Captains!This post will cover a few topics releted to the upcoming release of the PMDG 737: Service Update 2....Most importantly: We have ceased the development of the Service Update 2. With many hundreds of fixes, and dozends of new functionality areas, this is easily the most sophisticated development project PMDG has undertaken to date.We are preparing BETA 65 to our beta team tomorrow for additional validation- and I am 99% confident that this will be turned around rather quickly as the final release version of the airplane!While the testing has been underway, we have been carefully examining the methods that we will use to distribute the update to you! After nearly a month of reviewing available options, we have finalized the process that will be used to get all of you up to date!Our beta team is very close to giving us a green light for product release, and the developers on the team will be finalizing a release decision during the next few days as well. Once this decision is made, we will prepare the release version and move it to the server.The new version of the airplane is 68MB in size, up from approximately 54MB for the release version.Based on customer feedback and review of our technical support files, we have elected to change the distribution method for the product to make it a single file download from our server. This will replcae the 4 file installation process that we currently have in order to promote a greater level of simplicity.Also- rather than issue a patch (it would be nearly 35MB) each customer will be downloading the full version install directly from our server.This will serve to simplify a number of issues and will ensure that each user has the slimplest, cleanest installation experience with the latest version of the airplane!This will also prevent something that i think most sim users are familiare with: Original Version patch patch patch mayhem..... ;-)At the time of release, PMDG will contact each user privately with access to their user account. This email will be sent to the email address to which you registered your purchase originally.You will use the account access provided to download the full version directly from your purchased user account!Now- there are a few things that will take place behind the scenes during this process:1) We will be limiting the number of concurrent users that will be allowed download access to the server at any one given moment. This number is actually quite large- but with many customers attempting to access the server during busy periods- you SHOULD EXPECT THAT YOU MAY NOT GAIN ACCESS TO THE SERVER IMMEDIATELY. (The alternative to this user-limited First-Come-First-Served approach is to offer download access a set number of users per day- which would mean that many of you would effectively wait a week for us to get to your account....you can see why we haven't opted for that choice!)2) You will receive your account information automatically. If your email contact information is outdated, DO NOT WRITE TO USE NOW as the email data has already been prepped for distribution... We will provide instructions for those of you who have changed email addresses when we actually release the update. (IF YOU WRITE TO USE NOW- WE WILL DELETE THE EMAIL WITHOUT ACTING UPON IT!)3) We will be providing a list of download manager software that is compatible with our server. We STRONGLY recommend using one of these programs- for your sanity as well as for ours!4) One of the many changes that will take place with this version is a complete update of the free liveries. We may wait a day or two after the initial SU2 release before making these liveries available- simply becuase of the load that the server will handle during the first few days. The server should not experience much difficulty, so if all goes well we'll make them live right away!5) It is important that you understand that this update to your 737 is a generation step forward. While some of you might prefer a seperate download patch we feel that redistribution is the best way to ensure the simple enjoyment of the airplane- and it will dramatically reduce the amount of support effort required to get the many windows/hardward versions through the patch process- thus increasing the amount of time we can focus on the next big PMDG product release (which is right around the corner, I bet you didn't know!)6) Above all else- we appreciate the patience so many of you have shown while we improve the airplane to match OUR expectations for it's quality and capability! We are sure you will enjoy the airplane in it's now form- and while we recognize that many of you wil be excited to download and install the airplane quickly- we remind you that it may take a small amount of patience during the download process- as your excitement is shared by many!We're looking forward to improving your enjoyment of our airplane during the next few days!We'll be in touch with each of you privately when the release time has come!

Sounds good! Hurry up though, I'm down to 6 valiums :)

Robert,You seem to have answered every one of my questions but one. Should we delete everything PMDG related we have prior to this install (from reading your post, it seems we should)?

Great news Rob! Thanks to you and the rest of the team for working so hard on this update for us all. :)

And yes you guys read that correctly - we are currently testing the *65th* beta build of the airplane since the start of SU2 development! This is a colossal effort here - you guys are really gonna like what we've done to her... ;) :DRyan

Sounds excellent! Thank you Robert! (and thanks to the rest of the PMDG team too!)

Salivating just waiting ;-)Cheers,Danny Vickers :-waveAdelaide, Australia

This update is a little like waiting for Santa to bring prezzies....The best option for all PMDG fanatics is to sleep for the next three days and wake up and walla! the update will be sitting under the tree.Thanks Father Christmas, St Nicholas, Santa Claus etc,etc......this will be one hell of an early;) christmas present.My wife is gonna love the holidays (cause I'll be busy with my new toy!)Seasons Greetings,Travis WaycottBrisbane, Australia**Santa in Speedo's, now there's a thought!!**(I thought you'd like this one Johhny)

:-lolWe should have got her a new toy when in the Valley earlier.. so then she could amuse herself while you play with yours :-lol

Sounds great and I can't wait to get the new update!Will the new SidStar database be included with the update or will we have to download that seperately? If so, will they be released immediately or will we have to wait a few days like with the liveries? You know you could just release the SidStar database now for us to download ;-)Thanks a bunch! ~Liam

Johny,she prefer's "the real deal" hence I don't get to fly as often as I'd like...........:-lol :-lol :-lol :-lolStrike 2......Travis WaycottBrisbane, Australia**Third strike and I'm out****Geoff Huegill, world record 50m Fly, 00:23.44, 27 July 2001, World Cup Champion Fukuoka - AND SPEEDO SPONSORED**

Umm, As of right now it is included, I ma not sure if this is gonna change, I doubt it will ;)[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/betaimg.jpg

I cant wait...this is going to keep me up at night!!!Brian

thanks for the fast reply Randy!do you know if all the gate positions are included for every airport? If so, are they only for FS2004? i hope theres some for FS2002! (havn't upgraded yet :-()Cheers, Liam

No I do not think so. You CAN make them though ;). Terry Yingling has a wonderful new tutorial for the new syntax so you can gate yourself happy ;) With no IRss for SU2 it just serves no purpose at the moment.[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/betaimg.jpg