X-Plane 12.1 finally emerges into beta

May 16, 2024

1–2 minutes

The folks at Laminar Research have been working on bringing X-Plane 12.1 to us for a long time and now the project has finally emerged into public beta with version 12.1.0 beta! There’s a lengthy list of updates and some testing challenges ahead so let’s see where the sim is at.

Graphics, avionics and more

Laminar Research are heralding this as one of the biggest updates to X-Plane and going by the feature list they aren’t wrong.

Graphics is a big piece of the puzzle here with the team offering significant improvements across the board. Cloud shadows on water, new bloom lighting, adaptive sharpening, better ground shadow aliasing, anti-aliasing improvements, better CPU performance, better water opacity and new turbidity (yes, that is a word!) visuals for choppy water, and a new screenshot utility with depth of field and exposure settings. There’s also new particle effects all over the place. Nice!

There’s also avionics updates with their G1000 getting some significant updates, new features via the X-Plane API to bring in other glass panel avionics, a new STEC ST-360 autopilot, flight model improvements, weather improvements and bug fixes, as well as some new features aimed at professional users.

There’s a list of the updates here on their website and a more detailed changelog here.

Beta testing underway

If you’re on the beta version of X-Plane 12 you’ll probably already be up and running with the latest update. If you’re sticking with the release version there will be a wait while the public and Laminar both test the update against innumerable different configurations, modules, and add-ons.

Some users are already very impressed with the updates while a few are reporting some issues with getting the beta to work properly with their graphics cards. Its a beta and that’s the sort of testing that this kind of update is intended to tease out so we’ll see how this goes.

X-Plane 12 definitely needs a shot in the arm both for the sim itself and for its developers so I hope that 12.1 helps with that.

3 responses to “X-Plane 12.1 finally emerges into beta”

Canada One

May 16, 2024 at 7:25 pm

Pretty cool that the X-Plane people have the guts to go up against MSFS. That’s real dedication.

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1. Urgent Siesta
  
  May 18, 2024 at 6:42 pm
  
  They’ve been successful against the MS flight sims for decades now.
  
  Other than photoreal streaming scenery, there’s not a lot of difference, quite frankly. And for those that are fans of DCSW, we know that’s not necessarily a killer feature….
  
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Urgent Siesta

May 18, 2024 at 6:40 pm

I’m an avid (rabid?) X-Plane fan, but I just can’t understand the drastic price increases…and i’m NOT going to support them.

X-Plane itself is now $80, 33% more than MSFS with a LOT less content included,

FlyJSim just increased the price of their (already expensive) Dash 8 Q400 to $100 (and no doubt foreshadowing the price of the pending v4 737 & 727…)

Flight Factor’s brand new 777 v2 is $100. It’s a fair bet PMDG’s also pending 777 will be down in the $80 range like their 737-800…

Toliss Airbuses have been $90 for years now vs $65 for Fenix

Oh, and let’s not forget the $115 Hotstart Challenger being the MOST expensive addon in the two sims…

While I can understand charging a premium price for a premium/uncommon product, I can’t understand charging significantly more when than the peer-level competition is at least as good…

Like, yeah, I’ll pay more for a helo in X-Plane (or DCSW), because the experience is quantifiably BETTER than in MSFS.

But for GA and Airliners? Give me a break – even the obviously pro-X-Plane FlightDeck2Sim IRL 737 Captain says the PMDG 737 is a fantastic addon with very little difference in quality or fidelity to the Zibo 737.

And THEN I’ve witnessed X-Plane developers complaining about low sales volume, and some even foreshadowing having to close down their businesses due to lack of demand.

You’re not selling because your prices are higher than your competition, dudes!!!! Luxury goods are the first things to go unpurchased in a down economy like we have. Why should anyone spend more on a pixel plane when they have high quality alternatives costing a LOT less?

As a small business owner myself, I truly understand price pressure. My answer is to ensure my prices are competitive AND/OR i’m delivering superior service or features.

So far, I’m busier than ever…

It’s time for the XP devs to realize they’re both losing existing customers (especially those like me who have more than enough XP addons to keep me busy for the rest of my life), AND they’re failing to grow from the MASSIVE influx of new simmers who are over in MSFS and wondering why they should pay more for X-Plane or its addons (particularly for airliners…sheesh).

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