X-Plane 11.50b4 is out!

[Janov 2,383]

Pastaiolo, don´t argue with mSparks. You can´t win, because he is getting a kick out of antagonizing people and is not susceptible to logic or proof. Well, he probably is, but he enjoys driving you crazy by completely ignoring those 🙂

They were within inches of banning him over at the MSFS forum because he was driving people so mad - ultimately it is best to see this as a test for yourself and if you are in control of your dark side:

Read what he writes.

Smile.

Don´t type.

Carry on as if he didn´t post at all. There is also an "ignore" function that many people found out about because of him 🙂

Here is a link to the thread in the MSFS forum they put up because of him:

 

He is probably laughing his behind of because of that, there are some people like that. It isn´t shedding a good light on the X-Plane community to have someone from "us" create such an impression, but I hope that a lot of people won´t throw us all in one basket. The internet brings the worst out in some people...or maybe they really are like that.

All the best, Ciao, Jan

 

[mSparks 2,094]

28 minutes ago, Janov said:

He is probably laughing his behind of because of that,

Not particularly funny to see people claim nothing has happened with XP over the last four months, when the reality is we all owe the 3rd party developers that worked through this list a huge debt of gratitude.

Beta 4
XPD-10643 ATC crash when entering approach mode.
XPD-10648 London Bridge road fix.
XPD-10670 Fixed misaligned 2-d panel click regions.
XPD-10672 Add the Paris-Orly Aerosoft hybrid airport.
XPD-10677 Gate Lines not appearing with Airport environment HD in OGL.
XPD-10681 Fixed missing text with airport navigator.
XPD-10684 Fixed missing scenery with markings+5 as its group.
XPD-10686 Fix reloading sky colors.
XPD-10687 Fixed null pipeline in vulkan/metal deploying cirrus chute.
XPD-10688 Fix null pipeline editing weapon load out in VR.
XPD-10689 Fixed null pipeline on vulkan in texture browser.
XPD-10691 Fix crash in G1000 map screen when no airports.
XPD-10692 Fix crash clicking popped out g430 with click regions visible.
XPD-10694 Fixed crash when thrashing whacking replay slider.
XPD-10701 Mouse cursor in VR mispositioned.
XPD-10702 Fixed VR mouse with HDR and Vulkan.
XPD-10706 Fixed error handling of missing point pool.
Beta 3
Fixed crash at launch with Linux + Vulkan.
Fixed null pipeline with third party aircraft using custom lights.
Beta 2
Fixed show traffic path pipeline nullptr error.
Fix crash when AG item has bogus forest ref.
XPD-10422 Plane Maker >Expert>Build Weapons>Geometry UI Overlap.
XPD-10438 Update King Air beta angle.
XPD-10442 Incorrect leg-deduplication with DF-HA, losing turn restriction.
XPD-10569 VR Right eye not working with Vulkan.
XPD-10607 Fixed skycolors nullptr pipeline on Vulkan.
XPD-10621 Fixed FOV and all screen pref param dataref being broken.
XPD-10624 Fixed null pipeline on right click of hierarchy in Plane Maker with Vulkan.
XPD-10625 Fix for un-inited turbulence.
XPD-10629 Fixed black screen on GF 6,7,8 series.
XPD-10632 Removed extra comma in loading screen.
XPD-10636 Failed to create Vulkan window, no surface formats found.
XPD-10638 Metal out of memory.
XPD-10641 C172 panel all black with OGL.
XPD-10642 Crashes when starting flight on Nvidia Mac.
XPD-10647 Can’t use Vulkan with multiple GPUS + SLI.
XPD-10656 Fixed Vulkan error handling for better crash reporting.
XPD-10657 Fixed missing pipeline on Vulkan with night vision mode.
XPD-10662 Fixed aircraft being in wrong place in Plane Maker wing view.
XPD-10668 Doesn’t launch when display is connected to different than rendering GPU.
XPD-10669 Muted ATC log spam.
XPD-10671 Fixed crash going from setting FX 1 to 2 with Metal.
XPD-10674 Fixed sound spaces not rendering correctly.
Beta 1
Latest manuals added.
Fixed missing VRAM use Text in UI.
XPD-10626 Hacked around crash on AMD in Catalina 10.15.4.
Developer Preview 11
Stutter check is off by default.
Fixed text about shader load time.
Dataref to tell modern driver.
Fixed race conditions.
Added link to info on required drivers.
XPD-10615 UI says to restart when it shouldn’t.
Developer Preview 10
Rewrote shadow & water code.
Additional UI alerts for issues initializing Vulkan/Metal.
XPD-8162 Ocean tiles loading slowly & appear to be missing entirely in scenery.
XPD-8304 Fixed bezier curvature for highest world object settings.
XPD-9447 Creepy crawly moving shadows.
XPD-10275 Fixed Plane Maker “Special Equipment” window typo.
XPD-10284 Art control to force panel to always render for third parties.
XPD-10471 Shadows are low res and generally silly.
XPD-10599 2D Panel Texture not being mapped to 3D cockpit.
XPD-10603 Blurry orthophoto textures after long flight in d9.
XPD-10606 Bug with strange large shadow.
XPD-10607 Fixed missing pipeline in sky colors.
XPD-10610 Low resolution textures on ground trucks close to aircraft.
XPD-10611 Low res acf textures for parked airport aircraft.
XPD-10614 Shadow on acf when camera is very close.
