article_type: Legacy Info

Sim/operation/windows/system_window

This is a handle to the OS’s native window that X-Plane is running in. This dataref is only safe for 32-bit builds of X-Plane; use sim/operation/windows/system_window_64 to get a 64-bit native window handle.

You should almost never need to use this dataref!

Contents X-Plane 6.70 -> 10.10

Macintosh: this dataref is a Carbon WindowRef.

Windows: This is a Window HWND.

Linux: This is an X11 XID for a Window object. (TODO: unclear when this first became available, as Linux was not a supported OS for 6.70)

Contents X-Plane 10.20 and Newer, 32-bit builds

Macintosh: this returns NULL; the underlying Cocoa window is not available.

Windows: This is a Window HWND.

Linux: This is an X11 XID for a Window object.

Contents X-Plane 10.20 and Newer, 64-bit builds

Macintosh: this returns NULL; the underlying Cocoa window is not available.

Windows: This is the low 32 bits of a Window HWND.

Linux: This is the low 32 bits of an X11 XID for a Window object.

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Airport Data (apt.dat) 1050 File Format Specification

This information is historic and only relevant to X-Plane 10 and earlier

REVISION HISTORY

18 Jan 2017 Updated 1000 spec to final 1050 spec

APPLICABILITY

This specification (APT.DAT 1050) is supported in X-Plane 10.50 and later and by WorldEditor 1.5 and later. The prior specification for airport data was APT.DAT 1000, which is recommended for X-Plane 10.00-10.45. This spec is an extension to 1000 – all features in 1000 are fully supported.

SUPPORT FOR DEPRECATED FILE FORMATS

The deprecated file specification (APT.DAT 1000) is still supported. A dwindling quantity of custom airport data exists only in this format. So airports defined according to this specification (APT.DAT 1000) can be included in a file otherwise complying with the APT.DAT 1050 specification.

The specification for APT.DAT 1000 is available to view here.

OVERVIEW & SCOPE

This specification defines core airport data for X-Plane. This includes the locations of runways, taxiway and apron pavement, basic airport ‘furniture’ (VASI/PAPIs, windsocks, light beacons and taxiway signage), and communications frequencies. It also includes attributes for each of these features to fully describe them (eg. it includes runway surface type, runway markings, taxiway lighting and markings, approach lighting, taxiway sign text, etc).

This specification (1050) introduces new airport metadata to define additional characteristics for static spawning and for airport identifiers.

This specification does not include scenery objects (such as buildings, static aeroplanes or underlying terrain textures).

BASIC CONCEPTS

  • Latitudes and longitudes are described in a decimal notation (eg. 20.12345678) up to 8 decimal places.
    • A latitude of 50 degrees 30 minutes south would be defined as -50.50000000
  • North latitudes and east longitudes are positive. South latitudes and west longitudes are negative.
  • All headings are referenced to true north (not magnetic north).

FILE CHARACTERISTICS

The apt.dat files are plain text files:

  • Fields in the data can be separated by one or more white space characters (space, tab).
    • By default, the files are generated so that columns of data are consistently aligned, but this is not required.
  • Blank rows are permitted and are helpful to differentiate between airports.
  • Comments are permitted and are indicated by “#” as the first two characters of a row.

FILE STRUCTURE

All airports must be created in WorldEditor (“WED”). This will ensure that all structural requirements listed here for airport data are met. WED version 1.5 is required to support all features in this spec.

In common with most other X-Plane data file specification, header rows of data define the origin (“I” = PC or “A” = Mac) of a particular copy of a file, and define the file specification version. The file specification may be followed by a reference to a sequential release data cycle and build number for the data, and a copyright message:

I
1000 Version - data cycle 2012.03, build 20121054, metadata AptXP1000. Copyright © 2012, Robin A. Peel (robin@xsquawkbox.net)...

The complete copyright message must be left intact if you redistribute this data. The GNU GPL (general public License) under which this data is released is designed to encourage modifications, enhancements and redistribution, even in commercial derivative products.

Subsequent rows of data follow a hierarchical structure:

  • Each row of data has a numeric ‘row code’ as its first field, to define its content.
  • The top level of this hierarchy defines an individual airport, defined by an airport header row (a row code of ‘1’, ‘16’ or ‘17’).
  • Subsequent rows define elements of an airport:
    • Runways (including helipads) follow the airport header row (one row per runway).
    • Pavement (taxiway/apron) definitions have a header row followed by an ordered list of nodes that define its boundaries:
      • Each pavement definition must each have a single boundary with no overlaps with itself.
      • Nodes on this outer boundary must be defined in a counter-clockwise direction.
      • Boundaries must be terminated with a node with a row code ‘113’ or ‘114’.
      • Pavement definitions may overlap with another pavement chunk. But this is not recommended – instead consider precise alignment of adjacent features by ‘snapping’ nodes to identical locations in World Editor (WED).
        • A pavement definition can never overlap with itself.
      • The sequencing of the pavement definitions is the layering in which they will be rendered in X-Plane, top-down. So the last piece of pavement in the file will be rendered underneath any others with which it overlaps.
      • Holes can be defined for pavement (through which the underlying terrain texture will show):
        • Hole boundaries should follow the termination of the pavement definition in which the hole occurs (starting with a row type ‘111’ or ‘112’).
        • Hole boundaries are defined in a clockwise direction (ie, opposite direction to the boundary nodes).
        • Hole boundaries must form a closed loop (ie. must terminate with a row code ‘113’ or ‘114’).
        • Each pavement definition can have zero, one or multiple hole boundaries.
        • Hole boundaries must be contained within the outer boundary of the pavement definition.
        • Holes cannot overlap each other.
        • After creating a hole boundary, it can be ‘filled’ with a new pavement chunk (probably using a different surface type).
    • Linear features also have a header row followed by an ordered list of nodes that define the line:
      • Linear features can be closed loops (terminating in a node of type ‘113’ or ‘114’) or just strings (terminating with ‘115’ or ‘116’).
    • An airport boundary is defined with nodes in a counter-clockwise direction. A boundary can contain holes (see above) and must form a closed loop (terminating in a node of type ‘113’ or ‘114’).
    • Airport traffic flows have a header row (row code ‘1000’) followed by multiple rows that define rules of multiple classes (time, wind direction, ceiling, visibility, runway in use, VFR traffic pattern) that indicated that a flow should be used (wind rules, minimum ceiling rules, visibility rules, time rules, and operations rules).
      • A flow is acceptable is any rule of a class is acceptable, or if there are no rules of a given class. So to permit a flow with no time restrictions, simple exclude any traffic time rules (row code ‘1004’).
      • Rules use ‘or’ logic. For example, a flow may have two wind rules (row code ‘1001’) – one for slight winds very generally aligned with a runway, and one with strong winds only if they are almost exactly with the runway.
      • A flow will be used only if all its rule classes are ‘passed’.
      • The flows are evaluated in sequence. The first flow to ‘pass’ will be used. So, the most specific-but-useful rule should be listed first (eg. parallel VFR approaches on a clear, calm day) and the most general (but least useful) rules should be listed last (eg. a single ILS cat III approach to a single runway).
      • If the rules prevent any defined flow from being ‘passed’ then the X-Plane’s AI engine will create a flow.
      • ‘Runway in use’ rules (row code 1100} are also evaluated in sequence. The first ‘runway in use’ rule to ‘pass’ will be used for the parent flow. So rules should be listed in preferential sequence.
    • Airport taxi routes & networks begin with a row code ‘1200’ and are defined by a set of nodes (row code ‘1201’) and ‘edges’ (the taxi routing) that connect two nodes (row code ‘1202’):
      • Nodes can be defined as ‘init’ (a point at which X-Plane will try to start a taxi route), ‘end’ (where X-Plane will try to end a taxi route), or ‘both’. ‘junc’ can also be used for junctions between taxi routes.
      • Edges may be optionally followed by multiple rows (row code ‘1204) defining an ‘active zone’ ‘for that parent edge (eg. if the edge conflicts with arrival or departure runways, or an ILS-critical area).
      • Taxi routings begin or end at airport locations (row code ‘1300’), which are also available as startup-locations in X-Plane. These locations are not directly connected to the taxi route network – X-Plane’s ATC engine will calculate how to direct an airplane between the taxi route network and each location.
    • Other airport features are defined with one row for each feature.

The file is terminated by a ‘99’:

99

ROW CODES

Each row of data begins with an integer code that defines the type of data:

Row Code Meaning Comment
1 Land airport header
16 Seaplane base header
17 Heliport header
100 Runway
101 Water runway
102 Helipad
110 Pavement (taxiway or ramp) header  Must form a closed loop.
120 Linear feature (painted line or light string) header Can form closed loop or simple string
130 Airport boundary header Must form a closed loop
111 Node All nodes can also include a “style” (line or lights)
112 Node with Bezier control point Bezier control points define smooth curves
113 Node with implicit close of loop Implied join to first node in chain
114 Node with Bezier control point, with implicit close of loop Implied join to first node in chain
115 Node terminating a string (no close loop) No “styles” used
116 Node with Bezier control point, terminating a string (no close loop) No “styles” used
14 Airport viewpoint One or none for each airport
15 Aeroplane startup location *** Convert these to new row code 1300 ***
18 Airport light beacon One or none for each airport
19 Windsock Zero, one or many for each airport
20 Taxiway sign (inc. runway distance-remaining signs) Zero, one or many for each airport
21 Lighting object (VASI, PAPI, Wig-Wag, etc.) Zero, one or many for each airport
1000 Airport traffic flow Zero, one or many for an airport. Used if following rules met (rules of same type use ‘or’ logic, rules of a different type use ‘and’ logic). First flow to pass all rules is used.
1001 Traffic flow wind rule Zero, one or many for a flow. Multiple rules use ‘or’ logic.
1002 Traffic flow minimum ceiling rule Zero or one rule for each flow
1003 Traffic flow minimum visibility rule Zero or one rule for each flow
1004 Traffic flow time rule Zero, one or many for a flow. Multiple rules use ‘or’ logic.
1100 Runway-in-use arrival/departure constraints First constraint met is used. Sequence matters!
1101 VFR traffic pattern Zero or one pattern for each traffic flow
1200 Header indicating that taxi route network data follows
1201 Taxi route network node Sequencing is arbitrary. Must be part of one or more edges.
1202 Taxi route network edge Must connect two nodes. Also takes one of 6 sizes (A-F).
1204 Taxi route edge active zone Can refer to up to 4 runway ends
1300 Airport location (deprecates code 15) Not explicitly connected to taxi route network
1301 Ramp start metadata. Includes width, operations type, equipment type, & airlines.
1302 Metadata records Zero or many for each airport.
50 – 56 Communication frequencies Zero, one or many for each airport

EXAMPLE DATA

Here is some example data for KBFI. It is not real and is very incomplete, but it illustrates examples of most types of data found in an apt.dat file. This data includes an airport header, runway, water runway, helipad, PAPI, taxiway definition, painted line, viewpoint, startup location, light beacon, windsock, taxiway sign and an ATC communications frequency:

1 21 1 0 KBFI Boeing Field King Co Intl
100 29.87 1 0 0.15 0 2 1 13L 47.53801700 -122.30746100 73.15 0.00 2 0 0 1 31R 47.52919200 -122.30000000 110.95 0.00 2 0 0 1
101 49 1 08 35.04420900 -106.59855700 26 35.04420911 -106.59855711
102 H1 47.53918248 -122.30722302 2.00 10.06 10.06 1 0 0 0.25 0
21 47.53666659 -122.30585255 2 150.28 3.30 13L PAPI-2L
110 1 0.25 150.29 A2 Exit
111 47.53770968 -122.30849802
111 47.53742819 -122.30825844 3
112 47.53752190 -122.30826710 47.53757385 -122.30824831 3 102
114 47.53768630 -122.30834929 47.53768690 -122.30838150 3 102
120 Line B1
111 47.53969864 -122.31276189 51
111 47.53977825 -122.31255145 1
115 47.54002296 -122.31189878
14 47.52917900 -122.30434900 100 0 ATC Tower
15 47.52926674 -122.29919589 304.16 A8 Run Up
18 47.52920400 -122.30412800 1 BCN
19 47.53900921 -122.30868700 1 WS
20 47.54099177 -122.31031317 235.71 0 2 {@L}A1{@R}31R-13L
50 12775 ATIS

Here is some example data for KSEA showing the new 1000 version traffic flow and taxi route data:

1000 Calm and South flow
1001 KSEA 000 359 5
1001 KSEA 070 250 999
1002 KSEA 0
1003 KSEA 0
1004 0000 2400
1100 16C 11920 arrivals jets|turboprops|props 160340 161161 Arrival 16C
1100 16R 11920 arrivals jets|turboprops|props 341159 161161 Arrival 16R
1100 16L 11920 arrivals heavy 000359 161161 Arrival Heavy Jets
1101 16R right
1200
1201 47.46360812 -122.30613338 both 5416 A_stop
1202 5258 5266 twoway taxiway B
1204 ils 34R
1300 47.43931757 -122.29806851 88.78 gate jets|turboprops A10

DEFINITION OF DATA FIELDS

For a complete table of example definitions, download the APT1050 Spec pdf document.

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Airport Data (apt.dat) 850 Version

This information is historic and only relevant to X-Plane 10 and earlier

Revision History

28 April 2009 Spec converted to this new format to support new web site (//data.x-plane.com).
12 July 2009 Minor typos fixed
14 July 2009 Minor errors in helipad spec fixed 6 Sept 2009 Added clearer examples of taxiway signs (submitted by Donald Good – thanks!)
1 Feb 2011 Clarified definitions of runway ends and thresholds

Applicability

This specification (APT.DAT 850) is supported in X-Plane 8.50 until X-Plane 10.52. However, the significant new feature set in this file version was not fully supported until the release of X-Plane 8.61.

The prior specification for airport data was APT.DAT 810, which is recommended for X-Plane 8.10 – 8.60.

Support for Deprecated File Formats

The deprecated file specification (APT.DAT 810) is still supported. A large quantity of custom airport data exists only in this format. So airports defined according to this specification (APT.DAT 810) can be included in a file otherwise complying with the APT.DAT 850 specification.

Full 850 apt.dat File Spec

The full 850 apt.dat file specification can be found in this pdf document.

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Airport Data (apt.dat) 10.00 Version

This information is historic and only relevant to X-Plane 10 and earlier

REVISION HISTORY

12 Mar 2012 Spec created, based upon prior apt.dat 850 spec.
14 Mar 2012 Minor updates & corrections
10 Apr 2013 Updates on airport traffic flows and taxi networks based on Ben’s feedback

APPLICABILITY

This specification (APT.DAT 1000) is supported in X-Plane 10.00 and later and by WorldEditor 1.2 and later. The prior specification for airport data was APT.DAT 850, which is recommended for X-Plane 8.60 – 9.70. This spec is an extension to 850 – all features in 850 are fully supported. However it is recommended that old data for ramp start locations (row code 15) be upgraded to the new row code 1300.

SUPPORT FOR DEPRECATED FILE FORMATS

The deprecated file specification (APT.DAT 810) is still supported. A dwindling quantity of custom airport data exists only in this format. So airports defined according to this specification (APT.DAT 810) can be included in a file otherwise complying with the APT.DAT 1000 specification.

The specification for APT.DAT 810 is available to view here.

OVERVIEW & SCOPE

This specification defines core airport data for X-Plane. This includes the locations of runways, taxiway and apron pavement, basic airport ‘furniture’ (VASI/PAPIs, windsocks, light beacons and taxiway signage), and communications frequencies. It also includes attributes for each of these features to fully describe them (eg. it includes runway surface type, runway markings, taxiway lighting and markings, approach lighting, taxiway sign text, etc).

This specification (1000) introduces new airport data to define arrival and departure traffic flows to airports and taxi networks & routings for AI-controlled airplanes.

This specification does not include scenery objects (such as buildings, static aeroplanes or underlying terrain textures).

BASIC CONCEPTS

  • Latitudes and longitudes are described in a decimal notation (eg. 20.12345678) up to 8 decimal places.
    • A latitude of 50 degrees 30 minutes south would be defined as -50.50000000
  • North latitudes and east longitudes are positive. South latitudes and west longitudes are negative.
  • All headings are referenced to true north (not magnetic north).

FILE CHARACTERISTICS

The apt.dat files are plain text files:

  • Fields in the data can be separated by one or more white space characters (space, tab).
    • By default, the files are generated so that columns of data are consistently aligned, but this is not required.
  • Blank rows are permitted and are helpful to differentiate between airports.
  • Comments are permitted and are indicated by “#” as the first two characters of a row.

FILE STRUCTURE

All airports must be created in WorldEditor (“WED”). This will ensure that all structural requirements listed here for airport data are met. WED version 1.2 is required to support the features in this spec.

In common with most other X-Plane data file specification, header rows of data define the origin (“I” = PC or “A” = Mac) of a particular copy of a file, and define the file specification version. The file specification may be followed by a reference to a sequential release data cycle and build number for the data, and a copyright message:

I
1000 Version - data cycle 2012.03, build 20121054, metadata AptXP1000. Copyright © 2012, Robin A. Peel (robin@xsquawkbox.net)...

The complete copyright message must be left intact if you redistribute this data. The GNU GPL (general public License) under which this data is released is designed to encourage modifications, enhancements and redistribution, even in commercial derivative products.

