stekeller

mariodonick: First of all, thank you for the support and kind words. I guess my point about the FMC was that no flight simulator add on fully simulates its functions and for which there are multiple software versions - one of our technical advisors told me that on the 737NG he flies it has a different software package that has less capabilities than other 737s he knows about. These systems are very complex, so I was unclear about the "100% Boeing like" comment and I wanted to know what you were referring to specifically. As for the SSG 747-8 Series FMC, of course it is based on the UFMC (no point in reinventing the wheel - all FMCs do some standard things); however it is much more advanced than that and fully customized for the 747-8. Here are some examples (although this list is not exhaustive): - Customized fonts and font colors - Full performance tables embedded (rather than a single config file) - Kilo / pound option - Navigraph and Aerosoft full AIRAC data update compatibility, including transitions and approaches - Full integration with autopilot and ND information display - RTE PAGE based on the real 747-8’s, with RTE PAGE 1 and 2 - COST INDEX management fully implemented and customized for the 747-8 - TAKEOFF REF including PAGE 1 and 2 based on the real 747-8’s - Realistic flap settings on the TAKEOFF PAGE based on the real 747-8’s - VNAV PAGES based on the real 747-8’s - NAV RAD page selections are fully integrated into the ND, radios and autopilot - APPROACH PAGE is customized based on the real 747-8’s and allows modified gross weights to check the Vref speeds. - Full integration with ND PLN mode - Info representation on the LEGS PAGE is customized based on the real 747-8’s - Many internal computations have been redone or drastically improved for the SSG 747-8 Series - In the latest version the FMC pop-up can also be resized to twice its original one for clarity (and for people with larger monitors) I can tell you that, in general, when we spot a difference between the real 747-8 FMC and the SSG one (within the features that are implemented), Javier works hard to correct it. The software is simply different and has its own development evolution, it is not tied to the UFMC at all. I hope this helps! - Stekeller SSG

Thank you mariodonick for your review. Certain things stood out in what you said, and one of them is our manuals. Since I write them (shameless plug) I was very pleased that you appreciated our approach. We try to strike a balance between good technical information, with the "look and feel" of the real Boeing manual in the case of the FCOM, along with explanations on how things work from the perspective of your average simmer rather than for a trained and type-rated airline pilot. And you validate our philosophy of ensuring the aircraft is "fun". That is exactly what we are trying to achieve with the 747-8 series so it pleases us immensely to hear you say that. As for the FMC, we try to make it as close to possible to the real 747-8 FMC in terms of pages and layouts, so I am not sure what you mean by not "Boeing like" - it is a bit different from the 747-400 FMC so that might be what you are referring to. And we appreciate the inevitable comparisons with the PMDG 747 (an excellent product) and not all systems are as in depth as you point out, but again it is important to keep in mind that the SSG 747-8 is a simulation of the 747-8, which does have some differences compared to the 747-400. Great screenshots by the way! And thank you too jcomm for your positive feedback. I insist that the aircraft handle well because I like to hand fly it and we will continue to work hard to make it as realistic as possible in that respect. I can tell you that real world 747 pilots and others who have flown the 747 sim give us great feedback on the SSG 747-8's handling, as well as some pointers on what could be improved. As a result, each update has some tweaks and modifications resulting from our test flights. This is one of the areas where X-Plane is so different from other simulators because of the way flight dynamics are simulated and it is always a challenge - one that I enjoy. - Stekeller SSG

Good news! The Freighter has been released with many new features... http://www.supercritical-simulations.com/?p=1685 And the Intercontinental has been updated to incorporate the advances from the Freighter as well. - Stekeller SSG

Thank you for the positive comments, and to those who feel it still needs work please know we will be continuing improvements in all areas (including cockpit textures). Also, we have been releasing some new liveries, including: - Lufthansa Fanhansa - Boeing BBJ Our liveries are always free - and there will be more to come. - Stekeller SSG

The update has been released, and we have a special announcement about pricing... http://www.supercritical-simulations.com/?p=1546

Well, we are continuously improving it. In fact, here is the SP3 (v 1.04) Update List: - All-new cockpit textures - Enhanced external textures and normals - Fixed EEC in cold and dark start mode - Electrical drive disconnect capability added - Improved hydraulic system AUX pump behavior and indications. - Fixed the bleed/pressurization behavior at cold and dark startup - Added advisory regarding the yaw dampers - Working electronic checklist - Enhanced custom autobrake and anti-skid system logic that works well with hardware pedals - Added “UP” indicator for flaps on the PFD speed tape - Added slip/skid indicator to PFD - Changed some light annunciator behavior. - Fixed the traffic interaction with SquawkBox and the ND - Improved ADF display on ND - Improved VNAV, especially on initial climb - Better ND track presentation - Improved fuel consumption calculations - FMC allows cruise level below 10,000 feet - A/T Switch doesn't move down on touchdown during autolands - NOT ON INTERCEPT HDG logic improved - GPS/IRS(3) / or LOC/IRS(3) displayed on ND, as appropriate - External view in replay mode fixed - The word “DELETE” is erased when used on the FMC - FMC messages are deleted just by pressing the CLR key - Updated FCOM and Quick Start Guide manuals Release will probably be in the next few days. - Stekeller SSG

