Fixes for PMDG EFB, err, UFT, inbound on Monday: Changelog

[BrammyH 447]

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/270977-04nov23-your-weekend-update-some-dc-6-and-737-updates-coming-early-in-the-week

 

[04NOV23] Your Weekend Update - Some DC-6 and 737 Updates Coming Early In the Week

Today, 06:24

 

Captains,

As promised, we are back to an active update season now after a summer-time development slog during which we really didn't have much to push out to you.

Here is what we have for in this briefing:

PMDG DC-6 for MSFS:
Two weeks ago we updated the DC-6 based on some peer guidance we had received from a fellow developer- and that seemed to help eliminate some instances of the airplane failing to follow the VOR beam. It wasn't a perfect solution, however and some additional work has been going on in the background to further dial in the solution in order to bring the behavior back into line with our expectations.

We put a new build into testing last week, with a very narrowly focused test program to see if we had knocked down some wandering behaviors- and this update offers further improvement, so we are going to release it to you on Monday in the forum of a micro-update.

This update is focused entirely on the Gyropilot following the course correctly, and no other factors have received attention in this update round.

PMDG 737 for MSFS:
In keeping with our desire to keep pushing positive changes to you, we have spent the week with our tablet development team focused on many of the feedback items that rolled in after the initial tablet release on Monday. This week's development update is focused mostly on correcting nuisance items that were brought to us by users, as well as correcting some larger items that weren't working as planned.

I want to offer a very sincere thanks to those who have reached out here in the PMDG Forum and via tech support to report things they bumped up against that could use smoothing out. We have been making a full-house effort to get things into tracking and this update reflects many of those feedback items- so thank you!

We also have some bigger background items that we have improved in this pending update, based on some things we learned with the tablet "in the wild." Most of them are structural and related to the interface between the tablet and the sim platform- but suffice to say we have taken steps to robustify a few processes that exist in the background that you likely will never be aware of- but they are important and needed a bit of tweaking now that we have seen how the tablet handles the real world. (Yes- robustify is a made up word. )

The change list for this update is as follows:

0012720: [EFB - General] CTD when zooming quickly on map (rmurdoch)
0012736: [EFB - Performance and Computational] OPT LDA calculated incorrectly if using meters for units (cbpowell)
0012674: [EFB - General] ICAO entry fails using Onscreen Keyboard for certain ICAOs (rmurdoch)
0012730: [EFB - General] Issue when entering weights with the virtual keyboard (rmurdoch)
0012723: [EFB - General] Onscreen keyboard is missing the / symbol (rmurdoch)
0012731: [EFB - Performance and Computational] OPT runway heading field should accept both 360 and 0 degrees (rmurdoch)
0012741: [EFB - General] Replace METAR parser with a more robust solution (rmurdoch)
0012744: [EFB - General] Implement new map tiling server in the tablet (rmurdoch)
0012592: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Runways below a certain length should not be displayed nor selectable (cbpowell)
0012579: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Permit OPT wind entry as + / - value to represent head and tail wind (cbpowell)
0012710: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Display runway slope percentage to a decimal precision (cbpowell)
0012690: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Invalid landing solutions should be clearly messaged on OPT pages (cbpowell)
0012675: [EFB - Performance and Computational] METAR parser cannot parse M00 temperature, does not load any OAT on OPT pages (rmurdoch)
0012581: [EFB - General] METAR not showing when there is /// on certain fields (rmurdoch)
0012725: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Permit user editing of runway elevation and length in OPT pages (cbpowell)
0012743: [EFB - General] Downloaded simbrief wx/rte files have trailing garbage characters causing corruption (cbpowell)
0012618: [EFB - General] METAR display missing in certain unparseable situations (rmurdoch)
0012751: [EFB - General] Change the order of OAT/WIND/QNH to WIND/OAT/QNH, like every OPT, to match the sequence of the METAR (cbpowell)
0012679: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Incorrect Takeoff Runway Length for KJFK 31L (cbpowell)

This update will come out to you via the PMDG Operations Center during the day on Monday.

