X-Plane 11.11 is available for testing – to get it, run the X-Plane 11 installer, pick “Update X-Plane” and make sure “Get Betas” is checked.   Two big fixes:

  • This build should fix crashes for AMD users.
  • This build restores functionality for FltPlan.go and a number of other iOS moving map apps that.

Release notes are here.

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.

41 comments on “X-Plane 11.11 Release Candidate 1 Available For Testing”

  1. Hi Ben,

    if I got a recent comment right, you -understandably- are not too happy, if we users fiddle around with tweaking too much, but you still are interested in -maybe- helpful results.

    Tested with 11.10r3 and 11.11r1:
    When reflection is set to min (and some lower reflection settings?), I think the reflection cam can be disabled without any loss. On my system (i57300HQ / 1050ti / Win10) setting the related DataRef reduces both CPU and GPU time per frame about 15%-20%.

    I hope I haven’t missed something obvious here and -maybe- found a bug. If not, please excuse me for coming up with something stupid… : )

    1. Yeah, that’s not wrong…I’m totally okay with people fiddling with whatever they want, and if you learn something interesting and can tell me in a data-driven and precise way, that can be really useful — we actually do pay attention to the things people tell us and they can spur investigations. We’re just not looking to turn this process of tuning and investigation into the main user experience of the sim – we want that to be “works out of the box”. (If we didn’t want you to tinker EVER, we’d just disable access to the art controls and encrypt the settings file. 🙂

      With that in mind, what dataref did you set exactly?

      cheers
      Ben

      1. Ok, sorry, I somehow presumed you know all thousands of DataRefs/ArtControls by heart… ; )
        It’s “sim/private/controls/perf/disable_reflection_cam”

        BUT, after testing for some time again:
        I have to correct myself, even at reflections set to min, disabling the reflection cam DOES do something. I have noticed, when disabling it and changing daytime e.g. from noon to sunset, the tone of the water changes abruptly when enabling it again.
        Disabling it in general (on min reflections), seems not to be a good idea.
        So, I guess, no need for you to think about that any longer, sorry for bothering…

        For completeness:
        How much setting that DataRef affects performance (on my machine), of course depends on the situation.
        + after sunset: no significant effect
        + no water or no clouds: no significant effect
        + many objects, some water and many clouds: sometimes slight effect (about 10% CPU and GPU time, at ~30fps), sometimes stronger (15% CPU, 20%-30% GPU, at ~30fps).

        So, for my computer, I will think about disabling and enabling once in a while with a script.

        Thanks and cheers, Jörn

        1. It really would be great, I think, if the reflections in the minimum category would turn off all interior glass reflections. Because of the long delay in refreshing, seats, etc. remain long after turning off all lights – seriously diminishing visibility through the windshield at night. If there were an option just to turn them off at night, it would be great, but probably not easily done. The second reflections position works well, but really does cut framerates (by about 15 on my system – GTX 1070 8GB). The reflections are great, but are expensive and this would still allow those able and willing to reduce their rates to enjoy them.

  2. Why are the lines on the box toggling between black and white? I’m speaking of the box which appears when one is controlling with a mouse or joystick (instead of a joystick or yoke). Personally I think white lines are the least distracting, but having the color change between the two values is even more distracting.

  3. What is the purpose of those “shadercache files” anyway? For example I have files named “X:\X-Plane 11\Output\shadercache\44824b39ab8bb90aabeccc47b56f3\Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600\1\6bcab2eff5ceb64ee7f22327298bcdad.blob”.
    I guess those magic file and directory names are hash values of something, but what is it?
    I guess the last one is the shader being cached for the particuar instance of the graphics card, but what is the first one (before the graphics card type)?
    Will such files ever be cleaned up, or will new files only be added?

    1. That’s GL_ARB_program_binary – it’s the binary compiled shader output from the driver, hashed up and saved – the hashes are so we get the right blobs for the right GPU. OpenGL requires shaders be input as source text, so you’re paying for shader compile time during flight and as part of load…Sidney added to 11.10 saving the binary (for drivers that support it) to reduce pausing a bit and speed up loads.

