27 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

From what I can tell on their discord based on convos and reactions from the testers is that the plane is great so I am curious as to what is keeping them from giving updates or saying what issues they are running into.  I don't really know what goes into a beta test but i am curious if they ran into a major road block or if they are trying to add more features and it is being more difficult than anticipated.  

My guess is, the next update from Fenix could be a big update.  Such as a possible lifting of NDA on beta testers allowing them to stream the Fenix A320, or a bunch of videos from Fenix showing startup, takeoff, landing, etc.

It takes time for Aamir to write an update, and post it on their website with pictures, etc.  If the Fenix team is say, a month out from releasing the NDA on the beta testers, it makes sense for Aamir to focus that time on squashing the remaining bugs so they can get to the point where the NDA is lifted on beta testers, rather than wasting time writing another update. 

Of course, if Fenix is very far from releasing the NDA on the beta testers, say they need another 3 months before they can lift the NDA, then it may make sense for Aamir to writeup an interim update.

Edited April 25, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

Hear hear the Maddog releases in five days!

With the Maddog and JF 146 release now confirmed by the end of this week, and high likelihood PMDG release on or around that same timeframe, it might make sense for the Fenix project to lay low for another month or two and let the hype die down a bit on those other long awaited products.  No sense in putting too much effort in updating the masses when the focus will be elsewhere for the time being.  Unless of course they too are nearing release, which I doubt.

Edited April 25, 20224 yr by Gilandred

Some interesting recent discussion on their discord where Aamir chimes in below. Topic was about comparisons to the Hotstart 650 and how it provides a window into its inner workings (viewing logs and other various debugging-like details) and someone was saying Fenix likely won't be as detailed as the 650. To which Aamir responded effectively implying the Fenix is going to hold its own when it comes to all that detailed simulation, just that it won't provide that "front end" window to end-users:
 

Aamir — Today at 10:07 AM

We do simulate the math and computation of positional GPS data, along with using tracking algorithms to determine to locations of the various sat provider's satellites in order to come up with what your actual navigational performance should be and degrade/upgrade those respectively. If you know the identification number of the satellite that is supposed to be providing your current MSFS world space area with coverage, you can even deselect it in the MCDU and watch your ANP degrade. Obviously, in any flight simulation application, this sort of thing is dependant on the data sources feeding it - but as long as those are working okay, this should reflect in sim.

 

Lucky38 — Today at 10:07 AM

well I stand corrected good to know about these kind of things

 

Aamir — Today at 10:10 AM

I'd personally love to put a front end on it a la Hotstart, but it's dev time I personally cannot justify for the: a) Price point b) Demographic I can't justify charging more because we put it in, and I can't justify the time spent putting this sort of feature in, given it does not add tangible value, because 99.9% of who I expect to be purchasing this aircraft will look at it once and go: "huh, cool", and then never really do much else with it.

 

Lucky38 — Today at 10:21 AM

that was pretty much my thought process as to why you guys may not be as in-depth as hotstart, which there's nothing at all wrong with. $120 is just not a easily graspable price for most people and charging a more affordable price for that level of fidelity can just give poor returns for dev time, you are indeed a business at the end of the day. Cool that you could chime in and say your piece, insightful for sure

 

Aamir — Today at 10:34 AM

Well, bear in mind I’m talking about the front end aspect of it.

 

Edited April 25, 20224 yr by lwt1971

Personally I don’t buy into the whole ‘there focusing on bugs/testing right now an don’t have the time to update us’. Get real for a minute, it would take a smart and articulate guy like Aamir to write an overview update on the development status an current goals about 30 minutes tops an 5 minutes to add a couple of nice screenshots. We don’t need a drilled down all system access type of video like before which of course takes serious hours. This radio silence is a choice they have made for their own reasons, end of.

I appreciate devs not spending the time on stuff that 99.9% of us will never notice or use.  

