X-Plane 10.50 is out

One of the first things you'll notice immediately is the splash screen which now provides you with a lot more information. You can click the image above to see how it looks now. The loading screen also seems to disappear faster, meaning the initial load is faster.

The list of changes is quite extensive:

New and updated global airports

• Total airports with 3-D scenery in the 10.50 release: 3102
• New airports with 3-D scenery since the 10.45 release: 626

New Features & Improvements

• New U.S. city autogen.
• Improved Baron & King Air.
• Global winds aloft files.
• Better AI airplane flight… they now fly a bit more realistically.
• When you enable a net connections usage, we now auto-select a beacon to use if possible (rather than giving you the default, raw IP).
• Added support for autoconfig of Control Pad and Xavion.
• Stratus clouds look better from above.
• Better randomization of AI parking spots.
• Added “engine” notifications, so that sim components have access to all the same hooks as the plugin system via XPLMEventHook().
• We can now separate Steam from non-Steam users in our analytics data.
• Particle emitters now take rulers. This makes it unnecessary to put static animations around most emitters. This also fixes a bug where particle physics on the airplane OBJs was run at 2x speed.
• New prompts to complete installation and/or scenery with authorized sim.
• New meta-data key/value pair code. It also provides a new meta-data key to force flattening on a per-airport basis.
• Updated credits & improved layout.
• Swapped the order of the aircraft in A/B testing & added sample size analysis.
• Auto-tuning when using Nearby ATC box can now be turned on and off.
• Much better real weather diagnostics, and also we now scan through the TIME of the MDEG metar report, as should always have been there.
• Much faster (about 1000x faster) sorting on the commands list in the key-to-command screen, which takes the UI from annoying to smooth.
• Settings screen is no longer deleted on hide (makes for faster re-opens).
• On-screen notification if download of real weather fails.
• We can also steer tv-guided bombs and missiles with a joystick axis, cool!
• Airfoil maker allowed to have smaller linear range, as needed to simulate iced or damaged foils, for example.
• For Carrier Ops, LSO calls are a little more accurate, with phraseology that is now official standard, and based on angles of attack that are appropriate for the airplane (but be sure to set the stall warning angle of attack in Plane-Maker in the viewpoint screen!)
• Strobe lites in the clouds set now to only happen when totally IN the clouds, so it does NOT affect scenery at nite when turned on like is used to. Break-out to visual at the cloud bases, as we needed all along.
• Now we don’t delete the global wind and turb files, and we have then named in a way that makes sense for others to write to them as desired.
• We load the afl every time we load the acf because the afl might have changed along with the acf!
• Safe save – keeps old ACF around.
• Removed ground targets on the HUD.
• Limit thrust to 0, not below 0, to keep things from getting crazy when we fly jet engines into orbit.
• Labels for movies and other warnings are now much easier to read, the movie messages are centered, the pulsing text easier to read.
• Crash limit set from 20 g to 10 g.
• No-op manips can take dateref and tooltip for training purposes.
• New command to download all weather files.
• Trimming out actual elevator deflection in pitch, not just the autopilot deflection. This will give slightly more accurate pitch trim, which will not fight with the elevator deflection in planes with art stability.
• Joystick not applied to flight controls if user not flying cause ai is flying! Joystick calls not needed in that case.
• Effects like prop disc now behave as expected in replay mode.
• We now load the mouse cursor bitmaps all at once and cache them for future use (XPD-6181).
• Slightly more data logging for net-tracking.
• Plotting aircraft now in the slightly tilted attitude needed by the nearby coord-system origin.
• Now the glideslope info for the profile view on the IOS as sent across the net by nav ID, not index! This allows us to have the profile work across the net with different apt databases!
• When calculating string tiles, the LAST slop gets skipped since we can’t actually overlaps the tile.
• Changed the way prop discs are loaded. They are now on the aircraft’s veh_prop_class so that they are accurate PER ENGINE. This also means that texture’s can be shared in memory if 2+ engines have the same prop. Lastly, it allows for goofy configurations like a gyrocopter that has a rotor and a propeller.
• Stall warnings a little more accurate: do not depend on avionics switch, and reed switches do not depend on battery.
• Planes now go around if a crash is imminent, and are also better about not kicking in rudder at low altitudes, which will crash an airliner.
• Updated beacon port to 49707 by default, split the receiving sockets, clarified the error messages and updated the documentation.
• New hint messages during loading screen.
• Minor serial-port PFC hardware improvements.
• FDR (Flight Data Recorder) window tracks monitor res to let you see a lot more on larger monitors.
• Various bis of frame-rate improvement here and there, to increase frame-rate overall and also reduce pauses!