The next update cycle is already being prepped for testing. We anticipate beginning to roll out some of the new planned features pretty soon- and we are having some really neat conversations with affiliated developers in order to get their apps into the tablet for you as well.


I will have updates on some other topics a bit later in November. If I didn't cover a topic here, it was intentional. While we have numerous exciting avenues opening up behind the scenes, we aren't quite to a point of sharing additional information on them- but that too, will change in short order.

We very much appreciate your enthusiasm and support for our work- and we wish you all a very nice weekend.

[DAD 2,653]

Good to hear this - and that we are back to meaningful content after months of blablabla

[Bobsk8 12,743]

 I hope the DC6 is finally fixed. 

[Wise87 1,281]

I’m looking forward to the other topics at the end of November. Let’s hope it’s finally some 777 news. 

[carlanthony24 576]

A max would be nice.

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

8 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

A max would be nice.

Are they even working on a MAX? Would be an instant buy for me...

[chapstick 2,758]

5 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Are they even working on a MAX? Would be an instant buy for me...

They can’t even make a Fischer Price tablet without stepping on a million rakes. There are plans for a MAX but it’s nowhere on the horizon. Randazzo hinted that maybe it’ll come out in between the 777 variants but nothing he says is worth much.

[MDFlier 2,031]

6 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Are they even working on a MAX? Would be an instant buy for me...

I've thought that they were for a long time. I have Drzewiecki's KRNT. If you start a flight there in a PMDG 737, there will PMDG flags around the airplane on the ramp. This indicates some sort of cooperation between the two. If you go into the factory and get in the cockpit of one of the 737s being built, the instrument panels have the Max configuration. I've always though that this was a hint about things to come.

Edited November 5, 2023 by MDFlier

[JBDB-MD80 1,473]

7 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

A max would be nice.

Not before a 777F please.

[YukonPete 586]

I find it hard to believe PMDG worked on the tablet for 2+ years. It's as basic as they come.

[antic81 57]

I took out the 700 for the first time in months yesterday. Just a quick hop between EHAM and EGLL. One thing I was wondering, do you still have to download the Simbrief flight plan and wind to the folder? The reason I ask is I may have just used an old one that when selecting my flight plan. Ive gotten so used the Fenix/A320 process, that I’m probably doing it wrong! 

[Ricardo41 5,954]

9 hours ago, YukonPete said:

I find it hard to believe PMDG worked on the tablet for 2+ years. It's as basic as they come.

This emperor has few if any clothes, but, quote from PMDG:

 

20 hours ago, BrammyH said:

we are having some really neat conversations with affiliated developers

Good to know!

[Flic1 977]

1 hour ago, antic81 said:

I took out the 700 for the first time in months yesterday. Just a quick hop between EHAM and EGLL. One thing I was wondering, do you still have to download the Simbrief flight plan and wind to the folder? The reason I ask is I may have just used an old one that when selecting my flight plan. Ive gotten so used the Fenix/A320 process, that I’m probably doing it wrong! 

No, you do not need to do that.  When you download your Simbrief plan in the EFB, it will place that into the correct folders.  You can then load your plan and winds as you did before.

[antic81 57]

1 hour ago, Flic1 said:

No, you do not need to do that.  When you download your Simbrief plan in the EFB, it will place that into the correct folders.  You can then load your plan and winds as you did before.

Awesome thanks man! I wasn’t sure as it still had a few other options in the fmc so wasn’t certain! Just about reprogramming my brain from one way of doing things and remembering another! Sadly it gets more difficult now that I’m in my 40s!! Haha

[YukonPete 586]

5 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

This emperor has few if any clothes, but, quote from PMDG:

 

Good to know!

This is just my opinion. They never started working on the tablet 2 years ago. They only started developing this tablet maybe 6–12 months ago. Look at what FENIX for example offers with the release. Night and day over PMDG.