Captains,

We spent all of last night and today researching to sort out what caused Prepar3D v4.0-4.3 users to suddenly find themselves unable to run the PMDG 747 QOTSII product line after our Saturday update to 3.00.9193.

The short version of the story is that we updated our Prepar3D SDK compliance to v4.4 on Friday morning by accident- and this broke backward compatibility with the earlier minor versions in P3D v4.

We have just pushed a new update (3.00.9195) which corrects this, and should restore full functionality to P3D v4.0-4.3 users.  <phew!>

It is important to note that this **shouldn't** have been a factor, as Lockheed Martin has indicated previously that the code-side SDKs should maintain backward compatibility.  We think we just proved otherwise- and we will report this back to Lockheed Martin- but it is worth noting that in this instance it won't really matter much since our next update series to add the PBR treated models will break backward compatibility no matter what.

We do not intend to maintain compatibility with anything except the current version moving forward- and we are also evaluating the retirement of support for P3D v3 in order to simplify our development process...  So- our **official stance** is that all users should expect to need to keep moving forward with minor version updates in instances where advances in the simulator platform break backward compatibility. 

In other news:  We also fixed an issue reported yesterday afternoon that was causing some EFB click spots to be unusable... 

 

Please check your PMDG Operations Center to get the very latest- and enjoy your updated 747 product line!

Thank you again for those who were helping out by providing us with some data in the background.  While it took a full 24hrs to sort the issue out, prove a test case, implement a fix and push it out to you- it would have taken quite a bit longer had we not had so many members of the PMDG team jump in to help- and so many users able to give us feedback in real time.  We appreciate it!

 

Edited January 7, 20197 yr by rsrandazzo

Premium!   Getting the latest files then....    Thanks for the effort... 🍻

And now go peacefully for the Max and 77X 🤩

Slight issue. Ran the update for FSX (I don't have access to the computer with P3D V4 at this time), and although the 747-8 updates ran just fine, the -400 updates keep giving me abnormal response code 503. Am I missing something?

Thanks RSR, you guys are the best, I don't care what Lefteris says 😉

lovely, And thanks for the Update, But stupid question just to make sure, I am very fine on 9194 now, Is the update a must go for me or I can stay where I am with 9194?

Best Regards.


Edit: Just updated, got rid of the sudden CTDs and also, a stable 3FPS Boost. Thank you PMDG.

Edited January 7, 20197 yr by Samany69
additional info.

Well done Robert and your team for the effort and commitment to us users as always.

Thankyou so much.😊

 

That's just great... 

I been having problems installing P3Dv4.4, so I reverted back to v4.3 to fly again. Then this debacle happened and grounded not only my aircrafts, but the entire sim. So while I am trying to install the sim, this happens.

Now I have to pull a all nighter to restore everything.

Mistakes from PMDG used to be few and far between... I guess you guys are trying to close that gap.

Edited January 7, 20197 yr by GundamWZero

18 minutes ago, GundamWZero said:

Mistakes from PMDG used to be few and far between... I guess you guys are trying to close that gap.

Not sure what you're referring to here.

We fixed an issue that allows you to use it in whatever sim you'd like.

P3Dv4.4 can't really be ascribed to us. If you've been having problems with it, that's something to discuss with LM - regardless of yesterday's issue (which was also caused by the v4.4 SDK from LM not allowing for backward compatibility to 4.3). Additionally, jumping the gun on reverting a sim was a bit premature. Many here would've been glad to help you troubleshoot.

I think the way this issue was handled, even though I wasn't affected, was top notch.

Thank you for the fast update. Will download and test it when I'm back from nightshift.

1 hour ago, DavidP said:

I think the way this issue was handled, even though I wasn't affected, was top notch.

Thanks, Dave.  We appreciate the comment.

 

1 hour ago, GundamWZero said:

That's just great... 

I been having problems installing P3Dv4.4, so I reverted back to v4.3 to fly again. Then this debacle happened and grounded not only my aircrafts, but the entire sim. So while I am trying to install the sim, this happens.

Now I have to pull a all nighter to restore everything.

Mistakes from PMDG used to be few and far between... I guess you guys are trying to close that gap.

Rodney,

Man we are all sorry to hear that you are having trouble.  From our end, there was **no** indication to cause us concern that Lochkeed's updated SDK would have problems with backward compatibility.  In fact, there was quite a bit of confusion as to whether this could possibly be the issue and it took a concerted 10 hour research effort to nail it to that cause and prove the problem was P3D v4.4 SDK related to start with.

I understand you are frustrated- but given that half the dev team locked themselves into research/fix mode on behalf of customers- I find it a bit hard to swallow that your anger is directed at us when we made it pretty clear you could update to 4.4 to fix the problem or wait for us to come back with further information and a fix.

Honestly, I find that minor version updates in Prepar3D are about the easiest updates you can make- and I rarely have any hitches.  I have Prepar3D running on multiple machines, in multiple versions around the office and the sim center- and the only time I have had an issue is when I wasn't paying attention and screwed the uninstall process up by running the updater over-top of the older version rather than uninstalling and updating, as Lockheed Martin recommends.

At any rate- I'm sorry to hear you are frustrated- and if you follow our posts around here you will know that I am not shy about admitting when we make mistakes- but I just can't own responsibility when it isn't ours.

 

As a customer since the original NG( some twenty years ago now), I can tell you first hand they typically make NO mistakes. And on that very rare occasion they do its never blamed on ' limitations of the sim' and corrected quickly. 

Yeah, Im a ' f-n boy', but I have thousand$ of reasons why....

Edited January 7, 20197 yr by CapnOz

Completed a test flight from KPDX (New Flightbeam Release!) to KPHX in the -8. Absolutely no issues. Great Job guys!

I have been a customer and PMDG supporter for years as well and in all that time IF there are any issues the PMDG guys will bend over backwards to fix those issues we might have and that might arise.So no bashing them as they always have all under control and help is almost immediate.

 Thankyou PMDG guys for all your hard work for all those great years and beyond.😊

Best Regards.