Laminar Research is entering into the new year with a fair bit of momentum. The new 12.1.4 update for the sim brings with it an entirely new lessons system, a new camera system, new airport scenery, a new demo area for demo users, new G1000 features, a new safe mode and new library objects. Let’s have a look!

Flight lessons

X-Plane’s training section hasn’t seen a major refresh in quite a long time and is the focus for 12.1.4. The tutorials are narrated by Austin, X-Plane creator, and feature a number of lessons. The first four are in the sim’s Cirrus SR-22 with an introduction, basic handling, advanced handling, and landing lessons. Three additional lessons introduce you to the Lancair Evolution with another introduction, handling emergencies lesson and a cross country lesson.

X-Plane has always touted itself as an engineering and pilot training tool first and so getting some significant retooling of the training section of the sim makes a ton of sense for the sim and its brand.

Physics-based camera

X-Plane’s camera system has always been functional but not necessarily all that interactive. Other sims have done a good job of connecting the camera (your virtual pilots view on the world) with the physics of what the aircraft has been experiencing. That includes acceleration, deceleration, and weather effects like turbulence.

The first demo video they show has the A330 flying into a cloud and some cloud based turbulence. You could see the airplane experience it before but now the pilot’s view also shakes which aids in the immersion and helps communicate what the plane is dealing with. A good thing!

The same kind of effects have been setup for the exterior camera with subtle movements of the overall view based on how the aircraft is moving through the air. Not ground breaking, other sims have done it too, but a good improvement to X-Plane in helping with immersion.

Some will note too that various plugins have added this capability for years so this is the base sim catching up to those needs.

New airport scenery

Something that is still a little new to X-Plane is the more regular updates to specific scenery elements in the sim. While we’re still waiting to really see what their next gen scenery system can do, updates to specific airport and location scenery is certainly a welcome addition and helps encourage exploring the world.

We saw three airports added in the Caribbean update and now we’ve got a couple more coming with LOWS Salzburg Airport being one of them. This update isn’t just the airport but also the nearby Salzburg castle. Apparently the local autogen has also been given a bit of a boost.

From Austria to Scotland with the second airport that is getting a bespoke update. EGPR Barra Airport is also included in the update with one of the most unique airports in the world. The runways are on tidal flats with the airport runways inaccessible at high tide – something that X-Plane is now doing.

The updated materials include notes on the runway configuration and shows off the tidal system in action – I will definitely have to check that out.

G1000 updates, new demo areas, and more

The final pieces of this latest update cover a wide variety of topic areas. One is the demo, which is free to anyone wanting to see if X-Plane 12 is for them, has been expanded with a new Austria based zone with Salzburg at the centre.

The G1000 has been updated with a new SAR (Search and Rescue) function. It can be set to optimize a search pattern for that kind of operation. Sounds interesting and makes me wonder if the sim is maybe also going to angle towards some activities based actions in the future – I’d love to see it.

X-Plane relies quite a bit on library objects that Gateway airport scenery editors can make use of. The latest updates add snow and de-icing equipment, new firefighting equipment and ambulances, new trucks, and new airport operations vehicles. The assets all look to have sharp textures and hold up reasonably well under close inspection. All good moves to help boost the sim’s visuals.

If you’re on the beta release, you can go and download this now. If you’re on the stable release, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for all of this to arrive.

Read everything that’s new with X-Plane right over here.