Subsequent rows of data follow a hierarchical structure:

  • Each row of data has a numeric ‘row code’ as its first field, to define its content.
  • The top level of this hierarchy defines an individual airport, defined by an airport header row (a row code of ‘1’, ‘16’ or ‘17’).
  • Subsequent rows define elements of an airport:
    • Runways (including helipads) follow the airport header row (one row per runway).
    • Pavement (taxiway/apron) definitions have a header row followed by an ordered list of nodes that define its boundaries:
      • Each pavement definition must each have a single boundary with no overlaps with itself.
      • Nodes on this outer boundary must be defined in a counter-clockwise direction.
      • Boundaries must be terminated with a node with a row code ‘113’ or ‘114’.
      • Pavement definitions may overlap with another pavement chunk. But this is not recommended – instead consider precise alignment of adjacent features by ‘snapping’ nodes to identical locations in World Editor (WED).
        • A pavement definition can never overlap with itself.
      • The sequencing of the pavement definitions is the layering in which they will be rendered in X-Plane, top-down. So the last piece of pavement in the file will be rendered underneath any others with which it overlaps.
      • Holes can be defined for pavement (through which the underlying terrain texture will show):
        • Hole boundaries should follow the termination of the pavement definition in which the hole occurs (starting with a row type ‘111’ or ‘112’).
        • Hole boundaries are defined in a clockwise direction (ie, opposite direction to the boundary nodes).
        • Hole boundaries must form a closed loop (ie. must terminate with a row code ‘113’ or ‘114’).
        • Each pavement definition can have zero, one or multiple hole boundaries.
        • Hole boundaries must be contained within the outer boundary of the pavement definition.
        • Holes cannot overlap each other.
        • After creating a hole boundary, it can be ‘filled’ with a new pavement chunk (probably using a different surface type).
    • Linear features also have a header row followed by an ordered list of nodes that define the line:
      • Linear features can be closed loops (terminating in a node of type ‘113’ or ‘114’) or just strings (terminating with ‘115’ or ‘116’).
    • An airport boundary is defined with nodes in a counter-clockwise direction. A boundary can contain holes (see above) and must form a closed loop (terminating in a node of type ‘113’ or ‘114’).
    • Airport traffic flows have a header row (row code ‘1000’) followed by multiple rows that define rules of multiple classes (time, wind direction, ceiling, visibility, runway in use, VFR traffic pattern) that indicated that a flow should be used (wind rules, minimum ceiling rules, visibility rules, time rules, and operations rules).
      • A flow is acceptable is any rule of a class is acceptable, or if there are no rules of a given class. So to permit a flow with no time restrictions, simple exclude any traffic time rules (row code ‘1004’).
      • Rules use ‘or’ logic. For example, a flow may have two wind rules (row code ‘1001’) – one for slight winds very generally aligned with a runway, and one with strong winds only if they are almost exactly with the runway.
      • A flow will be used only if all its rule classes are ‘passed’.
      • The flows are evaluated in sequence. The first flow to ‘pass’ will be used. So, the most specific-but-useful rule should be listed first (eg. parallel VFR approaches on a clear, calm day) and the most general (but least useful) rules should be listed last (eg. a single ILS cat III approach to a single runway).
      • If the rules prevent any defined flow from being ‘passed’ then the X-Plane’s AI engine will create a flow.
      • ‘Runway in use’ rules (row code 1100} are also evaluated in sequence. The first ‘runway in use’ rule to ‘pass’ will be used for the parent flow. So rules should be listed in preferential sequence.
    • Airport taxi routes & networks begin with a row code ‘1200’ and are defined by a set of nodes (row code ‘1201’) and ‘edges’ (the taxi routing) that connect two nodes (row code ‘1202’):
      • Nodes can be defined as ‘init’ (a point at which X-Plane will try to start a taxi route), ‘end’ (where X-Plane will try to end a taxi route), or ‘both’. ‘junc’ can also be used for junctions between taxi routes.
      • Edges may be optionally followed by multiple rows (row code ‘1204) defining an ‘active zone’ ‘for that parent edge (eg. if the edge conflicts with arrival or departure runways, or an ILS-critical area).
      • Taxi routings begin or end at airport locations (row code ‘1300’), which are also available as startup-locations in X-Plane. These locations are not directly connected to the taxi route network – X-Plane’s ATC engine will calculate how to direct an airplane between the taxi route network and each location.
    • Other airport features are defined with one row for each feature.

The file is terminated by a ‘99’:

99

ROW CODES

Each row of data begins with an integer code that defines the type of data:

Row Code Meaning Comment
1 Land airport header
16 Seaplane base header
17 Heliport header
100 Runway
101 Water runway
102 Helipad
110 Pavement (taxiway or ramp) header  Must form a closed loop.
120 Linear feature (painted line or light string) header Can form closed loop or simple string
130 Airport boundary header Must form a closed loop
111 Node All nodes can also include a “style” (line or lights)
112 Node with Bezier control point Bezier control points define smooth curves
113 Node with implicit close of loop Implied join to first node in chain
114 Node with Bezier control point, with implicit close of loop Implied join to first node in chain
115 Node terminating a string (no close loop) No “styles” used
116 Node with Bezier control point, terminating a string (no close loop) No “styles” used
14 Airport viewpoint One or none for each airport
15 Aeroplane startup location *** Convert these to new row code 1300 ***
18 Airport light beacon One or none for each airport
19 Windsock Zero, one or many for each airport
20 Taxiway sign (inc. runway distance-remaining signs) Zero, one or many for each airport
21 Lighting object (VASI, PAPI, Wig-Wag, etc.) Zero, one or many for each airport
1000 Airport traffic flow Zero, one or many for an airport. Used if following rules met (rules of same type use ‘or’ logic, rules of a different type use ‘and’ logic). First flow to pass all rules is used.
1001 Traffic flow wind rule Zero, one or many for a flow. Multiple rules use ‘or’ logic.
1002 Traffic flow minimum ceiling rule Zero or one rule for each flow
1003 Traffic flow minimum visibility rule Zero or one rule for each flow
1004 Traffic flow time rule Zero, one or many for a flow. Multiple rules use ‘or’ logic.
1100 Runway-in-use arrival/departure constraints First constraint met is used. Sequence matters!
1101 VFR traffic pattern Zero or one pattern for each traffic flow
1200 Header indicating that taxi route network data follows
1201 Taxi route network node Sequencing is arbitrary. Must be part of one or more edges.
1202 Taxi route network edge Must connect two nodes
1204 Taxi route edge active zone Can refer to up to 4 runway ends
1300 Airport location (deprecates code 15) Not explicitly connected to taxi route network
50 – 56 Communication frequencies Zero, one or many for each airport

EXAMPLE DATA

Here is some example data for KBFI. It is not real and is very incomplete, but it illustrates examples of most types of data found in an apt.dat file. This data includes an airport header, runway, water runway, helipad, PAPI, taxiway definition, painted line, viewpoint, startup location, light beacon, windsock, taxiway sign and an ATC communications frequency:

1 21 1 0 KBFI Boeing Field King Co Intl
100 29.87 1 0 0.15 0 2 1 13L 47.53801700 -122.30746100 73.15 0.00 2 0 0 1 31R 47.52919200 -122.30000000 110.95 0.00 2 0 0 1
101 49 1 08 35.04420900 -106.59855700 26 35.04420911 -106.59855711
102 H1 47.53918248 -122.30722302 2.00 10.06 10.06 1 0 0 0.25 0
21 47.53666659 -122.30585255 2 150.28 3.30 13L PAPI-2L
110 1 0.25 150.29 A2 Exit
111 47.53770968 -122.30849802
111 47.53742819 -122.30825844 3
112 47.53752190 -122.30826710 47.53757385 -122.30824831 3 102
114 47.53768630 -122.30834929 47.53768690 -122.30838150 3 102
120 Line B1
111 47.53969864 -122.31276189 51
111 47.53977825 -122.31255145 1
115 47.54002296 -122.31189878
14 47.52917900 -122.30434900 100 0 ATC Tower
15 47.52926674 -122.29919589 304.16 A8 Run Up
18 47.52920400 -122.30412800 1 BCN
19 47.53900921 -122.30868700 1 WS
20 47.54099177 -122.31031317 235.71 0 2 {@L}A1{@R}31R-13L
50 12775 ATIS

Here is some example data for KSEA showing the new 1000 version traffic flow and taxi route data:

1000 Calm and South flow
1001 KSEA 000 359 5
1001 KSEA 070 250 999
1002 KSEA 0
1003 KSEA 0
1004 0000 2400
1100 16C 11920 arrivals jets|turboprops|props 160340 161161 Arrival 16C
1100 16R 11920 arrivals jets|turboprops|props 341159 161161 Arrival 16R
1100 16L 11920 arrivals heavy 000359 161161 Arrival Heavy Jets
1101 16R right
1200
1201 47.46360812 -122.30613338 both 5416 A_stop
1202 5258 5266 twoway taxiway B
1204 ils 34R
1300 47.43931757 -122.29806851 88.78 gate jets|turboprops A10

DEFINITION OF DATA FIELDS

For a complete table of example definitions, download the APT1000 Spec pdf document.

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Updates to X-Plane 9 Mobile

About the X-Plane Mobile Updates

The X-Plane Mobile line of flight simulators for the iPhone and iPod Touch receive free periodic updates. As the graphics, flight, and interface technology are improved in one app, we will be periodically updating all the various X-Plane Mobile applications with that new technology, so much more is still in the wings!

For example, when the RAM and frame rate were optimized for X-Plane Airliner, those changes were released in a free update to the “X-Plane 9” app as well.

Installing the Updates

To get the latest updates to all your mobile X-Plane applications, go to the App Store (found on the device’s “home page”) and tap Updates down at the bottom of the screen. There, simply select Update All (as marked in the image below). The device will prompt for the username and password which were used to purchase the applications, then it will automatically download the updates.

Image:Update.png

Version 9.20 (Update 11)

Version 9.20 is here, the eleventh free upgrade to the X-Plane line-up! We now have improved rendering, showing stars at night and more realistic water as well.

The “X-Plane 9” app also has slightly better frame-rate, and improved multi-drag, which is good for zooming and dragging and rotating the maps. This also applies to operating the tail-rotor and collective at once in X-Plane Helicopter. We also have two new planes for X-Plane Extreme in this update: The X-15 and B-52! Google them to see how they go together!

All X-Plane Apps

Improved Rendering: Stars at night. Kind of nice. Better water rendering. Better mouse-response on the map and window scaling, translating, zooming, etc. The multi-touch on the maps is really nicer now. If you fly off the edge of a level, you now wrap around the other side, on all X-Plane apps… this is especially useful for X-Plane Extreme, where you cover ground really, really fast. Frame rate optimizations.

Standard

Final-Approach buttons should always work well… there were a few hilly-terrain cases that started you off a bit low, but those should be addressed.

Helicopter

Improved multi-touch: Collective and tail-rotor control are now possible at the same time… just put one finger on the collective, one on the tail-rotor… you can now control them both at once!

Extreme

New planes: B-52, and X-15. Neither is much fun on it’s own, but load up the X-15 and switch to an external view to see why they are good together! Hit Google and do some research on how the X-15 was flown, and landed. What you learn there will directly impact how you fly the sim, since the sim is pretty realistic! New scenery area for Extreme: Edwards Air Force Base! This is a nice huge flying area for you!

Space Shuttle

This has to be one of the more advanced iPhone apps…

There have been 10 free updates to the other X-Plane programs so far (with more planned), and future free updates to this app will include more re-entry options (perhaps trying it from even FARTHER out than 600 miles?) and perhaps some more detailed missions as well!

X-Plane Trainer

There have been 10 free updates to the other X-Plane programs so far (with more planned), and future free updates to THIS app will include more flight-training scenarios… maybe steep turns and stalls?

Other Recent Updates

New Flight Model Additions

As requested: An AUTOPILOT on the glass-panel planes!
Turn it ON to lock your ROLL AND PITCH.
Hit HDG to hold current HEADING… Hit it AGAIN to go BACK to holding ROLL!
Hit ALT to hold current ALTITUDE… Hit it AGAIN to go BACK to holding PITCH!
All of this is exactly like the Garmin 1000 GFC-700 autopilot in my Columbia-400.
As well, hit the AUTO-THROTTLE button to hold your current AIRSPEED by adjusting throttle.

As we get multiplayer and racing going on, the following becomes important: If you hit another plane in flight, the result is… interesting.

New Scenery and Sound Enhancements

Visible afterburners: Bad as heck on the B-1 in Extreme. And now it gets good: They move with pitch in the F-22!
This is NOT gratuitous motion, as in every “game” I see: This is the actual deflection used to steer the plane in pitch, as determined by the Fly-By-Wire system and your control inputs. I have always been annoyed at the cheap, unrealistic animations of all the GAMES out there, where tires, control surfaces, afterburners and the like have simple, gratuitous motions. In X-Plane, you are actually seeing the real deflections that are actually being used by the physics engine!

The sky color change with altitude… This is kind of nice in the SR-71 where you can find yourself around 100,000 feet!

New data presented for the other guy: Gear, flaps, stabilizer trim, wing sweep,
flight-control deflections, speedbrakes, rotor-disc angle for the helos,
afterburners and afterburners-angles for the jets: The works!
This stuff is visible in the AI plane you fly against in X-Plane Racing and X-Plane Extreme, and the multiplayer
friend you are racing against in X-Plane Racing, or flying with in all other flavors of X-Plane!

New skidding and touch-down sounds!
Touch-down skid is even realistic, tracking the moment of inertia of the wheel, tire friction with the runway, and touchdown force!
In the real plane, a hard landing just gives you the sound of a hard thump, but a really soft landing gives a long squeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaakkk of the wheels as the slowly spin up to speed due to the low load on the tires to spin them up! X-Plane for iPhone simulates all of this accurately! This is NO GAME: The physics are are REAL! Can you touch down smooth enough to get a nice long squeeeeaaaakkk on touch-down?

New Flight Interface

You now have a pointer to the other guy on your HUD, right around your compass-rose.
This is kind of convenient if you get separated from the AI, or want to find your friend in multiplayer-flights!

NEW GENERAL INTERFACE ENHANCEMENTS:

‘Final Approach’ buttons are now available for all starting locations, as per common request.

Compass rose on the map to see your map heading… kind of nice as you rotate it. Remember: Drag the map with 2 fingers to control it!

X-Plane Helicopter has option to invert the collective now… Push the collective up to raise the craft.
This is a bad idea, and not recommended for real helo pilots, because in the real helo, you pull the collective toward you to raise it, an action much more ergonomically similar to dragging your thumb toward you on the iPhone, and this option reverses that logic so that you push your thumb away from you to increase collective–the exact opposite of what you do in the real helo!!!! So, this option is backwards from the best ergonomics, but people kept asking for it!

Minor Enhancements

Frame rate improvement! We are working amazingly hard to squeeze out every last percent of the performance this thing has! Our iPods become quite hot when we run X-Plane on them, if that is any indication of what is going on here!

Minor tweaks and refinements to various aircraft to make them a hair more realistic.

Other recent New Stuff

New instrument panel type for ALL X-Plane flavors. This new instrument panel is the ‘Heavy’ mechanical type, for planes like the King-Air, MD-88, and the like. This panel is also used in the B-1 Bomber in X-Plane Extreme. So we now have three instrument panel types: General Aviation standard, Heavy Standard, and EFIS.

New flying regions for all flavors of X-Plane, with new refinements in the appearance of many scenery areas. We now have desert, forest, midwest, snowy, Southern-Californian, and other scenery texture-sets for scenery in Florida, Alaska, Swiss Alps, deserts of the Southwest more.

We now have landing, taxi, navigation, strobe, and beacon lights on the planes, where appropriate. This makes them look kind of nice, and makes the planes visible from far away. This is especially nice for X-Plane Extreme, where the other B-1’s, B-2’s SR-71’s, and F-22’s can get away from you pretty quick.

The pause button stays lit now when paused, and pauses the sound as well, which is kind of convenient. The helos should be a hair easier to manage in the Helicopter version as we refine the flight-model a bit more.

Countless general enhancements from user-feedback: Refinements in sound, graphics, flight-model, and interface. We are now really starting to load up with planes, other planes to chase (in X-Plane Extreme now, soon to come to the other flavors as well), scenery areas, and instrument panels. X-Plane Mobile is starting to become a pretty ‘deep’ application, with lots more to explore in each update.

MULTIPLE FLYING REGIONS! These were the number-one requests from customers: More planes and more scenery, and now we have them!

X-Plane 9 and X-Plane Airliner have both gotten more planes added (as free update 9.05) and now we are adding more flying areas as well for this free-update 9.06.
In the Settings menu, you can select varied flying regions such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Southern California, the Grand Canyon, Catalina Island, and Hawaii in the various X-Plane flavors! (9, Airliner, Helicopter). We are now over a total of one thousand airports, NAVAIDS,
airplanes, and maps across the four flavors of X-Plane, distributed so far as a total of 3 new products and 10 free updates for a total of under $19.99.

Better scenery! We have tuned the textures and graphics technology as well! The scenery should look quite a bit more fascinating and varied and real in all apps!
So now we have not only many different flying areas, but each one looks much better and more realistic as well… and of course more is still to come!

Better Frame rate! The frame-rate for 9.06 is a decent bit better than it was for 9.05 thanks to careful tuning of the scenery.

As we move into the sixth free update for X-Plane, and second free update for X-Plane Airliner and Helicopter, we are getting into a power and variety of flight simulator that is starting to rival desktop products… for $9.99 or less on your iPhone and iPod Touch.

This is simply stunning technology and power… more than I could have imagined possible, and, of course, we are not done yet! More free updates and products are to come as we continue to improve our technology to use every last bit of iPhone performance.

Considerably better flight model!
We have also improved the accuracy of the drag modeling of the fuselage, making the cruise, deceleration, and glide performance much more accurate.

All-new EFIS, as recommended by an airline pilot that uses X-Plane airliner for iPhone to practice for his 6-month checks in the multi-million dollar big sims! This new EFIS is applied to ALL X-Plane apps! X-Plane for iPhone is now moving into the same territory as the desktop: Pilots are now using it for keeping up their skills to fly more safely in the real thing. This is especially funny because airline pilots take flight-checks every 6 months in 10-million dollar full-motion flight-simulators… and are now starting to sit in the lobby of the flight-training buildings where these sims are housed practicing on their iPhone to be more brushed-up for the check!

X-Plane Helicopter now has new sounds, as well, and more accurate auto-rotation performance thanks to an improved engine governor.

We now have a PAUSE button, because people asked for it.

