X-Plane 11 Release in November and more info

[Kyle.Sanders]

http://www.x-plane.com
Looks like there is a way you can by both 10 and 11 as a package for $60 prior to 11 release.

Some bullet points, extracted from official Laminar comments on their Facebook page:

• Backwards compatibility: everything that works in XP10 (aircraft, scenery, plugins) should work in XP11. XP9 addons/planes will probably be too dated to run without compatibility updates.
• New sound engine
• Improved physics/flight dynamics
• XP11 will be more demanding on the hardware compared to XP10 (at a ratio similar to the XP9 -> XP10 shift)
• NO seasonal textures in XP11
• NO changes to weather engine
• NO VR support (planned for indefinite future)
• Price after official release will be $60: equivalent to the current preorder deal
• There will be a Steam distributed version, likely it will hit a bit after the official release

This list of changes doesn't seem like a lot but let us step back and take a look at what has happened in the past:
XP9 -> XP10 = HUGE update. Well worth the $80 I spent

XP10 -> XP10.50 = HUGE progression and amount of updates. It is like a completely new sim to me for FREE. I got my moneys worth TWICE.

XP10.50 -> XP11 = Not such a huge update but I speculate that they need more financial stability to continue what they have in store for updates later on.

I am more than willing to put that money back into this company because I know I am going to get AT LEAST my moneys worth... and maybe then some (per previous history).

[wmburns]

Just wondering what the chances of PE working with X-Plane 11 are. Are there any XP11 PE beta testers out there?

[Kyle.Sanders]

Just wondering what the chances of PE working with X-Plane 11 are. Are there any XP11 PE beta testers out there?

It is said that XP11 will be completely compatible with anything that runs on XP10 right now. It is basically just a lot of new features ADDED to the sim... not really any tweaking of what is already stable in 10.50.

[svilenv]

Some bullet points, extracted from official Laminar comments on their Facebook page:

• Backwards compatibility: everything that works in XP10 (aircraft, scenery, plugins) should work in XP11. XP9 addons/planes will probably be too dated to run without compatibility updates.
• New sound engine
• Improved physics/flight dynamics
• XP11 will be more demanding on the hardware compared to XP10 (at a ratio similar to the XP9 -> XP10 shift)
• NO seasonal textures in XP11
• NO changes to weather engine
• NO VR support (planned for indefinite future)
• Price after official release will be $60: equivalent to the current preorder deal
• There will be a Steam distributed version, likely it will hit a bit after the official release

There's a speculation that they've moved from OpenGL to Vulcan but I haven't seen it confirmed in any official response yet.
Overall a rather lacklustre for a major new version, to be honest: especially not addressing the weather rendering, the excessive performance requirements, lack of seasonal textures. Let's hope more good will come during the life-cycle of XP11 or else I'm afraid X-Plane will start losing the momentum that it has gained in the mainstream sim community during the last 2-3 years

[Kyle.Sanders]

Some bullet points, extracted from official Laminar comments on their Facebook page:

• Backwards compatibility: everything that works in XP10 (aircraft, scenery, plugins) should work in XP11. XP9 addons/planes will probably be too dated to run without compatibility updates.
• New sound engine
• Improved physics/flight dynamics
• XP11 will be more demanding on the hardware compared to XP10 (at a ratio similar to the XP9 -> XP10 shift)
• NO seasonal textures in XP11
• NO changes to weather engine
• NO VR support (planned for indefinite future)
• Price after official release will be $60: equivalent to the current preorder deal
• There will be a Steam distributed version, likely it will hit a bit after the official release

Thanks for the list Svilenv!

This list of changes doesn't seem like a lot but let us step back and take a look at what has happened in the past:
XP9 -> XP10 = HUGE update. Well worth the $80 I spent

XP10 -> XP10.50 = HUGE progression and amount of updates. It is like a completely new sim to me for FREE. I got my moneys worth TWICE.

XP10.50 -> XP11 = Not such a huge update but I speculate that they need more financial stability to continue what they have in store for updates later on.

I am more than willing to put that money back into this company because I know I am going to get AT LEAST my moneys worth... and maybe then some (per previous history).

[zengei]

The actual presentation is worth a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaGDkVhZPfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtJ1qdoCcds

[svilenv]

Kyle, I agree on the price being well worth it, no doubt about it. We've dumped probably 20 times the amount on addons and other 3-rd party sim services for the last 5 years since XP10 came out.

My concern is, especially after also watching the presentation movies, that Laminar are pushing out with this major release mostly "Quality of life" improvements, that might be cool and good to have but are not addressing multiple fundamental deficiencies in the platform which is what most of us were hoping for in a major release. When people - both users and developers - discussed over the years in various community forums what XPlane lacks in comparison to other platforms and what is putting off people from using it, they never talked about lighting, reflections, airport vehicles, sound or the merits and number of included default planes. It was always about having smoother / better rendering experience, utilizing a modern graphical engine, having a weather engine that allows for more more flexibility, control and 3-rd party integration and which can render overcast without bringing $800 GPUs to a grinding halt, having better and more realistic roads & autogen, having seasons and landclass texture variety, exposing better SDK and 2-way APIs for external developers (Simconnect style). We knew we won't get those during the life of XP10: they were all too significant features to expect in a point release. Realizing that we won't get them in XP11 and will have to wait for another 4-5 years is heartbreaking.

Unless - and this is what I hope for - we see significant development during the lifespan of XP11 and plenty of new major features included in point releases. I agree with you: the road from XP 10.0 to 10.5 brought us plenty of news and positive surprises. Let's hope for the same with XP11.

[Kyle.Sanders]

I see your point now and have to agree. Let's be hopeful that XP11 is as you said and is likely to bring at least some of those features.

[tbaac]

I do think people look at P3D screenshots/videos and think they look better than XP ones.
Lighting and fog changes should help XP improve on those, plus the living airports.

I like how the new UI allows choosing a ramp to start from, and showing it on a map (So that rather than starting from GA Parking 12, I'll know where on the airport it is; yes, I could use a chart but that is dependent on the chart matching the model, plus its nice to have it in the UI I think).

I'm looking forward to giving the new C172 a try and the pop-out GPS screens etc. should be nice.

There's no chance of me not buying XP11, but then there's virtually no chance of me not buying Dovetail's new flight sim when it comes out.

[zengei]

Another video with a Q&A at the end at around the one hour mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPyydyyu3zE

(Plus a nice mention of PE from Austin here)