Developer Preview 9
Took FMOD runtime updates & bug fixes (only version 1.08 still licensed).
If multiple localizers on the same frequency, always take the one that can be combined with a glideslope.
XPD-9059 Add command to reset to the next runway on the current airport.
XPD-10410 G1000 amperage indicator no longer hard coded.
XPD-10413 Anti-ice all_engines_inlet_heat_toggle not available.
XPD-10431 GPS exception crashes.
XPD-10508 G1000 Collapse Airways doesn’t hide everything.
XPD-10560, XPD-10592, XPD-10593 Fixes for blurry orthophotos.
XPD-10569 Clouds missing from right eye in 4x SSAA + VR.
XPD-10580 Fixed OGL depth being reverse-z when doing Vulkan/Metal panel callbacks.
XPD-10590 Fixed missing aircraft textures.
XPD-10594 Fixed most/all XPCallbacks not restoring the GFX device and then blowing up when they ever need to access it.
XPD-10596 Fixed ATC dialogue lines broken.
XPD-10598 Fixed textures being low res in VR holodeck.
Developer Preview 8
Yet another new paging algorithm.
XPD-10464 Updated UI text when Vulkan/Metal not available, and added messages on Linux.
XPD-10466 Fixed Plane Maker and AirfoilMaker gamma in UI.
XPD-10475 Metal + NV + AA broken.
XPD-10501 Fixed log typo about backend.
XPD-10551 Loading screen blip with pop out map.
XPD-10553 Crash when minimizing on Windows.
XPD-10561 Plugin admin performance profiling doesn’t change name.
XPD-10567 Opening Plane Maker causes X-Plane to be unable to load with the Vulkan driver.
XPD-10572 Fixed B52 2d panel layout.
Developer Preview 7
New paging algorithm.
New modern plugin admin with performance profiling tools.
XPD-10443 Crash with Vulkan & VR max AA setting.
XPD-10447 Cannot drag anti-aliasing slider with VR mouse.
XPD-10454 Device Lost While Flying.
XPD-10465 VRAM usage is inefficient under heavy pressure.
XPD-10461, XPD-10456, XPD-10474 User out of device memory at startup.
XPD-10496 Fixed crash loading Orbx NorCal.
XPD-10542 Crash when copying bodies in Plane Maker.
Developer Preview 6
Crash fixes.
XPD-10489 Fixed plugin VR windows with Vulkan.
Additional logging for XPD-1050 Crash with custom scenery OBJ.
XPD-10529 Mouse not being found on startup window in Linux.
XPD-10533 View is upside down when running Vulkan VR with HDR.
XPD-10534 Fixed flight path missing in Vulkan.
Developer Preview 5
Rewrote the OpenGL bridge between X-Plane and plugins to fix a number of design limitations and bugs.
Plugin drawing is now in the correct gamma.
Plugin drawing outside of an XPLM window is no longer clipped.
Plugins can read back the frame buffer from any 2-d drawing callback.
Scissors-related drawing bugs are fixed.
XPD-10232 No more empty space padding dropdowns.
XPD-10481 Alpha blending of DRE is wrong.
XPD-10483 Invalid shader error with x737 freeware.
XPD-10487 OpenGL – Plugin Admin window causes shadow distortion.
XPD-10490 Plugin dialog box widgets not rendering in OpenGL.
XPD-10492 Hang or crash when resizing window in Vulkan.
XPD-10513 Misc Objects list outside of UI in PlaneMaker.
Developer Preview 4
XPD-10477 Fixed crash when calling XPLMSetGraphState from XPluginStart without VK or Metal enabled.
XPD-10479 Fixed lots of AB412 pipeline problems.
XPD-10480 Plugin windows & clouds flipped vertically.
Stutter fix during Vulkan buffer deletion.
Fixed blit shader.
User submitted joystick profiles added.
Developer Preview 3
Fixed auto-crash reporting for real this time.
XPD-10476 fixed red tint at Nimbus KATL v2.
XPD-10478 fixed red objects when texture is missing.
XPD-10472 fixed missing pipeline when JATOs fire with Vulkan.
XPD-10455 fixed backward inverted normal maps on Metal/Vulkan.
Fixed crash when opening an invalid aircraft in Plane-Maker.
Fixed Plane-Maker open dialog box when install location is mounted in multiple locations in the file system.
Developer Preview 2
XPD-10445 fixed crash at Nimbus KPHX.
XPD-10457 fixed OpenGL SkyMaxx Compatibility with SSAA.
XPD-10453 crash on startup on Linux.
XPD-10459 fixed DataRefTool crashing.
XPP-10460 fixed missing pipeline crash with popup plugin windows.
XPD-10470 fixed clipping with SSAA, HDR and clouds.
Automatic crash reporting fixed.
Fixed crash on startup with Intel GPU on Mac with Metal driver.
Beta 2 will warn when drivers are too old and need an update.
Fixed missing pipeline crash in HDR when not viewing the aircraft in free view.
Silenced stutter reports when the UI is being twiddled.
VRAM and timing profiler are accessible in the UI for diagnostics.
Developer Preview 1
XPD-10288 FMC typo should be VNAV DESCENT.
XPD-10316 Baron B58 Autopilot oscillation during climb / descent.
XPD-10389 Ability to configure data output visibility in replay/screenshots/videos.
XPD-10401 Fixed crash when plane with bad attr_cockpit is loaded.
XPD-10410 Amperage indicator scale in G1000 page.
XPD-10413 Anti-ice all_engines_inlet_heat_toggle not available.
XPD-10422 Fixed Plane Maker Geometry UI overlap.
XPD-10434 XPLMSetActiveAircraftCount doesn’t affect the map.
XPD-10439 Added support for disabling incoming UDP packets, or disabling networking entirely.

