PMDG recently provided a brief update on the compatibility of their product line with the newly released Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and what to expect next from their projects.
As they mentioned during the previous development update from a few days ago, PMDG ran into issues when testing their product lineup on the Developer Alpha build of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 that had been provided to them, leading to more questions than answers.
With the simulator now in everyone’s hands, PMDG is still unable to thoroughly verify the compatibility or lack thereof due to stability issues and access problems with the platform (which affected most day one/two players). They have reached a few conclusions: the 777 will not work in MSFS 2024 without an update, as changes were made to the simulator’s communications API, leading to memory allocation corruption and eventual instability. The 737 also ran into similar issues, albeit to a lesser extent due to its simplicity as far as communication APIs go.
As of earlier today, both products are still under evaluation, but they have not achieved sufficient platform stability to do so efficiently. The DC-6, though, appears to work just fine when pasted into MSFS 2024’s community folder.
While their original plan was to provide compatibility in time for the weekend, it appears that expectation is unrealistic, given all the issues they had properly evaluating compatibility. The new timeframe is now “some weeks” from now.
There is even a level of uncertainty regarding whether they will be able to make it compatible at all, as they are unaware of the amount of work that will be required to make it a reality.
The upcoming 777F will be released for MSFS 2020 after all, as the compatibility assessment has proven to be more of a hurdle than initially imagined. Yet, they are cautious because Asobo and not PMDG themselves promised straightforward compatibility between both simulators and so far, they have been unable to gauge that accurately. They must be sure of that compatibility before they launch the product under such expectations.
Furthermore, PMDG judges it to be too early to determine when and if native 2024 features will be implemented in the 737 and 777, as they are still undergoing their evaluation process.
PMDG’s aircraft lineup is available on their website, with products ranging from $34.99 to $74.99.
Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!