The 350i has been in the sim since the beginning. You can’t just slap a new GPS on a plane and have it work correctly (as many, many people here have realized). I believe Working Title only had so much resource available, and they had to make a choice. CJ4 won. I don’t believe it was a license issue given they’ve developed a ton of Textron aircraft. Textron’s name is all over the sim.
As a side note, I saw a reference to a mod out there that does implement the Pro Line into the 350i?
I’ve only flown the plane a couple of times since 2020 came out, so I haven’t kept up with what’s up with it.
In 2020, there are two avionics mods available. A G1000NXi and a PL21. Both are fine. I had them. I didn’t do any sort of detailed comparison, but both were better than the G3X Frankenstein version.
I think there are some misunderstandings over here.
First of: WT doesn’t decide on their own what aircraft should get what. They as a team inside of Microsoft may suggest something but the business or product owner makes actual decisions about what to do and when (as the owner also decides about budget). Same goes basically also for Asobo, but in their case they are even basically externals.
Secondly: yes, they obviously have a deal with Textron. However this doesn’t ultimately mean they have the rights to use specific fonts, logos, and brandings for specific avionics (which - as a company selling things - they must obtain or cannot just use). Even some aircraft specific icons of the Fusion family could be copyrighted, let it be only a rotating prop sync indication only found on the King Air. The same goes for aural warning sounds.
People always mistake what licenses are about when it comes to software: usually it’s not about an 3D aircraft exterior (as even with 3D Vertex cloud scans you cannot recreate a shape 100% the same way it is in real life), it’s more about copyrighted brandings and fonts (which also could be extracted by thirds). It’s a reason why there aren’t as many real life airline liveries within the sim as people wish for in other words, if they want to recreate an aircraft as close to reality as possible they have to get licencing from: Textron (for their logo), RECARO (if there is a seat with their branding), Pratt and Whitney (for their logo if it should be visible on the engines), Garmin (if the avionics are labeled with their name, also something like the G1000 startup logo as well as the font used) and even some random clock sitting within the panel if it features a branding.
If they don’t, and as they are a US based tech company worth multiple millions, you can be sure that someone instantly goes on the hunt with lawyers. 2.5 million copies of MSFS, $10 of compensation asked for each copy to kickoff so MS settles things outside of the court in advance for $5 each copy sold and still would have to remove the material in question would be a plausible outcome with some heads rolling afterwards to compensate the loss internally.
Surly they can work around some of these things by creating their own slightly different icons and fonts and just don’t use brandings at all, but if they are committed to go visually as close as possible it’s only a compromise (and I saw people over here complaining that that Boeings don’t use the Boeing fonts within the cockpit).
That’s not quite an issue. While WT on their own cannot do that as they don’t have 3D artists as their team members Microsoft of course can commission iniBuilds, Asobo or Carenado to create a new 3D model. Basically the same route they went on the Bell 407. It’s their project.
Why so salty? You were downplaying the topic…
…so I added that it’s not just about the avionics manufacturer but all other cases that include copyrighted materials. If it was as simple legal departments would have a pretty easy job, sipping coffee the whole day
in a perfect world i guess the Proline Fusion would have been better, but for what we have in the sim, the Proline21 is 1000000x better than the ■■■■ we have
The upcoming Expert Series 3 Embraer Praetor 600 from Working Title/Microsoft will use the Proline Fusion, and being a first party developer/product, I would suspect that means the Proline Fusion suite would become part of the available default avionics for any other aircraft that wanted to use them (which, if true, would roll out in a future AAU, maybe 6, just like the Avidyne stuff rolled out in AAU4)
I would still be surprised to see the King Air 350 get the modeling work necessary for this, or any other significant, change - but we can dream!
in other words, if they want to recreate an aircraft as close to reality as possible they have to get licencing from: Textron (for their logo), RECARO (if there is a seat with their branding), Pratt and Whitney (for their logo if it should be visible on the engines), Garmin (if the avionics are labeled with their name, also something like the G1000 startup logo as well as the font used) and even some random clock sitting within the panel if it features a branding.