X-Plane 11.21 is available in public beta. Like most “.1” releases, this is last minute bug fixes to 11.20.

Like every other website and app you use, X-Plane will now pop up a GDPR notification. We’ve been rolling notices into all of our apps and websites, and unlike RC1, in RC2 you can actually click the check-box to accept the notice and move on with life. (In RC1, the check box was outside the dialog box for some users, making the sim impossible to authorize.) Our actual private data use is almost entirely unchanged; we’re really not in the business of collecting or selling private data, and the data we do collect are for very specific purposes (e.g. your email address for the Q/A site so that you can receive notices that your question was answered. Once you accept GDPR, it is saved to prefs so you won’t get asked again.

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.

31 comments on “X-Plane 11.21 Release Candidate 2 Available”

  1. Guys don´t you get tired? 🙂 BTW I´m using Rift and did my first VR flight at night some minutes ago. I saw some glitches in illumination from evening to dark (specially when the last level of sunlight goes out). Some stranges and big black spots above sceneries and aircraft´s side propeller. And light´s cabin is still l too illuminated in VR mode and dark out of VR mode. Don´t know if you saw these bugs before. BTW Xplane 11.20 is amazing and with some more touches LR will have a killer flight simulator for the future.

  2. Greetings from Thailand Ben – I’m glad I’m not the only one suffering from the loss of rudder pedal functionality after flying the Aerolite. I was surprised the first time I switched from the 103 into the C172 and my rudder pedal brakes and steering didn’t work. Rebooting the sim fixed that… that is… until I flew the Aerolite again. Glad that’s been corrected now. Other than that bug the Aerolite is a lot of fun to fly.

    Cheers!

    Jim ‘Jimbo in Thailand’ Murphy

  3. On GDPR: I’d wish Laminar would be honest when, why and what data are sent when using X-Plane. Seeing that is uses Google Analytics makes me doubt that conformance with the GDPR can ever be established. More important, up to 11.20 there was no choice for the user to disable these data transfers.

    1. up to 11.20 there was no choice for the user to disable these data transfers.

      That is wildly inaccurate. Since the introduction of data collection, it has always been opt-in only, either in the installer or (for 11.00 and beyond) in Settings > General.

      Re: what data is sent, for a complete list, you can always stick a packet monitor on your network adapter and watch for packets being sent to google-analytics.com/collect. 🙂 It’s honestly pretty easy to pull apart what data is what. Or, alternatively, the most recent usage data post will give you a summary of most of the data we were collecting as of November.

      Regarding Google Analytics not being compatible with the GDPR… I’m not sure how you drew that conclusion, but for our purposes, we’re no longer using any personally identifiable information in GA. (Prior to 11.21r2, we were using Google’s default setting for tracking user IP addresses; as of now, however, we anonymize the IP address.)

      1. Re: packet monitor, I don’t know if this was meant as a joke. But please re-read the GDPR.

        It’s the responsibility of LR to inform on request of the customer about the transmitted data and the purpose of collect them.

        1. No data is transmitted unless you have actively allowed (opt-in) analytics data collection in the installer, or in X-Plane under Settings -> General. It is NOT required to opt-in to analytics in order to use X-Plane. This is not new with GDPR – it has been this way since analytics were introduced in X-Plane 10.

          If you have actively given consent in the opt-in process, we will know your operating system, monitor resolution, number of CPU cores, amount of RAM, your graphics card type and the type of joysticks you have. No IP address (anonymized by Google analytics before we even see it) and no hardware-identifying data like MAC-addresses or Volume identifiers. So unless you have a home-built monitor with a unique 2781×1462 pixel resolution, or a home-built joystick with a unique USB device ID, there’s no way to identify you or you computer in the analytics data.

          If you actively given consent, we will know that a computer with some hardware stats and some joystick hardware starts a flight with the name of the aircraft, the identifier of the airport it starts at, and the start type (on the ramp, in the air, on approach, glider winch, oil-rig approach, space shuttle re-entry, etc…). That means we know how many people use a type of aircraft, which airports are popular as start locations or which start type people like. If you are worried that your preferred home airport is so unique that it is personal data, again, simply don’t opt-in.

          1. >or a home-built joystick with a unique USB device ID
            I have a keyboard (Apple ADB) with a USB converter I built myself. Now, I don’t care what LR sees (you guys are welcome to pop in for a cuppa anytime :)), but El Goog, I don’t trust so much.

  4. Another question on FMS-saved flight plans: I noticed (and reported) that the FMS save file lacks quite some data the user has entered (e.g. the flight number). I do not see a fix being mentioned (shouldn’t bee that hard to do). The other old issue is that the bug reporter never gets a bug ID, so that he/she can compare with the release notes…
    (The other issue I had reported was that the FMS does not behave as the FMS manual says. I could solve only one of three issues by myself.)

