Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024

[Stephen]

 

 Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024

 

Rereading back through my Behind the Screen edition in November 2023, I was obviously not a happy bunny. Frustrated after a long development year, that had gone backwards AND forwards, and at even one point the simulator hadn't even worked at all...  I was a bit of all over it. Someone suggested I go on holiday, so I did, for two weeks around the Pacific on a very nice cruise ship in February. It summed up the year I wanted to forget.

 

Laminar Research had also reached the same conclusion in 2023, with the Vulkan/Metal API transition also causing their own long term frustration, it coincided with the climbing high pressure outside from the MSFS 2020 juggernaut, the powers that be in South Carolina knew that something had to change and quickly, the price of X-Plane changed first, then later came a complete reset.

 

Laminar Research

The first X-Plane release came very, very early in 2024, 4th January in fact, with the release v12.09. This was a small global scenery update. In that the scenery had been re-rendered with slight improvements, but for the users it was a 86Gb download. Although Laminar had already announced that there would be a new X-Plane release numbering system for 2024. Then there was also the major shock at the X-Plane Simulator Developer's conference in Montreal 4th of February 2024, that the Simulator was getting built in Store like with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2020/24.

 

The sudden announcement did not at all unite the developers to the Laminar cause, in fact it totally divided the conference, and in itself created a rolling discontent amongst the attendees, certainly when the news hit the forums, then all sorts of comments came out. The problem stems from the fact that the X-Plane.OrgStore provides the support for the X-Plane.Org, this X-PlaneReviews site depends on the .OrgStore for review product as well, so moving the monetary support from the .Org to Laminar's store would seriously upset the current delicate balance in the Simulator. Obviously a reaction to MSFS, but could the change do more damage to X-Plane than do actual good? like they say, "don't takeaway the hands that feeds you". To date the Laminar Store has currently still not gone live, and is still in development, so that aspect will have a big bearing on 2025.

 

The X-Plane's reset came with the release of the new numbering system release of v12.1.0 in mid-May. It also came with a fancy introduction page of new features, including a focus on Graphics with; Cloud shadows on water, Bloom lighting effects and finally RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptive Sharpening), more changes included Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) Improvements for the badly needed anti-aliasing improvements, and the MSAA resolution is now photometrically correct. The results were sensational, and it was the reset that X-Plane had badly needed.

 

The June 21-23, FlightExpo 2024 in Las Vegas was only a few weeks later...  there was a spring in the Laminar Research step, but the seminar was only 14 min long, not the usual hour or so. But they did produce a worthy presentation with both Austin and Ben (Supnik) both in attendance this year. Although MSFS had already announced FS2024 a year before, they again paraded out a long list of features that started to feel implausible, a lot again stolen from X-Plane. But the conference was a great success for Laminar, and in fact over 80% of the attendees were running X-Plane from boxes, as Microsoft couldn't stream well from the conference center.

 

Websockets was installed, and also announced as coming is "Synthetic Vision" for the G1000, with features of Terrain/Water, Obstacles, Navigation Aids and better performance. It all looks very comprehensive, plus weather radar is also coming. But the default G1000 was the main avionic focus for upgrades this year in avionics.

 

The next X-Plane update released 18th July was a minor one in v12.1.1. Basically it was a revision of the Graphics Core Engine to improve stability, this was then followed by v12.1.2 or the "Caribbean Update"...  which almost a direct ripoff of MSFS "World Updates", which showed us again of where now the mindset of Laminar Research is going, and to what market the X-Plane Simulator is in wanting to in being pitched to. But it was again a very successful update with heavy ships, five leisure watercraft, including Austin Meyer being chased by sharks...  to highlight the Caribbean release, three airports and destinations were also included; Princess Juliana International Airport at Sint Maarten, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba and the famous short sloping runway at Gustaf II Airport on the island of Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barth’s. At this point you really felt the X-Plane 12 v2.0 reset feeling, X-Plane was very smooth and reliable, with great features and refinements being added consistently.

 

November 15, 2024 saw the release of v12.1.3, currently the last for the year with a massive update for the ATC (Air Traffic Control), Sounds, more weather improvements, A.I. Aircraft, MAP changes and the introduction of an X-Plane Identity (relating to the store). On the Oct 31, 2024, Ben Supnik (X-Plane head developer) gave an excellent idea of the future X-Plane roadmap, mostly set around the NGS (New Generation Scenery) that is currently in development, and it is the most important factor if Laminar want to compete with Microsoft in Flight Simulation. The results should be excellent, but a release date is still not announced, but it really did end the year of a major high for Laminar Research after the disastrous 2023, it was a truly excellent return to form, and a solid and reliable Simulator to boot...   they really did good this 2024 year, but that Store announcement looms over the Simulator like a black cloud?

