rsrandazzo

Anthony, I had a similar experience when the Fall Creator's Update was installed on all of the machines in the PMDG Sim Center last month. (Incidentally, this is the most poorly named piece of software in history... it has destroyed more progress than it has created- but I digress.... ) To resolve the issue, I had to uninstall and reinstall the PMDG software. I suspect that when the creators update gets installed, it destroys the records within the Windows Trusted Storage arena, and thus the hooks that allow the validation and verification process to run. Doing a complete un/reinstall seemed to get the proper bits reinstalled to their proper place- and then activation ran normally and "stuck." I hope that helps- (Dan: Stop telling people Paul is qualified... We are supposed to keep Paul beaten down, remember?! )

(What happened to your sig? I know you usually have your name in there- you mind fixing that? I hate not being able to address people by name, and I'm horrible at remembering them. ) YES- this is precisely what I think is so exciting about the technology. Starting the DC-3 in any flight simulation is always very easy and anti-climactic. <click>+<click>+<click> and off you go. In the real world, it takes three fingers working independently on one hand (held backward, which makes it interesting) and the other hand has to keep dancing between levers to keep things operating until the engine stabilizes. I can see this becoming an INCREDIBLE experience for simmers using VR- and I am unreasonably excited about the prospects on both platforms. Thanks for the tips on blurriness- I'll give them a shot tonight while I continue flying the debug version of the 747-8...

Thad, Had an afternoon session with the folks who maintain our cart- and they believe the issue has been resolved. Bring up your favorite browser, hit CTRL+R and then try again. Let me know if the behavior is as expected or if it still gives you trouble? Thanks,

Gents, I recently acquired a Rift + touch setup as a christmas gift from The Lovely Dr. Randazzo (and our daughter- who has NO designs on taking the thing over... nope... none...) I've messed about with it quite a bit lately- and it is pretty neat. I have enjoyed some of the games that give you that tingling fear-of-heights sensation, and I have devoured all of the space station based stuff (ISS and Lone Echo, for example) but I just don't see how they are going to translate cleanly to games like Battlefield, where motion, pivot and accuracy of pointing are the keys to survival. I just don't see them getting adopted in that kind of environment for a few more generations of hardware improvement. (Keep in mind, however that I dismissed the camera-phone, iPod, iPhone, youTube and Facebook as "passing fads that will never catch on" you can take my skepticism with a grain of salt. <cough>) As for what all of us do in simming: I think we will need to see 4K before the VC's really start to shine, as I find the text gets a bit blurry unless you lean in, currently. Ignoring that, the view is pretty convincing, and I like the effect overall. Once they become more adapted to our kind of simming environment, I can see them causing a greater degree of integration between the interior/exterior/avatar modes as users push for a "first person" experience that can include such things as conducting your walk-around and boarding the airplane through a cabin proper. (And for those of you who like sitting in back looking out a window... yes... that too...) I do like how you can pop in/out of it using Prepar3D though. That will come in handy for simmers as I can see wanting to use the headset during the start and finish of flying but perhaps not for the entire 12hrs to Tokyo. I haven't tried it in XPlane yet- but perhaps this weekend...

John, AHAHAHAHA. But **I AM** the developer he sent the ticket to. I finally got around to investigating this today. Turns out it was a relatively simple error in the method that protects the fuel tank from going over max volume or less than minimum volume for the crossover line that feeds the APU in the newer design fuel system. Is fixed on the code side now- and will make the next product update, which isn't far away. (Next week sometime i THINK...) Good find, John- thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Thad, Chris directed my attention to this thread- as he has a half dozen or so similar reports of customers having their cart "empty" when it isn't. While we aren't seeing a wide-spread infestation of this- I don't doubt it is indeed happening to a few folks since there are some reports similar to yours. I have asked our server techs to investigate. They are still bouncing back from holidays so I don't suspect they are going to have a resolution for us by the weekend- but perhaps... The problem is trying to replicate something that happens only very rarely. We will keep looking, however. Stay warm,

"Chris from Oz" (Is your middle name From and your last name Oz? If not- please do sign your full name here in the PMDG forum. We require it! ) I think you may have misunderstood what was intended by stating that we have removed from documentation items that we felt were not relevant to your operation of our simulation. The items removed primarily have to do with equipment not installed on the airplane that we modeled. Examples would be different brands of ignition systems, alternative propeller styles, different engine carbs, different engine dash numbers, etc. We decided what to include for the most part by simply evaluating our "base airplane" which is the world famous DC-6 operated by NCA out of Windhoek, Namibia. We sent a team there to survey the airplane, conduct recordings, photographic surveys, measurements and interview the operators to make certain we had everything "just so" in creating this simulation. We took some liberties in order to give customers some options in terms of navigators located up front- but for the most part that is just a matter of swapping out one GPS nav/com for another and doesn't really affect the airplane itself all that much. So take your time and go through the checklists in detail. I think you will find it to be incredibly rewarding when you do!

