MSFS Partnerships

[signmanbob 592]

2 hours ago, Superdelphinus said:

Why partner with aircraft manufacturers and say that they are going to make authentic aircraft then? I’m sure for the most part they will, but I think it’s a safe bet that they’re making a pretty cracking 747

A lot of developers "partner" with the aircraft companies, but still don't make "study level" products. Wilco is one of them. Don't let that fool you.  There is a big difference between what PMDG does and someone just "partnering" with an aircraft company.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Partnership can mean three things : use of the brandname, access to an aircraft for the physical modeling, collaboration in the design of the FDE.

Jorg Neumann spoke of scanning the 747 cockpit so the partnership goes as far as the access. Does it go beyond ? The Asobo engineer in the first video spoke mostly of GA FDE (interaction between taking his flying lessons and building the FDE). Modeling a Citation or an airliner is another matter altogether. 

More on EP 3 ?

[Dominique_K 10,133]

7 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

Because there's no competitive market.

If a dozen different companies were making them the prices would be lower.

At least six companies do top-tier (or almost) airliners : PMDG, FSL, Maddog, iFly, QW, Aerosoft, to choose from. The price range is 1 to 2. Just sayin’

[SierraHotel 974]

10 hours ago, Raymond.Groenendijk said:

Probably, but the default aircraft will never be as in-depth and as complex as companies like PMDG will produce them. I will be ecstatic when it features the correct engine startup procedure and some basic FMC and CDU functionality though, that will allow us to at least fly some semi-realistic flights with these aircraft. That will probably be enough for me for at least a year 🙂  

That is unsubstantiated speculation! And from what we have seen so-far, may well leave you with egg on your face.

[threexgreen 3,133]

16 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

That is unsubstantiated speculation! And from what we have seen so-far, may well leave you with egg on your face.

Saying they will be as complex as PMDG, FSL etc. is just as much unsubstantiated speculation and, to be honest, highly unlikely. It's one thing to produce scenery looking as good as that but a whole different matter to produce a study level simulation of a complex modern airliner. That's a project on its own and Asobo producing at least two (A320neo and 747) study level aircraft simultaneously while still working on the core sim seems far from feasible to me.

That said, Asobo have said themselves they are leaving aircraft (and airports) to the 3rd party developers for the most part so I can't quite see where the assumption of default aircraft being as complex as current payware aircraft is coming from.

[Raymond.Groenendijk 255]

14 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

That is unsubstantiated speculation! And from what we have seen so-far, may well leave you with egg on your face.

Well they already told the 747 will feature quite some system depth, so they seem to be taking this quite a bit further then they normally do, probably more than enough for all the casual simmers (me included). I really love that they do this also, because a good set of default aircraft with in depth systems just allows us to start with the sim right away whatever your goal is.

Nonetheless if you know the absurd amount of depth a PMDG aircraft brings to the table that's something completely different, but those levels are mainly for the enthusiasts. I don't think the majority of simmers wants to have to monitor bus voltages and things like that. So chances are very dim (I will not say never again) they implement the simulation to this level.  

They do might be interested in the main CDU and FMC features, so I hope they implement these to a good degree. 

[SierraHotel 974]

3 hours ago, threegreen said:

Saying they will be as complex as PMDG, FSL etc. is just as much unsubstantiated speculation and, to be honest, highly unlikely. It's one thing to produce scenery looking as good as that but a whole different matter to produce a study level simulation of a complex modern airliner. That's a project on its own and Asobo producing at least two (A320neo and 747) study level aircraft simultaneously while still working on the core sim seems far from feasible to me.

That said, Asobo have said themselves they are leaving aircraft (and airports) to the 3rd party developers for the most part so I can't quite see where the assumption of default aircraft being as complex as current payware aircraft is coming from.

I wasn't speculating, just pointing out that at this moment no one is in a position to either confirm or deny. Having said that, in view of the level of care and detail already lavished on this software and the fact that they have been working on this already for a few years, who's to say they haven't got a group (yes even PMDG) working on the aircraft already? The point is nobody outside of MS knows, and won't know until they are ready to tell us.

[fta2017 160]

It's not a PMDG 747-8. Confirmed by Callum Martin over at FSElite who spoke to Jorg Neumann at XO19 last night, apparently:

 

[Raymond.Groenendijk 255]

1 hour ago, SierraHotel said:

I wasn't speculating, just pointing out that at this moment no one is in a position to either confirm or deny. Having said that, in view of the level of care and detail already lavished on this software and the fact that they have been working on this already for a few years, who's to say they haven't got a group (yes even PMDG) working on the aircraft already? The point is nobody outside of MS knows, and won't know until they are ready to tell us.

Well guess you've got a point there, there is of course the possibility that they hand off default aircraft development to 3rd parties or partners like you mentioned. Anyway these are exciting times for all (virtual) aviation enthusiasts, guess there is a lot more coming to use than we dared to dream about a year ago.

[ckyliu 1,749]

7 hours ago, domkle said:

At least six companies do top-tier (or almost) airliners : PMDG, FSL, Maddog, iFly, QW, Aerosoft, to choose from. The price range is 1 to 2. Just sayin’

You left out Majestic. Can't believe you'd think of Aerosoft before Majestic when it comes to quality airliners. If you're including Aerosoft may as well include feelThere too.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

6 hours ago, threegreen said:

Saying they will be as complex as PMDG, FSL etc. is just as much unsubstantiated speculation and, to be honest, highly unlikely. It's one thing to produce scenery looking as good as that but a whole different matter to produce a study level simulation of a complex modern airliner. That's a project on its own and Asobo producing at least two (A320neo and 747) study level aircraft simultaneously while still working on the core sim seems far from feasible to me.

Why shouldn't it be feasible? Everything in software is only a matter of effort and resources. The well known 3rd party developers are very small outfits, at least when counting only their FTEs. If I'm not mistaken, the MSFS team alone is currently 15 times the size of PMDG (as per the official numbers of FTEs that are floating through the net). They could theoretically do in 10 months what takes PMDG 10 years to accomplish. And Microsoft has many more engineers to offer too, they have 1000 times the number of employees than the whole MSFS team.

With all due respect to all 3rd party devs, but we shouldn't kid ourselves about what we are up against here.

Best regards

[Dominique_K 10,133]

43 minutes ago, ckyliu said:

You left out Majestic. Can't believe you'd think of Aerosoft before Majestic when it comes to quality airliners. If you're including Aerosoft may as well include feelThere too.

Oops my bad you're absolutely right. I think MJC went off my list in an edit I did ! 

For Aerosoft I was thinking of the DC8.

[Superdelphinus 718]

I just remembered that in an engadget article a few weeks ago they said the asobosoft had partnered with airports and weather providers too. Airports... 

[ca_metal 2,015]

6 minutes ago, Superdelphinus said:

I just remembered that in an engadget article a few weeks ago they said the asobosoft had partnered with airports and weather providers too. Airports... 

Is there any database available for airports including their architectural details? The shapes of their terminals?

I mean, I know there are databases that include runways, basic terminal shapes, gates/fingers, parking spots etc. And FSX/P3D/FSW used them to model automatically their LEGO bricks airports.
 

But what about the actual architecture of the terminals, with accurate shapes and details. I think it doesn’t exist a database like that, but I hope I’m wrong.

Edited November 15, 2019 by ca_metal

[Superdelphinus 718]

There will be in the UK at least I think - most stuff like that has to be filed with councils I think. But I think this might mean that, for example, they could partner with the company that owns Manchester airport (and others that I can’t remember) and produce accurate versions of them. Would explain some of the detailed airports we’ve had sneaky peaks of.