Majestic Dash-8 Q400 to be developed for MSFS

[Snuffleupagus 327]

If the SDK gets improved and turns into what they need in order to get an advanced plane in MSFS, it would be dumb for them not to make one. 

[harrry 322]

I swore I would not spend money on planes for MSFS2020 just fly my airlined routes with P3D or Xplane but this will make me break my resolution.

[ahsmatt7 1,199]

6 hours ago, UAL4life said:

Exactly. There’s a good chance the sdk will never be opened up enough for devs to make anything more than what we have in default or less depending on how much resources Asobo puts into it (versus developing the Xbox version for instance)

Highly doubt that considering what aerosoft and PMDG have said on it. You really think PMDG would have invested in MSFS the way they have so far if they didn't think they could deliver their typical product in MSFS?

[harrry 322]

I understand that Majestic use a common model run in a sort of virtual environment where it does not have to be changed just the virtual environment, (I know this is not  a correct complete description but I think you can understand what I mean by it.  I think PMDs recently started using a similar way,

I think PMDG has itts plane ready (the 737nxgu)  but cannot put it into msfs2020 until the msfs software is stable enough and the sdk opens the hooks to do this.

[DavidP 1,410]

46 minutes ago, ahsmatt7 said:

Highly doubt that considering what aerosoft and PMDG have said on it. You really think PMDG would have invested in MSFS the way they have so far if they didn't think they could deliver their typical product in MSFS?

They invested more up to this point in XP and then dropped it - I assume it was for technical reasons.

[RaptyrOne 1,411]

11 hours ago, JDWalley said:

it's quite conceivable that the answer at that time may be "no."

Conceivable, yes, but likely, no. Majestic is a business. A business exists to make money. You make money by selling stuff. You can’t sell stuff you don’t have. Right now MSFS is a fruit tree laden with low hanging fruit for add-on software developers. More so than any other platform right now. Odds are that they are already well into investigating and planning...

[RaptyrOne 1,411]

4 hours ago, ahsmatt7 said:

There’s a good chance the sdk will never be opened up enough for devs to make anything more than what we have in default

What utter nonsense! On what do you base this ‘good chance‘? Everything in Asobo’s latest Development roadmap release points to the exact opposite.

[EvidencePlz 276]

I really want the majestic dash 8 q400 aircraft in MSFS. About two years ago I bought the most advanced version of this aircraft, as well as three more from PMDG (737, 777, 747) and then the FSlabs airbus (along with three GA aircraft from A2A). It was my 5th (iirc) re-entry to civil flight simulation after a long hiatus. As you can see...it was a lot of money I paid for all these study level planes, but ultimately I found myself not wanting to do anything with Prepar3D or XP because although these study level planes were top-notch in terms of both accuracy and visuals, it was the base simulation platforms that looked, performed and felt bad, and made everything else look worse. Ultimately I got fed up and ended up not using these study-level aircraft at all, then uninstalled both Prepar3d and XP. MSFS 2020 has renewed my interest in flight sim and for the first time I'm finding myself using the sim for hours and hours continuously without feeling frustrated or bored (and that with the default aircraft). For the first time since I started tinkering with flight sims back in 2002, I can finally say it feels truly, deeply and genuinely satisfying. Addons like PMDG, FSLabs, Majestic, Milviz, A2A, Leonardo etc will definitely take my flight simming to a deeper satisfying level in MSFS and even if I have to pay full price for these addons again, I will.

Edited September 5, 2020 by EvidencePlz

[virtualstuff 758]

8 hours ago, FS Professional said:

I hear different statements about the SDK, being either incomplete or Microsoft/Asobo not "opening it up". I was under the assumption that the SDK is just incomplete at this moment and doest include certain APIs but Microsoft is working towards making the SDK available to developers with as much access to the simulator as possible.

Let's wait for this month and till the end of the year a lot of SDK updates and improvements are planned...

[F737MAX 5,604]

6 hours ago, pvupilot said:

If the SDK gets improved and turns into what they need in order to get an advanced plane in MSFS, it would be dumb for them not to make one. 

