rob169

@Boomerhttps://fselite.net/news/lockheed-martin-prepar3d-v5-releasing-today-at-2000-gmt-pricing-information/

@Ray Proudfoot I was actually looking up some stuff about the SSTSim concorde earlier today and was surprised to see your name come up! The post was from back in 2005 :)

Benefits of sloped runways - none of the buildings will line up! (See at 3:19 in the video, the house on the left is floating) XD

@anden145 MSFS is releasing a Partnership Series Update in two days time (16/04); they say they have over 150 third party companies using their SDK to develop for the sim, so hopefully it should be an interesting one! Plus they're releasing a video on IFR at the start of May so should give us more insight into the functionalities of the stock aircraft and most likely the heavies!

And another post! [14APR20] Moving to Prepar3D v5? READ THIS Today, 07:58 Captains, Many of you are planning to make the switch from Prepar3D v4 (P4D) to Prepar3D v5 (P5D) today. Here are some things we would like you to know. Please read through all of it, so that we don't have the forum flooded with the same question over-and-over, thanks! Compatibility: In order to run PMDG products in P5D, we will need to rebuild certain key pieces of each product in order to strip out problem areas, replace them with correctly implemented features, and capitalize on many of the new efficiencies that are to be gained in this new platform. This process of doing this is underway, but will take some time. Getting Our Products Rebuilt: We are in the process of preparing new version builds of our NGXu product line, the 747, 777 and DC-6 respectively- each updated to be compatible with P5D. These builds are going to take a litle time to roll out to you and your patience is appreciated. The first to roll out will be the 747- and we are hoping to have that to you within days. The others will follow swiftly thereafter. No Charge for Entry: As previously announced, moving from P4D to P5D will be a free update. (Please don't confuse free with easy, however. There is a significant amount of work we have to do in the background for you... and this work takes time.) Timeline Expectations: This is hard to pin down, as these rebuilds are not simply a matter of recompiling the installer with awareness of P5D. There is quite a bit more that goes into them, including complete refactors of certain functions, lighting, etc. These things take time. Manual Dragon-Drop: (Yes- I call it that on purpose... Laugh- it is funny! ) Enterprising users who know enough about how products are structured into P4D will probably be able to manually drag-and-drop all of the necessary files over to P5D. Since we do not make any effort to prevent our product from running when version numbers change- you will find that the P4D versions will run quite happily in P5D- which is just grand, but be warned: There are many things that need to be adjusted in order for the product to run well. Beware of Dog: Anyone who feels enterprising and wishes to drag files around in hopes if seeing our products in P5D: You do so at your own risk. We will not provide, nor will we even answer questions related to any problems you create while doing this. We will not reset license keys for you because you locked yourself out due to impatience, nor will we provide even a hint of suggestion on what you might be doing wrong or how to fix your installation if things go awry. Generally we think it best that you wait until we give you a proper working installer and then you will be all set. Yes... We are probably aware of that... We have already seen a number of users flooding our technical support team with questions along the lines of "I see the new P5D has <insert something> will PMDG <insert related request>." I have instructed our support team to reply to you politely with the following phrase: "As with all of the platforms that we have worked with during the past 22 years, we will evaluate what features we can use to enhance our excellent product quality. We will communicate those things to you as we accomplish them. Thank you for your interest." So now you don't have to go to support to ask them. You already have your answer. No- all of these things won't be in the first round of installers... we will bring them to you later when we have actually had time to implement them. The Order of This and That: (Which sounds like a great, Genesis (circa Peter Gabriel period) song title, doesn't it?) You may be wondering what order in which to expect things, such as our already discussed product updates that are rolling out, etc. We don't know at this juncture. Simply focusing on one airplane at a time is the best for our team but it will slow down the P5D update schedule so it isn't optimal- but we really don't even know if it is necessary at this juncture. Many many moving parts and we will push updates and new installers to you as we have them ready. Thank you for your patience during this transition period- we are a small team and w are working through the tasks just as quickly as we can. Oh one last thing: As you see folks around the various simming sites discussing details of what we are doing, or what we are not doing, etc- please feel free to link them to this post so that they can also have the latest, factual information! Robert S. Randazzo PMDG Simulations http://www.pmdg.com

Captain420 I'm in a similar situation. I currently have FSX:SE and XP11 (which is now my main sim). I've just started to get flying on Vatsim, and with XP11 Vulkan and full UK ortho scenery, plus the free! practically fully featured Zibomod 737 it is a completely stutter free experience. Locked 60fps. I'm not going to pay for the upgrade to P3Dv5, given that when MSFS comes out the latest versions of the PMDG aircraft will be on it for full price again.

