Captains, May the Fourth be with you...

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/293866-may-the-fourth-be-with-you-2024-ah-the-cone-of-silence-but-we-are-nearly-through-it

 

tl;dr

• Latest silence means they're close to the release date, working on small bugs and the new nav database for RF legs, also preparing the 777F for initial testing.

• Can't keep the original two months promise but they're close to choosing a release date. There will still be two weeks notice before release.

• The 777 release is not aiming to have "to be added later" features compared to the 737 to ease pressure on developers.

• 12th June 30th anniversary date of 777 first flight IS NOT planned as the PMDG 777 release date.

• Screenshot demonstrating that the cockpit will be realistically rendered in outside view, including different variants.

• Stream NDA will get lifted when they're sure about release date.

• Xbox update had to be postponed because the new SDK broke the EFB for a while.

• SU15 is not expected to have an effect on DC-6 or 737

• They can't make it to FSExpo.

Credit to u/ts737 on reddit for most of this condensed version of RSR's original post.

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by F737MAX

Obviously devs cannot win in this regard and some people are going to be upset no matter what but sometimes I'm a bit astonished at the decisions developers make about when to trigger the "pre-release hype". Of course, release dates are very volatile and you can get unlucky, like Black Square with the Dukes, when Asobo misses the SU release date for the third(?) time and you're dependent on it. But when PMDG releases a trailer in March, followed by a Q&A saying "It's in a state where we could release it and you'd be happy, but we're still fine-tuning here and there", only to release it what looks like a quarter year later, I think that's unnecessary. Do not announce that you will announce the date two weeks in advance, keep a low profile until you have a date set and then announce it.

Weren’t they going to announce a surprise project (or similar) at FSExpo? 
 

 

Really, compared to the way iniBuild releases their aircraft, I'd take the taking-its-time-way of Fenix and PMDG any day.

6 minutes ago, ianb2469 said:

Weren’t they going to announce a surprise project (or similar) at FSExpo?

I think so, yes. It was originally planned for the FSWeekend, but pushed back to FSExpo, IIRC.

As a 'diamond sponsor', I imagine PMDG would be permitted to deliver a first-look teaser video of whatever the new project will be.

1 hour ago, outermarker said:

But when PMDG releases a trailer in March, followed by a Q&A saying "It's in a state where we could release it and you'd be happy, but we're still fine-tuning here and there", only to release it what looks like a quarter year later, I think that's unnecessary.

He really has a knack for digging himself in a hole with comments like this. Obviously this is just going to annoy people if you say things like that and then keep hiding it for months on end. Why even say it?

 

Quote

During our live Q&A in March, I mentioned that I thought we were somewhere around two months out. If you ask me today, I will give you the same answer

Lol. No, you said we are "within two months now, as a firm thing" as a direct quote.To say that again now at the end of those two months is pretty insulting.

1 hour ago, outermarker said:

only to release it what looks like a quarter year later, I think that's unnecessary.

how long have you been around, following PMDG announcements to still be surprised?

 

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by turbomax

2 minutes ago, turbomax said:

how long have you been around, following PMDG announcements and still to be surprised?

 

The first PMDG product I bought was the 737 in FS9, which must have been in 2006 or so. I'm not surprised, and it's not just about PMDG either.

I guess that screenshot above could be translated as "ready for take off"?

13 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I guess that screenshot above could be translated

Captains, I also firmly "guess"  it definitely "could"  be .....

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by turbomax

2nd half year here we go.

2 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Can't keep the original two months promise

So nothing new in PMDG land. They were always ludicrously bad at predicting release windows.

The past couple of months have been focused on bringing datalink capability to life, shifting the 777 away from our old navigation database structure, unlocking all of the RNP/RNAV capabilities that have been waiting on the new navdata, and really drilling down hard on visual cleanup, sound and bug reports related to the systems of the airplane.

So unless I'm reading this incorrectly, sounds like the reworked RNP/RNAV will come with the initial 777-300ER release rather than a subsequent update during the series rollout (as they initially suggested)?

Re: datalink/CPDCL/etc, Mathijs did say this recently: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/293075-new-cpdlc-protocol-in-works?p=293135#post293135
Of course! The 777 uses 100% of the ICAO standards and the ACARS protocol internally. The translation to Hoppie is just a layer on top that can be easily replaced. When a new system uses the standard ACARS protocol, no translation of any kind will be needed. As I wrote, our 777 could, at this moment, communicate with actual real-life systems.

Also, RSR spoke about adopting the new SU15 ground handling here: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/291705-asobo‘s-new-ground-friction-model-used-on-the-777?p=291933#post291933
TLDR: they'll look into it post the initial 777-300ER release.

I could care less about them not meeting their own "guesstimates" of release timelines.. release it when they feel it's good and ready whenever that is, and with the least amount of  problems and missing features as possible (at least they seem to be striving to not do what they with the 737 where various functionality was added over subsequent updates).
 

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by lwt1971

They are all over the place… I can see now why so many people say you can’t trust what they say.