Dhierin Bechai

This is an old thread that someone pointed out to me since McPhat is being mentioned. The company is dormant, but I do want to clarify one thing. I read that this has been settled between the modeler and Milviz, I think that is a good thing but public forums shouldn't be the way to work things out. I was the project and executive manager on the ATR72 development in that role I was responsible for meeting deadlines on our side and go over legal matters (infringment, pirating, commercial licensing, etc) if any. This issue hasn't been brought to my attention by anyone. That means that while the ATR product has been a joint-development by McPhat Studios and Aerosoft, we have not OK'ed taking things public as the modeler did... I haven't even heard about the issue until I read the topics on the forum. That means that the modeler has taken matters public on personal note, so there is no accusation from the McPhat Studios team nor does the modeler represent the company or its view in any way. If there was any issue or doubts about the legitimacy, then it is a matter that the publisher (Aerosoft) and developer (McPhat Studios) would resolve with the other company/person (in this case MilViz) with minimum public exposure if any. We have been away from the scene for quite some years now, but let me be clear on this: Serious matters such as these are not the ones we are resolving on the public forum. If we would have reason to doubt the legitimacy of the ATR Milviz development, we would have found a way to reach out to them and if unsuccesful push out an official release that represents the view of the company in the matter and that release would either be signed by me in my executive role, by the person leading McPhat Studios or by a representing lawyer if needed. We're not sending out modelers who don't even work for us anymore and haven't for years or painters out to make public statements on our behalf. That would be a pretty ridiculous thing for us to do anno 2018. Summarizing, MilViz has been falsely accused by the modeler on personal note. Since this happened on personal note, he has also apologized on personal note. As the company that adopted the ATR development and gave it wings with Aerosoft, we dissociate ourselves from the words of the modeler as we have not reviewed the issue, nor granted anyone permission to make any representing announcement on the matter. With that being said, I do wish MilViz a fruitful development and hope that with this message you do understand that the accusations are not ours, nor do we support them.

The UHDT DC-9 Cargo product is in our store to have at least a product description (our store pages are among the ones most read on our site). Changing the price to 0 or preventing customers from purchasing is unfortunately not possible (else we surely would have removed the add to cart button). Since somebody sketched an image that our store works until the point where you actually are charged I'd like to emphasize that every single customer gets the product he/she paid for (either via the support desk or we send an e-mail for incoming orders). I'd like to thank the people in this topic for their constructive (some are a bit less constructive, but ey... you can't have everything :lol: ) input.

Sometimes we read the forums as well ^_^ First of all let me apologize to the topic opener for keeping him waiting for a couple of days. If I recall correctly your ticket got swamped and disappeared from our list. For that I am to blame. Sometimes it might take a few hours before we respond to your ticket. We work with 2 people at the support desk almost around the clock, almost. We hope that very soon we will be able to send out keys automatically, this should improve your customer experience as well since you will be able to fly the liveries immediately after purchase. Additionally I also took your feedback into account and we are looking to see what we can do to make it more clear not buy the UHDT Cargo Expansion from our store. Lon, if you send me a PM here on Avsim I will make sure you get a product free of charge to make up for things, just send me the name of the product from our store you'd like to have. As for the others if you decide to purchase from our store, send me an e-mail (dhierin.bechai_@_mcphatstudios.net) (remove underscores) and I will send you your key as soon as possible. The e-mail account is connected to my phone which means you can reach me everywhere.

