PMDG's very exciting progress update March 20 2021

Discussion Hub Aircraft
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EDIT: March 20 2021
A very exciting update by Robert

" This week, with the flurry of excitement about the CRJ, we have gotten a bunch of folks asking “well, where is PMDG?”

We’re right here.

We are at work converting our entire product lineup into MSFS. It is taking some time, primarily because we have to completely reinvent our development process. It isn’t simply a matter of adjusting a few lines of code and throwing a new model and texture exporter at the mix and calling it complete. We are building new development tools, shuffling around our entire development process, and turning our products upside down in order to make them as real and lustrous and lifelike as the new platform will allow. We aren’t simply porting products in, using the same models and textures and animations. We are completely re-imagining them in order to leverage every ounce of what the new MSFS engine will give us. This means all-new models, all new texturing, new sound recordings (which are expensive and time consuming to make) entirely new lighting capabilities, in some cases requiring entirely new photo-surveys and the rebuilding of source material in order to bring you cockpits that don’t look like we dragged an FSX cockpit across twenty years and stuffed it into a really nice rendering engine. We are bringing you incredible, new, feature-rich environments that really shine in the new MSFS platform.

For a while now I have been giving guidance on the release of PMDG 737NG3 as “very late 2021” and even hinted that it might drag into 1Q22. This guidance is a bit softer now- as we are really starting to see our work accelerate in MSFS. I’m going to hold off offering any projection right at this moment, as there are some things that have to happen before I become comfortable saying “yeah- we have cleared all of the hurdles.” We have hit our share of knee-knockers, worked through them with some help from our friends at Aerosoft and Asobo- among others- and I fully expect we will hit a few more before we are finished.

This is our first, full, jetliner product in the MSFS platform after all- so we don’t entirely know what to expect from beginning to end. But things are beginning to accelerate nicely.

On the topic of MSFS and PMDG:

I have been mostly-mis-quoted ten thousand times this week as having said something along the lines of “the MSFS SDK isn’t capable of supporting what we do” or “MSFS isn’t capable of supporting what we do.” I want to be very clear in stating that this new sim is highly dynamic and changing continually. What may have been true in June of 2020 is not necessarily true any longer. From the standpoint of development, we are not currently seeing any major limitations to prevent us from bringing our product catalog into MSFS.

To put that another way, quoting me as saying “MSFS isn’t ready for PMDG” is a bit like someone in 1971 using a 1959 quote of the NASA administrator saying “We don’t have the technology to land on the moon.” Sure- that was true at the time it was uttered- but no longer a factor."

Source: [20MAR21] A glimpse of the Road Ahead - PMDG Simulations

March 6th 2021 (Previous update)
I have quoted Robert’s statement below

“I don’t have any guidance change on the 737 moving to MSFS yet- but I am likely going to show you a progress update there in… two months or so? Timeline is a bit spongy- but the 737 is taking longer than anticipated. The folks at Asobo are champions and they take time out of every working day to engage with us, offer suggestions and map out changes/fixes that we need in order to move PMDG products into the MSFS platform. I cannot speak highly enough of the Asobo team- and once we clear a few more hurdles I hope to be able to show you what their input has meant to PMDG’s version of the future simming. 737 for MSFS is still a long way out…”

Source: [06MAR21] Your Weekend Update - PMDG Simulations

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I’m a casual simmer and don’t know very much about PMDG… but every time I see a blurb from PMDG it sounds like they are talking from an ivory tower.

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that is because they are, several levels above any other developer.

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They are far and above all the rest of the developers.
Maybe FSLabs products are as good, but other than that, no one else has their fidelity.

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Not quite true. Ifly 737, Level D 767 and the most complete airliner plane made was the Leonardo Maddog Md88. They are on the same level as PMDG. I am the expert on this because I have them all from FS9 including the CLS series and many others like CaptainSims planes. Too many to list here in the moderate to basic catergory.

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It is always subjective.
I’ve been simming maybe a bit longer by the sound of it.
FS5 for me.
Aircraft? me too, including the Mad Dog from both Leonardo and CoolSky, and TFDI’s B717.
I have most of Captain Sim’s, loved the 727 !
Their Herc was fun in it’s day.
I liked their L1011 as well.
I never had CLS, they were not my style.
Almost all of PMDG’s.
Lots of Aerosoft’s.
Lots of Carendo,
I had lots of Wilco’s offerings as well.
The Level D was nice for it’s day, close in quality at the time.
Sorry, Ifly is fine, but it’s not in the same category as PMDG.
Nor would I consider any of the above to be either, but yes, Leonardo’s is quite nice.
No, I would not rate any of them as detailed or exact to prototype as PMDG.
But again, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder!!

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Yes you are correct as eye of the beholder. You are speaking more of graphics and not operation. Level D 767 was on the same level as PMDG but not in graphical looks. Maddog was the same or even above PMDG in operation but not in graphics especially the VC cockpit. PMDG holds the best VC cockpits out of everyone but I was speaking more to the operations of the planes more.

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Ha so that cute 77.72$ didn’t work for RSR and now he is ■■■ licking Asobo, it seems the money in his bank is running out soon :joy:.
Anyway, looking forward to the NGX and I really hope to see new developers, new blood into MSFS for change and variety.

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Well, they have a lot to be confident about. Their products are among the best on the market and they cover some of the most popular aircraft types. They have official support from Boeing.

They own a DC-3, the CEO is an accomplished pilot and successful entrepreneur and family man. I think he even ran for a political office once upon a time. Their staff is really top-notch.

As a customer, I only had good experiences with them. Even if the prices seem a bit steep, you get extremely thorough documentation and attention to detail that is almost second to none.