As we move forwards, we will come out with more flavors of X-Plane (priced at $9.99 so anyone can afford them) and release even more free upgrades as we continue to improve our technology… and what is really amazing is that as we develop new technology for one simulator (such as the new EFIS system recommended by a real airline pilot for Airliner, or the new thrust and flight-control systems we are working on for another product) we will distribute this technology to all the flavors of X-Plane as free updates (as we are doing for 9.06 for all flavors of X-Plane today) so that each version of X-Plane benefits from the new technology of the others. At the end of the day, we have the most powerful line of products for iPhone, I am quite sure.

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Rosetta

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Rosetta is the PowerPC (PPC) emulator for OS X – it allows Intel-based (x86) Macintosh computers to run older PPC software, slowly.

Rosetta should be disabled for X-Plane; Rosetta simply isn’t fast enough to run X-Plane with reasonable framerates.

About Universal Applications

All applications and plugins for OS X are either PPC, x86, or universal (meaning both). X-Plane version 840 and higher is universal; versions before 840 are PPC only.

Because Rosetta is too slow to run X-Plane, users with an x86 Macintosh need a universal version of X-Plane; version 8 users should be sure to update to the latest version of X-Plane 8!

Disabling Rosetta

To turn Rosetta off, pick “Get Info” for X-Plane, and uncheck the box labeled “Open Using Rosetta”.

Starting with X-Plane 930, X-Plane will put up an error message if launched using Rosetta.

Rosetta and Plugins

X-Plane cannot load an x86 plugin when it is running as a PPC app, and it cannot load a PPC plugin when it is running as an x86 app. Therefore:

  • X-Plane users with an x86 macintosh will need x86 native or universal plugins.
  • X-Plane users wit a PPC macintosh will need PPC native or universal plugins.
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New in Version 9

Here’s what’s new in version 9.

General

As of X-Plane version 9.00, we have:

  • 867 instruments
  • 25,737 airports
  • 25,866 navaids
  • 88,367 fixes
  • 18,008 scenery files (each file is one degree of latitude and longitude)

Big New Features

Improved Frame rate
DSF meshes are optimized on load – saves about 50 MB of RAM, can increase frame-rate up to 10% when shaders are off in areas with lots of mountains and few objects. Enhanced use of VBOs increases frame-rate. There are COUNTLESS frame-rate optimizations that are too numerous or proprietary to mention here.

ALMOST NO DELAY IN SCENERY-SHIFTING! (but you need a multi-core or multi-processor machine to fully realize this benefit!) Now you can fly around the entire planet without every having a significant pause to load scenery… you can look at continuously-varying textures across the whole Country from San Diego to New York and ditto that world-wide. Imagine: You get into a light plane in San Diego and fly it clear to New York, watching the terrain change from the green coastal conditions to the deserts of the SouthWest, then transition to the fields of the midwest, then forests of the Northeast, then the cities of New York, right down to Central park greenery. It’s ALL THERE, and you can watch the whole thing in one continuous flight, with hardly a delay to load scenery if you have a dual-core or multi-processor machine. It is simply stunning, just like doing it for real.
As well, QUICKTIME MOVIES are now much, much faster, also using multiple cores, to give you much higher framerate during QuickTime movie creation.
AMAZING NEW PLANES with INCREDIBLE DETAIL: We now have a new Cessna 172, Piaggo Avanti (you have been waiting for this one!),
ASK-21 glider, and even a Cirrus-jet! Be sure to load the Cessna, Avanti, and Cirrus jet in the ‘General Aviation’ folder, and
hit the ‘|’ key to check them out! The Cirrus Jet, as a matter if fact, is the SAME .acf file that Cirrus used in-house with their copy of X-Plane!
(We also have first-drafts of ALL the Vans RV homebuilts, so if you are an RV pilot, you can use these as a quick-start to modelling YOUR RV!)
Aircraft panels can be up to 2048×2048. Those who want to every bit of detail on a B-36 or B-52 cockpit: Your time has come!
Check out the ‘Example Airplane WideScreen’ in the ‘Instructions’ folder.
Use the left and right arrows to see the whole screen, or run in a res of up to 2048×1024 to see more at once!
Now you see you can make very wide-screeen airplanes!
Of course, if you make the left half the panel the pilot’s side, and the right half the copilot’s side, and split your output
to two monitors running 1024×768, then you get a pilot and copilot display from one computer, and one copy of x-plane!
kind of convenient.
It gets better: If you want 3-D cockpits, the 3-D cockpit has 3-D lighting for panel texture, to really make flight with 3-D cockpits immersive!
Get in the Cirrus Jet and hit ‘control-o’ to see this. Then use the mouse, arrow-keys, and page-up/page-down keys to move around the cockpit while flying.
Try it as well in the Cessna 172 or Avanti.
The 3-D clicking into 3-D cockpit tracks a lot better as well, so you can do full flight operations in 3-D… a real experience in the Cirrus Jet!
(It’s inside the ‘General Aviation’ folder)
Custom liveries!
Look at the ‘Example Airplane WideScreen’ in the ‘Instructions’ folder.
You can make all the custom liveries you want, with all the names you want!
Then, in X-Plane, go to the ‘open liveries’ menu item (right under the ‘open aircraft’ menu item!) and select the livery you want!
Moderate User-Interface overhaul. Every single menu and window has been re-evaluated for optimum placement. Every windows has
been re-evaluated for optimum organization, with many changes. The interface has a mildly different look and feel, and much
re-organization to be quicker and more friendly to use. This has included countless changes, including:
-Fonts are now bigger and clearer… in fact this is the font that was designed specifically for (the real) Charles De Gaulle airport!
-All interfaces to enter DIRECTION are are now done with round compass-rose type interface .
-Interface to assign keyboards is now a dream: Every function can easily be seen at-a-glance.
-Any function can be assigned to any joystick button as well. So now any function can be assigned to any key and any joystick button.
Generic Instruments! In Plane-Maker, Hook ANY variable to ANY digital readout, handle, needle, tape… ANYTHING.
You could, for example, have digital oil pressure or hydraulic quantity gages… Just choose the generic LED instruments (in the generic folder in the instrument list
in panel-editor of Plane-Maker) and select whatever variable you want to attach to each digital readout! Using this technology, you can finally view any variable you
want on the panel! This really lets you make your own instruments.
Now, I am adding a new variable and dataref: EFIS PAGE.
This is an integer that can go 0 to whatever, and you can hook it up to a generic instrument rotary.
Find it here in the data-ref selector:
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page1”
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page2”
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page3”
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page4”
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page5”
“cockpit2/switches/EFIS_page6”
So, your generic rotary instrument can run the EFIS PAGE variable to any value.
Great.
NOW, the NEXT thing you can do with generic instruments is set the instrument to only be VISIBLE when a certain dataref is a certain-value.
Let that dataref be the EFIS-PAGE variable and you can make multi-page EFIS systems!
Look in the airliners in the ‘Heavy Metal’ folder in the ‘Instructions’ folder.
You will see a file ending in ‘icon.png’… this is an image of the airplane that will be visible
whenever you scroll thru the aircraft-selection window in X-Plane. Now you can see what each plane looks like when deciding what plane to fly!
Complete new electrical system model.
In Plane-Maker: You can now set the bus and amperage of many electrical systems, to get your plane’s electrical system just right! As well, set the actual watt-hours of the battery in the SYSTEMS window in Plane-Maker. So now you can now get every amp of every system set just right for your plane, and each system on the right bus, so you draw just the right power from the generators or buses, and lose just the right systems when buses go down, after electrical failures. It’s in the SYSTEMS window in the DEFAULT menu in Plane-Maker.

Major Scenery Improvements

Upgraded global scenery package! All new scenery files! That’s 18,008 new DSF files! These new scenery files come with refinements in the grid and about 20% MORE polygons to refine the terrain detail a bit further!
So, these new global scenery files have 20% detail and complexity to just push the envelope a little further.
Now, the more exciting features of this new scenery are that this new scenery comes with European buildings and forests, as well as higher-accuracy terrain!
As well, the version-8 scenery only went up to 60 degrees North Latitude… The new Version-9 scenery goes up to 74 degrees North Latitude for more Alaska and North-European flying!

We now have better flattening around airports (especially coastal ones). This means that runways always have gentle slopes and gradients, just like real runways!

Alaska, Hawaii, and some US territories now use high-detail road data, for more accuracy in roads and the buildings that sit near them.
As well, roads are now auto-generated in non-US cities to create high detailed cities… this gives countless thousands more buildings for you to fly around!
We also have more regional scenery detail… we have European-looking buildings in the right places, and the red soil of Australia, for example!
Now, to render these cities more accurately, World-wide cities now use smaller objects – means they look better on sloped terrain, and means the US or European object
sets can be used anywhere in the world! (And users can make new looks for cities using the library system!)
Look closely, and you will even see the occasional TRAIN running on along!

Also, be sure to turn on some level of FORESTS in the Rendering Options screen… the forests are now pretty amazing, and truly 3-D!

Water reflections! Get in the Canadair in the SEAPLANES folder and go to KAVX. Then do a SEAPLANE TAKEOFF from the LOAD SITUATION menu, then go to an external view… not too bad!
Smooth fog! This allows nicer rendering in almost all flight cases.

Earth orbit rendering much better, with auto-generated orbital images to perfectly match the low-level scenery, and bump-mapping as well!

So, the new scenery offers more detail, accuracy, variety, with everything from reflective water and new fog (turned on in the rendering options screen!) to smoother
transitions all the way out to a hi-detail bump-mapped orbit! This really starts to show off what the new X-Plane scenery engine can do.
Lots of new objects for Europe from Cris.
Taxiway signs are now always lit (even during the day) to make them easier to read.
Lighting on cars at night.
Prop alpha is a little bit more opaque at high RPM.

And scenery improvements for scenery authors:
Animated objects and lego-brick instruments can animate based on whether commands are pressed.
6 levels of water detail, with optimizations for frame-rate at all levels.

New Airfoil-Maker Features for Modelers

New option in Airfoil-Maker: finite-L/D!
What is this?
Simple!
You enter the aspect ratio and efficiency factor for the wing of your plane,
and then (for the foil you have open) this screen will plot the lift and drag after all the finite-wing math is applied
(considering the losses around the wingtip) and also the lift over drag ratio of that wing.
This way, you can see what the lift and efficiency of the wing will be when applied to the airplane you are actually designing!
This makes it possible to really do good airfoil selection.

Controllable airfoil sections!
Go to Airfoil-Maker and click on the ‘Camber’ tab, and you can visually set the airfoil camber and profile!
This is only done for LOOKS, but it means you can get your wing curves right!

New Plane-Maker Features for Modelers

Check out the new example planes in the instructions folder to be sure you know the latest options for liveries and stuff!
You can see how to make custom cockpit objects and misc objects that hold multiple liveries for one plane.
In Plane-Maker, you can specify that any part of the plane is not visible, so it is not drawn… this can increase framerate!
Now, why would you NOT draw parts of the plane? Because you use a custom object for the aircraft visual model!
If you do that, then you can run at the same or higher framerates than before by having X-Plane NOT draw the physical geometry created in Plane-Maker.

New spoiler and speedbrake options for Airliners in Plane-Maker to really get those airliner speedbrake, spoilers, and ground speedbrakes perfect!

New control phase-ins and phase-outs: See the “Control Geometry” window in Plane-Maker, in the “Phase-Outs” tab…
This lets you set the controls to phase out smoothly above certain speeds, or BELOW certain speeds!
This really lets you get smooth, accurate controls simulation for a wide range of craft.

We now have speedbrake 1 and 2 on the wings for different speedbrake deflections, just like with spoilers and ailerons.
As well, we now have an option to have some speedbrakes only deploy for GROUND deployments.

Windshield wipers!
You add them in the panel-editor on Plane-Maker, just like any other instruments!
The button to turn them on and off is in the ‘buttons’ folder, and the wipers themselves are in the ‘supplements’ folder.

New Pressurization option: Auto-pressurization. In the Systems screen in Plane-Maker, this checkbox will automatically keep reasonable pressure inside the craft at all times.
New Pressurization option: Automatically dump cabin pressurization below 1000 ft radio altitude!
This is pretty nice, and exists in some planes. Check this to automate pressurization systems in this regard.

All airplane engine noises can now be customized to be different as heard from the inside and outside of the plane!
This has been an oft-requested feature.
Look in the resources/sounds folder for the _inn and _out sound files, which you may customize for YOUR planes as well.
Here are the naming conventions for the engine, starter, and prop, inner and outer, for engine number 1, which you may run up to 8 of course:
aircraftname_engn1_inn.wav
aircraftname_star1_inn.wav
aircraftname_prop1_inn.wav
aircraftname_engn1_inn.wav
aircraftname_star1_inn.wav
aircraftname_prop1_inn.wav
and:
aircraftname_afterburner_inn.wav
aircraftname_afterburner_out.wav
aircraftname_reverse_thrust_inn.wav
aircraftname_reverse_thrust_out.wav

Look in the panel-editor in Plane-Maker.
Look in the ‘buttons’ folder for the ‘slider’ instrument.
You can have up to 20 of these sliders in the cockpit.
They are ‘slider switches’. In Plane-Maker, you can set the ‘slider times’ in the ‘Systems’ window, third tab.
Those times control how long it takes the slider to go from full-off to full-on.
In X-Plane, you can turn the slider switch off or on in the cockpit, running the slider from 0.0 to 1.0 over the time specified in Plane-Maker.
Then, simply hook any part of the aircraft object up to the slider float dataref in your 3-D object-editor to watch it move in X-Plane… this would be used for doors, refueling booms, canopies, etc.
So, we finally have a very easy way for you to control variables to drive doors, refueling booms, or anything else you care to model in a 3-D editor and hook to a dataref.
One more detail: By default, SHIFT-F1 will toggle slider #1, SHIFT-F2 will toggle slider #2, etc, up to SHIFT-F16.

Custom parachute texture now possible for any plane: aircraftname_chute.png

Plane-Maker aircraft object export includes a few polys to show where the landing gear is.

‘Insert’ section button in Plane-Maker so you can insert a section in the middle of your fuselage or nacelle or misc body or whatever.

Completely different throttle-governor and fadec systems are now simulated!
Go to the Engines screen in Plane-Maker to equip the plane with either, both, or neither system.
Put switches for either, both, or neither system on the panel.
Run either, both, or neither system in flight based on the switch positions.
Now you wanna know: What’s the difference between a governor and a fadec?
Here is the answer:
The THROTTLE GOVERNOR runs the throttle up and down as needed to hold the operational rotor rpm on a helo.
The FADEC maintains the optimal fuel-air ratio in recip engines, keeps the engine from over- or under-revving in recip engines,
and keeps jet engines from exceeding their max allowable power in low-alt and lo-temperature situations.

New button in plane-maker SYSTEMS screen: Autopilot altitude-hold is ALWAYS armed.
Checking this button ON is the modern convention, used in the G-1000, for example.
With this type of autopilot, you simply enter any altitude you want in the altitude window, and as long as you are in VVI, PITCH, or LEVEL-CHANGE mode,
the plane WILL level off when it hits the altitude in the altitude window. In contrast to this, older autopilots did NOT do this. They would simply fly
any mode you gave them forever, and hold altitude if you hit the altitude button. UNcheck this button to obtain that functionality.

Speedbrake extension and retraction times are now customizable in Plane-Maker!

Custom limits for transmission temperature and pressure now settable in Plane-Maker Engines screen, and new instruments to show them (in the round engine instruments folder).

Plane-Maker: Default to 9 vertices per side for the fuselage.
Plane-Maker: Main aircraft screen is hi-contrast now to really see the aircraft design better.
Plane-Maker: Running Plane-Maker in hi res gives you more room for editing the airplane fuselage in top and side views.

Check out the SYSTEMS window in the DEFAULT menu in Plane-Maker.
You can now assign various different electrical systems on the craft to run on different electrical buses.
Now you can really get all the right systems to drop out when a bus fails!
Simply specify what bus each system is on, and if you lose that bus in flight, those systems will go down with it!

Different standard and emergency max throttle.
IF there is an engine failure, then you will get the emergency max throttle value!
This is done in the real Eclipse jet.

Engine markings can be chosen for APU N1 in Plane-Maker ‘Engines’ screen, ‘Markings’ tab… Seems sort of ‘minute’ but it was requested!

New trim option: “Trim extends maximum control deflections”
Most systems should NOT have this box checked! This is because the trim only changes the resting-point of the controls,
NOT the maximum deflections! But, SOME planes MIGHT use the trim as a floating nuetral-point for control deflection that
allow the controls to EXCEED their normal, zero-trim limits! Check this box in that rare case.

Cool new feature: Auto-Wing-Sweep with Mach number.
In the ‘Special Controls Screen’ in Plane-Maker, you can enter a lo and hi Mach number for the wing sweep.
Do this, and the wings will automatically sweep smoothly between those two Mach numbers.
This really makes planes like the B-1 easier to manage!

3-D cockpits can use 4 sub-sections of a large panel – save VRAM if the 2-d panel is huge.
In Plane-Maker, I have now labeled the ‘invisible parts’ screen wheel fairings to include the wheels themselves as well. This lets you build custom landing gear properly: By hiding the gear here and making a custom OBJ, not by making the tire out of a clear texture that messes up the rendering a bit, as authors have been doing.

New parameter in Plane-Maker: Additional gear flatplate area. Tune it to get your gear drag just right, so the plane comes down at just the right rate when the gear is deployed.

Custom landing gear constants operative, BUT YOU MUST OPEN AND RESAVE ANY PLANE IN PLANE-MAKER that you have custom gear constants for.
New option in the SYSTEMS window in Plane-Maker… ‘TOGA disconnects autopilot servos’… hit this and if you hit the TOGA autopilot joystick button then the servos will disconnect and you will fly manually. Some planes are like this in reality, some not.
Plane-Maker panel import: Will only import the 2-D panel in the 2-D panel window, and ditto in the 3-D panel.
Plane-Maker: keys to zoom and pan fuselage and other body cross-sections restored… click on the part description box to enter descriptions, or away from it to pan and zoom.
New generic instrument type: annunciator!

TRIGGER generic instrument type now gives you access to all commands, so you can do everything in X-Plane from generic ‘TRIGGER’ instruments.

