X-Plane by Laminar Research - playable demo/upgrade v8.15

NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.15 SINCE 8.11:

TONS, with special emphasis towards MORE FAA-CERTIFICATION FOR FLIGHT TRAINING.

This means my focus has been pretty tight on detailed modeling of engine
temperatures and performance, electrical and vacuum systems, autopilot and GPS
accuracy, and more powerful IOS (Instructor Operators Station, or "IOS" button
on the MAP window in the OUTPUT menu). These are the type of things that have
to be right on the money for FAA-certification, and X-Plane is now improved in
these areas in spades.

So, with more powerful and accurate instructor stations, autopilots, GPS
systems, and engine-modelling being the primary goals, and a TON of other cool
little additions that people have asked for, here is the list of new stuff done
for 8.15 Beta-1!


New Features:

Cool new feature: Run an IOS on a second monitor on your ONE computer! Here is
how it works:
Go to the rendering options screen and check "draw cockpit on second monitor".
Now, the cockpit will be drawn on the second monitor if you have a dual-head
video card or a really wide monitor. Now, go to the OUTPUT screen and select
LOCAL MAP... and watch yourself crawl across the map as you fly!
Now hit the IOS buttons if you like, and you now have an IOS (instructor
operators console) and can set the weather, failures, etc... all as you fly!
Cool! When in this mode, the application of the key presses depends on what
window your mouse is in, so you can move the mouse to a window to select it for
key-press use!

Instructor station can now put you in 3 new modes:
1: LOCATION-FREEZE: This causes the flight model to behave normally, except
that you DO NOT GO ANYWHERE!
2: DOUBLE-SPEED: This causes the flight model to behave normally, except that
you cover terrain at 2x normal speed!
Both of the these features are required for FAA-certification, because they
allow the sim to be stopped or sped up to facilitate flight training.
3: QUADRUPLE SPEED: Do the math.

Cool new option on the map screen: DRAG a plane (your or any other) to just
MOVE IT, or CLICK (WITHOUT dragging) to do a full init to the speed and alt in
the upper right corner of the map.
Now, to take it to the next level, plug in a second monitor on a dual-head card
and turn on the "draw cockpit on second monitor" option... Now bring up the map
and drag your plane (OR OTHER PLANES!) around with the mouse and watch you or
them move across the sky as dragged by the mouse!

Zoom on the maps does a pretty smart job of auto-zooming on the profile (side)
view as well, if you have that view checked in the upper-right. Also, the
landing gear and flap deflections are now shown in this vertical plot on the
IOS screen... this makes it a bit more thorough for checking your ILS
approaches.

The glideslope profile plot on the map view sets itself to whatever ILS
frequency you have tuned (if any) to get the profile plot perfectly accurate.
As well, landing gear and flap deployments are shown on the glideslope plot.

Click on an airplane on the map (any plane) and a little dialog comes up that
lets you change it's heading and speed and altitude. Do this to your plane, or
any of the others.

Anti-aliasing option! Turn this on in the rendering options screen to get
anti-aliasing at various levels. It can be slow, but it does look good!


New Instruments:

A new artificial horizon good to 90 degrees... nice to have for aerobatics.

Round thermometer, as used in real Cessnas. Check it out in the supplement
folder. (and, ALL thermometers show the actual temperature of the aircraft
skin, which may well be well above ambient thanks to compressive heating!)

New airspeed indicatior: Twin Needle. Used on some of the old fast jets!

Flap linear LABEL... This flap indicator type is like the regular linear flap
indicator, but actually labels the flap deflections in degrees for you.

MAST torque for those helos... indicate the total torque to each rotor, no
matter how many (or few) engines are going to it. This is available in round,
linear, digital, EFIS, ECAM, the works.

New "engine round ALL" for all engine instrument types... this plots the rpm,
manifold pressure, etc, for BOTH (or more) engines all on the same gage, with 2
different needles available as well so you can tell which engine is doing what
all on one gage.

New handle in the handles folder to dump water ballast in the amount that you
like.

New "vac/amp" engine gage, like in the new Cessnas.
New "GA" autopilot selectors for altitude and vertical speed that show the mode
as well as the values you have entered.
New "lo vacuum" warning lights, available per-engine.

New handles for variable-sweep, variable-dihedral, and variable-incidence, so
you can control all variable-geometry properties of the plane independently.

New low and high rotor rpm warning annunciators in the annunciators folder,
good for getting a visual warning when your rotor rpm is too high or low in
those helos.

Ice detection switch. (turn the detection system on or off)
Ice detected annunciator to indicate if you have ice if switch is on and you
are picking up ice.


Flight-Model Enhancements:

WHOLE NEW FUEL-FLOW MODEL!
You can now enter the specific fuel consumption is now more flexible... enter
the SFC for the engines at lo and hi altitude, idle and half power. As well,
enter the fuel flow ratio to maximum when the engine is at idle. This lets you
get the most accurate SFC in all phases of taxi and flight, at different
altitudes as well.
Downwash and wing efficiency model improved a bit to handle more exotic cases.

Co-axial rotor differential-collective for yaw control now available!
Cool! Build a helo with co-axial rotors and spec out a differential collective
in Plane-Maker to get yaw control without a tail rotor! This is used for at
least one Russian attack helicopter. The setting is in the "VTOLs and helos"
page of Plane-Maker.

MUCH-improved calculations for finding the supersonic drag on bodies!
X-Plane is EXCELLENT at subsonic, high-aspect ratio-wing flight, and EXCELLENT
with all types of subsonic engines, but the spuersonic model of the fuselages
and bodies has been pretty poor in the past (too loosely approximated). Now,
we do a good job of tracking the supersonic compression shocks and expansion
fans, and skin friction, all the way along the fuselage when supersonic. I have
tried an idea like this before, but now the implementation is much "harder to
fool" with strangely-shaped bodies, and is more accurate in general.

Free-turbine engines indicate fuel pressure UPSTREAM of the condition lever...
all other engines measure fuel pressure DOWNSTREAM of the condition lever. In
other words, the fuel pressure for free turbine engines will be hi when you
turn on the fuel pump, no matter the condition lever location, as long as you
have fuel in the selected tank(s)... But for all other engines, you will
actually need to advance the condition or mixture lever to get fuel pressure.

See the Engines screens in Plane-Maker... ITT, EGT, and OIL T can all be in
degrees F or C...
This lets you tweak the units per-airplane, and also gets the atmospheric
ambient temperatures affecting the various aircraft temperatures just right.
As well, enter the maximum amperage, voltage, vacuum, etc that the systems can
provide... time to get all those systems just right!
As well, enter the green-arc values for all of these systems to get the gages
labelled just right without having to make custom gages.
As well, enter the green and yellow arcs for fuel flow, manifold pressure, EGT,
ITT, etc etc etc to get all the gage marking on those systems just right
without having to make custom gages. As well, specify lo and hi-end redlines.
(some systems, like oil pressure, have LO-end redlines as well as hi-end
redlines).

Left and right magneto failures.

More electrical system detail: Multiple batteries are now simulated (one per
engine)...
Add multiple battery switches to turn of or off per battery, as the generators
and batteries all respond properly.

