rsrandazzo

Gents, Okay- well i **am** going to be nit-picky because systems knowledge is my "thing" and when it comes to systems knowledge, definitions are important. These are not valves. These are vents. Specifically, they are Ram Air Exit Doors or Ram Air Exit Vents that dump cooling air overboard after it has been collected via the ram air ducts (near the leading edge root) then routed through ducting and across the air conditioning pack heat exchangers in order reduce the amount of heat created when the packs compress bleed air from the engines as a normal part of the air-cycle process. (This process creates a massive amount of excess heat due to the law of gasses, so the "Free" cold air from outside the airplane is used to rid the system of this heat.) There is no use for the ram air once it has gone through the heat exchanger, so it is dumped overboard. In the early 747-400 these vents were louvered. They are now chute-type vents as shown. Pedantic, yes. Picky, yes. Let me be pickier: Outflow valves are located after of this on the hips of the fuselage and are used to regulate cabin pressurization. These ARE valves because they regulate flow... Definitions matter. And yes- all of this stuff is accurately modeled with physics equations in all of your PMDG products. We have been doing this stuff for 20+ years which is why our products tend to "Feel Right" when you use them. We could probably give all of it a fancy brand-name but we don't... we just consider it part of the simulation of the airplane.

Mark, You have NO idea how true this is. AHAHAHAHA

Alex- now THAT right there is an easter-egg I wish we had thought of. Well done. 😎

Nope. I got more. This is one of my favorite views of this airplane.

Captains, Alright- I have been absolutely swamped of late, and haven't done as good a job keeping up with all of you as I could... (Sorry!) So lets start off with a bit of fun, shall we? Where am I? (The answer is actually in the image... Look closely!)

XyQu, No need to worry- we are here to help. Our activation process is dynamic, and looks at a number of factors before it "tells you no." When it DOES tell you no, just reach out to tech support and let them know you need help. No need to worry about "having a valid story." We are simmers too- so we know how reinstalls and hardware upgrades can go. We also have quite a bit of data in the system and the abusers/hackers stand out to us- so it is normally a pretty effortless process for regular users like you who just need a reset!

Yeah, I'm with Raymond. I try really hard not to be the first one to buy a new PMDG release. 😎

Captains, Late this evening, we issued new updates for the PMDG 737NGX and PMDG 777 product lines. With the NGX, we found that an error made it through quality checking the build and this was causing some users to experience corruption in any panel state files created using the version released during the weekend. We felt this was a critical failure that required an additional fix. In addition, for both the 777 and 737, we made a later-breaking discovery (as part of our beta testing in the 747) for a scenario that could cause a really ugly problem if the user loaded an approach in the FMS, then loaded a STAR that shared the same initial fix. (Yes- believe it or not, such a thing exists!) It was a simple thing to issue the fix and we felt it would save some headaches for users who run into it- so we pushed updates to both product lines. While I have your attention- In the morning we will be pushing another major update on the 747-8 to our beta testers- and we think this will be the update that brings good solid stability to the product line. It has been our experience that each product goes through a period of chaos during testing- then all of a sudden everything clicks into place. This update is likely to be that update- and then we can start to pivot toward release, finally! Stay tuned- we will have more information shortly! I hope you are all having a good start to the week.

Mikael, During the NGX release, our servers were subject to a Denial of Service attack that originated predominantly in China and Romania. That isn't something that is going to be affected or changed by accepting prepayments. During the 777 release, our servers were subject to exceptionally high demand during the first few hours of release, and this caused some headaches. As a result, we took that utilization data and invested heavily in systems to bolster our delivery capability while under loads of that level. We had no such issues with the 744 release- even though demand was about 25% higher during the 744 release than it was during the 777 release. So- thank you for the suggestion- but we run an old-fashioned business model at PMDG. We will take your money when we have something to hand to you in return. We think that provides the best overall value equation- and we will do our best to ensure a trouble free rollout because that, too, is our job.

