Captains,
Hello and happy weekend to you. Generally speaking I try to give you a weekly update at some point during the weekend to keep you generally involved in what is going on around the PMDG universe. There have been a number of external factors impacting my ability to keep up with outbound news and information since mid-summer so you (hopefully?) noticed I wasn't around.
I do have plenty to fill you in with- but rather than dump all of it on you at one time, I have a few pieces to share today with more to follow!
PMDG 737 NGXu BBJ Expansion Package:
Someone asked a few years back if PMDG would ever consider making a “bizJet.” I have replied, rather emphatically, that this was best left to others since our particular expertise is in airliners. (Stick to what you are good at!)
Proving the old adage that “there is always an exception to every rule” we unveiled our upcoming BBJ/BBJ2 expansion package a few months ago- and have been testing and tweaking this product since then. While on the outside, a BBJ might look very similar to it’s working-style-airliner cousin, there are a number of very significant differences between the BBJ airplane and the “regular ol’ Boeing.” These differences appear in many of the operational systems designed to support the needs of corporate aviation, from embedded air-stairs to extended range fuel tanks and more.
PMDG_BBJ_exterior10.jpg
We were days away from releasing the BBJ package when we discovered we had missed a major modification to the fuel system on the airplane, so we held the product back in order to complete the change and bring you the proper fuel quantity indicating system. It took a few weeks to hack through the documentation and adjust the design and operation of the system to ensure it is correct, but in the next couple of days we will hand one last beta build to our testing team and then roll the BBJ out to you.
We have never been known for our giving much love or attention to the cabins in our FSX/P3D line of products, but Jason had some fun creating a full luxury package for you behind the cockpit door- so don’t forget to go check out the details of this exemplary CEO transportation machine.
PMDG_BBJ_exterior12.jpg
PMDG 777 Update:
Work continues in earnest on our impending update for the 777 product line. We anticipate handing a first test-build of this significant product update off to our testing team sometime in the first half of October. This update is a pretty comprehensive update cycle for the 777 Base Package and brings in many of the newer capabilities, performance improvements and features that have debuted in the 747 and 737 product lines subsequent to the 777’s release seven years ago this month. The update is no cost for 777 users and will bring the 777 up-to-par with her sister products in terms of Global Flight Operations capabilities, ground services, animations and the like. There is enough in this update that it warrants it’s own update- so watch for that coming to you a bit later. (Someone will invariably ask: No, this update does not add an EFB to the 777, nor will it turn it into an MD-11, for that matter.
)
PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator
With this update I am changing outward our guidance on availability of the PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is pretty rare that I talk much about success or failure on the development side of things, simply because product development is a highly complex beast and it doesn’t describe neatly in the context of this forum unless all of us happen to be involved in development.
You will recall that I have been fairly upbeat on our expectation that we might see rapid acceleration of our NG3 development process during 4Q20, and I have even gambled that we *might* see a release for this product in very late 2020. Much of this hypothesis was based upon a working theory that with the release of MSFS, we would see a sharp up-tick in the implementation of features that are needed in the MSFS platform in order to fully support an airliner simulation of PMDG’s caliber once the initial MSFS platform had been released and the MS/Asobo team was able to shift attention away from their very complex, very difficult v1.0 schedule.
We are now a few months beyond the initial release of MSFS, and yes, we are seeing a sharp up-tick in the rate at which the features we need are being implemented to MSFS and we are working hand-in-glove with our friends at Asobo to identify problems, knee-knockers, dead-stop items and the like as we move the 737 into MSFS. (Working in concert with Asobo has been a new experience for us, as we are normally very much just our own isolated team- but it has been invigorating to work with a team of devs so fully dedicated to the success of their platform. One day I will tell you what this is like and how it is changing the way we work.)
Unfortunately what we didn’t count on was just how big that work-load would be on the platform side or how slow the update rate would be. The bottom line is that while we still remain convinced that MSFS will be the long-term best-platform for simming over the next decade, there are still some major technical challenges that remain to be solved before it can adequately support a product as complex as NG3. I am going to whistle-on-by the specifics here because they aren’t important to anyone except the developers involved in the work, but what I can tell you is that we are currently looking at a release timeline for PMDG 737NG3 for MSFS that is out in 3Q21 with some downside risk that it will slide into 4Q21, more than a year from now.
There are essentially two major areas that are slowing the development process, and there is some upside risk that a major breakthrough in these key trouble-making areas might allow us to slide the release timeline forward into 2Q21, but I think the risk of this forward movement is very, very small.
An Finally…
Since we had planned to be very deep into 737, 747, 777, J-41 and DC-6 conversion to MSFS by now- but it is clear that we won’t need to dedicate those resources to MSFS for a while longer, we have torn open the agenda and begun to look at “what happens next?”
Our un-used development assets are focused strongly on our P3D product lines and we are hard at work getting our new LNAV/Navdata handling models into testing on the 747 (October… after two years of work…) and we are looking at how to get an EFB into the 777. We have a product coming for our P3D product line that you haven’t seen yet that is nearing testing and we have also begun work on a new airplane type… the <manufacturer deleted> <model number deleted> that you have always asked us to create… I’m sure you will be looking forward to that. We also set a “go live” date on the calendar for PMDG Global Flight Operations this past week… I need to get together with Chris to map out a full spectrum update for you on THAT topic… it will be it’s own announcement.
So… The summary: lack of attention from me hasn’t meant nothing going on. I’ve been distracted of late- but the team as a whole continues to make big progress in key areas.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend- we have a slight break in the seasonal rain here so I am going to take Ms. Solo for a walk before it starts up again...