A couple of small yet enticing updates from Aamir and team on their discord:

Aamir on questions about any blocking issues: We're always here listening to the feedback and criticisms. It's important to listen to what you guys are thinking/feeling, so thank you for speaking out and sharing your opinions on the public facing update process. Rest assured, if there were some huge blocking issue that has stopped our progress, we will have notified you. At this time, no such issue exists - and we are simply continuing on our expected track.
(link: https://discord.com/channels/736572376967282769/736572377428787221/970683149002612737)

KatiePilot (IRL A320 pilot on their beta testing team): As much as the team would love to just post a screenshot, there has been a lot of hard work going on in the background to create things that have yet to be seen in a simulator, and there’s a balance to be struck between sharing progress and giving away all our secrets. Rest assured, when the time is right. You’ll understand why. Timing is everything
(link: https://discord.com/channels/736572376967282769/736572377428787221/970707701728411739)

I'm very intrigued about Katie's "to create things that have yet to be seen in a simulator" bit...

Edited May 3, 20224 yr by lwt1971

On 4/22/2022 at 3:51 PM, Epgd said:

false.... they are ran pretty well... and you all will be blown away.... soon 🙂

in terms of features, systems emulation, and overall graphics.... it will be better than pmdg 737 ( of course different plane, but overall better ) 

you can trust me on that..... but for know pssst 🙂

 

Friends, has Epgd ever lets us down before?

Keep it up @lwt1971. These little tidbits are awesome.

2 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

I'm very intrigued about Katie's "to create things that have yet to be seen in a simulator" bit...

I have to admit that there's not a lot of things I read here in the forums that raises my eyebrows, but having an actual A320 pilot say that has me pretty excited. I hope Fenix just blows it out of the water and forces all the other top 3PD's to innovate and get competitive. 

Edited May 3, 20224 yr by Bdub22

I'm so disappointed that PMDG is seamingly not bringing their LNAV V2 to the 737 (from the beginning). Until that happens, I'm not going to buy anything from them, again.

Instead, I'm trying hard to wait even longer for the Fenix, which seems to tick all the boxes for me, personally. 

I just hope they put up a proper support forum alongside that discord stuff they use, which I find rather messy. 

41 minutes ago, NovemberUniform said:

I'm so disappointed that PMDG is seamingly not bringing their LNAV V2 to the 737 (from the beginning). Until that happens, I'm not going to buy anything from them, again.

Instead, I'm trying hard to wait even longer for the Fenix, which seems to tick all the boxes for me, personally. 

I just hope they put up a proper support forum alongside that discord stuff they use, which I find rather messy. 

What are you on about. I have watched just about every pre-release video out there. At no time have i seen the aircraft to fail on lateral or vertical navigation.

22 minutes ago, Car147 said:

What are you on about. I have watched just about every pre-release video out there. At no time have i seen the aircraft to fail on lateral or vertical navigation.

Well, perhaps you need to look a little closer.

PMDG have acknowledged that the implementation of their LNAV is inaccurate. It’s not a controversial point. They’ve been open about working on a new version - LNAV v2 - for a long time now.

Obviously their existing LNAV is not awful, as we’ve all been flying with it for years, but if both the experts and the devs say it needs to be better, I guess we need to go with their opinion.

Many expected that the MSFS 737 would come with the long-promised LNAV v2. The current information indicates that it’s not going to be part of the product on release, which is why some people are expressing disappointment given the long development cycle for this aircraft.

 

 

13 minutes ago, OzWhitey said:

Well, perhaps you need to look a little closer.

PMDG have acknowledged that the implementation of their LNAV is inaccurate. It’s not a controversial point. They’ve been open about working on a new version - LNAV v2 - for a long time now.

Obviously their existing LNAV is not awful, as we’ve all been flying with it for years, but if both the experts and the devs say it needs to be better, I guess we need to go with their opinion.

Many expected that the MSFS 737 would come with the long-promised LNAV v2. The current information indicates that it’s not going to be part of the product on release, which is why some people are expressing disappointment given the long development cycle for this aircraft.

 

Ah, thanks for the detailed response

4 minutes ago, Car147 said:

 

Ah, thanks for the detailed response

To be fair, I’ve never personally had a problem with PMDG LNAV. If they hadn’t told me it needed to be improved, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. 🙂