Roadburner426

He mentioned NG3 when talking about the EFB portion of his presentation when showing the 748, saying that the integrated checklists and such would be integrated in to 748/777/NG3, but not in to 744 since the EFB portion never came to them. He showed off a bunch of the dynamic checklist features on the 748, and went pretty at length. The EFB will also have Jeppson charts built in, as well as a ground handling system that shows the airport taxiways for easier ground navigation. That is also updatable through the EFB, and at the press of 2 buttons he says it uses your airport library data to update it all in 30 second or less. So regardless of what brand of third party airports you use, or if you just use default scenery that the taxiways and such will be accurately modeled to reflect what you see outside the windows. Also NG3 will be getting the special weather effects like rain on the windshield, and snow accumulation that were pretty cool. That was really all that was said about it.

I think this gives a purpose for their larger products for people like me who aren't part of VA's, but like the experience of flying larger airplanes. However by myself there is really no purpose in say flying a 777, or 747 by myself as that gets kind of boring. So to me this allows us to be part of something larger, and have a more realistic/defined purpose for flying the larger machines without the commitment of being part of a VA. I tried joining vUSAF years ago and rocked out of that. At least with this I can fly from point A to B, and then give the plane back to the community. Then pick it up again when I feel like it wherever it is at that time, or pick a whole new plane.

Seeing as a lot of people seemed to have connection issues I will post this to tell you guys what he said. The big announcement is a product called Global Flight Operations. It will integrate with the new Operations Center 2.0, and basically it will work like a library for airplanes (simple terms). So basically you will go in to Op Center, and check out a specific airframe serial number that then can not be used by anyone else. You will start up with the airplane wherever the person who checked it out before you left off. You can then fly the plane to a destination of your choice, and then shut the plane down (or leave it in any state you want!) and check it back in. The plane will then be back on the Op center server for someone else to check out from the destination you left it at, and continue flying it. Hours, wear & tear will accumulate on the airframes on a per airframe basis. So it will track hours and such for each serial number. He said it will also allow you to select any livery that the plane was ever flown it. So say serial number 1 was a 744 that was owned by United, but had multiple paint schemes and later was converted to a freighter you will have all of those liveries to choose from. It also has a built in ACARS sim that will give you real time METARS, and simulates the ACARS VHF stations & satellites along with their reception spectrums. So you have to be within range of a station to actually receive/transmit data. I hope it makes sense, and it all sounds really cool to me. This product also will work with any airplane, but will be rolled out in 3 tiers. First tier is 744/748, 777, 737; next tier is the rest of PMDG products; third tier is going to be everything else. Hopefully they put the screens up from the slides at some point.

On a side note Robert did say if we kept a plane checked out/hogged it for ourselves that he would take it back! lol So don't be greedy and keep a plane checked out.

I still have FSX installed, but it sounded like the front part of his presentation was saying the resources (I am loosely translating as computer power/simulator specs) were to far behind to implement an idea like this a long time ago. I would like to use it with the MD-11X in FSX as it would be cool, and I really like the concept Robert presented with it as it sounds like I can be an airline captain without having to be part of a virtual airline. Was overall an excellent presentation showing the 748, Rainmaker, and Global Flight Operations. Thanks to Robert and all who made it happen!

Why would the MD-11 be part of GFO? Is no longer on sale, and I think there is only a handful of people like me that even still fly it. Going to try and not read to far in to this and assume it is a fluke that it is even on the slide, lol.

That is a great shot Kyle! Definitely a sharp looking plane. Looking forward to the reveal of what this new product is!

I would love to go, but unfortunately I will be deploying at the beginning of June. I do however look forward to reading about whatever it is on here as I am sure it will be well worth the wait. I will have a lot of catching up to do with simulator stuff when I get back in 2019 it appears.

Sorry to hear that Brian. In the future though if you can just do it from a backup. I have one of those 4TB Western Digital mybook/passport external drives that I just leave unplugged most of the time unless I am actively doing a backup. That and the Acronis backup software are truly time savers as I can just let the imaging process roll while going about my day. Good to see you are closer to getting things back in order though. Before you know it you will be flying in no time.

I just used my Acronis backup software and had an image of the drive I wanted to copy over to the SSD.. Installed the new drive, booted up the PC using the Acronis boot software on a CD, and then just imaged the old disc to the SSD. Has been running perfectly for almost a year now. As long as you have good backup/imaging software you can just image the old drive on the new one and it will be fine without having to uninstall/reinstall and then reset everything back up. Been doing it that way for a lot of years when hard discs fail and what not with no ill effects. Other than losing any changes I made in-between the backup and failure if that was the case. Last year was the first time I planned a drive upgrade, so made sure to do backups and picked up right where it left off. Just a whole bunch faster.

I used to like the 2D panels before, but that was only because the VC usually looked pretty terrible. The 2D panels back in those days actually looked very realistic compared to what the VC used to offer. However in recent times I have found that the VC is done so well that using 2D panels kills the experience anymore. So on the NGX I don't even know if it has them or not as I have never looked for it. All depends on personal preferences though.

Pretty impressive. Almost thought it was a joke at first cause I never look at their Facebook page. Things keep getting better and better with v4!

