PMDG 737 NG3 delayed to 12+ months

[FAZZ3 815]

Robert gave a small one-liner update on the MSFS version of the 737 from in his latest Oct 18 update about their BBJ product line for P3D.

"PMDG 737NG3 for MSFS: We still expect this product to be 12+ months away based upon the condition and trajectory of MSFS."

So maybe a 2022 release at best.

Link to update post

[omarsmak30 4,068]

I would expect it at best end of 2021 or beginning of 2022. But all comes down to how fast asobo makes the SDK complex addone ready. Apparently also Asobo has been working with FSLabs on getting the specifications for the SDK and what they need to have in order to port FSLabs 320 to MSFS https://forums.flightsimlabs.com/index.php?/topic/27106-a319-x-a320-x-a321-x-update-v501114-now-available/

Edited October 19, 2020 by omarsmak30

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

16 minutes ago, FAZZ3 said:

Robert gave a small one-liner update on the MSFS version of the 737 from in his latest Oct 18 update about their BBJ product line for P3D.

"PMDG 737NG3 for MSFS: We still expect this product to be 12+ months away based upon the condition and trajectory of MSFS."

So maybe a 2022 release at best.

Link to update post

Sounds about right comparing to what happened in other platforms

[Victoroos 205]

1 hour ago, leprechaunlive said:

Sounds about right comparing to what happened in other platforms

yeah, the platform is really really young.. 🙂

[suncoastflyer 685]

Unfortunate news but it's pretty much to be expected, as long as it hits the usual PMDG standards it'll be worth it. Could be worse - it took them 4 years after FSX to release the NGX so anything sooner than that is ideally very good, especially for a brand new platform.

[honanhal 1,420]

Sure, that's not a crazy long time from now. I'm still left scratching my head a bit with what PMDG is doing here, given their earlier talk (not that long ago!) of this possibly being ready in the next month or so. Did they actually believe that at the time?

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they did. Then what happened? It's a big change in timeline and there's been no substantive explanation of what changed. Ok, the SDK isn't where it needs to be. That means it also wasn't when they were making those much more optimistic projections, right?

Obviously, I'd like to see high-fidelity planes from the likes of PMDG and FSL in MSFS as soon as possible, but I'm capable of patience. It's hard, though, not to be frustrated by what sure seems to me to be some "hiding the ball" from PMDG.

James

[OSM 683]

If PMDG started to sell "bbj interior", then they have nothing to sell. Now it is definitely clear that PMDG future totally depend on FS2020.

[Juliett Alfa Romeo 530]

3 minutes ago, OSM said:

Now it is definitely clear that PMDG future totally depend on FS2020.

🙄

[Farlis 2,281]

1 hour ago, FAZZ3 said:

Robert gave a small one-liner update on the MSFS version of the 737 from in his latest Oct 18 update about their BBJ product line for P3D.

"PMDG 737NG3 for MSFS: We still expect this product to be 12+ months away based upon the condition and trajectory of MSFS."

So maybe a 2022 release at best.

Link to update post

Where is this delay you speak of? It was always announced with a likely expectancy of a release Q3 2021. So there is no delay of 12+ months. If there were it would be expected in Q3 2022.

[ErichB 3,640]

14 minutes ago, Farlis said:

Where is this delay you speak of? It was always announced with a likely expectancy of a release Q3 2021. So there is no delay of 12+ months. If there were it would be expected in Q3 2022.

Agree.  Q3 2021 is consistent with previous announcements by RSR

[ComSimPilot 623]

32 minutes ago, OSM said:

If PMDG started to sell "bbj interior", then they have nothing to sell. Now it is definitely clear that PMDG future totally depend on FS2020.

Maybe because there is nothing else different from NGXu manufacturer wise?

[honanhal 1,420]

12 minutes ago, ErichB said:

Agree.  Q3 2021 is consistent with previous announcements by RSR

From a July post of RSR's (https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/73673-30jul20-pending-updates-update-and-pmdg-737ng3-for-microsoft-flight-simulator-first-look)

Currently we are looking at a beta testing horizon well into 4Q20, and a release event currently sometime out in late 1Q21. These times could shift forward depending a number of factors and they could slide further out also. Right now it is really hard to tell.

In fairness, he said right there the dates could shift. But there absolutely has been a shift. RSR is very careful with his words (this is kind of my point!) so you're never going to find him contradicting himself directly.

Also, 12+ months from now is Q4 2021, not Q3.

James

Edited October 19, 2020 by honanhal

[Tim-HH 572]

PMDG needed more than three years to release their first FSX product. So it is no surprise that we will have to wait a bit for their first MSFS product.

Btw. the interior looks quite bad...very artificial. Yes, I know the interior is not the main focus of the product. But please take a look how excellent a bizjet cabin can look in P3D

[omarsmak30 4,068]

An interesting feedback about this from iceman (the project lead of FBWA320):

Quote

This intrigues me. I founded and actively work on the FlyByWire A32NX, and although the SDK is lacking in some regards, it isn't horribly incomplete (although the documentation is - but much of it is the same as FSX/P3D). Definitely not incomplete enough to delay the development of a study-level airliner by a year or more.

The core systems are likely being written in C++ using the Simconnect API and compiled into WASM. The main roadblocks we've run into are the lack of weather functions (so no weather radar, in-game METAR requests, or windshear system), lack of terrain functions (which can likely be overcome by using a custom terrain database - we haven't looked too much into this), and some issues regarding capturing throttle events - this is likely something Asobo has to fix, at least for us to implement a fully functional custom autothrottle and FADEC. Everything else is basically functional to write a complex aircraft with, albeit not as quickly without comprehensive documentation. (We're writing our own custom fly-by-wire and autopilot systems from scratch in Rust, since trying to wrangle with the default PID controllers is nothing short of a nightmare).

This leads me to two possible reasons why development is stalled on the PMDG side. Possibility 1 is that they are trying to use the low-level graphics API, which isn't fully fleshed out at first glance. We haven't looked into that at all, since all of our display code is written in Javascript using the Coherent engine (being an open source project, we don't have to worry about obscuring/compiling our code, so there's no downside for us here). Possibility 2 is that in its current state, the SDK, although mostly complete, is still a pain in the word not allowed to work with, especially with little documentation. Rather than sink man hours into figuring it out now and doing it the hard way, they are likely devoting those resource to P3D instead, and will only continue development in MSFS once the SDK is less time consuming to work with. Makes sense from a business standpoint - PMDG is almost unrivaled in terms of quality, and they know people will gladly wait for their products.

I have heard, however, that pretty much every 3rd party developer apart from Aerosoft is getting almost no communication or coordination from Asobo. This can't be helping their development, either.

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by omarsmak30

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

21 minutes ago, omarsmak30 said:

An interesting feedback about this from iceman (the project lead of FBWA320):

 

It was VERY interesting indeed. Thanks