TerrenceK

I'd say, try Espen from Coolsky. He is very much into (additional) features, we're going full out on the DC-9, so who knows?I'll send you his email address by private messaging.Best,Terrence

All ciruit brakers (aft of the Captain AND on the overhead) are modelled, animated and programmed. Coolsky has an article on the failure system on their website news..TerrenceMcPhat Studios

Perhaps I can enlighten some of the things you said... ;)The reason why we went with Aerosoft instead of some of the more (in X-Plane land that is) known publishers is because Aerosoft is focussing big time on X-Plane. We spoke with some of the others, had some really pleasant conversations, especially with Cameron from X-Aviation, who really took the time to feel welcome to a new (for us) sim.At the moment, I am spending more time on updating our social media outlets (FB, G+, Twitter), doing videos, making screenshots, sending out newsletters, basically promoting our little outfit, than I am focussing on what I like doing best: Textures.We feel that Aerosoft with it's massive online presence will take away much of those tasks, giving us more time to develop and spend less time on overhead.This is by the way the same reason the ATR-72 was brought to us. The developers want to do what they like doing best and that is make 3D models, not worry about manuals, promotion, flight dynamics, sound. programming and what not.The reason why it is 'taking so long' is indeed because some of the development had to be done from scratch to match our standards, mostly texture wise we're bringing it up to what people are used to from our FSX textures.So yeah, you weren't far of with your guess work.. Not far at all... ;)All the best!Terrence

That's okay, no need to apologize. We just make a habit out of fixing things on the fly. We don't gather bug reports and then update once every now and then, but usually do it right away. It saves some 'embarrassment', if you catch my drift.. ;)And yes, that screenshot should be updated really..Anyways, didn't mean to hijack the topic. Let's get back to the EVO. ;)

Dude? Really? I fixed that for you within 24 hours. We just didn't change the screenshot on our page. Why would you say something like this?

Not quite.It is a completely new development. Where as The artwork is done by us and with artwork I mean 3D model, inside (VC) and out (exterior) and the textures inside and out. We do that for Coolsky, hired by Flight1. Coolsky does all the programming and is the main developer on the project and it will be released by Coolsky, published by Flight1.That's it in a nutshell.TerrenceMcPhat Studios

Well, I probably could answer some of those questions for you:We have not released those yet. We are waiting for PMDG to send us the licensing agreement, I've been trying to get a hold of Robert the past couple of months now, but no avail. This is the reason why pricing is not yet set, and why they aren't available yet. We have a go as in 'verbal agreement' already, which is why they are already up on our website, but until that is 'officially on paper', we can't make them available.Whether or not they are worth it? I think so, otherwise we wouldn't make them in the first place. If I would characterize myself I'd say I am pretty integer. I don't like buying crap, but I therefore don't like selling crap either. But I have no control over your wallet, so it will be up to you to decide. For example, Chris from TSS does excellent work, we'll work with him professionally, but I'll never buy one of his sound packages as a consumer, simply cause I don't care for sound at all. FSDreamteam, Flytampa, Aerosoft, REX on the other hand, do get my money, I like graphics, scenery. I'm not an inside man, I press enough buttons during the day, not to want to care for pressing any more when I get home. So what I am trying to say: You like graphics, you buy em. You don't like graphics, you don't buy em. It's that simple.Like Paul said, we do always make available an American livery or two, so people can check out the quality before they buy. For the NGX, we're making 1 freeware livery for every 4 payware liveries we make. As a commercial member I am not allowed to put up any screenshots, but if you check out our Facebook page here: You will find a couple freeware liveries that may be of interest to you (American, Astrojet, Ryanair Dreamliner etc etc).Why do we charge money for them? Three reasons. First of all, there's a lot, a lot of time going in to these textures. We don't just paintbucket a cheatline here and there, throw on a logo and plaster on a registration and be done with it. There's a lot of love, passion and dedication going into those. Secondly, cause we think it's worth it and thirdly: There's no such thing as freeware guys, c'mon. Somebody, always pays. Yes, for you it may be free and therefore you get to save some money and buy your wife an extra pair of shoes (good for you), but at that same time I am explaining to my girlfriend why I am spending all my time not with her and why I don't take her shopping to get a new pair of pumps. ;)We used to do a lot of freeware (only freeware), but then you up the ante. Not for the love of making money (trust me, if I wanted to make more money, I'd be doing something else), but for the love of graphics, cause maybe I grew up in the time pc's had EGA and CGA screens and I've seen it evolve since then. Or maybe because I've been drawing planes since I was a little kid.Just yesterday I bought Battlefield 3 and I can honestly say I get more joy out of watching how DICE made the cracks in the concrete, how the sand whirles over the roads and how the water on the carrier glisters in the sun than playing the actual game. Which is probably why I like BF3 better than MW3, even though MW3 has better gameplay. But let's not get ourselves into a BF3 vs MW3 flamewar here, enough of that on Youtube..; ) Anyway, back to the story: Making a livery is no longer a case of slappin' on some colours and have it up and ready in a couple of hours. It's months of work, and then only the kit is ready, not a single livery is done. I spend more time on saving and opening 1.8GB kits nowadays than I did on making an entire repaint 'back in the days'. To us, that is worth something...But, I do applaud all the people who spend their time making free stuff. Kudos to them!Most important thing is though: We get to decide whether or not we want to charge money for something we love doing and we feel we're good at doing. You get do decide whether or not it is actually good enough for you to want to spend your hard earned money on, but let's all respect each-other's decision.Last but not least, we have about 50 freeware liveries on our website. Our freeware section is the 2nd most visited section on the site. You'll find UHDT liveries on there, that are downloaded tens of thousands of times. I'm not talking about 5MB downloads, but downloads that are bigger than the actual aircraft base installer. You don't want to pay? Then don't pay and see if there's something there to your liking.All the best,Terrence(McPhat Studios)