Nosewheel steering enhancement: The self-centering tendency of the nosewheel is
now simulated, resulting in much better and more realistic ground-handling at
high speeds.


Graphics Enhancements:

Improved cloud rendering

Improved night-vision in panel-mounted camera and weapons cameras and HITS
display.

In Plane-Maker, set the texture coordinates of every propeller and engine
pylons differently for multi-engined planes, if you like.

Yaw string is now red, as typical in real gliders.

Arcs on the engine gages and airspeed indicator look a little nicer now...
X-Plane does some anti-aliasing on the arcs.

Full ELUMENS dome support ( www.elumens.com )

Other planes leave their nav and strobe lights on 24/7, to help you see them.

The runway lights are now visible a bit farther than the runway in foggy
conditions... the lights cut through the fog a bit, as in reality.

The q/e keys change the views on the external visual, not your cockpit, if you
have an external visual selected... This is so you are changing the view you
actually WANT to change when you hit those keys.

Go to the Landing Gear tab in the Visual Texture Editor in Plane-Maker and you
will see you can now edit the texture area used for the STRUT textures, to get
your gear struts just right.

Customize the cockpit night-lighting colors for your plane in the Viewpoint
screen in Plane-Maker.

Sool little view indicator that tells you which way you are looking is an
option in the rendering options screen.


Minor Enhancements:

Cinema Verite (camera-shaking the way it would if held by a real person) is now
an option in the View menu... turn it on or off at will.

Situation files now save the PLANET you are on, as well as everything else they
always have.

Option to load scenery or not!

Garmin 430 improved a bit... a few more details are like the real thing

Joystick button to turn ignition on or off, as well as toggle.

Many de-clutter options on the map page to look at what you want to see, no
more or less.

Fuel Flow gage shows gallons per hour instead of pounds per hour in recip
engine airplanes, pounds per hour otherwise, as in real jets.

New joystick button option: Reset to runway... It puts you on the last runway
you manually reset to.
New joystick button option: Toggle 3-d "virtual" cockpit

Maps in the Output menu can now be IOS or regular, with glideslope or without.

No more autopilot disconnect on touch-down!
If you leave the autopilot on glideslope mode clear through touchdown, then the
autopilot will disconnect glideslope-tracking on touchdown, like a real
auto-land autopilot would. (Autopilot is more accurate as well, especially in
tracking crosswinds on the localizer)

The autopilot will follow the GPS when the flight dir is set to ON and the HSI
is set to GPS even if you have gotten a full-scale deflection before you engage
it. Helps with flying the GPS on autopilot.

FMS will only skip to the next waypoint in your plan if you come pretty close
to it, causing it to do a better job of following complex flight plans with
many waypoints without skipping ahead in the plan.

Auto-throttles operative with PFC hardware.

Hit the d-> button on the FMS at any time to reset your course from your
current location to your destination when flying the GPS... this is useful if
you wander off course for some reason and want a new direct plot to your
destination... really quick to do... I do it in the Cirrus all the time.

Also, the autopilot flies the GPS courses lots better now.

x/y/z location data output outputs the vector speeds now as well.

Aide views show a little top-view of the plane with the view direction at the
top of the screen to help show what way you are looking... nice to have in
those side views. Turn this option on or off, at your option, in the rendering
options screen.

Aural stall warning option: Go to the viewpoint screen in Plane-Maker and set
whether or not your plane has an aural stall warning... this used to be hooked
to the stall INSTRUMENT, but now you can have a stall instrument, or not, and
an aural stall warning, or not, individually.

Audible avionics cooling fan... hit the master on and off when the engine is
not running and if you are on the ground you can hear it.

Whenever you go to open an airplane, all applications now start you off at the
last folder you were looking around for airplanes in... makes it quicker to
open planes usually.

Real-Weather: If the file reports visibility 9999 (6 miles or greater) then we
go to the max allowable vis you have specified in the Weather screen.

Press the CENTER of the barometric pressure rheostats in the cockpit to
auto-set to 29.92... kind of convenient.

Improved PFC hardware calibration... Now, you can set a center offset AND a
nullzone for your joystick or PFC hardware.

New failure option: Runway lights! It's in the failure screen along with all
the other equipment failures.

Custom limits screen on the radio altimeter now lets you set how high the radio
altimeter can actually indicate.

Volume sliders for many different groups of sounds... people ask for this
pretty often.

ATC takes wind into account when assigning all headings.

If a machine in multiplayer, or acting as external visual, does not have the
same plane as the other multiplayer or master machine, then the sim will just
load the default acf (747) and not give an alert message.

2 Vfe speeds available now... one for the first notch of flaps, one for the
rest, as is common in light planes.

There is no an audible rotor OVERSPEED horn to complement the underspeed
horn... the option is in the Special Controls screen in Plane-Maker

The linear VVI now has a agent auto-pilot command display on it, as requested.

The map now shows the runway numbers for the airports... kind of nice.

The Set Weather window really shows the whole weather system for the area, with
you and the terrain in it for reference! This lets you really see how your
plane will interact with the thunderstorms and stuff.

Set the torque gages to be in ft-lbs or in percent in the new engine limits
screen in Plane-Maker.

Set the real-time tracking offset so you can be in Daylight Savings Time or
not.

Better carrier and frigate and oil rig placement... we really put them in large
bodies of water now, not just little streams and rivers!

There is now a new plane in the Austin's Designs folder: "The Demented Loner".
Check it out. I got this idea from a recent episode of MythBusters.

The airport name and plot in the "place aircraft by airport" dialog now gives
the airport ID and elevation.

The "AI Flies" is now operative, and improved a bit over previous generations.


Bug Fixes:

Engine START sounds not played unless the starter REALLY IS WORKING

EFIS VVI properly scaled... oops!

Cabin pressure VVI now works correctly in both directions

Finite-deflection times for controls no longer interfere with trim

Various improvements in multiplayer robustness, including lan party-support for
up to 10 players at once.

Real weather SCAN operative even if DOWNLOAD is not

Large linear engine instruments scale correctly.

Specific-Instrument failures fail all instruments.

Entering lat/lon into the FMS results in a clear, accurate fix display in the
GPS

Sending the various vehicle name/location UDP messages handled more smoothly
and with more robustness.

More Garmin 430 details... hit the CLR button to always go quickly to map mode,
and de-clutter as well.

Bug-fixes for scenery that did not load early enough, and some roads that went
up above the ground.

The Avidyne PFD turn-indicator now scales nicely.

Bug where the default "at-rest" attitude of the aircraft would sometimes
incorrectly be set to 90 deg is now fixed.

The shifted weight in the Weight and Balance screen is now added correctly
regardless of the number of fuel tanks.


TECH NOTES:

Look at the LAYER-2 of the WEATHER RADAR in the CUSTOM folder of the cockpits
folder... the size dimensions of that image now determine the visible area of
weather radar returns in the weather radar instrument, so if you customize the
weather radar instrument for your cockpit, then be sure to set the size of the
layer 2 to determine the area of weather radar that you want to see.

The little amm/volt button that makes an ammeter show voltage also now makes a
volt-meter show amperage! Anyway, it's a little more useful now. Real
King-Airs have them.



