Ok so it's a default-ish (but with other cool features) G1000 that they're starting with?  Should be a good thing I suppose as the stock G1000 is nasty.

 

X-Plane does not have a G1000 at all by default! (Although some of the failure pages in X-Plane's "failure" settings don't make this clear, because these pages are called G1000...) That's why Carenado's G1000 is such a huge accomplishment -- there is simply no G1000 in X-Plane Dan and his team could have built upon -- they needed to do _everything_ from scratch. This can't be emphasized enough.

 

What X-Plane has by default is PlaneMaker which allows for a quite flexible way of creating custom instruments for glass cockpits (and also non-glass cockpits). You can come very far with this approach, by using high resolution graphics and fonts, placing them on the panel and writing Lua code for custom datarefs and custom commands. Personally I like this approach, because it's some kind of WYSIWYG editing, and (if I may mention this) we use this approach in the vFlyteAir SR20, because we can get a decent glass cockpit in a relatively short time -- but honestly the PlaneMaker approach is a bit outdated, and every true simulation will need to create its own instruments from scratch. If you don't, users will always recognize it as a PlaneMaker aircraft. This is okay if you don't expect or don't want to create a true simulation (and there's nothing bad about this, because a comprehensive PlaneMaker panel is more than enough to get you from A to B in a rather plausible way) ...

 

... but one of the many things X-Plane desperately needs is a true simulation of the G1000 in a beautifully modelled aircraft with 3D cockpit, and Dan and his team have made the biggest progress in this direction so far.

 

By the way, Carenado / Dan has done this before -- in the beautiful Bonanza A36, with the Aspen E1000. This was the first comprehensively simulated glass cockpit we had in X-Plane (although the E1000 is not overly complex). This is now some years ago, but what Dan did there was creating lots of own instruments and logic, no PlaneMaker at all. Still one of my favorites.

 

And the Carenado G1000 is again 100 steps further.

Thanks for the description.... sometimes us mere mortal end users forget how "fun" development can be

 

I have the A36 - it was my first addon when I got into XP10 - and I tried to use it in XP 32bit but that gauge always crashed XP.  Then it was redone for 64bit and it's been great ever since!

I just purchased the plane and I'm very happy with it, I like a lot the G1000 implementation, let's give the team time for improve the things up. After all it's the first G1000 from Carenado and so far so good.

The one way to quite easily discern whether a complex instrument was authored completely outside the scope of X-Plane's pre-fabricated, drag-and-drop instrument authoring paradigm is this: any time an instrument can be popped out as a 2D pop-up window, you're dealing with a completely custom-programmed instrument.  (The only exception to this rule is the GNS430/530, which was authored by Philipp Muenzel for Laminar Research not too long ago.)

Will pick up once it hits the .org.

It's now available on all major resellers, and has been updated to v1.2.

 

v1.2 Change Log

 

-Improved sounds and visuals

-ASI comes alive after 25 kts.

-Inset map on PFD closes only when prompted

-PFD "NRST" now hides frequency inputs without values, and pressing "ENT" works as it should

-Direct-To now only removes waypoints after selected

-Activating leg using ENT button in MFD now works.

-"PAGE" menu added to Flight Plan page

-Flight plans aren't automatically saved.

-Added HSI dots in PFD

-MFD splash screen now also gives way to MFD content when "ENT" is pressed.

-Added "GND" Transponder mode.

-improved electrical logic (PFD now turns on with Stby battery switch, battery voltage corrected)

What is the final conclusion on the 182T by Carenado and the G1000?

 

I'm looking for a nice, realistic, GA with a moving map for mountain flying.