Fixes for Airplane Authors & Developers

• New datarefs:
  • sim/operation/override/override_airport_lites  – int y boolean overrides when the airport lites go on and off.
  • sim/graphics/scenery/airport_lights_on   – int y boolean Are the airport lites on? set override_airport_lites to 1 to write this.
  • sim/private/controls/puff/terrain_dust_ratio – 0 is none. 1.0 is X-Plane default. and also you can add… MORE!
  • sim/cockpit2/weapons/gun_offset_heading_ratio – float y ratio Heading offset of the gun from within its maximum heading range
  • sim/cockpit2/weapons/gun_offset_pitch_ratio – float y ratio Pitch offset of the gun from within its maximum pitch range

   

• Datarefs now available to control volume of each radio… You can now use a generic rheostat assigned to the dataref to set the volume of any radio!
• X-Plane will provide the current world model-view, projection, and aircraft model-view matrices to plugins via datarefs.
• We resize the property table in the lower left when an animation model is changed on a group.
• Fixed instrument selection and list change in Plane Maker.
• Fix memory scribble when deselecting generics in Plane Maker.
• False alarm in debug code for instrument save: instrument save code would alert if a non-custom unused drag radius was saved on a non-draggable needle or pointer (XPD-6056).
• Fixed bugs tabbing between instruments in Plane Maker.
• We were not showing fuel on the right side of the plane in the load0out screen! Now we are!
• Panel animation IO code permanent and not conditional. This way if you save a group-animated panel in regular X-Plane you DO NOT LOSE your data!!
• Better alert messages for demo users–can use digital download, installer or buy DVDs to get scenery.
• Wrek works about as well as one might expect in replay without having to work backwards or use more ram.
• USB key is re-checked at start before demo warning.
•  Added autopilot basic mode to hold a rate of turn.
• Global plugin tropopause values are now read/writeable to plugins. Tropopause variables allows to squeeze or stretch the stratosphere depending on where the the troposphere actually begins. Tropopause altitude and troposphere temperature allow a much better weather depiction in non-mid latitudes (polar and tropical regions).
• New autopilot axis options: default to pitch or roll or none at all!
• Added wreck flag to Plane Maker.
• Engine screen in Plane-Maker: New field for thrust reverse area, for more accurate thrust reverser drag!
• Airfoils are now loaded whenever you load an aircraft, even if it is the same aircraft you already had open.

  This is in case you changed any airfoils in the background while X-Plane was still flying.

Weapon systems improvements

Weapons systems improved quite a bit, with some passable precision-guided weapons delivery now possible!

• WEAPON-SELECTION: Choose individual weapons or weapon type. The display is much better now, and clearly shows the selected weapon as flashing.
• CAMERA: There can be up to ONE camera on the airplane, which may be steered with a joystick! Simply get a SECOND joystick, and assign the axis to camera steering and zoom to steer and zoom the on-board camera! On-board camera is one of the instruments you can drop in the plane in Plane-Maker.
• GUN: Aircraft can have one gun. It MAY be steered, if desired, by joystick. Simply get a SECOND (or THIRD!) joystick, and assign the axis to gun/bomb steering to steer the gun!
• AIR TO AIR MISSILES: The [ and ] key target other airplanes for missile guidance. Up to 24 total weapons may be carried (some or all of which may be missiles) and a dataref will be provided to re-load the craft in flight if you ever want to re-stock in flight.
• UNGUIDED ROCKETS: For the unguided rockets, they live in a pod, invisible until fired, and up to 99,999 rockets may be stored in the pod. A dataref will be provided to re-load the craft in flight if you ever want to re-stock in flight.
• UNGUIDED BOMBS: Up to 24 total weapons may be carried (some or all of which may be bombs) and a dataref will be provided to re-load the craft in flight if you ever want to re-stock in flight.
• TV-GUIDED AIR TO GROUND GUIDED BOMBS AND MISSILES: TV-guided missiles require constant steering by the pilot with the mouse by dragging around the + icon on the camera… very very tricky to do… nearly impossible when flying an airplane or helo. AND I added something REALLY COOL: The GUN/BOMB STEERING ALSO steers the TV-guided bombs and rockets! If you have a joystick axis assigned to the gun/bomb steering, then it will steer the TV-guided bombs as well!
• LASER-GUIDED AIR TO GROUND BOMB: There will be a targeting reticle in the middle of the camera. Any laser-guided bomb will go for that target!
• GPS-GUIDED AIR TO GROUND GUIDED BOMBS AND MISSILES: There will be a targeting reticle in the middle of the camera. When a joystick button is pressed (joystick buttons screen, around the middle, labeled Target camera pointer in GPS) or command is sent in (sim/weapons/GPS_lock_here), whatever the targeting reticle was looking at at the moment is LOCKED IN as the GPS destination for future bombs and missiles! When desired, let them fly!