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.11 SINCE 8.10:

New "cyclic with speed" option in Plane-Maker to get the Chinooks perfect.. or
any other helo that wants automatic cyclic control with speed.

New "lock tailwheel with stick" option in the special controls screen in
Plane-Maker... pull the stick full aft to lock the tailwheel, as in the old
WW-2 birds.

Cloud refinements: Both low and high Cirrus cloud types are now available.

Mouse-control region is now ok at hi resolutions.

No more semi-transparent horizon in the 3-d cockpits.

More precision in placement of speedbrakes and gear doors in Plane-Maker.

Ctrl-\ works for keyboard access to the circling-with-cockpit view.

Fuel flow more accurate for jets at high altitude.

ALL artificial horizons and HSIs now show pitch and roll and heading in replay.

The heading HOLD select and heading SYNC knobs are now swapped left/right on
the directionsl gyros to match more planes.

The +/- keys are back to doing ZOOM, not MOVE, in the "@" view. Why? Because I
like it a lot more this way.

It's OK to have garmin 430s and also generic fms's and gps's all in the same
cockpit now... that could cause problems before.

See the artificial stability screen in Plane-Maker: You can control the FADEC
constants now as well.

Minor refinement on NAVAID ranges.

Autopilot altitude annunciators stay lit after the altitude is acquired.

Further autopilot tweaks to smooth the response out in turbulence, and give
more accuracy and authority.

Com radio and transponder frequencis are now stored in movies, sent to the
insturctor console, etc.



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.10 SINCE 8.06:

NEW INSTRUMENTS:

Custom LIT instruments are now possible! See the example plane for an example!
You can now have custom LIT panels, and custom LIT instruments.. every one of
the 4 layers can have a LIT version! Cool! You can really go wild with
NITE-LIT panels now!

New burner enable button! Turn this OFF and you can punch the throttle to the
stops on afterburner-equipped planes WITHOUT the afterburner kicking in... good
when you want full military power, but no burners using all your fuel... then
flip the burner switch ON when you are ready for maximum kick.

New Angle of Attack gage: stall reference... this is an easy way to tell if you
are about to stall... it is conveniently labelled with arcs for desired
approach angle of attack, and stall angle of attack!

New autopilot: S-Tec 55, common in many planes, including the Cirrus SR-22.

New GPS: Garmin 430 instrument, common in many planes, including the Cirrus
SR-22.
(Note: This is a somewhat SIMPLIFIED Garmin right now... if we tried to program
every function in the REAL unit then we would not get X-Plane 8.10 for another
year! Right now you can use the Garmin to tune radios, enter GPS destinations,
get a moving map, look at the destination airport runways and altitude and
frequencies, and get speeds as well as descent and time enroute profiles: In
short, everything you need to go GPS-direct.
All of this is done exactly like the real Garmin 430. What we do NOT do is the
million OTHER things the real Garmin does, like SIDs and STARs, save flight
plans, and save waypoints. This is stuff almost nobody would use and the
interface is just too SMALL for anyone to read it if we went into that much
detail! Bottom line: We simulate the amount that you use 99% of the time in the
real airplane.

New autopilot displays: OBS-1 and OBS-2. These are mechanical, Boeing-style
displays, just like the heading displays. We already have rheostats to CHANGE
the OBS, so the rheostats combined with the displays give total OBS control to
you in an autopilot console.

Cool new instrument for the cockpit: tailwheel lock!
Put the handle in the UP position and the tail-wheel will FREE-CASTOR.
Put the handle in the DOWN position and the tail-wheel will LOCK IN THE CENTER.
A good test of your skills and X-Plane's flight model is to experiment with
various tail-wheel options while trying to take off and land!

Cool new equipment-failure options: Gear and flap ACTUATION SYSTEMS (be it
electric or hydraulic)
When you trigger those failures, the gear and flaps will stay in their current
position, UNTIL YOU PUMP THEM DOWN MANUALLY WITH THE NEW EMERGENCY GEAR AND
FLAP PUMP BUTTONS! Hit those (mouse or assignable joystick button) as many
times as you specify in Plane-Maker (10? 50? 100?) to get the gear and/or flaps
down after an actuation system failure.
It's kind of fun watching the gear and flaps slowly jerk down as you pump! (of
course, it's easier to hit the mouse or joystick button 100 times than crank a
big pump 100 times!)

The total-energy variometer now runs smoother, and has a mild delay, like the
real instrument.

Radar altimeter now has custom angular limits assignable in Plane-Maker, so if
you get really excited over exact replicas of strange radar altimeters, your
day has come! (well, some guy DID request it!)

New N1 smaller engine instrument that shows 1/10s of a percent of N1!
New N2 smaller engine instrument that shows 1/10s of a percent of N2!

New APU N1 instrument, and we have APU SOUND now as well... of course you can
customize it like any other sound... look in the RESOURCES:SOUNDS folder for
the example.

New instrument panel type: FIGHTER IFR. This is just like the fighter cockpit
but with more space allocated to the instrument panel so you can get more
instruments in there.

New Directional Gyro type: LINEAR. This is a really old-style type that looks
like a compass.
New Compass type: ROUND. This is a really old-style type that looks like a
directional gyro!

New instruments: aileron, elevator, and rudder standalone deflection
indicators. These are in the "supplement" folder, and are mechanical indicators
that show your control deflections. These are used in the (real) Concorde.
These shows the final, actual flight control deflections, so they will NOT
perfectly track the joystick in aircraft that have fly-by-wire (or
stability-augmentation) systems! We have linear AND round control indicators
available.

We have had fuel transfer selectors to go TO a certain tank... now we have fuel
selectors to go FROM the selected tank!

New instrument: Fuel indicators that show the TOTAL FUEL ON BOARD, summing up
all the tanks for you.

New DIGITAL oil pressure and temperature instruments in the "engine supplement"
folder.

Rotor-brake added... grab it in Plane-Maker for your plane.

Afterburner button is now per-engine.. you will need as many buttons as engines
to turn them all on and off.


NEW PHYSICS TUNING:

Next level of navigation realism: The NAVAIDS now flicker and wander around
near the edge of their reception range, as the real ones do! Cool! As well, the
localizers and glideslopes will NOT always go out of range at the same time, so
you can have a localizer capture on an ILS even though the GLIDESLOPE is not
received yet, or is barely received, and thus wandering around. This happens in
the real plane, and is a major cause of high blood pressure when shooting an
ILS in actual instrument conditions.

While we are talking about flickering signals, the star colors tuned, with a
bit of star TWINKLING as well!

Better autopilots on ILS, localizer, and VOR intercepting and tracking.
Better flight-director response as well... more accurate, and more like the
real airplane.