 

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2022/2024

First is "Why is this here in an X-Plane site?". Because it is a reference between the Simulators, and the gap between them still grew immensely wide over the year 2024. As the barrage continued, and the anticipation grew over the release of MSFS 2024, it started to get all a bit frantic, in hype and expectations.

 

Obviously there were gazillions of weekly and monthly Development Updates from Asobo Studios, and aircraft and scenery releases were piling on to the platform everyday...  is it sustainable? MSFS 2020 started the year with World Update XVI of the Caribbean (Surely not!), followed by Southwest Germany in April, City Update VII European Cities II came in late May. On June 9th Microsoft announced the "Take to the Skies" on November 19th 2024 as the release date of MSFS2024, that was reinforced by a 95 minutes talkathon and Q&A comment period at the Las Vegas Expo late June, again a lot of more expanded features were announced for the MSFS 2024 release, would all this actually work? To coincide with the Vegas Expo, Asobo released City update Vlll Las Vegas (Laminar put their name on the Las Vegas strip!).

 

City Update lX Northeastern United States came late July, also in July came the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, so another World Update XVII for the United Kingdom and Ireland regions to coincide was released. World update XVIII came in the middle of August for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There was an Aircraft and Avionics Update 3 released 1st October...  but from then on the focus for Microsoft/Asobo was on the release of MSFS 2024.

 

Default Aircraft released for FS2020 in 2024, were the Bell 47J Ranger, Dornier Do 31, C.7 Skyvan, Douglas C-47D Skytrain & Waco CG-4A, Curtiss C-46 Commando, Westland Scout & Wasp, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor and the Boeing 707-320C.

 

The release on November 19th 2024 of the new wonderkind Microsoft version 2024, was probably one of the worst releases of any Simulator platform, and that even includes X-Plane. To say it was a huge is debacle is an understatement. Millions tried to log on and stream, mostly for everyone it didn't work, then the servers crashed. After a few days you could get access, but users were then finding then that most areas were not either loading or working at all to their satisfaction, plus the huge restrictions on actually getting access. FS 2024 is now working, but MSFS 2024 will take well into the New Year to be anything if a reliable Simulator, I noted the MSFS year as an "Overreach" and called that statement out mid-year.

 

Trends of the year

The X-Plane 11 to 12 transitions petered out about mid-year. These aircraft are a blessing and curse. A blessing is in that you get your favorite aircraft upgraded for X-Plane 12. But also a curse in that they take developers away from new projects, so there isn't really a lot of new aircraft coming to market (2023 was horrible for new releases). At this point most if all of the transitions are now done, including the huge vSkyLabs catalogue. The scenery transitions still have a longer way to go, but Aerosoft have been finally busy also in getting through the long list. Nice has been the introduction of lately new developers in both aircraft and scenery to the scene.

The other trend of converting old X-Plane 11 aircraft (mostly Carenado) to X-Plane 12 has been vibrant as well, so a lot of loved Simulations should survive to X-Plane 12, as was the Ortho4XP crowd. As noted above, Laminar Research reset their year in a more modern Flight Sim feel and look, and overall that experience has delivered great benefits, also quicker and faster updates saw changes to the X-Plane face, these aspects were long overdue.

 

Aircraft

We knew coming into 2024 that FlightFactor Aero would dominate the year with their colossal Boeing 777-200 V2 Ultimate, and deep and massive it was. But the release was slightly dulled by the launch process. First with long and an invitation only Alpha access, then and still currently the B777V2 it is still in a public release Beta access. It is a standard bearer machine for the X-Plane Simulator, even for Simulation itself. But dense it is, actually not in the flying aspect, which is sensational, but in the long list of features and the biggest EFB Tablet you could struggle to manage. So it is study aircraft of deep immersion...  I am expecting the B777F Freighter to be the next variant from FlightFactor.

 

Flight Procedures Simulation released the Embraer E-190 as a follow on from the excellent E-195 of 2023, again a great price to feature ratio.

