Laminar Research, the developer for X-Plane, has informed the community of the release of the 12.2.0 update. The update appears to be rather extensive, with a heavy focus on the visual aspects of the simulator. In a blog post, found here, Laminar calls the update “the X-Plane update that you’ve been waiting for”. Some of the topics concerning this update are cloud rendering, lighting (both inside and outside the cockpit), environmental effects and graphics performance and stability. After reportedly working on aspects of this update for about a year, it can now be tried out during this beta phase.
Cockpit Lighting
The lighting within the cockpit has been a bit of a hot topic for X-Plane 12 where often the interior of the cockpit was considered too dark. The update attempts to address this with a three step approach. Firstly light should now respect the windows and any objects causing shadows better, resulting in better color tints around sunset or sunrise. Secondly using “exposure fusion”, the simulator now balances the bright and dark areas in a scene, this prevents the interior from “going dark” while also preventing the exterior light from blinding you. Lastly the sky brightness has been tweaked down which helps to maintain a healthy contrast between inside and outside the cockpit windows.
Graphics
The X-Plane graphics engine has received various changes in this update to improve the performance and stability. Laminar provides a detailed, technical explanations in their blog here, but in short, the graphics engine does a better job managing resources and handling graphics data, ultimately enhancing smoothness and resulting in more frames per second sent to your monitor. Also, the system that handles managing your video memory (VRAM) is improved which lowers memory usage, freeing up space and increasing performance. In another change, Laminar has reworked how clouds are rendered, which should result in nearly eliminating the “cloud pixelation” effect.
It is clear many systems related to lighting, colors and visual realism are touched in this update. For example, the colors in the sim should now appear more accurate to real life in bright and vibrant scenes due to the implementation of a new (tone mapping) system. Looking at the sky itself, the colors have been tweaked to better represent natural light. Laminar says however it’s not the final state and they will continue to optimize this further during the beta.
Clouds
Visually, clouds can add a lot to the sky and it appears Laminar has continued to develop the puffiness in the sky. For example, this update contains an overhaul for the way clouds are presented. They should now cast detailed shadows on both each other and on other cloud layers. Which is “a huge enhancement in depth and realism of the sky” according to Laminar. The lighting changes also mean cloud scattering is more advanced, resulting in better light (or dark) edges of clouds, depending on the angle of the sun. Clouds can also cast visible shadows on the atmosphere itself resulting in more contrast in the skies. Also, any shadows cast on the ground will now better take into account the current cloud coverage, shape and density. Meanwhile a new algorithm, responsible for creating natural-looking cloud formations, has been added as well.
Further enhancements
Airport ground textures have now been upgraded with a new system, seemingly improving the look and feel while paving the way for higher resolutions in the future on runways and taxiways. Speaking of airports, the default scenery for 846 airports in the sim has been updated as well. Outside the airports, the roads have been fitted with new weather effects like rain, puddles and snow.
A number of aspects involving ATC have also been refined, likely building on the previous ATC update. This includes the way ATC interacts with you on the ground and during VFR flights. And the aircraft designers now have access to a new parking brake system, which should allow them to create a more sophisticated simulation.
Using the Beta
Laminar appears excited for users to get started with 12.2.0 and provide them with feedback. In a word of caution, they do recommend users to disable any plugin or modifications to the simulator as it may not be stable. The update can be obtained via the X-Plane installer with “check for new betas” checked or via the beta channel in Steam. Detailed instructions by Laminar on how to use beta versions can be found here.
For a full description by Laminar Research on this update you can check out their post here. For a full list of all the changes, there are release notes available here.
