I’ll never understand why PMDG decided to abandon support for their X-Plane 10 version of the DC-6 and not make some bug changes to bring it properly into X-Plane 11. I know they are not fans of the X-Plane community base (I’m paraphrasing there) and it obviously wasn’t worth their time and investment I suppose, but it is such a showcase product that I’m sad they just left it to rot.
6 Likes
It is very unfortunate how quickly they dropped support, it was on my to get list but honestly if they are going to be this salty then I do not plan to spend money on their products.
1 Like
Sort of like the Air Hauler developer, although he seems to have changed his tune a bit. Of course the FS2020 long reveal probably reinforces that attitude 
Talking of Air Hauler 2, evidently it is almost ready for release, as in by the end of this month or the first part of May.
2 Likes
Yes, it was pretty poor that they just abandoned it. I have no plans to buy their products going forward. MilViz did the same thing. It is almost like they wanted to be able to say “we tried but you didn’t buy it”… and yet they used aircraft that don’t have the best chance of succeeding. The DC4 has a lot of appeal to me, but not someone who wants to fly the airliners that PMDG are famous for… or in MilViz’s case, the Cessna 310 and Turbo Otter? Seriously? The Turbo Otter is great, but certainly not something everyone would be excited about.
That will be the thing that finally gets me to spend time in x plane. I’m very excited for air hauler 2. I want a quest kodiak and an md-11 to play with and i think I could lose myself in that quite happily
Well there is already a great Kodiak, and I believe an MD11 is on the way.
I’m all set with the C207, Caravan, Kodiak, Navajo, King Air, PC12, DC3, B767-300F and the 747-800F (soon)…
This is going to be fun!
3 Likes
I’m following the md-11 updates on their page. They are incrementally updating and it’s looking great so far. Cant wait for cargo ops.
Not to go all philosophical and derail this track (like that has never happened)…
I do not see XP surviving as a viable consumer flight sim once MS2020 comes out. I could probably write a dissertation on the subject but the short versions is something like this.
In 2009, Laminar Research was given an almost unbelievable opportunity when the King of PC-based, entertainment flight sims was killed off in circumstances that echo the plot of the Scottish Play. While they didn’t known it, they were given a decade… A DECADE … of little to no completion to develop XP into the premier flight sim. A blessed DECADE! That’s seventy dog years and something like a gazillion computer advances years. They squandered it all.
Oh sure graphics continued to improve and this latest Vulkan is evidently “the Bees Knees”…but so what? The XP11.5 world is as sterile and uninviting as MSFS 2002 introduced nearly two decades ago; well over a century of dog years.
Regarding PMDG’s decision. Who can blame them when your read this on Laminar Research’s site:
“Aerosoft is the official distributor and source for X-Plane add ons.”
Aerosoft is known for some high quality add ons. Their Huey X and Catalina PBY are (were) two of my all time favorites in FSX. But the official distributer? So the good money I paid for a FJS 727 is just lost when XP upgrades and doesn’t support any other than the “official distributor and source for X-Plane add ons”?
Don’t think that won’t happen. The handwriting is on the white board. Watch Austin Myer in the Vulkan announcement video. I counted at least two times where he was asked about the impact on third party developers and he refused to answer. To paraphrase how non-answers, he essentially said, “that’s their problem”. No, Mr. Myer…that’s my problem!
ATC and realistic AI traffic need to be part of a flight sim that appeals to the majority of flight simmers–hard core and casual. I’ve talked enough about the ridiculous state of XP ATC. Realistic AI? Seeing 747s try to take off from your local GA field or seeing airliners–many airliners–fall out of the sky from fuel exhaustion? Aga, pure unadulterated ridiculousness.
Take a good look at the XP web site. IMHO, they don’t really care about flight is hobbyists. (from their site)
X-Plane is not a game, but an engineering tool that can be used to predict the flying qualities of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with incredible accuracy.
X-Plane Professional: What makes it “X-Plane for Professional Use”?…4. It unlocks features of the simulator not available in X-Plane 11 Global.
