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“Have a burning feature request for X-Plane? We have a site for that! Here you can describe fun new features for our apps and then collect votes from other users.” With that Facebook post, Laminar Research asks users to share every feature and suggestion for their flagship X-Plane 11 they’ve ever wanted. Once posted on this easy to use website, users can upvote what they feel should get priority in a feature release, already creating a not very surprising trending range of topics: an improved atmosphere and lighting model, volumetric clouds, seasons, dynamic weather and multicore CPU-utilization. Coincidence or not, most of those ideas already exist in some way in MSFS.

Early user comments show some surprise about Laminar Research’s initiative because Meyers’ willingness to appreciate outside comments didn’t exactly cause a lot of wake turbulence in the virtual skies. Other users see an attempt at gathering input for XP12, or even the proof that competition works. You can follow the trends, upvote and add your suggestions at the XP feedback website.

Austin Meyers and his team, developers on a mission to create software that accurately reflects the laws of physics, are based in Columbia, South Carolina. XP version 11 was released in May 2017, and after quite a long and bumpy flight, XP version 11.50 landed in September. X-Plane comes in two flavours: a consumer version, next to an FAA certifiable professional version.

After last week’s announcement from Microsoft, Microsoft Flight Simulator has been updated to version 1.9.3.0. The new update primarily focuses on the Japan ‘World Update’, but also adds a range of quality of life improvements to the flight simulator.

Starting with the Japan ‘World Update’, the World Update brings updated digital elevation across the entire region along with high-resolution 3D photogrammetry for six Japanese cities. Those cities include Sendai, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Tokyo, Utsunomiya and Yokohama. Alongside that, six hand-crafted airports have also been added to the simulator including Hachijojima, Kerama, Kushiro, Nagasaki, Shimojishima, and Suwanosejima. In addition to the cities and airports, there are also over 20 landmarks and points of interest to go and discover in the Land of the Rising Sun. Correction: After the publication of the article, we realised that you have to download the World Update I pack from the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace to get the Japanese related content. This is a free purchase from the Marketplace store. 

Whilst many will be excited about World Update I, there are also a huge number of changes with this build based on community feedback. Airports such as Malaga Airport (LEMG) and Clermon-Ferrand Auvergne (LFLC) have been added and there have been improvements to 60 other airports based on feedback. There has also been significant changes for numerous aircraft including the 787-10, the A320NEO and a variety of general aviation aircraft. For those using TrackIR, you are now able to enable/disable it from the camera menu. Other update changes include improvements to the way in which waves are generated, as well as other terraforming issues around the world. A full list of all the changes can be found down below, or you can read the notes on the Flight Simulator forums.

We’re sure that many will appreciate the change that disables the music before or during the initial download on startup, especially with the 9GB update download.

You can download the free update to Microsoft Flight Simulator right now.

Thanks to Hexplosions for the tip.