X-Plane 12.0.8b1 is available

[mjrhealth 820]

If you read your logsm its filled with " known" errors, they sometimes allow there reporter to do this, i assume so they wont forget it,

[coastaldriver 920]

No major issues with 12.08 BUT it seems that we are going to see a lot more broken models now in XP due to the engine power changes etc. Reports already of weird performance outcomes for piston engines even on the base Laminar models Beech Baron and the Stinson. Guages not working or not accurate. Users rolling back to 12.07 in the meantime!

The major anomaly for me the tick box on the menu for (show or not show older models) now removes half my fleet if I go no show older models (That includes a lot of XP12 specific models now not recognised for some reason as XP12 with 08). Have not delved more deeply but about to find out as I work through one turboprop to see what is what!

Long discussion elsewhere today with a developer I have had some work with and ramifications on the way the AP work turboprop RPM and engine management etc as they said one step forward now two steps backwards! LR need to be careful here they are not giving people time to digest and work out the changes!! I all I can say. I expect to see even more stuff go into my Hangar 1 (abandoned unchanged with problems)

Might roll back to 12.07 myself now If I can!

Edited November 12, 2023 by coastaldriver

[mSparks 2,086]

2 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Long discussion elsewhere today with a developer I have had some work with

Bens message on this to them is very clear.

Report it, dont work around it. Regressions get priority, but ONLY if they know about them. 

This is why we have a beta process.

[coastaldriver 920]

Few test flights today variety of aircraft. Piston not producing power indications like they used to and sluggish in terms on engine output. Case in point BE58 would not climb at better than 110 kts at 1000 fpm at climb power (Baron was always good for 120-140 kts climb and 1200 fpm plus). C172 the same reduced power output and climb performance. Load of irritating messages about aligning the gyro when they were aligned! Note these are Laminar default aircraft. With a C-47 from AWX it was woeful all over! Feels like they are fighting through sludge is the only description I can give! Not sure they claim accurate engine data or output performance well could not get the low pressure oil lights to go out until RPM was raised to 1700 RPM and then slowly one by one. I know how these sensors work in real life and basically you would ground the aeroplane because the oil pressure and temp guages are now unreliable! Interestingly these are all analoque style cockpit instruments as well no fancy EFIS systems. 

Tried it in larger turboprop the Dash 8 erratic power on the ground and poor climb performance acceleration and climb. Torque needles slow to respond and were frozen until power applied. Beta is messed up as well!

Now this has really been the big minus - with 12.08 I am getting messages about too high a rendering settings (they were all fine on previous versions with my NVIDIA setup and no issues set high or maximum at all) and my FPS has gone from reliably 60-80 FPS down to 20 and the best it will now manage is 31 FPS whether it is a capital city with dense scenery or out in the wide open country with little but landscape and trees. So whatever they thought they were doing it has just killed my PC GPU  performance! No stutters but it will be interesting now to see what happens with aircraft like the Toliss Airbus the Fels 747 etc. I think this beta update is a dog of a thing! Never had any issues with XP performance or graphics before. 

Did I mention my sound is now phasing in and out using base LR sound files as well. 

Poscript - tried the XCraft Embraer E170. Nothing better than 32 FPS. Smooth overall but lags between the menus and data entry noticeable now! Their installer no longer knows what version I have on start up? Go Figure!

Tried the Thranda C206 as a matter of interest - it has forgotten it was registered and activated and wants me to down load and do it all again! Shut the sim down at that point! Had enough of this sort of cluster!

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by coastaldriver

[jcomm 5,939]

@coastaldriver, thank you for the detailed reports!

I haven't been so meticulous in my rather superficial analysis of 12.08b, and since I had been out for quite a while now I concentrated more on the weather rendering which, since the last time I had tried XP12 has proggressed positively, I believe.

OTOH I only made test flights with the Zibo 738, did take the FF 757 for a short takeoff and yesterday played around with a nifty freeware heli.

The Zibo 738 didn't show any quirks, at least that I was aware of, in the two flights I completed, one between LPPR and LPPT and the other 2 in short "positioning" flights between two Lisbon area airports.

Performance was good, with VSync ON it was always near 60 fps, but I did use NPI to set it to adaptive half refresh rate, so got 30 fps mostly...

I will probably try to reinstall the X-Aviation MU2-J, although I know it wasn't , even in previous versions of XP12 that accurate in terms of performance - if we look at the actual aircraft charts - and will try to make a flight a see what I get and try to report back.

[coastaldriver 920]

Ok comments noted thanks. I did a reboot of the PC and then was notified of an NVIDIA driver update for the 2070 RTX. Did the update, clean up and reboot again then tried XP. I can say that performance of the PC is now back at expected levels (60-90 FPS) with a variety of aircraft checked. I did note that ColdnDark gives very high FPS but as soon as engines are running even in the LR C172 the FPS drops back some 20% which I find curious, so it is not a scenery or graphics issue but when the processor is being asked to do extra via XP that the graphics slows measurably. Anyway it is a acceptable. 

The Baron is ok but still off its best in my view at ISA and mid weights and nil wind take off (Done about 700 hrs in the real thing so that is my comparison)  climb and acceleration is a little tardy!

Anyhow wasted enough of everyones time and mine. Just get on with it now! Back to turboprop issues with the Dash 8 (Separate problems altogether to these and are long standing issues with props and power in XP!

And yes have reported and logged with Laminar!

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by coastaldriver

[DeltaWho 67]

On 11/9/2023 at 10:58 PM, DeltaWho said:

Filed a bug for you.

XPD-14720 : To be fixed in 12.1.0

Thanks for the find @turbomax. But please use the bug reporter next time!

[Tim_Capps 474]

All I got to say is that with both P3Dv5.4 and MSFS having serious issues with me (or vice versa) I couldn't have picked a better time to get curious about X-plane. It looks fantastic out of the box and I'm having a blast with the Rotate MD-80. A steal for $59. P3Dv5.4 might end up being second choice for old stuff we're just not going to see anywhere else.