X-Plane Developer Hot Start, known for their renditions of the TBM900 turboprop and Bombardier Challenger 650, has published a large update to their flagship product available for X-Plane 12.
The Challenger Series is a family of super-midsize business jets in production since 1978. Bombardier actually used the Challenger Platform to develop the CRJ Series of regional jets, with the two families sharing a type rating to this day. It is powered by a slightly modified variant of the same engine found in the A-10 Warthog Ground attack aircraft. To date, over 1,066 examples have been built.
The update is now available via X-Aviation. Existing customers should have already been notified. Below, you’ll find the key changes and a link to view the several hundred bugfixes contained in this release in further detail.
Update Highlights
- Added support for Zink rendering mode in XP12. This should provide a good amount of performance uplift to AMD GPU users. Nvidia users should see some improvements to framerate stability.
- Hovering mouse over PFD & MFD will now bring up semi-transparent popups for DCP & CCP, to allow easier manipulation of display settings without having to look down on the pedestal.
- The forward equipment bay is now modeled, including the main battery disconnect, TRUs and all CBs. Use this to disconnect the main battery now, instead of the Ground Services menu. Aft equipment bay isn’t complete yet, so use the menu method to disconnect the APU battery.
- The radome can be opened to allow looking at the antenna & nose HIDs lights more easily.
- FLC DESCENT mode now retards throttles more slowly and stops moving after 4 seconds, releasing manual control back to the pilot. You may need to manually adjust throttles after this to achieve fully idle FLC descents.
- When VRAM-limited, texture blurries on the cockpit textures should be much less frequent now, since we’ve marked them as “high-res” and so X-Plane should prioritize them over other textures.
- Changing cockpit lighting now immediately causes X-Plane to refresh the reflection cubemap to avoid windshield glare at night in XP12
- Worked around issues with some FMOD sound triggers not working in XP12, even though the exact same FMOD sounds work fine in XP11.
- Retuned the “buzzsaw” sound to be more audible and closer to the real airplane both outside and inside.
- Several hundred bugfixes (see full commit log below).
To view the full changelog, click here