    2. The first part is the “fingerprint” of your current environment. That one changes between driver versions and other changes to the global environment the sim is running in. The .blob files are indeed the individual shader binaries. The “1” after the GPU name is the binary format, and each vendor has their own specific values here.

      In general though you probably want to treat that folder as an opaque black box. There is nothing readable in there and the format of the files and the directory structure might change at any time.

      Clean up happens when the fingerprint changes. So we only ever leave the latest version of the binaries around and when the fingerprint changes we delete all the folders in the shadercache subdirectory that don’t match the fingerprint.

  4. Working on a bug report. Something amiss in the flightloops. Broke my payware plugin rather badly. FYI. 😉

      1. Bug report filed. Verification tested today on freshly updated 11.10, worked fine, so the bug, which has to do with a crash induced by XPLMSetFMSEntryLatLon, was introduced in 11.11r1. Log and relevant code was added to the report. Thanks for working on Saturday! 😉

  5. Could you totally remove or reassign Aerosoft default Airports to the “Global” settings… We have to load them and then bin them every time with every update, as we are using the custom versions? Too many times we are getting duplicates of the same airport… Thanks.

  6. Is there a place to check if there is already a bug report for a possible issue?

    I’ve got a weird issue in 11.11 where I’ve loaded a flight I started last week and the left engine (free turbine twin) isn’t burning fuel according to the EFIS but is according to the sim. I opened and saved in the aircraft editor and reloaded the flight – still weird.

      1. By the way, what’s the status of Aerosoft airports replacement with the ones from the Gateway from XP11.10 onwards?
        My view is that those remaining have too many custom buildings and objects (take EDDF for example) to be replaced by any lego-brick better ones. Am I correct? Thanks.

        1. For the airports with custom objects, Jan has been working with Aerosoft to produce hybrids that combine his gateway lego brick airports with their custom work – he’s done that for a bunch of them, so they live on in the custom scenery folder.

          1. How does that work – Does Jan update the airports in the Aerosoft folders? Or are his edits via the Gateway submissions, but use the Aerosoft objects from the Aerosoft folders?

            Recently there was advice to ‘mark the aerosoft airports as SCENERY_PACK_DISABLED, but dont delete them’. Which ones? Does that remove all of Jans work, or the objects that the Gateway airport might use.

            Should the Global Airports be above or below the Aerosoft ones?

            If you delete the Airport, it’ll come back above the Global Airport. So that would override the Gateway Airport, surely…

            Too… much… needed… to be known…
            Must… simplify…

            ps
            Also wish gateway airport updates were as frequent as every beta, every release.

          2. First, Jan and Aerosoft and I discuss the situation directly, to make sure what we are doing is okay on an IP level, since the Aerosoft custom objects are theirs and licensed to LR, and Jan’s work is _normally_ GPL (as all gateway work is). Then Jan builds the combined airport and sends it to me for inclusion directly into the sim, outside the gateway. The airport cannot be uploaded to the gateway because the custom scenery elements will fail validation.

            Second, the advice to use SCENERY_PACK_DISABLED was VERY VERY specific and aimed at only ONE user who had a SPECIFIC problem. It goes like this:

            – IF you do not like scenery pack X that was shipped with X-Plane
            – Do NOT delete scenery pack X, as we will just re-install it.
            – DO use SCENERY_PACK_DISABLED to disable X.

            But…I am absolutely NOT suggesting that you should go around disabling Jan’s work…I think his work is fantastic and I wouldn’t be in favor of including it if I thought it should be disabled. 🙂 This one particular user wanted some of the Aerosoft airports gone, so I gave him the tool to do that. Don’t do it unless you want them gone, and if you’re not sure, keep them.

            So…I think the simple case is really, really simple: install X-plane and fly. We’ll get you more gateway airports when you update the sim, and we’ll get you more of Jan’s hybrid custom airports when you update the sim.

  8. Ben,

    Thanks for the continued work!

    The G1000’s MFD correctly displays Man/RPM for piston aircraft and N1/N2 for jet aircraft but reverts to Man/RPM when the G1000 is installed with a turboprop. Are Tq displays written into the G1000 and if so, how does one access?