  5. Good news, and as for Vulkan it will take a long time, the community is anxious.

    1. Why do you say that?
      They have said it will be this year.
      I would love an update on Vulkan integration and blog on how it is going though.

      1. +1
        Even if it early stage, technical articles and internal test publications would be nice to have published on such blog section.

          1. That is only a couple of weeks away, right?
            Will you be streaming and making an official announcement on how to watch?
            Can’t wait!

          2. I don’t think there will be a live stream – at least not an official one. We are talking to people about getting a recording — there have been recordings available on Youtube the last few years but we do want to up the production quality if we can.

          3. Many thanks Ben, it is certainly something I would very much want to watch.
            Hope you have a fantastic Expo.

      2. I just asked I said that everyone is looking forward to implementing Vulkan in X-Plane 11, if I said something wrong should have been because of the translator.

        1. Some people forget about language barriers 🙂

          Honestly, I’m not so anxious any more about Vulkan, as I am with an update on the weather engine/depiction. Performance for me is quite good as it is now.

          By the way, I will encourage everyone to try Razer’s Game Booster. It lowers or turns off unnecessary processes that are taking up resources. I feel a significant improvement.

  6. Hi Ben. I have a couple questions:

    1) I have a scenery OBJ that uses an RGBA normal map for normals+metalness+roughness, but it is not instanced (i.e., it is only referenced once in the DSF). Should I use ATTR_shiny_rat or GLOBAL_specular in this situation? Which is better for performance?

    2) If an artist doesn’t assign an LOD to a scenery OBJ, X-Plane automatically generates an LOD for it. I guess that this LOD is generated based on the size of the bounding box of the OBJ geometry. Also, you’ve said before that only one LOD is generated for ALL of the geometry in an OBJ — not individual LODs for individual TRIS commands.

    My question is: Is the size of the bounding box calculated from the OBJ reference point or ‘OBJ center’ to the furthest vertex of the geometry, or is it calculated just around the geometry?

    I’m asking because, for example, if my OBJ contains just a 1x1x1 meter box that is 1000 meters west of the OBJ center, will the bounding box for the LOD be calculated as 1x1x1 meters or 1x1x1000 meters large?

    1. Hi Omar,

      1. If you’re using metalness and the specularity i 1.0, I’d say GLOBAL_specular – there are some subtle cases if you want to get into the weeds, but a really good guideline is:

      – Always use metalness.
      – Always use the normal map to control gloss/roughness.
      – Always use GLOBAL_specular 1.0 once at the top.

      2. The bounding box is based on the ‘span’ to the extrema of the geometry, so having the centroid of the object NOT be at 0,0,0 is not a big problem. The bounding box is weighted differently for height vs lateral, as really wide objects are sometimes collections of small things.

      When in doubt, specify LOD yourself and get waht you want.

      Also, do’nt make an obect that’s 1×1 meter but 1000 meters west of center…the LOD is calculated for a “small” thing but the LOD is calculated FROM the obj centroid…plus the object will be terribly registered with the ground.

      The origin of the OBJ is really meant to be a -local- origin…everything works better when you do it that way.

      1. Hi Ben, I haven’t reported because not had chance to play much and test since the update but it seems to not be working properly for me either.
        If I max it out I still get the flickering which I didn’t get previously but it is not as though it is off completely either, more like it is stuck on 2×2 or something.
        I will do some more tests and if still there submit a bug report.
        I always use beta and don’t remember having the issue in Beta, only official release of 11.2 if that helps.

  9. I submitted a bug report on a small problem with the default B-58 Baron, where the APPR indicator in the annunciator would not display. I received an email saying that it worked on the Laminar copy. I pulled out what little hair I have left while downloading a fresh copy and many other “trials” until I posted on a well known forum and got a response saying that it was a problem and could be corrected in Plane Maker by installing the “console filled” item. I followed the instructions and “fixed” it. I think the problem is that it would display on startup, but would not when actually approaching the GS. Mine now works, but …. I hope this does not violate the “do not report bugs” rule, but I tried that already. Thanks.

  10. In XP 11:21 rc2 most of the addon helicopter main rotors won´ t work . They are just standing still !

    Tested : BK 117, H145, AS 350 B

  11. Everything looks great, but there are 2 things that a prospective would see and may not like on X-Plane. One is, how the trees look with sunlight from behind when global shadow is on (should be a known bug). The other one is the flickering of clouds and rectangular cloud patterns that you’ll see often from above.

  12. Is there any news on the progress of improved ATC or improved weather interpretation (More layers, METAR data that extends farther)?

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