Thanks all for the responses - I do think that given the update from PMDG now would be a good time to transition from P3DV4 to V5, however given that they will likely re-release their aircraft for the new Microsoft Flight Sim at full price I have decided to hold off for now. I've just started to get into flying on Vatsim, and with the Zibo 737 and full Orbx ortho scenery on the Vulkan XP11 its a great (and completely stutter free) experience.

Via the PMDG forum: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/56214-12apr20-easter-morning-with-a-social-distancing-bunny-your-pmdg-weekend-update [12APR20] Easter Morning with a Social Distancing Bunny... Your PMDG Weekend Update. Today, 09:11 Captains, Like most weekends, this has been a heavy working weekend for most of us at PMDG. Not necessarily because we have some compelling need to work on a weekend, but because with the current state of world affairs, there doesn't seem much else to do, does there? Some quick topical updates for you- and as always- if I don't mention your particular favorite topic, it simply means I have nothing to tell you on that topic at this time... Pending 747 QOTSII Update Cycle: This has been a pretty significant update cycle for the 747 family- and with the update has come a protracted testing cycle as we work hard to iron out a few items that have popped up along the way. Issues related to model animations, PBR, sound processing, cL/cD models, ground effect, ground physics, navdata and a bunch of others... I think we turned a corner in testing late this afternoon with a handful of really difficult items suddenly falling into the "resolved" category- and that has generally improved the mood of both the testing team and the dev team. We just now pushed another new version to the testers- and provided we didn't break anything new (it happens) this may well be stable enough to push to release once they have had sufficient time to satisfy their curiosity that we indeed tacked down the loose edges and have things polished up the way we like. Just as a word of warning, we are chasing down one item that nobody on the dev team has succeeded in reproducing, but that we suspect is a negative interaction between the 747 and a non-PMDG product. We are still trying to decide how to positively confirm this- and our inability to do so is slowing down any movement toward release of this update. The negative interaction is rather disruptive and you will understand that I am not describing it, or naming products because right now we are still operating in investigatory mode and we need to find a replication case that allows us to prove the theory before we reach out to another developer with data. Stay tuned- we think this is a very exciting update for the 747 product line. A few folks have been asking us if/when we will add the EFB to the 747-400. We have begun to evaluate when this will take place, which is not the same as saying we are in the process of doing it. If I were to guess, I would say it will get added during the next major work cycle on the 747-400, which will revolve around moving that product line into Microsoft Flight Simulator. On the face of it, I think we would push the EFB into the 744 across both MSFS and Prepar3D platforms simultaneously **if** this is when we elect to add such a thing. (We haven't decided- but we are evaluating..) Putting the EFB into the 744 is a pretty complex affair because of the number of variants of that airplane. It is a massive amount of data that has to be created and tabulated for use in that environment... Pending 737 NGXu Update Cycle: This update has now been moved back ahead of the 777 (I hinted at this in the last update a few weeks ago!) due to some difficulties we are running into pushing some of the newer technology we have developed backward into the 777 product line. The update for NGXu is more of a maintenance and upkeep cycle, but it will include pretty significant upgrade on a bunch of things related to wheels and brakes. (Ground physics, manual braking, automatic braking, etc) All of these changes are being brought back to Xu from the development work that is wrapping up on the 747 update- as we were able to resolve a number of items on the bigger airplane that also afflict the smaller airplane and by design they share common code so the fixes benefit multiple product lines. A number of folks have been wondering about over aggressive braking in both automatic and manual modes and this has finally been solved. We have some pretty fancy diagnostic tools that we use to test data performance by outputting information on the performance of these systems in real time- and after chasing my tail on reports of over-aggressive autobrake behavior for the better part of a year- I discovered that disabling the diagnostic capabilities was actually breaking a feedback process from the IRUs, resulting in breaking computations going completely off chart in automatic modes... The good news is that we know the bit failure modes work... We have a gaggle of other, smaller items coming to you on the 737 update as well- but off the top of my head i don't recall all of them. Look for this update to roll out after the 747 update. PMDG 777 Update: This update is having a difficult gestation period because of the sheer bulk of new technology we are adding to the airplane. The work is slow, but progressing- and it will benefit mightily from some of the advances we finally made on the 747 this week. Look for a bit more information on this update cycle as we get the other two off of our plates. Prepar3D v5: (P5D) We have been guests of Lockheed Martin in their testing program now for some years, and with the public pronouncement of the arrival of P5D I want to give you some clarity on how we plan to handle the transition: Prepar3D v5 is a major version change for Prepar3D as evidenced by their decision to change from 4.x to 5.x. When we first entered the Prepar3D marketplace, we indicated that pricing on our products would be higher in part because the platform is evolving and this will require development time and management to keep products up-to-date moving forward. The benefits of this have been realized as Prepare3D moved from v3 to v4, and from v4 to V4.4 with PBR, and now to v5. We continue to keep the product line in step with the changes, and we are continuing to roll those changes to you so that you can also keep in step with the platform changes. What'll It Cost?: At this time we do not see any compelling reason for additional costs to our Prepar3D customer base. P5D Product Updates: As of this moment, to the best of our knowledge, our core products are compatible with the new version of Prepar3D right out of the box- excepting of course that we do not yet have installers available for customers who wish to upgrade to P5D. We will be rolling out installation updates to our existing Prepar3D product line during the coming days/weeks/months that will allow customers to utilize our products in both the P4D and P5D environments. How will I get the Update?: Details are pending- but the plan we are currently evaluating is to update the existing installers to recognize and handle installation for P5D. There are a few complexities here in terms of file size, a decision on whether to remove the P3D (version 3, for clarity) to it's own installer, leaving P4D/P5D in the same installer, or to make a brand new P5D installer that is unique to the platform. We are working with a couple of test units to see which we like more and which is more sustainable long term. Are My Existing Products Already Compatible?: To the best of our knowledge thus far, yes- which means only that our initial testing has shown that they are but we might find a few knee-knockers later on that will need to be resolved. The issue of course is installation- and some users will be comfortable doing a hand installation of an existing product- others will not... We cannot/will not support anyone doing a hand-installation simply because there are too many ways a user can goof it up- but hopefully we'll have new installer mechanisms for you before you need to worry about taking matters into your own hands. Will we be adding new P5D features?: Yes- of course. That being said, P5D really is evolutionary on the airplane side. While I don't speak for Lockheed Martin, I suspect their focus was on the engine, rendering and efficiency, thus leaving most of the airplane feature side static except for some minor evolutionary changes. That benefits all of us right now with a faster pivot-to-P5D. When will the new P5D installers be ready?: Just as soon as we can have them available. It may take a few days, to a few weeks to get all of them done. In a perfect world they will be ready for you on 14APR20... It has been my experience that the world is rarely perfect- but that doesn't stop us from trying. How Long will we develop for P4D?: That remains to be seen. Right now from *our* perspective P4D/P5D are really very very similar so supporting them both is quite easy. Over time I anticipate P5D will separate itself from P4D and that may cause us to decide end development specifically for the P4D platform. Right now we do not see anything on the event horizon that causes us concern in this regard. If I buy the 747 or 777 or DC-6 on sale before the 14th?: Yup. You get yourself a fantastic simulation you can use immediately in P4D, and the moment we have the updated installers that recognize P5D, you can use them in the new platform too... without any hassle, hoops or hostage payments. Okay- I think that covers us for today... I have more debugging work to accomplish tomorrow on the 737, but I am sure I'll be checking on a bit later in the day. Robert S. Randazzo PMDG Simulations http://www.pmdg.com

