01APR14 - Happy April Fools'. (OH did you guys make us laugh!)

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Captains-

 

Oh how we have had a day full of laughs today.   :lol:

 

Over the weekend, we played a little joke on our beta team by telling them that since a few folks in this forum had griped about the fact that we are making the 300ER a priority over the 200ER, that we had decided to cancel the 300ER completely and simply move the resources to the 747-400v2.0....

 

(I'm not naming any names, but Forum Favorite Luke Pubari took that bait and ran the line out to the very end...  We hadn't had that good a laugh on the beta team in some time...)

 

That got us to discussing the fact that we hadn't played a good April Fools' Day joke on you all since that famous morning when PMDG was purchased by the Boeing Company in 2011...  (Classic!  :ph34r: )

 

So just about the time I had decided that we were going to "cancel the 300ER" as our April Fools' Day joke- Ryan pondered out loud:  "Wouldn't it be funny if we showed them weather radar and the datalink without telling them it was real?"

 

Me:  "But it IS real...."

 

Ryan: "Yeah...  But they don't know that.  If we throw the picture up there without comment, they'll think it is an April Fools' Joke..."

 

And thus we decided to have some Good Old Fashioned Fun™.  B)

 

Last night as we were preparing some images, we wound up discussing how many times folks in this forum have seen a kollsman setting or a heading or an altitude selection and decided that it was a hidden message regarding our release dates or future products....  (Yes- we always wind up scratching our head over such things...)   Which of course caused me and Ryan to decide that it was time to ACTUALLY mess with the contents of the image in order to have some fun.

 

And that was how PMDG's April Fools' Joke 2014 became truly epic:  The April Fools' Day prank was the prank itself...  It was recursive- which of course tickles the funny bone of a company full of programmers.

 

B)

 

Okay- now you all start being nice to one another- we saw some really crazy comments in that thread and at least a few of you should be ashamed of yourselves <snicker> but thank you for making us laugh.  :rolleyes:

 

(And hey- if we all can't have a bit of fun now and then... what is the fun in THAT?!)

 

Oh- before I go- here is the UNDOCTORED image:

 

[learn-by-flying 37]

I knew you'd never joke about the wx radar, although I enjoyed reading all the comments as I'm sure PMDG staff did.

 

Any updates on P3D Robert? :ph34r:

[AirborneZed 168]

I always knew that post was fishy, none of the testers commented. I somehow knew, something was up.

 

From my last post you can probably tell, I'm ecstatic. The T7 is finally complete for me. Never knew we'd get to navigate around weather in the dark like we can soon.

[PlainandSimplePaints 45]

Thats the best April fools joke yet PMDG awesome very clever.

[MrPlaneDriver 41]

That prank was a classic indeed, but 2011?! Doesn't seem that long at all! Time flies... Wow...

[psolk 3,037]

I always knew that post was fishy, none of the testers commented. I somehow knew, something was up.

 

From my last post you can probably tell, I'm ecstatic. The T7 is finally complete for me. Never knew we'd get to navigate around weather in the dark like we can soon.

We were under strict orders to sit back, observe and enjoy but not participate

Think RSR is going to be getting a lot of receipts for microwave popcorn submitted for reimbursement from the beta team 

 

 

Paul Solk

[AirborneZed 168]

Well done  :rolleyes:

[Gabriel Teles 172]

I knew it.  B)

Protip: 01APR14...

[EGLL77W 1,508]

LOL. That was probably the best 20 odd hours I've had on watching the forums. More fun than watching the general- waiting for a development preview of the 777 base package anyway....

 

RSR 1 - Luke 0....... Needs to change (-;

[Jetspaul 24]

Wicked , I was so stoked, then so scared, and now, ecstatic. I cant wait to do trans atlantic flights in the 77W, truly a beautiful plane, I tip my hat to PMDG for there efforts in taking it to the next level with the WX and the datalink, ACARS. This coupled with TOPCAT coming out with there 77L update and active sky next weather, this is truly going to make flying in FSX that much closer to the real world which is what we all strive for. Thanks for this beautiful plane, now I have to go change my underwear after a near scare I had when checking facebook this morning.

[max2770 74]

This is absolutely amazing.

[CaptCraig 226]

Wait.  Hold up.  It's still April 1.  Wait.  One sec.  Is WXR for real?  This is awesome.  How will data uplink work?  What's it uplinking?  So many questions.  Oh the humanity.  

 

This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  This is awesome.  

[A320FAN 370]

Ahhhh...... Excellent!

[Tabs 2,790]

You guys have no idea how hard it was to keep this under wraps while we were developing it lol - my jaw dropped the first time I saw it motion in one of the SP1 alpha builds.

 

I'm glad my 2 minute "use Photoshop to make this real screenshot look like it was Photoshopped" work last night fooled you all haha.

[AirborneZed 168]

You guys have no idea how hard it was to keep this under wraps while we were developing it lol - my jaw dropped the first time I saw it motion in one of the SP1 alpha builds.

 

I'm glad my 2 minute "use Photoshop to make this real screenshot look like it was Photoshopped" work last night fooled you all haha.

Adding that "scratchy" effect on the radar returns to make it look bogus was genius. 

 

How does it animate on the N.D? Is it like a sweeping effect? I haven't seen many videos on this in action.