Hi Tom: Well we tried to match what we see in photos of the real thing. I can tell you that it is much less than was shown in some early Boeing renders that depicted 787-like wing flex. On the SSG 747-8, the wing flex is dynamic, so when you taxi on the ground the wingtips bounce up and down a bit. On takeoff there is some flex, and a bit more in turns or climbs when it is subjected to increased "G" forces. On landing the wings flex back down again, just like on the real aircraft. I am not sure if I answered your question or not. - Stekeller SSG

Thanks jcomm and Ayki! I will add that the next update, which should be released very soon (days perhaps) also includes improved external textures and normals. I can say with all modesty (because George Garrido on the team made them, not me) that they are gorgeous! I can't stop looking at them and it really makes the already good 3D model by Ricardo shine. In fact, with the cockpit textures it feels like a whole new aircraft. But perhaps my favorite enhancement is the VNAV behavior that has been extensively reworked by Javier. I think the add-on really flies like the Queen - especially on initial climbout. I think people will be impressed. - Stekeller SSG

Hello All: Lots of great comments here. Thank you! Some screenshots of the upcoming update, including the new cockpit textures have been posted on our Facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/supercriticalsimulations We have also posted a series of tutorials to go from cold and dark to shutdown on the ORG. - Stekeller SSG

Thanks jcomm! And as for airlinejets' comment we did try to get some outside help for the external textures on the 747-8 but it did not work out. I think McPhat does excellent work, no doubt about it. It appears the livery pack market is difficult in the X-Plane world. Plus we have always made our liveries free for all our products. Instead we decided to bring the texturing in house and just work hard to keep improving our skills. The most important thing is that we can make sure everything is ours. If you have specific comments about the "loving" it needs, just let us know. Each update usually includes some small improvements in the textures. I completely agree on flight dynamics, performance, and feel. I am the one on the team who "signs off" on the hand flying characteristics, and we are always tweaking them. But we do have beta testers, some with considerable flying experience who give us feedback as well. It has probably been the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the project, because as you know X-Plane "flies" what you design, so you are constrained by how it handles control surface movement, CG, center of lift, etc. etc. We tried putting in exact parameters from the real aircraft, but it brings some unintended results, so you have to tweak. A lot! But as X-Plane improves and gets more features, this can be refined. We always strive to improve it further. So we understand about the textures, but frankly sometimes we feel like the band that makes great music but gets criticized because our album covers are not as cool. ;-) Still, it is a marketplace and comments regarding "eye candy" are always welcome. We do aim to make our customers happy and attract new ones. That is the only way we can stay in this business. - Stekeller SSG

Glad to see this thread is still alive... More improvements are in the pipeline, yes including those pesky cockpit textures. But there are lots of other enhancements, such as an electronic checklist system, as well as tweaks and changes to certain systems (like the brakes and pneumatics) to try to and get them as accurate as possible. IRSs have been mentioned by several users, but those are not part of this next update. This will be more of a programming challenge because the entire "boot up" sequence of the displays will have to be replicated, and it is a lesser priority because our technical advisor, Capt. Tim told us that in his experience at his airline he never aligned the IRSs. It was exclusively a maintenance function. So we are trying to focus on the pilot and flying the aircraft, rather than more obscure maintenance functions. Our intention was never to create a "study" sim. Yes, some malfunctions and abnormals are simulated, such as engine fires, fuel dumping, etc. but the emphasis is on normal operations and to still permit sim pilots to get in and fly without too much reading of manuals or studying. In fact, you can jump in with engines running on the runway and hand fly it with no FMC programming, which is unrealistic, but lots of fun when you have 15 minutes to spare and just want to get your "fix" in and fly a traffic pattern. With respect to other add-ons being in the same league, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and you will never hear us say anything negative about any other developer's products. We prefer to keep our heads down and focus on what we think will be useful features that are feasible to implement with our talents. I will say that this aircraft does include some innovative features that are visible such as the VSD, and others that are not so visible, such as the fuel temperature logic that was carefully researched and programmed. Maybe we don't broadcast every little enhancement that we implement to get maximum recognition from the community about this or that feature. But rest assured that we work very hard to get the details right. This next update will also have updated manuals (part of my area of responsibility) with more detailed normal procedures to allow for more professional types of operations to be conducted. We also have been working with a loyal and dedicated customer named AJ as he develops his series of video tutorials that he is making available on our forum. This was also something that was actively requested by many users. In closing, we are always open to any constructive suggestions, critiques, recommendations, etc. and thanks for the praise, which is very much appreciated. We have been thrilled at some of the feedback we have gotten from former 747 flight crew who tell us that they feel the add on captures the "feel" of the aircraft, which is an intangible that is so difficult to achieve in any flight sim product and, at least for me, has made all of our efforts worthwhile. - Stekeller SSG

