For those who missed it, its not out yet, but there was release notes posted a bit ahead, than removed, It is mainly Zink related bug fixes and a couple of Linux ones, Must of discovered a late bug. Cant be too far away.

Beta 3 is out now

Avionics

● Implemented auto brightness, which can be enabled by pressing the MENU button on the PFD. The user can select the brightness manually for the PFD/MFD screens or set it to AUTO.

Bug fixes

● XPD-15378 - X-Plane 12 hangs when querying ipv6 addresses due to change in kernel 6.9.0

● XPD-15388 - Bug report "New writable datarefs are not writable"

● XPD-15415 - Bug report "Zink driver crashes with plugins"

● XPD-15416 - Bug report "Zink causes crash when opening plugin window (Linux)"

● XPD-15421 - Toggling VR leaks memory

● XPD-15423 - Installer manifest broken if file compression scheme changes without SHA changing

● XPD-15430 - Bug report "Zink CLI option not forcing Zink to be enabled"

● XPD-15434 - XPLMPopOutAvionics() crashes if called on a stock avionics device (GNS530 for example)

● XPD-15437 - XPLMGetAvionicsGeometry() incorrect when avionics is popped out

● XPD-15438 - XPLMSetAvionicsGeometryOS() has vertical switched

The ipv6 bug was a real game breaker.

And the Zink crashes were already fixed in beta 2. 🤔

List us not complete. Apparently there a at least 4 fixes not in there, seems there bug reporting script has a bug. And @Bjoern I don't recall any mention of zink being fixed in b2. Obviously some new bugs crept in as they do.

Funny thing is I can't update title here on other forum I can and did. Maybe a mod change it to b3 out.

Updated list

• XPD-15373 – F-14 external fuel tanks always revert to full load when opening the Weight, Balance and Fuel menu
• XPD-15378 – XPlane 12 hangs when querying ipv6 addresses due to change in kernel 6.9.0
• XPD-15388 – Bug report “New writable datarefs are not writable”
• XPD-15410 – copy-paste error prevents accessing 430 flightplan in the 172
• XPD-15415 – Bug report “Zink driver crashes with plugins”
• XPD-15416 – Bug report “Zink causes crash when opening plugin window (Linux)”
• XPD-15419 – XPLMGetFMSFlightPlanEntryInfo doesn’t perform XPLMNavRef lookup, while XPLMGetFMSEntryInfo does
• XPD-15421 – Toggling VR leaks memory
• XPD-15423 – Installer manifest broken if file compression scheme changes without SHA changing
• XPD-15429 – Regression: with bleed air = OFF, the cabin still slowly pressurizes
• XPD-15430 – Bug report “Zink CLI option not forcing Zink to be enabled”
• XPD-15434 – XPLMPopOutAvionics() crashes if called on a stock avionics device (GNS530 for example)
• XPD-15437 – XPLMGetAvionicsGeometry() incorrect when avionics is popped out
• XPD-15438 – XPLMSetAvionicsGeometryOS() has vertical switched

For those who, like me, didn't RTFM.

Ortho water should be fixed (and probably has been for a while) - but you need to select the XP12 water option from the settings in Ortho4XP1.4...

Rebuilding tiles now

It is clear that there are a lot more changes to this version upgrading it or changing the way it works for me. B3 now gives me the zink connector back and a significant improvement in FPS in fact FPS is very healthy nearly 90 in some places depends on the model even heavy weather and complex model I was getting 40-50 FPS. No stutters.

Weather handling is pretty accurate and well cloud and light fits the bill.

Lighting or brightness this we will have to live with that depends on whether you look into or away from or down or up sun! So you can see what it is doing and correctly changing the overall light ambience dependant on the direction and you and the sun! 

Noted that there is a change in the behaviour or perceived responses of various models to the size and mass of the aircraft - that is C172 feels like a C172 and a MD-80 feels like an MD-80 would - its not just a perception thing but clear from the VC to the exterior visuals. No ideas what changes were involved but just say seems good and I have not had a need to spend time setting and resetting control sensitivities for different models. 

Night lighting is properly scaled and luminescent! Stars still need a little oomph! and so does the milky way!

Turbulence - hard to compare there are changes to the way a model responds to turbulence and while reasonable it is still not that good. Roll pitch and ROC changes were better managed but until they can manage mass v up/down then a way to go - i mean mod to heavy turb in a C172 would be a light chop in a B737. 

Seem to have had some mesh interpretation changes snuck in and some places the auto gen is now very different. Yorke Island in the Torres Straight now has palm trees and small houses and the large water collection reservoir tank, no more street lights on the road to the airport and a properly fenced apron area, the runway now has undulations in it that were not there before, they are incorrect - Yorke Islands is as flat as they get!

Bunch of tools and some things have needed a fix or update, like ground equipment stuff, some orthos for sceneries (if you use them) - SimHeaven will remain out for me except for Asia. X-Roads no longer works and has to be removed. Some bugs now with Marine Traffic. Live Traffic is functioning fine and as I have only SGE as a lua cannot say about any other scripts. 

90% of my payware has been updated via the Skunkcraft process - and that remains a pain for many then requiring reactivation via the keycode route, while others do not - still time consuming and a nuisance especially as 12.1 now has had 3 updates to B3. 

No issues for me except on one payware jet that will not play the game and even thought XP12 certified - will just not connect the electrics and hence do anything in my sim - just hangs the whole sim program - go figure!

23 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

And @Bjoern I don't recall any mention of zink being fixed in b2.

It wasn't in the changelog, but X-Plane surely did not crash anymore for me and others with beta 2 when using plugins with Zink, so while the fix had been in for longer, it was logged only now.

And for those who missed it, weather radar works correctly on lots of planes. There was  bug in the script that grabs the fixed bugs. Was noticed by Phil so I assume that bug is now fixed fixed.