Yesterday, Laminar Research made a Twitter post confirming the launch of X-Plane 12 as a final product after Release Candidate 6, meaning it’s no longer under the early access program, which started publicly in September of this year. After three months of hard work and lots of community feedback, X-Plane 12.00 is among us.

The simulator features volumetric 3D clouds, a physics-based photometric lighting model, worldwide 3D water, a full rewrite of the AI Air Traffic Control system, global 3D forests, seasonal textures, weather effects, revamped real weather data, and eight new aircraft (Airbus A330, Cessna Citation X, Lancair Evolution, Cirrus SR22, Piper PA-18 Super Cub, Van’s RV-10, F-14 Tomcat, and the Robinson R-22 with and without floats). 

The minimum specs require at least an i3 or AMD equivalent (Ryzen 3), 23 GB of free disk space, 2 GB of VRAM, and 8 GB of RAM. For optimal performance, you should be rocking at least an Intel i5 8600K or a Ryzen 5 3500, with a 4 GB VRAM GPU (DX12 capable) and 16 GB of RAM. It’s good practice to try out the demo on the official website before making the purchase. 

The full changelog for the RC6 follows down below:

Bug Fixes

Release candidate 6

• fixes white screen on AMD linux
• fixes flashing on vulkan
• fixes hard to see PAPIs

XPD fixes:

• XPD-13617 – Further tuning of exposure and tonemapper settings.
• XPD-13586 – 3-d trees don’t fade if 3-d veg is off.
• XPD-13525 – PAPIs during daylight are really hard to see (actually unlit for practical purposes with rc4).
• XPD-12851 – diagnostic lines not rite color.. WHEN OVERCAST!
• XPD-12823 – White flickering surface over far away ocean.
• XPD-13614 – Control Towers update.
• XPD-13595 – From Bug Report: Beacon light not visible on Super Cub and C90b during daytime.
• XPD-13582 – 737 flap degrees ‘bonkers’.
• XPD-12967 – Add “ready for descent” call for IFR.
• XPD-12960 – Lights look like starbursts.
• XPD-12681 – Visual approach slope indicators (VASI/PAPI) loose the red colour when getting closer.
• XPD-13604 – From Bug Report: Alia 250 changes the users FOV settings.
• XPD-13602 – From Bug Report: c172 vacuum system too high depending on RPM.
• XPD-13596 – From Bug Report: Alia 250 Bristol Livery – Bristol & logo do not stay attached to the door.
• XPD-13593 – From Bug Report: Alia 250 Click regions are missing for the Map zoom for MFD and PFD.
• XPD-13592 – From Bug Report: Alia 250 only Battery 1 is used (cold & dark).
• XPD-13607 – From Bug Report: Alia 250 Pitot Button not a toggle on/off .

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It’s available on the official website and Steam for $59.99.

747 screenshot is courtesy of AllNaturalBlue, and not part of the default aircraft roster. Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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