FSX. Majestic Software has released
a statement addressing the current status of their Dash 8-400 project. I know
many readers are extremely interested in this project and any
projected release timeframe. Apparently, there are still a number of bugs that require
attention. The developer has proposed the ideas of releasing the product with some minor bugs to be fixed in later patches, what do you think? Read the announcement
inside.
The full announcement as posted on the developers Facebook page:
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Fellow simmers,
a little update, as waiting for you seems to be harder every day and you are in the right to ask what's going on and why the aircraft is still in our hangar?
As for today in our bugzilla, there is about a dozen of bug reports with "major" severity but half of them are resolved and expect testing. There is still a lot of "minor" and "normal" bugs that mostly will never be detectable by an average simmer. Here is a typical bug report I'm talking about: "If MFD2 alone is turned off, with all other screens on, then the composite display reverts to MFD1 in the real aircraft but not in the sim". Not something that will spoil your flight experience, but really a bug because it doesn't behave like in a real aircraft. It's quite possible that we will release the package with a bunch of known minor bugs and they will be fixed by patches after the release. This is the way real aircraft come out too!
Our main work area is now centered on EFIS. If you compare carefully real life photographs of the dispalys with MJC screenshots, you will surely find a lot of differences. We are now doing our best to make MJC displays look as close as possible to real ones. We had to create our own fonts that are virtually indistinguishable from Bombardier's fonts. Now it's a long work of aligning every digit on the displays, calculating proportions, matching colors... We hope it won't be too long however, we are eager to roll out the plane and to share the joy of flying it with everybody. Dimitri
a little update, as waiting for you seems to be harder every day and you are in the right to ask what's going on and why the aircraft is still in our hangar?
As for today in our bugzilla, there is about a dozen of bug reports with "major" severity but half of them are resolved and expect testing. There is still a lot of "minor" and "normal" bugs that mostly will never be detectable by an average simmer. Here is a typical bug report I'm talking about: "If MFD2 alone is turned off, with all other screens on, then the composite display reverts to MFD1 in the real aircraft but not in the sim". Not something that will spoil your flight experience, but really a bug because it doesn't behave like in a real aircraft. It's quite possible that we will release the package with a bunch of known minor bugs and they will be fixed by patches after the release. This is the way real aircraft come out too!
Our main work area is now centered on EFIS. If you compare carefully real life photographs of the dispalys with MJC screenshots, you will surely find a lot of differences. We are now doing our best to make MJC displays look as close as possible to real ones. We had to create our own fonts that are virtually indistinguishable from Bombardier's fonts. Now it's a long work of aligning every digit on the displays, calculating proportions, matching colors... We hope it won't be too long however, we are eager to roll out the plane and to share the joy of flying it with everybody. Dimitri
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The developers Facebook page - click here
The developers Facebook page - click here
13 comments:
As much as I am anxious for the release, I would prefer to wait until known bugs, major and minor, are resolved. The rather constant requests for developers to release partially finished work and patch later would undoubtedly be replaced by constant requests of `when is the patch going to be released` if it is put to market early. Also, once the product hits a much wider group of consumers, new bugs may be identified that will divert the teams attention away from the outstanding list.
Just my opinion.
Even though they release when they think its all fixed, it wont be all fixed! There will be sp's and all that like on most add-on aircraft!So just bring it on :)
wait until it's ready where they're happy - yes I'm sure there will be bugs, but wait until Majestic are happy. Don't want a Captain Sim scenario - PMDG did the same with the NGX - patience please!!
Gary
It's the market will judge.
But then you play on the skin of costumer and you can't ask to pay for pilot version and then upgrade to the pro, is not fair IMHO.
I think as a general rule developers should only release when all known bugs are addressed. Otherwise, in some cases, the customer gets left out to dry. I'm not saying Majestic will not fix the outstanding deficiencies with subsequent patches; just that as good practice developers should only release finalized products to market. Just my humble opinion…
There's no such thing as bug-free software. If the vast majority of your target customers won't notice the bug (the customers who buy "entry-level" complex sims like the PILOT edition. However the PRO edition is another matter.) then you might as well release it. My wallet is ready.
As long as it's not BBS/Captainsim/Airsimmer style buggy, and there's enough after-sales support (e.g. devs actually listening to the customer feedback and release appropriate patches) then I'm fine.
Yes as the comment above stated, PMDG were ready to release and waited - Majestic must do the same.
Release ONLY when ready please...
It's one thing to release something when all known errors are fixed and addressing unknown errors when the public finds them, and it's another thing entirely to release something with known errors that are uncorrected. Correct what you know is broken, then address the new stuff as they are identified.
The developer should NOT release a product with what they admit to be "major" or even "normal" bugs.
The business model of "throw it out the door and we'll fix it later (maybe)" is a blight on this hobby. Far too many developers take advantage of their customers' enthusiasm and far too many customers are too naive to realise once the developers have got our money there's no longer an incentive to develop the product further.
Putting this out with known errors is not good business... I would sooner wait for Majestic to deal with the known issues, however minute, before releasing 1.0. If or when new issues arise, then they should be dealt with. It would have been safer for them not to have made this statement.
To say Majestic should only release this after all bugs are solved to avoid a Captain Sim scenario is absolutely ridiculous. The development of this aircraft is already miles ahead of CS.
I say release it and patch it. We as customers are probably not going to notice any major issues, and it allows the developers to start generating revenues. If they're almost at the finish line, I think it's a good strategy.
I think unless the known issues cause the aircraft to be unflyable, this is not bad business at all. As long as they're honest and serious about fixing them, it's good business.
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