Quite a while since we spoke , mr. Randazzo ^_^. Two sides to every story, very true, the thing we have in common though is our conversation (via e-mail), which I still highly value. The conversation between PMDG and McPhat indeed is private, I am fully aware of that. That is why I don't take exact quotes or detailed information to answer people (for example when they ask about why we can't give them the NGX paints). The only thing I can do is give a vague/simplified answer, because I don't want to reveil anything about the conversation we had, that is not something that should be talked about in the forums. Let it be clear that I am trying to inform people the best I can rather than trying to evoke an emotional reaction. I can't stay quiet when people say that it was our decision to pull the plug for the NGX liveries, because it wasn't a decision we would make. Throughout our conversation you indeed signaled your concerns. We talked a lot about it and I gave you my word that I would put effort in it to make a cooperation work, at the moment that is the only thing we can do when we look forward. You told me that the NGX liveries were violating your EULA, at that moment (while sitting in a train!) I contacted the responsible person and told him to take the NGX uploads offline. I think this shows quite well how willful I was (and still am) to solve things and take action where needed to comply with your regulations. I do understand that trust is essential, that is why we did so much talking. We partner with some developers as well (in Aerosoft we find a common partner), I can't speak for those developers, but I do think that they choose to work with us based on trust as well. You and me both know that in my comments here I can't say too much (else I will reveil some of the private conversations we had). I really hoped that things would have gone differently, but it seems that we find each other more often on the public forum (than in the private communication media) to defend our names. Let me be clear that I don't blame you or PMDG for anything, I am just standing up when wrong information is posted on a big forum like the Avsim Forum, likewise you do the same when you feel I put wrong information or oversimplified information here. What still holds is that I (and along with me my colleagues) respect PMDG and the PMDG products and as I also signaled in my last (unanswered) e-mail, I am still willing to talk about things (to gain a little bit of understanding). Because when you want to trust eachother you have to get some understanding in the mindset the persons and companies have. I am not going to make an essay out of this, On more than 1 occassion I (after your decision) showed that I am willing to discuss things and that offer still holds. I'd like to quote the post above, to show that this is not a reaction I try to evoke from the crowd. PMDG is a top developer, they have the 'graphical' power to make textures as well. The image you sketch about PMDG is totally wrong and you miss something when you don't buy their products. Please, please, please even if you are frustrated show some positive attitude and respect.... it's not that hard.

I am referring to the wing textures that don't look very sharp.

I am not sure how the iMac handles memory (in combination with FSX), but to me the textures seem to be too vague (at least if you look at our product pages and see what you may expect from our textures). Nevertheless I like the shots, especially the one at dusk.

We did not quit making HD textures, just for certain products we decided not to start out of ourselves/

We would gladly make exceptions for the PMDG products, but in all fairness I don't think it is in their plans to work with us. So for now, no NGX, no 744 v2, no 777. It was our aim to provide the community with freeware liveries for the NGX after chances became slim that we would be able to sell, we prepared to release as freeware but due to a change in the EULA and the talking I did with mr. Randazzo we took them offline. I don't want to sound too negative about mr. Randazzo, as he took the time to respond to my numerous e-mails and we were very close to reaching an agreement. But at some point if you really don't want to come to a deal you can say that straight in my face instead of accusing me and my colleauges of things we did not commit. It is not mr. Randazzo I have problems with, he is a cool guy, it is not PMDG or their products I have problems with, but the way of practicing business (and showing some respect to your fellow companies in the flight simulator community) is something I do have problems with. For now, if you really like our textures, have a look at our Fokker 50 development, maybe on our next project we might do a bigger airplane...(you never know).

I am not going too much indepth regarding this case, but you can summarize it as follows: PMDG breached a verbal contract that they with McPhat Studios, ultimately putting all work we put into the NGX into a waste.

