Cameron

Hello, Captains!, I know many of you have been patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for the Saab 340A release. It's been a few days since our last update, so here's a new one for you... First and foremost, get ready! We are 48 hours or less from release. It could be in one hour, it could be in five, it could be in 48. This means as soon as our installers are compiled, tested, uploaded, and the product page is ready to go, the product will be online. We have finished creating all manuals and fixing bugs found along the way. The documentation for this product is very comprehensive, as it should be. The systems manual is 200+ pages of reading material for you to learn and understand how the Saab 340A works both in sim an in the real world. Of course, if you're not the person to want to read and you just want to get in and fly, the auto start feature on this aircraft was made just for you, so don't feel left out! Here's a few highlights to expect with this product: Liveries The Saab 340A comes with 32 liveries spread across three variants. These liveries are included with your Saab 340A purchase at no additional charge. The list of liveries is as follows... Passenger Variant Air New Zealand LinkContinental ConnectionCrossairDelta ConnectionEstonian - Hockey Bird LiveryFlybe Logan AirFuerza Aerea ArgentineaJapan Air LinesKenya AirwaysLeading Edge Simulations House LiveryNextJetNokairNorthwest AirlinkNorthwest Airlink - Route Map LiveryPacific CoastalPenAirPrivate/Corporate LiveryREXREX - City of Wagga Wagga LiveryREX - Shark Diving LiverySaab House Factory ColorsSilverSkywaysTrans World ExpressUnited Express (Tulip)US Airways Express Cargo Variant Adria CargoAloha Air CargoBridgesDHL AEW Variant Swedish Air ForceRoyal Thai Air Force 3D Sound Engine We've touched on this a bit before, but I'll elaborate a bit more now. The Saab 340A comes with a brand new sound engine called soundXtreme. It was built to do what we wanted and how we wanted rather than having to rely on third party solutions or default sounds. The sound engine allows for sound files to play from certain places in 3D space, recognizes where the sound should be directed, and whether the sound being played is for interior or exterior. This is a very light description of this sound engine (it's very advanced), but there's no need to get too technical in this post over it. I'll say this: It rocks! The actual sounds came from a real Saab 340A. We partnered with Turbine Sound Studios on an all-new HD pack (not their currently released MSFS offering) for the interior and exterior engine sounds. The prop, turbine, and every other sound are separated from one another so that our sound engine has full control of every aspect of each sound. You guys will pick up on this right way as you move your condition levers around the various ranges...it's chilling how good it sounds! The internal cockpit warning and cabin sounds came from our own real recordings in a Saab 340A. Each sound you hear will be authentic to the aircraft! All in all, the aircraft comes with more than 130 unique samples of sound. Installation The Saab 340A installation program will take a departure from our traditional installers and fetch only the files you really want. We do this for a variety of reasons, with the first being the fact that some of you will not want every variant or livery we have made. Within the installer you will be able to select which variants (passenger variant mandatory) and liveries you want installed. Based on your selection, the installer will fetch the appropriate files and install them for you. During the install process we also analyze your system to provide you the best experience in sim. You'll be asked what video card you have, and based on this selection we will auto-install the necessary texture sizes for your video card. Rest assured, we have gone through great lengths to make sure the aircraft textures look good, so let the installer do it's thing and be truthful in your selection of hardware. The size of install will vary depending on selections of hardware and liveries, but the max install (all options selected) will run at about a 1.4GB download and just about 1.9GB installed. Livery Manager We will be including a livery manager program. In short, this program will allow you to install liveries you previously did not install in the installation process without having to go through the entire install process again. This is pretty self explanatory from here, so no need to further elaborate. Documentation Documentation will include the following manuals: Introduction and settings, Charts, Company Manual (Systems), Quick/Autostart Manual, and a flight tutorial. Okay, so that's where we stand right now. Hopefully this little update is well received and gets you prepared for what's to come and what to expect. We'll be seeing you soon!

Haha...apparently you don't know Ben. There's no such thing as exaggeration for him. EVERY one of his points seem straight and "to the point". Please, by all means, name off the one's you feel did not happen. Cheerio!

LOL. Are you trying to tell Ben the experience he just had did not just really happen to him? For the record, I had the exact same problem recently, as did someone else who Ben linked to in that Avsim topic (two people actually)...and so did another person who just messaged me a bit ago privately saying their experience with X-Plane in Linux was the same. Best you look in the mirror. Trying to dispute someone's experience that they just step-by-step laid out is in poor taste. It's true. Your experience may vary...and that's a BIG part of the problem.

