Ben has posted on the X-Plane Developer Blog that Release Candidate #1 for WED (World Editor) is now available. I think once it is final and user-created scenery is available via Laminar, that the landscape of the sim will be much improved over time.

 

Here is the link for Ben's posting:

http://developer.x-plane.com/2013/05/worldeditor-1-2-release-candidate-1-posted/

And great news for us scenery devs regarding the next release(s):

 

"I’m not sure what will go into the next WorldEditor release, but X-Plane 10 scenery usability features are on my short list.

• The ability to create and edit X-Plane 10 road overlays.
• Better options for managing overlay orthophotos for airports. (The current “make orthophotos” command is a stop-gap.)
• Possibly the ability to create base meshes (by importing data – WED would then run MeshTool for you, so that you don’t have to write a script)."