PMDG 737 NGX Shared Cockpit?

[sbclark 55]

Last year, probably some number of months after introduction of the 737 NGX, there were several discussions about the possibility of adding the feature of “Sharing the Cockpit” with another pilot.

 

Using TeamSpeak or some other voice com, it would be possible for a Captain and First Officer to pilot the 737 NG together, sharing cockpit duties.

 

Is this project still under consideration by PMDG?

 

Bill Clark

[JazzPilot 0]

I'd also be interested to know if there is any progress regarding this feature.

[lodestar 186]

That would be great. Anyway, only developers of Leonardo Maddog managed to make a stable multicrew. This is a real challenge!

[JazzPilot 0]

Actually, if I remember correctly (correct me if I'm wrong, can't guarantee that this is true), FSL A320's pro version will include it if everything works out. But as I said I'm not quite sure about it, I don't remember where I read that.

[lodestar 186]

I think you are right, pro version will be more expensive and not for fsx - only for P3D i think

[aceridgey 330]

I think the latest, is we're waiting on news, it hasn't been written off just yet

[lowlevel 0]

One feature to rule them all. To be honest, this is the only missing thing from the top tier simulated aircraft as a whole. If we can have the NGX and later aircraft with shared cockpits, that will truly revolutionize the simming again.

 

Fingers mega-crossed for this to be in NGX patch 2.0

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

After a few discussions (albeit a while ago) with PMDG, I don't think it's likely that we'll see this with the NGX. As I recall, it boiled down to a tradeoff between high quality graphics and shared cockpit, though a few other things also came into play.

 

But the lads at PMDG have always surprised us!

 

How about it Ryan, any chance of this?

 

 

Dave

[lowlevel 0]

I know maybe there are easier things to implement but when you think of it, a decade in modern simming (FS9+), only one aircraft has shared its cockpit properly, namely the Leonardo Maddog. Recently, Flightsimlabs announced they will have it in their upcoming A320, but only in the professional edition which is still not clear if would sell to end users or to flight schools and such. Given the lack of multi-crew aircraft on the market (at least for MSFS, I don't know how it is over at Xplane), one would assume that pairing a best-in-class products like the NGX / T7 / 727v2 with a unique feature raising the immersion to new never-seen levels, this will sell like there's no tomorrow.

 

Given the current market outline, surely PMDG is one of the few developers who would have the resources to pull it off. Just think of it - modern tube liners are not meant to be flown by one person. Yea, of course we do it on a regular basis when simming, but it's very far away from reality. The sales of multi-crew enhancement add-ons like fs2crew prove it. I really really hope PMDG will get the shared cockpit for us and add it to the NGX / T7 / 747v2 line. I for one am waiting ~3.5 years now to fly (something other than the maddog) with a friend using procedures and check-lists as a real crew.

[dm123 19]

Forget the NGX... the DC6 needs it! Thats a three man cockpit!

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Yeah, we RARELY (in fact, EXTREMELY RARELY) have cause to be critical of the PMDG Team. But they certainly lost the bubble, missed the boat, took their eye off the ball, and basically messed up when they forgot to make the DC shared cockpit.

 

FSX limitation, only two people can fly shared cockpit at a time (I say that, but we're testing something that allows for three people in a different aircraft. Extremely likely that it will not remotely work, but I'll certainly report in this thread if it does.

 

Finally, I'll say that most developers are in a closed loop, and don't yet understand that shared cockpit is the future. I've got an article half written to explain this, which gives the reasons why. I'll post it within the next two weeks or so, and will provide a link in this thread.

 

 

Dave

Devoted Lover of the Leonardo Maddog and NGX.

[B747tebs 80]

this feature should have been in the first release and i didnt check the news in the forum very often so i missed the point when rzr said, that it wont be implemented in the release version :(

it was the number one reason i bought this product.

[lowlevel 0]

Forget the NGX... the DC6 needs it! Thats a three man cockpit!

 

That would've been SWEET!

 

Cmon PMDG, You already have the SDK for the NGX, how hard it is to shuffle some cockpit variables over tcp/ip?

[LN-KMM 7]

Finally, I'll say that most developers are in a closed loop, and don't yet understand that shared cockpit is the future.

 

No, the problem is that the way it works today... Sucks. I LOVE the maddog, and love the shared cockpit, but the way it works, is not a good solution. The way it currently works, is by making one of the computers the "master" and the other a "slave". What happens to the slave, is that it actually puts the slave in "slew mode" and slews the aircraft around, and that can be really unstable from the many times I've used it. I'm pretty sure Rob mentioned previously that the solution that PMDG is working on is trying to avoid the slew mode and therefor a much more stable flight.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

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No, the problem is that the way it works today... Sucks. I LOVE the maddog, and love the shared cockpit, but the way it works, is not a good solution. The way it currently works, is by making one of the computers the "master" and the other a "slave". What happens to the slave, is that it actually puts the slave in "slew mode" and slews the aircraft around, and that can be really unstable from the many times I've used it. I'm pretty sure Rob mentioned previously that the solution that PMDG is working on is trying to avoid the slew mode and therefor a much more stable flight.

 

 

I must have missed the post where Rob said they were working on it, unless it was about 2 years ago. That would require a separate program entirely (good in that it would run outside of FSX/SimConnect).

 

By the way, we figured a few things out regarding shared cockpit and making it stable. The guys I fly with spend a great deal in shared cockpit, and we've been able to achieve 98% or better stability is the Maddog, and recently made a 4.5 hour flight without any positional resetting (slew bouncing) for the slave even in the external mode. We never get any P/R on the flight deck. We have a few things in the works that should get us a bit closer to 100%, though that goal is a bit lofty.

 

If the NGX will work as good as the Leonardo Maddog, then I'd say anyone with a multi-core computer should be able to fly shared cockpit well enough to enjoy it. Release it as a separate install as an R&D project. I'd love to take a crack at it.

 

Dave