Another lump of coal: PMDG Update [24DEC22]

[Jazz 1,046]

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

Silly me, I bought this plane with the understanding that PMDG would make - in a timely fashion, or at least with a timeline - good on their promises to fix glaring issues such as the lack of simbrief integration, jpeg low-rez textures, and an EFB. Progress on the EFB seems to be going at the speed of molasses, the other two seem to have vanished from the agenda entirely.

 

Lack of SImBrief integration? But my flightplans and weather are in my FMC when I want them. I'm not sure I understand this comment.

And I may regret asking this because once seen you cannot unsee but what "jpeg low-rez" textures? Where are they?

[bendead 1,085]

Is the 737 certified for RNP (AR) approaches? Last night i tried it on RNPW02R of Santos Dumont Airport. Lots of issues to keep a constant vertical path and on final the roll was all over the place, 10° left to 10° right and so on.

The A320 did a perfect job as well as the beta longitude, even if not certified. 

[Ricardo41 5,954]

1 hour ago, pete_auau said:

ok   must be  missing  some  thing  that Iam not  doing  correctly,  when i enter  the  flight plan request  it  brings  up  the  simbrief flight  plans  that  i had  made  before    and  than  it  loads  the  details  in the  fmc.

Unless they've changed something, you have to download the simbrief flight plan into the folder of the PMDG 737 before being able to load it into the FMC. In the, for example, A310 I enter my simbrief id, then just import it from simbrief directly.

1 hour ago, Jazz said:

And I may regret asking this because once seen you cannot unsee but what "jpeg low-rez" textures? Where are they?

Position yourself outside the cockpit door. Look around. Now do the same with the A310, or do a walkaround and look into the wheelwells.

[Stearmandriver 2,300]

45 minutes ago, bendead said:

Is the 737 certified for RNP (AR) approaches? Last night i tried it on RNPW02R of Santos Dumont Airport. Lots of issues to keep a constant vertical path and on final the roll was all over the place, 10° left to 10° right and so on.

The A320 did a perfect job as well as the beta longitude, even if not certified. 

RNP (AR) procedures were invented by an airline using 737s, for use in 737s.  It's definitely certified for them 😁.  Down to RNP .10.

PMDG, because they supported these procedures in the only way possible back in FSX, are still stuck on using a now-outdated navdata format that doesn't recognize RF legs.  They are approximated by placing extra waypoints in the FMC to approximate the arc.  The many short segments resulting from this cause the FMC to re-calculate vertical and lateral path, resulting in the small corrections you see.

PMDG has been working on modernizing their navdata and converting to full Airinc-424 support for quite a while.  They've significantly improved the precision with which their 737 follows the lateral and vertical path, but the remaining oscillations are probably going to continue remaining until conversion to -424 is complete.

[Jazz 1,046]

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

Unless they've changed something, you have to download the simbrief flight plan into the folder of the PMDG 737 before being able to load it into the FMC. In the, for example, A310 I enter my simbrief id, then just import it from simbrief directly.

I don't download anything manually. SimBrief generates the flight plan and WX file and injects them into the correct folders for me automatically. I literally do nothing.

 

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

Position yourself outside the cockpit door. Look around. Now do the same with the A310, or do a walkaround and look into the wheelwells.

Ahh, yes. I saw that in a review video. They looked pretty bad and it was explained that they were going to be replaced. I agree, they should be replaced and lord only knows why they still haven't but I never look there to be honest so I wouldn't even notice when they are.

[pete_auau 1,162]

10 minutes ago, Jazz said:

I don't download anything manually. SimBrief generates the flight plan and WX file and injects them into the correct folders for me automatically. I literally do nothing.

yep same  here  only  takes  a sec  to set  it  up

[bendead 1,085]

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

RNP (AR) procedures were invented by an airline using 737s, for use in 737s.  It's definitely certified for them 😁.  Down to RNP .10.

PMDG, because they supported these procedures in the only way possible back in FSX, are still stuck on using a now-outdated navdata format that doesn't recognize RF legs.  They are approximated by placing extra waypoints in the FMC to approximate the arc.  The many short segments resulting from this cause the FMC to re-calculate vertical and lateral path, resulting in the small corrections you see.

PMDG has been working on modernizing their navdata and converting to full Airinc-424 support for quite a while.  They've significantly improved the precision with which their 737 follows the lateral and vertical path, but the remaining oscillations are probably going to continue remaining until conversion to -424 is complete.

Thanks for the info 👍😉

[jarmstro 2,404]

1 hour ago, pete_auau said:

yep same  here  only  takes  a sec  to set  it  up

But how?