    1. Of course, TRQ for turboprops is in the G1000 as well, Austin would not let me get away if he couldn’t have his Evolution in X-Plane, which is a turboprop. I have also tested it on a Cessna Caravan.
      Be sure you use the FRE_TRB engine type in the acf and make sure you don’t accidentally have the FRE_TRB_N2 model that existed briefly during the Beta. Re-save the acf in the latest Plane Maker to be sure.
      Also, I have no idea whether it works with Garrett-type fixed-gear turbo props. Haven’t tried, since there are no airplanes in the real world that have a G1000 and a Garrett turbine that I know of.

      1. Thanks Philipp.

        After further investigation, the issue remains for multi-engine turboprop aircraft. However, if I change the number of engines down to 1 in Plane Maker it does display correctly. But when 2 turboprops are selected it reverts back to piston engine information. Tested with native C90.

      2. Is the Evolution something that’s going to be available for everyone, or is it private? Or do you just mean theoretically?

        1. It’s an “Austin plane” which means it only has a 2d panel, and a flight model, but no shiny 3d model, textures or a 3d cockpit. It is tuned very accurately by Austin though to fly like the real beast.
          If you are interested in flying a 2d-only Planemaker-only model of a plane that is almost impossible to control on take off – drop Austin an e-Mail and he will send you his acf file, I’m sure 🙂

  9. In XP 11.11 Shadercache folder no longer exists, I can not find it in usual place?

      1. hey is there a fix for this soon? i have an AMD RX480 8gb and i have not been able to do a flight for the past 3 days without getting a blue screen… it is so annoying i miss doing flights without having to worry about getting a blue screen…

  10. IS there any chance of getting the XPLANE updater modified so that when it searches for an update it states, New update found , your ver xxx new ver xxx would you like to update, yes or no,

    or if it finds no update, no update found, continue anyway – Yes = no

  11. How can I write a list of bugs and send to you?
    This version 11.10 and 11.11 is very bad!

    Transparent cockpits; Fix menu bar running the game indicated that the simulation is paused; error installing scenery; clouds inside the cabin; and when you change the aircraft or press K or L (and change night to day or day to night) the bug of low FPS: 4-6fps.

    And I want to ask again: if you need to help translating it to portuguese please contact-me. Lots of setences that are not translated and bad translated words. At portuguese not Cocluído and the correct is Concluído.

    I just want to simulate again, and record in peace to my youtube channel.
    Thanks, Simulanderson.

  12. The atc readback toggle function is required when you press once upon request.
    When there are many AI planes, confusion comes when a readback request comes in.

  13. Hello,

    Thank you for continued development with this great sim. I am away from home and have not been able to get 11.11 yet. Any news on VR support? Were we expecting it after 11.10? there is not a lot of info around. Thanks.

  14. OK, maybe this belongs in an e-mail bug report, but I think it belongs here too…Tyler gave me an answer regarding the offline use of X-Plane11 (digital download in my case), and it just does not work on my machine…whenever I go offline and start the game, it wants me to re-verify and I`m limited to Demo mode…is there a problem writing the license file maybe?? It used to work without problems in offline mode in earlier versions…Any help would be appreciated.

    2. @sebastian I disconnected my ethernet cable to try to reproduce (I’m on v11.11rc2) and everything worked fine here. =(

  15. Hi Tyler, I bought xplane 11.10 in steam and since then I can not get it to work, I already installed it in 2 pcs and the same error message (XPLANE11 STOPPED).

    The video cards of the 2 pcs are AMD, I read that seems to have a bug with these amd cards, I also read that there is already the beta version 11.11, but I do not know how to upgrade to version 11.11 by steam.
    What can I do?

    Thank you!
    Everaldo

  16. I am having a huge issue with my X-Plane 11 running on my AMD RX480 8GB ever since that update 11.11 came out i havent been able to complete a single flight. i keep getting blue screens none stop and it only does it on X-Plane i do not have a shaderscache folder and i am running the latest AMD Catalyst drivers i hope this can be fixed ASAP i really want to start enjoying flights again without having to worry about a bluescreen near T/D

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