In July Peters Aircraft upgraded the Airbus A380-842 to X-Plane12, a hybrid of old planemaker and a new fuselage. it was nice to have the A380 back, but it's age factor is still built in there, restricting the Airbus for what it could be. Later in the year the other A380 engine versions were released for free as part of the same package.

 

The sensational E-Jet Family was updated to v1.1.0 by X-Crafts (the older E-Jets are now available for free). v1.1.0 was an excellent update with a focus on the VNAV aspects, with a clever "Autotune" system that detects and automates the systems for a ILS landing. So the Auto Speeds and Altitude (VNAV) are now all fully functional. Still one of the very best X-Plane 12 releases. But the X-Crafts ERJ Series didn't arrive in 2024, but X-Crafts did note recently the Lineage 1000 was coming very, very soon.

 

We thought the Rotate Passenger version of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Freighter would be just another added variant, how wrong could you be? It was (still is) one of the most sensational releases of the year, and highlighted the huge amount of changes done to both the MD-11F and the newer MD-11P over the years since the X-Plane 11 MD-11 release, certainly a highlight of the year, and actually my favorite release 2024!

 

Concorde FXP by Colimata went to v3.50, with an upgraded CIVA V2, created especially for the aircraft, there was some nice updates as well, including the dynamics to X-Plane 12. FlyJSim were very quiet during the year with just one small update for the DashQ, and still no sign of the Boeing 732 Twinjet or B727 Series for X-Plane 12?

 

I was actually disappointed that ToLiss chose the A330neo as their next project, but the results was a sensational aircraft with a huge amount of features. Once you got in there, it was very hard to move on, as you wanted more and more of this exceptionally high standard Simulation. Late in the year (Dec) ToLiss did a very nice set of updates for the A319, A320neo, A321 and A340-600 of a few features in the A330neo.

 

At the end of the year it was a solid one for airliners, and the outlook for 2025 is already exciting, There is a Boeing 707 coming from Nimbus, A Boeing 737 MAX from AirfoilLabs, and a cargo aircraft from Felis with the B747-200F, and Flight Procedures made a note of a new B748 (V3) and even (maybe) a B747-400, ERJ Series, and Flightfactor could even deliver a Dreamliner, so there is a big year coming up. 

 

General Aviation

Once the thriving heat of X-Plane, the General Aviation sector is still feeling the loss of Carenado. A few of the usual suspects were notably absent this year like vFlyAir with only one small update. Most releases were still basically transition aircraft from X-Plane 11, in so again slowing down any new releases as well.

 

The Beechcraft Duchess Model 76 by JustFlight/Thranda brought the aircraft back to X-Plane 12, as usual a thoroughly nice upgrade, the PA28R Piper Arrow III followed in July, and the Cessna 152 came out later in the year as did the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III / IV all from the JustFlight stable. The Beechcraft Bonanza G36, the G1000 variant, was released after Easter by PAE Addons, again a new developer for the X-Plane Simulator.

 

In early April vSkyLabs released a most unusual machine, the Junkers A50 Junior S-LSA, a 1920's inspired modern take on this iconic aircraft, it was far more fun that it had any right to be. Another revision to X-Plane 12 was the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Thranda Design in May, it came with a new menu and large 8K textures. vFlyAir's only contribution to the year was the transition Cherokee 140, their original design updated for X-Plane 12.

 

A new developer entrant was with a PA24-250 Comanche by InDepthSimulations. It was basic, but has loads of potential for future designs. SimSolutions did an updates to their Diamond DA-40NG updated to v1.2.2 in April, with X-Hangar updating the Diamond Katana DA20 C1 and Cessna 404 Titan.

 

vSkyLabs were moving their way through their very large collection and updating the aircraft to X-Plane 12, there were loads of updates from mid-year, first the boat like Polaris AM-FIB, the Aeros-2 Ultralight Trike, then the sensational CT/4E Airtrainer from New Zealand, the Phoenix Air U15 S-LSA , ICON - A5, Tensor 60 and the Tecnam P2006T v9.1 a twin-engined Italian machine and finally the Aeroprakt A22-LS in October.

 

PA44-180 Piper Seminole for X-Plane 12 by AeroSphere came out in August, and later in the year Ted Cook released the Stinson 108 Package for XP12. STMA also upgraded their Sherpa K650T Turbine Bush Plane to X-Plane 12.