Captains, A couple of quick, important items for you on this Friday evening. Updates pushed for 737 and 777 base packages: A few hours ago, we pushed updates via the PMDG Operations Center for the PMDG 737NGX and PMDG 777-200LRF base packages. These updates were pushed for FSX, FSX-SE, P3Dv3 and P3Dv4 versions. These updates are important in that we have been able to find a few rare instances in the 737 and 777 that might cause the airplane to stop responding to user input, and we also eliminated a few CTD issues that appeared in both products. You can get these updates by launching the PMDG Operations Center, and clicking on the settings wheel. PMDG 747-8 Beta Testing Update: I am happy to say that we are beginning to feel that the 747-8 is "through the bow wave" of beta testing- and is looking more and more like a product that we can start polishing, rather than still doing major construction work. We have a few areas that we are still fitting into place properly- but overall she is beginning to behave well. We did not gag the beta team, so they have been showing you quite a bit of the airplane, and no doubt will continue to do so as we wend our way toward release. I am not in a position to begin talking release timeline yet, as we still have some things to do- but we are closer than we were yesterday. 😎 PMDG 747-400 Update Pending: While we are on the topic of 747s: We have a massive update coming to you for the 744. As part of the normal beta process for the 748, we continue to find/resolve issues from forum reports, beta testing and technical support. Normally we would push these changes to you in a more industrious rate, but some of the core changes that we had to make in order for the 748 to be inserted into this product line will break a ton of functionality unless we do the entire update at one time- so this update will come to you right before the 748 releases. In Other News... In other news, we have a TON of activity going on with the new PMDG Operations Center, which is still being tested internally. We are hoping to get our beta team involved in finalizing it's fitness for duty over the coming weeks. PMDG Global Flight Operations is also becoming very active with internal testing, and our beta team should be seeing this in the coming weeks as well. Things are busy around here- and the results of all of this activity are soon to be landing at an airport near you- so don't wander off!

Jon, I haven't laughed that hard in MONTHS. Thank you! How you doing, btw?

Bertie, I anticipate users will be able to connect "just about anything" to our new connectivity product. I am using the word "anticipate" because it hasn't been tested as such up to this point. The likelihood is that when we get it to beta testing- we will select a few users who are NOT on FDS hardware just to see how it goes.

Mark, Thank you, I appreciate it. It is always surprising to me the depth of sincerity that I find on those rare occasions when I attend a show like FSExpo. I wish I could find some way to bottle it and hand it back to the team.

Dom, While I am absolutely certain that you read the introduction we wrote for your benefit, it does have quite a bit of information so you must have forgotten the part where we recommend dialing it WAY down, along with an explanation of why this is so. The turbulence effect within FSX/P3D is ridiculously hyperactive and doesn't represent anything the airplane would experience in real life, which is why you see it react the way it does. In an effort to try and outfox the weather engine makers, we are experimenting with an adaptive model that tries to determine whether you have followed our instructions on the settings and will try to adapt the flex accordingly. It does operate to the detriment of other aspects of the sim- but since so many people failed to read and follow the instructions... i mean... read all of that information and then forgot... we decided to force the issue.

Gents, There are always a few prosthletizers who feel that it is important to drag every thread into "XPL" vs "any other sim. If you feel emotional about the fact that a business doesn't see the value that you see in your sim, it is time to walk away from your keyboard a bit until you can have a conversation without evangelizing. You like your sim, we get it. But we have data and we are a business. We do not make business decisions based upon wishes we make them based upon facts. We have always taken the position that we don't tolerate X vs. Y stupidity in this forum. Do not do so here, or we will remove your posts without comment and possibly remove you as well.

Anubhav, The DC-6 was designed to give us a technical study, not a market study. We already know that the XPL community of high-end sim users is very much smaller than it is in the FSX/P3D world. We have plenty of data from other sources to show buying habits, etc.

Oscar, I expect that we will be putting some developer time toward interfacing with REX over the next few months.

Dhruv, That conversation was sort of impromptu. Ben came over and started off with words to the effect of, "how can we work together to make this easier?" From one dev to another, that was really a great conversation opener, and i think we really had a great dialogue. Ben is a pro, and we got to know him during the DC-6 development cycle, and we put faith in his word and his sincerity. Chris and I spent quite a bit of time chatting with Ben, right up until the venue managers asked us to leave so that they could close the place down. So much made-up drama in the FS community. I love when devs work toward common goals.

Jim, Not just yet- but don't wander off!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh, I see what you did there. 😎 Please sign your posts in this forum, but thanks for the laugh.

