Something interesting has happened recently in the world of X-Plane. Version 12.1.2 is now in beta and for beta users the latest update has brought with it something different than we’ve seen in prior updates – a themed content release paired with new and updated features. This update is focused on the Caribbean and its had me get out some aircraft and fly in X-Plane for the first time in months. Let’s have a look!

Welcome to the Caribbean

Many of you are going to be very familiar with Microsoft Flight Simulator’s themed content releases pairing world and city updates with aircraft releases and working in new content and features around many of these updates. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I suspect the Microsoft Flight Simulator team should be feeling flattered indeed as Laminar Reseach is borrowing a page from their book with a themed update. And its a pretty good one too!

X-Plane 12.1.2 is what Laminar Research calls a minor release. It doesn’t have pages of updates and new features but it does bring in some new key features and it pairs it with some new, and free, content.

One of the headline features in this new update is the addition of a new set of boat scenery to the sim. From cargo ships to yachts to small fishing boats and everything in between there is now an extensive library of built in ship models in X-Plane. Better yet, these have been given life by having them move around on their own and generally do what ships do. They are not tied into AIS Marine Traffic system and instead Laminar are generating these ships in locations that they typically frequent. You’ll see small craft in the littoral areas while out on the ocean you’ll see more of the large freighter and tanker types of vessels. Seems reasonable.

In practice I’ve seen a dozen ships so far and several of them have been underway with good looking wake trails and everything. I’ll have to make sure I take a helicopter and land on one too. It helps X-Plane’s world, which has felt a little static, feel more alive.

The update also brings with it some other new library objects for airports, fixes for the replay system, dual jetways for large aircraft, and three new airport scenery packages in themed content.

Saba, Princess Juliana, Gustaf III and other thoughts about scenery

A lot of flight sim fans are going to know these airports as they have developed a kind of cult following among sim fans. Princess Juliana International Airport is located on the island of Saint Martin and can handle large airliners and a wide variety of traffic types and acts as a jumping off point for Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba and Gustaf III Airport on the island of St. Barth’s. Saba’s airport is infamous for its extraordinarily short runway and Gustaf III for the steep hill that aircraft must descend in order to get wheels on the ground on a runway that is also relatively short and ends in a beach and a dunking in the water if you don’t get it right.

Each of the airports has been upgraded with custom buildings and some nearby scenery elements which help add to the overall visuals of the area. Before I go any further, I love that Laminar Research have done these airports. There are some payware options out there (such as the Nimbus Gustaf III) but those don’t appear to have been upgraded for X-Plane 12 and these give us a great reason to visit the Caribbean in X-Plane and check out the new ship feature – though you can certainly do that elsewhere in the world.

I’ve flown into and out of all three of these airports now (the subject of a future Flight Journal) and generally speaking they are pretty good. Princess Juliana International Airport is pretty straightforward with the airport terminal given quite a bit of detail on both the gate and roadside. Facilities around the airport are reasonably detailed too! The resort buildings and the famous warning sign at the beach are, however, absent.

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is small and easy to replicate and has been reasonably detailed. The island and the rock textures are decided last decade when it comes to scenery unfortunately as is the rest of the island. But the airport building itself does include the Welcome to Saba sign and it looks pretty good indeed.

Gustaf III Airport and its famous landing approach are similar efforts to the others. The terminal building looks fantastic and the airport facilities are good. The end of the runway fence is not there and the roundabout at the other end is not well represented which is a tiny bit disappointing as its actually useful for lining up on the approach in my experience. One piece of the GA ramp also unfortunately sits on a very awkward and steep angle and static aircraft are sometimes spawned on it which is not ideal. There is nice water masking on the bay that the airport overlooks which is nice.

So the scenery is a bit of a mixed bag with some really good pieces and a few missing pieces too. It was free, what is on offer is very good, but there are are few rough edges. Those rough edges have me thinking that they may be looking ahead to a next generation scenery system which Laminar has briefly mentioned a couple of times in recent history. Updating some pieces of these airports now may end up being a wasted effort if a new system comes in and changes the whole look of the sim so I’m willing to give them a bit of a pass if that is indeed the long term goal.

Final thoughts

As I said up in the lede, I haven’t given X-Plane much attention over the last several months and I had temporarily uninstalled it to make way for that enormously large DCS World update back a few weeks ago. Now that was as much about making some space as it was my desire to install a fresh X-Plane and rebuild everything up from scratch which I am now in the process of doing – aircraft installs are all going in. Update X-Plane 12.1.2 was simply too interesting for me to pass it off.

Since the update, I’ve loaded up X-Plane 12 beta, reloaded the TorqueSim BN-2 Islander, and been flying a few flights back and forth between some of the new airports – and I have been humbled by the runway at Saba at least twice. It’s a good challenge! I have a Flight Journal in the works to talk about some of my adventures but I can say right now that I do love the way aircraft fly in this sim.

I am back to having fun with X-Plane and all it needed was a little shot in the arm with a couple of new features (admittedly ontop of significant updates over the last 12-months). I really hope they do this again with another themed update and a couple of new airports to focus on exploring with a free content update. It all helps to keep X-Plane’s foundation strong!