Laminar Research has recently published a new short-term roadmap for X-Plane 12, delineating the next steps for versions 12.05 and 12.06. 

With every 12.0X release, they aim to stabilize the product, complete or tune planned features, and improve performance. Since the early access release in late 2022, they have been working on maximizing X-Plane 12’s potential and overall experience with many bug fixes, improved AMD card performance, NOAA weather processing, and more.

For version 12.05, which is currently in Release Candidate, they plan to improve the A330 flight experience with a fully custom MCDU, autopilot, and flight systems. Based on real pilot feedback, the simulator’s flight model was also improved, better matching the real world. 

In the near future, 12.06 will deliver the result of three months worth of rendering engine improvements, according to their claim, with new cirrus clouds, lower VRAM use, improved cloud rendering in general, and OpenXR integration for VR folks.

It will also bring several ATC/AI improvements, with AI aircraft behaving more realistically, better conveying the experience of flying close to other aircraft. 

Even further ahead, they have already made plans for 12.07, which should focus on improving lighting, water mixed render targets, networking fixes, atmospheric scattering, turbine engine improvements, and more.

There’s no release date for the updates yet, but Threshold will keep you informed!

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