Continuing the NLS A380?

[cagrikartal 8]

 hi folks

 

  i ve just heard about Next Level Simuation has cancelled the a380 because of other buissnes of the project owner who is looking for the flight sim developpers to take over the project to finish and release. I know the questions about ''airbus and PMDG ? '' is started to be annoying as we have enough answers but how about if pmdg takes over it ?

EREK

from the NLS facebook page;

 

 ''Alright, here we go. I am indeed VERY sad to announce that we have to cancel the A380 for the time beeing. Its a very hard descision for me as the A380 has always been somewhat "my baby" and I have been working on it since 2007. But things are moving in a different direction now so I had to make a choice. I was always afraid to give up, having in mind the thousands of working hours that have gone into the project so far. Giving it up would make all of that worthless. I am very sorry to disappoint you people here - but I don't have a choice.

To be honest, I wasn't able to continue the project for the last 12-15 months because I have started out with a new business (doing film, commercials, features and 3d animation), I have invested a lot of money into a new studio, camera systems, stuff. That lays great pressure upon me, needing to get the business going. After all, flight simulation would not pay my bills. Not at this point.

I haven't talked to Chris Kögler, the systems programmer for quite a while, which was due to my lack of time, moving to the new office, working long hours - that made it get lost somehow. I will need to talk to him very soon about this descision but I am sure he sees it the same way. The discussion for cancelling the project had been up for quite a while.

So what now? The project had quite a lot of innovations and cool things in it - however, it's still far from beeing completed. The flight model is not done, the 3D model is in the middle of a big revision (wings, flight deck). The systems show a 100% accurate visual representation of the real thing, however, the systems core is virtually not there, due to the lack of a finalised flight model and physics system. Overall, it's far away from a releaseable version.

So why not pass the source files to someone else to continue? Of course, for you as a flight simmer, that would be the best way to go to keep up the hope of flying it one day. However, as a developer, who has put all of his heart and time into it over the past years, it's not that simple. I know, Chris will definetly not give away his source codes, since he has so many innovative and new things in it, that he had wrote/invented that I can understand, that he will not give them away just like that. For me, as a 3D artist it's also difficult, leaving your own work to someone elses hand.

We still have to decide what to do with all the material.

Still, I want to thank ALL OF YOU for the great support over the years. It has always been - and still is - a great motivation. And I am sorry that we cannot fulfill your expectations. However, I hope you understand our points.''

Thank you,
Oliver Braun
Next Level Simulations

[MrSpeaker 121]

Don't think pmdg would ever do something like that, they build from the ground up.

[aceridgey 330]

I already made a post about this

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/409098-nls-a380-project-officially-cancelled-oppurtunity/

[ClearedtoLand 149]

How about we pool together, fund someone to take over the project, those of us who contribute can then either get the product at a reduced rate or depending on how much we contribute, for free, the person(s) completing the project can then sell it for their gain, with perhaps a share going towards the guys from NLS who obviously have done a lot of work on this already. Obviously, I think if this happens, the person would have to be approved by NLS, and I think it can be a partnership with shared revenues. Just a suggestion, not sure if it's viable.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

@cagrikartal As I am sure you will notice, I have changed the title to this topic. You wrote it as if it were fact... It isn't, and putting PMDG in the title is a sure fire way to mislead folks to believe that it was indeed a statement regarding PMDG's intentions as regards Airbus aircraft. Irritating as well was that it was all in caps. Please do not do that again.

[EGLL77W 1,508]

I just hope PMDG will one day make the B777....

[pinlifter 502]

 

 

I just hope PMDG will one day make the B777....

 

Your wish will be granted soon enough Luke.  Now get back to your real world flying lessons

[SVA1181 56]

Captain sim would be perfect, they will finish it in 1 week :lol:

 

Now seriously,

 

This project needs a new talented team, because:

 

1. Most of current developers are busy with long lists of projects, so it will be at the end of the list

2. All current developers have their own niche markets, and specialization, rare are the airbus ones

3. Each one of the developers has its own reputation and quality, so we can anticipate the quality of this project with xyz developers

4. Such a project will define the market position, quality, reputation of the new team, it is a to be or not to be thing

5. It will be a challenge to have a complete product, so the team will do its best to penetrate the market, and take a piece of the cake.

 

It is a long list of reasons, but the above are the main.

[KriVa 307]

Also, speaking from experience, picking up and finishing someone else's code isn't easy. Especially if you don't know their coding styles, or aren't familiar with those styles.

[cagrikartal 8]

@cagrikartal As I am sure you will notice, I have changed the title to this topic. You wrote it as if it were fact... It isn't, and putting PMDG in the title is a sure fire way to mislead folks to believe that it was indeed a statement regarding PMDG's intentions as regards Airbus aircraft. Irritating as well was that it was all in caps. Please do not do that again.

sorry that wasnt my goal,thanks for the correction.

erek

 

Also, speaking from experience, picking up and finishing someone else's code isn't easy. Especially if you don't know their coding styles, or aren't familiar with those styles.

you may be right but i think this project should be continued somehow i hope they'll find a way

 

erek

[EGLL77W 1,508]

Your wish will be granted soon enough Luke.  Now get back to your real world flying lessons

Hopefully - just PMDG's definition of 'Soon' and 'Almost' are nothing like ours :-P

 

I've barely got anything done in May due to being ill & weather!

[MrPlaneDriver 41]

SVA1181, on 28 May 2013 - 7:48 PM, said:

This project needs a new talented team, because:

 

1. Most of current developers are busy with long lists of projects, so it will be at the end of the list

2. All current developers have their own niche markets, and specialization, rare are the airbus ones

3. Each one of the developers has its own reputation and quality, so we can anticipate the quality of this project with xyz developers

 

Taking these three points into consideration, I think that FSlabs would be a good guess on who could take over the development of NLS's A380. They are already working on the A320 and, from the previews that have been release so far, I rest confident that it will be at the same level as PMDG and Majestic.

 

The problem is that the A320 must be concentrating all their efforts at this point, not to mention that they already have the A330 and A340 in their plans already, so, as you stated in the very first point, if FSLabs were to take NLS's project over, we can be sure that, being very optimistic, this A380 wouldn't be released within, at least, the next half decade.

[InTheAir 44]

There's a 1 in no chance PMDG or any developer would be willing to "finish" some other developers project unless they were involved from the start in someway. My opinion.

I just wasted my time posting this but that is on me.

 

So why not pass the source files to someone else to continue? Of course, for you as a flight simmer, that would be the best way to go to keep up the hope of flying it one day. However, as a developer, who has put all of his heart and time into it over the past years, it's not that simple. I know, Chris will definitely not give away his source codes, since he has so many innovative and new things in it, that he had wrote/invented that I can understand, that he will not give them away just like that. For me, as a 3D artist it's also difficult, leaving your own work to someone elses hand.

[Airbusman330 300]

Wow that sucks big time, I was really looking forward to this. 

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

PMDG has been taking any effort to code all their planes from a single code "base":

 

744 will be re-coded in v2.0 with their latest techniques; even the NGX will receive a code "update" after release of the 777 (yes, Luke, there will be a 777 release - some day ...).

 

This adds to the general problem that one developer, taking over code from another dev, will have a tough time continuing that piece of development.

 

Bottom line: It would make even more sense for PMDG to start a A380 from scratch - which probably won't happen, either ...