We are back at announcements of pending updates.
 

Short version: the next tablet update will come the week from 27NOV, so skipping this and the next thanksgiving week.  and yes, they are still working on the 777

Long version: see below. So long that you please refrain from quoting my entire post. Please 

Captains,

As we roll into this mid-November weekend, we have a bunch of information for you on a few different topics.

PMDG Universal Flight Tablet: 737:
This afternoon we are pushing another beta version to our testing team for validation. This update includes some new features that have been working their way through development in the background, and are finally ready for your use. Some of the changes we are testing are structural, and designed to improve tablet stability in the MSFS environment. Specifically we noted some unusual behaviors related to the way the platform loads products at run-time, and this required a bit of adaptation to ensure the tablet behaves reliably.

My personal favorite change is that we have added data-interoperability between the airplane and the tablet, meaning that as you fly and make changes to your route of flight, those changes will be reflected on the pink-string drawn by the tablet across the map. In real-world flying, hardly a flight goes by in which you don't get at least a minor change in your route of flight, whether it be a departure transition, or a change enroute for traffic or weather flow. (I recent flew a 2hr stage with 6 full-route clearances...my typing finger on the FMS was getting tired...) From a piloting perspective, we always like to have the situational awareness tools remain in sync with the airplane's navigation solution- so having this capability in your PMDG Universal Flight Tablet will greatly increase it's utility for ensuring you have good situational awareness!

This update will bring with it some smaller changes as well, as listed here:

0012722: [EFB - General] Metars stop functioning between 0000z and 0100z (rmurdoch)
0012788: [EFB - General] PMDG map tiles names are fuzzy (rmurdoch)
0012777: [EFB - General] Fully convert to JSON for tablet-plane comms (rmurdoch)
0012782: [EFB - General] UFT 1.2 "New route loaded" message appears too often (rmurdoch)
0012475: [EFB - Simbrief] CO RTE field not showing CO RTE name (cbpowell)
0012783: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Arrival Airport Calls for Runway, not ICAO code. (cbpowell)
0012792: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Imported Flight plan times do not match Simbrief (cbpowell)
0012645: [EFB - General] Tablet map should pick up changes made on the FMS (rmurdoch)
0012692: [EFB - Performance and Computational] Landing Dispatch Data should be imported into Landing Enroute fields (cbpowell)
0012775: [EFB - General] Tablet namespace differentiation still not working correctly (rmurdoch)

Next week is a holiday week here in the USA, so we anticipate releasing this to you early in the week of 27NOV23. We will let you know right here in the PMDG forum when that happens.


PMDG 737 Updates for Marketplace-PC Users:
A few moments ago we signed off on the release of Build 3.00.0082 via MS Marketplace for our PC customers. This build completed intake with Microsoft on Tuesday of this week. Normally we spin intake items around same-day so that they can make the release cycle as quickly as possible, but we have been looking at this one closely for a few days in order to ensure nothing unusual appeared during the intake process. Our expectations is that it should appear in MSFS Marketplace next week?

This build will bring the PMDG Universal Flight Tablet to Marketplace-PC users- and will give you the same tablet that PMDG.com customers are using today. The moment the 3.00.0082 build appears in Marketplace, we will submit the version that is currently in beta testing- just to keep the flow moving forward as fast as they will allow.


IMPORTANT NOTE: When talking about MS Marketplace, I always feel it is necessary to remind our users that we do not control the MSMP intake process, nor do we control their workflow or schedule. We do not control the back-side, and thus any predictions are based largely upon our knowledge of their normal workflow and do not constitute a guarantee. It is also worth noting that next Thursday is a national holiday here in the states and that MIGHT also skew their workflow- so as always- a bit of patience is going to go a long way on the Marketplace release schedule!



PMDG 737 Updates for Marketplace-Xbox Users:
We are currently in a research hold with the new updates for Marketplace-XBox users.

When we got access to the Xbox version in our beta accounts on Tuesday, we were disappointed to find that a number of key functions were inoperative. We have spent the week researching issues and have reached out to Microsoft and Asobo for their input. Without getting too deep in the weeds, it appears that there are indeed some differences between the two platforms that were not predicted and to-date had not appeared in live operation.

