Dark Space Releases xEnviro 1.20 for X-Plane 12

April 22, 2023
X-Plane
OTHER
MSFS

Dark Space has recently released the long-awaited version 1.20 of xEnviro, making it fully compatible with X-Plane 12, bringing realistic weather simulation to the newly released flight simulation platform. 

xEnviro 1.20 is an adaptation of 1.18 for the new platform, with a similar feature set and improved performance: no more than 10% of the framerate is compromised once the weather engine is running (using the recommended settings), making it more performant than 1.18 was. The full changelog follows down below:

### Added

- New architecture to accomodate procedural changes.

### Changed

- Sound processor temporary disabled.

- Visual effects temporary disabled.

- Cloud shader revision.

- Shaders moved to HDR rendering.

- More accurate light phase with glory and fogbow.

- Default X-Plane precipitation temporary enabled.

- Aerodrome surface set using X-Plane runway condition.

- UI colors changed to match X-Plane palette.

### Removed

- Sounds settings.

- Realistic aerial perspective.

- Realistic night perspective.

- Control water waves.

- Draw wet aerodrome surface.

- Draw drifting snow.

- Draw snow in mountains.

- Seasonal changes.

- Windshield effects.

- Volumetric aircraft lights effect.

- Lens flares.

- Diffraction spikes.

- Glorious sun.

- Custom rain.

- Custom snow.

- City lights.

The developer highlights that certain features were now temporarily removed and currently relying on native X-Plane functionalities, such as the xE sounds, waves, and seasonal changes. It is also stated that they will try to re-implement the features they have removed (refer to #removed in the changelog above).

Featuring industry-standard sky modeling, physics-based cloud visualization, and weather and time-dependent changes in atmospheric lighting, xEnviro aims to bring truly volumetric clouds to the world of X-Plane 12.

xE 1.20 is a free upgrade for previous owners of the X-Plane 11 version. They state it will remain a free upgrade for the foreseeable future: “All updates within 2023 and likely 2024 will be free. A transition to 2.0 version would necessitate a substantial upgrade from the current capabilities of version 1.18”, stated the developer.

It’s available on Threshold Store for $69.69, requiring at least a GTX 1050Ti or equivalent for the bare minimum and an RTX 2070 or equivalent for optimal performance. 

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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