I don't blame you, but I blame your flawed philosophy on the matter in the context of this thread. Your personal support was appreciated and you may have done your part, but as you know, a business cannot rely on few sales to sustain life. There has to be a return. The business goes under if overhead is higher than profit. To put this really, really simple: if there was real money to be made in the Linux market, we wouldn't be out of it. You don't know till you try...and we tried.

And your purchases yielded low returns - if any. This is a really, really poor point. Here's why: Anything not labelled as "soon" was already Linux supported, including our first out the gate products leading up to the point you speak of. You guys never ponied up and showed your face. This holds very little (if any) water. You can't argue for the sake of the platform if the platform for a particular product was never supported to begin with. That doesn't work. There's a consensus around many developers even outside of XA. They pretty much all have the same feelings, so I'm sorry, but I don't buy into this one bit. It's been a pretty well spoken topic amongst developers as of late, and I continue to hear more who are not associated to us with plans to drop support for the platform. The first 4-5 products that came out (in a row) on X-Aviation all supported Linux, MdMax. This whole silly talk of "coming soon" being the cause is inaccurate at best, if not just because we had full on multiple product support before any of that was EVER said. Our OLDEST and seemingly overly popular add-on with which we opened our store with even supported Linux for five years, and yet the sales never showed up. What gives? We should only have to market to X-Plane users and not specifically X-Plane Linux users. Everyone is a targeted, generalized crowd here. If you insinuate that one would have to work extra hard to get 30 more sales, then I'm afraid the ingredients are just not there to consider your platform of choice viable.

This topic really isn't that old. Have a read around!

Please tell me that's a joke. You cannot tell me this is a serious statement, especially given the performance of Mac and Windows sales. Now all of a sudden I need to seek you out? Let's be real. That's NOT realistic. See above. A ) It doesn't fully work...yet B ) You still don't understand the economics. The LEAST bought for platform happens to be near the most frustrating to support. With so many flavors floating around, the possibilities of issues among you few that we see are so inconsistent and frustrating to deal with. It's never the same issue, always a head scratcher. Always a time sucker, and in turn, never a profit maker.

...but you don't agree with me. You said it yourself. And that's acceptable. But, again, you are you, and not everyone else. You speak from your own personal point of view. I speak from a volume of individuals who provide feedback. I know where you stand, and I also know where majority of others stand. We can definitely agree to disagree that the lack of an announcement over Linux support recently being dropped is not proper communication. At the end of the day, it played out how it did. Whether a formal letter was made or not doesn't and didn't change the outcome of the real situation, and that is my point. You're the ONLY one to complain about that. Perhaps that means a lot...perhaps it doesn't. Generally, people speak when they are disappointed. You're no exception to this rule. To me, there's a bigger issue here, and that is the fact that Linux users were given five whole years to show their support and the ball was dropped. The communication point, with regards to Linux, is moot. Obviously this would be a MUCH different story had it been Mac or Windows. Truth be told, I can count the total number of general disappointments for a drop of Linux support on one hand. To me, that's the real troubling part. Forget some announcement that's been publicly stated already. We're beyond that now, and scratching our heads.

I'm sorry if you feel this way. I clarified lack of arrogance for a reason, though obviously this wasn't enough clarity for you. I base this on the feedback we receive from our customers for our support, as well as a number of topics praising and discussing just that. There are always varied opinions with everything in life, but majority typically wins the vote. I don't think you got my point, because if you did, there would have been slightly more agreement on the subject. I'll try, and you do the same, sir!

This was a generalization of ALL Linux users. Not you alone. Don't feel embarrassed about it. I genuinely was curious and still don't view it as wrong, nor do I feel many others would. It would have been a nice, added gesture, but not a necessity to be considered good in business. We make great products, we provide great customer support, and it's known. I gladly say that with confidence and not an ounce of arrogance. The lack of a formal note about Linux support being dropped on a product does not equate to an embarrassing moment in our life cycle as a business. We gladly acknowledged this information in public, so it obviously wasn't about ill intent or a lapse in judgement. It had been known for a while, so this definitely was not at the "top" of our list of things to do in as busy a time as a release period. Bluntly: It makes no difference. It wouldn't have solved anything for you, and the situation overall would not have changed.

