Aircraft review: PMDG Boeing 747-400X(from an enthusiast's point of view)
- please move the mouse over the screenshots to zoom into details -
Precision Manuals Development Group (PMDG), the company's name already implies what their products are made for: Making flight simulation as real and complex as it can be! This is what the "Queen of Sky" simulation is following strictly: Flight simulation leaves the toy level using PMDG's B744. After the studies of more than 350 pages of documentation, the user will be fed with the very basic knowledge for flying this big bird. Everything but circuit breaker switches, weather radar and the flight management computer's
The PMDG B744 definetly is not designed for flight simulation beginners and has been tested by real B744 flight crew members of real world airlines. It exceeds by far the simulation capability of Microsoft's Flight Simulator X by providing a "simulation inside the simulation": Fuel system, hydraulical and electrical system, navigational equipment, flight management computer, flight behaviour - everything seems to be balanced and adjusted according real life! 140 system problems and malfunctions are included to the simulation and have to be worked on by the pilot according the abnormal checklist, which is part of the aircraft manual coming with the product.
Depending on the type of B744, three different types of engine are simulated: General Electric, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney - each with different gauge indications (
The graphics are awesome: More than 1200 animated parts inside and outside, bump mapping, bloom and specular lightning and very detailed textures make the PMDG B744 being a state of the art aircraft model. The cockpit panels provide everything from cabin pressure and climate system control to all flight controls,
So what is the major limitation of this simulation? You will never see a B744 operated by a single pilot in real life!
To gain more personal impressions of what flying the PMDG B744 is about, you may have a look at the video tutorial.
No question about it: Although the PMDG B744 was already released in 2008, it still is one of today's elite products available for flight simulation!
Personal recommendations:Since PMDG has released newer models showing even better graphics (i.e. the Boeing 737NGX), there are some really good ways to significantly improve PMDG's Queen:
1. McPhat Studios provide liveries of about 8x higher texture resolution: Every little sign is readable when zooming in very close and the liveries look much more real from far away too!
2. Turbine Sound Studios provide excellent sound sets recorded from the real engines (General Electric, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney) at much better quality!
3. A2A Simulation provides the Shockwave 3D Lights for very realistic light effects!
All these great 3rd party upgrades make the Queen even exceeding latest PMDG product's graphics and sound quality.
For optimized setups of these upgrades please have a look at the B744 by PMDG (FSX) menu.
Marc Westhofen
PMDG B744 homepage: www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/744x.html
Over all product impression: + outstanding complexity and level of realism + state of the art graphics + individual sound set for each engine type configuration (recorded from real world B744s) + plenty of liveries included to the installation DVD; additional liveries available for free download + detailed manual including all major check lists - no completely printed manual (just the very basic information) - requires high hardware performance - price exceeds the one of FSX itself
Minimum system requirements: - Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Service Pack 2 or Acceleration Pack) Recommended system performance:
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