Hi everyone,

I got the Majestic Dash 8 and I was extremely impressed. The quality is beyond belief, and the flight dynamics felt so natural, even a bit more realistic than the NGX (sorry PMDG, still love you guys though ), and also the performance was surprisingly good for such a detailed aircraft, and I wondered how this could be possible. Until I heard something about a seperate FDE (Flight Dynamics Engine) that is present in this aircraft which is really considered a game changer. Basically, to my knowledge, FSX (add-on) planes all use the built-in FDE to handle flight dynamics. The Majestic Dash 8 however, has got a FDE that was built into the aircraft itself rather than the aircraft using the built-in FDE from FSX. In my opinion, this is an extremely good invention and it could massively improve our FSX experiences even more. It also allows for several effects that would normally not be possible in FSX, like icing effects etc.

So my question to PMDG is, have you guys already heard about this 'phenomenon' and are you guys actually thinking about implementing it into your current and to be released aircraft? Not only will the flight dynamics be even better, but more importantly, performance should improve which would invite lots more people to your products, including people with lower-end systems who would now have a chance to run your products properly.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/405791-extracting-the-flight-model/

 

With comments from Ryan.

 

 

With comments from Ryan.

 

Good find - I went running through the 777 pages to find that, but you beat me to it.

 

Just in case you want the specific post, here's a link to the exact post (instead of just the thread):

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/405791-extracting-the-flight-model/#entry2653598

Also it has it's negatives,

 

Contact points on taxi bump and shake the plane around in the sim, and cause it to lock up sometimes.

 

I miss my fluid spot view, everything has to be 'locked'

I think that the NGX also has its Flight Dynamics partially (if not all) coded outside the simulator.

I think that the NGX also has its Flight Dynamics partially (if not all) coded outside the simulator.

 

Afraid not, ultimately how the thing goes through the air is controlled by the .air, .cfg and control input variables to FSX's FDE. Even if some of those values are intercepted or modified by the NGX's gauges, it's still the FSX engine doing the sums.

 

However it's not really necessary to do more than that with a jet aircraft, FSX's FDE is fairly realistic for turbofan aircraft providing you tweak the variables a little and test.

Afraid not, ultimately how the thing goes through the air is controlled by the .air, .cfg and control input variables to FSX's FDE. Even if some of those values are intercepted or modified by the NGX's gauges, it's still the FSX engine doing the sums.

 

However it's not really necessary to do more than that with a jet aircraft, FSX's FDE is fairly realistic for turbofan aircraft providing you tweak the variables a little and test.

Are you sure? I remember reading Ryan somewhere they do stuff outside of the FSX. Not sure what.

They do a lot of system stuff outside FSX (i.e. electrics, hydraulics, FMS and even control surfaces to an extent) but they are still using the FSX FDE. If they used an external FDE they'd have the same issues the Majestic Q400 suffers from, which is caused by the external FDE effectively slewing the aircraft to a position computed by the FDE, which is basically what PMDG staffer Tabs says here.

They do a lot of system stuff outside FSX (i.e. electrics, hydraulics, FMS and even control surfaces to an extent) but they are still using the FSX FDE. If they used an external FDE they'd have the same issues the Majestic Q400 suffers from, which is caused by the external FDE effectively slewing the aircraft to a position computed by the FDE, which is basically what PMDG staffer Tabs says here.

 Cool, I missed that post from Ryan.

Thanks

We *do* do things to the FDE outside the sim. Yes, it's still technically "using" the FSX FDE but we're adding a lot to it externally and doing unconventional things - this is the whole "fly-by-software" idea I mentioned in my original comments about this. The idea that some of you seem to have that we're using stock or generic FSX airfiles that are unrealistic for an airplane like the NGX or 777 is completely bogus. There's a ton of reprocessing and modification going on behind the scenes to get the desired performance and effects.

 

The main point is that there's more than one way to skin a cat here folks. What Majestic did makes sense for a free-rotating turboprop - FSX's free-rotating turboprop model is very broken in FSX and they had to do what they did to make certain things work correctly. (and before anyone asks, the J41 is a geared turboprop and we were able to make it work with the aforementioned techniques because of how those engines behave, which is quite different from the free rotating ones) We don't think this technique makes a whole lot of sense for a jet airliner in FSX. If you run into icing in a big jet in real life you're about to lose your ATP license for flying headlong into a thunderstorm or for neglecting to turn on AI. (actually I'm not sure you can even forget to do that in the 777, the airplane may turn it on automatically as soon as it detects any buildup) Icing is a problem for smaller airplanes like turboprops flying at lower altitudes - not generally for big jet airliners.

Also, I've tried a couple times to get the ice to overwhelm the anti-ice system in the Q400 by flying it headlong into storms and stuff - nothing happens as far as I can tell. As long as you have the AI system on it always clears the ice. In real life you can overwhelm a boot system if you fly into really severe icing. Again - this is a simulator and there's always going to be limitations to everything vs. reality. You paid $50, not $5 million.

Ryan, I understood from some hints that in Pro version, the airplane will be less tolerant. Maybe we can overwhelm it with ice then. In a shared cockpit.

 

Which reminds me, are you guys going to do the shared cockpit? I remember Rob saying you were interested but werent sure if it were realistcally possible