And I thank you for your support Dez. Absolutely right there, too many mistakes slipped through on the 747. As always, to thank you (and everybody else who spends their hard earned money on our work), we fixed it as soon as possible. For the NGX, Leen is back Quality Controlling and he is brought his 'usual stickler attitude' to catch as many as possible. ;) You're welcome. Look Paul, we're not in a money making business. If we wanted to make money, we'd be making iOs Apps and not 'do textures', trust me. So we try to reach middle ground when it comes to combining packages. But like I said, I will be sure to look into Regional packages. It might turn out badly for us and good for the customers or the other way around, who knows? ;)

Just checking Alex.. 'Shot down' doesn't sound all that nice, but alright. Interesting Paul. Two things: 1. We did actually look at the 'regional' thing. We've been doing the mix thing for quite a while now, but with every project we look at the way we should package the liveries and every time we come to the conclusion that for us, it would be a stupid thing to do. Now, in all fairness, we base our numbers on a certain NG project we did in the past, which was also based on regional packages. This showed us that Asian, African, South American packages don't sell all that well (and that's an understatement), but they take just as much time as an European or North American package. In order to counter that, we mix them up. 2. You might think it is money we're losing and it might even be the case, the only way to find out is to be in a perfect world where we could do both (World and Region), for the exact same developer at the exact same time in 'space'. Fact is that if you are really interested in a certain livery, you'd buy it. About the pick and mix : It is also something we looked at. The downside would be that we'd have to step away from the automated system. People would pick (perhaps with a checkbox system) and we would have to manually send them all the packages. It would also mean we'd have to compile an installer for every single livery, which will add overhead. In the end, everything is possible of course, and an automated system could be build for this scenario as well, but in all honesty: The cost that goes with building such a system is something we can't cough up. If we'd sell hundreds, thousands of them: Yes. But we don't. But I will be sure to discuss the Regional setup, see what we come up with. Last but not least, we do try to make a package as tempting as possible, so for instance, if I look at the MD-11 World Airliners 4, you'll get FedEx, UPS, Martinair Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, World Airways. Not the smallest Freighter operators. Either way guys, it all comes down to : Overall; You don't HAVE to buy anything. If you're happy with Normal Definition, there's plenty of freeware liveries out there. If you're not an 'outside' guy, but solely fly the aircraft from the VC, there's no use at shelling out even a cent. I -myself- am one of those 'outside guys', things have to look good first and work good later (Style over Function! ;)), so if I look at the add-ons I buy you'll find a REX, FSD, ORBX, FlyTampa scenery mostly. Things that will make my sim look good opposed to add-ons that add functionality. So no matter how good the TSS soundpacks are (and they're good, if not the best, I bought one a really long time ago), I won't spend money on it, cause I don't care so much for sound. The same with textures, if you don't care for looks, spend your money on something you do care for. Best, Terrence

I shot you down? Really Alex? Did I? Cause I can quote my answer to you and to me I simply explained to you why we can't sell em separately... Terrence

Looking good there!

Holy... Now those are great finds. Thanks for sharing!

Possible, all the way. That is, if we're talking about FSX, and in high definition. FS9 or FSX normal definition : not so possible. You add a light grain on the specular, and match it on the specular alpha. You're going to need to do it HD though, cause you need the high contrast, high definition in order for this to work. We use the technique in a slightly different form on our UHDT for the Super 80 and CS 757...

I wish! ;)

Agreed. Some us use screenshot artist to pimp up their screenshots We used to have them as well, but then decided to not use them anymore as we think our work doesn't need any additional 'artistry' from a screenshot point of view. That being said, I think Tabs is right, some of the screenshots used in reviews don't really do the product justice, which is a shame.