2-D and 3-D panels can now be different! See the ‘Example Plane-Widescreen+Objects’ plane in the ‘Instructions’ folder.
This shows you how you can have 2-D cockpits, and, if you like, DIFFERENT panels for your 3-D cockpits.
This can be nice if you want to lay our your instruments in a neat pattern to build a panel textures for your cockpit that has nothing to do with the 2-D layout.

Now, here is a reminder mentioned earlier, but it needs mention since people are still asking:

Let’s say you want an airplane door to open over 2 seconds.
Build your aircraft model in AC-3D with the door attached to one of the SLIDER datarefs (‘sim/flightmodel2/misc/custom_slider_ratio’).
Now go to the SYSTEMS window, SLIDERS tab in Plane-Maker.
Now set the ‘time to deploy slider #1’ to 2 seconds.
Now go to the PANEL windows in Plane-Maker.
Now drop a ‘buttons/but_command_slider.png’ button instrument on the panel.
Now go into X-Plane and load the airplane you just made.
When you hit the generic trigger button, the door should open and close over 2 seconds!
Customize the artwork to make the button look like a door handle, or anything else you like!

New instrument in the HANDLES folder: Water Rudder. This is for raising and lowering the water rudder, which can be useful for seaplanes in the take-off and landing phase,
where the water rudder would be too effective at hi speed if not retracted.

Flight Model Refinements

Carrier cat-shot operations significantly improved. The force-model should really be more accurate now.

The helo rotor-brake force is now tuned to be more appropriate for a real rotor-brake.

Braking-model refinement. For light braking, there should be no little skid at the end of the stop, like there is for heavy braking under ABS.

Speed-brake lift-reduction model improved a bit.

Jet engine throttle response gives more fine control at high N1, as is needed to fly jets.

Hydraulic pressure systems modeled a bit more accurately.

Propeller dynamics a hair more accurate for props with swept blades

Angle of attack of wing elements in propwash now consider the propwash angles of tilt-rotors as well!
This can make propwash over the wings much more accurate!

Aircraft moments of inertia now found a hair differently, which may be a little more accurate.

Auto-slat-with-stall now brings the slats out earlier to prevent the stall before it starts developing!
This should also prevent oscillations from the slats just coming out too late.
Yet more tuning of the propeller/rotor model to rack real helos ever-more-perfectly! A military helo pilot (Brett Sumpter) is flying every X-Plane beta and feeding back info to get the rotor effects just perfect!

Rotor turbulence when passing through effective translational lift (around 5 knots).
Floatplane dynamics tuned a hair as well.

Bodies on the plane that move with gear, control surfaces, etc, interact with the ground and water as they move.
More tuning of the rotor model to get rotors (and props, for that matter) more realistic.

Weapons-selection joystick buttons work more like most people expect them to: turning the weapons-select handle in the cockpit.

You can load flight-plans in 3-D cockpits.
More tuning of the rotor system. We are tuning effective translational lift, vortex ring state effects, settling with power envelopes,
cyclic deflection requirements, and ground effect to match real helos more closely.

A bit of flight-model tuning to handle hi-rotation rates more accurately (read: spins!)
Further flight model improvements: propwash over-haul! We should have a better sense of WHAT parts of the plane are blanketed in propwash.
Engine model in Cessna 172 tuned a hair.
Helo model refined a bit, improving the accuracy of the propwash through the rotor, which was too high in earlier betas.
This is improving pitch response at high speed, and making the auto-rotation descent rates more accurate as well!
Wind model improved a bit.
Set some wind and especially turbulence in the weather screen, hit | to go to external view, hit / a few times to see the wind.
Then start flying and see how it changes faster as you fly faster.
This was introduced in v8 and refined for v9.

General Features Having to do with Aircraft Operations

Buildings with helipads on top are hard… Land on them!

New autopilot mode: “Maintain current heading, altitude, and speed”. This is selectable as a joystick or keyboard command. This is a quick ‘hold it all right here’ mode.
The autopilot will drop out of glideslope mode if the heading mode is engaged, as in reality.

HUD and EFIS airspeed and altitude tapes can handle thousands of knots and hundreds of thousands of feet.

All systems fail if you crash the plane really hard. Kind of more accurate, I guess.

Eject is now shift-space.

No more A-I planes in multiplayer games! This may help multiplayer sessions go a bit better, without any electronic voyeurs peeping in on you and your partner.
If the A-I DOES fly, though, he is smart enough to start up the engines and stuff.

Nosewheel-steering centers during retractions, as in reality.

Autopilot mode annunciators are now correct for the system they are modeled after. They were a hodge-podge of coloring and mode indications, but now properly show the ARMED
versus ENGAGED states. (Remember: you ENGAGE wing-leveler, pitch-sync, heading, vertical speed, and flight-level change,
and you ARM altitudes and nav courses and glideslopes… and those things CAPTURE if you intercept them while they are ARMED!)

Thermals are now at different places different times you run the sim to make them a little more interesting to find!

Parachute is tracked in replay.

Hit B in a seaplane to lower the anchor. We had this long ago but I took it out because people kept
deploying the anchor in their seaplanes, dragging to a stop, and then calling it a bug in X-Plane when the plane stopped because they did not know that their anchor was dragging out there!
Well, I put the anchor back in, but this time with a text message on-screen to TELL you the anchor is deployed!

EFIS horizons go to 90 degrees pitch.

If ‘Cinema Verite’ is on and you are in 3-D cockpit mode (control-o) then your viewpoint will move with the G-load.

You can now have 500 waypoints in the FMS.
Auto-cowl-flap option.
Set in the Special Controls window in the Expert menu of Plane-Maker.
The ME-109 used this.
In X-Plane, the cowl flaps will automatically open or close to maintain a CHT right in the middle of the green.
After an engine fire, you aren’t getting that engine back. 😉 Put out the fire with the extinguisher button, but the engine is down for the count. Interesting note: In an engine fire, the engine will continue to put out power for some short period of time… but hitting the extinguisher will stop the engine NOW. So here is the interesting point: On take-off or go-around, you may be better advised to let the engine run (even though on fire) for a little while before hitting the extinguishers, if the airplane depends on having the engine for a few more moments.

Terrain-following radar now follows the altitude entered into the decision-hight of the radio altimeter, if you have one. (It shoots for 200 feet, otherwise).

More accurate hail, precip, and snow selection model. Hail is, in actuality, formed by balls of ice forming at cold altitudes, falling down into warmer altitudes, getting coated in rain, then being pushed back UP into the cold altitudes by updrafts!!! At the colder altitudes, the water on each ball of ice freezes… the ball of ice is now bigger!!! The extra weight causes the ball of ice to fall down to lower altitudes. At the lower altitudes, the rain from the thunderstorm coats the ball of ice with more water, and the updrafts push it right back up into the freezing levels again! This water freezes and now the hailstone is bigger yet again! This process can go on and on… the greater the updrafts, the greater the rain, and the greater the temperature differential, the bigger the hailstones! X-Plane now understands all of this, and the hail model has been updated as a result to consider all of this.
Other planes fly at a much nicer speed for formation flying.
Autopilot airspeed can now be set in Mach as well as KIAS… the Mach mode had problems in earlier betas.
Autoland refinements.
New HSI source button: Nav-1/GPS. This is nice if you just want a variable-source HSI (and, therefore, autopilot), to either fly Nav-1 or GPS.
If you have a variable-source HSI in the panel, then this button will just switch between Nav-1 and GPS.
Now here is where it gets interesting: If you have an HSI that only goes to Nav-1, and an autopilot that can fly either the HSI or the GPS,
and a button on the panel that is really only used to set the autopilot source (between Nav-1 and GPS), then you can put a Nav-1 HSI on the panel,
and this button, and when you flip this button to ‘GPS’, your autopilot will fly the GPS, even though your HSI continues to show the Nav-1 readout
this is NOT an optimal layout, I think, but it does still apply to some actual aircraft.

General Features Having to do with Simulator Operations

Multiplayer a bit better: Planes show up on the map with the last 3 digits of their ip address, and there will be no artificially-intelligent traffic in a multiplayer session.
1 IOS can control many copies of X-Plane. This is nice if you have a lab of X-Planers flying around, and there is one instructor to orchestrate the chaos.
Real-Weather can now handle russian metars, which are in meters per second. Hmm… OK.

The mouse cursor auto-switches over the numerical data-entry boxes so the mouse tail does not hide the number… sort of nice.
All forward and reverse replay modes are available.

PLENTY of new commands for the joystick and keyboard… check them out in the joystick or keyboard setup windows.

Straight up and down views are now accessible by key or joystick or View menu.

The frequency-list in the upper-right of the map that shows the frequencies for any airport you click on now can show all the freqs for that airport, no matter how many.

Quicker load-times for the same amount of data! This applies to scenery, situation files, fdr files, the works.

Move the mouse over any column in the FDR screen to see a description of that column of FDR data.

Checkboxes at the top of the data output screen to enable the various different types of data output…
This lets you enable or disable all the output of a given type at will, without having to re-check everything.

All custom scenery packs can live in ONE FOLDER in the ‘Custom Scenery’ folder.
So, just drop any custom scenery packages into the ‘Custom Scenery’ folder.
That’s it.
Yer done.
Easy.

File-open dialog for aircraft shows the aircraft name and description from Plane-Maker viewpoint screen now… kind of nice.

New UDP message: DREF. Look it up in the ‘Sending Data to X-Plane.html’ doc in the instructions folder.
This lets you send in any value to any dataref in X-Plane! Very powerful!

UDP messages continue outputting, even when X-Plane is only replaying a movie.

New internet output: Send camera image! this sends an image from X-Plane over the network… an S3TC compressed raster image, at the same res and speed as the Quicktime movie preferences
you have in X-Plane. This will be very useful for researchers wanting to look at IMAGERY from X-Plane for various auto-flight or pattern-recognition research.

3-D flight-path gives lines from the wingtips now as well so you can see the roll in the replay.

With thanks to Jonathan van Tuijl, the automatic selection of vertical field of view is now more accurate… it was just a hair off before!

Better sync between the master machine and external visuals and cockpits: In-sync rotors and stuff like that.

Cool new failures: Bird strikes and wind shear.
Rather than the random strikes and wind shear which can already happen,
the instructor can trigger those in the IOS as well.
Good for training.
Variable dihedral, incidence, and wing-retraction now stored in replay-mode… let me know if they do not work for you properly.
For multi-machine setups, the external visuals now track location in the cockpit if you move around with the arrow and page up/down keys in control-o mode. This is kind of nice because you can move around the cockpit while surrounded by many screens all giving you a wide field of view!

Profile view in the map is a hair smarter on plotting, and can show time or distance-based profile. As well, the aircraft icon now appears on the glideslope on the map window as well.

Replay mode is now perfectly-controllable from instructor console.

For networked setups, set the rendering options in the IOS, and they go out to the master and external visuals to keep everything in sync!
Altitude is more carefully defined for the 3 mile and 10 mile approaches to put you at a 3 degree glideslope on short final, below that on long final to give you time to configure for glideslope intercept.

Quicktime movie now records movies in SIMULATED time rather than REAL time, so even if things get a bit slow during the Quicktime RECORD, they still play back in proper simulated speed.
In place-aircraft-by-airport screen, the current airport is auto-loaded into that screen the first time you open it (convenient)
and hitting ENTER will TAKE YOU TO whatever airport you have entered there. (kind of convenient)
Carrier and frigate pitch and roll tracked in replay.

Visibility slider in weather screen re-labeled a hair to by in sync with the cat-1, cat-2, cat-3, etc buttons.
New feature in the Internet screen for multiplayers: Set the number of transmissions per second to the other players.
If you are NOT playing on a LAN, then you can lower this number to keep from overflowing a slower net connection when doing multiplayer games online.
Click on various NAVAIDs, airports, fixes, etc on the Map screen and the data is displayed in the upper-right of the map
without the background rectangle being too large for the data.
10% nullzone in the brakes so they don’t hang or drag at all if you use CH Pro Pedals or any other axis for brakes.
As well, the braking model improvement: Dragging along with partial brake application should now be handled properly.
Assigning a joystick axis to look left/right/up/down does not put you in the control-o mode automatically,
but simply lets you look around whenever you DO hit control-o.
As well, the joystick input is ‘smoothed’ a bit, making for smoother looking around.

IP address of the master machine is auto-set on the external visuals and cockpits by the master… Kind of convenient for multi-machine setups!
In the joystick windows, the flight realism sliders are labeled in %, so you can set them precisely if you like!
Interesting new feature: Check it out in the operations and warnings screen in the settings menu: Flight models per frame!
1 is recommended, 2 or more may be needed for very fast, light, small aircraft if you are flying at low framerate!
Here is the deal: If you set this to 1, then X-Plane will run 1 flight model for every frame of the sim. This is usually fine!
BUT, if you are running a plane that is very small and lightweight, and goes very fast, then, in REALITY, this plane might maneuver VERY quickly!
In that event, you need to run MANY flight-model frames per second to predict what this plane is going to do!
Now, if you are running at a lower frame-rate because you have a slow computer or tons of scenery cranked up, then you may need to do MULTIPLE flight-models for every visual frame!
In that event, enter a number like 2 or more here, to get more flight models done each frame, giving the hi-speed integration that is needed for quick- manuevering planes!
NOTE: If you see a fast plane suddenly tumble out of control at high speed, then it is a good bet you need to crank up the flight models per frame here!
You should be able to raise and lower the landing gear when in the water… amphibs need to do this!

Joystick pan/tilt buttons do more stuff in more views, as requested.

Mouse-steering cross-hair reminders now remain at last yoke position, not center position, as requested.

View indicator in side view stays center-screen now.

Parachute texture mapping is now handled differently to really let you customize chutes.

Airplane draws at perfect location on the map, no matter the altitude.
When you enter a heading, altitude, and speed for other planes in the IOS screen, those planes will hold that heading, altitude, and speed for an hour or until
they fly out of range, whichever comes first. As well, the plane will hold the TRUE airspeed that you select.

Hardware Support

G1000 support more complete and thorough (I am talking about the REAL g1000)… this includes the VNAV functions used in Cessnas!
We now allow more joystick buttons and axis as well.
The mouse wheel zooms on the map. Kind of convenient.
\Refined Garmin 296, 396, 496, f30, and g1000 driving.
TONS of joystick buttons and devices and axis now available, I believe. TONS.

New Instruments

There are countless new instruments, but here are some highlights:

New button in the “Buttons” folder to turn off the camera (either camera instrument or tv-guided weapon)… This is kind of convenient if you want to turn it off for higher frame-rate.
ROUND trim indicators. Because somebody wanted them.

Jet engine percent thrust gage, as some planes have.

HUD digital alpha and G-load, as some HUDs have.

Carb air temp and oil quantity gages.

New round flap AND slat indicator. Kind of nice.
New fuel gages… like analog gages with rolling tapes. Kind of nice.
A handful of new radio gages, including an airliner-style audio panel.

New standby airspeed with digital scrolling tape for airliners.

New fuel pump type: Pump per TANK.
Just have as many pump switches as tanks, and any time you hit one of these switches, you are turning on the pump from that TANK.
This is commonly used in larger aircraft.

New instrument: Autopilot power switch.
Surprisingly, this is NOT really so needed, because we have had autopilot disconnect keys and joystick buttons forever,
and you can just set the flight director to ‘off’ to disable the autopilot… but now you have a switch as well.

Improved instruments for the IOS… That’s the ‘inst’ tab at the top-right of the IOS.

New instrument: APU ON light… A single light to indicate if the APU is on, as in some jets.

New annunciator: Slats Deployed!
New button and command to show auxilary fuel tanks… It’s nice if you have more fuel TANKS than fuel GAGES.
Hit this button to show the other tanks on the same gages.
This works if you have twice the number of tanks as you do gages. (2, 4, 6, or 8 tanks are all OK,
if you just have half that many gages).
The KingAir, for example, has 4 tanks but only 2 gages… hit this little button on the panel
for the gages to show the aux tanks! Cool!
New instruments: Autopilot pitch and roll over-ride. Hit these trim-like buttons, and the autopilot will drop OUT of whatever mode it is in, and into PITCH and ROLL modes, with your dragging these buttons scrolling the pitch and roll targets around.

New Commands (assignable to any joystick button or key) and Data Output

There are countless new commands, but here are some highlights:

Commands (assignable to keystrokes or joystick buttons with the custom commands menu, of course) to do countless new things,
including landing, taxi, nav, strobe, and beacon lights, pitot-heat, adf frequency toggle, and many other things as well,
such as CENTERING the landing light and alternate static air.

New data output option: Camera. This sends out an rgb array for the frame of the size, and framerate, specified in the QuickTime movie output!
This is just like QuickTime, but you send to an ip address instead of the disk! This is cool if you want to use X-Plane to send camera-like imagery to another computer!

Tandem-rotor, single-engine helos can now have their collective controlled with function keys.
You can drag ‘backwards’ throttles (like on the roof of a seaplane, which operate backwards) with the mouse.

New master caution, alert, and warning silence commands for joystick buttons.
New joystick/keyboard commands: Prop sync on, off, toggle. Avionics off/on as well.
New commands for all the various de-icing sub-systems. Nice if you are building a big sim with plenty of buttons and switches in it to control de-icing states!
New command that you can assign to any key or joystick button: FADEC power.
Hit the CUSTOM COMMAND button in the upper-left of the Joystick Buttons window to get to it.

VS and ALT selection autopilot commands are now available to hook to any joy button or key press.

New command: Gear warning horn silence. So you can assign a joystick button to it now. Kind of convenient.
New command: INSTRUMENT BRIGHTNESS. Kind of nice.

New Failures

There are countless new equipment failures that have been requested by various professional customers from Cessna to Japan Air Lines to instructors to freight operators.

A few of them are:

Failures for all 10 gear accessible.

Fuel tank vent blockage now simulated: Block access to any fuel tank in the Failures windows.

Two prop governor fail options!
Fail to fine pitch, fail to coarse pitch! Cool! You should be able to guess what happens in each failure case, and the effect on the plane.

