X-Plane 11 b14 is out

[x-plane 123 61]

Looking forward to hearing how it is. I would especially like to hear about the new clouds. Here are the release notes:

Key Features & Improvements

New clouds, with performance improvements for large monitors & HDR.

Tire model tuning–huge thrust no longer required to start rolling.

Dataref and plugin bugs fixed–plugins that don’t work need to file bugs ASAP!

Additional Bug Fixes

Correctly initialize arr/dep flags for default flow.

Fixed the generic-tape instrument having a HUGE preview.

XPD-6515 Quaternions auto-follow eulers when plugins run.

XPD-7038 We now warn you when you’re about to leave the demo area.

XPD-7141 We now support identifying joysticks by their VID+PID combo instead of their “name” in the OS.

XPD-7167 Fixes reloading SASL airplanes in debug mode like A320.

XPD-7258 Auto-generate .joy files from analytics data.

XPD-7366 Improved behavior of Resume Flight button on first launch.

XPD-7290 Fix for wrong “receiving from” descriptions.

XPD-7392 Fix for Flares that hit the ground and live on forever.

XPD-7394 All device “views” are now available in the right scroll bar.

XPD-7398 We now reset aircraft-specific prefs when the underlying .acf file is modified.

XPD-7426 Fix for click locations being screwed up.

XPD-7456 Add “Clear Filters” button to Aircraft grid.

XPD-7499 Trains were black.

XPD-7550 Cars can drive on the left side of the road at airports.

XPD-7565 Fixed floating runways at LHBP.

XPD-7661 We now allow 1024×768 for full-screen windows.

XPD-7673 Fixes clicking stealing plugin focus.

XPD-7688 Fixed hidden cursor support for plugins.

XPD-7717 Added Studio to the AI aircraft screens, and added the aircraft’s file path as a hover action.

XPD-7725 Added tip re: lights and HDR.

XPD-7730 Fix for popup text going offscreen due to wins.win_x and wins.win_y getting reset during GUI tight loop.

XPD-7750 Fix for *all* freeflight prefs accidentally being overwritten in DEV mode on Windows.

XPD-7752 Created a window for ground handling.

XPD-7755 Removed auto-selection of approaches in the map.

XPD-7762 Kingair C90B knobs only tune GPS.

XPD-7765 Improve axis labels for PFC hardware.

XPD-7776 Re-added checkboxes to flatten airports and disable hypoxia/redout/blackout effects.

XPD-7780 Support Italian in XPLM lang detection.

[anden145 2,285]

27 minutes ago, x-plane 123 said:

Looking forward to hearing how it is. I would especially like to hear about the new clouds. Here are the release notes:

Key Features & Improvements

New clouds, with performance improvements for large monitors & HDR.

...

Interesting...
Would love to see some pictures of this...

[Jimm 437]

I'm salivating as we speak.  My 4k monitor will really come in handy. :)

[jcomm 5,909]

I'm particularly fond of...

"XPD-6515 Quaternions auto-follow eulers when plugins run."

Poor Euler....

[tonywob 4,768]

@jcomm I'm glad that one makes sense to you. I remember dealing with Quaternions some years ago and they hurt my brain :-)

[Murmur 3,941]

The new default clouds are significantly improved for me (compared to the old default clouds), including cirrus clouds. Keep in mind it's a limited overhaul, not a completely different cloud engine. Of course, disable any lua script you might have that changes clouds settings, or you will get weird results.

They remind me a little the xEnviro clouds I see in the screenshots, although they tend to be ripetitive (just as xEnviro clouds).

The clouds dataref are all still there, and there are also some new ones. So the good news is that they can be probably further improved.

 

[Murmur 3,941]

Some screenshots. This is 100% default:

 

[Murmur 3,941]

This is gonna slow down new sales of xEnviro. I know it does many other things, sky colors etc., but at that price tag and with its limitations, the people who are mainly interested in the looks of clouds will be happy for the improvements in the default clouds.

 

[wiler 394]

im not an XE ###### just thinking its premature to say people wont want it now. We dont know exactly how far the XE team can push thier software which is still V1.0 only. 

[pilot83 387]

Default real weather + clouds xp11 pb14

 

 

[Jimm 437]

I guess this is as good a time as any to say, I told you so. :)

I am really glad I held off buying an external weather add-on.  Those clouds look a whole lot better now, I just hope they fixed that solid fog layer I kept hitting before. 

[jcomm 5,909]

Really looking nice, for sure!

 

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

Don't mind the clouds, still mind the massive fps drop. I go from 60 on the ground to 20 when looking close at the overcast, then inside it jumps to over 100 (because it doesn't have to draw the clouds anymore i assume)

[Bunchy 226]

Same here Francesco.

I'm losing a good 10fps in overcast in the C90b from what I had before.

Hopefully they will have more optimisation in next release..

Stu

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Well, at least now I know what I'll be up to tonight.

Those new default clouds look like a very promising step in the right direction, even if they are still performance hogs. At least they aren't completely awful looking, and hopefully they can be optimized with resized textures and dataref fiddling.

A lot of nice bug fixes too. On the right track for sure.