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I do have a feeling that P3D’s time is running out. In terms of PMDG, I own the 737 and 747 and all their expansions. But I didn’t buy the 777 when it came out for v5. I have invested a lot of money into P3D since January and have drawn my line since then. I have everything I need in P3D to hold me over until those things come to MSFS. I wonder how many others also didn’t buy the 777. At some point, PMDG will start feeling it. I love what they do and I support the company, but quite frankly, they need a little push from the consumer right now. If enough people don’t buy their newest product, it will send a pretty clear message that MSFS is the future and they need to focus on that.

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When it comes to listing other vendors “on a similar level” to PDMG…

People are new to the hobby should be aware that FSLabs shipped password stealing malware inside their products at one point.

I support vendors taking measures to protect their products but two wrongs don’t make a right and once a vendor shows they are willing to cross a line like this, I won’t be doing business with them.

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The IMO important advantage of PMDG is that they have built such a reputation and RSR has that good personal connections that PMDG don’t have to guesstimate their addons and ask pilots whether their systems are good but they have first hand access to blueprints and technical documentation by Boeing. What they deliver are pure facts, 1:1 replications of the real systems. They constantly expand the things that are possible in the sim world by creating new features and resolving new things for even more realism. Like for example the the fuel density, the taxi/ground model… It sometimes starts a bit rugged but eventually it becomes gold.

I am certainly a bit biased but even their support is probably the best in the business.

Just one thing should be kept in mind: visual bling bling is not their very first priority and they don’t like other addons (like GSX) take influence on their systems.

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I agree with you 100%.

I’m seeing some comments here comparing other aircraft to PMDG.

I have flown many of the aircraft mentioned & compared to PMDG (flown them in FSX/P3D), and can’t believe that these aircraft are actually being compared to the quality/complexity of those produced by PMDG.

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PMDG do fantastic work, and the products they sell are top notch. They may not be the fastest developer out there, and some of their projects take years to develop and mature. They are expensive, but I do get my money’s worth.

Since I use MSFS as my primary simulator these days, I have been suffering from PMDG withdrawal. I really do not want to buy P3Dv5 and all of its addons to use PMDG. I’ll just have to be patient and keep saving up for the future MSFS products.

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i suspect it wont run very well being so complex but I hope to be proven wrong

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Like you, I have been contemplating whether PMDG will be in a position to optimize their aircraft in MSFS to the point that frames and smoothness achieve an acceptable standard.

One thing is certain, we will find out in due course. And hopefully by the time PMDG are in a position to enter the MSFS arena, Asobo & MS have made further significant improvements to the baseline software to accommodate PMDG’s products.

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I’ve purchased their products from FSX to P3D. Very good stuff but their prices became higher than I could justify with the release of the 747. I noticed that other developers also started charging the P3D “professional” tax , which prompted my exodus to X-Plane.

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I wouldn’t assume that. They run better on P3D than most other study-level aircraft. Better than, say… King Air 350i by MilViz and anything by Aerosoft. And MSFS runs smoother than P3D v5.1 in general, so…

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March 20 2021
A very exciting update by Robert

" This week, with the flurry of excitement about the CRJ, we have gotten a bunch of folks asking “well, where is PMDG?”

We’re right here.

We are at work converting our entire product lineup into MSFS. It is taking some time, primarily because we have to completely reinvent our development process. It isn’t simply a matter of adjusting a few lines of code and throwing a new model and texture exporter at the mix and calling it complete. We are building new development tools, shuffling around our entire development process, and turning our products upside down in order to make them as real and lustrous and lifelike as the new platform will allow. We aren’t simply porting products in, using the same models and textures and animations. We are completely re-imagining them in order to leverage every ounce of what the new MSFS engine will give us. This means all-new models, all new texturing, new sound recordings (which are expensive and time consuming to make) entirely new lighting capabilities, in some cases requiring entirely new photo-surveys and the rebuilding of source material in order to bring you cockpits that don’t look like we dragged an FSX cockpit across twenty years and stuffed it into a really nice rendering engine. We are bringing you incredible, new, feature-rich environments that really shine in the new MSFS platform.

For a while now I have been giving guidance on the release of PMDG 737NG3 as “very late 2021” and even hinted that it might drag into 1Q22. This guidance is a bit softer now- as we are really starting to see our work accelerate in MSFS. I’m going to hold off offering any projection right at this moment, as there are some things that have to happen before I become comfortable saying “yeah- we have cleared all of the hurdles.” We have hit our share of knee-knockers, worked through them with some help from our friends at Aerosoft and Asobo- among others- and I fully expect we will hit a few more before we are finished.

This is our first, full, jetliner product in the MSFS platform after all- so we don’t entirely know what to expect from beginning to end. But things are beginning to accelerate nicely.

On the topic of MSFS and PMDG:

I have been mostly-mis-quoted ten thousand times this week as having said something along the lines of “the MSFS SDK isn’t capable of supporting what we do” or “MSFS isn’t capable of supporting what we do.” I want to be very clear in stating that this new sim is highly dynamic and changing continually. What may have been true in June of 2020 is not necessarily true any longer. From the standpoint of development, we are not currently seeing any major limitations to prevent us from bringing our product catalog into MSFS.

To put that another way, quoting me as saying “MSFS isn’t ready for PMDG” is a bit like someone in 1971 using a 1959 quote of the NASA administrator saying “We don’t have the technology to land on the moon.” Sure- that was true at the time it was uttered- but no longer a factor."

Source: [20MAR21] A glimpse of the Road Ahead - PMDG Simulations

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This statement should calm some of the people who are still doubting MSFS sdk capabilities.