DHC-6 Twin Otter

More things are wrong than right with this, and one of the updates broke a couple things since the last time I worked on it, but I figured some people might enjoy it anyway. I wanted to get this a little more complete before releasing it, but I don't have a lot of time to work on it.

 

As some of you can probably tell, a lot of it is ported over from FlightGear. All mod assets are either under Creative Commons license or public domain, and a copy of the licenses and credits is included in the mod doc folder.

 

This mod includes a (horribly bad) EFM so you can land and take off from almost anywhere. If the nose wheel gets "stuck in the mud" you can get it out by going full power and rocking the wheel left and right.

 

One of the first features of the EFM you will notice is reverse thrust, so you can make extra short landings or reverse on the taxiway. 0% thrust is at 50% throttle, so keep your throttle centered on the ground if you don't want to reverse. Also avoid using reverse thrust in the air.

 

The mod also includes an extremely rudimentary damage model, so the Twin Otter can be shot down by other airplanes, but there is no visual damage (other than fire).

 

I don't recommend cold ramp start because the canopy close command is currently broken. The EFM also does not include startup/shutdown (but weapon damage can reduce the thrust of the engines). Lights don't work on the player aircraft so stick to day ops only. Fuel drain is sort of modeled (and drains too quickly) but nothing happens when you run out other than a couple caution lamps coming on. Also, nothing is clickable.

 

Basically the only thing you need to worry about is throttle, rudders, ailerons, elevator, and flaps.

 

Don't expect much, but have fun.

 

Download here: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1228636/

 

 

Edited January 18, 2015 by VincentLaw

WOW!! Amazing mate!! Georgian Airways skins we need now! Thanks for creating this mod!!

Very nice!

More to such mods.

good work VincentLaw

Been in them a few times...... weren't in them when they landed tho...

 

Looks good..

Getting it now, well done:)

Yeah, very cool! Even Flaps and Brakes are working :)

The first civil Aircraft, great!

Do you plan to further improve the Otter?

Is it very complicated to convert "foreign" Aircraft to DCS? - requesting Cessna Caravan :music_whistling:

Great work so far, thank you!!!

Edited January 18, 2015 by LNR212

Great..thanks for sharing

Downloading, many thanks!

It's a good beginning!

thank you bro.

Do you plan to further improve the Otter?

Plan, yes, but no guarantee on how soon I will update it. I started work on this over a year ago, just doing a little bit at a time. Next part in development is a simulated turboprop model, but it isn't ready for release yet. I have the turbine engine itself done but I need to model the propellers and the governor system.

 

I also plan further down the road to put the amphibious version into DCS. I've figured out how to detect when the plane is in water and I can simulate buoyancy forces from pontoons with an EFM. Don't expect that until after the new engine model (and maybe a new aerodynamics model). I kind of want to wait until DCS 2.0 anyway in case water detection changes.

 

Is it very complicated to convert "foreign" Aircraft to DCS? - requesting Cessna Caravan :music_whistling:

It depends upon where you get the model from. With the FlightGear model I had to convert the model to 3ds format, then reassign all the texture materials and build all the animations from scratch. Some FlightGear plane part models are centered at the origin with their position defined in separate files, so those have to be manually moved to the correct location. I also had to cut holes in the panel model for the instruments. Aircraft systems and flight modeling from FlightGear is obviously not compatible with DCS at all.

 

In any case, Using a prebuilt model is definitely faster than making your own, and it could be ported to DCS pretty quickly if you used an SFM, but as bad as my EFM is, the SFM was simply unacceptable for the Twin Otter. The DCS SFM does not handle STOL props very well at all and can't do field landings. Don't expect any other planes from me any time soon, but maybe some day once this is fleshed out (or if a third party puts out a nice high quality Twin Otter for DCS) then I might switch to something else.

Edited January 18, 2015 by VincentLaw

Thank you for your statement! Interesting read and maybe this is the first step to civil life of our "World".

Thanks for your afford so far!

This is an awesome mod, look forward to further development

Very nice!

More to such mods.

 

There is especially not enough planes of World War II: Ju-87, Ju-88, Ju-52,Messerschmitt Bf.110, Heinkel He 111, Spitfire Mk.V, Avro 683 Lancaster, de Havilland Mosquito, Boeing B-17, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Martin B-26 Marauder, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

Lot of work, many thanks!

Great!!!!

 

Thank you a LOT!!!

Guess I will have to pull it into the paint shop for some camo paint now..we are at war in DCS world you know..:)

 

Great work !

Lovely little aircraft which I tried to do a couple of RAAF/USAF/UK paint jobs on last night. Has anyone else noticed the underside of the horizontal stabilisers, they are a blue colour regardless of what colour you create, and the Tail itself, that shows a white cast in certain angles.

 

Can we reduce the specular shine in any way, anyone know how.

 

ps: If you look in the credits there is a link to the skins site, a few more in there. You will need to create your own skin file, but that is really easy to do, just copy the format from one of the others.

Edited January 19, 2015 by crazyeddie

Nicely done! Appreciate your effort!

Great!

 

I hope you don't stop here. :thumbsup:

Great project dude!!!

 

I think that this is only the Tip of the iceberg of the Civil aviation in DCS.

Great project dude!!!

 

I think that this is only the Tip of the iceberg of the Civil aviation in DCS.

 

I agree, in fact I'd really like to see a lot more Civil AI aircraft to fill out the commercial airports. McCarran is going to be crying out for them if it's in the Nevada terrain which IIRC I think it now is...

Fantastic work! Will download as soon as I get home ... you realise that you've just made history for the first Civvie plane in DCS?

 

<Starts to chant> ... A sandbox sim needs civil aircraft! A sandbox sim needs civil aircraft! A sandbox sim needs civil aircraft! ... and ... civil aircraft in DCS! civil aircraft in DCS! civil aircraft in DCS!!!!

DC3 would be a good next choice as it keeps both sides of the fence pretty happy

Has anyone some useful curve settings for pitch and yaw? I am finding it hard to keep level:helpsmilie::)

+1 rep incoming, thanks for this mod!