COWS (short for ‘Creator of Worlds’) have released a new trailer, titled “Magic” for their upcoming DA42-VI for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with a release expected in the next few weeks.
The trailer, which comes in at just 50 seconds, gives a good sense of the level of visual detail we can expect to see on the famous twin-prop Diamond aircraft, used widely by flight schools and private pilots alike.
The project has been underway for a little over 2 years now, although initially slated for a release in X-Plane 11. Since then, the team have transitioned into MSFS and now intend to release the aircraft on both the MSFS and X-Plane platforms.
Speaking to FSElite following the release of the trailer, team member Mitchell said: “At the time we started this project, I was in commercial flight training. I had a few hours on the DA42 but not exclusively working on my multi rating. Jacob, our programmer, was. He was working on his commercial multi in the DA42. Essentially we pitched the idea of wanting to make one for the simulator to help ourselves practice for the checkride.”
“In the end, it did help Jacob obtain his multi, not me though. I’ve just finished my CFI license. So being a good instructor, I had the idea of shifting our goal towards making this for students. Using our real world DA42 experience, we knew what the airplane felt like. That was really important for development.”
“Searching through the [MSFS] SDK and stuff was a hard transition, but we found Tommy, who created the popular DA62X mod, he joined our team and the FS version then expedited. Given I’d already finished the model at that time, it was quicker to build the MSFS model than X-Plane. The Working Title G1000 is incredible, too.”
In a message on the team’s Discord server revealing the new trailer, Mitchell said “You can expect to see the DA42 in your hangars pretty soon in the coming weeks!”
FSElite will update on the DA42’s progress and release as the information becomes available.
