[05FEB22] Development Update: PMDG 737 for MSFS

Today, 20:56

 

Captains,

As we wrap up this week of development on the PMDG 737 for Microsoft Flight Simulator, I wanted to share a progress update to give you an idea where we are and how things are going.

This week's primary focus fell into a couple of areas:

• Continued refinement of the Heads Up Guidance System
• Continued work on the flight model
• Further refinement of autoflight control laws
• Refinement of the AFDS Control Wheel Steering mode (aka: How to fly your 737 like an airbus )
• Problem solving on some issues related to external model textures and the aircraft structure/window interface
• Continued work on fine scale details within the cockpit.
• Chasing down compiler-related code issues.
• The endless game of debugging complex systems.

The airplane is now being flown on complete flight stages as we continue to look for issues hiding in the background. The systems logic is well in place and the issues being identified are getting resolved one at a time. From a simulation standpoint the software is incredibly stable and well mannered so we are in the process chasing down things that I would call "platform interface" issues. For example, making certain that various keyboard shortcuts and MSFS native commands are connected properly to the software so that the airplane's systems respond appropriately to the MSFS control set. It sounds rather obvious to say that we have to go through all of these- but it is actually quite tedious and requires a bunch of minor changes to the code in order to get things behaving properly.

One big change over the past few weeks is that the simulation is fully flyable and usable in a predictably stable manner. This has allowed us to shift from implementation to refinement as we continue to improve the flying characteristics of the airplane and make adjustments to the autoflight system control laws in both normal and CWS modes. Since this is our first project working to bring our entirely customized capabilities into the MSFS platform and it has been interesting as we adapt the handling qualities. Each platform has it's own set of strengths and weaknesses, so we are likewise adjusting the 737 software to account for the strengths of the MSFS platform, while also working around some of the weaknesses. We went through this process when initially bringing our products from FSX to P3D, but those two platforms were alike enough that it wasn't terribly difficult in the beginning.

This is an order of magnitude more complex than that effort from 2015, but we are really pleased with the results!

Checking the performance of the airplane requires a tremendous amount of detail flying work to validate that the pitch/power/drag interactions are correct at all altitudes, configurations and weights. It is exacting work, but it is going mostly well.



All over the airplane we are heavily engaged in cleanup-mode now- and we have chosen a go-to-beta date. Our confidence in hitting that beta date is very high, and we are also feeling confident enough in the project to begin setting a projected release date range on the calendar. (No, I'm not going to tell you what it is because that would be a sure-fire way create the sort of bad karma that would cause a lengthy delay! )

I have begun work on some video segments, but I don't want to say too much about those yet.

Overall, we are finally starting to feel good about the progress we are making with this project. The whole kit is finally beginning to look, act and feel like finished product.

The wait is nearly over!


 

Robert S. Randazzo 
PMDG Simulations
http://www.pmdg.com

Edited February 5, 20224 yr by flyboy0425

Robert is with-holding a release date? My god, old dogs can learn new tricks!

I'm super excited for this. And that picture is outstanding; look at the wrinkles being illuminated by the sun on the fuselage. We're in for a treat!

Looks like now RSR is racing with Fenix on who's going first to release although looks to me Fenix would be the first. Anyway, cool stuff and I am surprised no RSR drama in this update lol 

Yes it was refreshingly brief and to the point.

If PMDG has a “go to” beta date, then my guess is the PMDG 737 will enter beta within the next 2 months, provided they don’t hit anymore major roadblocks.

Edited February 6, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

Talking about airliners. iniBuild posted a screenshot of the A310 and said this month would be great for MSFS fliers. 

6 minutes ago, espent said:

Talking about airliners. iniBuild posted a screenshot of the A310 and said this month would be great for MSFS fliers. 

Where?

I can't hold back anymore, i need a release date Robert 😁

5 minutes ago, omarsmak30 said:

Where?

On their Discord;

 

20 minutes ago, espent said:

Talking about airliners. iniBuild posted a screenshot of the A310 and said this month would be great for MSFS fliers. 

I would be surprised if iniBuild is able to release their A310 in the first half of 2022.  I think they announced they their products for MSFS not too long ago.  Of course they could have been working on their products for MSFS long before their announcement, but my guess is, their A310 won’t be released for MSFS for quite some time (ie, second half of 2022 would be the best case scenario, but 2023 is more likely).

11 minutes ago, espent said:

On their Discord;

 

If this thing comes out this month im going to lose my ****. 

This is shaping up to be an amazing year for airliners in the sim. I'm so excited (although my wallet isn't haha)

 

This is another photo from A310 in MSFS posted today in their discord

 

Not to derail an NG3 thread, but the iniBuild product for XP was one of the single highest fidelity simulations in Flight Simming, next to the recently released Hot-Start CL650. I'd say it was beyond the Leonardo Maddog and FSLabs A320. So yeah, I agree, these coming months are going to be great for us tubeliners.

This is great news! I've been anxiously waiting for FENIX A320 and PMDG 737 for MSFS! I really hope that the beta phase won't take long. I WANT THEM BOTH NOW! Like a kid on Christmas!