 

The GA year wrapped up with Thranda Design releasing their best yet, and a totally new aircraft in the Pilatus PC-12, a highlight of the year and Aerobask released their DA-20NG.

 

Business Aircraft

AKD Studios had done a nice up date to the GulfStream 550 very early in the year, but then released the bigger G650/650ER GulfStream in early November, both aircraft are now parallel in design and features. X-Hangar updated their G550 in November as well. AirSim3D did two updates for the Citation C-560XL in July and October, but is now moving on to a new project.

 

Classic Aircraft

X-Hangar did several updates to the DHC-5 Buffalo, early and late in the year, the DHC4 C-7A Caribou had the same, two updates early and late, and both aircraft benefited from the attention. In February we had one of the most unusual releases with another new developer entrant for the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23, a shed of an aircraft, it quickly had the Float version added only weeks after, a strange machine that was impossible not to dislike, you were captivated by the design and on how you flew it. The North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben was another gem, if hard to land, but X-Plane 12 shined through. vSkylabs did X-Plane 12 an update to the SR-71 "Thunderbird" to version v2.0, it is a bullet of an aircraft, and the weird He-162 Project also had an update to v3.0.5.

 

Helicopters

Overall after the previous years, Helicopters were basically quiet in 2024, but in there were two exceptional releases. The first early in February was the JRX Design Bell 407 v1.30 now with CINEFLEX, a quality machine. The second was even more exceptional from X-Trident, in the AgustaWestland AW109SP in May, overwhelmingly brilliant the AW109SP set a higher standard for any new designs in X-Plane 12. vSkylabs updated four aircraft in 2024, the Guimbal Cabri G2, Robinson R66 Turbine and the Revolution Mini-500 and even a “Gyroplane”. The HSF Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.4 had only one small update, as did the K-1200 K-MAX XP12 by STMA. Dreamfoil Creations were very quiet all year?

 

Military

X-Hangar updated their C-130 Hercules to X-Plane 12, but it is still a bit too basic for me, the "Herk" deserves better. One of the most outstanding releases of the year for the military was the excellent Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations, this aircraft just ooozed X-Plane 12 in all of it's glory, a review that is still not forgotten.

AoA (Angle of Attack) had a very busy year, the T-7A Red Hawk, T-6A Texan II and the F-22A Raptor all had big updates, but the highlight from AoA was the amazing V-22 Osprey Tilitrotor, now a very mature Simulation, and a very versatile machine.

 

Scenery

2024 in scenery followed on from 2023, the biggest scenery story of the year was still AutoOrtho (Ortho4XP) or streaming ortho imagery. Some bright spark wanted to recreate the Microsoft ortho steaming system in X-Plane. To a point it is still very successful, but a fast internet connection and a powerful computer is required. The trick is downloading the tiles as you need them, not storing the tiles on your computer, but I'm not a fan of flat photo images, or certainly not jerky simulations. To add on top, another success this year still has been SIM HEAVENS X-World scenery Series. It will be interesting on how the coming NGS from Laminar will change this factor, not much I think as most are welded tightly into this very inefficient way of doing visual textures. Notable is that NGS will use DSS "Direct Scene Snapshot", to replace DSF, but both will run in parallel for a while, as DSS scenery won't work with DSF.

 

Again MSFS 2020, delivered a gazillion of scenery that nobody wants, but they did a very clever idea of Vertical Obstacles, that X-Plane in some form should adopt, the idea is to fill in real world obstacles in the landscapes. Obviously MSFS 2024 takes the scenery idea to almost insanity, the only issue is you can't stream it all through a tight internet straw.

 

For X-Plane the scenery developers had a very tough year, income was almost next to nothing and few dropped out, that said, the scenery releases were very good, to excellent considering the conditions, did we get a lot of cross-platform conversions from FS to XP? not really, but a few crossed over.

Aerosoft kicked off the year with Airport Zürich XP12 on the 4th Jan, as with barely no updates since X-Plane 12 was released 14 months earlier, most Aerosoft stock was looking old in X-Plane 12, but as the we moved through the year they finally got into gear... Dortmund XP,  Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands was next to compliment the earlier Leeward Island package, and that was just the thing for a South Pacific cruise. Next was Airport Newcastle XP, then a double update in June with Airport Stuttgart XP and Airport Istanbul XP, then Helgoland, XP Kassel XP in August, and Vitoria-Foronda XP and Greater Moncton International XP in November, so it was a big year of updates, missing still though is Norway's Bergen XP, a badly needed new scenery from Aerosoft?

