TFDi Design: Announcing PACX

[Asid]

Update 0.9.90.0 (3 March 2020)


First Beta of Version 1.0

•   [ADDED] More flight attendant requests
•   [ADDED] Many more verbal destination announcements
•   [ADDED] Cabin light dimming announcement
•   [ADDED] Ability to indicate if the aircraft has an IFE system
•   [ADDED] Ability to make humorous public addresses
•   [ADDED] Ability to announce the passing of a point of interest
•   [ADDED] Confirmation before closing PACX with a flight in progress
•   [ADDED] Prompt to reconnect after simulator connection is lost before cancelling the flight
•   [ADDED] DTNH, WAHQ, and WICA airports
•   [ADDED] Support for the PMDG 737 NGXu seatbelt sign and cockpit controls
•   [ADDED] Ability to specify in-flight service type on a per-flight basis
•   [ADDED] Block time tracking and reporting
•   [ADDED] Planned departure, actual departure, and flight time display to reports
•   [ADDED] Colors to represent various information and statuses on the passenger viewer
•   [ADDED] Support for direct reading of the QualityWings 787 seatbelt sign
•   [FIXED] Certain announcements playing out of order
•   [FIXED] A crash on initial flight start due to incident loading
•   [FIXED] An issue preventing PACXBridge from working in FSX Acceleration
•   [FIXED] An issue potentially preventing passenger counts from being read from the FlightConfiguration.xml
•   [FIXED] Incorrect boarding status audio response
•   [FIXED] Inability to enter a decimal minute by itself
•   [FIXED] Time to arrival counting down during deboarding
•   [FIXED] Incorrect automatic seatbelt sign behavior on certain aircraft
•   [FIXED] A typo in the folder creation system
•   [FIXED] Incorrect calculation of time at the departure airport
•   [FIXED] Minor sentence formatting issue
•   [FIXED] Ability to have passenger complaints about being both early and late
•   [FIXED] Incorrect loading of estimated departure time from stored flight reports
•   [CHANGED] Improved volume and timing of audio files
•   [CHANGED] Departure and arrival delays are now handled and complained about separately
•   [CHANGED] Passengers can now be impacted by boredom dependent on available entertainment
•   [CHANGED] Seatbelt sign assistance now defaults to "Partial"
•   [CHANGED] Improved boarding music logic
•   [CHANGED] The cabin can no longer be ready until the safety briefing/video has finished
•   [CHANGED] A time entered as a whole number and no denotation is now considered to be in hours
•   [CHANGED] Improved vocal recognition code and user experience slightly

[Asid]

PACX development update
Posted on May 4, 2020 by Collin Biedenkapp


PACX
We are using the feedback we received from the community survey to develop and refine the product. We have some cool items in progress that should be ready for testing in the near future. Our intent is to wrap up a solid version 1.0 over the next 3 to 6 weeks and complete the Early Access phase of the product’s life.

[Asid]

Update 20 May 2020

Collin Biedenkapp

We've added quite a few more metrics to PACX in the next update:

[Asid]

0.9.91.0 (28 May 2020)




Collin Biedenkapp

"We have released version 0.9.91.0 of PACX! This brings a bunch of sound improvements, additions, and fixes. It also introduces PACX HUD - the first iteration of our new in-sim overlay! Update PACX today or grab a copy at https://pacx.online/  "

The Feedback Update
•   [ADDED] In-sim overlay/HUD
•   [ADDED] Native Prepar3D v5 PACXBridge support
•   [ADDED] Ability to close popups and flyouts with the Escape key
•   [ADDED] Several new comment types
•   [ADDED] Eight new statistics
•   [ADDED] Percentage of satisfaction display*
•   [ADDED] Close PACX button to the main menu
•   [ADDED] Ability to select incident frequency
•   [FIXED] Passengers not properly eating and drinking
•   [FIXED] Emergency status indication not appearing
•   [FIXED] Popups/flyouts occasionally opening off-screen
•   [FIXED] Improperly named deboarding expedite event
•   [FIXED] An issue preventing extreme flying from being detected
•   [FIXED] An issue preventing reconnection to the simulator under some conditions
•   [FIXED] Boarding music logic
•   [FIXED] Incorrect vocal input auto-accept behavior
•   [FIXED] Incorrect vocal input default fallback
•   [FIXED] Several incorrect sounds
•   [FIXED] Closing a flight report from the records page returning to the main menu
•   [FIXED] Incorrect sorting of flight reports
•   [FIXED] Instability under certain conditions relating to network-based events
•   [FIXED] Possible crash relating to certain record update operations
•   [FIXED] Inability to announce certain cities
•   [FIXED] Excessive time taken to process record uploads
•   [FIXED] Incorrect connection behavior under certain conditions in the PACXConnection.cpp file
•   [FIXED] Incorrect wording of unexpected arrival delays
•   [FIXED] Inability to connect to the simulator under certain scenarios
•   [CHANGED] Ending a flight under normal conditions no longer requires additional confirmation
•   [CHANGED] Revised/improved sound volume and length
•   [CHANGED] Time entry is now split into hours and minutes
•   [CHANGED] Flight reports now show dates and times
•   [CHANGED] Boarding music now stops at pushback
•   [CHANGED] Removed Extreme Taxi event
•   [CHANGED] Widened end of flight report UI
•   [CHANGED] Changed sound loading to avoid delays between spliced audio
 
