Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
TOGA-saurus

Opinion of SSG 747-8

Recommended Posts

Sorry I was mislead with the title of the thread being  "Opinion of SSG 747-8". The planes a WIP, even the devs will tell you they are redoing the textures and I hope modeling a few more systems. It is the best 747 for Xplane right now and with a little more spit and polish it can go from lite to study sim. The textures do look better than they did from launch, but not in the league with other similar priced AC. I'm just giving my 2 cents.

 

Vincent -

 

I apologize for being a bit on the crabby side.  You caught me at a bad time and I think I read your comment out of context.  Agreed it is a WIP, but fortunately it is still being worked on.  Again, sorry, I value your posts.. except this one.  Just kidding ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Glad to see this thread is still alive...

 

More improvements are in the pipeline, yes including those pesky cockpit textures. But there are lots of other enhancements, such as an electronic checklist system, as well as tweaks and changes to certain systems (like the brakes and pneumatics) to try to and get them as accurate as possible. IRSs have been mentioned by several users, but those are not part of this next update. This will be more of a programming challenge because the entire "boot up" sequence of the displays will have to be replicated, and it is a lesser priority because our technical advisor, Capt. Tim told us that in his experience at his airline he never aligned the IRSs. It was exclusively a maintenance function.

 

So we are trying to focus on the pilot and flying the aircraft, rather than more obscure maintenance functions. Our intention was never to create a "study" sim. Yes, some malfunctions and abnormals are simulated, such as engine fires, fuel dumping, etc. but the emphasis is on normal operations and to still permit sim pilots to get in and fly without too much reading of manuals or studying. In fact, you can jump in with engines running on the runway and hand fly it with no FMC programming, which is unrealistic, but lots of fun when you have 15 minutes to spare and just want to get your "fix" in and fly a traffic pattern.

 

With respect to other add-ons being in the same league, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and you will never hear us say anything negative about any other developer's products. We prefer to keep our heads down and focus on what we think will be useful features that are feasible to implement with our talents. I will say that this aircraft does include some innovative features that are visible such as the VSD, and others that are not so visible, such as the fuel temperature logic that was carefully researched and programmed. Maybe we don't broadcast every little enhancement that we implement to get maximum recognition from the community about this or that feature. But rest assured that we work very hard to get the details right. This next update will also have updated manuals (part of my area of responsibility) with more detailed normal procedures to allow for more professional types of operations to be conducted. We also have been working with a loyal and dedicated customer named AJ as he develops his series of video tutorials that he is making available on our forum. This was also something that was actively requested by many users.

 

In closing, we are always open to any constructive suggestions, critiques, recommendations, etc. and thanks for the praise, which is very much appreciated. We have been thrilled at some of the feedback we have gotten from former 747 flight crew who tell us that they feel the add on captures the "feel" of the aircraft, which is an intangible that is so difficult to achieve in any flight sim product and, at least for me, has made all of our efforts worthwhile. 

 

- Stekeller

SSG 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Although I am far from X-Plane these days, very far...., your 748, together with the QPAC A320, were my two preferred X-plane airliners, by far, followed by Peter's A380 and the FF 777 ex-aequo...

 

When I first had the chance to fly the 748, it was the one I took for my only really long haul ever flown in XP10, from Johannesburg to Lisbon, and it behaved beautifully already by that time.

 

I didn't have the chance to test the last update, but one thing is for sure - if 10.30 final really justifies my new interest for XP10, then the QPAC and the SSG748 will for sure be my two XP10 airliners!


Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 


More improvements are in the pipeline, yes including those pesky cockpit textures.

 

Hi Stekeller,

 

I'm happy to see you guys are moving forward and continue to improve your 747.

 

If I may, there are two things of utmost importance (to me at least) to your success if you are not making a study sim.

 

1) Textures! These need to be on par or even better than the competition. I'm happy to hear you are upgrading the cockpit but the exterior also needs some loving ;). Have you thought of hiring MCPhat for exterior textures? I'd buy livery packs from them for sure.

 

2) Realism of the flight dynamics. You seem to have covered this area extremely well according to users who purchased your aircraft. Hand flying even the heavies should be easy to do.

 

Looking at my short list, you guys are on the right track to success. Keep up the good work. :)

  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks jcomm!

 

And as for airlinejets' comment we did try to get some outside help for the external textures on the 747-8 but it did not work out. I think McPhat does excellent work, no doubt about it. It appears the livery pack market is difficult in the X-Plane world. Plus we have always made our liveries free for all our products. 

 

Instead we decided to bring the texturing in house and just work hard to keep improving our skills. The most important thing is that we can make sure everything is ours. If you have specific comments about the "loving" it needs, just let us know. Each update usually includes some small improvements in the textures.