TIme to correct a few things ^_^ . We already planned on quitting with textures for 3rd parties a few years ago, we decided that the NGX would be our last project and that it was time to focus on making our own developments. You all know what happened to the NGX. We still promised ourselves that if there would be a product that we wanted to do that we would make an exception. Unfortunately we won't make that exception for the CS 777 at the moment. Part of what you guys say is true. I can imagine that if we wouldn't have decided to quit with textures-only projects, we would have done so after the NGX. To me that would be a logical step, if even the professionals breach contracts then things really are heading the wrong way. I have been in the flight sim community for the past 8 years, for the past 5 years as a painter and for the last 3 years as employee of McPhat Studios, never have I seen such things happen than what happened the last 2 years. Still in the last 3 years I have seen developers also be excited about McPhat releasing products for their aircraft, so there still are some companies practicing business with good spirit. If we would go on and make textures (only), it would be for those companies. We never had plans for the CS 777, our first UHDT set was for the CS 757, where McPhat and Captain Sim partnered up. So probably if they wanted the same for the CS 777, they would have contacted us. At the moment we are working on the Fokker 50, which will sport even more detail than our previous project, the award winning DC-9 B). McPhat Studios, not doing textures anymore for 3rd party developers, does not mean we aren't there anymore. Don't be sad, be happy :rolleyes:. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Hi Frank, That is not exactly what happened. Mr. Randazzo and I found a opening to start negotiations, but at the moment when it came to start thinking 'license agreement', mr. Randazzo decided he did not have the time for me or for the mutual fans McPhat Studios and PMDG have to arrange something.

Sharing is not allowed :mellow: . I have had some good conversations with mr. Randazzo, unfortunately he did not have the time to accomodate the negotiations between McPhat and PMDG in his schedule, nor did he have the time to arrange something for the mutual customers/fans PMDG and McPhat have. We have tried hard, there is nothing else we can do. McPhat probably wanted to release these textures more than anyone else, unfortunately after more than a year of hard work on a product we already had a deal for we could not release, not even as freeware. It is a shame that in a community of hobbyists things like this happen, in the end we are left with a financial gap, but the simmer cannot enjoy the textures they have been waitng for so long.

McPhat Studios does not work with paintkits provided by PMDG or any other developer, all paintkits are made from scratch! There are companies charging you 40 dollars comparing it to what you earn at McDonalds or any other minimum wage job. If you would compare that to McPhat (Not McDonalds ^_^). This means that we charge you below minimum wage. I would not call that a rip-off.

It's up: http://mcphatstudios.net/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=103&Itemid=83 . Make sure you are logged in.

Guys, paintkit is scheduled to be released today. I will post an update when it's up.

To add some information to Sara's. At the moment we are working on improving our website infrastructure to facilitate the paintkit on our site, up to this point technical issues have prevented us from releasing. With a couple of releases every year we, by now, know that releasing with essential components of the site not performing well is not a wise idea. Solution should be up soon!

Your head should hurt..... What else do you expect me to say? We are trying hard to get the paintkit to you as soon as possible. This really is my last message on the matter, if you have anything to say send me a PM .

Last post I am making in this topic, if you have any questions just PM me and I will happily answer those. You have to prepare your site well for a paintkit release, you have to facilitate the extra flow of downloaders. It really is not that hard to figure out what a paintkit release has to do with the website infrastructure. The kit also has been altered for you, it is not just supplying you with the paintkit we have. As a customer this whole thing looks easy, if you see the work that has to be done behind the screens you would know that it is not as easy as it seems. At the moment there is a component that really has to be fixed before we can put the paintkit online. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Just to clear up some things. At the moment we are holding off a release of the paintkit, because we are trying to fix some components of our site to make sure that the site does not crush under its own load. So we want everything to work fine before we start facilitating the paintkit of the DC-9-30. With the paintkit you are allowed to paint and release (Using the .dds textures that you get from us, either as a free download or payware texture package, is NOT allowed). So no uncommon restrictions on the paints: Paint as much as you want and distribute for your fellow simmers, only restriction is that you are not allowed to sell our work.

A 4 step process isn't complicated if you can land an airplane on a CAT III ILS approach, is it? 1) Registering: Well this obviously is to protect our work. Using a registration wall, we were able to get some torrent and files from the internet which illegally distributed our work down. 2) Downloading: A 1 click process. We are working on a method for MAC and GNU/Linux users. 3) This is a step that we added, enables you to see how the textures perform on our system and how we assume that it shows up on your end as well. Next to that you can exchange thoughts in comments on the videos, which I think is a nice thing to do (getting informating, giving information and feedback about the product as well). 4) Not that hard either, the most difficult part is putting in the serial. Why we don't use zips. Zip files simply don't suite our needs. Besides looking less good, there is a legal drawback. With zips you are not able to show an 'terms and conditions' before installing. In our opinion it is not correct to put an file with terms and conditions inside the zip and mention that upon installing/extracting the files you silently agreed upon these terms and conditions. As a user we want you to be able to actively be able to read and agree rather than just clicking 'I agree' and seeing what is inside terms and conditions afterwards. That is the main reason why we don't use zip files. The Air Caraïbes was 1 of the liveries I enjoyed painting on the ATR, nice and fresh color scheme.