*Although we originally opted not to show the exact percentage, after review, we determined it would help users better understand how the application is working.

[Asid]

0.9.96.0 (27 July 2020)


•   [ADDED] ENSB airport
•   [FIXED] In-flight meal service sound not playing
•   [FIXED] Cabin lights dimmed announcement playing the wrong sound
•   [FIXED] A UI centering issue
•   [FIXED] Missing spaces in certain in-sim messages
•   [FIXED] "0 minutes" being announced as a flight length
•   [FIXED] Incorrect logic for medical incident sounds
•   [FIXED] Medical incidents not preventing in-flight service
•   [FIXED] Lack of response to requests to expedite cabin services
•   [CHANGED] Significantly improved record loading system to reduce RAM consumption and decrease load time
•   [CHANGED] Boarding issues are now announced to the crew automatically (and do not require you to ask)
•   [CHANGED] Improved "hour" and "hours" sound for flight times
•   [CHANGED] Extended time required for the cabin to be ready for departure
•   [CHANGED] Improved FSUIPC detection
 


0.9.94.0 (2 July 2020)
•   [ADDED] simBrief integration
•   [ADDED] Discord Rich Presence support
•   [ADDED] Data file export support
•   [FIXED] The wrong career rank name appearing during promotions
•   [FIXED] Time displaying minutes as a single "0" when loaded/imported
•   [FIXED] Unreasonable complaints or announcements caused by certain delays
•   [FIXED] Some sounds not playing due to improper naming
•   [CHANGED] Settings now auto-save without an apply button
•   [CHANGED] The preconfigured flight is now deleted when a flight is completed fully
•   [CHANGED] The flight crew is now made aware of boarding incidents without having to ask

[Asid]

PACX is officially released and out of early access!
31 July 2020




PACX seeks to bring the feeling of responsibility and the significance of traveling with passengers and crew to your simulator. You can interact with your passengers and crew in real-time, handle in-flight incidents, get realistic feedback from your passengers, and track your flights and career. With PACX, you can make every flight unique in any major simulator platform on any commercially operated aircraft.

Learn more about PACX at http://pacx.online

[Asid]

PACX version 1.0 is now available!
04 Aug 2020



PACX version 1.0 is now available! Over the last year, we've added a ton of new features, fixed a lot of reports from users, and refined the experience to be as easy and functional as possible.

If you're an existing PACX user, be sure to update it to the latest version!

If you're new to PACX and you're ready to hear announcements including your actual flight number and destination, want to handle in-flight incidents, interact in real-time with your passengers and crew, and track your flights as you progress through your career, check out http://pacx.online/.


1.0.0.0 (31 July 2020)

•   [ADDED] Boarding/deboarding ambient sound
•   [FIXED] Incorrect average passenger age statistic

[Asid]

1.0.4.0a3* (18 September 2020)
Third Testing Version of Version 1.1

•   [ADDED] Cabin view layout, this is accessible through the passenger section in the flight menu
    o   Satisfaction of passengers will be represented by the colour on the display, green meaning happy and red meaning upset or anxious.
    o   Clicking on the passenger will highlight them on the text list and display their statistics on the right side of the screen.
    o   Passengers will board the plane in relation to your boarding speed.
    o   The crew will provide in-flight service to passengers through the flight if an in-flight service is expected.
    o   Passengers related to in-flight incidents will be highlighted in red to make them stand out.
•   [ADDED] Direct Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 support for the PACX HUD through PACXBridgeMSFS.
•   [FIXED] Fixed hotkeys/menus to avoid summoning vocal and interaction menus while not in a flight.
•   [FIXED] Window title of PACX being incorrectly displayed as "MainWindow".
•   [FIXED] Joystick assignments that have been cleared no longer act as if they w.ere never cleared.

