After the recent announcement, the development team of Horizon Simulations has already made significant progress on their rendition of the Boeing 787-9 and Kuro 787-8 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. With so many frequent developer updates, the team was already able to clarify many changes to the community.
Table of Contents
General Information
Discord user davidn123 initiated the Discord post with general words regarding the development of the aircraft. Firstly, it was mentioned that the internal alpha testing of the 787-9 is already over and the plane is now in the beta stage.
Modelling
The 787-9 is already looking quite stunning with all the work the team has put into it. While there is still a lot to do, the plane from the previews already looks magnificent and many would say release-ready. However, it is just going to be more polishing work than development work in terms of the 3D model of this aircraft
Liveries
Max, who is behind the Virgin Atlantic livery shown in the previews, aims to make the liveries look not like they just came out of the factory, with a bit of wear and tear here and there. These small details add a lot to the immersion. The liveries team is still hard at work to bring as many great liveries upon release.
The team is still not certain of the number of liveries available upon release, thus, we are not provided with the exact livery list yet.
With the topic of liveries, there comes the topic of the paint kit for this magnificent version of the 787. The paint kit is according to davidn123 going to be available even before the official release of the aircraft.
Gear Compression, Flight Model
Both the 787-8 and 787-9 are getting new gear compression systems, changing the behaviour of the landing gear upon contact with the ground and on the ground.
There are more changes made to the flight model based on the feedback the team received from testers. However, not much specific information has been published yet on this topic.
Texturing
Lastly, davidn123 shared a word about the interior textures as well. The team is working on those in collaboration with MoreRightRudder, meaning that the cockpit also is getting custom textures. From the previews, we can see that the work done to those is astonishing and the difference is like night and day compared to the default 787.
The exterior texturing is also getting improvements, especially the engines and how the textures behave under various lighting conditions. At this point, Horizon Simulations is happy with how this all turned out.
Kuro 787 Compatibility With SU13
Kuro 787 received its update after the release of Sim Update 13, which brought the EFB to life in the default 787-10. Kuro is now compatible with this version as of version 2.2, and every user with the 787-10 can fully enjoy the Kuro experience as well on this latest simulator version.
Horizon Simulations 787-9 Release Date
As of now, a fixed release date is not yet known to us, as the Horizon Simulations team wants to keep all things internal and not rush the release and deliver an unfinished product.
Horizon Simulations wants to ensure everything is as polished as possible for the best piloting experience for such a majesty like the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
If you would like to read more about the Horizon Simulations 787-9, make sure to read our coverage of the previous development update.
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