IXEG 737 Classic for X-Plane 12 Announcement

[Cameron]

Captains, 

It's with a lot of excitement and appreciated patience that we are ready to announce what's to come for IXEG's future! The team chose to let the dust settle a bit and not have too wide of a moving target in the early days of X-Plane 12 so as to not waste development time.

The following will serve as a brief summary of what's to come, as well as a bit of a roadmap on where things will go. Things have changed a lot since the last X-Plane 11 update, one of them being that @tkyler is now full time in add-on development instead of juggling between real life jobs and that of our virtual world. This has given us the ability to focus on where we want the 737 to go into the future, and we hope you'll like what you initially see!

Cost

Back on February 7th, 2022, a little after Laminar Research announced X-Plane 12 was coming, we published on the IXEG 737 product page that purchasing customers would receive a free product update to the X-Plane 12 version. Per that statement, we are honoring this free update for customers who purchased the IXEG 737 on or after February 7th, 2022. For customers having purchased the IXEG 737 on or before February 6th, 2022, the upgrade will be a paid upgrade of $14.95 USD.

Why this pricing structure?

Our goal is to keep the upgrade pricing within reach of all customers at a fair price, and will ensure continued development of the IXEG 737 into the future. This all said, we also want to provide existing customers with additional value for the upgrade cost, above and beyond just the 'porting' work required to gain Version 12 compatibility. So in order to provide additional value, we decided to develop an all-new 3D cabin, working cabin doors and wing-flex to include in the update and gain momentum towards overhauling the 733 to modern 3D standards. This work has been ongoing for the previous months and is responsible for most of the development time by @tkyler thus far. We've included some pics / links of the interior work in progress below.

Background on why this news is only just coming out…

Flight testing was delayed slightly while Laminar made alterations that affect certain areas of our models, but also because @Litjan, who handles the flight model, was working towards his 747 Captain rating (now since completed....congratulations Jan!). With the pesky 747 certification process out of the way, Jan has actively resumed flight testing / tweaking things, and if anybody is curious, the team does NOT plan to develop a 747 product  .

What's to come prior to the initial v12 release?

Items to be included in the initial v12 release:

• All-new, high resolution 3D cabin interior
• Animated doors
• Wing flex
• Ensure satisfactory flight and systems performance
• Rework our GUI interface to a more flexible, imGUI based infrastructure 

Once these are complete, we will release the update. A good portion of this has already been completed, and other bits are still in the works. We believe we can do this work before the fall in the USA, and have a solid platform to continue improvements.

Once released and stabilized after addressing any bugs or issues, we will immediately continue the work of improving the 733 in several areas. Some items we will be addressing and improving are:

• FMS
  • VNAV Prediction / Performance
  • Holds
  • Performance / Progress predictions.
  • Swap to XP11 NavData format.
• FMOD Sound Implementation, allowing us to more easily expand our sound set.
• New exterior 3D and high-resolution textures
• Enhanced GUI for accommodating more robust interactions with operations.

So that's where we are in the development. The IXEG 733 is being worked on continuously and we're excited about evolving the product as both X-Plane and computer technology / performance evolves, chasing immersion as far as we possibly can. We want to thank you all for being customers and hope we can deliver satisfying experiences through this iterative journey that is flight simulation development.

On behalf of the IXEG team, especially @tkyler and @Litjan, we thank all of your for your excitement and patience that has so far driven us to this point.

Enjoy the previews!

Please Note: All images are showcasing continued work in progress and things, including texture work, are subject to change.

 

 

[gadonate]

Yes! Wonderful news. 

[tcd]

I'm really very pleased with the news. Also because of the price for "old customers". Thanks to the team! I can't wait. :-)

[The Tall Guy]

The interiors look gorgeous, and I am happy to pay $15 to the team for the new version and new features. I want this product to continue!

[rsx30]

Sweet news!  Funny how things change - when I bought this originally the cabin was essentially just a placeholder (I can’t even remember if it existed actually) and now the first screenshots are of an upgraded and very nice interior.  $15 for an upgrade to a plane I’ve used since x plane 10 days is more than reasonable too.  Can’t wait to try this thing in X Plane 12!

[jfwharton]

I will probably pay the $15 to upgrade my 737 but that is not honoring the promise, only partially.  I understand the reason but will have to consider if I will be upgrading any of my X-Aviation aicraft for X Plane 12.

Edited April 3, 2023 by jfwharton

[cpuwolf]

really a good news

[ThorBrasil]

@Cameron Will this cost of 15 dollars only occur at the release of the XP12 version or can you buy it in the store now?
Was the cockpit also redone? Cabin I understand where the crew stays and passengers.
Thanks!

Edited April 3, 2023 by ThorBrasil

[Cameron]

21 minutes ago, jfwharton said:

I will probably pay the $15 to upgrade my 737 but that is not honoring the promise, only partially.  I understand the reason but will have to consider if I will be upgrading any of my X-Aviation aicraft for X Plane 12.

It's either the viable path, or no path. We chose the viable one. Should you change your spending habits over a less than $15 charge, I don't know what to really say. Farewell, I guess? Considering the upgrade costs many other developers on a certain other store charge, I don't find this a major issue. We kept the pricing low and in check for a reason. I'm also not really sure which promise you're referencing, but Jan has always had a very open and honest topic about what's not in the IXEG 737 at each patch. His message has always contained the following words:

"We are trying to be as upfront about the shortcomings of our model as possible. I have myself bought many aircraft for flight-simulations boasting great things, only to be disappointed. I want to avoid that for everyone, so if you find a "must have" feature on this list, I encourage you to hold off on purchase until we added your feature in a later patch."

