PMDG 737NGXu First Impressions and Review!

[Jim Young 2,356]

18 minutes ago, Vali said:

I did two takeoffs there, each time after  the takeoff did the same. With all the other add-ons this does not happen.

I just finished a takeoff/landing there and did not see any problems.  I was using the default airport and scenery in the area.  I do own Northern and Southern Germany but they are not installed.  Most likely the fault of the PMDG 737NGXu somewhere as it does not do this when you use another aircraft but I didn't have any issues.  Hope you can find a solution or PMDG will post an update/fix.

[Vali 82]

1 minute ago, Jim Young said:

I just finished a takeoff/landing there and did not see any problems.  I was using the default airport and scenery in the area.  I do own Northern and Southern Germany but they are not installed.  Most likely the fault of the PMDG 737NGXu somewhere as it does not do this when you use another aircraft but I didn't have any issues.  Hope you can find a solution or PMDG will post an update/fix.

I am using EDDN from 29Palms and GES from Orbx. I wrote on the PMDG forum meanwhile about this in the already open topic, lets see. Probably a setting somewhere has a conflict or influence now. I might try it the same with the default scenery.

[planechaser 46]

Just upgraded .. works quite well so for .Love the wingflex  and the model.

No major bugs so far , seems to run like the NGX. Performance slightly less, but works fine with all the lights enabled. Just don't use SSAA at night. With DD Seattle Orbx PNW and DD KSEA I hold in the 30s FPS.

Disabling FO displays gives you more performance boost

I use a 1080TI and 5.0 ghz 8086k

 

 

[ZKOKQ 984]

If you purchase now, do you have to pay more for the MFS2020 version when it is released ?   ie another 40 USD  ?

[Evros 310]

3 minutes ago, ZKOKQ said:

If you purchase now, do you have to pay more for the MFS2020 version when it is released ?   ie another 40 USD  ?

Yes. PMDG will reimburse you for $99, but you will still have to pay the difference.

For me, it is complete madness. I would never make a purchase decision based on a promise for a platform and a product that does not yet exist.

[ZKOKQ 984]

1 minute ago, Evros said:

For me, it is complete madness. I would never make a purchase decision based on a promise for a platform and a product that does not yet exist.

I agree. So it is no benefit in purchasing now, price wise if your intention is to only use it in a sim that does not yet exist.  $140 usd That Is about $250  in my currency.

I am trying to see the logic here. PMDG say in their blurb, hey you will get a discount when the new sim is released, but your not really. All your getting is the opportunity to use it now, for 99 smackers.

And I thought it would be cheaper MSFS being an entertainment product, clearly not.  At the end of the day, we have choices, and some are happy with the new NGX, and that is fine.

[Benjamin J 751]

Got a chance to take her for a quick spin. Regarding the points raise din this thread:

• I found that the VC is growing on me the more I look at it. Initial impression was that it is a little too clean to my taste, but I also started forgetting what the NGX VC looked like... I greatly appreciate the legibility of the NGXu VC, in this area it certainly is vastly improved! As mentioned, cockpit dimensions seem better and gives more a cramped cockpit feeling.
• I really am excited to see the auto-cruise functionality present!
• Exterior modeling with PBR really does make the plan look better on the whole.
• Sounds are improved as well, mostly with regards to button and switch clicks.
• Performance, for me, is comparable to the 747, at the very least. I wouldn't say as good as the NGX, but definitely not much worse as others seem to experience. I will add that I have not tested at night, I taxied around and took off at daytime at EHAM and KATL with 100% AIG OCI traffic and found FP that my FPS are down by about 1-5, depending on where I look. I did turn on the dome light, had taxi lights on etc etc, and this did not impact my FPS nearly as much as others seem to have. But, I also do not use SSAA anti-aliasing, which I think is key!
• The ground behavior is very different. Much more responsive than the NGX. I'm no pilot so I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but I find the NGXu to be a little harder to control on the ground. Flying it's still great - but the NGX was also lovely to fly!
• One thing I definitely do NOT like: the head bobbing. I didn't like it in the 747 and I don't like it here.This is exactly what I have EZCA for. Is there a way to switch this off?
• LiveriesL I'm rather disappointed with the few amount of liveries the NGXu comes with. Previous PMDG products came with a vast array of them, so I was hoping to see the same here. Some major airlines are missing, and those that are present really focus on major European and US airlines. I can't blame them for prioritizing these, but I had hoped for a richer set of liveries.