 

VerticalSim had a busy year updating as well, first was KONT Ontario, then KMYR Myrtle Beach, KBOI Boise Air Terminal and finally KSRQ  Sarasota Bradenton International. FS Designs kicked off the year with KJAX Jacksonville, KPNS Pensacola, and KPAO Palo Alto Intl

 

Skytitude delivered a lot of scenery this year with KGNV Gainesville, Everglades Airpark, KTLH Tallahassee and an excellent RSW Southwest Florida International Airport to replace the dated Aerosoft version.

 

LICD- Lampedusa Airport and Linosa Island, Italy by Cami de Bellis was released in January, and a couple of updates followed. LIMJ - Ligurian COAST Totally Insane", was an amalgamated package of LIMJ - Genova COMPLETE 5 - The Revolution" from BCSceneries, same scenery, but updated to X-Plane 12.

 

Nimbus Studios released a very, very impressive New York JFK, then followed that up with another impressive KCLT Charlotte Douglas in June with another update for KCLT later in the year. FunnerFlight also released an updated XP12 JFK, plus another massive update to the KSAN - San Diego - Naval scenery, huge is not an underestimation of this scenery.

 

By Taimodels standards they had a quiet year in only two releases, first was a lukewarm EGCC- Manchester International, but the second scenery was a big missing element finally in X-Plane...  HECA Cairo International, Egypt XP12! and yes I love it. Fly Tampa pop-in to X-Plane every once a while, but when they do, they blow you totally away, this time it was FlyTampa Sydney, just brilliant. Another Australian scenery came from Orbx, with another long wanted scenery for X-Plane in YSSY Melbourne.

 

X-Codr Design was not really visible in X-Plane in 2024 except for a small update to KDEN (v2.1), instead he was now doing MSFS sceneries, one we have lost to the other? Another big X-Plane Scenery developer MIA is Short Final Designs, he delivered with only KSJC San Jose International Airport as a release for the year, he has now gone to Laminar Research, so it will be interesting for 2025 in what the maestro will deliver there.

 

Chudoba Designs released Bratislava International Airport for X-Plane 12, an interesting Chudoba scenery is RKPC Jeju International Airport in Korea, a review I couldn't get around to, maybe 2025? ESGG Göteborg Landvetter Airport was released in April, and last but not least was LKTB Brno-Turany Airport in the Czech Republic, all solid sceneries at great prices.

 

Drzewiecki Design have upgraded their renamed "Washington DC" scenery to "KDCA Washington Airport & City XP12", but otherwise they were another that have moved on to MSFS for scenery, and a lot of old DD scenery is feeling their age. An odd scenery was vSkyLabs Airbases: Base-8, a testing ground for your flying abilities.

 

New developers to the X-Plane scenery mostly focused on small airport sceneries, like crossover FX3D with a load of French sceneries, including LFKF Figari, LFKC Calvi, LFKT Corte, LFMQ Castellet, LFMR Barcelonnette, LFNS GAP-Tallard, LFNC Mont-Dauphin Saint-Crépin Airport and LFNS Sisteron, an impressive list...  KXNA Northwest Arkansas National Airport by TearWear Designs was another new face. There was a neat three Venezuelan Airports package for X-Plane 12 by Positive Climb Design. DarkBlue Scenery released RJGG Chubu, and RJBB, both in Japan.

 

NorthernSky were also a little slower this year, but still delivered outstanding scenery at a budget price, including; PAPG Petersburg - Alaska, PHOG  Kahului Airport and PHHN Hana, PHNY Lanai, PHJH Kapalua all in Hawaii, and last the sensational PASI Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska.

 

There were no landscape sceneries released in 2024, except maybe for St. Vincent and the Grenadines by 3DReal...  Maps2XP and Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini didn't release any landscapes in 2024.

 

In context, although a fair few of the above sceneries were transitions from X-Plane 11, overall for scenery releases it was a very good year, actually unexpected in the volume delivered.

