Why so many initial problems?

[Angelo Cosma 61]

Having been out of the country on vacation the past month and a half, I have been following the forums to keep tabs on whats going on, and by the looks of the NGX is out (Duh) but there are also a whole slew of problems associated. Let me be clear, this post is not meant to rant, flame, argue, or talk down to the developers, please don't turn this into a flame thread. It just perplexes me as to how the NGX went through such an intense, and rigorous pre-release testing process to help reduce / eliminate what so many people are having issues with here today. Some small issues such as the Radio Altimeter, Thrust Spool rates, and certain low performance issues I can understand as these are expected with almost any new release. But what seems like the most frustrating problems are the Panel Freezes, Some reports of not being able to complete 90 minute flights without a Crash to Desktop, and a whole slew of other problems resulting in OOM's, CTD's, and otherwise situations that prevent enjoying the NGX to its fullest. I know PMDG is disappointed with so many problems being discovered after release when the OK by the team was given it was, "safe for flight." My question is how do so many of these problems slip past, when PMDG's goal was to release a trouble free aircraft? I am returning home in 3 days and fully look forward to purchasing this wonderful aircraft when I get home, It just saddens me a little, that everyone that already purchased this plane is having difficulties with it. I hope these issues get ironed out as time goes by, I guess we just have to remember the caliber of this simulation, and remember that this plane is doing things simulation wise that no airplane has ever done in the history of flight simulation. With that being said I can't wait to get home, PMDG you guys are great, I have no doubts that all this nonsense will be eradicated, and we will have a really great airplane!

[Guest Tamadeez]

this may be so however there is absolutely no doubt PMDG are working there &@($* off to fix these issues. All you can ask for :)

[KeithyGeorge 1]

With any software development you get issues. Lots of them.Fact is this release is superb. A masterpiece.Lots of people also have no issues.

[Ioan92 63]

You just can't release something perfect, unless you are some sort of deity or something.

[WotanUK 289]

I don't think that there are many problems. Don't forget that only the people with issues are here talking about the issues they are seeing. Personally i haven't had a single CTD or panel freeze. In fact the aircraft seems more stable (for me at least) than the stock FSX aircraft.Problems i have experienced are more down to my config or hardware. My saitek throttles are rather jumpy (nothing to do with the NGX), i attempted to get 4.7 out of my 980x, that didn't end well. I did rebuild my fsx.cfg, not sure if that made a difference, but i like to do it every so often.

[rquick 19]

You may be jumping the gun a bit in your assessment. I've spent a lot of time with the NGX and haven't had any issues with it as far as something being wrong with the coding of the aircraft. My only issue is performance, which is an FSX issue in general. Generally, you won't hear much from people who are not having issues, so reading a support forum can give a skewed view of the overall picture. Those that don't have cutting edge hardware, mainly in terms of CPU and then overclocking, tend to wind up asking for more than is possible and get very frustrated along the way.

[Marcel11 0]

i agree, but after passing a such wide beta team, to much issues. Just my opinion. Sometimes I feel we as customer are now the extended wide beta team. After installed the NGX since several days ago, anyway I'll wait to begin to fly it till a SP1 resolves all this main issues. I'm shure they will handle it in the next few days.Regards Marcel

[WotanUK 289]

i agree, but after passing a such wide beta team, to much issues. Just my opinion. Sometimes I feel we as customer are now the extended wide beta team. After installed the NGX since several days ago, anyway I'll wait to begin to fly it till a SP1 resolves all this main issues. I'm shure they will handle it in the next few days.Regards Marcel

What issues are you having?I don't feel like an extended beta team...not like most of the main stream game releases now. I can't remember the last game i got from EA that worked without the first patch!

[Graubart 3]

.... that everyone that already purchased this plane is having difficulties with it. ..

Sorry, but how do you know ? At least this thread tells something different! Sure might there by some issue like with every other high complex software. And not everything can be detected through beta test. But I'm also sur, that man issues are no issues, because: 1. Most people think, that they know what they are doing ("I know what I'm doing, because I'm a experienced simmer", "I'm used to fly complex aircraft", "in other aircrfat it works, why not here"......). This is the biggest mistake. Start from the scratch like a newbie that never ever has flown such a complex aircraft and you will be successfull. Same applies to "old" PMDG users. This also means, that you have to read that fu..ing manual! RTFM 2. Many people are overstrained. They bought the most complex aircraft addon available and even don't know what RNAV means! Yes, I've seen many questions like "I've a problem with the NGX... and btw. what is RNAV" here and at other forums.

