Future of X-plane

[themose 11]

Hi Guys

With 11:51 pretty much stable now, does anyone have any links or know of where Laminar are going with this now?

X-plane 12 surely in the works?

Be nice to see a roadmap if there's one out there.

Many thanks

[tonywob 4,769]

There is no roadmap that has been publicly released, nor has XP12 been announced or previewed

From various comments on posts, they've stated that they are working on new lighting and clouds... but very little is known about it

This is the closest we have to a roadmap as such: https://feedback.x-plane.com/, however most answers are fairly generic rather than commital, so XP12 could contain lots of surprises we know nothing about

 

[Janov 2,383]

There is no roadmap or official announcement per se. Laminar Research has been fairly quiet with anything like this, partly to let the MSFS hype die down (anything they would have said up to now would have been considered as a desperate defence), partly to not promise anything that they may not be able to deliver.

So far there have been some hints as to what to expect:

• Better weather model (Austin´s video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oHPEyoie3I
• Improved lighting engine/art assets https://developer.x-plane.com/2020/11/stuff-we-are-working-on/
• Multicore improvements

It is also rumored that there will be improvements in other areas:

• Multiplayer code/accessibility
• Fidelity of autogen (roads more smooth/detailed, better landclass)
• Better vegetation (trees, bushes)

Before you ask 😉: No mention of "streaming real scenery" (apart from Austin not liking the approach), no mention of seasons, no mention of ATC improvements.

Cheers, Jan

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by Janov

[akita 429]

40 minutes ago, Janov said:

 Austin not liking the approach

not that it was in doubt, but a very smart guy indeed.

#1 reason for a visual immersion killing are very apparent quality/scale differences between close art assets. also "real scenery" is relative in time..nothing in this world is visually static.

[Bjoern 1,157]

I've seen something related to X-Plane multiplayer on Laminar's Facebook account, but I'm too lazy to check if it was related to the desktp or mobile version.

[Janov 2,383]

7 hours ago, Bjoern said:

I've seen something related to X-Plane multiplayer on Laminar's Facebook account, but I'm too lazy to check if it was related to the desktp or mobile version.

There has been a recent blogpost about multiplayer and the code behind it. While there was no mention of this tech being available in the future for the desktop version - I would be surprised if it wasn´t.

https://developer.x-plane.com/2021/01/have-you-heard-the-good-news-about-elixir/

Cheers, Jan

 

[mjrhealth 820]

Its a two way street, mobiles end up in desktop, and desktop ends up in mobile

 

[yidahoo 365]

I am quite interested in the direction they will take with the Mac. The M1 chips are running X-Plane at medium/high settings at around 30-35fps and that's through Rosetta translation. With the more powerful M1X chips on the way and the possibility that XP11 or 12 will be Arm native as well as X86 native, it could be exciting times. Let's not forget that the mobile version is already running on Arm chips so they have the experience to port it to desktop. 

[GoranM 3,764]

Some (I think 2...maybe 3) of the LR staff are already on the new M1 powered Mac's.  Not sure to what extent they are "testing", but their workflow appears to be going unhindered.

[yidahoo 365]

29 minutes ago, GoranM said:

Some (I think 2...maybe 3) of the LR staff are already on the new M1 powered Mac's.  Not sure to what extent they are "testing", but their workflow appears to be going unhindered.

I have not tried X-Plane 11 yet on my Mac Mini M1 but games such as Cities Skylines are running unbelievably well even through Rosetta. As for video and stills photography, my Mac's primary purpose, it is silky smooth. It will be very interesting to see what the higher end M1X Macs are like as gaming machines. I suspect they are going to be amazing

 

[tonywob 4,769]

The big problem I'm seeing on macs at the moment is the differences between Vulkan and Metal.. Some things aren't possible on Mac OS and it's starting to add more of a divide, e.g. SMP v5 apparently won't work in metal, and there are other restrictions. Are they going to purposely start limiting stuff because they can't port to Mac OS, I hope not...Why Apple decided to go down this route is another reason why I think my 15+ years using only Macs is coming to an end.

[jcomm 5,929]

I just want them to be nice and give some signs of what's coming for XP12, the sooner the better 🙂

Above all it would be great to be able to guarantee that porting addon aircraft between 11 and 12 would be straightforward and have no costs for users...

At present when I use XP11 I only use it with one add-on - the Toliss A319. Would probably embark on their 321 NEO, but I am on hold for XP12...

Was just about to hit the button and buy xEnviro too, but I controlled myself and instead spent the money on DCS add-ons 🙂

[Bjoern 1,157]

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

I just want them to be nice and give some signs of what's coming for XP12, the sooner the better 🙂

Please no. I can't take another flight sim hype train that will derail before it enters the station. Unless there's a public beta test tagging along with it.

 

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

Above all it would be great to be able to guarantee that porting addon aircraft between 11 and 12 would be straightforward and have no costs for users...

Just a reminder that there is no right to backward compatibility and that every add-on purchase caries an inherent long-term functionality risk.

 

[Greazer 1,320]

The priority for XP is:

1. Fix the half finished Vulkan port and all the issues that currently exist. And fix performance to what it should be for Vulkan API.  We have multi core for about 15 years or more by now!

2. Fix all the previous Open GL issues and graphics bugs (sudden weather redraws, cloud flickering, jagged shadows, sudden brightness changes etc etc).

3. Fix HDR and make sliders to improve color, contrast, brightness and ability tweak the shader settings etc. Should not have to go after market for everything!

4. Make XP world look proper at ground level (grass, dirt, trees, animations, people). Make proper environment engine (no sound "loop").

5. Create a proper weather engine with seamless transitions etc.

6. Sync ATIS with (injected) weather and (injected) Traffic and ATC.

[FlyBaby 659]

9 hours ago, jcomm said:

Was just about to hit the button and buy xEnviro too, but I controlled myself and instead spent the money on DCS add-ons 🙂

This is a tough call. Although I knew of the slow development etc when I first purchased it, the Dev is really struggling to keep up. I admire the tenacity, but the wait time is in the "years" time frame for XE to fully deliver.

With that said, I just realized that 1.15 (and now 1.16) is Vulkan compatible. However, I have always had to turn it off (after an update) either due to performance issues or some odd visual bug that killed the immersion. I will load 1.16 to see if XE is something that can finally play nice for the long haul.

So...if you buy it...just know that development is very slow. Perhaps it is at a more stable place now, but I had written it off (lesson learned) almost a year ago.

 

3 hours ago, Greazer said:

The priority for XP is:

1. Fix the half finished Vulkan port and all the issues that currently exist. And fix performance to what it should be for Vulkan API.  We have multi core for about 15 years or more by now!

 

The recent pagefile size fix (over at the org) did seem to eliminate the panning stutters for me in a short test run. Did this work for you?