On 5/23/2025 at 2:47 AM, MrBitstFlyer said:

Yes - I was using XP12 for the first six months after release but went back to MSFS - 2024 is looking good.  Over the last couple of years I have kept up to date with XP12 developments, and the latest XP12 betas have shown promise, so I have installed and configured XP12 again.  I'll run XP12 alongside 2024 and see how it goes.

Apart from the incredible realism of FS24....All is well here in the XP12 sky...

1 hour ago, GoranM said:

Austin is not a fan of ortho scenery.  But he has said that if people want it, he's not opposed to a 3rd party making a plugin for it.  That's where autoortho came in.

Austin/Laminar cannot use Google maps or Bing scenery to generate in sim scenery due to licensing.  I think it's something like $20 000 per scenery tile.  His only, in house solution, is "plausible" scenery.  But, as I said, if someone made a free plugin, to stream that scenery, with no profit in any way, it's not illegal.

https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions

Is public domain, the way I understood it from the developer day back when is they will be basically constructing the world from that or similar, using the same tech concepts they use for snow. "should" be better than photos.

But given the absolute silence on the topic that followed and how crazy hard all that is, we really just have to wait and see.

3 hours ago, filou said:

Apart from the incredible realism of FS24....All is well here in the XP12 sky...

Looks amazing - did you manually select the visibility?  Are they default clouds or an addon?

2 hours ago, mSparks said:

https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions

Is public domain, the way I understood it from the developer day back when is they will be basically constructing the world from that or similar, using the same tech concepts they use for snow. "should" be better than photos.

But given the absolute silence on the topic that followed and how crazy hard all that is, we really just have to wait and see.

that sounds infinitely more long-term secure than a streamed solution as we have in MSFS - Microsoft will, almost inevitably, pull the plug on MSFS at some point

XP being in a position where they can take the crown, perhaps even surpass MSFS during it's lifecycle, would IMO be an achievable solution based on something like this ^^

but, the task does seem enormous

i would love them to build something similar to the MSFS grass/landscape/trees baseline where anywhere in the world looks realistic based on their auto-population of the basics you would find anywhere in the world, even just adding realistic grass to the default scenery would be a massive leap - if you go to a standard GA airport in MSFS with just default scenery, there is a default realism from this single feature that is just not present in xplane where it's a flat, bland disaster outside curated scenery areas

43 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Looks amazing - did you manually select the visibility?  Are they default clouds or an addon?

I am not the author. This incredible photo comes from the official X-PLANE Discord. It is shared between 50 and 100 photos per day. These clouds are the default clouds of XP12 without a doubt. For the rest, it does not matter. It is the winner of all existing simulators.

On 5/22/2025 at 6:29 AM, GoranM said:

I want to assure you that we are fully committed to ensuring the quality of the TBM

Given that the TBM was first released in October 2018, I believe it's important to bring it up to the standards expected for 2025.

Rest assured,  we are dedicating a significant amount of time to this project, often working late into the night to add details and prepare the model for texturing.  I am nearing the texturing stage, which shouldn't take very long to complete.  Obviously, I can't give an ETA, but we're hoping everyone will appreciate the quality, given the time it's taken.

I appreciate your understanding as we strive to deliver the best possible outcome.

The quality is still HIGH:

 

1 hour ago, EGLD said:

 

but, the task does seem enormous

We are 7 months in to

I'm 100% sure even more great things are coming.

But I am also mostly at the point that I am enjoying what we have so much that I'm happy to get it when its ready. 

1 hour ago, EGLD said:

grass/landscape

this is just me guessing, but I suspect that maybe they end up pushing really big new scenery changes into the next major version of xplane. It would be awesome for it to come sooner, but LR have for the last few major releases run on a 5 year cycle (XP11 overran because vulkan was so hard), we are just about 3 years into XP12 already, I dont think there is time left now for it to come this major version, and if it does it will have to be like vulkan in XP11 - they get it mostly working under the hood, then use that to break everything for the next major release.

Just me doing gap analysis, high chance that is all wrong.

4 hours ago, EGLD said:

that sounds infinitely more long-term secure than a streamed solution as we have in MSFS - Microsoft will, almost inevitably, pull the plug on MSFS at some point

XP being in a position where they can take the crown, perhaps even surpass MSFS during it's lifecycle, would IMO be an achievable solution based on something like this ^^

but, the task does seem enormous

i would love them to build something similar to the MSFS grass/landscape/trees baseline where anywhere in the world looks realistic based on their auto-population of the basics you would find anywhere in the world, even just adding realistic grass to the default scenery would be a massive leap - if you go to a standard GA airport in MSFS with just default scenery, there is a default realism from this single feature that is just not present in xplane where it's a flat, bland disaster outside curated scenery areas

I 100% agree with this.

11 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

The quality is still HIGH:

 

I appreciate the compliment.  

I've gone over it, thoroughly, and found several issues that needed attention.  

It's looking much, much better...at least to me.  To the average consumer, the changes will be noticeable.

16 hours ago, filou said:

For the rest, it does not matter. It is the winner of all existing simulators.

I am on day five of my XP12 testing.  I was blown away by the image you posted. I just wanted to know if any addons were used so I could rush out and get them 😉

16 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I am on day five of my XP12 testing.  I was blown away by the image you posted. I just wanted to know if any addons were used so I could rush out and get them 😉

Here is a tip for you, for better HDR, use the nvidia game overlay (ALT+Z) and enable RTX HDR. It does a better job that autoHDR in windows with XP12. 

6 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Here is a tip for you, for better HDR, use the nvidia game overlay (ALT+Z) and enable RTX HDR. It does a better job that autoHDR in windows with XP12. 

So turn off AutoHDR too?

55 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

So turn off AutoHDR too?

Just leave it enabled, it doesn't matter. AutoHDR will only work in XP12 if you have 'prefer layered on DXGI swapchain' enabled, but that loses some FPS. (Best to leave that setting at AUTO). So, to get around this, and also to get better control of the HDR in XP12, use the NVidia overlay, and enable RTX HDR. (this also subsequently helps with G-Sync too).

Edited May 25, 20251 yr by Ianrivaldosmith

Is Nvidia Overlay only available with the Nvidia App?

I don’t use the App so I’m not sure that will work. 
 

So far I am enabling it manually on Windows setting. 
 

8 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Just leave it enabled, it doesn't matter. AutoHDR will only work in XP12 if you have 'prefer layered on DXGI swapchain' enabled, but that loses some FPS. (Best to leave that setting at AUTO). So, to get around this, and also to get better control of the HDR in XP12, use the NVidia overlay, and enable RTX HDR. (this also subsequently helps with G-Sync too).

Doesn't appear to work.  Changed settings as you suggest, but i'm not getting HDR output in XP12.  AutoHDR with the prefer layered on DXGI swapchain works.