Bug Fixes

Fixed for RC 3:

• Take AG fix for buildings (XPD-6529).
• Fix backward control surfaces  when a third party aircraft uses the wrong control surface (XPD-6591).
• Updated METAR URL to new address (XPD-6450).
• Added copy ctor to dout_lines object to avoid writing COM radios into wrong temp memory (XPD-6539).
• Updated earth_fix.dat and earth_nav.dat.
• Now the stall warn test works.
• Fixed crash with G1000.
• Do not allow commands to be run inside an alert box. Fixes crash when pressing movie record twice in a row when EFIS app is up (XPD-6532).
• Hid pylon column from failures (XPD-6536).
• We have to restore the diffuse material every time we change the shader (XPD-6527).

Fixed for RC 2:

• Updated translations for new DRM dialogs, and added TRAN() to region alerts (XPD-6209).
• Removed long function ptr type in event hook, which wasn’t safe for passing string ptrs to the XPLM in scenery hook.
• Fixed C-130 taxi and takeoff.
• Now we don’t clear avio bus bits in plane load. This should fix weird power draws on planes that incorrectly have the avio bus src unchecked but do have a load and have some kind of avio usage on the panel (XPD-6502).
• Art control timeout for run loop set to 5 ms. This prevents missing runways for users.
• Includes art fixes for King Air, Baron & KLAX scenery.
• Fixed random resets of systems in plugin-driven aircraft when AI aircraft crash.
• Fixed max deflection of low speed nose wheel when not using a hardware tiller.
• Fixed automatic cursor selection on new knob manipulators when two of the same manipulator are used in different parts of the OBJ file.

Fixed for RC 1:

• Plane Maker & Desktop PDF manual updates for 1050 (XPD-5840).
• Fixed water reflection offset in normals (XPD-6484).
• Fixed goofy use of asymmetric dual window IOS for PFC (XPD-6482).
• New data refs and version bump (XPD-6409, XPD-6453, XPD-6455).
• Includes latest King Air with fuel flow fix (XPD-6479).
• Turned off “fat edges” of click zones in 3-d (XPD-6390).
• Fixed incorrect width check for AI and static aircraft (XPD-6475).
• Restored prop datarefs from mobile. Fixes dead prop power knob in ATR-72 (XPD-6420).
• Phase alpha and beta out to 0 at 0 speed – this prevents jitter of alpha and beta when plane is not flying.
• Take off distance accuracy improved a little bit for ATC.

Fixed for Beta 7:

• Support for latest version of Xavion.
• Fixed missing normal maps on airplanes (XPD-6456).
• Fixed airport lights randomly flickering on and off at EGLL and other airports (XPD-6412).
• Fixed normal and night textures from liveries being ignored.
• Fixed Z-thrash between objects in the roads group and draped roads, e.g. at EDDP custom scenery (XPD-6412).
• Fixed rare crash when reloading scenery due to settings change.
• Fixed crash when a custom third party DSF contains invalid .ags polygon parameters.
• Fixed AI Aircraft taking off into the user’s aircraft when the user is on a runway and not talking to ATC (XPD-6452).
• AI Aircraft won’t land or be created at airports that don’t have gates big enough to accommodate them (XPD-4408).
• Command list for Plane-Maker updated to include all 10.50 commands.
• French translation updated.
• Searching in the airport window won’t match city names and other meta-data unless they are an exact match (XPD-6464).
• Removed on-screen warnings when internet data output is disabled (XPD-6411).

Fixed for Beta 6:

• Select more reasonable range for AI airport selection so we don’t revert to planet-wide search when local search fails.
• Winds.rwx no longer downloaded, though we still scan it (XPD-6450).
• Tweaks to AI flying.
• Updated extra runway lights (XPD-6434).
• We don’t drop unbound key handlers – x-assign uses them (XPD-6438).
• Fixed crash in .grib load.  We now explicitly check for null file handle and also set the path to full.
• Lock semantics on all art assets were WRONG. This attempts to fix race conditions in obj-load and obj/tex/art asset release.
• Reverse thrust & beta fixed (XPD-6435).
• Fixed crash due to no airports. If you let the AI fly the X-15 and it flew too far from other airports the sim could crash.
• Fixes black textures in A-310 and crashes. This should cover crashes changing airports, “negative ref count” errors,

  and any black textures on airplanes, including crashes loading the JAR A-330 on startup.

