End of Development for STB for Prepar3D version prior to P3D V4.4 and all editions of Flight Simulator X

[flying-w]

To keep pace with the market, the needs of the majority of users and make the best use of time, we have decided to end STB development for the older simulator products, including:

• Prepar3D V1;
• Prepar3D V2;
• Prepar3D V3;
• Prepar3D V4.0 through V4.3;
• Microsoft Flight Simulator X (in all forms including Steam Edition);

If one of these is your simulator, you can continue to enjoy and use STB as it stands today and we recommend you install the latest updates relevent to each version.  STB will continue to be available for purchase on the older platforms, however I won't be making any more changes to the software, addressing defects and support will be limited to know issues. That said, I may still publish content updates (for example airline logos and flight codes) as the various AI packages available continue to evolve.

Prepar3D V4.4 is our fully supported platform for STB, and I expect resolution of bugs and new feature introduction to be focussed here.

Many thanks,

Simon

[freaknout]

Hi Simon

I’m not using STB at the moment but I just wanted to say thank you for your ongoing work. I think your decision makes complete sense. 

Kind regards

Jason

[flying-w]

Thanks for your understanding, there's only so much of me to go around and this enables me to focus on the good stuff in Prepar3D.

Simon

[flying-w]

Updated following the decision to retire STB for (all editions of) Flight Simulator X from active development.  It's been an incredible journey over the last 11 years, but the time has come to focus my efforts on the "current" Prepar3D platform.  Please see the above for details on what this means to you, which given the maturity of the product I would say is little if any.

 

Thanks
Simon

[Aussie1234]

Hello Simon,

As one of the very satisfied users I just want to thank you. My large (24 inch, soon going to salvaged 40 inch) Departure and Arrival boards get great comments whenever anyone visits my cockpit.

I've continuously updated P3D (now on 4.4) to take advantage of new improvements, many that are out of sight to me, but improve the siming experience.

Can you let us in on any new improvements you can see being implemented, now that you are concentrating on the latest version of P3D? or is it a case of, thankfully, keeping only one rig up to date and not bug fixing problems on older rigs?

Regards,

Aussie 

[diceflo]

Can you tell me what the last version is going to be for P3D V4.3. I thought there was a new version in beta but I haven't been able to install it. There is a link to download it but I only get some weird  file that I don't know what to do with. I guess it's time to bite the bullet and update to 4.4 but I am not thrilled about it.  Nevertheless, when you update then I update.

[flying-w]

21 hours ago, diceflo said:

Can you tell me what the last version is going to be for P3D V4.3. I thought there was a new version in beta but I haven't been able to install it. There is a link to download it but I only get some weird  file that I don't know what to do with. I guess it's time to bite the bullet and update to 4.4 but I am not thrilled about it.  Nevertheless, when you update then I update.

From an STB perspective there's little difference between Prepar3D V4.3 and V4.4.  What I'd expect is the both the official updates and betas will probably all work just fine with Prepar3D V4.3 as indeed they do with Prepar3D V4.4.  In others words "STB for Prepar3D V4" should work with both P3D V4.3 and V4.4

That said, if we do come across problems I'd need them to be reproduced in Prepar3D V4.4 so I can be sure I'm not chasing ghosts.

If you are having problems with a link, you'll need to tell me which one.

Thanks

Simon

 

[diceflo]

I have been trying to download the update link for the latest beta but when it downloads it's a file format that I never heard of. I thought there would be a zip file to install with the latest version but it's just a empty file. Maybe I am not the best with these kind of things but I don't seem to getting a file I can use. Other people seem to have downloaded it fine but I can't. Thanks

[flying-w]

21 hours ago, diceflo said:

I have been trying to download the update link for the latest beta but when it downloads it's a file format that I never heard of. I thought there would be a zip file to install with the latest version but it's just a empty file. Maybe I am not the best with these kind of things but I don't seem to getting a file I can use. Other people seem to have downloaded it fine but I can't. Thanks

Tell me the link you are using please?

Thanks
Simon

[flying-w]

On 1/13/2019 at 9:16 PM, Aussie1234 said:

Hello Simon,

As one of the very satisfied users I just want to thank you. My large (24 inch, soon going to salvaged 40 inch) Departure and Arrival boards get great comments whenever anyone visits my cockpit.

I've continuously updated P3D (now on 4.4) to take advantage of new improvements, many that are out of sight to me, but improve the siming experience.

Can you let us in on any new improvements you can see being implemented, now that you are concentrating on the latest version of P3D? or is it a case of, thankfully, keeping only one rig up to date and not bug fixing problems on older rigs?

