Hi all … X-Plane 11.50b1 has been released. Many questions, many expectations, many doubts or not?

When you want to try it – remember, I’m working and running X-plane on macOS Catalina – I suggest that you install a separate version of X-plane on your desktop or if not too big, make a copy of your current X-Plane and name it in such a way that you know that this is 11.50b1.

Anyway, I did a quick test on my iMac Pro and I was positively surprised. My default X-Plane configuration which is just a basic X-Plane ran in a certain condition 65 FPS but with “Metal” selected, and after a restart, I had under the same conditions 97-99 FPS. Again, it’s just a basic X-Plane configuration with no add on aircraft or airports installed. Yes, you would say .. that’s not fair. We don’t fly with a basic clean X-Plane configuration. Right, I don’t do that either, but for comparison reasons it is a quick and easy way to see what happens when you tick or activate Metal in the Rendering Settings – Graphics.

Do you want to give it a try? It’s worth it although you need to keep in mind that it’s b (beta)1, and please test it with a separate X-Plane package, not your regular package. Questions, thoughts, own experience, just ask or let us know!

We’re more than pleased to inform you that with the approval of Marten or also known as X-Plane.Org user marten@stairport, we are able to host and promote his X-Plane 11 SAM Suite. Oh no, not just an application, no, a great SAM extension called the SAM Suite.

I could only test and try the macOS version and it’s basically an application that allows you to monitor and to install SAM related products like the base plugin, world jetways, static aircrafts, global trees, seasons, and scenery developer pack. When not installed, you can download these packages, or you can click the “more detail” button.

According to Marten; This is the SAM Suite – Installer and Updater version 1.0. The download package is a pack that combines all OS systems namely; Windows, Linux and Mac.

Check it out at our dedicated download page.

This is so sad that I have to do this, but I see no other way for the time being.

It’s April 2020 and we’re aware that it’s at the moment a crazy time. We’re aware that many people worldwide are suffering or even worse from the Corona virus or COVID-19. It does’t make any difference right now where you life ….. The virus is every where! Only problem for me is that I’ve noticed that more and more account requests from persons worldwide are becoming aggressive and ordering me to give them an account. Perhaps some are frustrated or whatever the reason is.

I do understand that it’s terrible for everybody, but it can’t be that when I try to keep X-Plained.Com up and running and helping people worldwide that “one person” thinks he/she can write what he/she wants, only to get “a” download package! Some of them are not even taking the time to read the text in the introduction section of the contact form. I’ve also got my stress regarding the Corona virus or COVID-19, but I can’t tolerate this any longer. I maintain X-Plained.Com with a lot of fun with my team members, but when new account requests are no longer based on “open minded people”, and just commanding to do “this and that”, then it’s time for action.

That said, the registration will be temporarily disabled “at least” till the end of April 2020, but will be most likely extended. We apologise for any inconvenience.

You can still use the contact form for any other questions, thoughts or suggestions, but not for requesting a new account. New account or download requests are, keep that in mind, not answered!

Thank You for your understanding.

On behalf of all our staff members,
Angelique van Campen

Normally we don’t announce every new update of a free or payware product, but this time there’s a need to since this add-on is widely used.

We’re pleased to inform you that Better Pushback version 0.48 has been updated to use with the current OS systems and with the upcoming Vulkan and Metal X-Plane 11.50. According to developer “skiselkov” This is a pushback plugin for the X-Plane 11 flight simulator. It provides an overhead view to plan a pushback route and accomplishes a fully automated “hands-off” pushback, letting the user focus on aircraft startup and other pilot duties during pushback. It can of course also tow you forward, or perform any arbitrarily complicated pushback operation. To increase immersion, it speaks to you in a variety of languages and accents, simulating ground staff at various places around the world.

The updated Better Pushback comes with the following enhancements:

• Rewrote path rendering to add support for Vulkan and Metal rendering in X-Plane 11.50
• Asynchronous tug loading – starting pushback will no longer lag the simulator as BetterPushback is loading in the tug model. Instead, the load will happen invisibly in the background.

