Today I encountered a number of significant internet outages on my internet connection (Signal but no broadband internet). What I encountered with XPlane was this I had added some liveries and then went to start XPlane as normal using the XPlane exe - there was a lag in the start and then a dialoque box appeared advising me that the copy was the Demo and unregistered and to enter the KeyCode I got when purchased XPLANE. I did this but it failed and then it advised it was starting XPlane in DEMO mode only!

I presume therefore that on start XPlane is starting and confirming via its main servers that this is a full and legitimate copy and because it could not do that went into DEMO mode.

Now I understood that once you keyed in the key on purchase that that was it and no further internet connection was required (if it was required) so apparently this is not the case.

I also noted that some hours later when the internet was restored by the carrier that XPlane operated normally again without the need for codes etc. 

A glitch or a hidden process? I have taken the issue up separately with XPlane. 

15 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

A glitch or a hidden process? I have taken the issue up separately with XPlane. 

Good deal.

I remember when I use to use dvd in the Xplane 10 days that the key was read from the dvd when not online. 

That is problem that I will need to be resolve.

Edited March 27, 20233 yr by BobFS88

Standard DRM.  Due to piracy being so widespread, a lot of software now requires online authentication.  

Quick note - restarted XPlane with no internet connection again several hours later - this time it started did not require a KeyCode confirmation and proceeded to work normally - with all the usual warning messages about no Live Traffic no Real Time Weather etc. A glitch in the matrix? We shall see what Laminars response is!

2 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

A glitch in the matrix? We shall see what Laminars response is!

Not a glitch. I believe it periodically (in days) connects to their server to check that the key is valid. If it can't confirm, it switches to the demo mode.  I had an issue where every few days it would prompt me for my key.  Also, if you had CPU where you switched profiles(disabling cores etc), it confuses the DRM. I eventually I got tired of it and bought the steam version.

XP11 asked for the DVD every couple weeks or so. I assume the digital key would be the same. Will be interesting to see how often that happens in 12 after the DVDs arrive. I imagine that Steam would also stop working eventually without network access.

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In the US, their patent office allowed a retrospective patent on "looking up a name on a list!...
This is what X-Plane is doing.