X-Plane 12.2.0 beta is out, so I immediately upgraded to test it. I found that the cockpit instruments are much easier to read, and the rendering speed has improved, so I am extremely satisfied with the overall performance boost.

What’s new in X-Plane 12.2.0? X-Plane 12.2.0 Release Notes

Below is an excerpt from the official website introduction.

We strive to make X-Plane more immersive, realistic, and visually stunning with every update, but this update truly hits the mark. X-Plane 12.2.0 represents twelve months of meticulous improvements to cloud rendering, lighting, environmental effects, and graphics performance. If you’re interested in better cockpit lighting, improved sky colors, or our revamped cloud system, read on.

Dark Cockpit Fix The graphics team has been working hard to address various issues related to how aircraft interiors are rendered. We’ve made three major changes that have brought about a massive difference.

1. Interior Rendering Improvements Light entering the cockpit now correctly follows the contours and details of the aircraft structure, eliminating unrealistic color casts during sunset.

2. Exposure Fusion (Better Exposure Handling) One of the most subtle yet significant upgrades in smartphones over the past few years is a technique called “exposure fusion.” Exposure fusion is the process where a camera takes multiple photos at different exposures and then stitches them together. This results in an image that presents the best details from each photo. X-Plane can now do this too! The simulator can now naturally balance bright and dark areas, preventing both cockpits from looking too dark and the outside world from being too bright. “Goldilocks” cockpit lighting in X-Plane has been a long time coming, but we are very pleased with the results.

3. Sky Brightness Prior to X-Plane 12.2.0, the sky was more than twice as bright as needed. This meant our internal exposure was clipped to deep black, and the bloom effect was somewhat overdone—all of which added to the darkness of the cockpit. In 12.2.0, sky exposure has been lowered to a more reasonable level, and the brightness of ground objects has been corrected where necessary.

Graphics Engine Improvements We’ve made numerous updates to improve the performance and stability of the X-Plane graphics engine.

First, we upgraded the shader compiler, which now manages resources better. Combined with improvements in how we handle graphics data, this helps reduce the time needed to process each frame. This results in overall smoother performance. Additionally, we’ve fine-tuned how textures are handled to make loading and rendering more efficient.

One major change is our method for managing VRAM (video memory). The system has been changed to prioritize smaller memory requests over larger ones—this helps with total memory allocation. It also now attempts to allocate memory multiple times before giving up, giving the system more time to free up space if needed and reducing the likelihood of blurry textures or slow performance.

Another change we made is how clouds are rendered on screen. To simplify, we now set a small radius around the camera viewport within which we can render clouds at high quality. This should virtually eliminate the pixelation effect of clouds around the aircraft (whether inside or outside them), and will also serve as a stepping stone for other cool rendering effects in the future!

Finally, we optimized how lights are rendered by breaking them down into tiles. Especially at night and at large airports, this should lead to better performance in demanding environments. This change allows the GPU to distribute lighting tasks across threads in manageable chunks—or, as programmers would say, “prettier and faster.”

Graphics Improvements In addition to engine and cockpit lighting improvements, we’ve made a series of updates to X-Plane’s lighting, colors, and overall visual realism.

1 More Realistic Colors and Lighting

Brand New Tone Mapping In this update, we have switched to a new system called AgX, which improves color accuracy, especially in bright and vibrant scenes.

Improved Sky Rendering Through careful tweaking, sky colors now render under more natural lighting.

2 Clouds and Lighting

Cloud Rendering Overhaul Clouds now cast more detailed shadows, both within the cloud layers and between each other. This greatly enhances the depth and realism of the sky. We implemented a new sculpting algorithm that creates more natural cloud formations. Clouds within a 1-kilometer radius of the viewpoint are now rendered as fully 3D objects.

Clouds also have a new scattering approximation. Look at the clouds at different times of the day. When there is no direct lighting, the density of the clouds causes scattering, creating dark edges. In direct light, the edges will turn white.

Cloud-on-Cloud Shadows Shadows cast by cloud layers now take into account cloud density and the Earth’s curvature, creating smooth gradients during sunrise and sunset. We also updated scattering shadows: clouds now cast visible shadows in the atmosphere, just like in real life.

Cloud-Aware Ambient Light Terrain lighting in the simulator now takes cloud cover into account, improving the overall realism of how light interacts with the environment.

We also fixed an issue where the ocean wasn’t correctly influencing ambient light calculations. This resulted in cockpits being too dark at high altitudes. Ambient light is now updated more frequently and separately for the interior and exterior of the aircraft. This prevents runway lights from unnaturally illuminating the cockpit at night.

More Realistic Shadows Now, shadows cast by direct sunlight on the ground are correctly aligned with the coverage, shape, and density of the cloud layers.

Airport/Scenery Improvements HD Airport Surface Textures All airport ground textures have been upgraded to use the decal system we recently implemented for aircraft. This allows us to make new breakthroughs in Runway and Taxiway resolution.

Weather Effects on Roads Weather effects such as rain, puddles, and snow now appear on major roads. This was a user feature request from our Discord, and we really love the result. Another win for the X-Plane community!

Gateway Airports As always, this update includes a set of updated Gateway airports, featuring many new and improved locations. A huge thank you to all contributors. Your work is invaluable and helps make X-Plane truly unique.

A full list of changed airports will be available on the developer blog shortly after release, and a link will be provided here!

Deep Dive into Flight Simulation Air Traffic Control The Air Traffic Control system has been refined for smoother flight patterns, better Visual Flight Rules (VFR) handling, and more realistic pre-flight procedures. A new “request start” call has been introduced for controlled airports to authorize engine start, aligning with real-world procedures. Additionally, pushback requests are now handled more effectively, providing clearer messaging and improved cancelation options. Visual Flight Rules (VFR) departures now receive squawk codes at the correct time, and new radio calls (such as requesting bearings and weather for nearby airports) provide pilots with more useful flight information.

Brakes, Parking Brakes, and Chocks Aircraft designers now have a new parking brake system to use. This new system supports both hydraulic and mechanical locking methods, reflecting the diversity of real-world aircraft implementations. Additionally, toe brakes can now be set to release the parking brake, and aircraft without anti-skid require careful brake application to prevent wheel locking. Users without hardware pedals can adjust braking via key/button inputs. Finally, wheel chocks have been introduced as an alternative to the parking brake, allowing for more realistic securing of the aircraft on the ground.

Currently, the following aircraft are equipped with chocks: Lancair Evolution Van’s RV-10 Boeing 737 Cirrus SR-22 Aero-works Aerolight 103 Beechcraft Baron 58

X1000 User-defined waypoints are now more flexible, offering various input methods similar to real-world avionics. Map controls have been improved for smoother panning in eight directions and feature cursor-aware zooming. The flight plan sees significant improvements, including more realistic STAR entry behavior, support for AGL altitudes in VNAV, and enhanced GCU altitude and approach minimum entry handling.

Finally, uploading a few screenshots from the test flight, you can see that the frame rate is very high, making it very comfortable to fly.