The team at Leonardo Softhouse has released a new development post highlighting the upcoming update to the MD-80 series. A huge part of that update is the inclusion of PBR texturing, as well as the expansion pack of the MD-83 and MD-88.
The team has been working hard to ensure that they release an aircraft that takes advantage of the new technology found in P3D V4.4 and have successfully converted their external model of the ‘base’ MD-82 to take full advantage of the new PBR technique. As you can see from the below screenshots, the difference visually is striking to say the least. Equally, if it’s not something you want to use, then the load manager will enable you to turn it on / off with a mouse click.
As mentioned, the team are also preparing to release their expansion pack to the base MD-82 aircraft. The expansion will include the previously announced MD-83 and the MD-88 – both of which have been built with PBR in mind. There has also been a range of PBR native liveries created for the release of this expansion pack. It’s worth noting that these liveries are also backward compatible with P3D v4.3 for those not wanting to update. As mentioned before, the additional aircraft will include the same quality of depth you would expect, including accurate fuel burn, engine differences and more.
Furthermore, the expansion pack will also bring a brand new advanced icing simulation along with visible effects to the external model. This is a Preparp3D V4 feature only but will integrate with the Active Sky weather engine, along with GSX Level 2 with accurate de-icing hold-hover timings.
MD-83
MD-88
The team are keen to make sure that everyone who owns their aircraft have a set of complete features across the fleet. So the latest features such as advanced icing and PBR will be available for free for MD-82 users the same day as the expansion pack is released.
The team confirmed that the release will most likely be next weekend, after a series of successful tests with their beta team. It’s planned to be anyway, but as usual, there may be one or two hiccups along the way. We’ll let you know when it’s ready to be enjoyed by the wider community.