[rutrA 282]

SimBrief Downloader 

[Ricardo41 5,954]

1 hour ago, pete_auau said:

yep same  here  only  takes  a sec  to set  it  up

You need to set up the simbrief downloader first. It's just an additional extra step that shouldn't be required in 2022.

Is it an earth-shattering immersion killer? No.

It's just (another) indication of how PMDG seems to be "stuck" in the old ways.

[Jazz 1,046]

1 hour ago, jarmstro said:

But how?

 

42 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

You need to set up the simbrief downloader first. It's just an additional extra step that shouldn't be required in 2022.

Which consists entirely of directing it to the correct 2 folders in which you want the files placed which takes 4...perhaps 5 seconds and then you don't have to do it again....🙄

A word of warning on this though, to those that have not done it. There are actually 2 places the files can go. You can put them in the flight plan and WX folders which exists in the Community/PMDG folder but if you put them there then they will only be read when the sim starts. That means that if you plan on doing a return leg the plane won't find the files for the return leg should you generate them while the sim is running. I found this out the other night.

So, ensure you put them in the other place which is made clear in the PMDG manual. Depending on whether it is the steam or store version these will be different places I believe but the locations are made clear in the "Introduction Documentation" of the aircraft.

So having said that and taking into account that you may have to open a PDF file and then search the term WX Folder or such like I change my initial estimate of 4-5 seconds to 20. That gives one time to put on ones specs as well.

[jarmstro 2,404]

44 minutes ago, Jazz said:

 

Which consists entirely of directing it to the correct 2 folders in which you want the files placed which takes 4...perhaps 5 seconds and then you don't have to do it again....🙄

A word of warning on this though, to those that have not done it. There are actually 2 places the files can go. You can put them in the flight plan and WX folders which exists in the Community/PMDG folder but if you put them there then they will only be read when the sim starts. That means that if you plan on doing a return leg the plane won't find the files for the return leg should you generate them while the sim is running. I found this out the other night.

So, ensure you put them in the other place which is made clear in the PMDG manual. Depending on whether it is the steam or store version these will be different places I believe but the locations are made clear in the "Introduction Documentation" of the aircraft.

So having said that and taking into account that you may have to open a PDF file and then search the term WX Folder or such like I change my initial estimate of 4-5 seconds to 20. That gives one time to put on ones specs as well.

Can't be bothered. There should be proper SimBrief integration as per most other addon payware planes. (And freeware ones such as the FBW.) I doubt its hard to do?

Edited January 2, 2023 by jarmstro

[Jazz 1,046]

5 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

Can't be bothered.

🤣

Whinge and feel hard done-by then.

🤣

People are funny in 2023.

[Sonosusto 681]

7 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

Silly me, I bought this plane with the understanding that PMDG would make - in a timely fashion, or at least with a timeline - good on their promises to fix glaring issues such as the lack of simbrief integration, jpeg low-rez textures, and an EFB. Progress on the EFB seems to be going at the speed of molasses, the other two seem to have vanished from the agenda entirely.

 

Textures: Curious. Where are these low-resolution areas? The cargo area or a specific part of the wheel's brakes? Not sure. I do walk-arounds with FSRealistic and I am still pretty happy with how the plane looks. If there are spots that are not up to "par" with some of you then maybe it's for a good reason? Better resource utilization?

Simbrief: I have no problems with the Simbrief Downloader integrating into the plane. It takes just a few seconds. Seconds. Not minutes. Seconds.

EFB: I have to agree in a sense that this should have been released with the plane at least so we don't have to fiddle around in the CDU to set some options. Not a deal breaker as the plane still flies really well with great system depth. Overall, its an excellent plane.

Timelines/Timely fashion: You make a decent point about some of the timeliness, I'll give you that. The EFB was pushed back several times. Still, not a deal breaker but it would be awesome having Navigraph charts built into the tablet....

Overall...I disagree as this is a higher-fidelity plane so each Asobo update that adds dynamics/weather/ etc it can end up disrupting these planes' progress in development. Its not like a Carenado plane where the code/depth is minimal so when Asobo introduces issues, it may not bring up issues with such a simple plane. Just sayin. At this point...its abundantly clear that some of you complain way too much over something so petty. This hobby is amazing and its still getting better and better. You're complaining about small things. Some of you are making a mountain out of molehill. So much for a "lump of coal."

The moderators need to come through here and lock this thread because this is ridiculous.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Sonosusto

[jarmstro 2,404]

31 minutes ago, Jazz said:

🤣

Whinge and feel hard done-by then.

🤣

People are funny in 2023.

Not so much. The 737 is a great product. But it could be better. And here is the thing... The DC-6 has an EFB but the 737 doesn't?