Laminar Research has just rolled out the first beta of X-Plane 12.3.0, and it is one of the most ambitious updates we have seen yet. Headlining the release is a fully simulated weather radar system, alongside a major overhaul of the default Airbus A330, and a bundle of new tools for both pilots and developers.

The new weather radar is available across several default aircraft, including the Boeing 737-800, Airbus A330-300, Citation X, and Baron 58. Being fully simulated, the system is capable of tilt and gain control, turbulence detection, ground clutter suppression and more, with accurate attenuation and reflections. For GA flyers, the X1000 GPS now integrates radar returns directly onto the display, and the Baron has received an open-source Bendix RDR2000 implementation.

This new functionality, however, only integrates with the default fleet at launch, where third-party developers can integrate the new technology with their own updates, should they want to.

As part of this beta, Laminar Research has also reworked the native Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), which should result in better terrain and obstacle alerts, when flying into challenging conditions. Combined with the weather radar, situational awareness takes a serious leap forward in 12.3.0.

The default Airbus A330 has not been left out either, and the widebody was given a “complete overhaul”. The exterior now sports micro-textures, subtle dirt and weathering effects, and even animated engine wobble. Inside, both cockpit and cabin lighting have been rebuilt with backlit instruments, spill lighting, dynamic cabin lamps, and even an auto-adjusting cabin brightness function.

Moving on to systems, work has been done on refining VNAV logic, flight control laws, and autopilot behaviour, while also introducing a functional SEC F-PLN: Secondary Flight Plan Page.

Another big addition is Synthetic Vision for the X1000 avionics, a feature widely used in modern GA avionics. This system can paint a 3D representation of terrain, runways, and obstacles directly onto the Primary Flight Display, ensuring safer low-visibility operations.

Not content with just systems and avionics, Laminar has also added a new, hand-crafted rendition of Dubai International Airport (OMDB) in the United Arab Emirates. The airport features custom terminal buildings and detailed surroundings, making the world’s busiest international hub a more authentic stopover for long-haul operations in the sim.

Another subtle addition in is the new Engine Health system, this being a fully native wear-and-tear implementation. Here, developers can assign different “ages” to each engine at load, so one might behave like a well-worn unit with 7.7 years behind it, while the other is a fresher 3.2 years old. This results in small variations in spool-up times, fuel flow, and overall efficiency, between the two powerplants.

Elsewhere, X-Plane 12.3.0 now introduces the option to load historical weather conditions up to a year in the past, allowing real-world flights or test scenarios to be recreated under authentic conditions. Scenery developers have also gained some new tools, including vegetation annotations for 3D objects, updated ground textures, and fresh airport assets. For cockpit builders, avionics displays, such as the G1000 and G530, can now be assigned directly to hardware screens, rather than pop-ups.

The G-Loaded Camera now comes with an intensity slider, and a command to suspend the effect altogether, based on user feedback.

You can read the feature list below:

Fixes and Enhancements

General

• Fixed an issue where the time was displayed incorrectly (e.g. 12:60 instead of 12:00).
• Updated Global Airports from the X-Plane Airport Gateway, including OMDB Dubai International with custom buildings.
• Improved the “Resume Last Flight” function, especially when the previous flight ended at smaller airports or helipads (XPD-17164).
• Added the ability to call and dismiss the Ground Power Unit via the Ground Handling Window, similar to chocks. The GPU will remain connected until dismissed (XPD-16371).
• Fixed the weapon preview screen in the Flight Configuration screen.
• Pushback will remove chocks automatically now.

Aircraft

McDonnell Douglas MD-82

• VNAV descent now auto-initiates when reaching the top of descent (XPD-14985).

ATC

• Fixed the “Send to FMS” button on the flight planning screen.

Graphics

• Improved performance of wheel-smoke particles.
• Fixed an issue where Exposure Fusion didn’t work correctly when using an AMD GPU (XPD-17267).
• Fixed an issue where interior lights would switch off about 65,000 feet (XPD-17117).
• Fixed nightvision goggles.

Scenery

• Added missing drivers to airport vehicles.
• Service vehicles now correctly respect stop point settings (XPD-17175).
• Added new library objects and improved some existing ones:
  • Water polygons and shores
  • Low-profile airport barricades
  • European-style ambulances
  • Updated compass roses
  • Improved colored surfaces for a closer match to draped ground signage

Systems

• Added warnings when ground tiles cannot be loaded in time for Synthetic Vision due to limited CPU resources (XPD-17215).
• Fixed an issue where the artificial horizon was not displayed correctly (XPD-17025).

Weather

• Improved stability of the METAR parser, especially when handling unexpected text or characters.
• Added display of real weather download age, as well as the age of the source data.
• Improved visibility of rain on the weather radar.
• Improved synchronization of manual weather between master and external machines (XPD-16607).

SDK

• Fixed an issue where new cursors were not displayed correctly on screens (XPD-17176).

For the full list of fixes, features, and improvements, you can check out the complete release notes on the official X-Plane website.

X-Plane 12.3.0 is now available for all who opt into the public beta. Steam users can join via the “beta” branch, while Laminar Direct customers can tick the beta box in the X-Plane 12 installer.

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