Hello and happy weekend to you. Generally speaking I try to give you a weekly update at some point during the weekend to keep you generally involved in what is going on around the PMDG universe. There have been a number of external factors impacting my ability to keep up with outbound news and information since mid-summer so you (hopefully?) noticed I wasn't around.
I do have plenty to fill you in with- but rather than dump all of it on you at one time, I have a few pieces to share today with more to follow!
PMDG 737 NGXu BBJ Expansion Package:
Someone asked a few years back if PMDG would ever consider making a “bizJet.” I have replied, rather emphatically, that this was best left to others since our particular expertise is in airliners. (Stick to what you are good at!)
Proving the old adage that “there is always an exception to every rule” we unveiled our upcoming BBJ/BBJ2 expansion package a few months ago- and have been testing and tweaking this product since then. While on the outside, a BBJ might look very similar to it’s working-style-airliner cousin, there are a number of very significant differences between the BBJ airplane and the “regular ol’ Boeing.” These differences appear in many of the operational systems designed to support the needs of corporate aviation, from embedded air-stairs to extended range fuel tanks and more.
PMDG_BBJ_exterior10.jpg
We were days away from releasing the BBJ package when we discovered we had missed a major modification to the fuel system on the airplane, so we held the product back in order to complete the change and bring you the proper fuel quantity indicating system. It took a few weeks to hack through the documentation and adjust the design and operation of the system to ensure it is correct, but in the next couple of days we will hand one last beta build to our testing team and then roll the BBJ out to you.
We have never been known for our giving much love or attention to the cabins in our FSX/P3D line of products, but Jason had some fun creating a full luxury package for you behind the cockpit door- so don’t forget to go check out the details of this exemplary CEO transportation machine.
PMDG_BBJ_exterior12.jpg
PMDG 777 Update:
Work continues in earnest on our impending update for the 777 product line. We anticipate handing a first test-build of this significant product update off to our testing team sometime in the first half of October. This update is a pretty comprehensive update cycle for the 777 Base Package and brings in many of the newer capabilities, performance improvements and features that have debuted in the 747 and 737 product lines subsequent to the 777’s release seven years ago this month. The update is no cost for 777 users and will bring the 777 up-to-par with her sister products in terms of Global Flight Operations capabilities, ground services, animations and the like. There is enough in this update that it warrants it’s own update- so watch for that coming to you a bit later. (Someone will invariably ask: No, this update does not add an EFB to the 777, nor will it turn it into an MD-11, for that matter.
)PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator
With this update I am changing outward our guidance on availability of the PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is pretty rare that I talk much about success or failure on the development side of things, simply because product development is a highly complex beast and it doesn’t describe neatly in the context of this forum unless all of us happen to be involved in development.
You will recall that I have been fairly upbeat on our expectation that we might see rapid acceleration of our NG3 development process during 4Q20, and I have even gambled that we *might* see a release for this product in very late 2020. Much of this hypothesis was based upon a working theory that with the release of MSFS, we would see a sharp up-tick in the implementation of features that are needed in the MSFS platform in order to fully support an airliner simulation of PMDG’s caliber once the initial MSFS platform had been released and the MS/Asobo team was able to shift attention away from their very complex, very difficult v1.0 schedule.
We are now a few months beyond the initial release of MSFS, and yes, we are seeing a sharp up-tick in the rate at which the features we need are being implemented to MSFS and we are working hand-in-glove with our friends at Asobo to identify problems, knee-knockers, dead-stop items and the like as we move the 737 into MSFS. (Working in concert with Asobo has been a new experience for us, as we are normally very much just our own isolated team- but it has been invigorating to work with a team of devs so fully dedicated to the success of their platform. One day I will tell you what this is like and how it is changing the way we work.)
Unfortunately what we didn’t count on was just how big that work-load would be on the platform side or how slow the update rate would be. The bottom line is that while we still remain convinced that MSFS will be the long-term best-platform for simming over the next decade, there are still some major technical challenges that remain to be solved before it can adequately support a product as complex as NG3. I am going to whistle-on-by the specifics here because they aren’t important to anyone except the developers involved in the work, but what I can tell you is that we are currently looking at a release timeline for PMDG 737NG3 for MSFS that is out in 3Q21 with some downside risk that it will slide into 4Q21, more than a year from now.
There are essentially two major areas that are slowing the development process, and there is some upside risk that a major breakthrough in these key trouble-making areas might allow us to slide the release timeline forward into 2Q21, but I think the risk of this forward movement is very, very small.
An Finally…
Since we had planned to be very deep into 737, 747, 777, J-41 and DC-6 conversion to MSFS by now- but it is clear that we won’t need to dedicate those resources to MSFS for a while longer, we have torn open the agenda and begun to look at “what happens next?”
Our un-used development assets are focused strongly on our P3D product lines and we are hard at work getting our new LNAV/Navdata handling models into testing on the 747 (October… after two years of work…) and we are looking at how to get an EFB into the 777. We have a product coming for our P3D product line that you haven’t seen yet that is nearing testing and we have also begun work on a new airplane type… the <manufacturer deleted> <model number deleted> that you have always asked us to create… I’m sure you will be looking forward to that. We also set a “go live” date on the calendar for PMDG Global Flight Operations this past week… I need to get together with Chris to map out a full spectrum update for you on THAT topic… it will be it’s own announcement.
So… The summary: lack of attention from me hasn’t meant nothing going on. I’ve been distracted of late- but the team as a whole continues to make big progress in key areas.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend- we have a slight break in the seasonal rain here so I am going to take Ms. Solo for a walk before it starts up again...
Guess it's the last one. Sort of hinted in the last picture. Other one could be the 737 MAX.. Can't wait for the 772!
Bogdan Misko
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