17 December 2024
Welcome to Part Two of the Just Flight End Of Year Review 2024!
Today we step into the hangar housing our future aircraft add-ons and, of course, the first aircraft that catches our eye is the Tonka – the
Tornado GR1.
Whilst most of our development team have been focusing on the recently released RJ Professional, our modelling and texture artist has continued the seemingly never ending task of upgrading and refining the artwork on the Tornado. This is now complete on both the exterior and interior, bringing our Tornado right up to the cutting edge of flight simulation standards, including very accurate geometry, 8K resolution textures with life-like surface detail and a raft of other intricate details. We hope the screenshots below show the staggering level of detail our artist has accomplished here!
Our livery artist also continues to make good progress through the extensive Tornado livery list, with the German Air Force and German Navy being the latest operators to receive the paintbrush treatment. These Tornado IDS/ECR operators will boast with a variety of standard, display and tiger meet schemes, in addition to the plethora of Royal Air Force, Italian Air Force and Royal Saudi Air Force liveries that will also be included, all helping to tell the story of this much loved fast jet.
On the aircraft systems side, the Tornado GR1 will return to having a full-time dedicated coder in the new year, just as it did prior to the release of the RJ Professional. This will significantly speed up the development process and take us ever closer to our goal of having a high-fidelity fast jet in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The Tornado is an aircraft for which our development team has an abundance of passion and we hope that is reflected in the finished product. We'll be sharing more development updates on the Tornado as the systems coding, flight model, liveries and sound set continue to be refined in the new year. With regards to MSFS 2020 / MSFS 2024 compatibility, it’s still undecided which simulators we will be able to support with the Tornado, as this largely depends on the number of differences that we find within the SDK as development progresses. This is a decision we will have to take fairly soon, however, so we'll keep you informed once a decision has been made.
Keep an eye out here and on our social media channels tomorrow for Part Three of the Just Flight End Of Year Review 2024…