To add some background for those who have not been tracking the development of 3rd party DLC for use on Xbox; one of the really great things about the approach Asobo/Microsoft have taken to the MSFS platform is that there is a tremendous amount of commonality between the PC and XBox builds. Theoretically, at least, a product that runs on one will run on the other, with some minor adaptation perhaps required to account for user interface differences. This commonality is a good thing because there is not currently a reliable way for developers like PMDG to build-and-test software on the Xbox platform with rapid development and debugging cycles. If something works on PC, it shold work on Xbox.

Unfortunately, that may not be a perfect truism; you may recall that when we released the PMDG DC-6 to the Xbox platform in November of 2021, it was our product that proved that the platform was not capable of running WASM based products like ours. That was eventually resolved by Asobo/Microsoft, and eventually we were back on the Xbox platform and charging ahead with the DC-6 and 737 product lines in play.

We currently suspect that there is a problem with some of the communications methods that handle data interchange between our tablet and the 737, and this is causing the loss of any data that must be shared between the two nodes. Functions such as portions of the simbrief integration, OPT computations and a few other key components that work marvelously on PC do not work on Xbox. This is the hazard to being out on the leading edge a bit with the products we provide- and is an inevitable offshoot of our commitment to ensuring Xbox based aviation and simming fans can have access to our great product line.

We are investigating and we have some ideas on how to address these items- but we also need some input from the platform developer to better understand the limitations that we think we just hit on Xbox. We apologize for the inevitable delay this presents for Xbox users- but please do look at the shiny side of the coin: Xbox simming is an entirely new experience for all of us- and both Microsoft, Asobo and PMDG are all interested in getting these bits working for you. It will just take a bit of research and cooperation to sort out what isn't working, why, and how to work around it.

We are still in research/testing phase- and that will lead to an effort to develop around the obstructions. Once that has been accomplished, we will submit it to intake so that we can test it on a live Xbox unit. All of this will take a bit of time as there is a lengthy feedback loop through which it must pass- but we are working on it even as we speak!

We shall keep you updated as we go.


PMDG 777 for MSFS:
While all of that is going on, you could be forgiven for wondering what the status is on the 777.  

Work continues on the 777, with handling characteristics and system validation being the operative mode for the week. We have been packing details and features into this new flagship product and in part- this is why we aren't yet previewing it for you. I want to give the modelers a bit more time to get things where they want them, and I suspect we will begin the preview process in close proximity to when the ship goes into beta testing.

Entering beta always leads to quite a bit of discussion surrounding "how long will that take?" This dev cycle is a bit unusual in that the code team got way out ahead of the modeling team, so we have been engaged in a tremendous amount of testing and cleanup that we normally don't get to do until after beta testing begins. I think this will bear fruit in the beta cycle and hopefully that will lead to a shorter beta engagement.

Other Stuff:
There are a myriad of other topics that I am stepping around in this update simply because the information hasn't changed sufficiently to warrant an update, yet. We have undergone a pretty significant team expansion this year and we have a great number of things going on development-wise. We'll start rolling through some of those as we want to shine a light on them.


Sky Blue Radio: 18NOV23/0001Z:
Tonight (Friday night) I will be sitting down with JT over at SkyBlueRadio to talk about aviation, simming, PMDG, flying and any other topic that strikes our fancy. I invite you to listen in, and forward questions via their site if you like. (Reminder: I give long answers which cuts down on the number of questions I have to answer... Don't tell Jeff tho- or he'll change up the format on me.)

You might also hear Leo the new office pup in the background. We decided it was time to double the dog-count here in the office to bite any members of the dev team who wander off their assigned tasks....

Have a nice weekend, everyone!- and for our USA based participants, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.
 

Edited November 17, 20232 yr by DAD

Opening post read, and thank you. All that follows will be the usual rehash.

24 minutes ago, Paul K said:

Opening post read, and thank you. All that follows will be the usual rehash.

This has been posted for over 6 hours now and this is the first reply, I think every is over it by now.