LOL - what is this, FSX? Oh wait....

I am keen to buy the sale PMDG 777, however the sims I currently have are FSX:SE and XP11. Given all the above, would you advise buying the current PMDG for P3DV4 that's on sale for 100USD and attempting to use it in the new P3D later this week, or just hold off and wait for a PMDG announcement? If not, I could just get the sale FSX 777 for $67.50, and forget about P3DV5 and wait for the new FS2020.

I get that everyone's debating PMDG and their customer relations / pricing policy but I would appreciate it if you could kindly offer me some advice in relation to my above question. Many thanks for your help 🙂

Yeah I realise that of course! 😂 But given the speed the plane would be flying at, it does seem like the clouds might be metamorphising a bit fast. I hope it looks great when played at normal speed! Maybe it is accurate - it's just I don't think I've ever seen rain look like this from the ground

The weather in these screenshots/gifs looks awesome! Maybe it's just me, but it does seem a bit unrealistic with all those clouds moving up so rapidly and also the heavy rain visualisation effect from the clouds, don't you think?

Thanks all for the many replies, looks like PMDG have a long way to go with their public relations! Given all the above, and given that most of you are suggesting that the 777 won't work in P3DV5 for a while (and that I don't have P3DV4, only FSX:SE / X plane11), would you advise buying the PMDG 777 for FSX on sale for $67.5 / £55 currently to tide me over until the new release in V5 or when FS2020 comes out? This would be much cheaper than the outlay of $160 for the cost of the current P3D and 777 on sale. Helpfully, this PMDG sale ends by the day that P3DV5 releases (14th April) 🙄

Hiya, PMDG currently has a sale with 25% off the 777 and 747 which is until the 14th February (which is when P3Dv5 releases). I'm keen to buy the 777; I currently have FSX:SE and XP11. However I do not want to fork out for P3DV4 given that V5 is only days away. I've watched some twitch streams of the performance improvement with V5 which is insane; huge scenery draw distance, very high FPS compared to V4.5. If I buy the PMDG 777 now do you think I would be able to install it on P3DV5 when it comes out? Do you think its a safe bet for me to buy PMDG now during this sale or am I likely to be stuck for months unable to use it?