 

[jcomm 6,020]

I believe MFS will be out before the XP11 cycle ends... Anyway it would be a wrong strategy IMO for LR to even try to announce XP12 before... 

There is still so much to optimize regarding Vulkan, weather, aerodynamics and the experimetal flight model, that I really think we shouldn't bother.

MFS will be around way before that - that's my conviction. It either proves to be what it appears to be - and I strongly believe it will - or ends up being a total fiasco, which is far from being what I think will happen.

I don't think Austin really bothers about it - he doesn't even know MFS 🙂 He continues to soar his dreams, and that's great, because otherwise he would have to be feeling really stressed about it.

When XP12 get's announced we will see what's new.

OTOH I do feel a bit disappointed with some exclamations from people ( devs ) here at AVSIM about something really remarkable that was coming with 11.50, something they couldn't even talk about... So far I haven't glimpsed what it was. Well, indeed my 3 day test revealed very good gains in performance, but that was about all I could see different ?  Weather and it's weird turbulence effects still the same..., cloud popping in / out, still the same..., very dubious implementation of ground effect still the same... Well... Time will tell, just don't get stressed, and meanwhile, we'll probably be able to enjoy what MFS will bring.

 

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

1 hour ago, Janov said:

Pastaiolo, don´t argue with mSparks. You can´t win, because he is getting a kick out of antagonizing people and is not susceptible to logic or proof. Well, he probably is, but he enjoys driving you crazy by completely ignoring those 🙂

They were within inches of banning him over at the MSFS forum because he was driving people so mad - ultimately it is best to see this as a test for yourself and if you are in control of your dark side:

Read what he writes.

Smile.

Don´t type.

Carry on as if he didn´t post at all. There is also an "ignore" function that many people found out about because of him 🙂

Here is a link to the thread in the MSFS forum they put up because of him:

 

He is probably laughing his behind of because of that, there are some people like that. It isn´t shedding a good light on the X-Plane community to have someone from "us" create such an impression, but I hope that a lot of people won´t throw us all in one basket. The internet brings the worst out in some people...or maybe they really are like that.

All the best, Ciao, Jan

 

You are absolutely right, that is why i have added him in my ignore list now, problem solved. Some of the things he said initially were also quite true, but he gets mental the more it continues so that's it 🙂 Thank you for the advices anyway.

 

13 minutes ago, jcomm said:

I believe MFS will be out before the XP11 cycle ends... Anyway it would be a wrong strategy IMO for LR to even try to announce XP12 before... 

There is still so much to optimize regarding Vulkan, weather, aerodynamics and the experimetal flight model, that I really think we shouldn't bother.

MFS will be around way before that - that's my conviction. It either proves to be what it appears to be - and I strongly believe it will - or ends up being a total fiasco, which is far from being what I think will happen.

I don't think Austin really bothers about it - he doesn't even know MFS 🙂 He continues to soar his dreams, and that's great, because otherwise he would have to be feeling really stressed about it.