In order to facilitate these new aircraft layouts and improve user experience, we have updated our asset creation and development guide.

The asset creation guide can be found here:  https://forums.tfdidesign.com/index.php?/topic/4956-adding-aircraft-flight-comments-and-names-to-pacx/



The development guide can be found here: https://forums.tfdidesign.com/index.php?/topic/4955-pacx-development-guide/
*The features in this version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new



1.0.3.0b2 (8 September 2020)
Second Testing Version of Version 1.1

•   [FIXED] An issue with hotkey detection
•   [CHANGED] Sound devices and certain sound operations are now logged


 
1.0.1.0b1 (4 September 2020)
First Testing Version of Version 1.1

•   [ADDED] Added ability to map joystick/controller buttons
•   [ADDED] Added percent completion of in-flight service
•   [ADDED] Added Microsoft Flight Simulator information to first-time setup
•   [FIXED] Fixed inability to view pending flights before upload
•   [FIXED] Fixed deboarding ambient sound playing after flight completion
•   [CHANGED] In-flight service suspension now has a cooldown to prevent erronious continuation
•   [CHANGED] Improved hotkey detection

[Asid]

New feature
09/17/2020

From Collin Biedenkapp (Dev)

We have an exciting new feature coming to PACX this week! Expected this week (into beta) is a totally new cabin simulation! This means all passengers and crew are represented by actual "people" in the plane.




Key points:

-100% customizable - any aircraft, any class configuration, (and even any number of floors, as shown by the 747 layout above). You can add and edit the cabin layout any time.
-AI-path-finding causes passengers to react to, and wait for, each other to load bags, find seats, etc.
-Smooth and realistic - we've hand tuned (and will continued doing so) the numbers and behavior of the passengers and crew to be realistic and efficient.
-You can click a passenger to see them in the list, or select them in the list to highlight them in the cabin
-Their colors indicate their current satisfaction

All internal PACX features, such as boarding, deboarding, in-flight service, etc. have been/are being modified to be based off of the simulation of the passengers - the cabin is not just for show. Expect to see this update available via beta in the coming days!

[Asid]

[25SEP2020] PACX Development Update
From the devs

Passenger and Crew Experience
If you haven’t kept up to date with our beta testing, PACX has some awesome new features that are available for testers in our Discord server in the #pacx-testers channel. Let’s summarise the new features!

MSFS 2020 Compatibility
Testing has recently been completed in which the all-new PACX HUD and PACXBridge were made compatible with MSFS 2020. We are pleased to report that all tests were hugely successful and the opt-in community testing helped us polish it up.



Cabin Layouts and Passenger Simulations
One of the more-requested features of PACX in recent months was the ability to view passengers as they walk through the cabin of the aircraft within the application. If they are boarding and trying to find their seat, or even going to the toilet, you will see the passenger “dot” moving around in real-time!

These cabin layouts are also not static and have been designed to make them customisable! This allows you, as a user, to create your own cabin layout at any time, for any aircraft in any configuration. The passenger simulation aims to be as smooth and realistic as possible so that the behaviour of your passengers and crew are as realistic and efficient as possible. You also have the opportunity to click any passenger to find them on the list, and their colour will change depending on their current satisfaction!

To make this even better, all features of PACX have been adjusted to be based on the passenger simulation. Internal features such as boarding, de-boarding, in-flight service etc. have all been made to work around the new simulation giving more significance to the cabin simulation.



We have also been asked various questions about how to customise flight comments, names and cabin layouts. We have also been asked about how the career mode works. To alleviate your worries, the following forum posts will make things much easier for you to understand!



Adding aircraft, flight comments and names to PACX
September 18

Adding Data to PACX (since Version 1.0.4.0a3) Adding Data to PACX is simple, and takes little time. This guide will outline how to add aircraft (along with their respective seating plan), adding new airports, a...
https://forums.tfdidesign.com/index.php?/topic/4956-adding-aircraft-flight-comments-and-names-to-pacx/


PACX Career Progression and Class System
September 23

Hello guys! We have had a few questions asked regarding the rank progression system within PACX. I will now explain each rank individually below, as well as the requirements in order to be promoted within ...
https://forums.tfdidesign.com/index.php?/topic/4964-pacx-career-progression-and-class-system/

[Asid]

1.0.12.0b11 (30 September 2020)