Glad to see this topic! As has been mentioned, I am a huge fan of the 747 (there may be tube liner addicts here but I think my diagnosis is "obsessed" when it comes to the Queen). I was one of the first people to purchase PS1 by Aerowinx back in the 1990s. Ever since then I have dreamed of one day help bring a detailed 747 add-on to the Mac community, and X-Plane has allowed me to do that as part of the excellent SSG/FJCC team. Of course, PC X-Plane users are benefiting as well (I dual boot my Mac with Windows 7 so I am not starting a Mac vs PC war here). So yes, there is a real knowledge base on the 747 on this team, and we have access to great technical information as well as to current and former 747 pilots who help us out. If the textures are not at a level that pleases everyone, that is unfortunate, but the team's focus was on providing a core aircraft that is fun, immersive, and accurate without gestating for too many years. My point of pride is that the plane is fun to hand fly, and I hope it does the real aircraft justice because the 747 is supposed to be a wonderful flying airplane (comments from real 747 pilots to us has been quite positive - I only have 1 hour logged in a 747-300 full motion sim to go by). Rest assured that there will be enhancements and you should know that we are actively working in several areas. System depth is definitely part of that. As Ricardo says, a Freighter version is coming and it will be enhanced further, with those improvements finding their way to the 747-8i as well. And SSG liveries have always been free. Sincerely, - Stekeller SSG

ohsirus: That is fine - thanks for the open mind. If there are features you would like please let us know. Basically we aim to implement as many features as we can, so it helps to let us know if one is more important than another. jcomm: Glad to hear it! And please let us know about any glitches or features you want added as well.

Happy New Year AVSIM! We were happy to see this announcement on AVSIM and I will go ahead and try to address some of the comments regarding the SSG 747-8i Advanced, which I will paraphrase below: "SSG has bad support" It is hard to answer this one other than to say we do our best. We try to get back to people as soon as possible with a solution to their problem. We are all avid simmers at SSG and we don't like to get the cold shoulder from a developer, so we definitely don't want to treat customers that way. If you have an issue please let me know. "Fan blades are backwards (metal texture on trailing edge)" It's funny that this slipped through the cracks. We had gone back and forth with some different versions of the N1 fan model during development. We will revisit this and where there are errors, they will be corrected. "FMC is the same as the UFMC. It has no custom avionics package" This is incorrect. Javier is the author of the UFMC and of the FMC in this aircraft, but they are not the same. The FMC is integrated into the displays and autoflight system. "ASN Review came up quick, was too positive, because of ASN's ties to Aerosoft" Angelique was kind enough to try the aircraft through the latter part of the development process. She gave us comments and inputs, and we made changes based on those (she is an aircraft engineer and knows what she is talking about), so that is how she was able to publish a review once the aircraft was released. She has no ties to Aerosoft (although she knows people there) and was stating her real feelings on the aircraft. Generally, those who fly it, like it (rather than looking at videos and screenshots). We understand what people have said about textures, but legibility and usability is good (which is very important to us). "No EEC or IRS" Well the EECs can be turned on and off, but there is not a whole lot to model there. This is not a procedures sim with cascading malfunctions, etc. As for the IRS, again, these are typically only touched during startup and were not modeled but system implementation will evolve. It is a matter of priorities. Some simmers like to get in and fly, and others like to do everything from "cold and dark" to shutdown. These Boeing airliners are incredibly complex. We tried to achieve a balance so that controls and systems that pilots use during normal flight operations are simulated, with a few non-normal procedures such as engine fires and fuel dumping simulated as well. "No virtual cabin" This comes down to framerates. I personally don't understand the appeal of a passenger cabin if I am flying an aircraft, but I realize that others really like it. We simply did not want to leave behind a large group of simmers by adding too many polygons. "Cockpit textures issues" The complaints have been heard ;-) "The product had a rocky launch" And nobody is more upset about that than we are. Unfortunately the problem was beyond our control, but of course we are still responsible. In the end, relatively few users were affected and the activation problem was solved within a few days. Feel free to ask any questions! Sincerely, - Stekeller

horani: About the FMS problems you are having. We know that some people had such issues when their X-Plane nav databases were not up to date but that seemed to fix the problem. You are correct that proper FMS functioning is crucial - so if there is a problem it will be fixed. Please let us know what the issues are on our support forum (I don't know if this is the right place for that). Also, this is not the UFMC, it is completely different and updated. Sure Javier is the author of both, but this is a custom plug-in specifically for the SSG 747-8 Advanced. You are entitled to your opinion about the price of the add-on, but we would never have released a non-functioning product. It worked for us in our testing, but items may have cropped up for users in ways we did not anticipate. That is the challenge of testing. So I am personally sorry you had a bad experience, but we aim to resolve all such issues and move forward with adding features and further enhancements as the product evolves. Sincerely, - Stekeller SSG

