X-Plane 11.00 is out! Release candidate 1 is it. It’s out the door!

If you’ve been waiting for Steam – you can now get X-Plane 11 on Steam.

If you already own X-Plane 11 from our website and you had installed the release candidate 1 patch a day or two ago, there’s nothing new to download – you have the latest version of X-Plane, and it won’t auto-prompt you until we have a patch.

If you’re waiting on DVDs, the materials have been sent off to the duplicator, so my totally-uninformed-guess is maybe a week or two.

 

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.

60 comments on “SHIP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  1. Ben, is there any way for us to get a Steam key with our website purchase? I know some game developers offer this but I don’t know if this is something that needs to be agreed on with Steam/Valve.

    It would enable those of us that have purchased it before to leave reviews on Steam (which is not possible without a purchase).

    1. And of course: congrats on the release. It’s a worthy successor at darn good value!

  2. I suspect the lack of comments comes from everybody enjoying the release. 🙂

  3. That is awesome! It’s great that we have a stable version so that 3rd-party developers can work on compatibility.

    One burning question for me: When will we be able to upload airports created with WED 1.6 to the Gateway? I have some improved airports that I want to share.

    1. “Real soon™”. Maybe not quite as Real Soon™ as Steam was, but getting a WED beta out that we can use with the gateway is next on my list.

      1. congratulations for the release of xplane 11!

        the decisive factor that will set whether i’m buying xpl11 remains exclusively on when the 3rd party developers of major airliner top end aircraft addons (everybody knows who they are) that are currently available for xplane will release them fully functional and compatible for v11, so i can easily transfer the joy of simulation i’m currently having using those products in v10 to v11, that hassle free. that’s why i will wait a bit. ;o)

  4. Hi again Ben,

    Excited that it will ship soon! But does that mean the multi-visual slave computer lag issue will not be fixed in the RC run?

    Again, XP10 does not have this lag/stutter – but the slave computers/visuals in XP11 exhibit an unflyable lag/stutter. Master is smooth as silk.

    Is there an ETA on the issue being looked at for us hardware-based, multi-visual simulator builders out here? I only ask because XP11 has the amazing default 737-800 that works a bit better with some CP-Flight and FDS hardware than the x737 does…I am happy to stick with XP10 — but I’m perplexed that the release may happen without multi-visual capability being somewhat usable at least.

    Thanks and congrats again on an amazing piece of work…I was so excited for it on the Master computer — and then installed XP11 the slaves and….can’t use it.. 🙁

    Are there any tips you have to make it workable for the time being??
    Thanks very much

    Asif

    1. Hi,

      If you have some kind of problem with your multi-visual system, please contact tech support – blog comments aren’t really an appropriate channel to track the issue.

      1. Hi Ben,

        I apologize…I was seeing a bunch of people reporting on issues that looked like fixes needed, etc., here in the comments…I thought it was a place to have the discussion. My bad!

        Great work on it all, thanks,

        Asif

  5. Ben … do you know how much I hate you *right about now*? But in a good kind of a way 😀

    A few weeks ago I had a couple of beers while talking with some fellow developers about “so – when you think X-Plane 11 will *actually* be released?” … and I went full Michel de Nostrildame (that is a Don Rosa -reference, pardon my french) … and stated that it “would be insane for Laminar to do it any other than the Google way – release their product on April 1st”.

    My reasoning was that a) APR1 is a saturday *and* b) during the public beta, people have gotten used to new releases on-or-around weekends *so* c) another XP-release would not rise any suspicion *but* d) some people noticing that “heeey-waddafrog!? this is the final” would mean e) a bit of hubbub online – which f) mostly everyone would dismiss as an april fools joke … but then there’d be g) those that tried it out … and saw that the hubbub was for real … and they’d spread the word … but – because of “f”, would still mostly fall on deaf ears.

