PMDG General Updates - NGX, J41, Xplane, P3D

Last evening Robert S. Randazzo posted a couple of news items across a number of different product lines.

PMDG 737-8900NGX Base Package and PMDG 737-600/700NGX Expansion FSX/FSX-SE:

Up until yesterday, we had expected to push the FSX/FSX-SE compatibility update out to you either tonight or Saturday morning, unfortunately we have run headlong into a bit of a kneeknocker that is going to add a few more days to the development/testing timeline for the FSX development team.

Our plan right now is to build a new test version on saturday evening, then another on Sunday evening.  If both of those versions hold (and we think they will) we are going to give our beta testers about 48hrs to verify that things are indeed working as expected- and that puts release for the FSX version around mid-week.  (Wednesday, in theory.)

This update is free to all existing FSX download customers- and will bring you a pretty significant functionality/bug clearing update, as well as functionality to allow the NGX to operate under FSX-SE for those who use that platform.

The FSX-SE compatibility has created some hurdles that we really hadn't anticipated- but the good news is that we are into some really minor items to fix now so I don't anticipate and major holdups from this point.

PMDG 737-8900NGX Base Package and PMDG 737-600/700NGX Expansion Prepar3D:

On the Prepar3D side of the house, things have not run nearly as smoothly as they have with the FSX/FSX-SE conversion, due in large part to differences in the sim platforms and the rendering engines.  We have had to dive pretty deeply into the sim in order to carry in some of the functionality that we were able to create in FSX using "tricks" (for lack of a better way to describe it) that capitalized on known visual flaws in the FSX engine or legacy FS9 processes that remained inside the FSX code.  Many of these artifacts have been removed from P3D- thus sending us back to the drawing board on a few issues in order to maintain functionality of some key items such as the HGS.

We have a number of ideas and concepts we are working with at the moment- and with some luck one of them will pan out over the next couple of days- and then I should be able to give you a better feeling for when to expect this release on the market.

The good news is that we already have approval to release from our licensing partner (those nice people who made the NG in the first place!) so we won't be waiting around for paper-chase details once we have the technical issues resolved....

Stay tuned- I think this release will happen pretty quickly once we correct the major item we are struggling with- as the rest of the product is essentially ready.  We are looking at a few oddities in the NGX-P3D interface- but at this point I don't see them holding us up...

PMDG BAe JS4100

For those awaiting FSX:SE compatibility for the JetStream 41, this integration is completed and is awaiting testing.  Right now we have a single, very large beta test taking place to cover "all things NGX" so we are refraining from adding this to the mix as it will create some confusion and not guarantee that we have a good solid test of this product under FSX-SE.

We diid make a couple of minor fixes to this product during the update in order to eliminate a few common complaints we get to support... but mostly this product will be identical to the FSX version currently on the market.

Other Legacy (including MD11) Products:

We have not yet evaluated any of our legacy products to determine their suitability for FSX:SE compatibility update.  We will do so once the NGX and J41 are safely out the door- and we will update you as to our progress as we go!

FSX:SE Solution In the Works for DVD Customers:

Short version Repeat:  We are working on something for you...  It is going to take time.  Thanks for being patient.

We are working with Aerosoft, our DVD publication partner on a possible solution for customers who are DVD users who may want to take advantage of FSX:SE.  The program is not a sure-thing as yet- and it's implementation is not guaranteed.  Unfortunately DVDs not a channel that loans itself to simplicity of upgrade, and as such this could take some time to implement, as we want to implement all of the FSX:SE compatibility changes before we start making promises to assist DVD users....

Your patience is appreciated, and to be candid it may be another 4-8 weeks before we can coordinate the plan being explored in partnership with Aerosoft....  Until then there isn't anything we can do to help you- but we are working on it.

Please don't flood Aerosoft with requests, as the front-line support people at Aerosoft cannot help you yet either- as the plans are still being laid at higher levels....

Short version Repeat:  We are working on something for you...  It is going to take time.  Thanks for being patient.

Xplane Development Update:

We have begun to discuss (at last!) unveiling our first preview for our first Xplane development project.  (That sounds frighteningly like we have started to plan to plan for a planning meeting....  I don't mean it to sound that way.  LOL)

I thought we were close to a preview on this about 8 months ago and I was mistaken- but we are close enough to completion now that I think we have something worth showing....

This project has been our "sandbox" exercise in order to get a development team up and running on Xplane- and many of you will recall that the Jetstream 41 was our sandbox exercise for what became the NGX and 777 product lines- so I think you will be pretty excited about this if you are an Xplane user!

PMDG 747-400v2.0 for FSX/FSX-SE:

We have a few updates on this for you- but we are sitting on them until we get some of these other loose ends cleared out.  Unfortunately we had to pilfer talent from the 400 development team in order to handle all of the FSX-SE updates- and this has put us behind our intended schedule...  but once we have the SE updates out of the way we will be back full force to this project.... 

There are some very interesting things taking place behind the scenes for 747 fans- and we'll give you more information on those shortly!

Okay- I think that covers things for tonight....   Have a save weekend- I'll pop in and keep you updated on where we are with the NGX fixes for FSX/FSX-SE a bit later in the weekend!