FLIGHT-MODEL ENHANCEMENTS:

Incredibly cool technology: Weight-shifting to change the CG in flight!
We have had "weight shift" in the special controls for some time, but now we
take it to the next level:
We have "weight shift" in the weight and balance screen in Plane-Maker now so
we can most quickly see and change it for the aircraft. This allows you to
enter the max allowable weight of a pilot in a hang-glider, for example.
We have "weight shift" in the weight and balance screen in X-Plane now so we
can most quickly see and change it in flight. This allows you to set the
weight of the pilot in the hang-glider for each flight.
We have a "center of gravity" indicator as an available instrument (in the
"Supplement" instruments folder) so we can see the current CG. This allows you
to monitor the CG in planes like the Concorde that require fuel to be pumped
fore and aft in flight.
We have a new fuel transfer selector now to transfer between 2 tanks, to
quickly and easily pump fuel fore and aft in flight, monitoring the (changing)
CG indicator as the fuel is pumped.
So, we can now shift weight either with joystick control or by pumping fuel,
with the ability to enter any shifting weight amount and see the center of
gravity indicator change. Cool!

More accurate thrust, and windmilling, of jet engines... the inlets slow the
airflow to keep the engines from overspeeding at supersonic speeds... This is
what real inlets do, and is now done in the sim.
As well, the air DENSITY into the engines across a wide range of Mach numbers
has been improved, recovering total pressure when BELOW the max inlet efficient
Mach number, and suffering normal shock losses when ABOVE that number.

OIL COOLERS get ram-air effect, just like the engines, for cooling now.

Differential left and right deflections for rudders!
Why? Because planes like the Long-EZ have 2 rudders (one per wingtip) and each
one deflects ONLY ONE WAY. Now you can get the rudders just perfect for those
planes.

Just like we have 2 sets of ailerons and rudders, now we have 2 sets of
elevators!

Then, to REALLY expand your options, look at the JOYSTICK AXIS ASSIGNMENT
SCREEN... there are now "pitch 2", "roll 2", and "heading 2" options... why?
Well, set any joystick axis you want to the "2" settings, and that joystick
axis will control only the SECOND ailerons or the SECOND elevators or the
SECOND rudders (remember, you have ailn 2, rudd 2, and elev 2 in Plane-Maker
now), so you can have one joystick controlling the primary flight controls, and
a second joystick controlling the secondary set! Strange? Yes. But possible! If
you do NOT assign any of your joystick axis to the secondary controls, then the
secondary control just follow the primary joystick input, just like always.

Enter the speed and altitude and heading for placement on the PLANET map as
well... these numbers are used whenever no airport is found nearby.

Lift fans work differently now: the fan is geared directly to the engine
compressor stage, so the fan does NOT lag behind the engine in speeding up and
slowing down, but instead tracks the engine N1 perfectly, as is the case in the
real F-35.

Better ground-effect modelling: Now we model the GROUND EFFECT of the DOWNWASH
from one wing onto the other as well! This makes airplane-handling more
realistic in the pitch-response in the flare.

Better aspect-ratio determination, now considering the various
variable-sweep/taper combinations across the span of the wing and tail.

Major improvement in joystick handling for joysticks that have drifting pots:
There is no longer a joystick "null zone". Instead, it is a joystick CENTER.
Center your joystick when in the second joystick tab and that location will be
used as the center of action of the joystick! This give center-point accuracy
with immediate response on either side, unlike a nullzone where you lose
control accuracy because of a non-centering stick! This way is much better!

Refinement of speedbrake model.
Refinement of the water model: waves are a bit more randomized now, as in
nature.
Refinement of the fuel-flow model.
Refinement of the fuselage sideforce and vertical-force model.


SCENERY ENHANCEMENTS:

The VASI and PAPI approach glidepath lights are now only visible from a 30
degree approach cone either side of the runway, as in reality. Various scenery
improvements in rendering technology, to prepare for the big global-scenery
upgrade that we are working on now.

Different cirrus and stratus cloud textures per layer for more variety.

Look at the new cloud puff pngs file if you want to customize cloud textures...

You have 4 cloud puffs in one image... X-Plane will randomly select different
puffs in the PGN file for different parts of the cloud in the sim, with a
tendency to use the puffs at the top of the png file towards the top of the
clouds!


GENERAL FEATURES:

Track-IR support! Just hit 'ctrl-o' when in the cocokpit and look around when
wearing your track-IR headset and you can look around while you fly.
(www.naturalpoint.com)

New feature in Plane-Maker... all the WING editing screens now have a "snap to"
feature, letting you snap any wing to any other wing, exactly, with a single
selection of what wing you wish to snap to!

Now we get truly jiggy with it: X-Plane will now work flawlessly with a REAL
Garmin 430 radio.
How? Take a REAL Garmin 430 and solder a switch inside the unit to drop it into
SIMULATION mode. This Garmin 430 radio will now take input from X-Plane via
com-port instead of satellites in the sky. In other words, X-Plane tells the
Garmin 430 where you are... you can now use this real Garmin 430 with X-Plane
JUST EXACTLY AS IF YOU WERE IN A REAL AIRPLANE. The Garmin will show the moving
maps, and you will enter destinations, radio freqs, and flight pans all in the
Garmin 430, driving X-Plane as you do.
Finally, you can practice using your Garmin 430 in a flight simulator... this
is a first: NO OTHER FLIGHT SIM DOES THIS.
The training potential here is huge: Garmins a re a bit tricky to use with
their HUGE functionality, so practicing for free on the sim is INCREDIBLY
VALUABLE. The alternative is to learn to use the radio while you are hauling
across the sky in your Cirrus burning 15 or 20 gallons per hour at 200 miles
per hour just to learn how to push a few electrons around... THAT IS JUST PLAIN
STUPID. Flight schools and anyone else that wants to train pilots with Garmin
430's on the ground rather than in the air burning fuel like crazy and racing
across the sky should grab a (real) Garmin 430 and a copy of X-Plane right
away... the training benefits will be huge, and the safety and environmental
impacts of learning how to use the complex, quirky radio on the ground rather
than in the air with the engine gulping gas are significant!
Now you want the numbers?
Garmin 430 radio: a bit over $10,000, assuming you can become a certified
dealer, and nobody gets any discounts, even dealers. X-Plane: about $50 If you
are a want a Garmin 430 right away, email mike@flypfc.com... he is a Garmin
dealer now and can get you simulation units to use in your copy of X-Plane to
finally learn how to use a Garmin 430 the way EVERYONE should learn: in an
excellent flight sim, on the ground, with zero stress, zero noise, zero
distraction, zero fuel burn, and zero risk.
Then, once you have mastered the 430 on the GROUND, it is time to go flying!
F5 and F6 keys control prop pitch for all prop types now... collective,
direct-control pitch, whatever. Take a look at the landing gear screen (tab-2)
in Plane-Maker... check a "start in water" box there for your flying boats if
you like!

Cinema verite for the external shots... the camera is held by a camera-man in
those cases. ...and, while working on the cameras, the spot-view starts farther
back from the craft, so big ships like the Hindy can do a total fly-by.

World-Maker can go into 3-D mode... pretty cool!

Plane-Maker section-editing is handled a tiny bit differently... the nodes will
NOT "jump" to the mouse-click area when you are editing them... instead,
Plane-Maker "auto-adapts" to your mouse-click location and only moves the node
as much as you move the mouse! This applies to section-editing mode only.

Plane-Maker automatically sets the decimal places for the SFC to a reasonable
value for that engine type.

The 3-D flight-path color (o-key to activate it) changes based on the ambient
lighting conditions to always be visible.

