Blog entries

Late... (No I'm not pregnant)

Terrence Klaverweide — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:39:39 +0100

2012 has seen a rocky start for us here at McPhat Studios.

And by 'rocky' I mean 'Earthquake-buildings-collapsing-all-around-you-rocky'.

The past couple of weeks we've been busy -mostly- with troubleshooting one after the other unstable DC-9 Virtual Cockpit compile. Where one problem got resolved, another one surfaced. I spend most of yesterday -my usually relaxing Sunday- on troubleshooting faulty gauges, trying, testing, tinkering, discussing an issue that was not ther...

Socializing (McPhat going Google+)

Terrence Klaverweide — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:05:51 +0100

In the early days, when McPhat was still a 'young boy', I always figured that making a good (looking) product would be enough. We'd reach enough people, sell enough packs and take the Flight Simulation world by storm all while doing what we love doing best: Making beautiful graphics..

Boy, was I wrong.

In the past couple of years the harsh reality hit me. You can make the most beautiful product in the world, but if nobody knows you and knows where to find you, you're lef...

Right up my alley (That's what she said?)

Terrence Klaverweide — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0100

For those of you that may remember, back in the days, our slogan used to be 'We tear 'em up, we wear 'em down, for you to fly..'. Dirt, grime, weather, wear and tear was what we 'did'. In a clean aircraft dominated repaint world, we had to differentiate ourselves, right of the bat. So we did exactly that.

When we made the transition to and started focusing on (Ultra) High Definition Textures, not too long after, we found a new way to do things 'a little different' than the rest. Fo...

Is theirs cooler than ours? (I wanna render too!)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:26:15 +0100

The first couple of years it was just me and the other texture guys. We did our thing, opened Photoshop every day and bragged about who had the better skills. Nicknames were being thrown at each other (guess who Captain Raster-Ize and Captain Merge-A-Lot are) but they usually meant no harm. If anything, they brightened up the day. We were the Masters of the Universe, ruling the world with smart objects, masks, dual brushes and layer styles. Could there be a better profession than being a Text...

On the NGX (and on being 'a user' again)

Terrence Klaverweide — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:56:27 +0100

I can still remember the days when me and my pc (including screen, joystick, speakers and what not) would hop on the train for a 3 day, long weekend Flight Sim fest at my buddy Kevin's house. Three hours in the train, packed with my 'nerdgear' (I tried, there's no sexier name for it), ready for some serious on-line flightsimmin' and with 'serious', I mean : SE-RI-OUS. As in all-through-the-night-long-haul-kinda-serious. The real deal. At least, you know, virtually...

We would sleep...

Talking, talking and more talking...

Terrence Klaverweide — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:12:17 +0100

We ended 2010 with a bang, started 2011 with a (although slightly smaller) bang and now -halfway on our way to 2012- there's still 'banging', but this time mostly in the form of hands, shaped like fists on my door and on my desk...

The year has been hectic. Although we wheeled in some new talent, 'old' talent also left. People whom had been with us for years left and the toll it has taken is apparent. Yes, some of the new guys (and girl) are just as talented or perhaps ev...

Introducing the DC-9 team ; Luke van de Rest, 3D Artist.

Terrence Klaverweide — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 02:22:40 +0100

If you ever read the AVSIM feature on McPhat Studios (if not, click and read it) and especially the part where we're called 'Dutch Masters', you would think our team consists only of 'Dutchies'. Where it started out as solely a Dutch outfit , this soon changed and with a couple of Argies (people from Argentina, yes I make up words on the fly), a Canadian, an Icelander, Brit and a couple of Yanks you could even say we've been overrun by foreigners. Masters we still are, but Dutch, you could ha...

Introducing the DC-9 team ; Sara Louise Coupon, Texture Artist.

Terrence Klaverweide — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 09:47:25 +0100

A couple of months ago -while doing my usual weekly rounds, checking out forums, portals and websites from our colleagues and fellow developers- I landed on the Captain Sim forums. Browsing the repaint section to see what was new, my attention was soon drawn to some pretty skilful texture work.

Those of you familiar with Captain Sim's artwork know that you don't have to be no Van Gogh to shell out a top notch repaint, using their paintkits. The detail and quality their st...

Introducing the DC-9 team ; Jamal Ingram, 3D Artist.

Terrence Klaverweide — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Go outside and ask a random person what Photoshop is and in most cases people will know. You ask them if they ever heard of 3DsMax and they'll probably gaze at you in awe, then uttering something like : '3Dswhatnow?'..

In the past couple of years, we discovered that finding talented, skilled Texture Artists is one thing. With applications pouring in on a weekly basis, we've literally seen dozens of them. In the end, only a handful remained, cause the definition of 'tale...

Planes, but no trains and no autombiles..??

Terrence Klaverweide — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:50:04 +0100

It was the year 1977. A little boy named Terrence was born. His parents probably had big plans for him, but at the age of three years -in his infinite wisdom-, he already made his own strategic plan to infinite happiness. He had no dreams about being a fire fighter, or a police officer, or a doctor. No sir, he wanted to fly planes. He wanted to be a pilot.

Because the authorities seemed to have a problem with toddlers flying planes AND because he had to give his par...

Raising the bar...

Terrence Klaverweide — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:37:59 +0100

My better half always rubs my nose in 'The Fact' that women are better at multi-tasking than men, and although I usually agree with her (trust me, THE ingredient for a healthy relationship), I have to disagree with her on this. The past couple of weeks have been crazy at the McPhat Studios offices. Working on (or Alt-Tabbing as I call it) between 3 three Texture- and 2 full 3D and artwork projects simultaneously is something we could not have managed a couple of years ago.

Although...

Cream of the crop

Terrence Klaverweide — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0100

As we are slowly easing into the last month of Q1 of 2011, I think it is safe to relax, sit down and look back at what was a hectic, but also a successful 2010.

In our second full year of operation as a pay-ware outfit (we started halfway 2008 with the first E-Jet), we released as many as thirteen World Airliners for the PMDG MD-11, the Captain Sim 757 and the FeelThere E-Jets v2. One would say quality would suffer from the sheer quantity, but our first AVSIM Gold Star award (for t...