Today, Laminar Research released the latest version of X-Plane — X-Plane 10.03 Beta 9. This release jumps directly from Beta 7 to Beta 9, mainly because the Windows version was found to crash during the preparation for Beta 8, so after an emergency fix, the version was bumped to Beta 9. After using it personally, it feels like the display is a bit faster than before, and the calibration function at startup is also very convenient. Also, the handling stability feels better. I performed a few figure-eights; although I was still busy trying to maintain altitude and speed, subjectively it felt a bit easier. (Or maybe my skill level has improved?)

Here are the main updates in this release:

X-Plane 10.03 Beta 9 Fixed a major crash on Windows Fixed issues with Runways and lights not displaying on certain monitors Restored frame rate cloud visibility Fixed an ATC crash during startup Fixed sunlight display issues in global view

X-Plane 10.03 Beta 8

Display: Adjusted city lights at various resolutions Cloud lighting is more precise, especially for stratus and layered clouds Better aircraft lighting under cloud shadows Better organized rendering options, added a “one-push to set to max frame-rate” button

Flight Control: Better joystick response, more precise and sensitive Joystick calibration available at startup

ATC: Fixed stability issues Fixed Descent issues Fixed control issues with multiple frequencies

Plugin: Fixed real weather reference issues Fixed issues with Windows aircraft plugins loading

Weather: Fixed issue where real weather was missing objects

Rendering: Fixed missing artificial horizon Adjusted shadow options Improved GPU fill rate in 3D cockpit HDR

Bug Fixes: Screenshots can now be taken while recording QuickTime movies

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