X-Plane 12 and major updates

Laminar Research recently posted development news for X-Plane 12 and announced the next milestone, the early access release of X-Plane 12.

We are part of the X-Plane developers workspace and thanks to the access, all of the packages (X-EUROPE, X-AMERICA, X-AFRICA, X-ASIA, X-AUSTRALIA-OCEANIA, X-ANTARCTICA) are already adapted for XP12 and actually in the final generation, including the new vegetation and with (besides the current OSM data) much more (exactly 788,235,841) Microsoft global building footprints to complete the landscapes all over the world.

Here’s an overview what’s coming next to illustrate the versions you’ll soon be able to download and fly:

X-Plane 11X-Plane 12tiles per layer
X-EUROPE 5.11X-WORLD Europe1,667
X-AFRICA 4.0X-WORLD Africa2,711
X-AMERICA 4.0X-WORLD America4,577
X-ANTARCTICA 4.0X-WORLD Antarctica102
X-ASIA 4.0X-WORLD Asia6,231
X-AUSTRALIA-OCEANIA 4.0X-WORLD Australia-Oceania1,405

200 gigabytes of data are processed to create over 116,000 tiles. The versions for XP11 and XP12 are almost identical, for XP12 there will be some changes to use the new vegetation, so a new vegetation library is required. The overlap of adjacent packages will be optimised to ensure an impressive flight without gaps between continents. X-A packages will then have the latest developments from X-EUROPE. All new versions for XP11 and XP12 and the new vegetation library will be released at the start of the public beta of XP12 (when it is not on my holiday😊).

Updates v2.0 for all X-A packages

Microsoft published on github computer generated building footprints for various countries: USA, Canada, Australia and parts of South America and Africa. Thanks to user @ueid who did the script, we are proud that we now included these footprints into the sceneries to complete and fill poor OSM data.

An impressive number of 213,442,146 buildings are newly added to the continental sceneries.

See the difference for e.g. Oklahoma City:

More screenshots at x-plane.org and Aerosoft forum (in German)

The last months and weeks I generated > 100,000 tiles, some multiple times, and > 32 GB of data. And we reworked US houses and churches, thanks to Pete for his help. New versions 2.0 are available for

  • X-AMERICA
  • X-AFRICA
  • X-AUSTRALIA-OCEANIA
  • X-ANTARCTICA
  • X-ASIA

Key features of the new versions 2.0:

  • built on latest OSM data
  • Microsoft building footprints included where available
  • Layer 3a-details included (you may already know from X-Europe)
  • new elements: noise-barriers, car repairs, car shops, furniture shops, IKEAs, fire-stations, transformer-towers
  • improved facades, house objects

Downloads at https://simheaven.com/xp11-sceneries/

E.g. take a stroll along the skyline of Toronto Canada and discover all the new little details: 😊

X-EUROPE Details and Update 5.6

A new additional package has been added: X-EUROPE Details, adding very small objects to your scenery, it’s especially for low altitude flyers, helicopter pilots, car drivers. 😉 Normal flyers don’t need it as most of the additional objects can’t be seen at >1,000 ft AGL. So this package is not included in X-EUROPE, it’s a separate download.

X-EUROPE 5.6 Update

Even the X-EUROPE download has been updated to v5.6, now showing noise barriers, colleges, transformer towers and 81 new vfr objects.

X-EUROPE v5.6 ia available as update 5.5.1 to 5.6 (1.8 GB) or as full download (7.8 GB)

Updates of all continental packages

Since last week, X-EUROPE v5.5 is online amongst other things with improved solar plants/fields:

Now all other packages are updated with the newest improvements of X-EUROPE, the version was raised to 1.2 for all other continents to have the same version

X-AFRICA 1.2
Full download (2.1 GB)

X-AMERICA 1.2
Update 1.0.3 to 1.2 (2.12 GB)
Full download (5.48 GB)

X-ANTARCTICA 1.2
Full download (185 MB)

X-ASIA 1.2
Update 1.1 to 1.2 (1.4 GB)
Full download (4.44 GB)

X-AUSTRALIA-OCEANIA 1.2
Update 1.0.2 to 1.2 (248 MB)
Full download (586 MB)