Maps are smarter about when to plot DME frequencies.

Glideslope indicator lights on the ground (both VASI and PAPI) are now tuned
per airport to be accurate for the actual commanded slope of that particular
airport.

You can now enter a MAX frame-rate in the rendering options screen if you
like... just enter a number LOWER than your machine can really handle and you
will always run at exactly that frame-rate.

Cockpit designers: look in the NAV DISPLAYS folder at the various VOR
instruments... we now have TEXT files for all those VORs to specify the
deflection ranges for all the VORs so you can customize the deflections.

Com-port signals are now faster.. you will get less, or no, pausing when using
the outputting to moving maps, Garmin 430 radios in simulation mode, PFC
hardware, etc.

Wind noise: The PITCH is based on the TRUE airspeed, and the VOLUME is based on
the indicated airspeed... more realistic, I think.

New "High-Speed" map tab in the map output screen to get more
quickly-responding maps... though without the terrain details.

New text-file line in the HUD Horizon instrument... pitch reference offset from
center, used to draw the pitch-ref bars farther down than up, or vice-versa.

Plane-Maker flashes the currently-editing wing in the editing screens so you
can quickly see which wing or body you are trying to edit!

Visual force-vectors (/ key) are now scaled for the area of each element,
giving a lift distribution on the flying surfaces that is more intuitive to
look at.

View to show cockpit and exterior of craft at once is back.. ctrl-\

New option in the "Special" menu to show the name of each instrument in the
cockpit as you hold the mouse over it motionless for a second.

The mileage scales are back on the maps... those were removed when we went to
all-3-d technology, but are back now!

Now you can enter a minimum CONTROL DEFLECTION TIME in the "Controls" window in
Plane-Maker. This is useful for controls that can only move at a certain RATE,
as is the case with hydraulic control systems.
A fun experiment is to load your favorite airplane up in Plane-Maker, enter a
minimum control-deflection time of 4 seconds, and see if you can still fly the
plane... can you? This is effectively a "drunk pilot" simulator... you are
always running a few seconds behind... but if your skills are sharp enough, you
should still be able to fly well... I can! Can YOU???

A commonly-requested autopilot feature: You now have separate GLIDESLOPE,
ALTITUDE, and VNAV autopilot buttons. GLIDESLOPE follows the glideslope once it
is intercepted. ALTITUDE follows the altitude you have entered in the
altitude-entry box VNAV follows the FMS altitude, whatever that may be of
course, you may toggle between modes at will, and you can arm the GLIDESLOPE
while in ALTITUDE or VNAV... the GLIDESLOPE will take over once the GLIDESLOPE
needle comes through center position.

More data output variables!

Frame-rate improvements in the orbital rendering.
Better internet-connections between multiple computers running X-Plane now...
slower machines can still keep up with faster ones... it used to be a problem
if multiplayers had machines running at different speeds, or external visuals
were running slower than master machines, as the slower machines simply could
not keep up... this is now fixed: the slower machines still process every
message, so they never fall behind.

The panel vertical scrolling is now held even when you pan or otherwise switch
views.

ATC refinement: Use the current baro setting in your acf when below 18,000
feet, and 29.92 when above 18,000 ft.
Networking: External visuals go into pause mode when they get no data.

Hit enter to close the airport-selection windows AND GO TO THAT AIRPORT. Just
close the window with a mouse click to AVOID airport placement.

World-Maker always shows airports in airport mode

Startup airport when you start the sim is no longer the last airport you were
CLOSE to, but instead the last airport YOU MANUALLY ASKED TO GO TO FROM A MENU.

Battery voltage now indicates like in a real plane: the CENTER of the indicator
is nominal.

Note for people setting system failures with UDP messages: setting system
FAILURES using the UDP "FAIL" message is now done slightly differently... see
the udp reference html doc for the new spec.


BUG-FIXES:

Moon phase SHOULD be correct for the date

Negative flap deflections are OK... and FUN!
Take a look at "Austin's Private Flyer"... it has huge, heavily-reflexed
flaps... raise the flaps to the upper (reflexed) position if you are too fast
on final approach and watch the plane drop out from underneath you! RAISE the
nose WAY UP to hold lift, getting drag from the fuselage and leading half of
the wing. You are now bleeding off energy at a tremendous rate from the wing
and fuselage hitting the air at a high angle.
Does this sound familiar? It should! This is very similar to the "Feathering"
concept used by SpaceShip One!

Field-of-view tweaked slightly, to be more accurate

The art stab system is now kept within control-deflection limits no matter the
craziness of the art stab constants or the flight condition.

The "create object from aircraft" option in Plane-Maker now does a better job,
handling strange cases like offset bodies perfectly.



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.06 SINCE 8.05:

The total-energy variometer is now based on INDICATED airspeed, not true
groundspeed. this is the way real total-energy varios work.

The visual flight model ('/' key a few times to see it in different levels) now
shows the PROPELLER forces per element... it's cool to see the varying lift
distributions on helicopters and VTOLS when they are moving forwards rapidly,
creating all sorts of strange asymmetric effects!

Control systems with artificial stability can "flutter" at low frame-rates.
While this can never be totally avoided (you need some speed to run a
flight-control computer!) the worst-case flutter condition has been
considerably reduced, improving low-frame-rate artificial stability, of course
with no detriment to the high-frame-rate cases.

New joystick buttons options: speedbrakes retract 1 notch, speedbrakes extend
one notch... as well, if you hit the retract button when the brakes are
already retracted, the brakes go the "auto-deploy" mode.

Set the initial THROTTLE now in the map view when placing aircraft by clicking
on the various maps. Kind of nice.

Elec system: The battery voltage indicators now indicate the bus voltage, as in
the real airplane... Turning on the generators will show a higher voltage if
the generators are able to turn out more voltage than the battery... this is
dependant on whether the generators are on, the engine they are connected to is
turning fast enough, and they have not broken!

Mods to the GPS NMEA output should allow altitude display on more receivers.

bug-fix: ADF 1/2 really does show both ADG-1 and ADF-2!
bug-fix: sim could crash in certain weather conditions... fixed now
bug fix: if you select the "get lost" menu item when on mars, then (you guessed
it) you get lost on Mars
bug-fix: fewer (if any) "bumpy runways"



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.05 SINCE 8.04:

The flight controls on the fighters that will not exceed the deflections listed
in the controls screen... the "ailerons with pitch", etc, do indeed add
control deflection, but they will not exceed the deflection limit.



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.04 SINCE 8.03:

This version of X-Plane is designed to have far more systems-simulations and
equipment-failure-simulations, including multiple hydraulic, electric, and
vacuum systems, with failures of countless instruments and subsystems available
so you can practice getting airplanes on the ground with countless things going
wrong with the plane, from failed hydraulic and electrical and vacuum systems
to engines that are surging randomly due to fuel-flow fluctuations, or
throttles that have failed to the "wide open" position... this is great fun in
the sim, and useful for training as well. In Plane-Maker, you specify which
electric or vacuum system each instrument is on, so you can have the right
instruments shut down in flight when an electrical bus in the airplane goes
down! We also have new detail with APU's and bleed-air simulations to get
aircraft and engine start much more realistic, right from the first APU
start-up!