I stayed with FSX the whole time from when it was released until last May when P3Dv4 was released. As programs have released for v4 I have been slowly making my way to using it more than FSX. I will say it is a lot more stable. I went back to FSX the other day and the vsync issues that I have always had with it are that much more apparent when panning the camera. Also the occasional stutters. While P3Dv4 is not perfect I am able to turn the majority of the sliders to maximum and enjoy how smooth it is compared to FSX (at least on my system). I am only buying new aircraft for v4 now. If I buy scenery and it is able to be installed in FSX I will usually install it if I don't think it will drag FSX down. I am just waiting for the rest of the aircraft that are going to be ported to be, and then I will just leave FSX installed for our favorite tri-jet that will never come to v4 (MD-11X). I will say the upgrade was expensive. I still have not rebought my PMDG aircraft, and seeing as there is a NG3 on the way I will probably hold out on the NG. Rebuying the PMDG birds alone is going to be several hundred dollars. However seeing as I have gotten a decade of use out of the MD-11, had 747v2 & NGX since release I feel it is a worthwhile purchase. For me the performance differential is to big to ignore, and I have not had any issues with v4 on my system.

747-8 and J4100 aren't even here yet and we are speculating on NG3.  I imagine we will see the MAX, but it will be in a separate package like how they have been doing things. I would like to see a BBJ package available as well. For NGX they talked about looking in to it, and I am going to guess the juice wasn't worth the squeeze at that point in time. The bird will of course have all the latest and greatest PMDG tech as necessary. As far as making things for the 32 bit simulator the line will be drawn at some point. Over the last month or so I have gotten to the point where I am extremely pleased with P3Dv4 and am going back to FSX less and less. Especially as more aircraft and scenery cross the barrier. With a lot of the algorithms and stuff they talk about running in the back round I would imagine 64 bit would be the only way to go for all of that data to be processed in as close to real time as you can expect. So I expect high end developers will transition over in the next year or 2 depending on 32 bit software sales performance.

I take about 40-50 minutes but I am never in any type of grand rush because I fly mine as a BBJ (Boeing Business Jet). So for me it is just a leisurely set up from cold and dark to get flying through the skies in luxury. I always start mine from cold and dark panel state, shut it down to cold steel at the end of every flight, and take my time to go through the whole checklist flow. For me I think it is all down to personal preference. If you are simulating commercial airline pilot stuff I would think the vast majority of the time you are walking on to a fully booted up flight deck with the APU started and just the main engines shut down so I would think you would be out a good bit faster than me. I just love the depth of simulation on the NGX, J4100, and MD-11X. Going through the checklists is always fun, and I love on the MD-11X letting it fuel in real time. That usually sets me back an hour to get in the air if I don't fuel it before shut down.

Well this is all excellent news! I was going to rebuy NGX for P3Dv4 but seeing as there is a NG3 coming guess I shall wait. Means I will upgrade to the 777 and 747-4/8 lines instead. Exciting times ahead it seems. Nice to see the EFB get incorporated for performance calculations. TOPCAT was always a nice program, but didn't support some aircraft. So at least the 748 gets it natively built in. Very much appreciated.

I figured the 787 was closer to the 737 in size, but it seems a lot bigger in the video. Pretty cool to see them formation flying like that.

Well I mean it is only 2.5 million USD. Nothing an American Express card can't handle. I keep eyeing up the 777-200 while waiting for the DC-6 and NGX myself.

NGX seems very current with their offerings graphically and systems wise. I can't see much benefit in there being a v3 being done, so I don't think I'd put a lot of stock in that. I have seen mentioned where they talked about bringing some of the functionality from the 777 like the weather radar and such to the NGX, and doing an update to optimize the performance some. At least that was my understanding of it. Things can always change.

I think this is the first screenshot of what is next.

I do like the NGX sound set at takeoff. My favorite would have to be the MD-11X CF-6 at full take off power though. At some point I am going to get the 747v3 and get to hear the new and improved CF-6 sounds x 4.  Probably a close second is the complaining robot lady in the MD-11 that loves to tell me what I am doing wrong. Fffffllllllllaaaaappppppppssss!

Thank you for the advice Robert, and this backs up something that I noticed the other day and posted on SOH about. I noticed when checking to see if freeware scenery will or won't work that I was taking a huge FPS hit sometimes as low as 2FPS at freeware airports when dynamic lighting was turned on. I turn dynamic lighting off in the option menu, and then all was well. I was checking airports to just make sure everything loaded correctly, but haven't really given much thought to the coding aspect of it. May have to look at these tools in the SDK to see what might need to be done to recompile them. All transitions come with growing pains it seems.

Well as an owner of MD-11X complete with the full manual set, posters, and the bonus checklist my answer is obviously yes. I know it won't happen though, and to be honest I am really looking forward to the DC-6 and the 747-8! So I think we all should look at all the great things coming in the future. Those of us with the bird will continue to enjoy it in FSX. I know at least I will.

For those like me that don't always visit PMDG's Facebook page check that out! Looks like things are coming along nicely. If only hurling money at the screen made it come faster. As soon as you guys lower your asking price from 2.5 million dollars I will buy her. I will keep checking back on the price until my demands are met! 

Yeah I am a NGX, JS4100X, and MD-11X user.. So the only bird of mine coming with me is the NGX. More than happily going to give my money to upgrade the NGX to P3D. Toying around the idea of picking up the 777 too as I never bought it for FSX cause I knew my PC would OOM on a 17+ hour  trans ocean flight.

Being a MD-11X owner from day 1 is for sure an awesome experience for me as it is such an awesome aircraft. I will point out though that like Kyle was saying the aircraft is old, and its age does show. Even though the systems are in depth, and the bird flies like a dream she looks OLD. Definitely next to the NGX the old girls age really stands out.