A300 release - A touch of disappointment

[ConcordeAG]

Dear iniBuilds Team,

I am writing to express my disappointment and concerns regarding the recent release of the iniBuilds A300 for MSFS. As a dedicated user and a supporter of your products, I feel compelled to share my experiences and concerns with the hope that they will be addressed.

To begin, I must express my disappointment with the current state of the iniBuilds A300. Despite my positive experiences with the A310 in MSFS and the A300 in X-Plane, the recent release has left much to be desired. Several issues have surfaced, which were not present in the X-Plane version nor in the A310 for MSFS.

One significant issue I have encountered is the behavior of the tiller after landing. The tiller gets overridden by the smallest rudder input, resulting in the plane taxiing straight ahead. This is particularly frustrating, especially when the tiller option is enabled. Such a critical flaw affects the realism and immersion of the simulation.

Furthermore, on my second flight after the update, all displays and systems froze, leaving me with no option for recovery. This is a major concern, as system stability is paramount for a realistic flight simulation experience.

The (felt) rushed release of the iniBuilds A300 has left me highly unhappy, as I believe it falls short of the quality and standards I have come to expect from your team. I have confidence in your capabilities to rectify these issues, and I sincerely hope that the product will reach the standard I anticipated at the time of release.

However, this experience has also made me hesitant about purchasing the iniBuilds A350 immediately upon release. The apparent oversight of obvious bugs in the A300 has led to a loss of confidence in the thoroughness of the testing process. I implore you to take this feedback seriously and consider implementing improvements to prevent similar issues with future releases.

As of now, the A300 remains grounded for me until these issues are addressed. I believe that, given some time, the product will evolve into the high-quality simulation I initially expected.

I have held iniBuilds in high regard, having positive experiences with both the A310 in MSFS and the A300 in X-Plane. I trust that lessons will be learned from this situation, and I look forward to seeing the iniBuilds A300 and future products in a state that aligns with the high standards you have set in the past.

Thank you for your attention to these matters.

[Crabby]

Well, I am very happy and do not see any of the issues that so disappoint you.  So, if it works for me and many others (hundreds on VATSIM yesterday), I think you need to look at your system first.

[Deer-in-Motion]

So far I've had two flights and have seen exactly none of the problems you've reported. So, YMMV.

[Crabby]

Both of the above replies also show the need to troubleshoot the complex base software that we use.  When I troubleshoot, I always assume system, sim, addons other than aircraft, then aircraft.  I log everything I do to the sim in a spreadsheet, and I log my crashes and performance issues and the solution.  Since the day MSFS was release, I have had exactly 18 CTD's.  All but one was the direct result of a freeware livery or airport and in most cases I was not even using them. 

Troubleshooting has become infinitely more complicated due to the dump everything into the community folder.  You can end up with hundreds of addons in there and not even know what you added two years ago.  

If you are on PC and not using Addons Linker from flightsim.to you should.  I have zero physical files in my community folder.  Everything is a symbolic link.  I take about two minutes before I fire up the sim to activate the two airports I am using, the aircraft I will use and the livery I will use.  That's it.  That is all that is my community folder besides 5 or six folders like GSX and Navigraph.  This makes troubleshooting relatively easy.  

Edited January 1 by Crabby

[ConcordeAG]

Gents,

I'm simming since over 20 years. Seen a gazillion of addons and simulators in this time. - If the product works for you, i'm genuinly happy for you. In all these years, i learned how to troubleshoot the various sims. And if i have issues with this product, which work perfectly fine with other products, it's not really the setup. Plus some of the experiences i have, were confirmed by others too. 

Again, if it works for you, i'm happy... @Crabby, since you posted your hardware, what are you using as Tiller?

[Crabby]

14 hours ago, ConcordeAG said:

Gents,

I'm simming since over 20 years. Seen a gazillion of addons and simulators in this time. - If the product works for you, i'm genuinly happy for you. In all these years, i learned how to troubleshoot the various sims. And if i have issues with this product, which work perfectly fine with other products, it's not really the setup. Plus some of the experiences i have, were confirmed by others too. 

Again, if it works for you, i'm happy... @Crabby, since you posted your hardware, what are you using as Tiller?