Fun new equipment failure: Smoke in cockpit. Try it!

Oil pump failure will run the temperature up as well.

Engine fire failure: You still get thrust for a few moments, but not for too long! The engine is melting!

Static port failure takes vvi to 0, as it typically should.

New failure options: Water in fuel, and aircraft fueled with wrong type of fuel!
This feature was requested by a freight company that uses X-Plane to train their pilots, and found that Aero-Commanders
being mis-fueled with the wrong type of fuel was actually the most common cause of Aero-Commander accidents!

Better organization and accuracy for the NAVAID failures in the failures page.
Fail the glideslope only of any ILS, the localizer only of any ILS, the marker beacons only of any ILS,
or fail any NDB or VOR!
And heck… We don’t stop there! You can even fail the DME PORTION ONLY of a VOR and still get VOR signal, but no DME!
Now here is where it gets cool: In the audio panel, you can monitor the morse code of nav 1 or nav 2
to see if that NAVAID is working. Do this by hitting the nav 1 or nav 2 button on the audio panel.
Now here is where it goes crazy: Hit the DME BUTTON on the audio panel while nav or nav 2 is selected, and you
will hear the morse code of the DME PORTION OF THE NAVAID!
Then, if you fail the DME of a VOR or ILS that normally has DME, then you will NOT get the morse code for the DME
when you go to monitor the morse code of the DME!
As well, you can fail the VOR or ILS transmitter on the ground (second tab of the Failures screen),
but leave the DME transmitter on the ground working, so you get DME but no CDI! Then, when you monitor the morse code
from the audio panel, if you do NOT have the DME button checked when you hit the nav-1 or nav-2 button, then you will NOT
get a morse code, but if you DO check the DME button on the audio panel, then you will get a morse code because
the DME is functioning, even though the needle deflection is not working!
And now for the final step: Turn OFF the nav1 and nav2 selections on the audio panel, and ONLY turn on the DME.
Now, you will monitor the morse code of the STANDALONE DME, which is an optional avionics instrument, separate from
nav-1 or nav-2.
WHEW!
So you can fail any part of any NAVAID, and use the morse code selections in the audio panel to see what parts of what
NAVAID are working or not!
And now for the final little touch: the DME makes a higher-pitched morse code signal than the rest of the NAVAID.
You will hear that if you ID the DME portion of a VOR-DME or ILS-DME.

Seaplanes or landplanes, the engines now fail if they get under water!
So be careful in heavy waves in those seaplanes!
New failure: Yaw damper.

Format Changes

The “Copilot” name modification in the “Internet Setup” window is now a FOLDER name modification, not a file name modification.
In other words, if you have a separate airplane running on a separate X-Plane computer for the copilot’s panel, then the NAME of the PLANE
should be the SAME, but it should sit in a FOLDER with the name suffix that you specify at the bottom of the “Internet Setup” window.
This lets you simply copy the main airplane, modify the panel a bit to be the copilot’s panel, change the folder name, and be done.

CUSTOM COCKPITS WITH CUSTOM HUD AND AIRSPEED INDICATORS WILL HAVE TO UPDATE THEIR ARTWORK TO LOOK RIGHT. SEE THE REFERENCE IMAGES IN THE RESOURCES/BITMAPS/COCKPIT FOLDER AS ALWAYS.
A number of the key-commands are changed! This is to allow more commands with good consistency.

Small addition to the FDR file:
Tight after the NAV frequencies, we see 2 new columns: nav-1-type and nav-2-type.
Use 0 for none, 3 for VOR, 5 for Localizer, 4 for ILS.
Engine power round gages with digital tapes built in now use 4 digits, not 3. Engine power digital limits section in Pane-Maker now allows 4 digits of entry, not 3.

Comments Off on New in Version 9

New in the Version 9.31 Update

New for 9.40:

RC16
Just a few tweaks to the plugin system read and adjust glideslope and flaps that were not working QUITE the way some people wanted.

RC15
Lat-lon waypoints from Goodway-generated flight plans import correctly.
Rare crash bug when parsing liveries fixed.
Normal maps are no longer distorted by customized gamma settings.
X-Plane will generate an Apple crash report instead of a one-line X-Plane crash report in a few cases. This will give us more info when the sim does fail.
Air driven generator needs to spin a bit more to power the system, as in reality.
Tail wheel lock applies at any elevator aft of nuetral, as in reality.

RC14
– No crash when AI airplanes have panel tooltips. (This should fix a number of crashes during startup.)
– No incorrect log warnings when loading liveries.
– Updated the command list.

RC13
No more erroneous master caution on the Cirrus Jet.
Indicated airspeed tweaked just a hair to get the Mach-compression effects… this tunes the fast jets jut a bit.
A tiny modification of the file-reading system to solve a few random data-corruption issues.
Objects and other text files with no newline at the end of the file load correctly.
Airplanes whose default livery is not available run without fps hit.

RC12
A few bug-fixes for a few plugins.
Your path should always plot on the map screen when in 3-d mode.
Alignment of plugin text is now consisten with the rest of X-Plane.

RC11
A hair more refinement on the various hydraulic, vaccuum, fuel, and oil pumps.
A few tiny refinements in the prop-pitch model.
Glideslope indicator should only show up when desired.
Livery should be auto-loaded in X-Plane ifd pre-selected in Plane-Maker.
A few more datarefs now available for custom prop discs – sample plugin coming soon.
No more crash on start on Vista with full screen selected.
Calair FMS programmer should open without as many spaces.
Pushback plugins won’t get “stuck”.
x737 FMS should work again.
Some cases of upside down video capture and hangs should be fixed with ATI video cards on OS X.

RC10
OK the FMS and GPS is now really awesome… better than anything you have seen before with X-Plane. Here is the deal: Enter any plan you like into the FMS… The distance and time enroute will display at the bottom from your CURRENT position to whatever the final destination in the FMS is… So as you scroll through waypoints in the FMS, you will see the distance and time from your current location to the displayed fix. Now, while this is going on, if you have a GPS in addition to the FMS, the GPS will always display the distance and time to THE NEXT FIX YOU ARE FLYING TO… No matter what fix you have selected in the FMS! In other words, you can set your FMS to the last fix in the plan to see when you will really arrive at the final destination, while the GPS is displaying the time and distance simply to the next fix. All of this runs at the same time, no problem. As well, you can enter a full FMS plans into the FMS, or, if you like, enter direct->to routes into the GPS… the FMS will simply display that single-leg plan that you just entered into the GPS! We have had GPS’s and FMS’s for a long time, but now all the pieces fit together just PERFECTLY. This is lots more important than it sounds: This is what will allow us to easily add even MORE GPS and FMS detail in the future! (Something, obviously, we have planned!)
Various ‘prop feathers on engine-fail/prop-pull/mixture-pull’ and other odd engine-reverse cases should be perfectly operational. Emergency engine power is available only after engine failure, regardless of how many times you have flown since you started X-Plane. Spool time for jet engines is back… I THOUGHT we could get by without it, but it hurts the SHUT-DOWN spool-down times to take it away… so it is back! Radio altimeter decision-height selection should always move in steps of 10, as is probably desired. Idle-speed switches should be operational in all types of craft. A few little engine-sync/prop-sync issues should be sorted out… the systems should be good for jets, turboprops, recips, etc. 172 autopilot now operational.

RC9
Planet-map zoom does not affect map zoom, as is probably desired.
A hair more internal code re-organization to avoid bugs in the future involving many different planes all flying at once.
A nice new interface on the serial-port selections on the joystick and equipment screen, for things likeGarmin 430 and PFC hardware… The text indicating what serial device you are listening for flashes in the lower-right of the screen if data is coming in to that device. This is all about getting certifiable sims quickly developed, tested, installed, and running… And being able to quickly hook up and test serial devices is needed for this in many cases, with a nice UI showing which serial devices are talking and which ones aren’t.

RC8
More refinements to the GPS-FMS-Garmin-430 model to make plugins work as they always have, even in the new improved internal organization of the code.
Goodway Plugin can program GPS CAX FMS plugin can program FMS
Yet a few more tony enhancements in the “autopilot/autopilot select/ott_seldisp_ALT_VVI.png” instrument, as we make it EXACTLY like the old KAS-297.
3-D Panel will animate for complex aircraft like the EC120.
Fixed crash on quit on some machines.

RC7
More tuning on DEFAULTING the number of batteries, generators, and inverters to decent values, no matter what version, format, and method of controlling these things you used in the old ACF files.
Prop “feather on fail” a hair better… If you have various ‘feather on engine failure, prop control at min, mixture pulled’ options in Plane-Maker Systems screen checked, the props will fail to feathered pitch at no oil pressure, whether on a single or twin, as you probably intend.
As well, refinement of things like propeller-rendering and reverse and beta and reverse pitch on unusual planes that have a different number of engines than props.

RC6
Small refinement to auto-set the number of batteries and generators FOR you, if you have not specified them in Plane-Maker.

RC5
Small refinements in carb-heat model.
Failures-page re-organized a hair… It is really nicely-organized now, with no redundant failures, but plenty of nice failures to have!
Specify the number of batteries, generators, and inverters in the system window in Plane-Maker… No more guessing based on the number of switches on the panel! specify if the starter is electric or air-driven in the systems window in Plane-Maker… No more guessing based on the starter amperage!

RC4
Ever-so-slight tuning of a few bits and pieces of the low enroute map.
Subtle difference in Plane-Maker, Engines screen, second tab over: The top number is the number of ENGINES, the bottom number is the number of PROPS… This is not QUITE what we had before, where the bottom number WAS the number of ‘thrust points’… but this is a bit more intuitive, and clear, I think. A few really really ODD designs MAY require updates in Plane-Maker.
Improvements in the flight-replay: The flight should be properly saved and re-playable no matter how many times you enter and exit replay mode at various different points in the replay. As well, the flight-replays should include ALL the planes that were in flight at the time, so replay of entire 20-plane formations should be possible! As well, replay for your flight now lasts about 85 minutes (up from about 35 minutes in earlier versions). BUT, that is assuming you are flying by yourself! The more planes you have flying with you, the shorter the replay duration!
New autopilot buttons: Altitude ARM and TOGA… kind of nice!
A few more failures in the g-1000 failure-list… lo and hi generator and battery voltage… They live in the g-1000 page for now, but do in fact work for everyone.
A few more failures in the failure types tab in the failures screen for various engine indications Now your challenge: can you find any failures that DON’T WORK? Try failing every indication in that page, and check every engine instrument in the sim… Do all the indications fail, as they should? And do all SYSTEMS continue to FUNCTION normally, as they should?
Gear indicator failure is a bit better… it just fails ONE bulb, as is typical in the real plane.
Distances and times enroute on the FMS should update just fine. As well, the plugin APIs for the GPS and FMS have been fixed. If your GPS, FMS or flight planning plugin does not work in RC4, but worked in 931, please file a bug immediately! As well, a number of other datarefs have been fixed.
Annunciator on the screen if FROZEN (different than paused!)

RC3
Minor enhancements:
Plane-Maker: It is now possible to enter negative generator and battery current redlines and the like. This could be useful for some planes.
Plane-Maker: You now enter the BETA pitch of prop. This is the prop pitch that you see when the prop is in beta mode, which turboprops often have, and this will happen when you hit the . key to go into reverse, but have not yet advanced the throttle to really hit the reverse. A number around -10 or so should work pretty well for most planes, if you do not know the exact prop pitch of the real plane.
If you have an electric hydraulic system but no electric hydraulic pump switch, then the system will default to ‘on’, as is probably desired.
When you show ALL ILS’s or just the ILS you are trying to fly in the IOS window, the markers associated with the ILS are also show, or not, to further refine the ILS display.
In the profile view on the IOS, where we see the plot of our approach down the glideslope, we now have better AI to tell what approach you are trying to fly, and you can see that approach description in the lower-right of the screen, and that information is stored for recall during replay!
The autopilot/autopilot select/ott_seldisp_ALT_VVI and autopilot/console_filled_GA are very true to the real instruments, right down to every light-flash and operation, even including the test-modes. Be sure to assign a joystick button to ‘autopilot test’ if you want to fully use autopilot/console_filled_GA, which has the trim indicator stay lit up until that test is run, as in the real plane!
Smoother action on the linear tapes in the cockpit, like you find in the SR-71 primary displays.
More named lights for strobes and beacons. Example plane coming soon to the wiki.
Bug-Fixes:
AudioPanelHM instrument is now fully controllable… You could not set com-1 before this. We have functioning glideslopes to the carriers and frigates now… so use ’em! Little glitch in sky color that left a barely-visible seam in the sky is now fixed. Plane follows GPS paths entered in FMS properly The livery you select should be visible to multiplayers flying with you! LINUX: taxiways and runway lines and lights are fixed. ATTR_light_level works correctly even when shaders are off. Adaptive engine gauges will show arcs again. Generic rolling instruments don’t have an extra mask o them. Panel texture will work properly for planes with very large cockpit objects. Engines will work for AI planes contorolled by plugins.

RC-2
Oil and fuel pressure modeling improved: Now we simulate both the pump and the over-pressure regulator. This should lead to more accurate simulation of these systems. Be sure to set the low and high oil and fuel pressure green-arc limits in Plane-Maker to really get the best use out of these systems, since the simulation I wrote does tune the pumps to try to keep the pressures in the green-arc range!
New instrument: Select/engage vvi/alt, in the autopilot sel/engage folder… This is used on the Bendix-King autopilots that used to be popular.
Making the aircraft out of 1 obj in Plane-Maker will auto-position the landing gear for you (rather than making you find the right dataref to place the gear), which makes things a bit easier to generate aircraft objects for airport scenery and the like, with the landing gear already in the right place.
The ‘x-mapped file ran out of memory’ error that a few of you got sometimes should be solved… give it a try now! Memory use while flying is reduced as well.
Airplane named lights can be used for static aircraft – they will stay “on” when used for a static plane rather than copying what the user’s plane does. As well, there are new datarefs for airplane lights.
Panel drawing optimized slightly for a hair more speed.

Beta 7
NEW FEATURES: New plane-maker autopilot option: Adjust alt hold when pitch buttons on autopilot pushed. If you have this option, then the nose up and nose down commands will adjust the held altitude if you are in altitude-hold mode when you send them.
New Plane-Maker option: Auto-feather the prop on mixture-pull, as used in some prop planes.
New plane-maker autopilot option: Go to pitch mode on altitude arm. Some old autopilots do this.
Cool new command: Reset last flight… Available in the advanced buttons settings. This resets the last flight you did.

REFINEMENTS:
Vacuum system gives annunciator lite and lo-vac flag if the vacuum system falls below the lo-end vacuum REDLINE, not the green arc! Set the lo-end vacuum redline accordingly in Plane-Maker.
Better weather reports for airports that you click on in the Low Enroute map! We now scan the METAR file, if you have it, for weather at that airport, and give the clouds, visibility, wind, and baro pressure!
If you do not have carriers or frigates selected, then the IOS will show the autopilot entries in that space instead… better for pro training!
Sim-time and ground-speed multiplier both give on-screen text warnings now.
Back course and APPROACH annunciators and modes tuned a hair.
If you have 2 Garmin 430s in the panel, each can have it’s own GPS destination. HSI, etc, will follow GPS #1.

BUG-FIXES:
Airplanes should not appear backwards on the glideslope view in the map screen when heading back along on downwind to the ils-intercept.
Simulated Garmin-430 commands should all work now.
No water tiles shown in orbital view, and less pause when coming out of orbit, while we are on the that topic.

Beta 6
Autopilot: Alt will not arm when you do the arm-alt command if the glideslope is already engaged. This is as most real airplanes behave.
New engine-failure mode: Thrust-reverser accidental-deploy… can be a tricky one to deal with.
If you do NOT have the ‘altitude tracks aircraft when CWS is held’ checked in Plane-Maker, then X-Plane will NOT track your altitude when CWS is held… but it WILL track your vertical speed! This as the way some real autopilots behave.
Improved EGT, TIT, and engine-braking modeling based on flight-test in the real plane.
No more NAV signal wandering around near the edge of reception range. It seems that most modern systems can filter this out, in reality.
Fuel burn should go with ground coverage speed now.

Beta 5
Refinements in EGT-modeling. We get closer to redline in redline power and mixture conditions. Refinements in CHT-modeling. CHT should not go to huge negative values when you enter unrealistic values in Plane-Maker.
Better ability to hold position on the runway under high power settings, if the real plane would have the braking ability to do so.
Flight path should plot in the proper place in the weather-map in the set-weather window.
If the localizer fails on a localizer or ILS with DME, the DME will continue to broadcast, as in reality.
If you are in approach mode and hit the APR button, it will drop you out of all approach modes, as in reality.
New button in Plane-Maker to enter the number of degrees off that the autopilot will auto-select back-course on. Enter 0 to not auto-select back-course.
X-Squawkbox works again!

Beta 4
A number of odd graphical artifacts fixed.
You can now select buses for all systems in the amperage-selection screen in Plane-Maker… You could not select the amperage for a few systems before.
Autopilot can be set to auto-load the current altitude into the altitude pre-select window, or not, in the Systems page of Plane-Maker.
Spoiler deflection limits should now be perfectly respected.
UI should always be visible… it was sometime a hair dark, or very dark, or red at night. We now just keep it the same no matter the lighting conditions to be a bit more consistent. Can anyone find any case where any bit of the user-interface is improperly-colored at night?
A few more electrical-system details ironed out.

Beta 3
King-Air and a number of other planes should function normally that had an electrical-system glitch in beta-2.
Mouse-wheel throttle should not conflict with joystick throttles any more
Brakes should hold the plane back a bit better during runups, etc.
The trim-deflection time is entered in Plane-Maker in seconds, rather than ratio, so we all understand exactly what it means. This lets you do a better job of acf-design: Measure the time it takes the trim to move full-distance from one extreme to the other and enter that in Plane-Maker to get the perfect trim speed.
New feature in Plane-Maker Equipment Options screen: all engines: Shut off fuel when prop control at minimum! Check this to have the fuel to the engine shut off when the prop control is pulled back to minimum. This is used on some turboprop aircraft.
New autopilot altitude-warning options. Check out the Systems window in Plane-Maker to see them all. Basically, you can have the X-Plane autopilot beep at various altitude warnings or excursions.
Airports with old runways won’t appear incorrectly oriented or mis-sized.
New datarefs for additional failures and glide-slope detection.