The Dash 8 is a niche within a niche - that's to say, it's not as popular as payware 737, 747 or A32x and these add-ons are going to be bought in greater numbers by hard-core enthusiasts, rather than the Xbox controller simmers (who'll take the Zibo-ed default A32N and be completely satisfied).

I'm hopeful that Majestic bring the Q400 to MSFS. The reality is, will sales to us 'study level' enthusiasts for a MSFS version be greater than a Q300 training edition that can be sold to commercial trainers? That's Majestic's opportunity cost.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong with my interpretation of the situation...

[Biggles2010 343]

3 hours ago, RaptyrOne said:

What utter nonsense! On what do you base this ‘good chance‘? Everything in Asobo’s latest Development roadmap release points to the exact opposite.

It's clear that Asobo are well intentioned, and as enthusiastic as many of the MSFS users posting here. But people believe what they want to believe, which sometimes avoids reality.

Asobo are contracted by MS, to work for them, and it is the bean counters at MS who will decide how far MSFS is developed, regardless of any 'Roadmaps' which Asobo may publish.

I suspect sales for X-Box may be more important to the bean counters than several thousand pc users. And a fully developed SDK may not be as significant for gamers as it is for pc simulator users. We must hope that MS allows Asobo to complete the job, but don't assume anything about MS remaining committed if they don't make the profits they want from this.

[Irish 23]

Who exactly has said that the sdk for third party development is a year out

Have Asobo actually told the third party devs that it's a year away or is this the impression that the third party devs have from working with Asobo.

[ahsmatt7 1,199]

3 hours ago, RaptyrOne said:

What utter nonsense! On what do you base this ‘good chance‘? Everything in Asobo’s latest Development roadmap release points to the exact opposite.

I never said that. What you quoted.....I never said that.

[jfri 42]

12 hours ago, Kilo60 said:

MSFS is the perfect sim for the Dash-8 and one of my favs in P3D.  Really hope they develop it for this one!!!

Why do you think that ? Is it not rather so that MSFS is best for low flying VFR while the Dash 8 is more a high flyer ?
I have it for FSX and have the option to upgrade it to my newly P3D V5 64 bit platform. Should there be an option to upgrade to MSFS I am not certain I would choose MSFS. My experience is that MSFS is afflicted more by stuttering than P3D.

[GGLurch 10]

8 minutes ago, Biggles2010 said:

It's clear that Asobo are well intentioned, and as enthusiastic as many of the MSFS users posting here. But people believe what they want to believe, which sometimes avoids reality.

Asobo are contracted by MS, to work for them, and it is the bean counters at MS who will decide how far MSFS is developed, regardless of any 'Roadmaps' which Asobo may publish.

I suspect sales for X-Box may be more important to the bean counters than several thousand pc users. And a fully developed SDK may not be as significant for gamers as it is for pc simulator users. We must hope that MS allows Asobo to complete the job, but don't assume anything about MS remaining committed if they don't make the profits they want from this.

And also, MSFS2020 has to be actively keept alive by MS due to the massive amount of data-streaming involved. FSX was released in 2006 and e.g. the PMDG 737 was released in 2011, 6 years after the FSX release. Thats a lot of years of active support needed for a niche simulator. To be fair here, mainstream support for FSX SP1 by MS ended in 2015 (well, accoding to MS, service pack support ended in 2008), however, we still can use FSX and products were deleveloped after 2015.

I think that MS/Asobo will jump into the DLC market for sure (they want to make money of it like everybody else) - but imho, there is a very limited market for high-level DLC in the Majestic/PMDG/ORBX price range, especially considering X-Box customers. So, I think the focus will be on lighter aircraft and scenery. But then again, each DLC will be a one-time sale, but the need to provided streaming-data persists. Furthermore, with a release of a full SDK, MS/Asobo will actively invite competition into the DLC market. So developers can release DLC and earn money, while MS has to provide a server infrastructure and the streaming capacity. For years to come... I cannot see this is an valid business model without some sort of a subscription model here, at least not for the next 14 years (like e.g. FSX). So I kind of question the whole "long-term" thing... but I am ready to be proven wrong!

Another thing - beside the streaming of the satellite data - the AI calculations for the building generation - is that done locally on my PC or is that calculated on a e.g. MS Azure server and part of the streaming data? 

Nico