Besides what I listed, I have the T16000 joystick and throttle quadrant.  The joystick I use for Airbus ops that have a sidestick.  I use the paddle on the back of the TQ for my tiller on all aircraft.  Ignore mess on my desk as I am in full work mode at this time. 

[kityatyi]

I can also confirm the issue with the rudder/tiller (also present on the A310).

What I find surprising is that beta testing did not pinpoint this and a series of other issues, such as the "aircraft overstressed" flight termination as soon as a door is opened.

It appears to be more and more widespread these days that popular YouTubers make a product appear flawless when it is not. Perhaps because of political correctness, they only emphasize the bright side - but this is misleading. YouTubers are not necessarily capable of properly testing a product or identifying issues, regardless of whether they are "real-world pilots" or not.

Simply, a more strict quality assurance is needed. But customers are also responsible for this "new norm" because they appear to be accepting anything less than a  fully release-ready product. Fanboys appear in Forums to "defend" the developers instead of realising that it is in everyone's interest for the product to be immaculate. 

Of course, as long as a developer listens and makes every effort to address bugs, there is no need to panic. The problem is when bugs are not fixed even after they are reported several times, which - as an example - appears to be the case with the A310 tiller/rudder, and behold, the same bug is now plaguing the A300.

I agree with OP that the product appears to be rushed. Bugs like the ones listed should have been picked up during testing. This cannot be explained away - the only explanation is that either the testers are not suitable for their role or their reports were ignored. I spotted the majority of the issues in the first 15 minutes and I did not even make much of an effort.

Customers should demand quality and stop accepting half-baked items.
 

[Crabby]

I see that there have been a few mentions of this, however, how do you explain that a large(r?) number of people don't see this?  Many think that hearing "it works for me" does not help, but it does.  It means that there is some combination of settings and/or equipment that work.  If it is settings, then maybe there is a solution.  In Axis and Ohs I use AXIS_STEERING_SET, with the axis reversed and it runs a range of -16383 to 16383 with a touch of dead zone due to noise in my controller.  I can taxi all over with my feet on the rudders. My rudders are MFG Crosswind and I have a small amount of dead zone on those too.  Most aircraft with tiller also have some degree of nose wheel movement with the rudders also.  

Granted, I am not sure if this translates to the in sim bindings or not.  I have not used them for close to 2 years now.  i don't think this is a lack of testing, I think this is an inability of any developer to take into account all the myriad combinations of equipment available.  It is an impossible taxk. 

[Trevor]

Hi Mark

I see your hardware is very similar to mine - 9700K and a RTX 3070. Would you be willing to share your msfs graphics settings and NCP settings. Curious to see how they compare. I would like to push some settings higher.

Cheers

Trevor

Edited January 7 by Trevor

[JetNoise]

10 hours ago, Trevor said:

Hi Mark

I see your hardware is very similar to mine - 9700K and a RTX 3070. Would you be willing to share your msfs graphics settings and NCP settings. Curious to see how they compare. I would like to push some settings higher.

Cheers

Trevor

I used these as a starter
https://www.flightsimulator.blog/2023/12/04/best-graphics-settings-guide/

It gets updated regulary, too

Don't miss the link to "PERFORMANCE BOOST TRICKS" at the end of that page ...

Key (for me at least) is, don't get triggered by FPS hunting. 
SIM is not a shooter game.
I go mine locked to 30FPS, no lags, no stutters, no greaf ;-)

Oliver

Edited January 7 by JetNoise

[Trevor]

Thanks. I'll have a look. Looks to be quite comprehensive

[Crabby]

On 1/7/2024 at 2:22 AM, Trevor said:

Hi Mark

I see your hardware is very similar to mine - 9700K and a RTX 3070. Would you be willing to share your msfs graphics settings and NCP settings. Curious to see how they compare. I would like to push some settings higher.

Cheers

Trevor

Next time I fire up, I will try to remember to take screen shots of my settings.  From memory, everything is at least on high, running native monitor/tv resolution, DX11 with DLSS turned on.  I updated my nvidia dlss.dll, I am running the latest drivers (I think, need to check them again), when I update drivers, I use DDU and then NVClean install.  My frames are locked at 30 (I believe it actually says 50% refresh rate in the sim, which would be 30).  I don't chase frames.  My criteria is smooth.  I don't run a frame rate counter of any type.  LOD is 100.  I basically use the same KISS philosophy I do with anything else.