Update, as per our post below, our ‘rumour’ was correct and this is the update X-Plane users will receive.
X-Plane 11 has been in our sims for quite some time now and has seen multiple incremental updates. Those updates have fixed a few small bugs or addressed other community problems. However X-Plane 11.10 will be the first major update to hit the sim and includes a massive list if new features, changes and bug fixes.
We were tipped off by an anonymous source who linked us to a ‘protected‘ page which listed the entire change log and release notes for the new version. Of course, we can’t verify that the information is correct or will make the final cut, but the fact it’s hosted on the official X-Plane would suggest it’s the real deal. We’re going to keep it earmarked as a rumour just in case, but we’re confident the information below is accurate. You can hit this link for a full page screenshot of where we’ve got the information from, but we’ve summarised it here.
Towards the bottom of the post, it gets quite wordy and is geared towards developers more than the average user. The original post is much longer, so we’ve done our best to summarise.
The first thing to note is there are some new and updated global airports available. In total, there will be 5,351 3D airports available in X-Plane 11.10, which is 534 more than the last release.
The list of new airports is below:
Plus, over 620 airports have been improved (you can see the full list in this screenshot).
Moving onto the new features and improvements. There’s an absolute bucket load so we’ve copied over what is expected.
- Version 3.0 of the X-Plane SDK (XPLM).
- Joystick & keyboard profiles available to save different set ups per aircraft.
- XPD-8070 We now allow aircraft to be marked as AI-only or user-only. This is configured in the Author window of Plane Maker. The default for legacy aircraft is “user-only.”
– User-only planes will be hidden by default in the AI planes configuration (for legacy support, users can go into “unsafe” mode and pick AI planes that don’t explicitly support doing so).
– AI-only planes will *never* be shown in the aircraft grid. - XPD-7574 Commands are back, because people wanted them: “sim/flight_controls/left_brake” & “sim/flight_controls/right_brake”
- Quick-look views: There used to be 10 pre-saved viewing locations but now we have 20–enough for plenty of cockpit and exterior presets now.
- G1000 GPS available. Included in a new Cessna 172 version & in the Cirrus SF-50.
- Weapon improvements & fixes when using them in .sit & .rep files
- Improved AI & ATC
- We now log the complete diagnostics of the ATC system
- XPD-7206 fewer repeated instructions
- New electric and remote gyro system commands & datarefs.
- Separate GPSS autopilot mode.
- Screen-only popup instrument windows.
- Rendering changes, including the algorithm to compute the shadow volume.
- New airfoil format! [cut out a huge chunk of information – you can read more at this screenshot]
- Added animals (birds & deer) map layer.
- XPD-8077 KSEA w/painted ground signs.
- New analytics messages about renamed/moved runways.
- New command line option –accurate_runways which will, when loading procedures for an airport, perform runway renames and even location fixes in-memory on the X-Plane scenery and then reload the region.
- Command line can be used to override desktop topology for Linux setups.
Further to the above, there has been plenty of work on the flight modelling with X-Plane 11.10. Again, there’s loads of details in this, so for the full detail go to this screenshot.
Rotor and propwash
- Better propwash direction
- More tuning of the propwash
- New SWIRL model
- In Plane-Maker, ratio and prop ‘pitch’ is now in inches which is more common to data published
Flight Control Dynamics
- Flap and leading-edge flap and slat extend and retract timings now included
- Effective angle-of-attack increaser with control-deflection on the elements of the wing has been tuned. Uses two different theories to give averaged results.
- New command called ‘sim/flight_controls/magnetic_lock’ for flying helos. This is seen in the S-76 helicopter
- In Plane-Maker, control deflection time for the nose-wheel steering has been added
Flight dynamics
- New vector based geometry for the lift and drag vectors. Tested all ways.
Slight change and clarification in vacuum pumps (Copied from the post)
X-Plane simulates the vacuum system for physical vacuum-driven gyros as follows:
- There are two vacuum systems: One for the pilot instruments, one for the copilot instruments.
- If you have no copilot instruments, the no problem: The second vacuum system goes unused, like it is not even there.
- Each vacuum system has exactly one vacuum pump, which may be failed by the instructor.
- For a single-engine airplane, that one engine turns both pumps… and if your plane has only one system, no problem! Just don’t specify any instruments as “Copilot”, which would have them use the second system.
- For a multi-engine airplane, engine one turns the pump on system 1, engine 2 turns the pump on system 2… and if your plane has only one system, no problem! Just don’t specify any instruments as “Copilot”, which would have them use the second system.
- The low-vacuum annunciator goes off if EITHER vacuum system runs low, but if you want to make an instrument that tracks WHICH system has run low on pressure, the simply use these datarefs
- For airplanes that have TWO vacuum pumps on ONE system, we just don’t simulate that, just like we don’t simulate both the tire and innertube inside it… we only simulate the actual outgoing force that you see. So, for the dual-vacuum pump planes that have two pumps on one system, simply fail the vacuum pump in the failure list to take out BOTH pumps, since that will remove the pumping pressure from the system.
Slight jet engine improvement:
Plane-Maker, Engines window, Jet Curves 2 tab: Now you can see your thrust as a function of N1.
Slight recip engine improvement:
Temperature and power are mapped separately.