Beta 2
Here is what’s new for 9.40 Beta-2!
NEW STUFF: The filled autopilot annunciator now displays pitch-mistrim ‘TRM’ alert if the autopilot is unable to trim out the pitch-loads, as it is in the real plane.
Improved FDR (Flight Data Recorder) replay: We always read every line of the replay, and the propellers and rotors spin during playback of FDR files, as desired.
New button in the weight and balance screen to set to max gross weight… Kind of convenient to flight-test at gross weight every time.
Improvement in FADEC mode on recip engines to limit power more accurately for turbocharged engines.
Plane-Maker:Panel Editor: You can now specify the buses that each instrument depend on, regardless of the number of buses on the plane. Remember that you can have up to 4 buses, and each instrument can depend on any bus! The generic needle can rotate around an arbitrary location. Useful for making various types of “wiper” instruments and fuel gauges. Key frames can optionally wrap around. Use the generic pointer with wrapping and clipping to make a “tape” or “ladder”-style instrument. Instruments can be tied to more than one electrical bus. Non-generic instruments can be tied to an electrical bus too!
FIXES: Piper Malibu throttle handles should not turn gray in clouds. No stars in the water at very low reflection settings – before the reflections were pixelated and ugly. Real weather and version-checks should work. Glass instruments on bus 2 won’t turn off when bus 1 loses power. Electrical system settings for panel should import better from 930 planes.
IMPORTANT: if you have a 930 airplane you should go back to the 930 version for beta 2 – do not use the conversion for beta 1. 940 beta 1 had bugs in the airplane conversion code, so your electrical system and instrument bus settings will not have converted properly. 940 beta 2 should fix this.

Beta 1
Here is what’s new for 9.40 Beta-1!

Systems Modeling
New features, mostly added for total system-realism for FAA-Certification:
New elec sys modelling improvements. Now you can have up to 4 buses, and each system can draw from any of, or all of, those buses. As well, you can assign any generator and any battery to any bus. As well, each generator can have a different max amperage. This really lets you start to dial in the electrical systems really well!
New feature in the IOS: Shut down tailwind ILS. This checkbox in the map screen lets you shut down all ILS’s that are not aligned into the wind, as is typically done in reality This is really needed at airports like KLAX, which have ILS’s in opposite directions BUT ON THE SAME FREQUENCY! Any shut-down and failed NAVAIDs turn red so you can see that they are not operational. Kind of nice!
New setting in Plane-Maker systems screen: Number of degrees of heading error needed for the autopilot to switch turn directions. 180 by default, 20 for the G-1000.
New instrument: Radio alt decision-height light… A little light that goes off when you make it down to decision height.
Oil pressure modelled a hair differently to show change in response to rpm change a hair more.
Emergency gear extension override commands now avail… Can be assigned to any joystick button of course!
New Plane-Maker feature: Import AIRCRAFT… This imports everything EXCEPT the panel… nice if you want multiple acf files that are the same except the panel!
The ENGINE_VAC gages in the ENGINE ROUND folder show the suction from each engine… You can have two of these. The SUCTION_LO_LITE_GA instruments show the suction from each engine… You can have two of these. The SUCTION gage in the SUPPLEMENT folder shows the total suction of all available vacuum pumps… It shows what the instruments are GETTING, and you only want ONE of these!
Inverter failure will fail the trq indicators now if the trq indicators are hooked up to the inverters as per the system screen in Plane-Maker.
Click on any airport in the IOS screen… You should get airport info and the weather at the airport as well.
New option in Plane-Maker: The altitude tracks the aircraft current altitude when the cws button is down: yes or no.
Set your ports for listening and receiving in the net screens now.
Oil pump failure a little more realistic… We see more gradual engine failure, with rise in oil temperature.
A few (real) G-430 failures, useful if connected to a real Garmin-430.
Cool new Plane:
New plane: Stinson l-5.,. It is in the general aviation folder, and very nice.
Nice little features and UI tweaks:
Glideslope plot on the IOS now shows the width of the glideslope region, and shows the marker beacons as well.. kind of nice!
Reversed/beta/forward thrust engine-mode saved in replays.
Better throttle response from the fadec.. closer to linear.
3-D cockpit will let you look around when paused now.
Toll-spoiler logic just a hair smarter with speedbrakes: Spoilers will not extend beyond max speedbrake deployment.
Boat-drawing rendering-option is now separated from the forest fires and balloons.
NAVAID failure-page shows the type for each NAVAID… makes it easier to see exactly what NAVAID you are failing.
All ‘situation-movies’ are now referred to as ‘replays’ everywhere in the UI
Engine-failure options that do not apply to the type of engine in your plane do not appear in the engine-failure list… A bit easier to spot the failures you want.
New instruments and commands:
New flight director/autopilot commands and instruments in the BUTTONS folder to turn the flight director and autopilot servos on and off.
Commands restored: “sim/instruments/ECAM_mode_down” “sim/instruments/ECAM_mode_up”
New command that you can hook up to any key or joystick button: Marker beacon mute. It’s in the ANNUNCIATORS group.
New annunciator: GPU connected. You can assign any joystick button to the COMMAND to connect the GPU, and when you hit it, you will see the gpu-connected light activate, and also get plenty of power to bus #1 on the airplane.
Minor tweaks and Bug-Fixes:
Mean time between failure causes random failures when checked in the failures screen, otherwise does not!
IOS glideslope map properly labelled as AGL, not MSL, altitudes.
EFIS-app tweaked a hair to display both adf’s and display a few more things a hair more accurately, and let you enter initial fuel
No blackout in external view modes ,and Cinema Verite should not respond to G-load at very low G.
Planes with only 1 inverter switch should still drive all inverter-driven systems ok!
Flaps deploy at the right speed now, ion all cases… they were sometimes too fast before.
Arrow keys to scroll large 2-d panels in side-views, as is used for some older planes, now work!

Rendering Engine
The rendering engine is more heavily threaded for better use of multiple cores. The sim should start faster with very high tree settings, and forests will appear sooner on machines with many cores.
Normal maps available for OBJs. File format information coming soon.
Prop disc can be customized by plugins – see Custom Prop Discs
Better memory efficiency with the apt.dat file.
V7 cockpit objects don’t slow Plane-Maker to a crawl.

New for 9.31:

New engine model

New engine-modeling system to handle critical altitudes, jets, turboprops and recips, with and without FADECs,
with and without automatic waste-gates. It’s all in the ENGINES screen of Plane-Maker, top right: Only 3 values
to enter to control it all: Critical Altitude and two FADEC-equipped check-boxes.

Here’s how it works:

Engines operate on air to product thrust or power, and the higher you fly your plane, the thinner the air gets,
and the less power or thrust the engines put out. So, if you have an engine that is good for 300 hp, or 10,000 lb
of thrust, the power or thrust will degrade as you climb into thinner air… the plane is running out of breath!

But wait! There are cures to this problem.
For reciprocating engines, you can put on a turbocharger to pack more air into the engine as you climb, holding
max rated power as you climb into thinner air.
For turboprop and turbojet engines, you can simply design the engine to have more thermodynamic power or thrust
capacity than is safe for the engine, and just run the engine at partial power down low, and then open up the
throttle as the airplane climbs into thinner air to hold a constant power or thrust as you climb!

In both of the cases above, the engine has the ability to tear itself apart down low, but keeps reduced throttle
settings down low in thick air, and then opens up the throttle (or turbocharger RPM!) as you climb into thinner
air to hold that constant, max-rated power or thrust during the climb.

In some planes (Columbia 400), this power-limiting is handled automatically by the engine, In others (King-Air B-200)
it is done manually by the pilot… he needs to be sure not to push the throttle too far forwards at low altitude
or he will over-torque the engine!

So, how do we handle all this in X-Plane?

I made it pretty simple for you: You enter the maximum allowable power or thrust for the engines in Plane-Maker.
Then, you enter the critical altitude… this is the altitude to which that engine can continue to put out that
max allowable power or thrust. For example:

  • For reciprocating engines like in my Cessna 400, the plane is rated to 310 hp (max allowable) but can put that full 310 hp out right to 15,000 ft.
  • For turboprop airplanes like the King Air, the PT-6 is limited to 850 hp (max allowable) but can put that power out to maybe 18,000 ft.
  • For jet airplanes, an engine might be limited to 100,000 lb of thrust, but put that thrust out clear to 10,000 ft.

To handle cases like these, simply enter that “LIMIT”, or “RATED”, or “MAX-ALLOWABLE” power or thrust for the engine
in Plane-Maker, and then enter the critical altitude… the altitude to which that engine can put out that max rated power.

X-Plane, at this point, will understand that the thermodynamic power output of the engines may be far greater than the rated power output (based on how high the critical altitude is) and model the engine accordingly.

Next, you check the FADEC checkbox.
This checkbox indicates whether or not the engine is kept within the limit power automatically or not.
If you do not have the FADEC checkbox checked, then, if you push the throttle all the way forwards at sea-level for an engine with a critical altitude greater than 0, then you will over-boost the engine! You will get more than the max-rated power output of the engine, and, if you were in a real plane, you would risk damaging or destroying the engine in that case.

If you do have the FADEC checkbox checked, then X-Plane will automatically keep you from exceeding the limit thrust… you can just push the throttles all the way forwards with no fear of an over-boost: X-Plane will limit the throttle for you to avoid an over-boost!

So, let’s look at the 3 possible cases mentioned above:

  • Cessna 400: Enter 310 hp, 15,000 ft, FADEC to limit power checked. That will give you 310 hp, to 15,000 ft, just by punching the throttle to max at any altitude. At lower altitudes, you will see that the various cylinder-head temperatures and the like are a bit lower, and rise a bit as you climb as the engine works harder as you climb.
  • King-Air: Enter 850 hp, 18,000 ft, FADEC to limit power not checked. That will cause you to over-boost the engine if you punch the throttle to max below 18,000 ft! At low altitudes, you will need to only advance the throttle enough for the engine torque to go to limit… and gradually increase the throttle as you climb.
  • Airliner: Enter 100,000 lb, 10,000 ft, FADEC to limit power checked. That will give you 100,000 lb of thrust, to 10,000 ft, just by punching the throttle to max at any time. At low altitudes, for example for the take-off, you

will notice that you do not get 100% N1, because the FADEC is limiting power! Cool!

As well, there is a separate FADEC checkbox for mixture and RPM control of the reciprocating engines.
Check this box if you always want the fuel-air mixture ratio to be optimized for the current conditions, much like
the engine of a car. As well, this checkbox will add power to keep the engine from sagging BELOW idle, and cut fuel to keep you from going over redline. Again, this is just like a car.

So with only a few parameters to set (most of which we are already used to) we tackle critical altitude for recips,
turboprops, and jets, with manual and automatic control of the power. This is the engine model that really covers our bases.

Now, just as you have that straight in your head, we move on to one new feature that can add extra power above that which is obtainable using the techniques above: Engine boost! Some engines have an anti-detonant, such as water or Nitrous Oxide, that is injected into the engine to allow increased fuel flow and power. This has been done with jets and props. If you want to simulate such systems, simply enter the throttle boost from your boost system in Plane-Maker, Engines screen, and the seconds duration of such a system. This would simply be the seconds of H2O or NOX that you have on board. As long as the boost (water, Nitrous Oxide, or whatever) does not run out, you will be able to run at increased power settings!

A few further engine mods: Jet engines do not windmill so much in the wind any more. They were probably windmilling too much before.

Plane-Maker, Engine screen, Propeller tab: Hit a button to set the prop pitch per-element manually if you like, rather than automatically. Only a propeller-designer should ever need to use this, I think.

Other new flight model enhancements

Auto-throttle preserves the differences between various throttles in multi-engine airplanes, if you dragged the throttles apart yourself, as is the case in real planes. In other words, if you manually drag the throttles in a multi-engine plane to somewhat different settings, such as, for example, 10% more throttle on engine #1, and then engage the auto-throttle, engine #1 will continues to run at 10% higher throttle than the others.

When you turn the artificial stability off, the control deflections are not limited by any art-stab system constraints.

Better flight dynamics on the fuselage… most noticeable in odd cases like a hovering helo, where the nose is level,
the craft is not moving, but the angle of attack of the fuselage is negative 90 degrees at 30 knots due to rotor wash!

Joystick button/key commands for rudder pedals are back! I found a way to do this that makes sense: Hitting the rudder key commands is exactly like moving real rudder pedals left or right 10%… with all the results in nosewheel steering and rudder deflections that this implies.

New option in Plane-Maker: Auto-slats below a certain speed. We already have the option to auto-lower the slats near the stall alpha. Now we can also lower them below a given indicated airspeed.

Folding prop option! Check it in the special equipment options screen in Plane-Maker, and the prop will fold up when not turning, and spread to normal disc at idle speed.

With oil pressure failure in prop-driven planes:

  • if you are in a single-engine bird, the prop fails to flat pitch
  • in a multi-engine bird, it fails to feathered pitch, as happens in real planes.

A few more autopilot commands with regard to connecting and disconnecting.
Done to get the Eclipse-500 sim just right.

Further flight-dynamics refinements… I think we can actually, consistently, pull off a pretty decent approximation of a spin now!
The secret: No longer does the airplane really have any idea of a flight path!
Instead, each part of the airplane has it’s own flight path.
So now, an airplane is not really a single entity: It is a whole bunch of parts all moving in formation!
As odd as this seems, this is the way to understand how each bit of the airplane has it’s own flight path (different for each bit of the airplane if the plane is pitching, yawing, or rolling), and THIS is the secret that really allows us to get a good spin: Each bit of the wing, stabilizer, etc all have their own flight path angle and speed… this builds up the forces in the dynamic cases of hi spin-rates: Most noticeable, not surprisingly, in a spin. We have had an approximation of this since version 1.00, but only now, for 9.30 Beta 8, have we really completely overhauled the physics to really have no concept at all of the flight path of the ‘airplane’, and instead handled it totally independently for each element of each surface of the plane. This, combined with the new wind model that has no concept of the wind on the ‘airplane’, but instead knows the wind on each bit of the airplane. This is really where we start to get into serious computations to learn new things about how the plane will fly.

Just a hair more refinement to the lift, drag, and moment lookup calculations… just enough to make the propeller efficiency model just a hair more accurate, in theory. A little more refinement in the transonic flight-model as well: That tricky speed between Mach 0.85 and 1.00. It’s a very minor refinement, but we may see a hair more accuracy here. Remember: If you mean to break Mach-1, you really will want thin wings to make that happen! (And plenty of power, and altitude, and a jet engine inlet efficiency speed of more than Mach-1).
To give you an idea of the accuracy we are seeing here, if you design a wing with a bit of extra incidence near the root, or an airfoil that produces more lift near the root, and less so at the tip, then X-Plane will see, in flight, that there is more lift near the root of the wing, and increase the effective aspect ratio of the wing in flight, reducing the spillover of air around the wingtip, and increasing the efficiency of the wing. Warning: As in reality, the reciprocal is also true!

Improvements in the propulsive-efficiency indication: It used to indicate the transmissions losses as well, which was really sort of wrong, since most people would not lump the transmission-losses into the propulsive efficiency of the propeller… so now the propulsive efficiency of the propeller is really showing the ratio of power going to the prop that is making it to the airstream as thrust, not making any reference to losses in the transmission. This also now properly indicates propulsive efficiency for unusual configurations, such as where multiple engines drive one prop, or vice-versa. This is only a difference in indication on the data output screen, and should not actually effect the flight model, but there you have it.

Further electrical system modelling… We should now handle the various cases properly where the APU, ground power, air-driven generator, and regular generators are all overloaded, going into a voltage sag and passing the load down to the battery, all as in reality!

Flap-Overspeed protection system (Plane-Maker, Special Controls screen), Flap-Overspeed Indicator (EFIS airspeed indicator as moving red barber-pole), and Flap-Overspeed flaps-removal (Operations and Warnings screen) are all now scaled to run the max allowable flaps smoothly between Vfe1 and Vfe2 based on all intermediate flap deflections and speeds.

A bit more tuning on the FADEC system, to give finer throttle control and make overboost a bit less likely.

Oh man, this is cool.
We no longer try to track the downwash on a per-element basis on the wings,
but instead we now deflect the air down behind the wings in 3-D space.
This means that fuselages, bodies, air flow into pro-discs.. everything, is affected by the downwash of any wings in front them.
As well, we continue to consider all props in front of all wings, tracking prop-wash in 3-d space as well.
This means that all wings and props and bodies are in the propwash and downwash of all wings and props in front of them, in all cases. You can even see this!

Get in a plane and go flying. Hit the / key twice to see the airflow vectors.. you will see the downwash (vectors going down) and propwash (vectors going aft) in 3-D space… these vectors affect the bodies, other props, other wings… everything! The Math. The Math! (Note that the downwash vectors will point straight down… this is because you only see the change in airflow-vector from the free-stream, so you only see the the downward part of the downwash).

We now have improved fuselage lift, drag, sideforce modeling… this even helps the helicopters hover more accurately.
How? Well, in a hover, the body of the helicopter is in propwash, putting out significant force even though the machine is
not moving! We are getting these dynamics right on the money now, tracking the airflow over the bodies in propwash even if that
propwash flow is totally different than the freestream flow, as shown above.

New graphics enhancements

“Rotating beacon is STROBE” option in Plane-Maker:
This will make the ‘rotating’ beacon be a strobe light, if desired, as in some planes.
Some guy reeeeeeeaaally wanted this, so, um, here it is!

Option in Rendering Options screen to auto-sync the rendering options in the external visuals to the cockpit… or not!

The ‘show your aircraft’ checkbox avail to show, or not show, our aircraft on the map is back.
This was removed, but some folks wanted it back, so, ummm, it is.

