TFDi Design made a bit of a stir last December when they opened a limited pre-sale for their highly-anticipated MD-11 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This was met with mixed reactions from simmers, who didn’t understand the need for such a move from the developers when the project was still in very active development and a long way from being finished.
Still, the pre-sale proved to be a big success for TFDi, who sold all the 1000 available “copies” in just… 10 hours! With roughly $80,000 dollars in their pockets, TFDi found themselves with more resources to continue to develop the MD-11 up to the level they promised, which is very high. “Beyond study-level“, they said.
These and other very interesting tidbits from what’s going on behind the scenes at TFDi Design were unveiled this weekend in a long interview given by Collin Biedenkapp, TFDi Design’s CEO, to the Closed Traffic Podcast.
Collin discussed the pre-sale of MD-11, the team’s goal with the whole ordeal, and the reception it had in the community. Collins acknowledged the mixed reactions but provided objective justifications for their decision. This is a very ambitious project, whose complexity and level of detail Collin details during the interview, and TFDi aims to provide users with an experience that is as close to the real thing as possible. The pre-sale was a step towards achieving that goal, and the team is determined to continue the development process until they are satisfied with the final product.
As far as the project as a whole, Colin revealed that the team’s progress has been a bit of a mixed bag, with important advancements in some key areas but unexpected slow-downs in others. The displays, in particular, were a “nightmare“. Colin gave credit to Asobo and the MSFS team for all the help they provided when TFDi needed it.
“Credit to Asobo and the team over there for promptly and thoroughly fixing several problems we found with the SDK […] that’s been really amazing so far. It has slowed us down a little bit, but […] it would be a little bit hypocritical of me to complain about the product because the developers (Asobo) are doing something they care. They’re showing that they care”, Colin said.
The full video is filled with details about the very, very impressive systems TFDi is building in the MD-11 and is well worth a look if you have a deep interest in this project and its development. The cherry on top of the cake was a few preview images of the MD-11’s cockpit in a state that we haven’t seen before. Find them in the video above just after the 1-hour mark, some of which we share below in higher resolution, as provided by TFDi through their communication channels
In the end, TFDi’s MD-11 is still on track for a release in September. A beta is promised to be available until the end of June.
