I'm thrilled to share that X-Plane 12 is just around the corner! According to Laminar Research, it should be out within 24 hours! Edit: It is out now!
Laminar Research was kind enough to give me an opportunity to test X-Plane 12 before release, so I've had a chance to update my products to X-Plane 12! So what all does that entail? Keep reading to find out!
I'd also like to point out these updates will be free to all current users!
Trees
X-Plane 12's new trees are incredible, in fact, one might even say they will blow you away 😉. So I've switched from using my 3d trees to their 3d trees which change with the seasons, are consistent with the style of the rest of the world, and blow in the wind.
Weather
X-Plane 12 has a built in weather effects system. So I've swapped from my own weather effects to using the built in weather effects. Along with looking better, a key feature is a scenery reload is no longer required to see new weather effects. In addition, the system is entirely tied to the weather engine, you see splashes when it's raining, you see puddles accumulate, and dry up, and the same with snow. It is incredibly immersive.
Seasons
X-Plane 12 also has built in seasons! Since I'm using their trees, all the tree seasons are handled by them. I've also removed my own scenery snow effects, snow is now automatically applied to the top of all surfaces by the sim
Compatibility
I've designed my sceneries in a way they should still work in 11, minus seasonal and weather effects. That being said, the X-Plane 11 download versions will still be available on your store account for at least the duration of the beta, most likely quite a bit longer
Sedona
Sedona is not getting an update to X-Plane 12... yet. What!? As you may know, I'm redoing Sedona with the improvements from the MSFS version, as a free update of course. It simply doesn't make sense to add 12 features to a product I'm redoing very shortly anyway. So Sedona users, please, be patient with me, Sedona will be updated in time, and it will be the best looking scenery I've made to date ;).
Releases
Releases are out!
IMPORTANT - Naming Scheme Changes
Back when I was first making sceneries, I made a big mistake, I named them whatever I wanted. But it's time to switch to a consistent naming scheme that makes things easier to organize. The update to 12 provided a perfect time to make this change.
When you download updates, please DELETE the old sceneries before installing the updates. This ensures that you don't have a duplicate package
Screenshots!