X-Plane 12 Development Update - May 19, 2022

It has been over half a year since the announcement of X-Plane 12 last September, and we have finally received an official update. It seems the Early Access release will be coming soon (mid-June?), and the price remains at $59.99, allowing players to purchase it online.

Below is a translation of the progress for various functional modules:

–Flight Model -Final testing -Austin is currently writing a blog post outlining the changes made for X-Plane 12.

–Global Scenery -Completed Rain/snow shaders for airports and global scenery -In Progress Completing data import / finishing generation of scenery tiles Improving performance of 3D trees Adjusting coastlines / beaches to fit into new scenery tiles 3D wake rendering for boats / seaplanes Full orthophoto compatibility -TODO Finish implementing geographically aware water colors.

–Airport Features -Completed Fully animated taxi routes. Modular tower building kit for Gateway developers. New ground vehicles with updated driving logic. FMOD sounds for ground vehicles. Dozens of new static aircraft + new livery selection logic based on airline/airport. -In Progress New passenger buses.

–Aircraft -Completed SR22 R22 Citation X RV-10 PA-18 -In Progress A330 While this aircraft is ready for initial release, we are still working on some extra features, specifically a custom Airbus FMS. F-14 -TODO Finish liveries and finalize autopilot behavior / cockpit details.

–Weather Engine -Largely Complete Including fresh data sources for real weather, new logic, new rain/snow accumulation/windshield effects, new volumetric 3D clouds, etc. -TODO Fix some bugs in the volumetric cloud system. Ensure weather continuity between networked simulators. Performance tuning Third-party API

–ATC -Completed Updated user interface Support for VR/mouse-less VFR operations (testing) -TODO Final review

–Rendering Engine -Completed Improved anti-aliasing performance and effects Re-implementation of projection warping -In Progress Final tweaks for ambient occlusion. -TODO Improve overall performance. Fix bugs in screen-space reflections (SSR).