Kris, Welcome back! We are in year four of developing our first product targeted to the cockpit hardware user. It has taken far longer than we thought, in part because this development shares resources with the PMDG 747-400 and PMDG 747-8. The 747-8 device that we have partnered with Flightdeck Solutions to have built is "mostly running" right now but we still have some holes to plug and some edges to smooth. Our goal is to make sure that the software which eventually gets released to customers who wish to use PMDG to power their 747-400 or 747-8 devices will have a simple, clean setup with minimal amount of futzing with settings/configurations/networking. We are currently targeting completion before year end 2018... Once we have this completed in the 747, we will be pivoting to adding the technology to the 777 and 737.

Hey Thiago! I hoped you would think so!

Danny, You have room in your house for all of us to live if we did that? Oh, and you have to have room for the dog...

Anders, I will tell you precisely what we told Laminar: It isn't a matter of "if." It is a matter of "when." These are extremely complex decisions that must be made with care. I should also state very clearly: None of this is "new" per se. We have always stated that the goal of the DC-6 development was to learn what we could so that we can make informed decisions regarding the future development. The decision was not "we aren't gonna." We are beginning to evaluate when and how, now. Just as we always promised we would!

Captains, It has been an unfortunately long time since I had any NEW information to share with our XPlane users, but I *finally* have something new to share this evening. First, for those that have been waiting, tapping fingers on the table, lifting up the phone receiver to make sure it is still working, checking the mailbox and otherwise doing anything possible to be patient for me to have more news- thank you. I know at times it might seem like we simply ignore a subject- but... in a way that is true when we know we don't have the free resources at a particular moment in time. We have just entered a period where some resources are going to begin freeing up- so we have some pieces moving around the planning table and some of those pieces involve XPlane. PMDG DC-6 Update to XPL11 With the PMDG 747-8 (FSX/P3D) entering beta testing, we are beginning to evaluate when we will devote attention to the PMDG DC-6 for XPlane in order to move compatibility from XPL10 to XPL11. I do not have a clear answer to this question just yet, but discussion of the topic has begun, and we will be making decisions in the coming weeks and months to sort out how we are going to fill out development time for the remainder of the year. Once we get the DC-6 on the schedule, we will still have a bit of "known unknowns" to wrestle, as we determine just how much work will be required to bridge the gap between the two simulator versions. It might be minimal or it might be huge. We just don't know at this moment- but obviously we are hoping for minimal. 😎 I'll let you know once we have a clearer idea when to expect this product to be available. I anticipate it will be provided to you as an updated installer capable of managing either XPL10 or XPL11 installation as you wish. (To be clearer- this will be a service update, not requiring any further purchase from XPL customers.) Further Products Beyond DC-6: Immediately after Flight Sim Expo 2018, we had some very interesting and engaging discussions with Laminar Research. These were private discussions on numerous business and technical issues so I won't go into any detail here, but they represented the first true face-to-face exchange of thoughts and ideas between PMDG and Laminar- and we really enjoyed them. In some fashion or other, we have known Laminar for many years, but just by the very nature of our business, the only face-to-face contact has been fleeting and wasn't intended to be a hearty discussion. The best part of this discussion came when we sat down later in the day with Ben from Laminar and had a discussion about technical aspects of developing on both the Prepar3D and XPL platforms without significant negative impact to the development investment. XPL is a growing platform, and we are constantly evaluating when and how to begin the process of moving our complex airliners into that simulation environment. It is neither easy, nor quick, and we must constantly evaluate the revenue potential for investing the time required vs. investing that time in other locations. At this point there are no clear answers beyond "we are very interested in doing so" but we haven't found a way to make it happen without an unacceptable degree of risk to our development timelines and revenue position.. We are still evaluating and exploring ways to make this happen. It may simply require that we hire additional developers but this isn't a simple or guaranteed route, as there are significant technical differences between the platforms. We will be scheduling followup discussions with Ben and his team at Laminar once we get beyond the 747-8 release in order to see if we cannot compact the challenges into as small a space as possible. We love this kind of "shared decision making" because we think that our customers will benefit from wider simulation platform choices, and we also think we can capitalize on some of XPL's unique features to bring new ideas forward in our products. We will keep you posted on that as we progress- but please expect it to be slow!