 

I completely agree on flight dynamics, performance, and feel. I am the one on the team who "signs off" on the hand flying characteristics, and we are always tweaking them. But we do have beta testers, some with considerable flying experience who give us feedback as well. It has probably been the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the project, because as you know X-Plane "flies" what you design, so you are constrained by how it handles control surface movement, CG, center of lift, etc. etc. We tried putting in exact parameters from the real aircraft, but it brings some unintended results, so you have to tweak. A lot! But as X-Plane improves and gets more features, this can be refined.

 

We always strive to improve it further. So we understand about the textures, but frankly sometimes we feel like the band that makes great music but gets criticized because our album covers are not as cool. ;-) Still, it is a marketplace and comments regarding "eye candy" are always welcome. We do aim to make our customers happy and attract new ones. That is the only way we can stay in this business.

 

- Stekeller

SSG

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well,

 

yesterday I installed the latest ( 1.3 = SP2 ) version of the 748-i, and was, again, very positively surprised with what it offers.

 

The flying characteristics were already very plausible in the previous release ( SP1 ), but I find something got even better regarding takeoff and initial climb.

 

The EFB comes handy and is very useful for payload settings!

 

Didn't fly more than  a simple circuit since I was short of time, but everything ran smooth and great, even with some turbulence and x-wind helping :-)

 

In last March, LPPT was visited by a 748 for the 1st time, and the airport certified for operations of that type of airplane. It was a CARGOLUX freighter, so, I look fwd for the freighter version of this excellent SSG add-on :-)


Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any photos of the updated cockpit textures?  The model looks great, but the cockpit textures and exterior textures need a lot of work.

  • Upvote 1

Intel i-9 13900KF @ 6.0 Ghz, MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24GB, MSI MAG CORELIQUID C360, MSI Z790 A-PRO WIFI, MSI MPG A1000G 1000W, G.SKILL 48Gb@76000 MHz DDR5, MSI SPATIUM M480 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2TB, Windows 11 Pro Ghost Spectre x64

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the day and night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any photos of the updated cockpit textures?  The model looks great, but the cockpit textures and exterior textures need a lot of work.

 

Sadly they still do. They are not on par with more recent offerings. The developer has stated they are refreshing them, it onsale at the org now for what seems a fairer price.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmmm... The price is definitely better but Less value if there is no freighter version included.

Also I'm a little reluctant to invest in any more XP airliners until the altitude visibility is sorted.

Still it could be a good investm... No no no Dave put your wallet away!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmmm... The price is definitely better but Less value if there is no freighter version included.

Also I'm a little reluctant to invest in any more XP airliners until the altitude visibility is sorted.

Still it could be a good investm... No no no Dave put your wallet away!

 

I already have the SSG, but your way of thinking is how I am approaching it right now in terms of buying additional aircraft for XPX.  That visibility issue is killer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just recently purchased this aircraft over the weekend as the sale price kind of convinced me. I actually really enjoyed flying it all weekend! I've always loved the 747 but when this first came out but was very hesitant about buying it due to the reports of bugs and missing features on release. Now in it's current state I think it's a very nice aircraft to fly and seems that SSG have done a fantastic job capturing the feel, size and power of the Queen.

 

The cockpit textures seem to be one of the things people have complained about but to me they seem fine, I actually quite like them, the external modelling is absolutely fantastic and probably the best I've seen for a 747. I've previously had experience with the PMDG 747 in FSX as that was one of the first 'complex' airliners I got into and even though the systems are a bit simpler in the SSG 747 it's still quite fun to fly once you've got everything setup and programmed in the FMC. I also really like how all the functions for opening doors, loading fuel, pax, cargo and GPU are all integrated into the EFB display.

 

One of the few issues I've noticed though are a constant flickering on the overhead panel when the dome light is on at night, a bit like a faulty light bulb on it's way out. Also when hand flying the aircraft after takeoff which I always like to do (don't like turning on AP 1000ft after takeoff) with LNAV and VNAV engaged it seems the FD bars don't quite follow the programmed route very well, with autopilot engaged it follows the route perfectly. I also use TrackIR 5 and find the click spots for knobs on the MCP a bit difficult to use so I've assigned a few keys to custom SSG datarefs to get around this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A couple of weeks ago I got my laptop with XP10 demo up for un upgd to 10.30b5, and tested the SSG 748i and the latest version of the QPAC A320.

 

I like them both, each on it's category, very much. Attention to detail on both is considerable, and both are in development and getting updated quite often.

 

I didn't have the chance to test the latest release of FFs 777 ( 1.6.1 ).

 

My modern airliners choice goes naturally to SSG's 748i ( now a lot more accessible in terms of price, and fully featured ), QPAC's A320 with an interesting future ahead and FFs 777.


Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 


My modern airliners choice goes naturally to SSG's 748i ( now a lot more accessible in terms of price, and fully featured ), QPAC's A320 with an interesting future ahead and FFs 777.

 

Hi Jcomm, if you get the opportunity I highly recommend the FF 757. As much as I like their 777 especially now at 1.6.1 the 757 is a much more polished product.

 

There's just something about the 747 though. I think it's great to finally have a well modelled one in X-Plane.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Looking great!!!! Thx Stekeller.


Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...