Here are the specifics:


Multiple Hydraulic and Electric and Vacuum Systems

2 hydraulic systems, with hydraulic pump and hydraulic containment failures,
and a new check box in Plane-Maker to determine whether the hydraulic systems
are pressurized by the engines or not. Of course this is usually checked TRUE
for most airplanes, but craft like the Space Shuttle and X-15 have hydraulic
systems that work whether the engines are running or not! This check box is set
in the "equipment" screen in Plane-Maker.

As well, you can have hydraulic OVERPRESSURE failures as well!

2 electrical systems now simulated! One fails? You may have another for SOME
systems.
2 vacuum systems now simulated! One fails? You may have another for SOME
systems.

Look at the panel editor in Plane-Maker...
You can now specify which vacuum system or electrical system each instrument is
on.
This will determine which instruments are brought down with which systems
failures. The right instruments will fail with the right systems.

Look at the panel editor in Plane-Maker...
You can now specify which cockpit side (pilot or copilot) each instrument is
on.
This will determine which settings apply to which instruments. The barometric
pressure, for example, can be different for the pilots and copilots altimeters!


APU and Pressurization Systems Modelling for Engine-Start and Pressurization:

The APU is more fully modelled... now you have "ON", "OFF", and "START" for the
APU.
Put it to START and let it start up, then let the switch come back to ON. The
APU is now supplying bleed air and generator voltage to the rest of the
airplane. What do you do with that? Read on!

BLEED AIR (button for the panel is in pressurization folder in the
panel-editor) is now more fully modelled... you can select bleed air as: off,
left, both, right, or APU. Bleed air is used for both starting jet engines, and
pressurizing the airplane if you have pressurization controls. Here's how it
works:

If the bleed air is set to OFF, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines.

If the bleed air is set to LEFT, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the LEFT engine is running.

If the bleed air is set to RIGHT, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the RIGHT engine is running.

If the bleed air is set to BOTH, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the first TWO engines are running.

If the bleed air is set to APU, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the APU is running.

So, to do a full start up in X-Plane (and a real jet, by the way):
1: In Plane-Maker, equip your plane with both an APU (buttons folder) and a
full bleed air knob (pressurization folder).
2: run X-Plane and start the APU ("start", then "on")
3: set the bleed air to APU so you have bleed air coming from a running APU
4: hit the engine starts to start the engines
5: set the bleed air to BOTH to get bleed air from the engines for the
pressurization and any in-flight starting
6: turn off the APU
This is how you start up a real plane, and how you do it in X-Plane if you
equip the plane with APU and bleed-air switches.
Question: How can I start the engines in flight if they are not running, and
the APU is off?
Answer: whatever engine IS running will provide the bleed-air, and the engines
windmill even if shut down.. 10% N1 is enough to drive the systems.


New Failure-Modelling:

New engine failure type option: engine fire.
If you specify an engine fire, then the engine smokes as it fails... regular
engine failure does not leave a trail of smoke though.

New Instrument failures: Specific Instruments.
This lets you fail specific instruments on the panel, so if you have 2 attitude
indicators, for example, you can fail just one of them. This is already
possible, of course, by putting them on different electrical or vacuum systems,
but this is a way you can fail any instrument you like without that failure
affecting other instruments if you like.

Pitot system failure resulting in airspeed indication error.
Engine SEIZURE, and engine INDICATION failures.
Low battery failure, resulting in inability to get up to starting N1.
Transponder can fail.
Left and right brakes can fail! Awfully fun on landing in planes with
free-castoring gear!
The throttle can fail to low, current, or max setting!
APU pressurization failure... so you can't start the engines on a jet.
Cabin depressurization!
ITT runaway, compressor stall, and fuel-flow fluctuation failures... all with
varying results in power output.


New Instruments:

New instrument type: ALTERNATE AIR. This lets air into the engine through an
alternate path... with a 5% power reduction due to the inefficient path the air
must take to get to the engine!

New instrument type: fuel pump annunciator, along with better fuel-pressure
simulation: The fuel pressure and fuel flow are properly affected by the fuel
pump.

More pressurization instruments to simulate more aircraft.
See the pressurization folder in the Panel-Editor in Plane-Maker.

New autopilot button: Instrument source. This can either use the pilot or
copilot-side instruments for autopilot reference.
Remember that in Plane-Maker you can specify if each instrument is pilot-side
or copilot-side, primary or secondary system.

New angle of attack indicator: Round with settable maximum angle, above which
the stall warning goes off.

New instrument: angle-of-attack anti-ice.

New instrument: Pilot and co-pilot side pitot heat, each for the respective
system.

New instruments: transmission oil pressure and temperature.

New button for the panels: Jet Sync. This is an engine sync that can be set to
"fan", "off", or "turbine".
This simply syncs the fans or turbines on your jets, getting all the engines to
follow engine #1 exactly.

Ignition on/off... this could be used for old World-War 1 airplanes that had
separate ignition and starter switches,
or modern jets that have ignition that is simply turned on or off...
though you must still hit the starter to turn the engine over for starting!
New autopilot annunciator panel, with all the terminology and annunciators for
typical GA planes with good equipment


New General Features:

NMEA string output: drive any (real) moving map or other piece of hardware or
software from X-Plane, where X-Plane acts like a (real) GPS to that device.
(currently Windows-version only)

New joystick button for straight ahead view when in 3d cockpit view.

Special Controls in Plane-Maker:
Flaps with pitch and roll can now be customized to apply to either flaps 1 or 2
or both.
As well, they can be set to only phase in above 50% control deflection if you
like.

In the "Other Aircraft" screen, you can enter the heading, altitude, and speed
ratio for the OTHER AIRCRAFT for the FORMATION FLYING option in the LOCATION
menu.

Check out the Special Controls screen in Plane-Maker...
just like you can have the slats automatically deploy near the stall, now you
can have the FLAPS do the same!

Custom afterburner texture now possible per aircraft... see the example
plane... the filename is simply airplane_name_flame.png. Do any afterburner or
rocket textures you like for any plane!

Glider winches are 950 meters, as per reality.
Glider winches disconnect if the cable angle ever gets too steep, as in
reality.
Glider winches automatically disconnect if the line forces get way too high.
New RMI type: ADF-1 VOR-2. This is a useful addition to many simple panels...
you get an ADF and second VOR in one instrument... nice to complement an HSI
that shows VOR-1 complete with glideslope. Now, of course, this whole
"position-fix/vor radial" thing is a ridiculous old circus-stunt the from
medieval days... any plane should just be using GPS with moving maps and ILS in
this day and age, but if you want old-school, here it is!

The 8 and 0 looked similar on the FMS in earlier versions... close enough that
someone thought that 87.8 miles was 7.8 miles!
He reported the bug as an error in the FMS, saying that the FMS gave too low a
readout... CLASSIC mis-direction by a computer!!!
In fact, it was only the FONT that was confusing him... so the fonts have now
been improved.


Flight-Model Refinements:

New fuel-flow modelling...
Enter the idle and max SFC in Plane-Maker to get the fuel-flow right at a wider
variety of flight conditions.

