Laminar Research has recently released the long-awaited version 12.3.0 to the public, codenamed “Weather Update”. This significant update introduces a functional weather radar to the platform, A330 improvements, historical weather data, new camera controls, and more.

Featuring a brand-new, fully functioning weather radar, coupled with synthetic vision on their in-house Garmin G1000 simulation, virtually flying has reached never-before-seen levels of situational awareness.

The update also fully revamps the default Airbus A330-300, introducing refinements to most systems and resulting in a more accurate overall experience. It also includes exterior weathering, engine vibration animations, and interior changes (the cockpit lighting has been enhanced with backlit instruments, realistic spill lighting, and improved annunciator effects). Additionally, the flight management systems were tweaked to fully support a secondary flight plan, enhanced VNAV simulation, accurate roll rate and alpha protection under FBW, more precise climb, cruise, and descent predictions considering wind, constraints, and fuel use, and updated V-speed suggestions, fuel prediction logic, and ECAM messages.

The Aircraft Operations Computer (AOC) and ATSU (Air Traffic Services Unit) on the A330 have been tweaked to realistically support ATIS, METAR, and PDC messages, with ACARS-style memo displays, and realistic data-link transmission delays.

Furthermore, there were slight tweaks to the camera system, allowing users to adjust the intensity of the G-Loaded Camera, and the addition of a new hand-crafted airport (OMDB).

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The aforementioned weather radar is now present in their A330, Boeing 738, on the X1000 (their Garmin G1000), and also on the “Benedix” RDR2000 WXR, their own interpretation of a Bendix-King weather radar, present on the Beechcraft Baron 58 and fully integratable with third-party aircraft (the source code is public on GitHub, and addon developers may modify it to suit their use-cases).

In addition to the weather radar, 738 pilots may now enjoy the benefit of a terrain display, which seamlessly integrates with X-Plane’s global terrain database, thereby greatly enhancing situational awareness during mid-flight.

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They have also introduced an “engine health” system, where developers can enable engine “ages” at load, introducing natural variation in performance from the get-go, as in the real world.

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The complete feature list and changelog are available on their blog.

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