I am going to jump in here in Lee's defence : The engines are -unless I am mistaken- not bumped, so you won't see rivets on a dynamic level, and I think that the amount of gloss, and the fact that the shot was taken during 'darker' conditions results in no diffuse rivet detail from that distance. Lee, let's not do this out in the open, if there's one thing I learned it's to take it up with the ones involved behind the scenes. Leen is a repaint guy, doing the texture thing for almost a decade. Hence why he is the repaint forum moderator here at AVSIM. He doesn't slant, but he is a stickler when it comes to detail and techniques. Just the other week, he asked me for a copy of the MD-11 World Airliners 1, because he wanted to test/try something I could not achieve (the level of glossiness, Ryan's talking about below). I could've been offended, as I've been doing this for a couple of years now, but I'm not. That's Leen, he points out things, proposes different techniques, and I take his advice, although at times I think 'Damn him, why didn't I think of that myself?'. Hi Ryan, Thanks. I have to say that my heart stopped for a short period after I saw Robert's post here. The first thing that crossed my mind was : 'Oh no, what did we miss?'. Luckily his e-mail was really nice, so I have to thank you guys as well for giving us the opportunity to do this. The level of glossiness. What can I say, I will probably have to agree with you to a certain extend. I myself like glossy planes, but there's going to be a separate installer holding only the matted down specular maps, for those that like their planes less glossy. It's tricky though, cause reducing the gloss level, also means we'll lose some of the dynamic body work on the bump mapping and that is the one thing I myself really like. Also, it took me until the day before the release to find out the way you guys mapped the different materials. We find that most developers control the level of gloss on the diffuse alpha, where as the amount of reflectivity/intensity of colour in the specular is controlled by the specular's alpha. So when I finally got my head around it, we were already within 24 hours of the release date. A date I wanted to keep, as we've been postponing and postponing and postponing so many times it was becoming a drag. So, in short : I am still trying to get the level of glossiness down and keep the body work. If I can, we will release an update, toned down. If I can't, we will release a separate set of specular maps for those people who are not into 'glazed doughnuts' ;)Last but not least, I don't know what it is you lot did with the material mapping, but this, the reflection of different colours of ambient light? We've tried to 'retrofit' it with our Captain Sim 757 High Def textures, but whatever spec, spec/alpha, diffuse, diffuse/alpha combination we tried, we couldn't get it to work, and it 'kind of upsets me' ;) Obviously I am not asking for secrets, but it is something none of the other developers thought of doing : Ow and Ryan? About the 737NGX? Obviously I am not happy with you guys doing 300px/m, cause with that out the door go our comparison shots, and out the door goes 'our claim we have the highest px/m ratio on a FSX commercial airliner' (280 on the CS757 High Def's).. ;) No seriously, I 'm looking forward to them.. It goes without saying we want to get our hands on that kit, but I'll leave that for a different day and time..All the best,Terrence

All involved,Robert and I have had positive contact on the matter.We are looking at an amicable way to resolve this. In good spirit, until we have so, we are taking the packages off-line. Terrence KlaverweideLead Designer McPhat Studios

You should it's a great plane... Thanks... appreciate the kind words.. We can't sell any of PMDG's textures, unless we have some sort of agreement like the ones we have with Captain Sim, or FeelThere or Wilco or Flight1 or Coolsky. They basically let us do new textures as an added value, but don't have us replace ALL their textures. It saves us time, especially when the textures are already of a good quality. In return they ask either exclusivity or some sort of fee, depending on the developer/publisher. So in this particular case, we opted to replace all textures which we added to our installer. So you're not buying a single PMDG made pixel, all is done from the ground up, which was necessary anyways. As you can see from the screenshots in our shop or forum, we show them with our own leading edge slat textures, but as the leading edge is part of the map that also holds the gear (etc etc) textures, we did not add them. We will however offer them as a free download, hereby not violating PMDG's wishes. Besides that, the stock leading edge slat textures look pretty good... BREAK! Thanks, really kind of you to say. I agree on all counts... The plane is great as well.. We did about 30 odd freeware liveries for the Super 80, both Classic and Pro. I can't imagine we didn't do the Continental livery?! Also, you should check the forums, this guy named John made like a gazillion liveries for both the Classic and Pro. Me neither Freighters are last in the line.. Thanks, really appreciate it. Thanks, now sell your car/house/body and come on over' to the FSX side then...;)

Ha! Leen busted my balls on that US Flag in the past at least a dozen times....;)

Looks like it John, perhaps he is not in the vicinity of a computer hooked up to l'internet...

I'm actually curious to your opinion.. Do you mind sharing it with me?

I'm disappointed in you Rhydian!! :(

I'm impressed Rhydian!!

The comment that FS9 users scream the loudest, and 'don't buy', was not aimed directly at you Dillon. I said that in my previous post as well. The buzz I hear from the people and companies we work with is that if you'd go by the amount of 'noise' FS9 users make on the different fora, one would think they are our biggest group of customers, but that isn't true. It is a 'dying' race, yet the group that remains is vocal.So again, it was not directed at you. I do my 'rounds' every day passing by the different FS fora, so I know exactly who you are, what you buy and how you yourself support the last remaining things we've done/been doing for FS9.So thanks for that.

It wasn't geared at you directly Dillon. More in general to the FS9 user. And you didn't buy the FS9 version, you bought the FSX version because you didn't read before you bought, and we GAVE you the FS9 version, because we think everybody screws up once in a while and doesn't needs to be punished for that buy letting them buy the FS9 version AS WELL.I know you bought a few of our products, which is exactly the reason why we gave it to you, cause you're one of the few loyal FS9 customers we have...:(