Prepar3D v4 Roadmap and compatibility

[Lefteris Kalamaras]

Hello everyone,

Lockheed Martin's official announcement of Prepar3D v4 means we are finally free to share and discuss what we've been quietly working on for the past few months.

Keeping up with LM's familiar methodology of incremental upgrading of the core platform, P3Dv4 brings a lot of small updates but also a few very significant ones, with the transition into a 64-bit code base being the most important. This means the platform is now able to take advantage of the underlying hardware without being artificially limited by the 32-bit memory space of 4 Gigabytes.

Word of caution, however: This does not mean "no more OOMs" - if add-on developers are not careful, we will soon realize that as soon as users turn everything to maximum, there is still a very real possibility of 8GB or 16GB of installed RAM not being enough any more to support 4096 texture sceneries, full autogen, ultra 7cm resolutions, etc - not to mention that nagging will now be transformed from "oh - my bleeping thing OOMed!" to "oh - my bleeping thing is crawling at 4 Frames Per Year (tm)".

This is what progress is all about, however and we welcome it wholeheartedly. As a matter of fact - and with the NDA finally lifted - we're now free to disclose that we've been working closely with LM on the v4 beta for quite some time now, so as to make the transition as smooth as possible for our A32X product line.

Here's what our road-map looks like for the remainder of this year and into 2018 therefore:

 
FSLabs A320-X

 
- As soon as Prepar3D v4 releases, we will be able to share our x64 compatible A320-X version with our beta testers. There has been very significant and complex code changes to allow for x64 support so we want to take some time to ensure that everything works out smoothly before rolling the product out to our customers.

- Once the P3Dv4 A320-X is released, it will be available FREE OF CHARGE to all existing A320-X P3Dv3 customers *** as of that date ***.

- Around the time the P3Dv4 A320-X is released, the upgrade discount path from FSX into P3D (any version) will be discontinued.

- We have been working on the A320-X Service Pack roll-out for quite some time now. A lot of the bug fixes will find their way into the A320-X x64 release as well as into an interim update for the 32-bit versions. This update will be in the hands of our beta testers very soon as well.

- Support and bug fixes of all versions of the A320-X will continue normally - we expect that Service Pack 1 will be the last major update with new functionality for 32-bit versions of the product line and our focus will shift to the 64-bit platform(s) afterwards.

- We are working to identify and correct the Enigma protection error that has been an issue with a few customers. This is very much on our cross-hairs and we're doing our best to fix it.

FSLabs Application Manager Facility

 
- We have been working on our FSLabs Application Manager facility which will be our one-stop installation and product support facility for our aircraft and liveries. Once this facility goes live, all updates and support of our products will be provided online through this feature.

- We anticipate releasing the FSLabs Application Manager facility sometime after the initial x64 A320-X release.

 
FSLabs A319-X
 
 
- We have been working on the A319-X add-on to our A32X product family. As of today, we expect that the A319-X will be offered on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, but we'll make a more firm commitment on the platforms once the A319-X is at a later beta stage. Pricing for the A319-X will be announced around that time as well.

FSLabs XXXX-X
 
- There is another FSLabs aircraft add-on product in the initial stages of development at the moment. We will not say much more about it however, except that it can take... well... more fuel than the A320-X series :).

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Some more bits of information that I'd like to share with everyone that don't fit our road map above:

- Prepar3D v4 is a major release and as such, it is bound to be followed by a few fixes or updates. We have been working with LM to get some internal simulator functionality exposed and will continue to do so for their later updates. Once those appear, we have a few new lovely features to showcase that we are still keeping secret in our continuing efforts for innovation.

 - A note for our FSLabs A32X Home Cockpit and Professional Versions future customers: We are working with select hardware providers who have been eager to lend us their products so that we can ensure full and correct compatibility. Delays in releasing compatibility kits have been inevitable due to the various simulator platforms being released simultaneously. We hope and expect to have something for our customers by the end of the year.

- We understand that our Concorde-X customers might be feeling a bit left-out with the absence of any information regarding the Concorde-X for P3Dv4. We are looking into that possibility but at the moment, we need to focus entirely on our A32X product line as we need to be very carefully administering our development resources. We would love to revisit the Concorde-X however, so that door is not closed for good yet. We will make a decision on this matter once the new x64 platforms have been stable for awhile.

- Some of our friends noticed that we updated the text on our Facebook page to include Dovetail simulators as part of our target platform group. We enjoy a close relationship with Dovetail developers but at the moment, we do not have any significant news to offer on that front as the platform is still in early release mode.

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As a way of saying thank you very much for your continued support, we added a couple of A320-X images from P3D v4 for your viewing pleasure!

Cheers!