When XP12 get's announced we will see what's new.

OTOH I do feel a bit disappointed with some exclamations from people ( devs ) here at AVSIM about something really remarkable that was coming with 11.50, something they couldn't even talk about... So far I haven't glimpsed what it was. Well, indeed my 3 day test revealed very good gains in performance, but that was about all I could see different ?  Weather and it's weird turbulence effects still the same..., cloud popping in / out, still the same..., very dubious implementation of ground effect still the same... Well... Time will tell, just don't get stressed, and meanwhile, we'll probably be able to enjoy what MFS will bring.

 

That's the beauty of it. Months of asking for Vulkan, and a minute after the question rightfully pop ups "What now?". Vulkan is but a fix to the bones of the platform. What MSFS showed is out there for everybody to see, what LR plans for XP12 is still unknown (and until Vulkan gets more stable, also far away). They did a good job with XP11, they can surely do a good job with XP12 but.. when will that happen? I also think it will happen after MSFS release (provided the covid19 situation don't delay them too of course).

[tonywob 4,770]

@mSparks Please don't turn this forum into another MFS bashing session. We get it that you don't like the sim for whatever reason, but this isn't the place.

 

 

[Michael Rempel 3]

On 4/19/2020 at 3:24 AM, Colonel X said:

Well that is still mostly out of the question.

I bet there is a bit coin miner out there who will try it and claim it is possible.

I know a few guys with thousands of dollars worth of GPUs just sitting around now cuz they figured out that bitcoin mining is a never winning proposition these days.

To people who are scheptical and whiny, the change being made is a) vital, and b) really hard. Take it from a guy who has been writing software for over 40 years. The new stuff is way harder to get right than the old way. But it can be done well, and more efficiently. Vulkan is a lot fussier, a lot more complex (many times more) and it takes a lot of time to learn it, and then make it work. Real world programmers always under estimate the effort they will have to make software. I have been designing estimation software, and doing research into it for decades. The fact remains constant in the industry. The real average completion date is 2.2 times the estimates at the beginning. And that does not count projects that fail to deliver at all. Crudely said, learning a whole new core paradigm for an upgrade like this adds 70 to 250% to that number. From what I can tell, if there was some discussion loosely by devs or management way back when, then they are right on schedule. The real schedule. In fact from what I know, which is quite a bit despite not knowing anyhing internally, they are doing a phenominal job. The way it is being built seems clear and pretty clean. They dont have side effects all over the place, so it is well architected. And I really like the way the plane physics works in the air. It feels right for the most part. Audio isnt great, but it is improving. And we cant mess with gravity on a budget. It is a good sim. Now they need to get everyone on to the better parallel compiler, and do some work on inter dependent object management to go with that. Render priority switching from 2d to 3d for example. Taking away 'the numbers' from end users to give them sliders that go from 'sparse' to 'dense' object population, but keeping the meaning of that relative to the machine being run. These days you get to see what is under the hood of this vehicle, and you can tune it yourself. That means you can blow stuff up yourself too, but you can play. Microsoft always tries to hide that from end users. I dont know if it will go well for the cockpit guys who want real hardware for every function. X-Plane is a really nice core hunk of software that runs the fine line between completely open and a dog's breakfast, and totally closed. It is growing like mad, and I am appreciating it more and more. So hang on to your hats a while. Things will go slow for quite a while, till the sim is mature enough to go very fast. And it will. It is coming, this old man has seen it before. Nobody on the team will promise it, but you wait. I expect great things from this team.
Let me end with one comment on the fix list. 

Rewrote the OpenGL bridge between X-Plane and plugins to fix a number of design limitations and bugs.

This fix is not trivial. This fix means the team cares a lot about maintaining the existing way of doing things. An old analogy in the software industry is to build a new airplane while still keeping the old one in the air. A fresh start is way easier, but not feasible when you want to keep your community happy. This is a so-called brown field situation. Those are always harder to do, more expensive, and they take longer. I get it that the troll who started this should keep quiet. This is not for him. This is for the rest who are not sure if what is happening is good or not. No it isnt good folks. It is fantastic. Cheers.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Michael Rempel

[Kopteeni 819]

Laminar has gone into a cave mode after B9 release. Hopefully everything's going smoothly.

[RXP 2,338]

4 hours ago, Kopteeni said:

Laminar has gone into a cave mode after B9 release. Hopefully everything's going smoothly.

I can assure you they are working hard, and we're a bunch of developers not letting them any minute!

[Kopteeni 819]

11 minutes ago, RXP said:

I can assure you they are working hard, and we're a bunch of developers not letting them any minute!

Good to hear. Give 'em hell 😄