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I think I can definitely rule out next two months... Again, forecasting a release date is like forecasting the weather in a few months. As Morten has said, progress is slow but steady, and I will probably ramp up my preview-video production again soon. I have some interesting ideas, and in a little while it may even be time to start on a series of "official" tutorial videos that go along with our written documentation. For that I need the cockpit to be a bit closer to its final form, otherwise people will get a wrong impression from the videos. Morten described the progress on the sound system, and I can only second his words, it is really immersive. We humans seem to rely on eyesight, but all the other senses are merrily feeding input all the same, so it is tough to create a "suspension of disbelief" on sight alone. Technology won´t allow us the "feel" and "smell" part (yet), but having a realistic sound environment helps a lot! Now the correct sound is of high importance to me, because I spent roughly 6000 hours sitting in that cockpit. Alarms go off in my head as soon as something is slightly off, so getting those sounds right is a high priority. And I also believe that some of you will be a bit surprised as to what sounds to hear and how. Let me give you two examples. First, the engines. Many of you have flown on 737´s as passengers and the experience of a passenger is very different sound-wise to that of a pilot. The cockpit is a noisy place, with lots of fans, airconditioning, standby altimeter vibrator and what not. You would be surprised, but when starting the engines, you don´t really hear a thing from them until they spin up to maybe 10-15% N1, the most sensory feedback on them turning is a low frequency vibration. Another one is the flaps. Everyone knows that "wheeeeeeee" sound when the hydraulic flap motor moves the trailing edge flaps, just watch one of the myriad "omg I sat right on the window next to the flaps just watch my 15 minute video of them doing nothing most of the time supercool video!". Now when you are in the cockpit, you don´t hear them move at all, unless all the other "big" sounds (engines, aircon) are off. We create the same effect, so if you move your viewpoint to the cabin, (or outside near the wheel well) you will hear the flaps move, in the cockpit only when it´s fairly quiet. I guess all I can say is hang in there, I sincerely believe it is worth the wait and you will not be disappointed if you are looking for a true replication of the 737-300. Jan

757 in route KIAH - KMIA

Approaching a random Aleutian mountain! Summit! Did a loop, coming back over the summit to the field. ..... I seem to have got the engine management down, carb heat helps a ton. Tailwheel problems aside, bush flying seems very interesting to me. Many flights to come with annie

Update over Alps

Good picture of what is finished so far:

I think i should of put saracasm tags on my post haha...

I think he was just pointing out that you mentioned the 737NG in your comment and he was highlighting that this is the classic (breakdown in communication). I would assume classic 737s have serial numbers

Tom, Are you saying the classic doesn't have serial numbers or heater elements on the windows?

I never said a developer should "not be allowed" to sell liveries. I think you're taking my statements to a place they were never meant to go. Other developers can do whatever they wish. I simply do not agree with the practice. Call it an act of good will between the developer and the customer. Giving something for free when it COULD be charged for. A way of saying "Thank you for purchasing my product!" I'd much rather have someone say "Wow, they provided all those liveries for FREE?" rather than saying "Oh well, we have to pay for the extra liveries." It's just a personal preference. That's a very good question.

Goran is entitled to his opinion just as much as you are. You don't have to agree with him for his opinion to be valid, and likewise of your own. To me, the difference is that the tactic appears rather shady. This is my opinion. Liveries should be value added, I think, and help to sell the product itself rather than to drive up the cost of your product. The way these liveries are packaged force individuals into getting multiple packs if they only want two specific liveries spread across two packs. The next thing you know, the customer just paid $20 extra for two liveries...or didn't buy at all because they feel this is a rip off (the beauty of voting with your wallet). I applaud the efforts of those like McPhat and any other third party who wishes to create liveries that make otherwise bland liveries look much better, but to essentially sell 'default' liveries (and to pack your product with four liveries that few people would honestly want) is not exactly consumer friendly. If it works for them, then that's great. It doesn't work for Goran and I, and that's why the Saab was released with over 30 liveries for no additional charge. Is there even a paintkit made available right now for the 757 to get around this?

It's not really a hard concept to grasp. If it doesn't make sense to you, then feel free to continue supporting the idea. I simply don't agree with it.

- Very niceeeeee!

It's very nice, thank you !!! Best greets Dirk

This is a quick "where are we". There are some aspects to projects that are slow to get past. This occurs generally when you do not have the proper information, or proper reference photograph in order to do a task...so you kind of "guess" and if its wrong, then you have to redo and redo and it bogs down quick. For a while now, I have been chipping on the flap animation. The team is super-picky about visual realism and trying to animate the flaps such that everything looks and works and you have no mesh collisions or overlaps, especially in the super-tight tolerance areas of the flaps has been a real challenge. I've walked away more than once. If the flaps aren't right, then you can't do the mechanisms right and all this stuff is visible when the flaps are deployed so if you want to get it right you have to build it right. Well I am happy to report than the flaps have been "substantially" done. This means all the surfaces, fore/mid/aft flap have all been animated and their motion is such that the mechanisms can now be animated and all the motions "jibe" with real mechanism properties...i.e. the hard part of the wings are done. What remains on the exterior is quickly coming to a close...some misc mechanisms to model and texture...some gear well stuff, a few odds and ends and finally the door animations. Inside we have the aft cockpit to texture, the aft galley to UV and texture and then we will be in '3D scrutiny' mode to see what we need to add, or re-UV map, increase or decrease in detail / resolution. That will substantially conclude the 3D. I keep using the word "substantially" because the work is never done...we touch up here and there, probably till the very end, but all the pieces are in place, no more difficulties remain etc. At that point, we'll go back to the programming and work on finishing up the FMS and begin testing all the systems in order to get ready for a beta test. Again, NO telling when this will be. We can see the end of the road, but aren't quite sure how far away it is. Getting pas the flaps was a big hurdle to jump. I'll include a work in progress screenshot below. Texturing on a lot of things is "quickie mode" and we'll be adding higher detail in the upcoming weeks. TomK