Thanks, Pascal. We are satisfied as well with our first plane for X-Plane. The graphics look pretty good in X-Plane, we hope that in future products we will be able to deliver a more in depth system simulation as well.

The message of which this is a reply was deleted. I am not going to quote you either. Before I start replying: You are distorting my words and that is something you really don't have to do if you want to discuss something, it shows a lack of respect for the one you are talking to (or yet again you don't know what you are saying). What I am saying is that we have been tweaking the paintkit for use for 1024, we worked on a 4096 paintkit. With the hundreds (or was it thousands) of layers you would not feel so comfortable I think. Therefore we decided to tweak the paintkit (tremendously). What we get from back as a 'thank you' is a serenade of you accusing McPhat of things (again of which YOU think are true, really be becareful with it). Distribution of the paints:What I was talking about is that from using our work wich you got with the release package. With the paintkit you can distribute the liveries, didn't make myself to clear there (which in combination with your paranoid view on the matter brings you to some harsh standpoints). Espen let the distribution of the paintkit to McPhat, which means that Espen should not even be communicating about releases for the paintkit. I also did not mention that we would do all liveries for the ATR, what I said is that the ones we do are freeware. You claimed that we would release payware packages for the ATR 72-500 as well! You want to show in this topic the way McPhat does its business, I am ok with that. What I want from you then is to rectify each single point in which you made a mistake and mention it (or are you mispresenting the way McPhat practices buniness on purpose, which isn't allowed according the forum rules?)! If you have anything to say on the matter, just PM and I will be happy to answer your questions ^_^ .

The way you talk shows that you don't know the process of making a paintkit that works well (easy loading times, nice layering etc.) and you sound like a rebel (relax a bit) ^_^ . For the creation of the paintkit we had to downsize the paintkit by a factor 4 (from 4096 to 1024) in order to guarantee you that everything still looks good Terrence has also spent time changing things that will look weird when downsizing the kit. You can paint liveries for your own use, but you are not allowed to distribute those paints. The only thing I heard is that the paintkit will be released along with our next scheduled newsletter. You, as customer, are not forced to buy SD megapack. It is a choice you make yourself. If it was up to us, we (McPhat) would release all liveries in the release pack (and in UHDT), this however is not what F1 and Coolsky wanted and is not what they commisioned us for. Sometimes it is better to remain silent if you don't know the facts or didn't search for the facts :rolleyes: . For the ATR 72-500: All liveries that we make will be released are freeware, again check your facts (do some research), this has been mentioned.

There is no need to come to our forum to ask things about the NGX. The only thing I can tell you is that both PMDG and McPhat Studios have been talking (I have been talking with mr. Maziarz and mr. Randazzo) for a while and a solution is close, very close. However at the moment it is not in our hands to speed things up, put pressure or influence the case in any way. The case has been passed on to a party that protects the PMDG copyrights, so we have to wait for them to finish their part of the job. That's all I can say about it. We hope that things get patched up as soon as possible.

Almost everything is copied from the texts on his site (which has been blocked because of infringing our copyright) to the textures he claims to 'produce'. There are not many paint studios that actually do HD paints, you might want to try Cielosim if you want something, but it is not high defention (as in high px/m-ratios, bump map, spec map, as far as I know) and 30-50 dollars for a paints (as can be seen in their price tag)? But if you really really want a repaint that nobody else does, you might want to check out Cielosim.