Majestic Software Q400 2024 Update!!
Time sure does fly and in that time we are seeing flight simulation evolve into a platform that surpasses what we as a community thought would have been possible this soon. For this we along with many other developers are happy for the technological advancements and we are starting to see development teams continuously raise the bar. Systems complexity is at a level that now allows us to push the envelope even farther, an engine that allows a new realm of visual capabilities, and the list goes on and on. During this time Majestic has had a chance to reflect on the roadmap ahead, and while our team is small we embrace the changes, challenges and are focused on bringing the Q400, Q300 and other variants, very likely the Q200 to the MSFS platform.
2024 has been a year that has been very busy for all of us here at Majestic Software, and we have seen/experienced several changes surrounding our business model. Unfortunately our 3D designer was no longer able to continue working with us, so work in that area was put on hold. We are working towards a new team and plan on getting back into full work mode once this has been finalized.
Progress:
It is no secret by now but as most of you already know the Q400 for the MSFS platform will be a port-over, and while we anticipated a heavy workload, the more we dug into what was required we realized that the only thing that we could carry forward from the existing Q400 was the systems logic and to some extent the sounds. Everything else including the vector graphics, along with a re-design of the visual model has to be re-done.
Present State:
At this point we have already completely re-worked all of the EFIS screens and integrated the custom flight dynamics into the MSFS aircraft. We have also introduced an EFB which will be available to MSFS versions and Prepar3D, and it will include Navigraph Charts integration. Some readers are going to throw shade at the P3D engine or the fact that we still develop for it, but bear in mind we service this platform not only on the edutainment spectrum, but also the Commercial as well.
Ready State:
A timeline on when this project will be close to completion will not be discussed at this time as we will not be, nor never have falsified hope on release dates. We are hoping that we can near completion sooner than planned, but we do not foresee being close to completion till sometime in 2025 "if everything goes as planned". Many folks are bantering/suggesting that we partner with other developers but that is not something that we can easily do for business reasons not to be discussed.
As I have mentioned previously MJC will not be giving weekly/bi-weekly etc. regarding updates on the momentum of the project. Many may not agree with our stance or approach in sharing our progress, but we most certainly will give updates as we see fit. Being a small team we do have other obligations and priorities apart from the business side of Majestic Software. As the development phase gets closer to Beta testing we will share some images of our progress.
We are thankful everyone's patience and support and we too are eager to see what MSFS 2020/2024 holds in store for the MJC product line.
Cheers.
Kroswynd & The Majestic Team
Comments
Hi Kroswynd and team.
Thanks for the update and for acknowledging that you still have many loyal P3D users who still enjoy flying the Q400 on that platform. It's great to hear we have not been forgotten as you pursue other markets. I have absolutely no interest in MSFS (for now) and hope to fly many more years in P3D V6 and whatever follows.
Regards
Ian
thanks simeon
just for information, (although I realize it's premature),
do you think that with the MFSM 2024 platform there might be the possibility of including the HUD?
the HGS variables are already there, the problem is to reproduce the real HUD on transparent glass (I'm talking about the creation of home cockpits). perhaps the most practical project would be to consider the HUD as a 2D video output (basically like a seventh EFIS) and interface it with a transparent display, could that be an idea??
Greetings.
the update is much appreciated. thanks so much. Please keep the boarding music from the p3d era if possible. loved that.
Ian,
We try to keep things aligned during the development phase as it is easier to implement something across the board, than work on the same project for an older/different platform at a later date. P3D surely does not appeal to the flight sim community as it once did, but for commercial use it is just about the only viable platform, with which we have to keep our products aligned.
Cheers
That is an idea , but not sure how well it will work since we have not had a chance to test it. In the Q300 we did have the HGS as a 2D overlay but it showed up on the actual cockpit screen. It is a bit too early to give a definitive update on that at this time, and very likely the cockpit edition may have to have different approach methods for implementation.
Cheers
It is possible, but too early to say. The beauty of this system is that you can add your own music of choice as well.
Cheers
I echo these thoughts. I am still using, and very much enjoying, P3D v4.5 with HF3. After all, I have invested a lot of time, money, and effort in to my P3D sim. Not only the purchase of various study-level aircraft, including the Dash 8, but also having done hundreds of AI repaints and hundreds of airport AFCAD updates (many not-so-trivial, either), to keep my sim as up to date as I can keep it with the present day.
I signed up just to say how excited I am for the product. I always flew X-Plane previously, so I was always stuck looking through the window. Trying to consolidate, I ended up moving to the MSFS platform, since I was spending so much time in X-Plane trying to get airports and graphics to look like I wanted that I just wasn't getting anything done in terms of actual flying.
Hearing this is coming to a platform I can finally fly it in is great. After so much time spent jealously hoping for a port into X-Plane, it's nice to know I can finally get ready to fly the thing in MSFS and just have stock airports that look decent and scenery that doesn't require me to spend hours messing around with Ortho scenery and somehow destroying Iceland in the process.