[26JAN19] It is Saturday. Let's have share some PBR!

[rsrandazzo]

Captains,

For those of us encroaching on 50 years of age, the acroynm "PBR" has a completely different meaning than it does for younger simmers- which of course has become the root for many a conversation of late here at PMDG.

If you listen closely, you almost hear the laughter coming from the dev team when someone posts in this forum, "hey- when are you going to give us some PBR?"

Well...

It is saturday.  Let's throw some steak on the grill and have ourselves some PBR, shall we? 

Jason has been hard at work revamping the models to accommodate Lockheed Martin's new "Physics Based Rendering" capability.  This has required a significant amount of work, especially since our 747 product line includes 14 different airframes that must each be adjusted to account for the new capability.

Each airplane takes about two days to get right- and of course there are the inevitable tweaks and touch-ups- so we are seeing a productivity rate of about one airplane every three days or so.

But the results...

Quite a bit has been written about how PBR enhances the visual quality of the airplane- and I will admit to having been a bit skeptical that this was something that would really improve the visual quality- but after seeing Jason's work in the sim, I am a believer.

The scattering of light and the way it plays off of surfaces of different qualities is really convincing- especially when you see it dynamically within the simulator.

We chose a polished aluminum 744 as a demonstrator because in the simming world, polished aluminum has always been the "holy grail" of livery capabilities.  As your viewpoint moves around the airplane, the reflection of surrounding terrain and structures plays off of the surface, even in windows and off of painted surfaces in a way that you wind up almost not noticing- because it looks so "normal" to your eye.

It is this normality of reflection that really brings the shape and surface of the airplane to life- and the results are simply stunning.

With any new capability- we have spent some time playing with it in order to come up with the right balance of things.  For example, dealing with the various surface qualities in order to make them look correct within the simulator:  The winglets on most airliners tend to be a semi-gloss after even a short time in service, and this causes them to reflect light differently than, say, the metallic surfaces on the leading edge.  This had to be accounted for, along with the way flush vs. button rivets reflect light differently- and cause the structural lines of the airplane to stand out.

These things (like the vapor effects so many simmers seem to love) can be easily over-blown to the point where they look ridiculous, so we had to play with these effects quite a bit before setting in with a version that we feel looks correct.

 

We are planning to give the PBR updates to our beta team next week- and we anticipate a quick turn from testing to release for all of you.  The update will cover the entire 747 product line (744/748) and will push via the PMDG Operations Center once it is available.

It may take us a few days to get all of the liveries in the PMDG Operations Center updated once we are ready to release- and we will push the updated paintkits so that livery painters can add the necessary bits to their liveries as desired as well.

A couple of important notes:  Lockheed Martin is still tuning this technology- and while they have done a spectacular job of adding this capability without any discernible impact on performance- there are a few hiccups to be resolved still.  Primary in the area of concern for us is that PBR doesn't work properly at night yet- but their fix for this is coming..  We do not anticipate it will require any further updates to our models once they do issue that fix- which is good!

Anyway- thanks for hanging out and sharing some PBR.  Enjoy your weekend!

 

[Drinian]

Awesome news, looking so amazing, thank you!

[fakeflyer737]

Robert can we have this for the NGX?

Will it be standard for the NG3?

Bonus: When can we see VC shots of the NG3? 

Thank you Sir!
Ron

[IAhawkeyeDDS]

That’s glorious... in so many ways.

[vc10man]

Never knew what PBR was even though I am over 70! Now I do know. Thanks, RR.🍺

[Michael Boeck]

thank you thank you thank you to the whole team 👍

[Ausflight]

Wonderful news Robert and team looking forward to it and thankyou for all your hard work PMDG.

[Ant_Craft]

Can't wait! It's amazing to see how a beautiful plane can be made even more beautiful!!!

[John_Tavendale]

Looks great

[mwilk]

Just looking at that livery gives me a headache. And no, it has nothing to do with the airplane.

[Jeff Nielsen]

Am I the only one that actually thinks that livery looks great?!?  Not being sarcastic, it really does look like it belongs.

[CapnOz]

Can you show us a few more liveries. Like the Cargolux?

[Patco Lch]

Mucho gusto!

[Peter Webber]

When I read "encroaching on 50 years of age" and "PBR", I immediately thought of Pre-Balding Regime".😁

[scandinavian13]

haha - you all...

These comments are hilarious. Thank you.

[Referencing the ones that are meant to be funny, I mean. For the serious comments: thank you, too.]