Zitat von »xxJohnxx«

Hmm, dan sage ich schon mal danke.

Was war den am Orginalen so verkehrt, wenn man fragen darf?

Zitat

Captains-

I want to take a few moments to give you guys a quick update on some things we have pending for you. This might be a bit long, and if I don't answer your specific question, I apologize- but I am sure there will be more updates as we roll up on some of the dates described below- we'll likely get to it in one of the updates!

Activation:
========
This has been a key development priority during the past few weeks with about 14-16hrs of engineering time being devoted to helping those customers with activation issues each day. We have found that the vast majority of customers having activation problems can be resolved by our support team and by verifying a few basic items in their setup including:

Make certain you have FSX SP2 installed.
Make certain your BIOS and Windows clocks are accurate and current.

If you have trouble beyond this, reach out to the support team and we'll see if we can't get you fixed up.

There is another issue that prevents some folks from being able to activate, and we feel that it will be resolved shortly, as the issue has finally been identified. An engineering solution is in the works.

(For those of you who have been patiently waiting on this issue, and for those of you who we have worked with via technical support- THANK YOU! Your feedback and input is the reason why this item is finally about to be resolved!)


Service Pack:
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We have been collecting (from here in the forum and via technical support) items for tweaking, fixing and research since the NGX released. We are planning a very large update to be released on 23SEP11. (DATE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

The primary focus of the SP is to eliminate the remaining sources of freezes that are being reported. We feel that a significant amount of progress has been made in this regard. We are also focused on a few key issues that came to light after release- and then of course there will be the usual tweaking that we inevitably engage in during the post release process.

This service pack will not add much functionality, but it will refine quite a bit of stuff, smooth out some rough edges and correct a few errors. In addition it will make the product able to support the 737-600/700...


PMDG 737-600/700 NGX Expansion:
============================
We had originally planned to release this expansion near the end of August but we moved all development resources to dealing with activation issues and customers reporting freezes so this product shifted out a bit on the calendar. Right now we are looking at two dates for the release of this package (SUBJECT TO CHANGE). I would like the release to happen concurrently with the SP1, but we may hold it for one additional week in order to accomplish a few things. We'll keep you posted!


Technical Support:
==============
I know it isn't appropriate to brag, but I want to take a few moments to publicly thank Ryan and Paul for the work they have accomplished on behalf of customers during the past few weeks. Since we are on a ticket based system, it is easy for me to look at raw data on customer support performance.

Since the NGX released on 04AUG, the average response time for tickets has been 5:13. That is pretty darn good, when you consider that the NGX is already the best selling product in PMDG's history.

Most of the support requests were easily resolved issues, but a few have been more protracted. I hope that those of you who we have been able to help are enjoying the NGX.

Okay- enjoy your weekend- we are hard at work for you!

Zitat

Gents,

As you may know, the wide beta team has had their poorly groomed mitts all over the shorter 600/700 series package this week.

I thought I might talk to you about an oft-forgotten model in the 737 family.

It's so... stubby...

The humble 737-600 looks a little out-of-proportion nowadays, what with the longer -800's now comprising the majority of the 737 fleet worldwide. It's easy to forget that the very successful 737-200 was in fact about the same length. For a variety of reasons, the shorter format is no longer the preferred one and so the -600 is something of a rarity with only about 70 produced.

I've found that after a few days flying the -600 around my native New Zealand, I've come to love this little airplane.

It's true that the systems on the flight deck will be visually quite familiar to the 800/900 drivers, though there are subtle changes for you to learn about.

What has really appealed to me, though, is the performance. When New Zealand's dozen or so provincial airports established sealed runways in the 50's and 60's, the length was determined by the need to handle the F-27 and the 737-200. All the runways ended up being about 1,300-1,400 meters long as a result. Even today, a few runway extensions aside, much of provincial NZ is still served by 1,300m strips, and are thus off limits to the bigger 737/a320 traffic.

I've been making amends for that this week, at moderate to lower weights, the -600 slots in and out of these runways with complete ease. Tonight I was conducting a test at zero payload on a 230nm sector from Tauranga to Woodbourne and I took these snaps to hghlight the excellent performance of the -600.

Moments after passing 10,000ft the nose is coming down as the speed picks up. Even so, check out the flight path vector symbol: the aircraft is climbing at an angle of nearly 10 degrees, equating to nearly 5000FPM! Passing through FL310 not long after, the rate of climb was still about 2000FPM.


Short finals into Woodbourne. Note that approach speed of 112kts!

In short (excuse the pun), there's a lot for you to look forward to in these new models.

Cheers,

EDIT: For those who are interested, the scenery is a combination of "Real NZ" airports and "Vector Land Class" scenery packages. If you are a kiwi simmer or enjoy the beauty of NZ, you owe it to yourself to try it out, excellent work!

Zitat

Captains-

Well- further reinforcement of why PMDG has always taken the policy stance that we do not provide release dates....

We have been spending some time trying to nail down a few items that we aren't quite happy with- and looking at the current state of the SP1 update (which the 600/700 depends upon) as subjectively as possible, I just can't eliminate that nagging sensation that it needs a bit more time in testing.

So tonight I have decided to withdraw the pending release of SP1 and push it forward. I think it will only be a matter of days, given what we are looking at- but then again I thought that three weeks ago so at this point lets just say you'll have it about one hour after we think it is ready...

For the most part the items that we are working on are resolved, but we want them to get more time with the testing team to make certain we didn't break something accidentally with the last few fixes.

The only major outstanding item that I would consider to be problematic is the method we are using to interface with the Saitek rudder hardware. None of us on the team own this particular piece of hardware, but we are getting complaints back from the few members of our testing team that the methods we used to improve the autobrake performance have essentially left the saitek users in the cold... I ordered a pair of them about an hour ago so that I can get a set in-house so that we can see if there is a workaround that will allow us to keep the advanced and highly realistic functionality of the autobrake system while also meeting the needs of customers using the Saitek hardware. From experience I can tell you that the problem is likely in the exceptionally poor design methodology used by FSX to manage functionality such as brakes... It never ceases to amaze me that a product designed/built in 2006 is still using some hackneyed methods that were first used in FS4.0 or earlier... but I don't want to go off on a rant who's roots predates the birthdates of many folks here. Posted Image

For those of you highly interested in the release of the PMDG 737-600/700, that product is effectively finished and there is only one minor outstanding item being smoothed out with that product. It depends upon the SP1 release, however- so the two will follow close-in-trail!

Okay- so as of this moment I am going back to our long standing policy of not guessing release dates. As you can see it is a waste of time if (like PMDG) your primary concern is product quality rather than imaginary limits placed on calendars... We just don't like the pressure it puts on the development team to meet the imaginary limits- and it isn't any fun to come here and tell you that we are moving the date again...

Welcome back to kvetching about how PMDG never tells you anything. I'm betting it takes < :30 before someone clubs me for it. Posted Image

Back with you guys shortly...

(Oh -and Ryan promised he'd edit up the the change list for the SP1, but he's been too busy to follow through... <sound of bus running over Ryan> Really... Wasn't my fault it didn't get posted. Nope... nosirreee..... hey Ryan, what are you doing under that bus, anyway? )