Laminar has during during #FSExpoFriday 2025 given an update on the future of X-Plane 12, with performance improvements, art upgrades, and major simulation system enhancements all in active development. The team confirmed that version 12.2.1 will enter public beta next Friday, while the highly anticipated 12.3.0 release will begin private beta testing the same day.

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The presentation began with a recap of version 12.2, which is now publicly available. Key fixes and visual improvements include updated ground textures, revised lighting and atmospheric rendering, new aircraft braking effects, and a resolution to the long-standing dark cockpit issue, significantly improving visibility across default aircraft.

Laminar also previewed upcoming additions to the X-Plane Gateway, with new community-driven assets currently in development. These include various fire trucks, police cars, construction vehicles, enhanced ramp lighting, and improved ground markings. Much of this work is being led by newly joined scenery artist Justin, also known as Mr. X, and the team highlighted the ability to customise ramps with new compass roses, labels, and colours.

The upcoming 12.3.0 version will introduce a foundational shift in how X-Plane uses CPU resources. Laminar has confirmed that multi-core rendering is now in development, with a new job system already built to handle AI traffic, texture paging, and network synchronisation. Internal testing has demonstrated performance gains of up to 30% at graphically intensive airports, such as Frankfurt.

Additional optimisation targets GPU and VRAM usage. Laminar is currently refining cloud rendering and night lighting processes, which should result in greater efficiency and reduced GPU workload, particularly beneficial for users running in 4K. Laminar is adopting new virtual memory techniques, to speed up texture loading and safely offload unused graphical assets.

The default Airbus A330 is set for a major update, with reworked metallic surfaces, improved textures, detailed weathering and glare shield fixes.

Furthermore, brake fire simulations, refined lighting and cabin ambience, dynamic passenger lighting, and altitude-aware illumination modes were also shown off.

A major technical addition is a fully GPU-bound weather radar, integrated by default on the default Boeing 737-800, A330-300, MD-82, Cirrus Visionjet, Baron B58 and Citation X.

The default weather radar includes manual tilt, ground clutter filtering, sector scanning, and predictive wind shear alerts. An API has been made available for third-party developers to integrate the feature into their products.

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The G1000 avionics suite has also been upgraded, now featuring synthetic vision, rendered entirely on the GPU. This allows terrain, obstacle, and traffic overlays, including support for online networks like VATSIM and IVAO, without adding CPU overhead or impacting performance.

Beyond the simulator core, Laminar reaffirmed progress on its new X-Plane Store. The backend now supports account-based logins and is integrating modern payment systems.

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More details are expected as development on the 12.3.0 update continues.

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