After visiting PTaylor

>After visiting PTaylor

Well, the blog post I assume you are referring to was from Jan 31st, so it would have been hard to release it in January at that point :->. Also, I think some later messages mention there was a nasty flu type bug that went around the team for a few weeks, which meant not much work got done during that time. He also said it would be going into final testing soon, not that it would be released soon. And some issues came up during the final testing that required some additional work to fix up and another round of testing that hadn't been originally planned for.

I wouldnt say that January was a possible release date. What I said then was:"are getting closer to closure and a final test pass, and should have more to say as far as details in the next couple of weeks"so clearly we had time in front of us. Just not as much as it has taken, true.We did hope the multicore work would be done a good 6 weeks before it was. And the beta tests, while valuable, have added their fair share of the "extra" time. We have found and fixed a couple extra 3rd party bugs that we think are going to be of good benefit to the community because of that time investment. So that was time well spent. As was the perf and thread bake time.It is what it is, we are trying to get it right. That does take time. And we believe the result will show that care and attention to detail.

>I wouldnt say that January was a possible release date. What>I said then was:>>"are getting closer to closure and a final test pass, and>should have more to say as far as details in the next couple>of weeks">>so clearly we had time in front of us. Just not as much as it>has taken, true.>>We did hope the multicore work would be done a good 6 weeks>before it was. >>And the beta tests, while valuable, have added their fair>share of the "extra" time. We have found and fixed a couple>extra 3rd party bugs that we think are going to be of good>benefit to the community because of that time investment. >>So that was time well spent. As was the perf and thread bake>time.>>It is what it is, we are trying to get it right. That does>take time. And we believe the result will show that care and>attention to detail.My only concern is about the selection of the beta testers. In my opinion, it is very important to pick up the right beta testers, and with this i mean harcore simmers, who will test every single aspect of the product, lots of addons, different scenery and situations, etc. It's no good to pick up a couple of friends to make some flights (like Wilco seems to have done with the Airbus and also the Citation) and the product is released with lots of bugs. I'm not saying this is was happened with SP1, i believe on ACES team work and i hope we will not need an SP2 in one month to fix SP1. So take your time, i'm enjoying FSX as is now and i don't care waiting one more month if needed. I believe most people agrees with this.

The links you posted (on your blog) to changes in the SDK and Scenery are very informative. SP1 will be great! Thanks :-jumpy

For releasing a 'Not finished' program Microsoft owes us ALL the honour to release ANY beta program that will improve the present situation, while beta testers continue with improvements.It is an insult to all of us, to withold this beta SP1 IMO.Give it to us, we don't care if its still got bugs, because at the moment FSX is growing cobwebs on my HDD.Do us all the honour of taking part in the improvement of FSX as you accept third party improvements also?

Don't be daft, Dave. You control the number of beta testers because you want experienced testers, able to test and explore in a meticulous fashion. `Public beta test` is noting more than throwing rocks in the sea. Eventually you might create land, but until then you create only waves. Besides, add an unlimited number of beta testers and you create a massive problem of handling the feedback. Look at the quality of many posts in forums - no detail, scant understanding of the English language, inappropriate or incompetent use of terminology, incompetent use of the product, inadequate knowledge of aviation. It's all there, as it should be as FS should be an introduction product, not a summation. I'd rather a developers team was developing, not sifting through the dross of a million e-mails just to find the one or two issues that do need attending to.ACES have to get this SP1 right. That does not - should not - involve letting anyone and his dog loose on the beta. My question would be, does the SP1 beta test team consist of different individuals to the pre-release FSX? Clearly, it should.;)Allcott

>Don't be daft, Dave.>Couldn't have said it better....S

For such a good post the last line doesn't make it.Beta testers report-that does not mean the manufacturer will do all or any of the fixes to the reported problems. It is works that way for any product. The manufacturer is responsible for the final released product-not the beta testers.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

>My only concern is about the selection of the beta testers. In>my opinion, it is very important to pick up the right beta>testers, and with this i mean harcore simmers, who will test>every single aspect of the product, lots of addons, different>scenery and situations, etc. It's no good to pick up a couple>of friends to make some flights (like Wilco seems to have done>with the Airbus and also the Citation) and the product is>released with lots of bugs. So the guys that Beta tested the original FS-X before release got jobs on the Wilco Beta team?I know this sounds nasty but people in glass houses shoud not throw stones. Having the right Beta testers does not help one bit when the release date is already set, the feature set is fixed and the development time is limited. The original FS-X Beta was not a shining example of Beta testing (and responding to the Beta testers)Roll on the new improved FS-X Beta testers SP2 lets get this thing 100% fixed and out the door.

Thanks, you answered my curiosity as to what, if any delayed the release of SP1, Multi core. 6 weeks explains it all for me :)Next time wash your hands frequently and stay home so as not to pass the bug around to everyone else at the office! :-erksLooking forward to DX10 and expansion pack :-spacecraft

Yes, we have additional new people on the SP1 beta, including the TreesX developer, Gary from Uk2000, and a few others.

Eeeh I mean SP1 off course.

Don't hold your breaths guys 'n gals - SP1 is destined to be a complete disaster!!!By all accounts, although there may be an increase in performance for dual-cores but the AI side of the business will have a significant reduction in useability? Seems that to have anything useable for this you will not be able to use autogen and have a maximum slider setting of 20, yes twenty, percent!!!As for getting things right - forget it Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!