[WotanUK 289]

2. Many people are overstrained. They bought the most complex aircraft addon available and even don't know what RNAV means! Yes, I've seen many questions like "I've a problem with the NGX... and btw. what is RNAV" here and at other forums.

We all started somewhere. Hell i remember not knowing how to land the default Cessna. Forums are places were people can ask those type of questions. Who enjoys reading the manual when you first get a shiny new plane? Perhaps later, but hell even now i remember feeling like a kid at christmas when the NGX was released, i certainly didn't read the manual until later.

[Jason.A 2]

Seems a solid release considering the enormous gap in complexity that exists compaired to any other FS add on to date. Another possible factor is (an assumption) the large percentage of people here running systems that are near extremely overclocked, even Nick over at AOA was getting bluescreens on his 4.5ghz overclocked 2500k although ive not heard the reason i can assume its the overclock not being stable as Win7 rarely bluescreens from software errors. Also, this is a support forum.

[Angelo Cosma 61]

Sorry, but how do you know ? Many people are overstrained. They bought the most complex aircraft addon available and even don't know what RNAV means! Yes, I've seen many questions like "I've a problem with the NGX... and btw. what is RNAV" here and at other forums.

Okay you do have a valid point, I have been so eager to fly the NGX and can't because I am still away from home, so I have been reading the forum a lot, and I guess all the topics about this problem, and that CTD, kind of put me on edge. Like another poster said, "you wont see topics being created when there is nothing going on and everything runs fine..." very true. I also appreciate what Mopperle said, people claiming to know it all and then ask about RNAV, great analogy!

[martin-w 3,235]

You call this a lot of issues? No, it's not!!! PMDG can test, and they can test, and they can test some more... but they will never be able to simulate the almost infinite variability in systems and components once the product is released. At 53, I've been simming a long time, and I can tell you I am very surprised that there are only the handful of issues we have seen. I would have expected many times more issues with such a complex product. just imagine how many issues there would have been if PMDG hadn't been so diligent. Martin Wilby

[JaneRachel 515]

i agree, but after passing a such wide beta team, to much issues. Just my opinion. Sometimes I feel we as customer are now the extended wide beta team. After installed the NGX since several days ago, anyway I'll wait to begin to fly it till a SP1 resolves all this main issues. I'm shure they will handle it in the next few days.Regards Marcel

not a single member of the beta team saw any panel freezes with their hardware and FSX setup, so we could not report what did not happen to us. What we cannot do as a beta team is diagnose how the aircraft will run on everyone's hardware and FSX. People vary widely with what they have installed in FSX and there are so many permutations of PC hardware it is impossible to test with them all. I reiterate, none of us saw any panel freezes in wide beta in any shape or form and only a small minority of people are seeing this issue now. The team are working hard to resolve it. As an example I flew from Boston, to Manchester UK yesterday with the NGX and had no issues whatsoever and I have not yet installed the hotfix on my machine, just the release version of the aircraft. I am not saying there is no issue, just that it did not affect any of the team or beta group on their machines. You cannot respond to an issue until you know it exists. Panel freezes aside all of the issues so far reported have been very minor and to be honest, there are hundreds of thousands of permutations of aircraft state so with the best will in the world, the developers or beta group would not be able to catch everything with an aircraft of such extreme complexity. Well perhaps, if we had stayed in beta for another three or four years ;) The team are being very responsive to all feedback to address all issues. What more can you ask of the guys really? JR

[Themis 0]

Hi,There is no software bug free. Even the multi-million sims, and the real planes need updates because they have bugs on hardware and software (with wider beta test team than PMDG). When you program such a complex and in depth aircraft it's impossible to not have any problems and bugs. Have in mind that we are not talking about "closed boxes" of hardware with specific operating system running. Here we are talking about PCs with various of configurations, operation systems, and programs already installed. There are so many parameters that are waiting to cause problems. I'm from the lucky side that I haven't got any problems with the NGX, but good news is that PMDG listen and trying tom resolve them even if they must trigger other software companies (Flexnet etc).Just my 2 cents,Themis KatakalosLGAV