 

Sound Packs

A mention...  BSS BlueStarSky released the BSS A321 Reloaded CFM pack, but that was about it, but Mango Studios had a great year, there was a lot to choose from, not only the great sound packages for; ToLiss A319 Sound Pack, IXEG 737 Sound Pack, GLF 550/650 Sound Pack, Toliss A330 sound pack, but the neat little engine mod conversions as well; PW2000 Engine - FF 757, PW4000 Engine - FF B767, ToLiss A340 Trent 556 Engine Mod, but my favorite was the excellent MD80 Series IAE V2500 Engine mod, with later added the P&W JT8D-200 + IAE V2500 engine sound package. There were a few new REP "Reality Expansion packages", including the Thranda DH2 Beaver, PT-6 Porter and the PA28 Arrow lll.

 

Plugins

I will state upfront that I am not a huge plugin connoisseur, so I only run what I call essential plugins in my simulator, running the VRAM profiler (Menu/Developer) can give you the horrors of on how much these little monstrous tools can gobble up your framerate and their overall efficiency, I take out as many of these laggards as possible.

 

The Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client v3.0. became the standalone tool for updating X-Plane aircraft in 2023, efficient, clever and fast, and it still rules big in 2024 as every developer bar FlightFactor now uses it. openSAM replaced the nasty SAM 3, it is a basic tool, but gets around the issue. There was a few organiser tools released, one just for X-Plane's scenery, and xOrganizer that covered the whole simulator.

 

WebFMC had a few updates through the year to cater for new releases, but really not many other changes, BetterPushBack had the same, but overall needs a revision (adjustable volume anyone). Traffic Global had a few updates (0199 and 0217), but not much new was really done except to make it reliable, the clever tool was the "Regent Traffic" updates, complicated to install, but it brought a huge amount of new airlines and services to TG, it is well worth checking out.

 

Stick and Rudder updated both X-Camera and X-Keypad, but the maturing X-ATC Chatter v1.7.2 became my cockpit friend this year.

 

Navigraph was again the king of the tools, now highly intergrated with SimBrief, they are now simply essential tools for the Simulator, SimBrief became the defacto (auto) flightplanning tool inside the cockpit. Navigraph added in Annotations, ATC Sectors and Expanded Airport Data to Charts 8 in 2024.

 

X-PlaneReviews

X-PlaneReviews passed eleven years of providing quality and detailed reviews for the X-Plane Simulator. And in this year 2024 we have delivered even more consistent reviews and NEWS! than any year before.

 

The team has grown as well...  besides the dynamic Dominic Smith and his lovely wife Felicity, who also contributes immensely to the X-Plane.Org Weekly Roundups and Developer Interviews, is a major contributor in X-PlaneReviews as well, plus the extra talented reviewers of Alan Ashforth (alpeggio), Peter Allnutt, Dennis Powell, Nick Garlick, Stéphane Tolédo-Paul (Tieman68), David York (datadave), Stuart McGregor (Scottish Wings), DrishalMAC2, Michael Hayward, Jack Thompson and Joshua Moore, all genuine talented and contributors to not only X-PlaneReviews, but to X-Plane in general. I am personally signing off a little earlier this year to have a family Christmas in another Australian State, but Dominic will do some more reviews right up to the festive season, and a big new Christmas release review is still yet to be released from me.

 

Always a thank you to the exciting work by the tireless developers that give us all this incredible product to fly and use, as they and X-Plane has come a long way and created leaps in quality and complexity in the last few years, certainly with the jump to X-Plane 12, and to a point I was always very proud of the work they have produced, it is world class if not the very best in simulation product ever produced, and this year better than ever in systems and quality detail, and they are all top notch and very clever. To the X-Plane.OrgStore who supports this site with review products, service and updates, a really big thanks to Nicolas Taureau, as this site just also would not function without that outstanding support.

 

This aspect shows that X-Plane as a Simulator is alive and well after a fair few years of disruptive development, X-Plane 12 is now (thankfully) maturing towards the central part of its evolution cycle, and as well noted throughout this "End of the Year" edition it has had a transformation (or would you call it a reset?) this year in 2024. My outlook optimism for 2025 is at an all time high, my gut says X-Plane as a Simulator has turned a corner, and it can only get better from here, but X-Plane as a Simulator also has to now grow as well, expand vigorously in 2025.

 

Certainly the central community is very active and very collaborative in creating dynamics that is expanding the Simulator, but growing in all the different areas is just as important, not just the core, numbers must grow in 2025, new additions in not only the software and hardware, but developers and active users, it is people, the time to grow... and move forward.