    All of the “a” through “g” would’ve lead to a certain portion of the community downloading the software from “just a normal day” CDN servers (which, I think is always a nice thing to have … if you don’t need to expect being slashdotted, you can save a couple of bucks:)

    Following this train of thought … what would happen *the day after* is that the news of the release do keep on circulating … some more people start trickling in – and they do *not* hit the “hey – everyone else is downloading this right now”-situation … and the story keeps spreading. And the further from APR1 the time goes, the more believable the idea becomes … but nearly no-one gets hit with the flood of “everyone downloading it at the same time” – just due to the human nature 😀 … and Laminar still gets to say “we *did* release the software on APR1 – just like we said we would” (which Google *has* done … at least twice as far as I know:)

    And this ^ is what I actually ended up posting on one of the endless developer-forums … and now you’ve gone and released the software a *full* day *before* I predicted you would :’-(

    You truly have dealt a huge hit on my credibility on the 3rd party developer community (not to mention – if you had chosen to release on … say May26, I could’ve just gone like “hey – it was just a funny idea to begin with, ha-ha”:)

    Anyways – with all my lost credibility … thumbs up! 😀

    1. Well, we had to _save_ April 1st so I could post that X-Plane 11.01, the next patch, would be the last in the X-Plane 11 updates. 😉

  6. Excellent job, Ben and team!! I hopped over to XP11 from many years of tuning FSX to the way i like it, and i did like it considering i knew i get what i get with that platform. When I saw some of the beta footage of XP11, I decided to give the demo a shot and shortly after that I purchased an official copy. I’ve been impressed with the beta process and think that it was smart of your team to include the general public in your testing and validation phase of your product release. I feel like i was a part of the adventure and I’m very happy to see where you have taken this. XP11 and all it’s features (i.e. lighting and HDR), coupled with X-Enviro and ortho scenery, just makes an impressive platform to continue to build off of. I’m looking forward to your continued progress and am proud to be a user of your platform. Congratulations!!

  7. Are the performance updates done? Will there be anymore increase increase in performance? I do get stutters at 40 fps too.
    Congrats on the release 🙂

  8. Congratulations to everybody working at Laminar !!!!!! Austin, Ben, etc….

    Kudos, good job !!!!

    The sim community looks fwd to all your future endeavors !!!!

    Regards………

  9. It took a long time, but no minute was wasted.

    Congrats to the new X-Plane, it’s a big step forward!

        1. … and not to forget the still not spinning wind turbines… 🙂

          Congratulations, LR-team!

          I moved over to X-Plane 10 in May 2014 and loved it from that time. X-Plane 11 is the most stunning SIM I’ve ever seen – even as it is, out of the box!

          X-Plane 11 is out, this mile stone is passed.
          Now it is the 3rd party’s turn to keep pace!

          More and more really good aircraft and photo realistic sceneries show up yet – and I hope many more will follow. IMHO X-Plane 11 is the best opportunity to join a modern sim platform and to leave legacy software behind!

          Regards,
          Marc

  10. A huge thank you Ben for you and the team! I’ve been here since X-Plane 4. The evolution of X-Plane is simply amazing. It is a great day for virtual aviation, and a true milestone.

        1. The ability to get guaranteed smooth frame rates and better multi-core use. The API specifically defines where CPU work is done so we can ensure it is not happening synchronously in the render loop. The API also has a more flexible threading model that lets us split work up between cores with less overhead and limits.

  11. Well done Laminar. I approached xplane 11 with great skepticism very early in the beta cycle via the demo. 15 minutes in, I made the purchase and have been enjoying it ever since. Prior, I was avid P3d, but xplane 11 has shown me that flight sim has reached new heights and capabilities now. Thank you for this fine product.

  12. Jeus waiting on DVDs that wil be getting it, thanks so much, seems more and more are moving over. hopefuly this might bring more developers into the sim

  13. Thank you for 11.00. You must all be very proud of the result. I particularly appreciated your beta process, and all its ups and downs. It was a fine example of rampant user involvement and careful supplier engagement.

    Now, please do something about that appalling message I see on booting into XP11:

    More powerful. Made usable.

    More powerful than what? Made usable? That immediately suggests that everything previous to 11.00 was not fit for use.

