X-Plane 11 owners will now be able to enjoy xEnviro with full Vulkan compatibility with the released version 1.15 update. The newly released update brings compatibility with the rendering engine for the simulator, along with various other changes and improvements to the utility.
Magnus (aka CaptainKitten) took to the Threshold forums to confirm that “many of the known issues” are still present from the 1.14 release, but the team wanted to add Vulkan compatibility as quickly as possible without staying in development mode for too long. Below is a list of known issues. That said, there is still plenty of new additions to the product with the update.
Alongside the compatibility with Vulkan, tone mapping is now selected with a slider, along with a new realistic ozone level checkbox. Excitingly, light scattering from scenery light sources at night has been added, along with windshield fogging and freezing effects. The new freezing effects also compliment the improved rain and snow effects found within the update. For now, however, dynamic seasons is still only available in OpenGL mode within X-Plane 11.50. On the subject of dynamic seasons, Magnus gave a full account of what the development team is hoping for with the feature, but did add that further development to the feature will be halted until the team can get what they need from Vulkan as the rendering engine breaks dynamic seasons.
There is further information on some of the troubles the team are having with dynamic seasons and also more on the two development pipelines found in the installer moving forward.
The update is now available from your original store of purchase, but can also be downloaded here.
xEnviro can be purchased for X-Plane 11 from either the Threshold store or the X-Plane.org store for $69.90.
xEnviro v1.15 Changelog
- Realistic ozone level checkbox
- Post processing tone mapping added
- Tone mapping selector slider
- Tone mapping mixing level slider
- Vulkan rendering support (dynamic seasons only available in OpenGL mode)
- Light scattering from scenery light sources at night
- Button or key assignable command to show and hide Settings window
- Windshield fogging effect
- Windshield freezing effect.
Changed
- X-Plane precipitation dataref update suspended for critical phases of flight
- Rain and snow effect improved
Removed
- Maximum ozone level slider
Fixed
- Scenery light no longer disappear abruptly at night
Known Issues
- Precipitation follows camera
- Snow coverage may appear in the regions where no snowfall encountered recently
- Default X-Plane night triggers lights artifacts
- Cloud edge artifacts
- In cloud artifacts
- Cirrus clouds may affect colorization of clouds beneath
- Low level clouds may be combined
