Fellow AVsimmers. As you may know, we haven't seen a real widebody airbus (340 more particularly) creation for the ESP world, and more specifically V4. We also know that it takes a lot of time, money and effort to build a proper simulation of the real thing. With AS working on their a330 since now more than 4 years (not complaining) the other team has an updated product that from many of the comments that i've readen are not so positive. That being said, since it's this time of the year again, and prices are not so high, i'm now in doubt about this.

Let's go straight to the point: IS the blackbox at least not so bad as i've seen? At 30€ currently you get two birds. But, how are they? I find those interesting, specially for their performance. I mean, for 30 bucks it's not very expensive, but since the company that makes the thing doesn't have a good reputation, how is is then? Is the simulation a bit there at least. Heard of a future update; 0.90. Can it at least be better than some CLS??

I've always been a huge fan of the four-engined french pencil so until someone else releases one then it's the only alternative. If you own it, then help me at telling me if it's really worth it or not, please

best regards, Charly.

Hello,

I have the BlackBox A 340 and I am very pleased with it.

Did you notice the free demo, so you can assess it yourself?

 

 

Edited December 3, 20187 yr by nolonger

I can't comments on the current products, but I can on the company:

Blackbox used to be Phoenix Simulations in the past, until they decided to pull the plug and left a lot of simmers in the dark.
(Download) servers went offline and nobody could download and/or register their products anymore, leaving them useless.
After a few years, Blackbox emerged by the same people that were behind Phoenix.
Since then, I avoid them.

It also seems that the Blackbox busses are already a zillion years under development, I wonder if they intend to officially release them at all.
The advantage of releasing a product as alpha/beta release, is that a publisher isn't bound to any time frame or having to release bug fixes.
You bought a beta version after all and not the full product.....
 

 

The current beta of which they refuse to call it beta and instead a prologue, is just OK at best.  Its mostly functional and flies alright albeit can be quite finicky and awkward. Its certainly not polished, and feels kind of lacking in many ways.  The FMC really needs a makeover and is quite basic. The next version .90 is supposedly supposed to take care of this. Who knows when that will come.  The current version is .85 and I bought this in 2013 as ver .65.   Taking absolutely forever. So version 1 will probably not be released for another 2-3 years.  Its insane. 

The external model is quite good, but the VC seems lacklustre relative to other products.   One thing I do like , is the config fuel and payload manager. That is quite well done I have to say.  You also get quite a few liveries, and different series of A330 and A340.

That said, I look forward to the Aerosoft A330 instead, but in the meantime its an aircraft thats tolerable since there isnt much else on the market that is viable and the A330 is a great aircraft in the real world. 

On 12/3/2018 at 6:18 PM, HighTowers said:

The current beta of which they refuse to call it beta and instead a prologue, is just OK at best.  Its mostly functional and flies alright albeit can be quite finicky and awkward. Its certainly not polished, and feels kind of lacking in many ways.  The FMC really needs a makeover and is quite basic. The next version .90 is supposedly supposed to take care of this. Who knows when that will come.  The current version is .85 and I bought this in 2013 as ver .65.   Taking absolutely forever. So version 1 will probably not be released for another 2-3 years.  Its insane. 

The external model is quite good, but the VC seems lacklustre relative to other products.   One thing I do like , is the config fuel and payload manager. That is quite well done I have to say.  You also get quite a few liveries, and different series of A330 and A340.

That said, I look forward to the Aerosoft A330 instead, but in the meantime its an aircraft thats tolerable since there isnt much else on the market that is viable and the A330 is a great aircraft in the real world. 

Thanks. TBH i'm interested about the AS 330, but my crush really is the 340. I've heard the handling of the 330 is much more vague, mainly because of the two nacelles (thrust distribution is a lot different imo on the 340) and i've flown it (340) IRL,and fell in love like with the 747.

No.  It isn't.

If they only understood the irony of calling their company Blackbox ....

2 minutes ago, ErichB said:

No.  It isn't.

What? BBOX or the 330? I don't understand which one do you say it isn't worth it. Is my last message wrong or did you just mean the blackbox wasn't worth it?

10 minutes ago, LH340fan said:

What? BBOX or the 330? I don't understand which one do you say it isn't worth it. Is my last message wrong or did you just mean the blackbox wasn't worth it?

It is not a realistically or seriously modeled simulation.    It's a 'point in the general direction and go' aircraft

7 hours ago, ErichB said:

It is not a realistically or seriously modeled simulation.    It's a 'point in the general direction and go' aircraft

guess i'll have to wait for AS's...