<a href=http://www.x-plane.com/?article=x-plane-10-40-release-notes>X-Plane 10.40 beta1 is finally out. Let’s take a look at what’s new in this version:

Added 576 new airport sceneries, including Beijing Capital, Shenzhen Bao’an, and the new Hong Kong International in China, as well as Narita and Sapporo New Chitose in Japan. The system now totals 1,730 3D airports.

Added a shortcut key to regenerate weather: “sim/operation/regen_weather”.

High-altitude wind information can now be obtained from the network.

Wind shear is now simulated from METARs.

New distributed scenery loading method, using multi-core CPUs to reduce loading times!!

New options for remote visibility!!

Animation format changed from Quicktime to AVI.

New rendering options allow you to easily configure display speed from preset levels, ranging from prioritizing speed to prioritizing quality, for a total of 5 settings!

Night lighting size scales proportionally with screen size.

The arrow display during taxiing can be toggled in Operations and Warnings.

The OS screensaver can now be disabled during flight!!!

Previously, if X-Plane crashed, the display would always reset to windowed mode. The new version adds an option in Settings/Operations and Warnings to directly return to the mode used before the crash!

The Flaps position indication in the cockpit is now synchronized with the actual position on the wing, whereas previously it was not!

Voltage display after ignition has been corrected to the proper behavior.

Added a flight mileage meter (Hobbs meter) for each aircraft!

Special effects on the windscreen in 2D cockpit mode can now be disabled, including bird strikes, rain, etc.

Backup manual throttle will no longer override the regulator.

Failures for oil temperature and fuel quantity are now supported.

Better compressor stall effects.

Quick engine start command, so you don’t have to waste time manually starting it every time!

Added a special/Toggle Nearby Air Traffic Controllers menu, which pops up a list of nearby ATC frequencies. Clicking a frequency automatically sets it to COM1!!

An option to automatically collect system performance information is available in Operations & Warnings, allowing X-Plane developers to understand various user performance issues.

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