There’s been a ton of new sim information coming out recently and the latest to report on is Laminar Research and X-Plane 12. Open beta 12.4.0 has just arrived (full release to come later) and although its been called a “minor update” it actually has a ton of new things in it: new multi-threading features, aircraft updates, avionics changes, a new custom scenery, and new custom scenery elements.

Core updates

The big change is the addition of multi-core scenery processing. The optimization moves scenery processing, the parts done on the CPU, into their own thread and that can help improve performance though the effect is variable depending on the system. Performance improvements are spread unevenly and different scenes will give different levels of performance too but most users seem to report few to no change or significant improvements.

Another area that’s been improved in this update is the avionics. The X430, X530 and X1000 (unbranded Garmin versions of the same model number) now have traffic pages, a new NEXRAD radar page, frequencies page, GPS reliability information, and maps have more information on them. The X1000 gets even more changes including wind based vector tracking, system customization and synoptic details have been expanded, and there’s a new ETA/ETE trip planning page. That’s just some of what they’ve packed in here.

Laminar report that they’ve heard the community loud and clear and that glass cockpit displays are now excluded from the FXAA (anti-aliasing) method that was causing the displays to become blurry.

There’s also VR improvements, Tobii Eye Tracker native support (Stormbirds is still an Affiliate and Tobii is still my go-to eye tracker).

The A330 and SR22 updates

Laminar have been working to make their A330-300 into something pretty special. The aircraft now has a much more complex electrical system, there’s a new cold and dark configuration with switches in more typical configurations, the MCDU has a lengthy list of fixes and new features, ADIRS now operates with a realistic align procedure, screens start up and shut down more realistically with warm-up times for the and both the flight model and autopilot have been tuned.

Laminar Research say that the A330 is a labour of love for them and all of these changes plus visual updates to the airplane has turned it into one of the more impressive A330 simulations out there. And its included as a default airplane.

Meanwhile, the default SR22 is also getting improvements with a GCU error being fixed, a new current climb gradient display having been added, and autopilot behaviour at takeoff has been improved.

New Bilbao airport scenery and assets added

With an impressive architectural piece for its main terminal, (LEBB) Bilbao Airport in Spain is a really interesting aviation destination and now its got its own bespoke scenery added to X-Plane 12. It has two asphalt runways, is a popular airliner destination, has ample room for GA flyers, and the scenery also includes some nearby air balloons which is neat!

That’s not all as the ground asset pack for the sim has added a ton of new things. New types of pavement, planters, fences, new car variations for parking lots, RVs and camping equipment for back country airports, animated construction cranes, new static aircraft (ASK-21 and Ventus 3 gliders are the first of more new ones to come), and more.

I do wonder if these new assets, the multi-threading scenery features, and some of the other updates here are signs that X-Plane is finally closing in on a new terrain rendering system which will offer more realistic visuals relative to the old version. Should be interesting.

Read the full report here!