I've been heads down getting liveries ready for the release...but in addition to all the updates in SP1 most folks glaze over is the addition of the 8200 variant.
With that, Jviation and I have been busy painting liveries for the new model (and updating our existing ones for the standard Max 8)
I'm sure to the delight of the Ryanair fans that, above all other airliner "enthusiasts"...seem to be the most highly "spirited" when it comes to their airline, hehe.
Here are a few screens for those who don't frequent iFly's Discord:

This is "just" a MAX 8...but a nice example of Jviation's excellent painting skills that will come with the update.

And here is the interior with the new 8200 cabin:

For a free update....the community is getting one heck of an upgrade in this "Service pack". ;)

Edited Thursday at 05:10 PM3 days by Steve Dra

34 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

I've been heads down getting liveries ready for the release...but in addition to all the updates in SP1 most folks glaze over is the addition of the 8200 variant.
With that, Jviation and I have been busy painting liveries for the new model (and updating our existing ones for the standard Max 8)
I'm sure to the delight of the Ryanair fans that, above all other airliner "enthusiasts"...seem to be the most highly "spirited" when it comes to their airline, hehe.
Here are a few screens for those who don't frequent iFly's Discord:

This is "just" a MAX 8...but a nice example of Jviation's excellent painting skills that will come with the update.

And here is the interior with the new 8200 cabin:

For a free update....the community is getting one heck of an upgrade in this "Service pack". ;)

Amazing work. Finally a 8200 model. Have missed flying the max.

Will the old paints still work ?

5 hours ago, LEFTSEAT said:

Will the old paints still work ?

Not really. They moved (optimized) some of the textures on the maps, changed the engine parts map, and a few other things. At first glance, an old livery may look ok in the new SP1 release, but you'll see some oddities like the engine exhaust area, for example.
In addition, they moved all the rivets, panel lines and screws onto the model (or are decals with super high resolution), so the painted rivets will have to be removed by the painters. At normal viewing distances, you may not even notice...but up close you'll see both the painted and modeled rivets (and most panel lines).
The great thing about this is that you can zoom in until your nose is touching the skin of the fuse and the rivets and lines screws will not blur...at all.

Painters should have little trouble updating their liveries, and I expect they'll get to it pretty quick.
All the liveries that come with the update that were painted by me and Jviation will have all the updates ready to go.

For a free update....the community is getting one heck of an upgrade in this "Service pack".

9 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

I've been heads down getting liveries ready for the release...but in addition to all the updates in SP1 most folks glaze over is the addition of the 8200 variant.
With that, Jviation and I have been busy painting liveries for the new model (and updating our existing ones for the standard Max 8)
I'm sure to the delight of the Ryanair fans that, above all other airliner "enthusiasts"...seem to be the most highly "spirited" when it comes to their airline, hehe.
Here are a few screens for those who don't frequent iFly's Discord:

This is "just" a MAX 8...but a nice example of Jviation's excellent painting skills that will come with the update.

And here is the interior with the new 8200 cabin:

For a free update....the community is getting one heck of an upgrade in this "Service pack". ;)

I wish another well known 737 developer shared their same business practices…

42 minutes ago, Bdub22 said:

I wish another well known 737 developer shared their same business practices…

I guess it depends on whether you choose to work for nothing or not.

Edited Friday at 03:47 AM2 days by DavidP

In fairness, SP1 brings features promised to come after release, so one could argue this is less benevolence than it is keeping a promise. That's an honorable thing though, and definitely does not happen with all developers.

That said, the difference in attitude between iFly and the other 737 developer is night and day. The last several beta versions of the iFly have been the best 737 ever developed for a desktop simulation, and that is purely due to their dedication to getting it right. The pattern we've seen for years with the "other" 73 dev is to start out denying an inaccuracy is an inaccuracy, then after months or several years in a lot of cases, suddenly announce that the thing they've been told for years was inaccurate actually IS, but it's ok because the greatest devs in the world have fixed this egregious problem... That they spent months or years claiming wasn't a problem. It often still isn't fixed. 😉

In contrast, the iFly attitude is more:

"This isn't quite right. Should do this."

"Interesting, can you point towards documentation for that?"

:: points to documentation ::

"Excellent, nice find, thank you! Bugged". And then fixed in the next patch.

Let's just say it's... Refreshing.

On 3/15/2026 at 12:00 AM, Stearmandriver said:

Improved, yes (I assume you're talking about flight guidance).  Perfect yet?  Not quite.  But plenty usable.  I feel like the LNAV flight guidance improvements kind of work in harmony with the smoothing of the HUD guidance to create something close to reality. 

Yes, the sounds are beyond amazing.  Personally I think the EFB is the best implementation I've seen in a sim aircraft.  I don't know if it was mentioned on this stream, but you can also mirror the EFB to a physical tablet on your network, and that includes an option for a tappable CDU on your tablet so you can use a life-sized touch screen CDU vs your mouse with the one in the VC.  A nice touch, I thought.

@Stearmandriver , do you have access to the beta?

4 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

In fairness, SP1 brings features promised to come after release, so one could argue this is less benevolence than it is keeping a promise. That's an honorable thing though, and definitely does not happen with all developers.

That said, the difference in attitude between iFly and the other 737 developer is night and day.

I second that view Andrew. I don't have the 737 max installed in 2024 at the moment (saving up my pennies!) but my experience with the 737 Max in P3D was really good and I had a number of very positive interactions with their Support team who were not quick to judge and asked more questions. In some cases it was a misunderstanding on my part and other times a legitimate bug was found which was logged, evaluated and fixed in a future release. I enjoyed participating in their forum.

SP1 will be the trigger for me to purchase the 737 Max for MSFS2024. There's quite a bit of new stuff to learn including from what I have heard a very capable EFB. In the meantime, I am starting to get to grips with the Ini A350 now that I have built up some flight time on the MS/Asobo A320Neo and more recently their default A330-300.

17 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

I've been heads down getting liveries ready for the release...
For a free update....the community is getting one heck of an upgrade in this "Service pack". ;)

Great work Steve as always! Thanks for posting the screenies. Looking forward to the new SP1 update.

Is there a list of liveries that will be available? I am interested to hear if anyone has or will be doing the Icelandair liveries? I love those particular liveries, especially the yellow/blue one! I am assuming Flyr wont be done as its now defunct in real life and probably not so much demand for this one?

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

@Stearmandriver , do you have access to the beta?

Yes, been testing it.

@everyone We are getting ready to take several areas offline in preparation for the SP1 release. The iFly Manager and the https://manager.flight1.net site will be in a maintenance mode. We will be doing some testing during the process and do not know how long the downtime will be. Liveries will not be available during this time.

I guess this is my next plane. Looks great.

2 hours ago, 787flyer said:

Great work Steve as always! Thanks for posting the screenies. Looking forward to the new SP1 update.

Is there a list of liveries that will be available? I am interested to hear if anyone has or will be doing the Icelandair liveries? I love those particular liveries, especially the yellow/blue one! I am assuming Flyr wont be done as its now defunct in real life and probably not so much demand for this one?

Thanks Mark.
I don't have a list of all the liveries handy, and iFly has taken the iFly manager app offline just now, which denies us access to all the liveries.
When its back up you can browse thru the list (there is a LOT)
But rest assured that all the Icelandair colors have been done by the legendary Jviation...one of the best painters in our community. 😉
I did not see Flyr in the list of liveries included with the plane...but I'm confident that it may have already been done (have not checked flightsim.to)

19 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

I've been heads down getting liveries ready for the release...

so you are the bottleneck holding the SP1 back? 😁