Turning off (or failing) the FADECs on non-helicopter aircraft will cost you 3%
throttle, as will happen with real jet engines when the FADEC fails or is
turned off.


General Refinements:

Real-Weather now checks the entire planet, not just USA. It's about time!

HUD goes to 90 degrees... a surprisingly common request... this will be used
more for going straight UP than straight DOWN, I hope!

X-Plane will now load any CUSTOM scenery files with precedence over any DEFAULT
scenery files... regardless of who is DSF, and who is ENV.
If you have custom DSF AND ENV, or default DSF AND ENV, then in that case DSF
takes precedence for any given area.

The level-of-detail of rendered objects is handled a bit more precisely

Your airplane is NOT drawn any more in the "straight down" view... if you have
a nice 3-D cockpit, you would just see the COCKPIT FLOOR when you looked down
in 803! Oops!!!!

On the HSIs and VORs, the glideslope flag is only visible when an ILS frequency
is selected.


Cool New Planes:

I have included a new folder called "Austin's Designs" in the "Aircraft" folder
with some interesting designs of mine... be sure to read the readme in that
folder.

Check out the new CL-415 in the Seaplanes folder... the plane is still in
development, but this is a great start!
Be sure to hit control-o to enter the virtual cockpit mode and look around the
cockpit in flight!
http://www.quality-planes.com/KRISS/CL-415/


Bug-Fixes:

Visual wind-vectors (hitting /-key a bunch of times) plot in right direction.
Custom terrain textures don't have little annoying color bands out in the
Ocean.
Nosewheel transitions the steering at the proper speeds
Airport flattening flattens airports more.
FMS shows proper distance along your flight plan.
The VIEW location no longer effects the thermals! Oops!
Airports saved properly in World-Maker.


Tech-Notes:

Note: I am computing the fuel-flow a bit differently at idle now, now
considering the internal engine friction and pumping losses when computing fuel
flow at idle... this is more realistic of course, but this means you will have
to tweak your SFC (specific fuel consumption, or fuel flow per unit horsepower)
in the engine screen in plane-maker to get the idle fuel flow just right.
Remember, the idle SFC is the LEFT of the two SFC numbers in the engine screen,
second tab.

Note: If you do custom cockpit design with custom HSI TEXTURES (there are
probably only about 3 or 4 people that fit that description, but I am notifying
anyway) I have added 2 new slots to the mechanical (but not glass) HSI-layer-2
images... this is for new "NAV" and "HDG" flags for the HSI... be sure to add
these to your custom PNG files, if you made any.

I changed a few filenames, which will require any aircraft-designers to change
a few filenames for their custom instruments in a few rare cases... If you have
a custom "RMI_N12GPS_GA.png" then you should change it to "RMI_N12_GA.png"...
ditto that for the BC and HM versions of that instrument.



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.03 SINCE 8.02:

New joystick axis selection: look around in the 3-d cockpits.
Access to more joystick axis on more sticks and yokes.
Scenery upgrade: Many more types of buildings and more detailed buildings.
Incredible new CL-415 Seaplane with 3-D Virtual Cockpit!



NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.02 SINCE 8.01:

Lower load times, lower RAM requirements, and higher frame-rates.

Compared to 8.01, load times are DOWN by about 10%
Compared to 8.01, frame-rate is UP by about 75%! (not a typo! this is on a G-5)
Compared to 8.01, RAM use is DOWN by about 10%


Other features:

GPS refinement:
GPS can work independently until you actually enter a plan into the FMS... then
the FMS takes over the GPS.

Custom limits for round AOA! Jason Chandler needs it for one of his next
planes... a LearJet! Well known to be among the most overpowered and
challenging civilian planes to fly, this one should be interesting!

Hydraulic quantity and pressure gages as well, as requested.

3-D cockpits functions no matter what resolution you are running the sim in.

Ctrl-o goes SMOOTHLY from 2-d to 3-d cockpit. It was a little distracting
before.

Reverse-thrust-engaged annunciators. Kind of nice. Some airline pilot wanted
them.
New joystick button option: AUTOPILOT: CWS (for control-wheel steering) Hit
this and... NOTHING HAPPENS! (Except the DISCONNECT of any pitch and heading
autopilot functions) but then, RELEASE the button, and the pitch and heading at
the moment you released the button are held... Be sure your plane has a PITCH
SYNC and HEADING HOLD button to see the annunciators and know what is going on,
and so you can hit them to turn this mode OFF!

See the rendering options screen: There is an option to mostly flatten the
airports. Flatten them out a good bit if you see fit.

More accuracy with prop-strikes... the elevation of the ground or pavement
right under the prop is considered, not just the general ground altitude in the
"vicinity" of the plane.

Better ITT & EGT during turbine engine starts... The temperature is hooked to
the start fuel intro time as defined in Plane-Maker engine screen.

Change the size of the EFIS and HUD ALTITUDE and AIRSPEED layer-3 images to
define the size of the instruments in the panel, if desired. You can also
change their size the easy way (instrument size ration in Plane-Maker), but
that method results in blurriness, and is not optimal.

More realistic FLOAT-PLANE physics... the step IS currently simulated, so be
sure you DO have a STEP in your floats!
More realistic THERMAL physics for gliders... for every bit of thermals you
ride UP, there is an equal amount of air coming DOWN! Beware!

Starter voltage draw on the battery is improved.

New joystick button options: Load situation. Save any 3 situations to any 3
joystick buttons in the Joystick window and the Other Aircaft and Situations
window.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PEOPLE THAT CONTROL X-PLANE BY UDP: THE VEH1 AND VEHA
STRUCTS ARE NOW BETTER, INCLUDING GEAR, FLAP, AND VECTOR POSITIONS... THOUGH
YOU MUST UPDATE YOUR VEH1 AND VEHA STRUCTS TO USE THEM! See the UDP ref.html in
the Instructions folder!

Custom terrain textures from Generation-7 scenery should not show up as "wet"
in X-Plane any more.
Negative-area speedbrakes (if you enter them backwards in Plane-Maker) should
not push the plane forwards (!!) any more.

Note: Someone said that the horizontal stabilator does not work on X-Plane
8.01... not true!
You have to set the "INCIDENCE WITH ELEVATOR" per-element in Plane-Maker, and
set the elevator deflection in the "CONTROLS" screen.



SO WHAT IS IN X-PLANE 8.01?

TONS.
MORE THAN WE HAVE EVER HAD IN ONE NEW VERSION BEFORE.

X-Plane 8.01 is the most ambitious and revolutionary update ever.


New scenery engine:

We are designing a completely new scenery format, providing a totally
disordered, adaptive set of polygons to fit any terrain... GONE is the classic
"checkerboard" pattern where the grids must run in regular
"horizontal/vertical" directions... The terrain will now be dynamically
crafted to fit ANY terrain feature, no matter how irregular or oddly-shaped.
Then, countless buildings and other landmarks are overlaid on the terrain using
adaptive algorithms THAT FIT THE BUILDINGS TO ACTUAL STREET-MAPS, resulting in
neighborhoods that actually follow REAL roads, no matter their unusual or
convoluted pattern, since we no longer follow artificial street grids, but
instead use actual road data. The goal here is simple: total freedom to model
any terrain, with any topology, that exists. On Earth OR MARS.


