The F-14 Tomcat will be released in November. It will have the F-14A and the F-14B in standard and Bombcat roles and will be fully FSX native rather than the current model which is a portover of the FS9 model.
I want to clarify, the CURRENT F-14 available from IRIS is an FS2004 compiled visual model. This is NOT fully compliant with FSX standards, however will FUNCTION in FSX. Users using FS2004 visual models in FSX may encounter texture issues and in some cases, significant performance impact.
This is NOT just related to IRIS products, but applies to most if not ALL FS2004 compiled models ported to run in FSX.
The FSX Native version of the Tomcat will be provided at a cost and a discount will apply to all purchasers of the FS2004 Tomcat and no details have been decided on regarding pricing or amount of discounts at the moment.
And to those who argue that it should be a free upgrade, let me please point out this simple fact. It takes perhaps a few hours in some cases to port an FS9 aircraft into FSX. This usually means adding some camera definitions to the aircraft.cfg file, converting textures from bmp to dds format, although that is sometimes not required and adding thumbnails.
On the contrary, converting an FS2004 model to FSX Standards requires far more work. In the case of the F-14, ALL the XML coded animations need recoding, all the switches and systems in the Virtual Cockpit need reanimating and coding, all the textures need to be reworked from the original masters and require new bump maps, specular maps and alpha channels to comply with FSX standards and a new soundpack needs to be created to make use of the FSX Sound panning feature. Further to those bare minimums, we are working on a brand new flight model, a B version of the Tomcat with the GE engines and Bombcat loadout and are investigating new HUD options.
So as you can see, to convert a model from FS2004 to FSX standards requires a great deal of time and money and that needs to be addressed.
From a personal point, if you run FSX and ONLY FSX... wait until the new FSX F-14 comes out. If you run 2004 and FSX, grab the existing product and make use of the discount when the FSX Native version is released.