Next Level Simulations Cancels Airbus 380

FSX. Well, after a long delay it looks like Next Level Simulations has officially canceled their Airbus 380 project. This is a pity as the project did look quite promising. Nevertheless, another fallen development for the flight simulation world. See some project screenshots and the developers cancellation statement inside.

First, a couple screenshots for those not familiar with the project:

 

 

 

The statement as posted on the developers Facebook page:
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Alright, here we go. I am indeed VERY sad to announce that we have to cancel the A380 for the time beeing. Its a very hard descision for me as the A380 has always been somewhat "my baby" and I have been working on it since 2007. But things are moving in a different direction now so I had to make a choice. I was always afraid to give up, having in mind the thousands of working hours that have gone ...into the project so far. Giving it up would make all of that worthless. I am very sorry to disappoint you people here - but I don't have a choice.

To be honest, I wasn't able to continue the project for the last 12-15 months because I have started out with a new business (doing film, commercials, features and 3d animation), I have invested a lot of money into a new studio, camera systems, stuff. That lays great pressure upon me, needing to get the business going. After all, flight simulation would not pay my bills. Not at this point.

I haven't talked to Chris Kögler, the systems programmer for quite a while, which was due to my lack of time, moving to the new office, working long hours - that made it get lost somehow. I will need to talk to him very soon about this descision but I am sure he sees it the same way. The discussion for cancelling the project had been up for quite a while.

So what now? The project had quite a lot of innovations and cool things in it - however, it's still far from beeing completed. The flight model is not done, the 3D model is in the middle of a big revision (wings, flight deck). The systems show a 100% accurate visual representation of the real thing, however, the systems core is virtually not there, due to the lack of a finalised flight model and physics system. Overall, it's far away from a releaseable version.

So why not pass the source files to someone else to continue? Of course, for you as a flight simmer, that would be the best way to go to keep up the hope of flying it one day. However, as a developer, who has put all of his heart and time into it over the past years, it's not that simple. I know, Chris will definetly not give away his source codes, since he has so many innovative and new things in it, that he had wrote/invented that I can understand, that he will not give them away just like that. For me, as a 3D artist it's also difficult, leaving your own work to someone elses hand.

We still have to decide what to do with all the material.

Still, I want to thank ALL OF YOU for the great support over the years. It has always been - and still is - a great motivation. And I am sorry that we cannot fulfill your expectations. However, I hope you understand our points.

Thank you,
Oliver Braun
Next Level Simulations
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See the developers Facebook page - click here