Hello all, it has been a while since the last update or post was made to which I apologize. However, Today marks a big step forward for the Magknight project. This post will go over a few things and be structured as follows:
What has been going on and where have we been?
What have we been doing?
What will we be doing moving forward?
Notes for the release.
What has been going on and where have we been?
This project started as a group that got together to produce a high-fidelity 787 for the X-Plane platform. I started the project to fill in the gap of a 787 that I wanted to fly, Aeroniemi who came in wanting to create the software for a 787 home co*ckpit, Matt who was after a free 787, and Speed who wanted to improve our visuals. This led to the creation of the Magknight 787 Aviators edition. This aviators being our ‘A’ spec aircraft, X-Plane 11 compatible, and making huge efforts in fidelity and functionality. For many years this version stood strong with fast and frequent improvements and additions. Life however got in the way and that saw the end of Aeroniemi’s time at Magknight as his university tasks grew. This left the project without our highly capable programmer and desperate for more help. Around this time Matt moved country and started working for a carrier and I had to take care of my family, suffering the loss of my father last year, while my mother was undergoing a very long treatment.
With X-Plane 12 coming, we started working to update the addon to function within the new simulator. This coincided with when life came to meet us resulting in very little work being completed by the time X-Plane 12 was released. This was the start of the dormancy our users noticed. Myself and Matt kept the lights on in the hope of one day forming a new team and making the Magknight great again but with very little idea on who to call.
So what have we been doing?
Recently we were approached by another team in regards to partnering up to pick up where we left off and create our high-fidelity 787, Of course, we dove at the opportunity. Who this team is will follow in another announcement made by them. While working on this new 787, Matt, in need of a flight model test bed, threw the new.ACF file for the ‘C’ spec rebuild into the old X-Plane 11 787 and to the surprise of everyone, it worked. It fixed our largest issues in bringing the current X-Plane 11 spec 787 to X-Plane 12. With more time and work, This build of the 787 became quite stable completing several UK to Australia test sessions with no issues. As such, This build has taken the place of the long-dead ‘B’ spec or jokingly named Broken spec 787 of our first X-Plane 12 attempt. So where does this take us?
What will we be doing moving forward?
We will be releasing the ‘B’ spec now called the Aviators XP12 to you, This brings you the 787-9 with the -8 to follow very soon. If Matt and I can get the -10 that was half-finished to a complete stage, that will come too. The functionality is set at the peak of the X-Plane 11 builds with features formerly deactivated making their return such as Hoppie CPDLC and our cabin PA system. Is this a perfect build? No, It is purely making what we had work. It is important to note that It will be maintained to keep the current functionality. That is because we will be working with our new partners on the ‘C’ spec. You are welcome to speculate on what the name of this rather Taurus project will be. This ‘C’ spec is an almost from scratch do-over taking what we’ve learned from the Aviators builds and doing it again to a much higher quality with the latest X-Plane 12 technologies at hopefully little to no extra cost to our existing users. I am very excited to show you more however this will be in a follow-up post made over the next few weeks.
And now just over two years after the last update, We get to the big news everyone has been waiting for. Today we have sent the next build to the store for a wide release to you. A member of the team will make a post when it has gone live. We hope you enjoy dusting off your 787s and cruising the world.
Important notes for this build - V1.11.0 X-Plane 12 Only
Do NOT run Skunkcrafts Updater.
- Repaired EFB W/B
- Reactivated Hoppie CPDLC
- Reactivated Cabin PA system
- Introduced X-Plane 12 native compatibility
- Minor improvements to performance
- New ‘C’ spec Flight Model
- New control logic
- Controls override plugin to fix roll issues.
- New Wing model
- Interim FBW augmentation mode
This build unfortunately is not perfect, It has a few things to note, These being:
- Inaccurate Flaps reading on EICAS
- Unified GE/RR Thrust and performance
- Functionality within MacOS and Linux can not be verified
- FMOD error on launch, Clicking understood moves past it
Work is still underway to rectify these issues.
I'd like also to take a moment to give a huge thank you to Jacob ‘Old Gregg’ for creating our override script, Austin Meyers for helping Matt fix a dataref issue at 5 am and our testing team for all the hours they've spent trying to build after build.
I would finally like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported this project over the years. I accept that we have harmed the trust you’ve given us over the last few years and now we are back and will work our best to re-earn it. The future is looking bright. High flying and soft landings to you all. Please post your questions below and either myself or Matt will respond. I am sure we have not been able to cover everything in this post.