• ATC crash fixes: filing flight plan to seaport or helipad, crash in flight route handler (XPD-6399).
• Livery substitution does subdirectories (XPD-6194).
• Makes green button zoom and not full screen on OSX (XPD-6158).
• Fixed crash when starting at scenery pack that has the Nimitz due to cull sphere changing (XPD-6437).
• Updated earth_fix.dat and earth_nav.dat.
• ATC controller cab build-up is double-async…fixes some pauses while flying. This is a perf improvement to avoid pauses due to AFTC while flying.

Fixed for Beta 5

• Fixed LODs on Gateway airports (XPD-6325).
• Typo fix for hints screen (XPD-6424).
• Flight director bars appear in C90B artificial horizon (XPD-6413).
• C400 oil pressure gauge fixed.
• Fixed crashed due to bogus road data. Filter tries to fix input road data from w2xp_net.
• No longer look for Zulu time in Mdeg & alert for scanning weather.
• Author window back in Plane Maker.
• Fixed bad ref counting on untextured objects. Fixes black airplanes and crashes changing planes.
• Fixed out of bound memory read to fix crashes in autogen ATC layout system.
• Fixed XPLMCountPlanes API to fix warning about number of multiplayer planes in XSB.
• Fixed AI plane descent to be smoother.
• Removed internet data output warning when there’s no receiver.
• Fixed reverse thrust.
• Fixed duplicate command names.
• Winds no longer plotted on the weather screen.
• Fixed log.txt file creation.
• Log book writes when file is erased but does not self-erase on auto-update (re-fixes XPD-6141).
• Mouse wheel zooming isn’t eaten by manips it crosses (partial of XPD-5161).
• Better defaults for video recording.
• Don’t issue same-name nearby fixes twice. Prevents colocated points when PILUN is in route (XPD-6235).
• Fix for crash in airport picker if meta-data is filled in (XPD-6433).

Fixed for Beta 4

• Fix for crash on start due to missing object.
• Fix for AI aircraft flying too slowly.
• Layer order was unstable between default .pol and base taxiway when collector was in use. Fixed by forcing pol to be 1 lower than taxiways (XPD-6407).

Fixed for Beta 3

• ADF fixed in B-58 (XPD-6375, 6380, 6383).
• Stall warning alpha corrected in B-58 (XPD-6374).
• Object on C90 door removed (XPD-6402).
• B-58 instrument panel shadow is now solid (XPD-6384).
• Better scaling of weapons console.
• Make sure primary monitor on Windows is always main display (XPD-6393).
• Access to CG and mass of all weapons.
• Fix memory scribble when extruding scenery (XPD-6405).
• Removed last squawk about missing lights from log.
• Capped taxi speed at 25 kts.
• Toned down MDEG to log error and not quit sim. People would get booted out of their flight because an add-on delivered OOB weather. (XPD-6391).
• Fixes the bug where the beta would say “authorization is successful” and then be stuck in demo mode.
• Fixed crash on road drape if there are cracks in the DSF mesh. We also use the DEM in 64-bits for much faster draping (XPD-6398).
• Fixed plane falling through solid objects onto roads (XPD-6396).
• Fixed broken lights on all airplanes. Light init must be AFTER plugin load so that data refs for lights can be resolved (XPD-6387).
• Better macibm alerts.
• Fixed crash with no GRIB.
• Progress bar no longer off screen.

Fixed for Beta 2

• Fixed crash when starting Plane-Maker on Windows with an aircraft with attached objects.
• Fixed crash on startup of X-Plane with plugins that load objects, e.g. SeaTraffic, GroundVehicles.
• Fixed missing static aircraft on gateway aircraft.
• Fixed missing new autogen city scenery – the new autogen was accidentally not included in beta 1.
• Fixed crash when third party scenery contains un-textured objects.
• Fixed objects floating in the sky.
• Fixed missing taxi lines on airports.
• Fixed overlapping items in basic joystick button setup screen.

Fixed for Beta 1

• We no longer nag the user about single engine planes pulling left if they aren’t in the C172 (XPD-6354).
• Fixing dout_line com radio problems. This refactors the way read-only and empty dout lines are handled to fix com radios and make things more readable (XPD-6268).
• Fix for hitting dev assert when you open-close-reopen the interaction recorder window.
• Disabled the floating windows’ popout button (XPD-6342).
• Changed layer order to prevent non-flush approach lights at KSAN 27 (XPD-6346).
• Instancing state could get borked if an obj’s LODs were not all the same instance-able.
• Stop inet listening on ALL modals. This fixes a bug where snap recall is called re-entrantly when the missing scenery modal is up due to a snap recall. Fixes bug where IOS hangs if no scenery at location of master machine.
• Collector takes object param – fixes broken PAPIs.
• Fix for infinite wait in crash reporter due to attempting to write to debug log.
• Fixed shading of local maps.
• Turned off auto-initialializing a flight once again.
• Fixed crash when showing non-instance light-only OBJs with collector.
• Fixed overlap in GPS (XPD-6179).
• Track previous state so assertions are valid. Fixes load of Carenado C90.
• After a custom light, ATTR_lit_level change need to be deferred, not immediate, because we don’t have a shader changed.