X-Plane now featuers per pixel lighting when shaders are on (requires GeForce 6 or newer or Radeon X800 or newer). This means rounder, smoother looking airplanes and nice tight specular hilights. Specular hilites are separated from regular lighting and match the sun color for better glare.

When shaders are on, the airplane shadow is calculated dynamically, showing wing sweep and other changes to the ACF shape. This is only a stop-gap measure, not an ultimate shadow solution.

Panels use linear filtering on large monitors, so they won’t look pixelated or chunky.

OK now we have a really cool new feature: A really improved 3-D airflow physics model and tools to see it!

First just look at it:

Open the Cessna 172 or Cirrus Jet and take it to 10,000 ft and set the time of day to dusk or so in clear weather.
Now go to external view with the | key and hit the / key a couple of times, watching the result with each press.
The RED vectors are at 10% speed BELOW ambient.
The GREEN vectors are at ambient speed.
The VIOLATE vectors are at 10% ABOVE ambient speed.
Now try it at low speed, flaps down, nose up, near the stall, full power.
Now pull up into the stall.
Now you really start to SEE what sets X-Plane apart from: ALL the others.
You can SEE the propwash (accelerating the air-flow to violet under full power, or decelerating it to yellow on the engine-out).
You can SEE the downwash (the downward-moving vectors behind the wing).
You can SEE the wake (decelerating the airflow behind the wings due to the drag of the wing!).

Of course, this airflow, modified by downwash, propwash, and wake, impacts the wings, bodies, and even propellers that live in that airflow!

And this goes beyond anything we have done before: We now find the downwash and wake not just from each wing, but from each element of each wing!

This means that if you have a flap or aileron on a wing, the downwash on the surfaces behind that bit of the wing (such as the horizontal stabilizer) are affected differently depending on where in the flowfield the various parts of the stabilizer are!

There will be more downwash on the part of the stab behind the flaps when the flaps are down, for example! Everything is handled per element, not per wing, so all the different flow off of and onto wings and stabs that varies across the span is considered!

Then it gets better: This new 3-D model with wake looks at the geometry of each wing casting downwash and wake in real-time, so the origin of the wake and downwash actually move aft in real-time as you sweep the wings, for example, if you are in an F-14 or F-111!

And it gets better: We now have an improved stall model that psuedo-randomizes the flow when any wing is stalled!
Pull aft enough to stall in the | view after hitting the / key see the flow and get ready for information-overload!

Try getting in various different planes at various different speeds, power settings, and flap settings, and hitting the / key a bit in the external view…
you will see how the streamlines and velocity vectors are affected by all of these things. Then turn on some turbulence if you want things to get really wonky!

Who else does this math? Nobody that I can find!

Data Output text modified a hair to line up perfectly and be easier to read. This will make it a bit easier to do the step above. 😉

Horizontal and Vertical ‘bow’ options in the Rendering Options screen to hook up many computers to form a spherical projection. ATC interface should be fine at all resolutions.

General new features

Plane-Maker: Export ‘Basic’ or ‘Detailed’ OBJ files.
The difference is the moving control surfaces.
The ‘Basic’ export does not have moving control surfaces, so it plots faster!
This makes it ideal for building airplanes to have around the airport scenery.
The other option is the ‘Detailed’, which gives you moving controls surfaces.

This should not be used for custom scenery packs that have airplanes lying around the airport, because it would waste CPU and RAM, but it is perfect for making starting points for custom 3-D object aircraft.

Room for more parking spots in the airport-selection dialog.

A number of new failure modes: engine indications.

Minor enhancements

FDR display is better: Fills in indicated altitude and angle of attack, and a number of other things.

V-22 osprey flight model improved based on feedback from a V-22 pilot.

More accurate flight modeling… the drag of the various misc bodies is now more accurately predicted.

The HUD in the FSNH view has a full-screen field of view… much more convenient for sure!

Real-weather wind phases in the wind more gradually, as requested.

Lift of blimps is now constant regardless of altitude, as is the case in the real thing.

Plane-Maker, systems screen: Specify whether or not the plane has a radio-altimeter audio call-out when reaching decision-height, and how far in advance of the decision-height the audio call-out is made.

Thrust-reversers should be part of replay in custom acf that have visible thrust reversers.

Some new commands to control the EFIS:

  • “sim/instruments/map_zoom_in”
  • “sim/instruments/map_zoom_out”
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_wxr “
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_tcas”
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_apt “
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_fix “
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_vor “
  • “sim/instruments/EFIS_ndb “

Screen Resolution is now saved in the preferences, and the Screen Resolution list in Rendering Options screen is not cluttered with duplicates.

Jet engines have a bit more inertia: They spool up and down slower, and even the spool-DOWN time is controlled by the throttle response time.

Airfoils labelled a hair better in Plane-Maker.

3-D cockpit view panning and tilting working as desired.

Replay mode should be a little more reliable… Tt could get confused with many airplanes coupled with airport placement coupled with rapid toggle in and out of replay mode before.

New airport and nav data.

GPWS annunciator stays lit up for as long as the GPWS system is activating… it does not just pulse.

If you hit the fire extinguisher, the engine is recovered normally when you open a new plane or reset the flight.

A handful of new gps commands to control the software Garmin-430.

Various fail-at-speed-altitude failures should be operational.

Twin fuel gage instrument can now handle it properly when people put the fuel tanks on the wrong sides of the plane in Plane-Maker. (Obviously, the left tank should be tank #1, and the right tank should be tank #2, in twin-tank planes… a number of people have been breaking this rule… the new fuel gage should be smart enough to handle that).

The control-o view lets you get a bit closer to the ground, as needed for some really low airplanes.

Map mode is transmitted from master to external cockpits.

Ramp-start option applies to initial start of the sim as well.

Conditions under which rain is encountered are tweaked a bit.

1 more decimal for wing sweep and dihedral in Plane-Maker.

ARC on engine ECAM in Cirrus shows up in 3-d cockpit now.

Allow_rosetta flag allows plugin authors to test ppc plugins on an x86 mac.

Helicopter rotors, and tail-rotors, no longer require rpm to change pitch.

Turbulence effects somewhat less strong.

‘Ramp-start’ option should start you on ramp when opening new planes, as well.

iPod/iPhone app ‘X-Plane Remote’ should work with old Power-PC Macs now… give it a try!

Greater flexibility in setting up g1000 software version numbers to facilitate testing with new planes when driving real g-1000’s.

The dynamic airplane shadow is now an optional rendering setting.

Per-pixel lighting is now a rendering setting. If you have a cheap card (GF7300, GF8400, HD2400, X1300, etc.) then turning off per pixel lighting will help fps a lot, especially when FSAA is on.

Every single plane made in 9.30 Beta needs to have it’s ‘FADEC automatically keeps engines from exceeding max power’ option reversed in the Engines screen. This is to maintain compatibility with version 9.22 and earlier… though you will need to change this setting in 9.30 if you made a plane in 9.30 beta.

Plane-Maker: Option to run it in metric-dimensions mode! Thrust and the like are still in pounds, but all dimensions are in meters. This should make things easier for our European customers.

New flap option in Plane-Maker: Flaps are infinite-adjust. Hold the button or keyboard flap command to move the flaps up or down smoothly as long as the button is held. Please check all flap functionality: Long deflection times of over 60 seconds, failure to deploy with flap failures, failure to deploy with and hydraulic failures if hydraulically activated, failure to deploy with electrical failure if electrically activated,
manual-pump deployment, auto-deployment with landing gear, or approach-to-stall, and overspeed-protection on deployment. (And, of course, aero, visual, and sound effects for all of the above).

New settings in Plane-Maker SYSTEMS window: Conditions under which the gear warning will activate: You can make your warning systems a hair more accurate here.

New Plane-Maker entry: Min runway length. Your moving maps will only show you airports with runways longer than this length to cut down clutter and select good airports for your particular bird. Also enter whether you can accept grass runways and helipads on your moving maps there.

Frame-rate enhancements with cumulus clouds… you should see nicer frame-rates with scattered and broken clouds.

Aircraft carrier catshot: Better physics and placement when locked down for the cat!

When starting up without engines and systems running, the manual electric hydraulic pump will be left in the OFF position by the last pilot.

Contrails should not typically come forward of the engine at hi-speed/lo-power conditions.

Contrails should expand a bit slower. The contrails will start a hair smaller, and fade in smoothly as the ice crystals form from the engine exhaust.

There should be no rain under scattered or broken clouds if not selected in the weather screen… let me know if you still see any!

Localizer on the map screen is plotted at exactly the same width as the localizer as presented on the HSI and VOR displays.. This means that if you are exactly full-scale deflection in the cockpit, then you are exactly on the edge of the localizer on the map. As well, the glide-slope on the map should exactly match the glideslope you have tuned, if any.

When using the FMC, the VVI will auto-set to the perfect VVI to hit your target altitude for your next fix.
Feel free to over-ride it if desired.

Refinement to helo auto-rotation model… should be more accurate descent rates.

Rotors should be visible on all craft, whether a zero-design-speed is entered or not… Earlier betas did not handle the proper properly if it had a zero-design speed. (What can I say: When I wrote X-Plane, I was really only thinking about propellers that were design to.. umm… move a craft forwards).

The control-o view should function just fine in external-views, as long as you only wander around in the cockpit area.

New “button”-style manipulators. See the Manipulators page.

LED instrument lets you customize the number of rows on the texture

World level of detail distance fixed for very wide monitor resolutions.

New datarefs for the TCAS system, as requested to make custom TCAS systems.

Quick tech note: If you are designing your own autopilot plugin, you may want to set “sim/operation/override/override_autopilot” to TRUE
so X-Plane does not over-ride your autopilot commands.

Bouncers: Damping constants now go to 0.1 digits… so you can do better bouncer control.

A few little refinements in the fuel-consumption and FADEC-response code for engines with very high critical-altitudes, to make things a hair more realistic.

Small refinements in landing-gear warning system for FAA-Approved customers.

New failure: Engine-driven pump LO. This will simply cut the fuel pressure from the engine-driven pump in half, possibly activating the lo-fuel-pressure annunciator for that engine. Turning on the electric standby pump should solve it!

CHT and Oil temp start off at ambient if you are not starting with engines running in the operations and warnings screen. New commands for previous and next checklist-item in the checklist that you can open in the special menu.
If you make the Plane-Maker window big enough, the airplane will be visible to the right
of the main window. This lets you see the plane while you move the CG or attached objects.

Use the control-number keys to toggle visibility of the attached objects. Use this to see
inside the plane more easily. Note that you may need to delete your keyboard preferences
to get the new commands, or manually set up the keyboard equivalents.
Visualization of 3-d cockpit lights has been improved.

OBJ parts animate when “show with moving parts” is checked.

Cool new plane in the ‘Experimental’ folder: the XM8-Sparrow… an imaginary design by Ben Harber.. check it out!
Space Shuttle orbiter model improved… some dimensions were off before.

More realistic night vision… kind of cool.

Engine nacelle angular offsets should be properly represented.

Missiles should only draw their little fire-trail if they are firing, and not during the drop-phase, if they have zero-thrust for that phase.

If you have a custom ‘compass_GA-1’ in your plane, be sure to copy that file from the resources/bitmaps/cockpit folder, and/or customize your compass heading file, being sure to follow the same heading range as the ‘compass_GA-1’ in resources/bitmaps/cockpit!

In Plane-Maker:

  • Instruments will automatically align to avoid blurred pixels.
  • Object offset is not cleared when an object is cleared.
  • Generic Annunciator flashes when instrument animation is turned on in the panel editor.

Helo rotor-wash tuned way down.

Wake turbulence from other craft, most visible in the glider-tow, tuned way down.

Various volume sliders should control the correct sounds now.

Improved Avidyne PFD pointers and frequencies and the like.

DG Linear instrument wraps properly through all headings.

2-D Panel horizon should match X-Plane 922’s behavior.

Changes to framebuffer handling – might help shadow problems for 10.4.11 users.

Airplanes that use generic triggers should load correctly.

More monitor modes are available. We are still tuning this – if your monitor mode list overflows, please file a bug with a screenshot!

You can load a scenery pack with missing objects – it’s a warning now, not an error.

Window resize box looks nicer on OS X.

Towplane should circle to the left on climbout, as desired.

EFIS-App Avidyne now has ADF-1 and option for ADF-2, as requested.

If you put the mouse over the lower-right corner of the screen in X-Plane, then a small rectangle appears there to remind you that you can just drag the corner to re-size the X-Plane window now!

Tuned mouse-control input now follows the non-linear power-curves that you can set for the joystick, which is kind of nice for mouse-users.

Generate OBJ from ACF gives a much more detailed OBJ for you to use as a starting point for your aircraft OBJs for the plane or custom scenery.

New commands for transponder and fuel-transfer.

Sound volume sliders show %, as requested.

Sliders can go to a power curve as specified in plane-maker, now.

Mag compass and clock should function in FDR replay mode. No change in fdr format at all, we are just extracting more data from it to display!

Track-IR should run smoother.

Nosewheel tiller should have a 10% nullzone

A bit more tuning on the thrust-reverse joystick axis… They should be just like airliners now!

Various ‘throttle with pitch, roll and yaw’ options, as you can set in Plane-Maker, now work for engines offset at any angle.. so you can build little puffer-engines at all angles now to maneuver your plane!

new commands: sim/radios/RMI_L_to and sim/radios/RMI_R_tog to toggle the RMI VOR/NDB sources.

Various issues with full-screen mode and aircraft icing rapidly loading the plane up with ice are now addressed.

Minor visible flow-field improvement: The streamlines are now oriented along the flight path so you get streamlines over the plane at all angles of attack and sideslips.

Minor FADEC enhancement: FADEC hold MANIFOLD PRESSURE, not POWER, on the recips. This lets you see subtle power-variations with manual mixture control, as in reality!

New command: sim/view/hold_3d_angle.

Assign any key you like to this command in the joystick button/keyboard command-binding screen
and then hold that key when in 3-D cockpit mode to keep your viewpoint from moving around with the mouse…
This makes it easier to click on stuff in the 3-D cockpit because the viewpoint is not moving as you move the mouse,
as long as you hold that key or joy button down!

New joystick axis: Nose-Wheel steering Tiller. Nice for airliners if you set that up! The tiller axis always steers the nosewheel thru the ‘lo-speed steering’ range specified in Plane-Maker, no matter the aircraft speed.

Generic rheostats can “wrap” their dataref values. Use this to make OBS knobs that go from 360 back to 0 degrees.

Back-lit (additive) style lighting is now available on all instruments.

You should now have trim on the helicopters, no rocket thrust on the rockets without fuel, rudder key-control whether the mouse-screen is up or not, runways, not icy ones, de-ice systems should be able to keep all the ice off the jets, replay mode should show smoke-puffs from touch-down in the right place, and external cockpits should give good engine indications. We fixed crash that could happen sometimes on Startup on Vista, and a panel jittering when you scrolled with a strange-size window.

Check “Matrox triple-head” in the equipment settings dialog box and the sim will not try to zoom the cockpit across all three monitors.

ENV files will render correctly, and the runways will not flicker in the textured map.

Cursors for generic rotaries and rheostats work better, and the default rolling generic instrument will default to six digits.

VOR reception range is increased by 25%, and the show-hide for instrument groups fixed.

Windows plugins can override the mouse cursor without flicker, planet textures are fixed to not have a big black square over Southern California, the Mac version can run without sound even if OpenAL is not installed, and Windows and Linux versions can run without internet!

Non-generic instruments will follow the correct lighting rheostat, and 3-d Panels should load using any naming convention.

Plugins replay mode dataref works, fixes x737 and ACARS plugin, and the engine start command is fixed, which fixes x737 plugin.

Linux build should properly detect whether it is a demo or full install, and you can animate a non-deck hard surface in an OBJ.

Custom full screen settings are saved properly in the preferences.

Reducing control authority with speed in the controls screen in Plane-Maker should no longer reduce TRIM authority. This makes for some interesting dynamics: If you reduce the control effectiveness to 10% at high speed, but the plane has 20% trim authority, then the trim is actually more powerful than the joystick input once you get moving fast enough!

Of course, this is perfectly correct: It means that at high enough speed in the real plane, the trim is more powerful than you are!

This can be perfectly true!

All plane designers: Please check all control deflections and mixing and authority-with-speed and trim and everything…

Lets make sure all the trim, authority, phase-outs-with-speed, and mixing are all perfect!

While looking at special-cases of interesting control-systems,
the ‘Auto-Set RPM based on Throttle’ option in Plane-Maker SPECIAL EQUIPMENT screen now works just fine with planes
that have beta and reverse. This lets you do Cirrus SR-22’s, PC-12’s, the works.

And now another FADEC option: RPM-limit. This adds power as needed to keep you from sagging below idle, and cuts fuel to keep you from going over redline. We have had this option for a long time, but now have separate checkboxes for the mixture-ratio, power-limit, and rpm-limit functions of the FADEC in Plane-Maker.

As well, we now have further jet and reciprocating engine model refinements, pursuant to new data I have gotten on engine performance. We are taking no prisoners in the engine-modeling.

We now have independent throttle control possible for VTOLS and the like… useful for modern blimps.

Props can auto-feather, even if if single-engine, if that option is selected in Plane-Maker.

‘Spool Time’ for jets variable is back. This lets you control the spool time of the jet engines independently of the start-fuel-intro time, throttle-advance time (which are fuel-introductions rates) and starter strength (which is starter motor strength). This is pure engine inertia.

3-D cockpit

The 3-d cockpit now has real 3-d lighting – set up to 3 global spot or omni lights in Plane-Maker – tie them to any rheostat or any dataref you want.

Plane-Maker can save a PNG file of your 3-d panel texture – use it to model 3-d cockpits in ac3d or Blender.

Attached objects can now be set to “interior”, “exterior” or “glass”. Use glass to get translucency without Z-order problems; use interior objects
with the new 3-d lights.

You can now walk away from the airplane in 3-d mode without the airplane disappearing. Use the 3-d viewing mode to do a walk-around. (See Modeling
below…)

The HUD should be visible in the 777 in 3-d cockpit mode no matter what the graphics card.