My first impression is definitely positive. However, I'll add that I have a nagging feeling that PMDG cut some corners. The overall feature set is great and certainly not inferior to the NGX, but it's in the details where the NGXu lacks a little polish. For example, the NGX came with several default panel states, from cold & dark to short turnaround, and the NGX only comes with the cold & dark. Really not a big deal at all as I simply made my own, but it does show a lack of polish that previous products did have. I think the lack of liveries are another symptom. Let me emphasize that these are generally very minor points, but I do feel it's evidence of a slight, and perhaps sudden, rush to get this released.

In the end, is it worth your money? For those (like me, I suppose) that flew the NGX more than most any other plane in their hangar, I think it certainly is. Frnakly, just the uch improved clarity of the switch and button labels and the autocruise together make it worthwhile for me. I'm looking forward to discovering this plane all over again! Tomorrow, KOAK-KBUR!

[Drumcode 1,892]

2 hours ago, ZKOKQ said:

At the end of the day, we have choices

Yep, I'm enjoying the new product and you're not. 😉

[ZKOKQ 984]

37 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

Yep, I'm enjoying the new product and you're not. 😉

Fill ya boots mate 😎

[ahsmatt7 1,199]

3 hours ago, ZKOKQ said:

I agree. So it is no benefit in purchasing now, price wise if your intention is to only use it in a sim that does not yet exist.  $140 usd That Is about $250  in my currency.

I am trying to see the logic here. PMDG say in their blurb, hey you will get a discount when the new sim is released, but your not really. All your getting is the opportunity to use it now, for 99 smackers.

And I thought it would be cheaper MSFS being an entertainment product, clearly not.  At the end of the day, we have choices, and some are happy with the new NGX, and that is fine.

Buy it after december 31st and you wont get anything toward the new sim NG3. So yes, you get a discount on the newer version.

[JRBarrett 3,034]

22 hours ago, w6kd said:

Question for those who have the NGXu...did PMDG do something to smooth out the airspeed indicator during climb/descent?  The old NGX had a really aggravating ratcheting effect where the IAS indication would tick a fraction of a knot every second during climbs/descents.  This was presumably caused by use of the uncorrected raw IAS data from the sim, which does that "ratcheting" as a consequence of the OAT updating only once per second. 

Their later add-ons, the 777 and 747, seem to have tamed this, probably by internally interpolating the data to support gauge refresh independent of the 18Hz sim update cycle. 

I'm hoping to see the same improvement in the new panel.

 

Actually, the NGX (and presumably all other PMDG releases) do not use raw IAS data from the sim.

There is a long-standing bug in the base sim engine, (well known in the developer community), regarding the calculation of IAS from the dynamics of the simulated atmosphere. It has existed since at least FS9, and is present in both FSX and P3D.

In a nutshell, at higher altitudes, the sim-generated IAS is too high for the corresponding Mach. (About 5 knots at FL340). The disparity increases the closer the simulated aircraft gets to Mach 1.0.

I read a long discussion by a professional aeronautical engineer on one developer message board. A lot of it went over my head because of the mathematics involved, but his analysis of the error led him to believe that Microsoft mis-applied a certain constant for compressibility of air in their equation for IAS, which is why the error increases at higher airspeeds where compression of air in the pitot tube starts to become significant.