  Fixes crash in Carenado C90, and is faster too.

• Weather downloading not turned on when you only hit the button to SCAN weather.
• Fix for the way we jump straight into the sim (old way could give us a null texture).
• Restored functionality of “external visual tracks view” check box.
• Fixed uninited var that could cause seg fault on OS X.
• Do not let FM run before the plane is loaded – but DO let it run when the IOS is up.
• No more crash when you hit the scan real weather lots of times really fast.
• obj plot callback was ignoring model view changes, and thus obj culling wouldn’t work when transform was applied.
• Ground lights moved into collector to fix bug with black quads at LOWI in non-HDR mode
• Fix clipped generic instrument preview in PLN (XPD-6290).
• Fixed messed up wire frame in plane-maker (XPD-6287).
• If you’re running an authenticated demo download, we *always* pop up the nag to complete your install (XPD-6285).
• Fix for missing break, resulting in wrong error message when checking sim version.
• Fixed internet-output-disabled warning messages on the data output system when not called for.
• road bug fixes:
  • Interpolation of Y when rebuilding roads is linear in world space,

    not parameter space. This prevents us from making S curves when we

    didn’t mean to.

  • Clusters of ramps connected to other ramps on the ground are

    treated as draped – this makes ramp clusters look less silly.

   

• Fixed pointers to transient locals in dout, fixing a crash when we attempted to write to invalidated pointers (XPD-6271).
• Fix for crash caused by no-machine-ID alerts at an inopportune time (XPD-6277).
• We now go straight to the sim after the XDD grace period message, instead of showing a confusing “Authorization Successful” message (XPD-6264).
• A command received over network acted differently than a command received from a joystick. This fix solves the asymmetry and makes sure commands work the same regardless their origin being joystick or network.
• We no longer disable ATC when there is no FP and no AI planes.
• CMND packet handles third party commands and aliases too.
• Lat and long corrected in data output.
• Fix for global USB key not exiting the startup-time DRM modal dialog (XPD-6274).
• Uninitialized variable used (XPD-6302).
• Bug fixed where fuel flow on multi-engine planes was too low.make clicking in buy button for proj key work (XPD-6263).
• Fixed illegal access to geoid in threaded park proc.
• DRM visibly doesn’t request re-auth after 11 days when in grace period (XPD-6264).
• Modal windows aren’t visible (XPD-6260).
• Fixed broken lower right corner of round rect (XPD-6233).
• Click on the map to place an airplane on the IOS and it works properly.
• The glide-slope profile plot on the ios works for p==0 even if there are other planes as well.
• Fixed regional DRM.
• No more cockpit window coming up on IOS when a new airplane is loaded due to a situation file being chosen.
• Fail at speed, alt, and time all work when controlled by IOS.
• Now we see the word PAUSE on the master when paused on the IOS!
• Road bug fixes (XPD-6132, XPD-5313, XPD-5945).
• Fixed screwed up airplane starting.
•  Fix for “can’t get MID” messages appearing on setups where the MID isn’t essential (XPD-6245).
• Fix for dev_assert caused by attempting to use the log system before it’s been initialized (XPD-6244).
• Arrows work immediately to control the camera after closing the map window with the return key (XPD-5145).
• Don’t dev assert on bind from worker thread -this is legal now (XPD-6236).
• We now use overcast clouds in our QFL storms (XPD-6175).
• Fix for self-tests that crash when you have custom commands defined (XPD-6162).
• ATC will not vector a go-around aircraft until it clears 400 feet AGL…this prevents it from encouraging the AI to make dangerous steep low turns (XPD-6115).
• Ramp starts had uninitialized data if we hit the “there are no ramp starts at all case.”

Your X-Plane copy should update itself when you run it. One of the things that I noticed missing is a couple of airports mentioned on the official list

I have seen reports of X-Plane users that indicate they needed to reinstall it from scratch which would be weird, provided scenery is pretty much "drag and drop". I will need to investigate this matter a bit more.

Are you using 10.50? What do you think about it?

Let us know on the comments section below.