Beta 1 for XP 12.3.0 is available.

Full release notes (including all of the Alphas) at https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-12-3-0-release-notes/

Fixes and Enhancements from last Alpha to Beta 1
General
Fixed an issue where the time was displayed incorrectly (e.g. 12:60 instead of 12:00).

• Updated Global Airports from the X-Plane Airport Gateway, including OMDB Dubai International with custom buildings.
• Improved the “Resume Last Flight” function, especially when the previous flight ended at smaller airports or helipads (XPD-17164).
• Added the ability to call and dismiss the Ground Power Unit via the Ground Handling Window, similar to chocks. The GPU will remain connected until dismissed (XPD-16371).

Aircraft
McDonnell Douglas MD-82

• VNAV descent now auto-initiates when reaching the top of descent (XPD-14985).

ATC

• Fixed the “Send to FMS” button on the flight planning screen.

Graphics

• Improved performance of wheel-smoke particles.
• Fixed an issue where interior lights would switch off about 65,000 feet (XPD-17117).

Scenery

• Added missing drivers to airport vehicles.
• Service vehicles now correctly respect stop point settings (XPD-17175).
• Added new library objects and improved some existing ones:
• Water polygons and shores
• Low-profile airport barricades
• European-style ambulances
• Updated compass roses
• Improved colored surfaces for a closer match to draped ground signage

Systems

• Added warnings when ground tiles cannot be loaded in time for Synthetic Vision due to limited CPU resources (XPD-17215).
• Fixed an issue where the artificial horizon was not displayed correctly (XPD-17025).

Weather

• Improved stability of the METAR parser, especially when handling unexpected text or characters.
• Added display of real weather download age, as well as the age of the source data.
• Improved visibility of rain on the weather radar.
• Improved synchronization of manual weather between master and external machines (XPD-16607).

SDK

• Fixed an issue where new cursors were not displayed correctly on screens (XPD-17176).

Edited September 4, 2025Sep 4 by Malaromane
Clarification of release notes

Just a quick heads-up:

The list posted above is ONLY the changes from previous alphas to the version beta 1. 

For a FULL changelog of what is new with 12.3 you need to click on the provided link to the release notes.

Weather is good in latest beta, but Laminar should address the ground scenery, hope it's coming, say whatever, never seen so many beaches with trees on them.

1 minute ago, jymp said:

Weather is good in latest beta, but Laminar should address the ground scenery, hope it's coming, say whatever, never seen so many beaches with trees on them.

Wait a minute - you are saying that the default scenery in X-Plane is not good? 

I must make the team aware, this one has totally slipped under everyone´s radar! Glad you brought this up! 👍

5 minutes ago, jymp said:

Weather is good in latest beta, but Laminar should address the ground scenery, hope it's coming, say whatever, never seen so many beaches with trees on them.

The scenery will be something else.  Laminar have the best in the business working on it.  

2 minutes ago, Litjan said:

Wait a minute - you are saying that the default scenery in X-Plane is not good? 

I must make the team aware, this one has totally slipped under everyone´s radar! Glad you brought this up! 👍

🤣

 

Kidding aside, this update has really kicked up the quality and performance.  I've gotten a significant performance boost.  I'd say 10+ more fps.  And it's looking rather spectacular.

I know everyone is pumped about the weather radar possibility but the one that has me most excited is:

Quote

We’ve added Synthetic Vision to our X1000. This powerful feature enhances situational awareness by providing a 3D representation of terrain and obstacles directly on the PDF, just like in the real-world high-end GA avionics.

Very much looking forward to trying it out after work tonight.

It is the 4th of September in the year 2025 and we finally have a realistically functioning weather radar system in a desktop simulator...incredible.

I can't wait to go storm chasing this evening.

2 hours ago, rjack1282 said:

It is the 4th of September in the year 2025 and we finally have a realistically functioning weather radar system in a desktop simulator...incredible.

I can't wait to go storm chasing this evening.

And not only that. Flying into a storm will also have an impact on the flight dynamics, like it does in real 🙂

Downloading now, very slow. Everyone must be downloading. Still didn't see anything about networking in the release notes other than rain. 

Hi Mike did you check all the complete release notes? even the Alpha 1 notes? I think there are some improvements listed there on networking, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Edited September 4, 2025Sep 4 by alexcolka

23 minutes ago, alexcolka said:

Hi Mike did you check all the complete release notes? even the Alpha 1 notes? I think there are some improvements listed there on networking, if I'm not mistaken.

 

I went to the link to look at the latest didn't see anything but rain. I'll know soon enough, the download is slow since I'm downloading four copies onto four computers. Today should be a very good day for flight simulation.

Just found this in the updates listing, SWEET!
UPDATE: 

• Significantly improved synchronization of visuals between MASTER and EXVIS computers in multi-display setups — now including ground traffic at the airports, jetway extensions, boats and static aircraft.

Edited September 4, 2025Sep 4 by Mike_CFII_MEL

10 minutes ago, Mike_CFII_MEL said:

didn't see anything but rain

https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-12-3-0-release-notes/

"now including ground traffic at the airports, jetway extensions, boats and static aircraft."

 

Was testing it a bit just now and it appears that I still need to also set --time_seed=## and --weather_seed=##. Might be a beta thing still.

how about exaggerated brightness of the sky, is it fixed?

Hmmm.....just downloaded the beta and did a couple of default 737 flights and my CPU times (on the same settings) are TERRIBLE - like 17 FPS when I was 28 FPS.

 

BUT I use the "Lossless Scaling" app off of Steam to increase my FPS to 60 FPS and it's able to make the experience even smoother/glassier than before, even around KLAX and KSEA, so that's good.

 

I don't understand this at all - but like the performance (to be clear, without the Lossless Scaling running it's a 17-21 FPS slide show)

 

Surprised to see my CPU times skyrocket so much?

 

 

2 minutes ago, Republic DC9 said:

Hmmm.....just downloaded the beta and did a couple of default 737 flights and my CPU times (on the same settings) are TERRIBLE - like 17 FPS when I was 28 FPS.

 

BUT I use the "Lossless Scaling" app off of Steam to increase my FPS to 60 FPS and it's able to make the experience even smoother/glassier than before, even around KLAX and KSEA, so that's good.

 

I don't understand this at all - but like the performance (to be clear, without the Lossless Scaling running it's a 17-21 FPS slide show)

 

Surprised to see my CPU times skyrocket so much?

 

 

Most likely culprit is a rogue plug in that may not be compatible with 12.3.  

You should always have a test version of a beta and stable release as your main sim.