A very nicely done and honest preview update! Thanks rob and everyone at pmdg.

P3D x64 and PMDG B748 v2 are the two things required to bring me back on the virtual routes  -_- 

Looking great that 4 engine beast. Curious about the flight deck.

YYYEEEPPP!!! I'm in for the 4 engine fetish! Always have been (first far flight ever was with the 747)

oow, anonymous you said? oopss

 

 

After looking over the images, I decided you would probably enjoy seeing them as well. 

 

Robert, The 747 looks amazing! Can't wait for it. Are those renders really taken from FSX? They look so pristine.

when pmdg release this 

 

 

You do realize PMDG never gives out release dates, they are finished when the product has reached completion.

Captains,

 

We were sitting about tonight having a discussion on some of the interesting design decisions that went into the new 747-8 series aircraft, and as part of that conversation Jason gave us a bit of a tour of the exterior model and all of the fine detailing that has gone into the PMDG model thus far.

 

After looking over the images, I decided you would probably enjoy seeing them as well. 

 

I have mentioned a few times that we are developing the 747-400 and 747-8 airplanes more-or-less in parallel because it is far easier from a development standpoint to do so.  The two will cease developing in parallel about the time we hit beta testing on the 744, which hopefully won't be too much longer.

 

While the 747-400 is, by a long margin, my favorite airplane of the modern era, I am starting to grow increasingly fond of the new, bigger sister.  I anticipate that I will be adding the -8 to my rating a bit later this year, and then I am sure it will turn into a full-blown-love-affair...  (I have a four-engine-fetish...  the support groups just haven't helped, but thanks for asking.)

 

 

 

 

The amount of aerodynamic cleanup that Boeing has accomplished with the 747-8 has to be seen to be believed.  We are modeling all of it faithfully, and as usual Jason has poured a huge amount of effort into detail and authenticity.  From the landing gear to the wing/body fairing to the new flap systems to the engines...  It is all there in all of it's in-depth realism goodness. 

 

 

 

You will note how clean the airplane is.  We are going to give you painters some options on cleanliness and wear with the newest versions of the 747 series.  You will be able to choose varying degrees of wear for your liveries, and we are exploring some wear-capability for the VC as well.  (not a sure thing... we are exploring there...)

 

Take a good look at the main landing gear tires in the image above, and you will see the effect of weight on the tires and how they relate to the pavement underneath them.  It turns out that we have had this capability for some time, but we just weren't using the data produced by our tire pressure/structural integrity model to provide you with some visual goodness...  The 747s will bring you a whole new array of visual accuracy, no matter how badly you abuse your landing gear.

 

(And I have seen a few of you fly... So i KNOW there is some gear-abuse going on out there!)  :ph34r:

 

 

I think these three images give you a pretty good idea where we are with the 747-8 Intercontinental.  The cockpit for this airplane is well along also, but we aren't quite ready to show you either VC just yet.  We mentioned this during the 777 development as well, but we do a bunch of "non standard stuff" inside the VC during development in order to help us through the process of making certain that things align properly, display properly, etc... and if I showed you an image of the VC at this stage of "work in progress" we would inevitably have some folks skip through the text and not realize they were looking at work-in-progress....  So we are going to hold off showing you the insides just a bit longer.

 

Hopefully not TOO much longer...  I am eager for you to see what we have wrought.  B)

 

Lots and lots more goodies coming your way- stay tuned!

 

(Now where is my meeting schedule for Four Engine Fetish Anonymous?) 

Thats teasing me looks awesome and a lot of hard work

 If it was out now i would be the first to buy hehe....

All very exciting.

 

To those who are hanging everything on 64bit, as if it will be "the great advance forward" in simming, be prepared for some mild disappointment when the reality hits.

 

 

To those who are hanging everything on 64bit, as if it will be "the great advance forward" in simming, be prepared for some mild disappointment when the reality hits.

 

Why?

Why?

 

64bit is being tipped as the answer to everything in flight simulation. Sure, it'll be an improvement to memory space and possibilities. OOMs (for those struggling with their sims) will be alleviated etc.

 

However those expecting better frames/performance might be left wanting, not to mention the disappointment of your add-ons all needing re-coding. Lets face it - one or two of those (mentioning no names *cough* EZDOK) could be a while.

 

In addition, there is the issue of memory efficiency. 32bit is a good discipline to work to - and most of us can achieve everything needed. Thanks in no small part to the like of PMDG who have evidently been relentless with VAS efficiency.

 

Personally, I'm looking forward to Directx12 in P3D - which should relieve the graphics bottlenecks and unlock some much needed frames. There's not much talk of this vs 64bit, hence why I wrote what I did.

 

Have a great day.

Thank you for your explanation, Michael!

Can we see some views of the 400 & -8 side by side to compare.

 

These side view images show the real size difference.

All in all the 747-8 is about 6 m (20 ft) longer and 4 m (13 ft) wider than the 747-400.

 

Can't decide which one I prefer, the 400 is more classic,and the 800 looks a bit akward. 

I'm sure in real-life it has that "wow" factor though,and I prefer the 800 cockpit.

Can't decide which one I prefer, the 400 is more classic,and the 800 looks a bit akward. 

I'm sure in real-life it has that "wow" factor though,and I prefer the 800 cockpit.

 

Well, in your case, the choice is made because the 800 doesn't exist 

 

It's only the 8, though Boeing does make things awkward by retaining the trailing numbers for the various customer codes.

Well, in your case, the choice is made because the 800 doesn't exist 

 

It's only the 8, though Boeing does make things awkward by retaining the trailing numbers for the various customer codes.

Sorry about that, early morning slipup

64bit is being tipped as the answer to everything in flight simulation. Sure, it'll be an improvement to memory space and possibilities. OOMs (for those struggling with their sims) will be alleviated etc.

 

 

I'm with you on this one, I think it will help with OOM's but there are other issues other then memory with FSX/P3D, but it wont' be the be all and end all of all issues. Hard to say how long it will take each add-on to catch up as well, depends how they have set their variables I guess. There will be some pain to begin with that's for sure, at least the developer of EZDOK is still knocking around so we know it's possible

 

I've not had many issues with OOM's so far, it's trying to get the frame rates vs quality  at a good balance that's causing me the most work. And I think that comes down to multithreading and GPU offload work which was rather simplistic in FSX, rather then coding to 64 bit (though do chime in if I'm wrong there).

 

I do think PMDG are doing a great job to optimise their planes though