PMDG MD-11 BETA Progress Update

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Captains-It is Friday night- so I thought I'd give you a quick update on how things are progressing with the PMDG MD-11 for FSX beta test.BETA 3 went out to the beta team on Friday morning. This update serves primarily as a stability update, as this has been the main focus for the development team during the past two weeks. I've spent some time with this BETA- and it is significantly more stable than BETA 2, which was in turn an improvement over BETA 1- so the trend is in the right direction!We have been experiencing some strange behaviors that are intermittent and EXTREMELY hard to track with a standard beta tester error report. As you guys have learned from reading our posts during the past few years- the key to problem solving is the ability to duplicate the fault, so Michael spent some time developing an innovating fault logging process that collects data from our beta testers as they fly. This allows him to narrow in on areas where problems may occur within certain functions of the simulation.We've only just started to collect data, but given that this tool will help to direct attention immediately into some trouble spots- it is sure to save us quite a bit of time!We expect to issue BETA 4 mid way through next week- and we are anticipating that BETA 4 will be a good stable platform and then we'll be shifting focus almost entirely to fixing "various simple errors" the beta testers are reporting.So- overall it would seem that things are progressing nicely for the FSX version.I have no new updates on the FS9 version- other than to say that we need to lock down many of the major stability issues in FSX before we can even consider commencing testing in FS9. I saw some posts in the previous threads where a few folks were disappointed that the FS9 version was coming out later than the FSX version. It seems that maybe my comments weren't quite clear enough (or they were ignored in favor of the guesses a few folks posted in the thread?) but suffice to say that our goal is to bring these products out as closely together as we reasonably can.They won't release at the same time- and FS9 is a massively inferior platform that will require a number of capability reductions in the MD-11 and indeed FS9 might throw up some hurdles that we haven't anticipated yet... So while I can't predict how closely together we can get the release dates- but our preference would be to have that time split as narrow as possible.There was some discussion regarding performance under FSX- and generally speaking our beta testers are finding significantly better performance with the MD-11 in FSX than they have experienced with the 747-400. This is an overall good news trend, in our opinion.Possibly after BETA 4 we'll turn the beta team loose to begin sharing images and thoughts regarding this airplane. I'll also have more news regarding manuals and other essential materials for those of you looking forward to Initial Qualification on the PMDG MD-11!

[Chaos81 110]

Thanks for the news Robert. :)

[Jones 0]

Indeed Thanks For the Update Sir.Thank YouEric W. Joneshttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/1900driver.jpg

[Guest David Ketchum]

Robert,The lav nearest the L1 door is overflowing again - at least the last time I checked. Someone keeps putting a pogo stick in it???

[kamaz74 81]

This is Excellent news, thanks so much ;)

[Guest Mower]

Thanx for the report...it would appear that we are looking at a mid Sept release at the earliest is my guess.

[BelgianTiger_2 22]

Thnx for the heads up Robert!Really appreciate it that you take the time to give us some info about this long awaited product.Although there is one thing that i hope will turn out ok.You mention that you will try to release the FSX and FS9 version in an as close as possible time frame.I just hope it won't be that big,because everyone knows that when a product get released,the forum will be overwhelmed with questions and "user faults" (especially when releasing a product with a whole new system management and philosophy) that i fear that you will be more occupied with solving these "issues" then getting the FS9 version out the door.I hope there will be 2 teams that will cope with this.One for the support and another dedicated to the FS9 version.I don't see you postponing the FSX support until you release the FS9 version.I hope it's a bit clear what i'm saying here,and if you don't mind,i'd like to hear a suggestion from you how you will handle this :).Best regards,Steven

[Guest LCD1080]

>We expect to issue BETA 4 mid way through next week- >Possibly after BETA 4 we'll turn the beta team loose to begin>sharing images and thoughts regarding this airplane. I'll>also have more news regarding manuals and other essential>materials...Great, the middle of next week is Aug 20. If Beta 4 gets the thumbs up early during the week of Aug 25 then perhaps we can look forward to news about the manuals later that same week. Not that I'm anxious or anything :)

[mcbellette 145]

Robert, I realise you refuse to give expected release dates. That's fine. What I would appreciate an answer to is if I could ask whether at this stage of Beta testing you anticipate a release within weeks or months? I realise more things can pop up in testing, but could you tell us that much, please?

[Tabs 2,790]

We really honestly don't know Matt. Software development isn't an exact science and it's always possible something comes up that requires a lot of extra time to implement/fix.

[mcbellette 145]

Yeah, I realise that mate. I have no idea how to create an aircraft, so I can't say one thing or another about how to get it done. I was just curious as to where you guys stand with getting it finished, that's all.

[Guest Mower]

I would at least like to have manual if it's completed so as to start reading its 1400 pp.

[Marcel11 0]

Dear PMDG teamThanks for the good news.Does the manual include a step by step-tutorial?Thanks for your short answerBest regardsMarcel

[Guest Callmecapt]

Hi MattI will try to elaborate on this a little bit.I have been helping out in testing an add on aircraft that will be released hopefully soon. (Please, no one ask me what it is. It is a commercial aircraft that a lot of people will know.)One thing the developer of this aircraft is experiencing in spades is for every problem he fixes, 3 new problems arise. (and yes, it is the work of mainly 1 person) He was expecting a December 2007 release but it still is in beta and currently restricted to FS9. It was planned to be released for FSX as well and I have both versions but FSX is a very angry woman and hard to please. I know what goes into making one of these and add on developers deserve some kind of plaque on the wall of Microsoft HQ. These people are geniuses and I wish I had half the ability they do.Goran

[mburkhard 23]

Marcel,yes it does.Markus