Willhelm, I knew a fellow who flew the DC-6 and DC-7 at PAA "back in the day." He used to describe the DC-7 as "the best three engined airplane ever made, except when you sometimes wound up on two engines." He was not a fan. LOVED the DC-6 however.

Gents, To reiterate something I said a while back: To date with regard to XPLANE, we have done precisely what we said we intended to do at the beginning, which is to bring a world class simulation title into XPLANE in order to explore the ins and outs of how to make our existing processes work within the XPLANE platform. We did this in order to educate ourselves, to gain some experience with the platform, evaluate it's suitability to support our entire product catalog and to learn about the customer base and the market. As of today- we have been able to do all of these things. Once the DC-6 was released for XPLANE, we pivoted to providing a MAC compatible version, and then deployed our development assets in keeping with strategic development plan, which is still where those assets are deployed. As I have stated a number of times, XPLANE11 came as a total and complete surprise to us- and thus wasn't part of our development agenda. When we can cleave some developer time free, we might change this. We might not... That decision will come later and it won't be made based upon opinions or hollering or thumping of chests. It will be made solely with an eye toward optimizing the best return on our development time, whether that means XPLANE, P3D, or even FS98, for crying out loud. Now, I realize that a few folks gain immeasurable satisfaction by trying to turn every thread and every discussion into a self serving miasma of woe in which they portray themselves as a hapless victims of some nefarious scheme in which the horribly evil machinima of PMDG has done them wrong- but the bottom line is that this is nothing but dishonest bunk peddled by folks who haven't the slightest clue as to what is actually going on in the background. So lets keep our eyes on the facts- ignore the self professed victims threatening to hurl themselves from ledges- and keep in mind that we do actually have a plan and a workflow agenda here at PMDG and we are sticking with that plan- even if a few people do slip and fall while trying to attract attention to themselves from those ledges in the mean time.

Jon, I just took a look, and we aren't having any trouble with paypal, to speak of. Average daily revenue from sales via paypal is up about 3.2% from normal on this day of the year... Not sure what issue you might be having... But if you are getting an error message, please include that in the ticket (NOT HERE!) so that we can diagnose. I tried to look for your efforts, but paypal only shows us "successful" efforts... so anything that was not successful is invisible to us.

Dave, Market data doesn't support that theory... Not even close.

PHIL! AH HAHAHAHA! You have a good memory!

Gents, Interesting. I will take a look at it next week and see if I can reproduce.

Ken, Ooooh. NICE read of the tea leaves! I can neither confirm, nor deny that the table top upon which that envelope was laid holds a 747-100, 747-200, 747-300 and an SP... As I said.. can't confirm or deny...

Dave, I recommend not yelling out those same words when out with a date... Just some helpful advice from your ol' buddy, Rob.

Captains, Here in the USA things are winding down quickly toward Christmas and New Year, so we are in the period of time where traditional office staff thins out and most everyone takes advantage of some vacation time to travel and visit family. The core of what most of you know as PMDG is scattered around the globe, but PMDG, being part of a larger grouping of companies I own, maintains a small office here in northern Virginia. From here we have a small administrative team to help me and the lovely Dr. Randazzo run the more than half dozen businesses that make up our little contribution to economic growth- but the staff are mostly gone for the holidays. It was very quiet throughout the entire building that is normally teaming with businesses and people going about their interactions and day-to-day affairs. There was no trouble parking at the curb, no wait for the elevator, nobody to greet going through reception and nobody to avoid while passing the conference rooms we share with other companies on our floor. I stopped long enough to grab some coffee (we finally have a Nespresso machine!) and to change the channel on both TVs in the cafe. (Normally they are tuned to news: One to Fox and the other to CNN, so my quiet revolution is to put them both on The Disney Channel in hopes that they might encourage some of the lawyers in the building to find a bit of happiness in their lives.) The conference room is encased in glass, and has a spectacular view of the Masonic Temple here in Alexandria. In summer when you look through this window, you normally see teams of brides-to-be being directed by photographers trying to capture their original, uniquely perfect moment with an identical backdrop to all of the other brides posed precariously on the side of the hill leading up to the temple- but today the weather has turned cold. I noticed the yellow-pinkish haze that portends a chance of snow flurries and chuckled, thinking of all the reshade/Envtex posts I've seen during the past year trying to capture that very lighting. (Some of them doing so quite well, in fact!) Most of my work is done from the office in my house, as it affords me the flexibility of quiet, if I can tune out the friendly banter between developers on the PMDG team, who are also working from home. The team at the office does an exceptional job of keeping on top of the various administrivia that flows through the front door, and someone always sorts and stacks the mail, leaving it out for me to collect. Today there was only one item to be found, but it made me smile because 2017 has been a fantastic year for all of us who love airplanes and simming. The year has been very good to all of us here at PMDG and we are very excited about our delivery plans for 2018. Today's mail is a good omen for 2018. Merry Christmas, everyone- from all of us, to all of you.

