https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/289174-01apr24-your-april-fools-day-update-with-no-jokes-buried-within

 

Captains,

Welcome to a rare, Monday evening update.

This update was originally planned for my usual Saturday, but with as many moving parts as we have currently at PMDG, my schedule got a bit O.B.E. and I decided to hold off until I had a few moments to collect some information and thoughts to share with you properly.

No doubt many of you are bracing for some form of April Fools joke, but I must admit we were all a bit too busy and too tired to plan one properly. In this close to a major release, we also didn't want to toy with anyone's emotions by throwing a fake "product delayed" or other sort of hiccup into the works. The key to a good joke is knowing when NOT to play a good joke.

(Incidentally, for those who have been around for a while: We were chuckling in-house today about the time we changed our whole website to reflect "PMDG. A Boeing Company" and issued a fake statement saying that we had been bought by Boeing, who was interested in our simulation technology. It was all well and funny until an aviation reporter called to ask us about it... When I didn't take the call, he called Boeing. The the Boeing lawyer called... That was when it stopped being funny! 🤣🤣)

Incidentally, or technology is actually in use at Boeing now. Funny how things work out.

PMDG 737 for MSFS: (PC/PC-MP/XB-MP)
Lets start out with some "not the 777" news first... As you know, PMDG is more than just a single product line- and that can sometimes make logistics a bit challenging when it comes to development resources. Currently we have our much loved PMDG 737 for MSFS in a development status that has us focusing only on critical operational needs, rather than active development of new features. This is a temporary condition while we keep all remaining resources focused on getting the 77W out of flight test and off to the delivery center for you to fly away.

Two weeks ago we pushed a series of updates designed to bring the PC direct sale/PC Marketplace/XBox Marketplace builds all to congruence, and this unlocked the tablet for Xbox users, as well as bringing a bunch of fixes that had been withheld from XBox pending tablet testing. While testing the 737 build 3.00.0091 went swimmingly, we have discovered after the fact that the build released to customers was no, in fact, the same build we were testing- but was instead an earlier build that had been rejected due to some stability problems and features that weren't quite complete.

To correct this, we have just pushed a new 737 build 3.00.0092 out via the PMDG Operations Center for our PC Direct Sale customers. We have also pushed this new build to marketplace for both our PC Marketplace and PC XBox users. We are hoping that we have made the deadlines in time to see these builds out to Marketplace users by this coming friday, but I think we may have missed the window and they will become available instead on 11APR provided that Microsoft is able to maintain their usual release profile.

Apologies from all of us for the extra build cycle. With all of the QC process that goes on in the background, we are still not sure how we managed to build you a retro-version, but we did. I will keep you posted on progress of the updated builds as they work their way toward you.

For PMDG Direct customers, jump on the PMDG Operations Center and you can have the build right away.


PMDG 777 for MSFS:
Okay, shifting our focus back to the 77W:

(I noticed a few folks complaining that I have been showing too many landing gear images of the 777... Since I'm a dad, that means I am contractually obligated to double down on the topic. So here is another photo showing off the absolutely magnificently detailed landing gear of the 77W. It was this image or a bad April Fools joke... )
Today we pushed a new build of the airplane to our beta testers that represents a big advancement in the readiness of the airplane. During the past two weeks a significant amount of time and energy has been devoted to stability, efficiency, cleaning up details in the system operation and beginning the process of adding in finer wear details for the in-use airplane.

PMDG_777_shot7.jpg

Naturally, our showroom model is fitted out with a PMDG house livery and is maintained in a clean state because she is our demonstrator, after all- but the flight deck upon which our airplane is based was a 12 year in service airplane at the time we conducted our survey, and the moderate wear and tear is being added now, starting with this latest beta build. Once Vin is happy with his state of play, I'll coerce some images from him to show off the finer points- but having been looking at it for a few weeks now, I think you will like what you see. Our NG was brand new, since we used a freshly build airplane from Boeing as the basis for that airplane, our 777 is a mid-life airplane operated by a respected airline, but our upcoming 744 will reflect that she has passed through a few owners and has flown a well used lifestyle prior to becoming the subject of our airplane. (And since someone will ask: Yes, the MAX was brand new... and that is reflected in the product.)
Inside the gear bay of this airplane there are some warning lights, and we have modeled those in all of their glory. They operate correctly, so hopefully you won't find yourself getting batted across the ramp like a red Kookaburra when the doors get reset after manually opening them to inspect the highly detailed gear bays.

PMDG_777_shot10.jpg
I have not forgotten that I promised a bit of orientation on some of the maintenance practices required for your 777. Our beta testers were doing a bit too robust of a job finding issues in some of the new systems on the airplane, and this was taking up most of my time over the past two weeks. This airplane is being fitted out with some really neat new features and while I am itching to begin showing them off to you- the devs get the final word on when their pieces are ready for public consumption, so I've been holding off a bit.
Included in this new beta build are multiple tablet features that haven't been shared, greater sound integration, improved maintenance processes, and more.

Sooo... More Hype?
I do feel a bit silly jumping up and down, telling you how magnificent this airplane is and how close it is to being in your hangar- but I am truly exuberant about the prospect of having her released to you. We deliberately chose the 77W because we know she is a favorite of our customer community- and we have made a firm commitment to wrapping in many of the new features we have been working on in the background related to the tablet, navdata and navigation capabilities, datalink, cabin access from the flight deck and the like. Our challenge with this release is to ensure we get you all of those bits in what promises to be our best release yet.
So I hope you can forgive my exuberance even if I have to continue being restrained in what we show.
The end of the wait is nearly upon us- I promise.

So, a Max is definite? Or is this old news...

5 minutes ago, RichieFly said:

So, a Max is definite? Or is this old news...

Well, the information is posted above. It sounds like it will happen!

So what was done on the 737, no change log? 

21 minutes ago, RichieFly said:

So, a Max is definite? Or is this old news...

Max was confirmed ages ago. Only in the last few updates have they said when its more likely to come.

48 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

I am truly exuberant about the prospect of having her released to you

Please don't feel silly for being excited about your product. Enthusiasm is encouraging to see and gives me hope you guys will be around doing what you do for some time to come!

47 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Please don't feel silly for being excited about your product. Enthusiasm is encouraging to see and gives me hope you guys will be around doing what you do for some time to come!

I agree!

Edited April 2, 20242 yr by Sonosusto

May I ask exactly what technology he is referring to when he claims their technology is now in use at Boeing?

25 minutes ago, matsout said:

May I ask exactly what technology he is referring to when he claims their technology is now in use at Boeing?

I'm pretty confident no one on here can answer that and I also suspect PMDG wont provide you those details either.

33 minutes ago, matsout said:

May I ask exactly what technology he is referring to when he claims their technology is now in use at Boeing?

Maybe release a product and then release patches when something falls off

I was gonna guess MCAS

j/k big PMDG fan.

8 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

Max was confirmed ages ago. Only in the last few updates have they said when its more likely to come.

IFly made them to

10 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

I agree!

I also agree.  

I'm excited for the release as much as anyone here! 😉

14 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

(Incidentally, for those who have been around for a while: We were chuckling in-house today about the time we changed our whole website to reflect "PMDG. A Boeing Company" and issued a fake statement saying that we had been bought by Boeing, who was interested in our simulation technology. It was all well and funny until an aviation reporter called to ask us about it... When I didn't take the call, he called Boeing. The the Boeing lawyer called... That was when it stopped being funny! 🤣🤣)

That's crazy because the news would have rather damaged PMDG's reputation 😄 

When are they going to fix the word not allowed texturing on their planes?