately under FS24, this mode cannot be used.
If you want to follow the development steps more closely, I opened a feed on Sim-Outhouse:
Since January 2026, I have been working on a new project regarding the recovery of the "Flight Replicas" sources from their DC-4 to obtain an FS20 native addon at first, then I hope to be able to make a native FS24 version when it is sufficiently advanced.
Of course, this project has the agreement and assent of Mike "CYUL" initial designer of this DC-4.
Without wanting to compete with the Douglas from PMDG, the goal is to make it an addon with more features than the usual addons and to approach if possible a study-level.
This project is carried out by a single person.
The project is realized with Blender 3.6.x and the asobo plugin v1.3.3. For now, the textures used are those of the FSX version, but they will be fully taken over at the end of the modeling to use PBR textures that will be created with Ucupaint and Painter for Blender.
The DC-4 will be provided with a vintage and classic virtual cockpit but the C-54E should have modern equipment (radios, GPS, etc) to meet the various requests made of me.
The aimed version of the DC-4 is the commercial L-1009 and the C-54E will be provided in a cargo version.
The choice was made for versions with 8 fuel tanks. The 4 oil tanks of 20 Gallons in the nacelles as well as the 50 Gallons oil reserve in the fuselage are already modeled and will be managed in "real-time" so that they can have a permanent influence on the aircraft’s weight fluctuations during flight. This management is made in XML and javascript.
Currently, a beta version is already in use by a small team that tests these aircraft under FS20 and also FS24. Microsoft’s official forums are closely monitored to avoid any issues with FS24 that might arise from the fact that it is a native FS20 aircraft (internal reflections on the windshield in particular).
Here are some screenshots to give you a taste of what it will be in the future.
A comparison between at left the DC-4 and at right the C-54E
The L-1009 version will have a compartment for the crew that has been modernized
The C-54E has his VC done at 80% :
External effects are already realized, such as vortices at the back of the propellers in cold and humid weather or the flames in the back of the exhausts, which will vary depending on the mixing settings:
A lot of care has been taken to transcribe the particularity of these aircraft equipped with radial engines: the slow and spectacular starts of these engines.
The CTRL+E command makes it possible to carry out a start according to the manual, respecting the order of engines 3, 4, 2 and 1 while counting the essential propeller rotations as required.
However, Cold & Dark startup is also programmed yet.
As for my way of working, I mainly use the fspackagetools command for my compilations, assisted by the use of a handy utility: Q-dir, not to mention the creation of a Project structure for the files needed for the addon.
This allows me to optimize my development time while using the Quick-Reload menu of the SDK to test and improve my XML files. These are the main reasons that currently make me prefer native FS20 aircraft developments because unfortunately under FS24, this mode cannot be used.
If you want to follow the development steps more closely, I opened a feed on Sim-Outhouse:
DC-4 Skymaster
Hello, Another project launched for 2025-2026, concerning a port in native FS20/FS24 of the DC-4 Skymaster from the 3D model created by Flight Replicas (P3Dv5 version), of course with the authorization of Mike Pearson. Indeed in October last year I was very surprised that no one cared about...
sim-outhouse.org