As a member of the SSG development team I was interested to see this thread. First of all, I don't feel comfortable criticizing any other developer. I have personally met at least one of the members of FlightFactor and they seem like a nice group of guys. They do great work and are obviously very dedicated. So I encourage everyone to try their products. I have the 777 but have not tried the 757 myself yet. As for the 747-8 Advanced, it has been quite well received, but the comments here are noted and I will bring them to the team's attention. About the lack of a load editor, frankly we did not feel it was necessary because the default X-Plane 10 menus are quite adequate in terms of selecting the weight you want and the fuel amount. However, we are now considering adding this feature. Same with the pushback truck. My comment was quoted here and I hope you realize I was trying to be funny. The reality is that there are some good freeware plug-ins for pushing back your aircraft in X-Plane, so again we did not feel one was necessary. But based on some of these comments, we are also considering adding one to the package. We have heard the criticisms of the cockpit textures, but honestly they have largely come from people who have not flown the add-on in the sim. Yes, they do seem a bit plain, but we focused on legibility, easy of use and functionality. However, updated textures are another item we will be working on. As developers (and avid simmers ourselves) we focused most of our energies on getting the airplane to fly correctly and exhibit proper performance. The dedicated and integrated FMC/ND/autoflight functionality and the systems have been complex and challenging - so we will always try to smooth out any kinks and make the experience as realistic and accurate as possible. Above all, we wanted the airplane to be fun to fly, and I feel we have succeeded there. Personally, flying the aircraft in mountainous terrain with the Vertical Situation Display "painting" the terrain ahead (a first for X-Plane as far as we know) is almost like science fiction. As a pilot, I would love to have such a display when flying around certain challenging airports - especially at night and in bad weather. It is an amazing tool Boeing has developed that I never quite appreciated until I saw it in action. You may be familiar with our freeware versions of the 747-8 and they have been quite popular. The SSG 747-8 Advanced is a quantum leap beyond those releases and we are very proud of it. So while some of the criticism here stings a bit, we will entertain all suggestions to improve the product and incorporate additional features into our future releases. I am happy to answer any questions and would like to wish everyone here at AVSIM Happy Holidays! Sincerely, - Stekeller SSG

Thank you for the compliments alexcolka! - Stekeller SSG

Hi All:I thought you might enjoy this excellent paper on the development of the 747-8 with some excellent technical details.http://www.icas-proceedings.net/ICAS2008/PAPERS/073.PDFI am looking forward to the day PMDG enhances the flight model of the -8, probably once certification is complete and more data is available.- Stefan Keller

Hello All:I am having this issue with FS9 and it only appeared when I installed the MD-11 and already had the 747-400 installed.I am running an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/9600M GT (the MacBook Pro has both) and I cannot just switch graphics cards. Unfortunately, this has now made both the MD-11 and 747-400 unuseable. Very frustrating!- Stefan Keller

It has worked fine for me, except that the last time I tried it, there was a series of "ghost" images over the switches intermittently that appeared to show the switch or button in a different state. They seemed to have no effect on the operation, and it got better over the course of a 2 hour flight, but it was annoying. Has anyone else experienced this?- Stefan KellerKORD

Hello All:Am I missing something? Why can't I find a Boeing Dreamliner livery for the 747-8i?It is there for the -8F.Also, for those who would like to see what Boeing's renderings in this livery are like, here are some good ones (along with other great Boeing photos). http://www.flickr.co...eingdreamscape/- Stefan KellerKORD

When I got to fly the 747-300 full motion sim many years ago, the instructor recommended the following technique for 90 degree turns:- Taxi forward at a slow speed (5 kts) - Wait until the taxiway you want to turn on to is parallel to your shoulder - Start your turnTry it - it works in FS9 and FSX. I imagine my "shoulder" is just ahead of the other pilot's seat or the middle of the side window, as appropriate for a left or right turn from either seat. The disconcerting thing is that sometimes you no longer see taxiway in front of you before you start the turn, so it feels as if you are going into the weeds. I understand MD-11/DC-10 pilots have an even tougher time getting used to this because of how far forward the cockpit is relative to the nose wheel.- StekellerKORD

First of all, great job PMDG. This aircraft is beautiful!Also, I thought forum members might enjoy seeing this...http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/media...aint-scheme.jpgIt's the design for the "Boeing Light" scheme applied to the flight test 747-8Fs. Very Hi-res!- Stefan KellerKORD