Bugfixes:

• Implemented workaround for when X-Plane returns inverted-Y coordinate at certain sceneries using custom terminal buildings with inverted normals on the roof.

You can download the latest Better Pushback from the dedicated Github web page.

X-Plained.Com would like to share the following news with you, coming from Orbx and modeled by Orbx developer Tony Wroblewski.

Orbx has released today, March 29th, EGCK Caernarfon Airport. Created by developer TrueEarth developer Tony Wroblewski, the entire airfield has been modelled in superb detail from extensive real-world photography and numerous site visits offering unmatched realism and accuracy. Caernarfon (pronounced [KUH] + [NAA] + [VUHN]) (Maes Awyr Caernarfon) is a lovely general aviation airport located right in the heart of Snowdonia, North Wales, in one of the most scenic and popular tourist areas in the UK.

The airport and all the recent extensions and new buildings from summer 2019 have been included ensuring that the airport is as close as possible to the real airport and will remain so for many years to come.

Features

• Ultra HD 2cm/px bespoke hand-painted ground textures for the immediate airport area
• 30cm/px imagery for the surrounding area
• Custom and unique ground vehicles and aircraft
• Accurately and superbly modelled buildings
• Detailed 3D fencing, signage and equipment
• HD hand-crafted PBR materials for the airport buildings
• Historic RAF Llandwrog buildings
• Surrounding POIs such as Morfa Holiday Park, Fort Belan and farmland buildings
• Blends seamlessly with Orbx TrueEarth Great Britain Central
• Animated and functional signal square, anemometer and windsock

More information about this X-Plane 11 airprot can be found at the dedicated Orbx web page.

We’re pleased to share with you the following incoming news from Aussi, developer of OpenSceneryX. For those who aren’t aware of OpenSceneryX or just new to X-Plane, OpenSceneryX is a collection of objects which is mostly used for freeware airports. Although freeware airports also need other libraries, OpenSceneryX is perhaps the most important of them. And yes, there are exceptions like the US Virginia airports from Marc Leydecker aka Belga 12345 who models his own airports without the use of any other library.

Hi all, there is a new release of OpenSceneryX out. The installer application has not changed, so if you still have the installer on your machine, just re-run it and it will update the library to the latest. If you have deleted the installer, grab a copy from the OpenSceneryX website.

Here are the changes from version 4.4.0 28th March 2020

New scenery objects in this version:
Incorporated some new items from the SAM Seasons SDK Library by the SAM team into OpenSceneryX, which includes:

• Spring seasonal variants for all FlyAgi’s vegetation.
• A set of dirt and grass ground polygons.
• A set of snowy lines and polygons.
• A collection of snow pile objects (which only appear in snowy conditions).
• OpenSceneryX’s first decal! The decal is a snowy overlay to add detail to textures in snowy winter conditions.
  Note that the SAM Seasons SDK library is not fully incorporated, because it contains a lot of content that is not relevant to OpenSceneryX such as the colour variations that are specific to SAM.

Modified scenery objects in this version:
Updated to latest release of the SAM Seasons SDK Library, including:

• Updated summer, autumn, winter and winter (snow) textures.
• Improvements to some forests.

First phase of work to ensure all textures have DDS versions:

• All facades done.
• All lines done.
• All polygons done.

Moved CT-114 to subfolder to avoid problems with documentation category.
All forests of boats are now only drawn on water surfaces.

Other changes:

• Added support in the Library for season switching using the xEnviro Plugin.
• The website has been updated to include decals.
• For deep snowy winter season, we now fall back to standard snowy winter season variants to provide snow when deep snow variants are not available.
• For Terramaxx deep snowy winter season, we now fall back to deep snowy winter and standard snowy winter season variants to provide snow when Terramaxx-specific deep snow variants are not available.
• Updated the Backup Library to v2.7.0