In what has become one of the most persistent frustrations in MSFS 2024, WASM crashes continue to shadow PMDG’s otherwise strong lineup on the platform. This week, the developer’s founder Robert Randazzo used his regular community briefing to lay out just how much of the company’s resources are going into tracking down something nobody fully understands yet… apparently, not even the platform developer.
But there’s good news buried in there too, and a teaser at the end that 747 fans will want to read.
Fleet updates coming Tuesday
First, the practical stuff. A new build for both the 737 and 777 fleets is currently in testing and expected to roll out on Tuesday for PMDG.com customers. The update targets a persistent navdata issue affecting PMDG/Navigraph users, primarily on Xbox. If the fix doesn’t fully resolve the problem, PMDG says the build at least improves diagnostic logging, which will help both teams narrow it down. Also included are fixes for broken METAR reporting, a side-effect of PMDG taking their old GFO server offline at the end of May, and some new hardware accessor functions for peripheral developers looking to tie into control surfaces more tightly.
Microsoft Marketplace users should expect the update to arrive late next week for PC and early the following week for Xbox, pending the usual approval pipeline.
The DC-6 WASM situation
The DC-6 for MSFS 2024 has been hit by a WASM crash affecting a subset of users. PMDG has assembled a small group of affected users and is running rapid test builds to try to isolate the cause. It’s a closed investigation for now. In the meantime, PMDG is holding back the DC-6 from the Microsoft Marketplace specifically to avoid making the situation harder to diagnose with a larger, less communicative user base.
PMDG’s “WASM Crash Moonshot”
This is where the update pulls no punches. Randazzo describes a company-wide effort, involving nearly every developer at PMDG, to go through their entire codebase looking for anything that might trigger a WASM crash. He’s calling it internally their “WASM Crash Moonshot,” and admits that thousands of man-hours have already been spent on it, with no guarantee it will fully solve the problem.
The surprising main difficulty, as he explains it, is that seemingly nobody in the development community, PMDG included, knows with certainty what causes a WASM crash. It could be something in their code. It might not be. It could be a platform issue. It could be resource conflicts between multiple add-ons sharing memory. Randazzo says questions directed at Asobo/Microsoft on the topic go unanswered, which he reads as a sign that even the platform developer doesn’t have a definitive answer.
The outcome of all this work has been focused on the 737 internally, with the DC-6 receiving a parallel investigation. PMDG is also sharing whatever they learn with peer developers, hoping someone in the community lands on the breakthrough.
It’s an honest admission that this is a problem without a clean solution in sight, and Randazzo is clearly worried about the effect on community morale and willingness to spend money on premium add-ons if instability is seen as an accepted part of the experience. Very valid concerns.
The 747 is coming
After all of that, Randazzo rounds off with something considerably more exciting. Now that the 777, 737, and DC-6 are all on MSFS 2024, the team’s development roadmap has started moving again, and the 747 is next.
He says the aircraft is “rapidly approaching alpha testing,” which at PMDG means the aircraft can complete a full flight assignment without falling over. Details on features are being held back deliberately, with proper reveals planned as the release gets closer. Randazzo says he’s “exceedingly pleased” with where it’s heading.
This is the first substantial signal that the 747 is moving from background work to active development milestones. We’ve been watching the 747 tease for a while now, going back to when it was spotted lurking behind 777 imagery, so it’s good to finally see a concrete stage mentioned.
More details will come as PMDG gets closer to release. For now, it’s exciting to know the Queen of the Skies is actually in motion!
