Whatever happened to Laminar?

[olderndirt]

August first and not a shred of evidence they still exist.

[Medellinexpat]

I have recently, thanks to Org store sales bought several new GA aircraft and have been flying around the summer skies of the UK and California, or at least the Orbx representations of them. And it has been very pleasant indeed. It might be my imagination but some of the recent Nvidia drivers also seem pretty good. Which led me to the thought that XP11 is really not bad at all, and (unlike many video games and simulations) I still have a lot more to do, to learn and improve - although my landings seem a lot more consistent these days. Then when I come online I read all of the calls for more news and a release date for XP12 and I wonder why. Perhaps XP12 out of the box will be better, but then like many releases it might take a few iterations. Now in XP11 unlike in MSFS I cannot really see my house, nor fly around a more accurate version of say London. But then XP11 does many other things better to compensate. And then there’s all my investment in XP11, not just the money but the time and the tweaking and learning it to a decent depth - although there is always more to learn.

So yes, XP12 would be nice, if only to get developers some much needed new sales. But in the interim I’ll just virtually fly, rather than seeking snippets from forums and videos. How does Guernsey to Swansea sound for this afternoon for example? Pleasant enough weather, but a little wet in the arrival perhaps?

[olderndirt]

As you say, XP11 is running well but, once my appetite was whetted with some of Laminar's new and improved features for XP12, my little anticipation clock started the mental countdown.  Lack of status information and release date has tended to curb my enthusiasm but, rest assured, never MSFS.

[Medellinexpat]

Hear you. One of the good things about Laminar (or the frustration) is that it is not a big corporate shop. Watch those presentation videos and we all know we are not going the mainstream route. Give Austin the chance and he will wobble on about everything that interest him and skip anything everyone else might ask. We all know that when released XP12 will instantly be benchmarked, at least in look against MSFS and we all know what the result of that will be. But for the faithful the improvements might open up the pocketbooks and keep them loyal. What XP12 cannot afford is lots of issues on release. MSFS other than the eye candy and the corporate campaign was hardly a tidy release but people like Microsoft are set up to manage those bumps. Laminar aren’t. The worst outcome is a repeat of the MD-11 saga. Years of built up anticipation that Rotate did nothing to manage (instead maintaining radio silence) and then when it came, part broken, a flurry of upset first adopters.