The error is very minor at lower altitudes and airspeeds in FS9/FSX/P3D

By contrast, the sim engine’s calculation of Mach number and true airspeed is apparently quite accurate for any given pressure altitude and TAT, and the sim-generated values for Mach and TAS can be directly used by any add-on developer for simulated instruments, FMS etc.

 I have no specific insight into how developers like PMDG, FSL, Leonardo etc handle this error, but it appears that all of them are probably calculating IAS from the sim-generated Mach number, rather than using sim-generated IAS directly.

I proved to my own satisfaction that this IAS bug still exists in even the most recent versions of P3D by monitoring FSUIPC offset 02BC which is the sim’s own calculation of IAS. (This value must be divided by 128 to get IAS in knots). 

The same value can also be taken from a simconnect variable.

I also monitored FSUIPC offsets for Mach and TAS.

As an example: When flying at FL340 at Mach 0.78, the corresponding IAS should always be 271 knots in any aircraft. (The TAS will vary depending on the air temperature).

In the PMDG NGX, FSL A320 and Leonardo Maddog, when flying at FL340 and Mach 0.78, the PFD does indeed show exactly 271 knots on each of these aircraft - but the “direct” FSUIPC IAS will be about 276 knots, which is 5 knots too high and demonstrates the bug in the sim engine.

FSUIPC Mach is always exactly the same as shown on the aircrafts’ PFD in each aircraft I tested, so I assume they all take Mach directly from the sim.

There are several different mathematical algorithms that can be used to make a conversion from Mach to IAS for a given pressure altitude - some more accurate (and computationally intense) than others - perhaps the “ratcheting” in the NGX IAS display is due to the extra calculation step that is being done for each IAS update.

As far as the question of why Lockheed Martin has never fixed this IAS error in P3D - one developer said that some of the core aerodynamics calculations in the sim engine were written directly in assembly language for speed, and compiled into modules for which LM was not given the source code when they acquired ESP. I have no idea how accurate that theory is, but I’d assume LM would fix the problem if they could. 

[VBHB 298]

5 hours ago, ZKOKQ said:

I agree. So it is no benefit in purchasing now, price wise if your intention is to only use it in a sim that does not yet exist.  $140 usd That Is about $250  in my currency.

I am trying to see the logic here. PMDG say in their blurb, hey you will get a discount when the new sim is released, but your not really. All your getting is the opportunity to use it now, for 99 smackers.

And I thought it would be cheaper MSFS being an entertainment product, clearly not.  At the end of the day, we have choices, and some are happy with the new NGX, and that is fine.

The complaining is getting ridiculous act like an adult. You either buy it or don't. You buy it before the 31DEC and you get the new MSFS2020 for $0 or just a little bit more with a reimbursement.

[pete_auau 1,152]

Just now, VBHB said:

The complaining is getting ridiculous act like an adult. You either buy it or don't. You buy it before the 31DEC and you get the new MSFS2020 for $0 or just a little bit more with a reimbursement.

don't  worry  wait   till  the  new  sim  is  released  and  the  ngx3   will be  more  than it  would  cost  now,  than  we  see  the  complaints  coming  in  thick  and fast 🙂

[Arklight1 140]

3 minutes ago, VBHB said:

The complaining is getting ridiculous act like an adult. You either buy it or don't. You buy it before the 31DEC and you get the new MSFS2020 for $0 or just a little bit more with a reimbursement.

 

I think somebody said the price would be $40 extra if you paid the $100 now Or thereabouts). I think somebody mentioned PMDG was shooting for about $140.

Technically, if somebody doesn't care about/want the NGXu and just wants the NG3, there's really no reason to buy the NGXu right now. lol

Edited November 10, 2019 by Arklight1

[ZKOKQ 984]

26 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

 

This is a little bit too much, there's no way I can turn if I go slower than 30 knots. I use auto rudder, I'm struggling with this a lot and am annoyed.

So, are you still enjoying the product ?