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The beta version of Draken 5.0 for Prepar3D 4.x has been delayed for a few weeks, and I am actually considering skipping the public beta and releasing the official version earlier than planned since the model is now very close to final status. The systems/gauges programming, exterior model and texturing work are almost completed, and what remains is some remodeling and animation of the virtual cockpit.

The screenshots in the gallery are from an early stage of development and not representative of the current quality of the model. I will add some newer screenshots as soon as possible.

Adding details to the landing gear. The devil is in the details.

Added a few screenshots of the new exterior model (work in progress) on the Screenshots page.

After a year-long delay, the new 64-bit Draken for Prepar3D v4 is finally approaching the beta stage. The first beta version will be released sometime next month (June 2019) and the final release is planned for the third quarter of 2019. 

Draken 5.0 includes the following improvements and new features:

• • Full compatibility with Prepar3D v4 (64-bit)
  • Much improved exterior model
  • High resolution (2048 x 2048) exterior textures with improved mapping for easier repainting
  • Improved interior textures
  • More and better modeled details in the virtual cockpit
  • Indvidually dimmable instrument and panel lighting
  • Realistic interior lights
  • Dynamic landing and taxi lights
  • New soundpack with improved interior engine sounds and startup/shutdown sequences
  • New sound module for interior sounds
  • New configuration module 
  • …and more

What it is and what it’s not

Draken 5 is designed for Prepar3D v4.x. It will not work with earlier versions of P3D or with any edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

Draken for P3D will have a small pricetag, it will not be freeware like the FSX versions. The beta versions can be downloaded for free but will be “watermarked” and have a limited flight time. 

Draken is a flight simulation and not a war game. The weapons in this version are modeled but not functional. There are third party solutions that can add fully functional weapons delivery systems to the model.

The 3D model is 15 years old by now and still built in Gmax, so visually it cannot stand up to newer models that are built in 3dsMax using all features in the P3Dv4 SDK. As with all previous versions of Draken, the focus lies on realistic flight characteristics and systems simulation. Remodeling Draken from scratch in 3dsMax is not an option at the moment.

The first beta version will be released within a few weeks. Stay tuned! 

/Thomas

A menu link to a webshop page where you could purchase Draken 5.0 has been present for some time for logged in users. This was only a test page that was supposed to be hidden for ordinary users, but was inadvertently made visible by a badly configured plugin. There is no payware version of Draken and version 5.0 has not been released yet. Sorry for any confusion.

The contact form on this web site has for some time been directed to a disused email address, which means that no messages sent through the contact form for (at least) the last 12 months have reached me.

I am truly sorry for this error which may have given you the impression that I am not listening, or that the project has been abandoned.

If you have any questions regarding this project or just wish to get in touch with me, please use the (now working) contact form.

Best regards  /Tom

After 3 years of inactivity and 18 months of silence, the Draken project is finally being revived with a new version for Prepar3D v4, to be released in 2018.

Stay tuned to this website for more information.

Since I do not have the time to maintain this website actively anymore it will be scaled down successively, beginning with the closing of the support forum today. There has been very little activity in the forum for the last 12 months and I seriously doubt that it will increase in the future. I have not been working actively on Draken for almost two years now, and do not even use Flight Simulator anymore, so I can offer very little help with it these days anyway.

For those of you who are still using Draken, I wish you all the best and hope that you are happy with it. Thank you for 15 years of love and support.

/Thomas

The website went offline for a day or so after a system update crashed a plugin, but now we are online again. I doubt that anyone even noticed the glitch.

Not much activity here at the moment, but at least the website is still up. I have no idea what will happen in the future with the Draken project, though. I will continue to support my addons for as long as people are interested in using them, but I have no plans for any further development.

Cheers all /Tom

On request from many users I have put together a stripped-down AI (non-flyable) version of Draken for FSX. It contains five LODs with about 30k polys in the highest LOD (compared to 75k in the full model) and – of course – no interior model. You can find it on the Download page (registered users only).

The AI version links to the sound folder in Draken 4.1, so you need to install the full model first if you want the original sounds.