X-Plane 8.50 does all sorts of new things – the picture on the left illustrates “transparent” runways. A transparent runway draws no pavement and does not affect the physics model. But it does have all of the runway lights, signs, and shoulders (if desired).

The purpose of transparent runways is to allow custom scenery to use X-Plane’s built-in approach and runway lights while providing your own runway, perhaps via an object with a hard surface.

Technically you could build your own approach and runway lights by hand-placing light objects (from the 850 light library package) onto your runway, but using a transparent runway is a lot easier and probably more reliable in the long-term.

About Ben Supnik

Ben is a software engineer who works on X-Plane; he spends most of his days drinking coffee and swearing at the computer -- sometimes at the same time.

3 comments on “Transparent Runways”

  2. Hi Ben, somethingblows my mind. Why you haven’t post a picture of those new taxiways? I’m very interested in this new looking.

    Otherwise, seems perfect to add your own textures perfectly

  3. New taxiways: I just didn’t get around to posting a pic. They don’t look that different from the old ones, except they can have any shape. I’ll try to post a pic once I get home.

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