Generator/Alternator improvement
New prop type
Constant tip-AOA
Better prop thrust visualization diagnostics
The first command-m shows where propwash is being applied on the airplane, with propwash speed shown. Then, hitting command-M again, we see the lift vector tilted back due to the forward speed of the aircraft.
Finally, the last area the article touched on was bug fixes. Again, the list is huge so we’ve copied them over here for easier viewing.
- Fix for Linux joysticks being completely broken.
- Bans writing to prop_dir to fix Carenado torque.
- Fix for spurious popup open/close events.
- XPD-7535, XPD-8318 Adjusted sim/weapons/action_mode so that it will work exactly as it did in XP 10.
- XPD-8012 The missing cockpit datarefs for chaff and flare qty have been restored: [sim/cockpit/weapons/] chaff_now & flare_now.
- XPD-8311 Bug report: Afterburner output location not linked to exhaust offset.
- XPD-8312 Bug report: Instrument Brightness fader does not correctly correlate to G1000 screens.
- XPD-8313 Bug report: G1K map when NOT in north up mode, TOPO view map is not aligned.
- Additional joystick configurations added.
- New ignition start command.
- Better data output for flight model diagnostics, and rather arbitrary and probably-non-optimal wash taken off of the prop hub… we figure it per-element.
Developer betas 1 & 2:
- XPD-4738 Jitter in camera system.
- XPD-6038 Ground shaking in Ridealong view.
- XPD-6445 Datarefs for weapons have been removed.
- XPD-6748 “Don’t send me co-located points!”
- XPD-6806 ATIS should distinguish between arrival-only & departure-only airports.
- XPD-6869 Shadow Map Does Not Take Weapons into account when scenery is not shadowed.
- XPD-7008 Dataref feature request: carb temp: this_flt->enpr [en] .carb_temp_C
- XPD-7076 Generate icons cuts off half of VFlyte Air aircraft.
- XPD-7465 Centre of gravity indicator should be visible in weight and balance screen.
- XPD-7817 Bug report: 172 floatplane water-rudder handle is reversed.
- XPD-7824 Icon generator should use physics model to pose airplane.
- XPD-7856 Cargo is now a valid type for aircraft.
- XPD-7858 Bug report: Newly enabled dataref outputs are 0.0 until restarting X-Plane.
- XPD-7862 Compass rose turns into jumbled numbers when zoomed in too far.
- XPD-7872 Bug report: C90B C0-pilot airspeed indicator incorrect.
- XPD-7896 Save AI acf assignments in .sit files.
- XPD-7923 Prop Sync Dataref has incorrect values.
- XPD-7924 Auto-Feather up/down commands not working.
- XPD-7941 right engine anti ice bug is now fixed.
- XPD-7952 Bug report: Helicopter flight model.
- XPD-7959 Improve AI 747 behavior.
- XPD-7981 Bug report: MD-82 wrong flap/slat schedule.
- XPD-7982 Command to stop push back once started.
- XPD-8012 Bug report: flare and chaff qty not working.
- XPD-8060 Bug report: unrealistic pitch down moment in ground effect.
- XPD-8082 Bug report: Nav light tooltip wrong.
- XPD-7896 Save AI acf assignments in .sit files.
- XPD-8087 Bug report: ADF needle needs to turn into the turn.
- XPD-8091 Bug report: Default GNS430/530 saves VOR waypoints as type “11” in .fms files.
- XPD-8110 Joystick hover text is wrong for axes.
- XPD-8113 One blade of C90’s propellers isn’t angled the same way.
- XPD-8114 Bug report: Ctrl+A (Select All) or Ctrl+Shift+Left or Right (Select Word) does not work in X-Plane input boxes.
- XPD-8121 Bug report: Some autopilot datarefs not working.
- XPD-8130 Changing the engine state in Flight Config blocks any other changes made.
- XPD-8131 Pause replays when another window is opened.
- XPD-8134 Bug report: C90B Electrical system is wrong.
- XPD-8135 Bug report: 747 tailstrike.
- XPD-8142 Proper plane only shadows.
- XPD-8150 Crash with analytics beacon.
- XPD-8155 default rendering settings on high res monitor.
- XPD-8177 Bug report: crashes with Saitek x52 Pro.
- XPD-8180 visual approach request wasn’t issuing visual approaches due to a state machine bug.
- XPD-8184 Navdisplay now draws at magnetic north direction.
- XPD-8192 Bug report: Night Vision Google (NVG).
- XPD-8193 Removed Aerosoft airports where a better Gateway airport exists.
- XPD-8216 Bug report: Checkbox to not show Quit confirmation.
- XPD-8217 Bug report: Checkbox to not show start new flight on crash.
- XPD-8228 We now correctly handle prefs for multiple instances of identical hardware on macOS & Windows.
- XPD-8229 Mouse cursors don’t work with multiple popouts.
- XPD-8231 Garmin window restored into popout.
- XPD-8233 Stop warning about invalid ICAO before input is done.
- XPD-8235 Bug report: Incorrect label in Data Output.
- XPD-8240 Pitch Trim annunciator dataref no longer seems to work.
- XPD-8257 Max wind too low.
- XPD-8269 ADF2 not being set when using Map UI.
- XPD-8278 Warp controls for warped projection.
- XPD-8284 The fuel tank selector is not moving.
- XPD-8292 Alt+F4 bypasses X-Plane’s quit dialog on Windows.
- XPD-8294 We now collapse the command list when you choose the “currently assigned” filter.