Tenth Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [ADDED] All remaining default PACX aircraft cabins
•   [ADDED] Revised hungry, thirsty and sleeping wording on the cabin view
•   [FIXED] SimBrief importing using block time instead of air time
•   [FIXED] Remaining time counting down after landing
•   [FIXED] Possibility to have delays generated after landing
•   [FIXED] Repetitive error message from PACXBridgeMSFS under some conditions
•   [FIXED] 0 byte record files causing PACX to crash
•   [FIXED] PACXBridgeMSFS not working when MSFS2020 is running as an administrator
•   [CHANGED] Pending uploads that already exist in the cache are now discarded
•   [CHANGED] Online flight records will now display the information relating to the career they were flown on
•   [CHANGED] PACX record files are now validated internally to attempt to repair/prevent errors automatically


1.0.11.0a10* (28 September 2020)
Ninth Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [FIXED] Passenger bathroom behaviour, causing many passengers to stand up at once to go to the bathroom.

*This version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new


1.0.10.0a9* (25 September 2020)
Eight Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [ADDED] New volume sliders for cabin announcements, boarding music and cabin announcements in the settings dialogue.
•   [ADDED] Cabin validator which will return improved errors on cabins. This feature will detect cabins with unwalkable areas and disable them to prevent passengers and cabin crew freezing in place.
•   [FIXED] Random passenger behaviours and increasing values for their factors over time.
   o   This will resolve issues involving all passengers of the aircraft standing up and wishing to use the bathroom at the same time.
•   [FIXED] Behaviour relating to app focus and app disappearing.
•   [CHANGED] Simulator menu will now show "Show/Hide PACX" instead of "Show PACX".

*This version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new


1.0.9.0a8* (24 September 2020)
Seventh Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [FIXED] Most EU countries receiving unneeded customs announcements
•   [FIXED] An issue causing passengers/crew to attempt to walk over unreachable cabin locations
•   [FIXED] An issue causing reduced pathfinding options for passengers/crew
•   [FIXED] An issue preventing the passengers/crew from diagonally navigating when needed

*This version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new


1.0.8.0a7* (23 September 2020)
Sixth Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [ADDED] Ability to report cabin/in-flight service freezes via the cabin view
•   [FIXED] Show/hide popup not hiding the application
*This version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new


1.0.7.0a6* (22 September 2020)
Fifth Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [ADDED] Error message which is displayed if vocal recognition is unavailable.
•   [ADDED] Update alerts for all release channels (beta and alpha channels).
•   [FIXED] Crash relating to cabin grid mesh.
•   [CHANGED] Flight phase will now be logged on change.

*This version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new


1.0.6.0a5* (21 September 2020)
Fourth Testing Version of Version 1.1
•   [FIXED] Crew will sometimes permanently wonder around the cabin, without stopping.
•   [FIXED] In-flight service not advancing.
•   [FIXED] Low PACX HUD performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS2020).
•   [FIXED] A scenario causing passengers to be unable to navigate the cabin.
•   [CHANGED] Aircraft with incompatible adjacent cell counts will be logged and ignored. This issue would sometimes prevent passengers from boarding the virtual cabin.

*The this version is an alpha, meaning that bugs and issues are likely and will occur. If you find a bug, please open up a new ticket at https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/tickets/new

[Asid]

It is with great pleasure that we announce the release of PACX Version 1.1!
12 Oct 2020



This marks the end of major development of PACX as it becomes fully stable and working based on unique user feedback received during the testing process up until now! With working cabin simulation and full support of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, we bring to you the most advanced Passenger and Crew Simulation Tool on the market!

To get your hands on PACX, simply head to https://pacx.online/ and order a copy!


V1.1.0.0changelog (12 October 2020)