    You have so many priceless USPs. Please scrap that limp-wristed message and put up something more positive.

    1. Brian Mackie, the way I interpret it:

      More powerful. (than ever before)
      Made usable. (we finally have an interface that all people can understand)

      If you look at it like this, it’s not so bad, is it? 🙂

  14. If I purchased X-plane 11 and I have been flying the betas, with this last update, do I have everything that will be on the DVDs? Or do I have to download other stuff (airports, etc.)?

    BTW XP11 is VERY playable on my mid 2011 iMac.

    Thanks
    Brian

  15. Just wanted to say thanks to Ben and Austin and the rest of the folks at Laminar. It’s been a tremendous amount of work that you’ve all put in and V11 is amazing. Thanks for all your hard work!

  16. You guys do us proud, congrats 🙂

    I skipped a few beta’s so went from pb11 to 17 last weekend… still recovering from the vastly improved clouds and how much better they perform… great job!

  17. YES!!! YES!!! Thanks God!

    I finally put my hands on the new X-Plane!

    Thank you guys! Amazing work! Waiting for a API Vulkan version. 😉

    PS.: Please correct on Steam that say the X-plane is available only in english, I’m from Brazil and Portuguese and other languages still there.

    Thank you again!

  18. Hello Ben,
    Is it possible for you to tell YouTube that we have a Simulator named X-Plane 11? The videos we tubers upload still shows X-Plane 1993.
    PS. I have already told them few times, they have not replied back yet. 🙂

  19. Ben, I filed a bug on this, but thought I’d also ask this here and hope to get your answer :). Do you plan to increase the refresh rate of the reflections inside and outside of the aircraft? Now they are updating very slowly which is in a discord with overall smoothness of the simulation on a high-end PC. Is it possible to increase the speed of the reflections refreshing at least in a low detail setting?

    1. My plan is always to provide a _range_ of update rates so users can trade off visual quality with speed.

      We don’t provide a lock-step update right now because it’s too slow. We have some ideas for engine features that I hope will change that, and when that becomes viable, we’ll expose higher quality options.

  20. And what you were afraid of in another post has of course already happened: Aircraft Autors putting marketing screenshots in the Grid 🙁
    So sad 🙁

    [img]//1drv.ms/i/s!AslyCR0JDXupkfgPZ2h26C-A_XP3yA[/img]

    1. JAR-Design has done it as well for their updated A320 V3…. But never mind, you can just run the “update icons” button and you have the unified look.
      (Well, almost: also JARgDesign’s A320 shrinks to tiny sizes during the icon generation. I feel LR must look at an upgrade to the generation algorithm….)

  21. Is there anywhere I can leave feedback about features that have been removed in X-Plane 11 and other interface problems and suggestions? I can’t seem to find any user feedback form or page either online or in the application, only bug report pages and the “knowledgebase”. Thanks.

    1. You can file a bug, leave a comment on the blog, or email LR team members. That last thing has mixed success. There isn’t a formal feature request channel, and right now we’re still pretty swamped from 11.0 and bailing out the boat.

