X-Plane 12 continues to develop and evolve as the latest post by Thomson Meeks shows on the (new) X-Plane website. The upcoming version, X-Plane 12.1.0 will come packed with new features and improvements that fans have been craving for since X-Plane 12 originally released. In the blog post, he shared loads of development screenshots and information about the improvements coming to the graphics, aircraft systems, weather, and more.
The growth of the X-Plane team has meant that 12.1.0 of the simulator will actually include a lot more than originally planned as a ‘graphics’ update. This still has been a primary focus for the team with this release, but lots more managed to sneak its way into the upcoming build. Let us break down some of the new details shared in the latest blog post.
Graphics and Performance
Performance is a big deal for everyone – regardless of your system specs. The better the performance, the smoother the experience and that is something X-Plane wants to respect. An improvement to the CPU performance is coming with this update that should help CPU-bound bottlenecks be relieved for many users. The results mean that the overall experience should be better.
It’s not just the boost in performance through the new ‘modern collector’ CPU improvements, but also graphically speaking, X-Plane 12 will see improvements. Cloud shadows will now be shown on water, ground shadows will be software, and water opacity and turbidity have been improved. One other area the team is beginning to focus on is improving anti-aliasing options in the simulator. MSAA resolution is now photometrically correct, and MSAA + FXAA is now combined. These are just the first steps X-Plane 12 is taking to improve this.
New Particle Effects
A bunch of new particle effects are being added to X-Plane 12. This will include sparks from pavement collisions (engines, tails), along with ground spray from aircraft wheels and engines, and also brown/white-outs when flying helicopters.
Aircraft Systems
The G1000 unit is going to get a bunch of new updates to it with X-Plane 12.1.0. This will include ADS-B Simulation, Stormscope page, Airport METAR flags, and more. The full list is below. Furthermore, third-party developers can take advantage of it by making it easier for them to modify the unit for their specific aircraft needs and easier to integrate custom glass avionics into the plane.
- ADS-B Simulation
- Stormscope Page
- Traffic Map Page
- Airport METAR flags
- NDB + VOR Pages
- WAAS/Test Satellite Constellation
- Boot-Up Overlay
Weather
Weather is one of the standout features of X-Plane 12 so any update is welcomed. The next update will bring with it a new real weather service, which should be more reliable than before. Real weather METARs should also be improving with less random rain, along with fixes for odd-looking weather.
New – Physics-Based Camera
A new physics-based in-cockpit camera should be coming with X-Plane 12.1.0 (it may slip into a future release). The camera will move based on acceleration of the aircraft, just as it would in real life. The video (below) that inspired Austin shows how the pilot’s head moves as a ‘damped spring’ and so this has been developed in the new release of X-Plane.
Other Improvements
Other improvements have been made to the ATC system, added electric clutches for helicopters, providing a manual flap system and dial-a-flap functionality, and adding single-lever control for turboprops (if equipped).
When Will it Be Available?
Thomson did not mention a timeframe in the blog post. During the X-Plane event we attended in Montreal (more on that in a moment), the team said the build would be sent to developers very soon for testing. This will help ensure bugs are squashed and compatibility with add-ons are not impacted. So whilst nothing is specific, we’re hopeful it’s sooner than later.
As for the X-Plane developer event, we have a write-up coming very soon which will go into a bit more detail about what happened and also what X-Plane 12.x.x could also look like. Stay tuned!