Regards,

Aussie 

Can't really talk about new features which may or may not come to light.  The only one I'm prepared to hint at is doing something with AI boats.  Whatever that turns out to be, if anything, will be a straightforward and simple implementation as SimConnect does not have much to say about them.  Otherwise keeping up to date with the platform is most definitely important.  No dobut when Prepar3D V5 comes along, there will be some new .net requirement at least.

Simon

[diceflo]

 

Here's the next beta update for STB for Prepar3D V4, with the following changes since the last official update:

Summary of Changes in V4.2.2018.34400

·         Update Make Runways utilities to V4.8.6.4.

·         Deploy all files associated with Make Runways, not just the .exe file.

·         Added Lorbi-SI redistributables to the Make Runways package included with STB.

·         Added dialog describing the Make Runways related redistributables with links to author webpages and readmes.

·         Removed MakeRunways prerequisite info dialogue.  A separate Lorbi-SI install to support Make Runways is no longer mandatory.

·         Tolerate the presence of P3D "AddOn" related entries in the scenery library configuration file.

·         Completed the new Content Error Reporting system to capture STB errors relating to simulator content (Scenery Library, SimObjects, Schedules and Airports).

·         Added debug to catch and better explain any exceptions occurring during instantiation of the P3DFileHelper class that are directed to the Windows Event Log

·         Added atc_type and atc_model values to Flying-W Invisible Aircraft to avoid Simulator and STB Content Errors.

·         Fixed incorrect aircraft counts at airports mentioned in a user aircraft flight plan.

Summary of Changes in V4.2.2018.26800

·     Phase 1 of the STB Content Error Reporting system.  Content errors are problems with data content such as errors with logos, airports or traffic schedules.  Content Errors can be suppressed or reported in dialogue via Trace Settings in the UI.  Phase 1 adds logo related errors to the reporting system.

·     Fixed bug where calculating departed at times for departure remarks could cause an exception.  If insufficient data exists to make the calculation, it no longer happens.

·     Bug Fix: Predicted and materialized AI flights failed to reconcile and created duplicate flights on the board for schedule repeat periods less than a day and for the 2nd or greater repeat period within a day.

·         Bug Fix: Added exception handling to the methods that handle callbacks from Simconnect that would otherwise fail silently.
Bug Fix: Obtain user SimObjectID from simulator instead of defaulting value.

·      Bug Fix: Correctly round schedule times to the nearest minute instead of always rounding down.

 

• You can download the STB Client update from here:  http://bit.ly/2UFjRGq
• And the STB Data Server combined update and installer from here (only required on the Prepar3D computer when running STB Client on a separate computer: http://bit.ly/2B6AYrD

Lots of good stuff here, and it's no longer necessary to install the Lorby add-on organiser as a pre-requisite for Make Runways (although there are other good reasons to do so beyond STB).

Until next year, happy Christmas and a prosperous new year!

http://bit.ly/2UFjRGq

[flying-w]

Yes, I think the problem in your case is you don't have 7zip installed.  If Windows does not recognise the file extension, I'll need to recreate it as a .zip file.  I'll do that sometime this week.

Simon

[Aussie1234]

AI Boats... Sounds intriguing .....

Will it be able to emulate say a typical Australian Day from 9:45AM to 1:45PM 🙂

 

Just kidding 🙂

 

Aussie 

[Powderpuff]

On 1/14/2019 at 10:23 PM, flying-w said:

From an STB perspective there's little difference between Prepar3D V4.3 and V4.4.  What I'd expect is the both the official updates and betas will probably all work just fine with Prepar3D V4.3 as indeed they do with Prepar3D V4.4.  In others words "STB for Prepar3D V4" should work with both P3D V4.3 and V4.4

That said, if we do come across problems I'd need them to be reproduced in Prepar3D V4.4 so I can be sure I'm not chasing ghosts.

If you are having problems with a link, you'll need to tell me which one.

Thanks

Simon

 

Indeed STB works perfect with Prepar3d 4.4!!

[flying-w]

On 1/20/2019 at 8:47 PM, Aussie1234 said:

AI Boats... Sounds intriguing .....

Will it be able to emulate say a typical Australian Day from 9:45AM to 1:45PM 🙂

Just kidding 🙂

 

Aussie 

Considering the trouble these simulators have managing aircraft on final approach and taxi, one can only imagine the same chaos for boats!  Love the video, the only boat to get any respect is the Carrier!

[flying-w]

On 1/24/2019 at 8:17 AM, Powderpuff said:

Indeed STB works perfect with Prepar3d 4.4!!

Always glad of positive feedback (and negative too I guess!)