      1. Thanks and okay. If you don’t mind, I’ll just state my suggestions in the blog comments here:

        -Move the dialogue windows’ red exit buttons back to the right (or at least give an option to do so) so it’s compatible with PC users.
        -Allow selecting all text with Ctrl+A in dialogue window text boxes – it is currently not possible in X-Plane 11. This means it’s now much slower to clear and reenter text using just the keyboard (in search bars, etc). Also, the Windows combination of Ctrl+Shift+left or right to select a whole word does not work in X-Plane – it will only select individual letters.
        -Allow the flight configuration window to display aircraft by folders. Before, this was the standard. Now, it’s impossible. I understand the aim of increased usability but I am unable to organise and display into folders aircraft I have created and aircraft I have downloaded from X-Plane.org. At least give an option.
        -Allow multiple keys or key combinations to perform the same action. Before, this was possible. Now, it’s not. I used to use the Numpad keys, the Arrow keys and WASD to move the camera view, but now I can only use one set.
        -Where have the “remove gear doors in over-Vle” and “remove flaps in over-Vfe” options gone? And why is the “remove flying surfaces in over speed or over G” option merged?
        -Why has X-Plane 11 changed the “Show clickable regions in the cockpit” option to green outlines? They used to be yellow, which I found to be most visible. Can there at least be an option to change it?
        -What happened to the separate “number of trees”, “number of objects”, “number of roads”, “number of cars”, “world detail distance”, “runway and taxiway smoothness and lighting”, “shadow detail” and “water reflection detail” rendering options? Also what happened to the “Cloud Detail” option? That level of customisability was very helpful for my computer performance.
        -Why has X-Plane 11 got rid of the percentage numbers for the Sound sliders? They were extremely helpful in aligning the slider volumes exactly. Also, why were the separate sliders for engine and prop noise removed? Also, can X-Plane 11 possibly highlight the new “Master” slider in a different box or in a different colour so as to differentiate it from the rest? I’ve also noticed that X-Plane 11 has changed the slider algorithm from linear to logarithmic, so it seems, so the volume is much lower when moved to the same level as before. This is undesirable in my opinion.
        -In the flight configuration window location selector, the category named “State” could be altered to reflect the fact that most countries don’t have states or aren’t a federation of states like the United States. X-Plane 11 incorrectly includes provinces and cities in the “State” category. The category name could be anything like “Province/State”, “Division” or “Region”.
        -The throttle axis assignment settings need to be improved vastly in one respect: when setting the throttles on a 2-throttle controller to the aircraft’s throttle, I can only either set one (or both) as all throttles (under “Throttle”) or set each one as “Throttle 1”, “Throttle 2” etc. out of a possible 4. This means aircraft with 3 engines or 4 are essentially unable to have their engines controlled separately with a 2-throttle controller. Ideally, you’d want it so that throttle 1 controls engines 1 and 2 and throttle 2 controls engines 3 and 4. On a 6 engine like the Antonov-225 or an 8 engine like the Boeing B-52 you’d want the same rule to follow.
        -Please allow an option to give controller axes and buttons custom names in order to identify them more easily than just “Axis 1” or “Axis 2”.
        -Give an option to disable the “End Current Flight?” popup when changing aircraft or other in the flight configuration window.
        -Give an option to disable the repetitive “You’ve crashed!” warning message which never used to popup in X-Plane 10. The “reset on hard crash” option is now gone from the General settings and is replaced with this prompt that occurs every time one crashes.

        Thank you for listening to these suggestions.

        1. Additional issues and suggestions:

          -There is a mouse pointer/cursor calibration issue on the menus; the cursor finger is higher than where the mouse actually points. An example image is here: //prntscr.com/etz44r
          -In the airport/location selector (after clicking “Customise”), why does selecting the categories “City” and “State” remove the column for “Features” from the list? Can the column be made to stay visible? Additionally, can the column widths be made adjustable? Also, on this window (where airport diagrams are visible), could the country the airport is located in also be listed in the details shown on the bottom of the screen?
          -Where has the Planet Map gone? It was perfect for choosing any location on the globe regardless of airport name or region name. If it gets added back, it ideally should be a popup window like the current X-Plane 11 local map which doesn’t force you to pause the game to view it.
          -There is an issue with the cloud/fog effect present since X-Plane 10. When moving into clouds, the atmosphere switches suddenly into fog despite not fully entering the clouds yet. Sometimes the fog disappears while still in the middle of the clouds. An example video is here: //sendvid.com/wdofzm0k. The effect is even more pronounced here: //sendvid.com/mxrjc2b9. Also, it seems that when fog is selected, the top cloud layer and cloud base are visible from above, but the middle section is missing, except of course when I enter it and then suddenly the fog appears: //sendvid.com/abzpmzq9
          -In the airport/location selector (where airport diagrams are visible), it doesn’t make clear what the “3D” attribute is in the “Features” column. I couldn’t find anything on it in the X-Plane 11 desktop manual or Google.

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