•   [ADDED] Display of percent completion of in-flight service
•   [ADDED] Microsoft Flight Simulator information to first-time setup
•   [ADDED] Ability to map joystick/controller buttons
•   [ADDED] Cabin view layout
•   [ADDED] PACX HUD support for Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS 2020)
•   [ADDED] Error message which is displayed if vocal recognition is unavailable
•   [ADDED] Volume sliders for cabin announcements, boarding music and cabin announcements
•   [FIXED] Inability to detect higher cruise altitudes
•   [FIXED] Voice recognition language requiring English (United States) as the priority language
•   [FIXED] Crash relating to empty name list
•   [FIXED] Passengers eating/drinking less than required
•   [FIXED] 0 byte record files causing PACX to crash
•   [FIXED] Possibility to have delays generated after landing
•   [FIXED] Remaining time counting down after landing
•   [FIXED] SimBrief importing using block time instead of air time
•   [FIXED] Most EU countries receiving unneeded customs announcements
•   [FIXED] Flight phase will now be logged on change
•   [FIXED] Window title of PACX being incorrectly displayed as "MainWindow"
•   [FIXED] Hotkeys/menus to avoid summoning vocal and interaction menus while not in a flight.
•   [FIXED] Deboarding ambient sound playing after flight completion
•   [FIXED] Inability to view pending flights before upload
•   [CHANGED] Successive point of interest and humorous public addresses unreasonably increasing satisfaction
•   [CHANGED] PACX is no longer the topmost window
•   [CHANGED] Autohide is now disabled by default
•   [CHANGED] Tweaked happiness benefit of point of interest and humorous public addresses
•   [CHANGED] In-flight service suspension now has a cooldown to prevent erroneous continuation
•   [CHANGED] Flights stuck in climb will automatically advance the flight phase to cruise
•   [CHANGED] PACX record files are now validated internally to attempt to repair/prevent errors automatically
•   [CHANGED] Revised hungry, thirsty and sleeping wording on the cabin view
•   [CHANGED] Simulator menu will now show "Show/Hide PACX" instead of "Show PACX"
•   [CHANGED] Sound devices and certain sound operations are now logged
•   [CHANGED] Improved hotkey detection

[Asid]

Update 1.2.1a2
27 Jan 2021

Collin Biedenkapp
@PACX User @PACX Tester We have released a public alpha version of 1.2 (1.2.1a2). This version includes fixes for several issues, a few suggestions, and a few tweaks. It also contains a new, very powerful debugging and error tracking system. This system will automatically catch and report major issues to us and will help us solve problems faster.

As always, please use this version at your own risk as it IS very much hot off the presses. This is not the final feature list for 1.2. We have a few big ticket items we will be adding to it for 1.2, but we wanted to get these items out and tested as soon as possible to facilitate a faster and more stable final launch.


1.2.1a2 (27 January 2021)
•   [FIXED] An issue causing incorrect cabin layout behavior
•   [CHANGED] Improved activation related logging
•   [CHANGED] Color of selected incident-related passenger
 
1.2.0a1 (22 January 2021)
•   [ADDED] YBSU, OPIS and OPKC airports
•   [ADDED] A320 NEO as a default aircraft to PACX
•   [ADDED] Toggle HUD key and button binding option
•   [FIXED] Incident awards not being given
•   [FIXED] Negative numbers not being spoken
•   [FIXED] User log being spammed if the boarding music was not able to be played
•   [FIXED] Hotkey mappings not being reset if PACX was restarted
•   [FIXED] London Stansted (EGSS) is no longer announced as London Gatwick
•   [FIXED] An issue causing part of the vocal input joystick mapping to not be loaded correctly
•   [FIXED] Settings page closing after hitting escape during mapping
•   [CHANGED] Increased size of settings menu
•   [CHANGED] Improved debugging and error handling systems (Sentry)
•   [CHANGED] Improved mapping behavior
 
1.1.3.0b1 (21 October 2020)
Pre-release testing version of the 1.1.3.0 update
•   [FIXED] An issue preventing PACX HUD from appearing in Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS2020)
•   [FIXED] An issue causing PACX to intermittently freeze/hang
•   [CHANGED] Improved the system that detects when joysticks are plugged in/unplugged
•   [CHANGED] Improved PACX HUD DPI font scaling

[Asid]

Update 1.2.3a (alpha)
15 February 2021


•   [ADDED] Region-specific passenger names
•   [ADDED] Option to play a chime when the seatbelt sign is turned on or off
•   [ADDED] Repeating audible alert when crew response is required
•   [FIXED] Issue preventing certain random sounds from being selected
•   [FIXED] Issue preventing passengers being generated at the age of 17
•   [FIXED] Issue preventing certain ambient in-flight comments from being generated
•   [FIXED] Issue preventing maximum passenger count being used as the randomly generated passenger count
•   [FIXED] Message boxes occasionally appearing behind application windows
•   [CHANGED] Made initial asset loading more asynchronous
•   [CHANGED] Generic minor aircraft problems no longer trigger an explanation of the brace position
•   [CHANGED] The HUD interaction selection now resets after 10 seconds
 
1.2.2a (28 January 2021)
•   [FIXED] Breathing issues on the ground on every flight
•   [FIXED] Crashing relating to missing activations
•   [CHANGED] Improved error handling in certain records related operations