Laminar Research has released the second beta update for X-Plane 12, version 12.2.0.
It is strongly recommended that users using this beta version remove or check the compatibility of any existing mods, as they may interfere with the update’s rendering parameters. Laminar Research specifically warns that mods affecting atmospheric value deviations or those that manipulate X-Plane’s cubemap, such as VisualXP, RXP Enhancer Mod, various FlyWithLua Scripts, and the X-Crafts E-Jet Family 2.0, could cause issues.
The update, released on April 10, 2025, includes a variety of fixes and enhancements across different areas of the simulator.
General
- A new background image has been added.
Scenery
- Birds are no longer guaranteed to spawn at a nearby airport.
- Improved random placement of birds.
- All aircraft (user and AI) are now considered for startle behavior.
- Engine status and speed are considered when triggering a startle.
- Birds can now be startled while flying.
- Startled birds will try to move away from the perceived danger.
- Startled birds will maneuver more abruptly.
Graphics Core Engine
- Implemented various improvements.
- Fixed a crash when loading background textures (XPD-16762).
- Fixed location picker on Microsoft Windows in fullscreen mode (XPD-16626).
- Fixed various errors and improved logging.
Graphics
- Adjusted sky colours: Now significantly improved with more realistic colours
- Visibility depiction is now improved. Hazy conditions are depicted more accurately
- Improved overall scene lighting.
- Improved performance when rebuilding environment maps.
- Fixed sun and moon rendering in VR for the right eye (XPD-16744).
- Fixed cloud rendering in VR for the right eye (XPD-16735).
- Fixed various errors.
Avionics
- X1000: Added a new dataref sim/cockpit2/electrical/display_screen_brightness to represent the ratio of screen brightness.
The full changelog for the update is available here.