Patricio, If you had an OOM, this is probably going to lead you in the same direction as the problem causing your screen to go black. It may be important to evaluate the amount of "stuff" you are asking your sim to put into memory. Our products are really not significant memory users, but if you are jamming a huge amount of textures/scenery/autogen/traffic into the simulator- you are going to run out of memory. Since the airplane is what you are most directly interacting with in the simulator, you will naturally tend to find the OOM problems manifesting in the airplane first. I hope that helps!

Gents, FWIW: There is really nothing magical about the landing gear that should cause half of the tires to vanish. The gear truck beam itself is animated using customized code, but the wheels and tires themselves are attached to that beam using the same methods every other part is attached to the airplane. I suspect you guys have something else afoot- and the vanishing tires is a symptom. Let us know if you find it though, I will be interested none-the-less!

Gents, I'd personally LOVE to do one of the 170-190 series and/or the new C-series. Our schedule is pretty heavy with the 747-8, and even when we get that one released, we will still be pretty MAX'd out... Hard to keep up with it all...

Paul, I haven't really kept abreast of the various shows and the like going on. Shows are a bit of a conundrum for us- as we are a very non-traditional company. Namely, everyone on the team is spread all over the globe, and with a global customer base that gains direct access to us here via the forum- it is hard to justify the investment in show fees and travel costs. You see, ours isn't a product you pick up and touch and feel, so much as one you experience personally. Our relationship with all of you is really focused on the forum- and has been for 20 years, so there isn't much to be gained beyond simply "the good will of being there" but this also has to be weighed against the very real cost of TIME... After all- if you were to poll the members of this team, most of them would tell you that the most valuable commodity in their PMDG workflow is time. So- we shall see. Again, I really don't know much about the show, so it I can't make an evaluative argument. Isn't the old Hartford show doing the week before or after this new effort in Las Vegas, too? Who decided THAT was a good idea?! I do know that this show has chosen the same weekend that abuts Mom's birthday... and I'm a bit particular about Mom's birthday. She is mom, after all!

Gents, We had a rash of similar reports last month during the server transition. When we resolved the issue, we did have a trailing number of complaints on the issue that were resolved once customers dumped the cache in their browser. (usually CTRL+R but your mileage may vary...) I'd recommend that route- as it seems to resolve the issue quickly. If not, let us know and I'll have tech investigate...

Gents, ah. The old REX standby excuse. This is probably the fifth time we have seen this thrown out to customers by REX playing the victim card. It is funny that when I reach out to compliment them on their work I get an answer within hours, but then they suddenly can’t get an answer from us at some other time. They don’t have trouble reaching our support team to ask for free licenses, nor did they have a hard time reaching me the last time they updated their product and wanted us to interface with it. I highly doubt we will bother with the thing. This same tired trope is just, exhausting. We have enough on our plates without having to waste time playing games. With all of the ways they know of to reach various members of our development team, here, by email, by phone or by support- it just starts sounding silly.

Morten, Interesting perspective, thank you for sharing. I hadn't even considered that issue due to our lack of experience working with the platform- but it certain bears consideration. In the current instance the driving issue is our own workload internally. Once can only carry so much stuff in one's hands, if you follow my meaning.

David, At some point, I'm sure. It is exceptionally low priority at this stage. FWIW: We are going to solve it the same way you can solve it for yourself: Create a new saved state to use.

John, Is okay- I thought it was funny and got the humor. Dave: You might want to take some time off from the forum. Your sense of humor seems to have escaped.