The X-Plane 12 work alone is hundreds of man hours due to major changes in the code interaction with 12, so the upgrade fee would have come about one way or another (and probably much more expensive) had we considered IXEG a feature complete and done package in X-Plane 11 before this upgrade.

17 minutes ago, ThorBrasil said:

Will this cost of 15 dollars only occur at the release of the XP12 version or can you buy it in the store now? Thanks!

It will be available at release of the update. All current customers will receive a discount code.

[ThorBrasil]

@Cameron Was the cockpit also redone? Cabin I understand where the crew stays and passengers.

[Cameron]

1 minute ago, ThorBrasil said:

Was the cockpit also redone? Cabin I understand where the crew stays and passengers.

No, the cockpit is not re-done. It's really not necessary with as much detail went into it to begin with. It may get small enhancements here and there, but it certainly is not in a dire state. The cabin was.

[ThorBrasil]

2 minutes ago, Cameron said:

No, the cockpit is not re-done. It's really not necessary with as much detail went into it to begin with. It may get small enhancements here and there, but it certainly is not in a dire state. The cabin was.

In fact, the cockpit is very beautiful, but there is always room for improvement. I will buy it at launch. Thanks!

[Reuben H]

This is exciting!!!

 

Thank you guys for bringing one of my favourite little planes into modernity.

 

And my full support behind charging for this update, it’s been bloody YEARS since I originally paid for this, frankly it’s amazing you guys are still maintaining it. Disregard all negativity you might receive from the update charge, you deserve to be compensated for your hard work and love poured into this.

 

 

[Chipewa]

41 minutes ago, Cameron said:

I'm also not really sure which promise you're referencing

Really, Cameron ?... This screenshot should refresh your memory... @jfwharton is right.
It is written : "X-Plane 12 update will be free"
What about the other "Free" updates ?... How many will they cost ?!

Now, we know what your word is worth. And we can judge a person by his word. You have $$ in the eyes ; that's the real and only viable path (your path) !
Customers ? It's secondary, you don't care.

[Cameron]

25 minutes ago, Maniwaki said:

It is written : "X-Plane 12 update will be free"

Did you read anything that was said above in the initial announcement? Anyone who purchased the product from the date the product page was updated will receive the upgrade for free. That promise has not been broken.

We made ZERO announcements about a free update to existing customers anywhere. We did publish on the product page clearly made for new customers they would get a free update for X-Plane 12. There was a reason for that, and this is not uncommon in the software industry when products are in transition. A product page is an advertisement for potential customers. And, we are holding up that promise as was outlined in the announcement.

A product page is not a means of communication to existing customers. We communicate by e-mail and forum announcements to existing customers, and always have. You're stretching things here.

[Majela]

Excellent news !! I' am very excited about the arrive of the 737-300 to the XP 12 !!
What about a cargo version ? Have you already analyzed the possibility of extending this version of the 737-300 to its variants: 737-400 and 737-500 ? I apologize if my questions are inconvenient and/or too hasty  at this momment !!
Best regards,

Majela

[Cameron]

2 minutes ago, Majela said:

What about a cargo version ? Have you already analyzed the possibility of extending this version of the 737-300 to its variants: 737-400 and 737-500 ?

Some information on that here  :

 

 

[Splash]

Excellent news, was waiting for the announcement, finally here!

[Majela]

14 minutes ago, Cameron said:

Some information on that here  :

 

 

Thanks !! 

[Bulva]

Everything is beautiful and wonderful, but ....
.. what about VR users ???
Will the ground service windows, fuel, scales, etc. still only be available in 2D mode ???
I hope someone will dispel my fears, because although I love this plane very much, taking off the VR goggles several times completely kills the immersion. Anyway, there are probably no currently created planes that would not be "supported" by integrated tablets (also in VR, of course) ;-)

[drh]

You did such a great job with the XPlane 11 737..I am happy to pay you for one in XPlane 12. Will we hve to shimmy up or down a rope to get into the plane?

I love your work. I only expect your best..time is not the issue..quality is..

[Cameron]

5 minutes ago, Bulva said:

.. what about VR users ???
Will the ground service windows, fuel, scales, etc. still only be available in 2D mode ???

The plan going forward will be to make all functions available in the X-Plane pull down menus. Some code changes have been worked on for this, but I'm not sure if it will make it into the initial release yet or not. As a whole, the GUI is getting re-worked to new, modern XP standards though.

[Bulva]

9 minutes ago, Cameron said:

The plan going forward will be to make all functions available in the X-Plane pull down menus. 

I'm afraid this will again be very inconvenient for VR users.
And wouldn't it be possible to put all these functions in the iPad (as in other planes) ???   

[Cameron]

8 minutes ago, Bulva said:

And wouldn't it be possible to put all these functions in the iPad (as in other planes) ???

The 737 has the ability to display AVITAB. It does not have a custom iPad interface akin to something like ZIBO. At the moment VR is not at the top of the list for us, but maybe in the future that will change. I know that @tkyler shares more interest in that than others, so it's possible something more than X-Plane menu items will come one day, but for now, it's to be much like the CL650.

[tkyler]

16 minutes ago, Bulva said:

And wouldn't it be possible to put all these functions in the iPad

Those are generally custom implementations, many times handled be a dedicated developer.   While I am interested in VR interactivity, I view it as a 'interface layer' to be built on top of existing functionalities.....but the functionality development takes priority.  That being said, during the course of development on other things, I do take time to peek into solutions towards catering to VR users....so its not completely lost on me Bulva and I will turn my mind to VR issues.

-tkyler

Edited April 4, 2023 by tkyler