2-D Panel

Plane-Maker can import and export all or some of a panel as a text file. Use this to save or share parts of panels, or to quickly edit dataref names
using a text editor.

Generic glass instruments can fade to transparency.

The pie generic instrument can be used to make arcs.

Modeling and scenery

OBJs can have an attribute to make geometry impassable to the camera. Use this to keep the pilot from leaving the 3-d cockpit unless the door is open.

Hard surfaces can be animated. Put the plane on an elevator!

DSFs can have patches at multiple LODs withot artifacts.

The _LIT texture brightness can be controlled with a dataref. Dim the lit texture based on cockpit lighting.

Object geometry can be set to not draw at all. This can be useful for making OBJ triangles that are only used for clicking, stopping the 3-d camera, etc.
For example, you could make a very simple mesh to keep the camera inside the plane, separate from the real 3-d cockpit.

Usability

Windows can be resized simply by dragging on the corner. Go full screen without restarting.

X-Plane’s Gamma control is available in the rendering settings now. Windows users: if X-Plane is too dark, try turning gamma up from the default 2.2 to perhaps 2.5.

Mouse look will stop panning while you click. 3-d free viewing mode (ctrl-;) will start viewing at the current camera position.

Performance

Warning: pixel shaders have been changed a lot and are not yet optimized. It will be a few betas before they are really tuned.

X-Plane does a better job of skipping off-screen objects for OBJ-based planes.

Replay mode uses a lot less memory.

Clickable cockpit geometry is much faster.

Large panel textures (larger than 1024×1024) should run a bit faster.

As well, we have various framerate optimizations. You may, or may not, SEE these improvements because we now spend more time doing the 3-D flow-field math
for the new physics specified above.

Comments Off on New in the Version 9.31 Update

New in the Version 9.22 Update

General features

Countless frame-rate and RAM optimizations. One of the many examples is the new scenery-loader: Texture loading now uses as many cores as you have. Photo scenery should load a lot faster on multi-core machines, especially if you have four or eight cores.

DOME projection option!
It is in the rendering options screen.
This is designed for the bigger sims… It requires a Level 3 key to use!

All sorts of edge-blending and offsets are avail as well in the Rendering Options screen to get multi-projector setups on conical or cylindrical screens!

Pick a joystick axis (on MASTER machine if a network) to be VIEW LEFT/RIGHT

Pick a joystick axis (on MASTER machine if a network) to be VIEW UP/DOWN

Go to the buttons: ADV

Pick a joy button to be: view/circle

Pick a joy button to be: view/forward

Pick a joy button to be: view/3d_path_toggle

Pick a joy button to be: general/zoom_in

Pick a joy button to be: general_zoom_out

Now fly around with a different joystick, or on autopilot, or with PFC hardware, or with A/I flies, or whatever.
Then, hit the joy button for view/circle, then the button for view/3d_path_toggle, and you will see the plane from the outside, leaving a flightpath behind it.

Hit the buttons for general/zoom_in and general_zoom_out to get a better look, and steer your view around with the joystick

NOW HERE IS WHERE THIS GETS AMAZINGLY COOL: YOU CAN DO THIS WITH MANY EXTERNAL VISUALS, AND THE DISPLAY WILL SPAN THEM ALL.

NOW HERE IS WHERE IT GETS EVEN COOLER: AN INSTRUCTOR CAN HAVE HIS OWN JOYSTICK AT THE INSTRUCTOR OPERATORS STATION TO STEER THE VIEW AROUND AFTER AN APPROACH TO SHOW THE PILOT WHAT HE DID!

So, if you have networked copies of X-Plane, and an instructor station, and an extra joystick, the instructor can steer the view around with a joystick at the IOS with the flight-plan displayed to show the pilot what he just flew!

MAP page shows a magenta line sprouting out from any VORs that you have tuned on the OBS radial you have selected….
kind of nice for evaluating whether you are tracking the radials OK. Really useful on the IOS.

BOUNCERS!
See the systems screen in Plane-Maker, BOUNCERS tab.

You can enter the spring and damping constants of various stuff that could bounce around in the cockpit.
The data you enter here will drive datarefs that you can then use in your custom OBJECT cockpit files that you make.

Click on the links below to see some possible ‘bouncer’ type objects:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU9USxJ9vPs

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8gPRgw5_y8

Garmin-400 support as well as 430 and 530… This is nice for the Eclipse-jet, which uses this system.
Marker flares!

Put them on in the special equipment page in Plane-Maker, and be sure to add a parachute-flare button to the panel as well.
Then, toss out marker flares that float down!
They will float down, and sit on the ground and burn as well!
There is also a joystick command to deploy them.

You can have up to 4 landing lights. New “named lights” let you create independently controllable landing lights in your attached OBJ files. More docs on Airplane development:
//wiki.x-plane.com/Category:Aircraft_Development

New Instruments

All new user interface for the Plane-Maker panel editor!
New slip indicator type: INVERTED.
This is like any slip indicator, except you only use it when you are upside down.
Used on aerobatic airplanes.
New 4-digit ADF-frequency selector instruments.
Well, they use ’em in Russia!
4-digit angles for generic gages… lets you make metric altimeters
Better instrumentation for Thrust-Vector on the HUD and vector handle.
(X-Plane is now being used by duPont Aerospace to fly a VTOL jet concept).
(Importing instrument panels from other planes will keep the custom instrument attributes).
ANY number of instruments can now be added to the panel.
There is NO LIMIT.
Is that enough instruments?
6-digit fuel-flow for the EFIS-digital and engine-digital-only gauges.
The round gage with scrolling digits at the bottom will indicate in thousands of gph or pph if needed to fit the max fuel flow into 4 digits.
HUD reference changed a hair: The CDI’s now sit on the glideslope angle, not the horizon.

Round trim indicators indicate trim, like they should, not control deflections, like they accidentally were.
The generic instruments have a ton of new features. Every instrument has key framing. There are new instruments (text display, pointer) and some of the other instruments have new features.
You can distort the moving parts of generic instruments by dragging their corners to make perspective views in 2-d panels look just right.
You can now specify parts of an OBJ file to be dragged in 3-d in a cockpit. Use this to make dragable throttles and yokes, or 3-d switches that can be moved around. File spec and ac3d plugin support coming soon.
You can specify up to 16 different dimmers for the instrument lighting, and pick which dimmer each instrument follows.
Generic instruments can have a new “back-lit” lighting mode… the LIT and daytime textures are combined. Use this to make back-lit mechanical instruments. Back-lighting will respond to the instrument brightness dimmers.
You can create up to 3 “spot light” masks for the 2-d panel. 3 dimmers control the spot light, which apply to burned in backgrounds and overlays.

General Refinements

3-D flight paths work with FDR files… nice for people importing FDR files that want to see the whole flight in 3-D at once.

Seaplanes go to nearest water on the Planet-click, and the seaport you requested if you request if you requested one of them.

Track-IR works a little better… Now we have 5 axis: pitch, yaw, and 3 axis of translation.
No more time of day seeming to get out of sync between master and external visuals sometimes.
PREFERENCES folder lives in the OUTPUT folder now, not the RESOURCES folder.
This makes it easier to copy X-Plane to other machines without messing up its prefs… just copy the RESOURCES folder, not the OUTPUT folder.
Flight path display kept in sync across all external visuals. Get a lot of computers with X-Plane and make all but one of them external visuals and zoom out and hit ‘o’ a few times to see the flite path displayed across all the monitors… cool!
Better job of keeping track of flite path display and markers and stuff across all the external visuals.
Flight Data Record and Joystick-Dropped file markers go to all external visuals, as is used by the National Test Pilot School.
Rendering Option: Limit FR to monitor refresh.
This can reduce OSCILLATIONS in frame-rate if your computer is super-duper fast.
Better language-localization
Up to 3 chutes now!
Like the XB-70 has!
And you specify the angles the chutes come out of the plane, so you can get them in the right places better as well!
The parachutes also rotate around a little when deployed because, umm, I like them to.
Control-O auto-centers the mouse so the view does not jerk around when you switch to that view.
Reset flite path on the IOS or master to clear it from all displays.
Set the transmissions-per-second to the external visuals to whatever you like.
40 transmissions per second is default, but you can set it as you like if you think a different send-rate would be better.

Basic simulated Garmin 430 should allow you to go to fixes and navaids now, as well as airports.

Flight-Model Refinements

More advanced ICING model for FAA-certified use… We now build up ice on individual propellers and engine inlets and wings,
and can fail individual parts of the de-icing system to have more ice on one wing than the other, for instance, if you fly in
icing conditions with the de-icing system on but the LEFT wing de-icing system failed!
Turbines and exhaust systems stay hot after shut-down for a while, as in the real planes.
Wake turbulence from other planes is now more realistic… we now consider the size of both planes,
and the G-load of the pane producing the turbulence, which determines the amount of lift, and thus wake turbulence, produced!
If you set the auto-brakes to RTO, and arm the speedbrakes, then the speedbrakes will auto-deploy on the rejected take-off.
Autopilot disco takes out the auto-throttle as well.

‘Hide-prop-from-airflow-when-retracted’ checkbox in the vectored thrust screen in Plane-Maker
to hide props from the airflow when retracted works better now… It really does stop all forces on the prop.

Flight Model Systems Refinements

Oil cooler designed differently for recips, turboprops, and jets to give more accurate oil temperatures.
Jets actually use their FUEL to cool the oil, unlike recips.

You can now assign electrical systems to run off of EITHER bus: They will run as long as EITHER bus is powered.
This is in Plane-Maker systems window.
Yet more electrical system refinement!
If the load is too high for the generators, their voltage starts to sag until the batteries take over!
The batteries are turned off or dead? Then systems start dropping of-line!
The more rpm you are spinning, the more amps the generators can put out!
It is when you demand too many amps of the generators that the voltage sags.
For some Cessnas, King-Airs, and Lancairs, this is a consideration during taxi: The load may be higher than the generator can provide, and higher rpm is used to keep the generators meeting the electrical system demands!
If you DON’T do this, then the BATTERIES will be taking the load, and gradually dis-charging during the taxi!
Fuel system overhaul:
Enter a different fuel pressure per tank in Plane-Maker: You can use this to control what tanks are burned first!
Also the l/c/r fuel-tank selectors and transfer-to and transfer-from buttons will take from or give to ALL
the tanks on that side, which can be nice for multi-tank planes! This is useful for various planes that always burn the MAIN tanks first, leaving the SUMPS full until you are fuel-critical.
Plane-Maker option in gear screen to specify whether or not the gear can retract on the ground. Amphib planes sure can use this!

The autopilot heading, alt, vertical speed, and airspeed adjust commands all now give a nice increment with a ONE-button hit,
but continue to give continuous motion when HELD.
Engines and oil pumps quit when inverted or otherwise pulling negative G!
This happens in most real planes! Don’t like it?
Then check the INVERTED FUEL AND OIL SYSTEMS checkbox in the engines screen in Plane-Maker!
Inverter powers: Radar, autopilot, electric gyros, and/or torque indicators, all as controlled in Plane-Maker
If you find other stuff in real planes that are power by the inverters, let me know and I can add them easily!
Sep switches for art stab in pitch, roll, and yaw. (The yaw damper is art stab in yaw).
The XB-70 Valkyrie has this, so this could be useful if you are going to be taking in a check-ride in an XB-70 any time soon.
They might want you to know about the individual control of art stability on each axis, maybe.
Auto engine-sync option in Plane-Maker, Engines screen. Works for props and jets, too, like the real Eclipse-jet has.
ADG: Air-Driven Generator!
This keeps your elec system going after an engine-driven generator failure.
As your speed decays below stall speed, though, you will lose power for sure!
New options in Plane-Maker viewpoint screen for verbal 500 agl, gear, and stall warning callouts.
Autopilot discos in the stall, as it should.
Ground-power unit option in the failures screen… used to plug in the GPU!

New Equipment Failures

INDIVIDUAL autopilot servo failure options: Aileron, elevator, auto-throttle, and yaw-damper!
New failures: Electric and engine-driven fuel pumps… Either can run the system!
The elec pumps have amperages that can be assigned in Plane-Maker, so you get a change in generator load
when you turn on the various fuel pumps!
Of course, you can assign those pumps to either bus, and any lack of generators and batteries that power that bus
will cause the electric fuel pumps to go down, which will fail the engine IF the mechanical engine-driven pump as failed as well.
New failures: bleed air, left and right. Used for pressurization

Gear INDICATOR failures. Kind of nice for training.
New failures: Elec trim runaway!
We have failures in pitch, roll, and yaw trim!
So now we can fail trim to lock it down motionless, or have it run away out of control!

New Data Output and Joystick and Keyboard Commands

New joystick buttons page to make it easier to assign joystick buttons to ANY function!
New data output, flite plan legs: Useful to see what the autopilot has planned for you next!
OK, for the first time I know of, I have REMOVED a key command: Key commands for all flight controls are GONE! They never were right, since there was no right answer as to when the rudder and nosewheel steering would be connected… no matter what I did, half the people said it was wrong. So, use the mouse to fly, or, if you want to do it RIGHT, use a joystick and pedals!

New commands: Audio selector to com1 or com2.
Total energy audio control now is available as a joystick button and key command.
(New button in key-command window to REMOVE commands, as well).

Other new tweaks

A few improvements on the V-22 thanks to help from a crew chief on the real plane
A few improvements in the linear-tape instruments for airspeed and Mach number and the like
No more rain starburst pattern.
A few problems with replays and loaded situations addressed
Minor improvements in the EGT modelling.
New cmnds: Fuel pump: PRIME. HOLD DOWN the button to run the electric pump.

Flight model enhancement: We got RID of a variable that everyone was mis-using: Critical altitude of jet and turboprop engines.
The critical altitude is the max altitude at which the engine can put out full power or thrust.
Plenty of jets and turboprops have critical altitude way above sea level: They can put out full thrust or power way above sea level!
BUT, they can only do this by going ABOVE 100% N1 flying high, or by staying well BELOW 100% N1 when flying low!
In other words, these engines are air pumps: They can NOT make the air any denser!
They can only continue to put out rated power in thinner air by spinning the N1 up higher!
SO, if you want to have a flat-rated turboprop or jet engine in X-Plane that has a critical altitude well above sea level,
then you have exactly 2 options:
1: Enter the true thermodynamic power of the engine in Plane-Maker, and keep the N1 well BELOW 100% N1 to avoid actually hitting that power.
Only advance the throttle as you climb into thinner air to use the engines’ excess capacity to continue to put out full power during climb.
or
2: Enter a max throttle of OVER 1.00 in Plane-Maker. Take off at 100% N1, and as you climb, advance the throttle so the N1 creeps OVER 100% N1,
holding constant thrust as you climb!

In both cases, you will see an increasing N1 as you climb to hold a constant thrust up to the airplanes’ critical altitude… AS IN REALITY.

Now, for RECIP engines, it is a bit different! THOSE engines can be turbocharged, and the turbo can AUTOMATICALLY spool up faster-n-faster as you climb,
resulting in a constant engine horsepower as you climb with no change at all in engine indications (other than higher cyl-head temperatures, in reality)
So, we are leaving THAT critical altitude in place in Plane-Maker.

Double click time matches OS preference – easier to double click now
Menus drag and click like OS X and windows
Better framerate – up to 10%, depends on CPU, GPU

PAPI lights at LOWI go in the right direction
More translations
Dark areas and stripes fixed in Planet
Generic pointers don’t jitter

More commands, and some command re-organization of the commands

Keys do not activate commands now when you press them in the key-assign screen!
Enter fixes into the g430 now! (Could only enter navaids and airports before… sorry!)
Enter destination into airport screen, bring up the location map, and the airport ID is auto-entered for you there to do runway selection.
APU operative
Magneto control operative
Bug-fix in recip engine modeling was costing us 5% power, now fixed.
When you pan around using the q/e keys, if you have the ‘default to full-screen’ button checked in the rendering options screen, then X-Plane will do so coming back to the forward view with the q/e keys.
Background bitmaps in Plane-Maker fuselage screen align left-justified.
A handful of labels have had spelling and punctuation corrected, and the like.
The IOS screen has the airport-browser button that some people like (from the location menu) as well as the airport ID-entry field
New command: APU start.
The cloud layers can be made infinitely close to each other now.
Weather rate of change does not change weather when the sim is paused (it did before… oops!)
Cursors are better aligned to the instruments in the panel.
Comment saving in PLN won’t copy comments randomly to instruments with no comments.
Show-hide filters on generic instruments work correctly even on array datarefs.
VOR range corrected – long-range VORs were broadcasting too far before.
Click on generic rotaries won’t double-increment the dataref when the instrument has “mechanical lighting”
Preview animation of generic rotaries shows last animation frame.
Plane-Maker popup menus won’t go off the bottom of the screen.
New airport rendering detail control in the Rendering Options screen. You can now control how smooth the airport taxiway curves and lines are. Check out KSBD with high settings to see smooth lines.

Control the CAR-traffic density with a rendering setting. You can now get an LA traffic jam even if the object settings are lower.
Mostly just bug-fixes, but a large handful of new joystick/keyboard commands as well… specifically for pressurization and bleed-air control, and various bugs and settings, cowl flaps, and ADF radio frequencies.
The electrical low-volt annunciator will come on when the bus voltage is below the LO-END-OF-GREEN-ARC GENERATOR voltage.

The electrical system will stop working when the bus voltage is below the REDLINE LO-END BATTERY voltage.
As well, a minor flight-model refinement to be a bit more accurate at very low speeds in vehicles that sit in their own propwash. What sort of machines do this? Hovering helicopters!

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Low Resolution Water Reflections On Older ATI Video Cards

Affected X-Plane Version: 900

Affected Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux

Affected Video Cards: ATI Radeon 9500-9800, X200-X600

Description: The water reflection texture will appear to be low-resolution on these video cards, with square areas visible within the waves.

This is a hardware limitation. The listed video cards are the first-generation of ATI cards with pixel shaders, and they lack the internal precision to make the water texture perfectly smooth. Newer ATI and nVidia cards do not have this limitation.

Workaround: none.

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