If that is their business model - to focus solely on the professional flight sim market - great! More power to them. But they should give up the crumbling facade of being an entertainment flight sim.
Perhaps they will when MSFS2020 comes out. Until then, the XP buffoonery continues unabated, and now with Vulkan, faster the ever. 
4 Likes
Each to their own Will, but I think XP11 is pretty fantastic. Laminar has been around a long time. Microsoft has bailed on us twice now, and I am still not convinced they are in it for the long haul. Time will tell.
7 Likes
As always you make good points. 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for MSFS2020, and I don’t doubt the talent and passion of the dev team. I do have concerns about the long term commitment of Microsoft though, and they hold the purse strings. Important decisions will be made by people who have no passion or real interest in flight simulations.
Right now, we are seeing some love because they have some fancy technology that they want to show off, but I have a hard time thinking that the intended audience is a relatively small niche in the gaming community (that would be us simmers).
For a mega-company like MS, it all becomes about the money in the end. Meanwhile, Austin and his small team will keep plugging away. It is a passion project for Austin, and has been since the mid 90’s. I’m pretty sure he is still the owner of the company and calls the shots. I don’t think he is the kind of guy to just quit. Just my opinion of course. 
1 Like
And therein lies my issue with XP. If he thought good ATC and AI were important, it would happen. If he thought the bevy of 3rd party contributors were important, they would be given what they need to adjust to new XP versions as they come out. Neither is happening.
I agree that Laminar Research is not a mega company. So why are they wasting their admittedly limited resources on XP mobile…really? How many people are really going to flight sim on their iPad? Limited resources squandered.
In 2009 we saw the downside of the people who hold the purse strings not having a real interest in the fight sim hobby. That sucked. Since then we have seen the downside the people holding the purse strings–the few or one–with a decidedly narrow view of the flight sim hobby. This also sucks.
If you buy XP-11 you get what Austin Meyer thinks a flight sim is - period. It is not what I think it should be and quite frankly, I’m bored with it.
Anyway, enough from me. I need to jump into my C101 free cockpit and see if I can get things going!
2 Likes
Maybe Air Hauler will make things a bit more interesting for you… or you could come gliding with us in Condor 2!
2 Likes
You took the words right outta my feeble brain. Oh, and while I really can’t comment further, ego seems to be an issue here.
1 Like
Somethings’ bugged me about Win-Tel systems and Flight sim for a long time (decades). I mean, I had all the PC I needed to run an Event Based application model since, hmmm, like Windows 98. If not for sims I’d be fine with an I-Pad (or similar) and a keyboard (only thing useful I got out of public school was working a QWERTY keyboard).
Cell phones are suspect in this regard; make my IPhone 4 work again and I’m good, I don’t care how high-res you make the camera! I digress…
I’ve never understood why Win-Tel didn’t push/promote things that require the latest and greatest [cutting edge] to the general public. Of course it happens organically but they should’ve been WAY out front a long time ago. XBox is obsolete the day it’s shipped.
Anyway, I’ll put the beer down now (was hot outside, that’s my excuse)
Yep…and they made a premier flight sim. MS brought us Flight.
So I am not dancing on Laminar’s grave yet. There’s more to flying than…pretty.
Microsoft has cloud access that no little operation like LR can match. Will I buy? You bet! If it’s great, VR supportive, has helicopters and looks good at 100’ and flies plausibly, will I continue to fly X-P? Probably not. But we’ve seen this opera before. The fat lady hasn’t even started warming up.
2 Likes
I think she will not be ready to sing for another 3 or 4 years, and she probably works in the MS accountancy office.
2 Likes
Laminar will do fine. It has a great flight model, superb lighting, and a very friendly modability factor. I’ve never broken anything in my X-Plane install that couldn’t be fixed by removing something. I can’t say the same for FSX and P3D - I’ve borked those installs to the point where I had to look into the abyss many a time. With Ortho4XP, the sim looks pretty darn good. Yes, it has its problems, but it is pretty telling that I fire up X-Plane 90% of the time when I’m looking for a GA/civil aviation fix.
1 Like
