https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/103576-23jan21-777-beta-testing-update

Regards, Marcus

Quoted

Captains,

Welcome to the weekend!

I don't have much information to share with you this week, which belies the amount of work taking place across multiple projects at PMDG right now. My primary focus at the moment is the impending release of both our long awaited PMDG 777 product update cycle (which is no cost to users) and our upcoming new product release for the PMDG 777-200ER.

The first two weeks of testing on the 200ER have been typically difficult for a new product, in part because we have torn apart the entire 777 product line and introduced a huge number of possible vectors for problems to creep in. The beta team has been working overtime to keep us finding issues and the dev team has been doing an incredible job of finding some very complex solutions in order to keep testing moving forward.

We just pushed another set of builds to them, and we are hoping that this build set will begin the natural cycle of stabilization in the product line- as that will start allowing us to look toward a release date.

As of this moment, there is a slight chance we make a release by end-of-month, but I think early February is a bit more realistic just given the need to manage fatigue here around the halls of PMDG.

This week was one of the most difficult weeks we have had in many years from a development standpoint- with a few problems taking an all-hands effort on the part of the code team to resolve. Updating older code bases to keep them evolving in order to ensure their longevity is NOT easy. This is why so many companies will simply End-of-Life an older product and replace it with a new one rather than updating older code. The good news is that this update cycle is really doing wonders for the entire 777 product line- so we are very happy to be looking at the back end of the course now as we wrap things up.

I will likely turn our beta team loose to begin sharing their thoughts and observations of the new update and the new 777-200ER after this coming week of testing- so look forward to that.

In the mean time I'm going to make a five gallon bucket of martini, pour a jar or two of olives into it, and take the rest of the night off. 

We have a bunch of projects suddenly accelerating all at once- so there are some very exciting times coming... More on those later once I get my brain unscrambled.

Thanks for posting the update Marcus.

I have another question.. PMDG was planning a major nav update. What happened to that?

 

6 minutes ago, aldridgem said:

What happened to that?

Still underway I believe but is apparently a massive task.

And when Global Flight Operations? 

Looking forward to the update and ER.

Edited January 24, 20215 yr by Bigt

1 hour ago, rob0203 said:

And when Global Flight Operations? 

A "brochure-ware" was supposed to be released last december.

seems like such a slow time for new products.  Been waiting on a handful of things.  PMDG 777, GFO, FSLabs Sharks, TFDi MD-11, Orbx PBI, FSimStudios Halifax, and a few others.  

25 minutes ago, micstatic said:

seems like such a slow time for new products.  Been waiting on a handful of things.  PMDG 777, GFO, FSLabs Sharks, TFDi MD-11, Orbx PBI, FSimStudios Halifax, and a few others.  

What's ORBX PBI? 

1 minute ago, mpo910 said:

What's ORBX PBI? 

orbx is working on a Palm Beach (KPBI)

Will be interesting to see what their next new aircraft development will be after the 777 + expansion for V5 are out... (except for the NG3 whose progress is contigent on the MSFS SDK development I take it)

11 hours ago, thepilot said:

Will be interesting to see what their next new aircraft development will be after the 777

I can bet it will be 787.
And no, I'm not a gambler.

17 minutes ago, Rafal said:

I can bet it will be 787.
And no, I'm not a gambler.

I would love to see a 787 from PMDG! As well as a A350 from FSLabs!

Marcus

16 minutes ago, mpo910 said:

I would love to see a 787 from PMDG! As well as a A350 from FSLabs!

True, true!
Both would be awesome.

11 hours ago, thepilot said:

Will be interesting to see what their next new aircraft development will be after the 777

Although I'd like a 757 or 767, my bet is on the 727. There's none for P3D4/5. Everything else appears to be taken... unless they go MSFS2020.

Edited January 25, 20215 yr by Luis Hernandez

727 would be good but I am doubtful.

I was at one stage flying the B727 from CS quite regularly in FSX although that experience was not for the faint-hearted given all of its issues since the number of corrections , fixes that had to be implemented by the user themselves took some effort. A robust, reliable B727 would be a great addition to the hangar however I wonder how much simmer enthusiasm would be for this old bird?