Can I ask...what real difference does this make? I'm genuinely curious. It was pretty well publicized in the forums, and you seem to be grasping at anything you can (like the fact the newsletter dismissed this or something). I don't see the point. If it doesn't work...then it doesn't work. The product which stopped Linux support was built in 2008. There were absolutely ZERO ways to surmise we would ultimately drop the support for Linux. There's not much more to be said here if you guys can't get in a row and back your platform with sales. You all are extremely vocal, but when push comes to shove the substance is never provided (or hasn't been). EDIT: Think about what I just said there...we gave you guys FIVE years to prove your market on that product alone. It didn't happen! Whether you choose to continue to purchase or not in the future is of course your right. I know you'll be missing out on some fantastic stuff (or maybe not since Linux hasn't been supported as of late, so maybe this doesn't matter), and to me if I were a diehard Linux user I don't see the point with limiting my offerings and not showing support for my platform (especially if I'm content with what already works), but whatever floats your boat! You'd only be hurting your own desires and cause.

First off, That is an old as dirt installer. If that was taken recently, I highly suggest you upgrade. To answer the question: each platform specific installer contains a method for sending OS info to the server which speaks to our scripts. If you're trying to use some form of a virtual machine as an argument, sorry, but it doesn't hold water. Not only can we decipher, but we also have these other aircraft which sell in rather large quantity which ship with native Linux installers. Naturally, it would be silly as ever for a customer to use a VM to install on their platform when a native installer exists...

Now I have no clue as to what's in John's mind, but my inner voice is telling me he'll release it when it's ready.

Well, at least someone gets it.

You would like to believe that, except there's a problem here... Remember, I'm concerned ONLY about our own potential take of market. Not everyone on the X-Plane platform will buy 3rd party add-ons. All of our RealScenery products and ILM package, as WELL as our TWO #1 selling products on the store INCLUDE (or did up until just 2 months ago) Linux. I beg to differ.

You know we track these stats with our installers, right? It's not an urban legend...at least not from our paid for add-ons standpoint.

No, it is exclusive to the Saab.

And now we're going in circles. Irregardless of what it accepts, that GPS will not work with the systems integrated into the Saab. Saab 340A = not simple minded product.

A Collins unit.

Send an email to X-Aviation: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/contact_us.php

X-Plane 10 does not have a KLN. Not even close. This is an add-on.

You're missing the entire point. The aircraft has systems to handle VOR and NDB stations, which interact HEAVILY with the EADI. We don't need a second method for this. We purposefully did not want a GPS that handled such frequencies given the integration of this already present in the properly simulated product. FIXs were the problem, so they were implemented in a non-obtrusive fashion for you to follow things like a SID or STAR. You're grasping at straws here. This is an added feature for those who want it and need it. We were purposefully NOT looking to add full GPS functionality, as it takes away from the product and its design as implemented. The KLN was never present in these aircraft. If you want that, you can surely go download that. What you said, was (I quote you): "Could just use the default X-Plane GPS and put it in a box mounted.. somewhere?"

Getting position of aircraft is not aircraft dependent and would always be accessible in sim via global datarefs. As such, any add-on like the KLN would be able to display position fine. I have NO clue if it will work with the autopilot properly given that the Saab is so customized and I have just simply not had the desire to test things like that. I would GUESS that the KLN's OWN autopilot would probably work, as from what I vaguely understand, it just piggybacks on X-Plane's own autopilot system. Whether those modes properly reflect on the MCP and displays in the Saab (likely not) is a whole other story. I'm not sure I would consider the Saab flying very much fun without proper info displaying on the EADI. Given that, the KLN would take away a lot in my opinion.

To put it bluntly: Because it looks and operates like crap. Our concern was how unrealistic the default GPS that everyone complains about consistently is. Furthermore, X-Plane's already "crappy" Garmin is only a 430. That in itself is not realistic or true to the Saab. I don't think you do really see why, because quite frankly, this took longer to do than putting in a default GPS. Imagine all the math and calculations that go into the code just to make that deviation bar work! The default GPS is not only restrictive in functionality, but also in resolution. It cannot be improved graphically, which is a REAL turn off. Too often we get requests for versions of our products WITHOUT that GPS because of how bad it is. So, we decided to provide a more simple appearing, yet elegant solution. That GPS would have looked VERY out of place in this cockpit considering the resolution issues.

He's on a 30 day forced sabbatical, and the first person on these ever forums to receive one. Quite frankly, with minimal positive contributions and a lot of yapping, it's nice to have a change.