Speed:

WHEN USING THE SAME SCENERY AS VERSION 7.62, 180% of the speed of X-Plane 7.62
on a Macintosh G5.
(You will see varying speed increase on varying computers)
That's right. 80% faster.
When using the SAME (version 7) SCENERY FILES, the frame-rates in X-Plane 8.00
are 80% higher than in X-Plane 7.62.

Most programs get SLOWER with each release.
X-Plane gets FASTER. 80% faster on the this release.

On my Mac G5, MAXIMUM visibility, clear sky, in the 747, I get: 37 fps in
X-Plane 7.62, and 69 fps in X-Plane 8.00.

Full-screen no HUD view, I get: 46 fps in X-Plane 7.62, and 92 fps in X-Plane
8.00.

Is that enough speed for you?

NOTE: WHEN YOU USE THE NEW VERSION-8 SCENERY, WITH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF
ROAD SEGMENTS AND BUILDINGS, the frame-rate can go down as X-Plane plots every
known mapped road in the USA... a rendering option in the Rendering Options
screen in the Settings menu lets you choose whether you want the fast, simple
Version-7 scenery, or the complex, detailed (but sometimes slower!) Version-8
scenery.
X-Plane 8.00 can run either version just fine!


New aircraft format:

We have many more parts and wings, with the ability to attach any part of the
airplane texture to any part of the plane for total customization, and to
attach any of the many bodies of the airplane to any of the moving flight
controls, either directly or at some movement fraction, all designed to get the
airplane moving parts and countless other details just right.
The goal here is simple: TOTAL FREEDOM TO DESIGN ANY AIRPLANE, TO FLY IN ANY
WORLD, YOU LIKE.

Here are the specifics:

->Total aircraft-texturing freedom: Use any part of either texture for either
side of any body and either surface of any wing... with no limits.
->20 misc. wings.
->20 misc. bodies.
->10 landing gear, including a new gear type: 3 across for the C-17
GlobeMaster.
->20 landing gear doors.
->10 flap deflections.
->Slat deployment schedules to match the slats to the flaps as you like.
->4 customizeable speedbrakes at any angle
->2 rudder types so you can get vertical stabs with strakes built PROPERLY with
perfect-chord rudder.
->2 flap types so you can get different inner and outer flaps across the wing.

Now, what would you do with 20 misc. bodies?
Attach any of the 20 misc. bodies to any aircraft part you like, and any
control surface you like, with a ratio to indicate the fraction of control
deflection that the body moves. This makes flap-track movement perfect.


You can build a 3-D cockpit: While flying with the JOYSTICK (not mouse) click
on the center of the windshield with the mouse and move the mouse around to
look around... with the cockpit in 3-D now of course! This 3-D "virtual
cockpit" has the exact same resolution, controls, movement, and detail of the
2-D cockpit. While other sims have had virtual cockpits, this virtual cockpit
has the exact same resolution and clarity as the 2-D one! You can fly
instruments on it just like with the 2-D panel!

As well, custom cockpits will have the option to use a "COCKPIT TEXTURE" (in
addition to the texture they use now) where the "COCKPIT TEXTURE" is simply the
current cockpit, with all the moving instruments, handles, etc. (every single
pixel, including moving ones) in place... so mapping the 2-D cockpit we have
now (with all detail and quality) to a 3-D object is a snap.. just use the
"COCKPIT TEXTURE"! See the KSBD Sample Object for an example... it will show
you how to do this near the end... it is just a special polygon type is all.

If you are flying a plane that does not have a 3-D cockpit made for it, then
X-Plane 8.00 Beta (not publicly avail yet) now makes a 3-D cockpit on-the-fly
for you at up to 1024x1024 res... it is EXACTLY LIKE THE 2-D COCKPIT but in
3-D... You cannot even tell a single pixel difference in quality between the
2-D standard panel and 3-D moving one... the 3-D one just moves in 3-D as you
move your view around


Now for some flying:

The runways now flatten to the terrain... so runways can now be (strongly)
sloped and hilly! Just put a runway on a hill to see it! Taking off and
landing airliners on hilly runways is quite a challenge... Sitting at KSBD I
looked down the runway in X-Plane to see the runway dropping down just a little
in the middle and sloping up slightly at the far end... it looked just like a
real runway, which is never really perfectly flat! I forgot I was looking at a
SIMULATED runway for a moment!


New View Options:

Straight down view: ctrl-o... kind of cool!

S-key now goes through 3 levels of lookdown... 5, 10, and 15 degrees down...
equivalent to adjusting your seat however you like.

Zoom way in on your plane in map view while at an airport... and see the
runway right down to the skidmarks, and your plane right down to the paint!

New "viewer-only" option that you can set in the "Special" menu to just use
X-Plane as a VIEWER to move your viewpoint around... useful for checking out
your scenery projects, etc., without having to fly to them, if you so choose.

ALL the maps can go into 3-d mode... kind of cool to see a 3-D sectional chart
with your path plotted on it in 3-D! The maps now plot MUCH, MUCH, MUCH FASTER
as well.


New Engine Instrument Options:

New engine instruments: PIE. (in the ECAM folder) as used in Boeings.

Also the Engine RPM, Prop RPM, N1, N2, Manifold Pressure, EPR, torque,
fuel-flow, ITT, EGT, and CHT are =>ALL<= available for =>ALL<= engine
instrument types.

New system model: Fuel pressure. Set the maximum (engine screen:tab 3), custom
limits for the panels (limits screen:tab 1) and set the gage (panel screen).


New Flight-Model refinements:

"Break-Away thrust" modelling: The plane won't drift slowly on the runway...
you have to get enough thrust or other energy in there to get it to break
friction and start moving.

NEW supersonic flight model! Much better!
It tracks the compression shocks and expansion fans all the way along all the
bodies, from nose to tail, measuring the pressure on each "facet" of the
fuselage, and applying the resulting force in the right direction!

Cool new speedbrakes and landing gear doors!
Check out the speed-brakes tab in the controls windows in Plane-Maker... enter
the brake and door locations, angles, deflections, part of the texture each
ones uses, etc.

Enter the body drag coefficient per part! Cool! Get that (subsonic) drag just
right!

New option: joy button to toggle steering between locked and free-castor!
This may seem minor, but it is kind of fun to toggle the nosewheel steering
during taxi and see how the plane handles with differential braking rather than
a steerable nosewheel.
For even more fun, get into the 747 and go to an external view right by the
nosewheel and watch what happens with various steering inputs with and without
nosewheel steering... a minor thing, for sure, but fun to play with!

Auto-brakes don't come on until the NOSEWHEEL TOUCHES DOWN, as in real planes


Various Features:

Go to the "About" menu... the "About" box now gives you your current version of
X-Plane AND THE LATEST VERSION AVAILABLE AT WWW.X-PLANE.COM.

Joystick axis assignments for all TRIMS are now available.

No more turbulence in the overcast layers unless you crank up some turbulence
manually or fly into some really active weather.

FMS improvements: Auto-init to current location, better init when you change
modes, more user-