_________________________

 

We will finish off with the X-PlaneReviews famous best of the year awards…   So I will now list my Best of the Year 2024🏅

(note the awards are given to only products I have seen and tested and so the only ones I can vouch for)

 

Overall Best of the Year : A very hard choice this year, as there are four outstanding entrants, FlightFactor Boeing 777v2, X-Tridents AW109SP, Rotate's MD-11 Passenger and the TolIss A330neo , all deserving 🏅 🏅🏅

 

Best Aircraft : FlightFactor B777v2.🏅🏅
A look into the future of X-Plane 12 quality and design, it delivers on a huge scale.
Honorable Mention : Rotate's MD-11 Passenger is just brilliant, as is the ToLiss A330neo

 

Best General Aviation Aircraft : Pilatus PC-12 by Thranda Design

Thranda Design are behind a lot of X-Plane aircraft besides their own creations, but the PC-12 brings back to the X-Plane Simulator a brilliant aircraft done well.
Honorable Mentions : vSkyLabs, for their huge and unique catalogue of aircraft and machines, they just keep on coming.

 

Best Classic Aircraft : North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben

This is what happens when you put two extremely talented developers together, Khamsin & Philip Ubben create history, or at least a part of it in the T-6G Texan.

Honorable Mention : What can you say about flying a shed, the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23 was certainly unique, fun as well.

 

Best Business Aircraft : AKD Studios G650/650ER GulfStream

Not perfect, but development this whole year has been very steady and consistent from this talented Polish developer, next year 2025 this category will be tighter with the promised X-Crafts Lineage 1000 and maybe even the Aerobask Falcon 6X anyone, now years late.

 

Best Military : Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations 🏅

With some releases you see the future, the amazing M-346 AJT showed off the wonders of X-Plane 12, nice aircraft to fly as well.

Honorable Mention : AoA again with another huge improvement over the original, the V-22 Osprey was great to fly, also a very versatile dynamic Simulation as well, I loved it.

 

Best Helicopter : AgustaWestland AW109SP by X-Trident 🏅🏅🏅

A no brainer on choice for the best helicopter of the year, again a projection into the future of Simulation, brilliant avionics are well worth mastering.

Honorable Mentions : JRX Designs Bell 407 was very good as well, the best of the bunch currently, except for the above AW.

 

Best Landscape Scenery : Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands by Maps2XP (Aerosoft)

Does this broad scenery count as a Landscape scenery? It sort's of covers a large area of the South Pacific, well detailed as well, so yes.

 

Best Airport Scenery : YSSY Sydney Fly Tampa  🏅🏅 
A study on how to do perfect scenery, Fly Tampa always deliver, but more so here, a giant.

Honorable Mention : Taimodels on delivering HECA Cairo, and Nimbus had a great year with JFK and Charlotte.

 

Best Plugin(s) : Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client 🏅

A plugin... it was, but also still the biggest standout tool of the year, now for the second year in a row and grown, it's so fast!

Special Mention(s) : Navigraph for their excellent navigation tools, and seriously clever new additions, and for openSAM, fixing a major problem.

 

Person(s) of the Year : Marko Mamula

The developer that just seemed to be everywhere in 2024, but in delivering the X-Plane 12 future we deserve, talented, and tons more to come in 2025.

 

Best Moment of the year 2024 : Leaving Schiphol (EHAM) in a heavy morning weather to arrive at a sandstorm dusk in Cairo (HECA), Simulation at it's very, very best.

 

Worst Moment(s) of the Year 2024 : Laminar Research is doing their own store, the ramifications are dangerous, and will it cost jobs in X-Plane, you could even lose  the X-Plane.Org...   forever!

Biggest distraction of 2024 : ...  The dark cloud of the X-Plane Store.

 

Biggest overall feeling of 2024 : Another tough hard year, but the outlook at the end of this brutal year was a revolution of a new and better X-Plane Simulator, shame the Laminar store will ruin all the good work.

 

Personal Favorites of 2024 : Any ToLiSS (the save system allows ultimate flexibility) again, but my standout aircraft of the year is the amazing Rotate MD-11 Passenger, unbelievable Simulation, seriously addictive was that wide-body aircraft...  I just loved it.

 

Routes...   Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, Dusseldorf,  Roma, Cairo, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, London Heathrow and Dulles, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Notable is that with the newer scenery, Cairo, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore finally came on-line in 2024.

 

That is X-PlaneReviews for 2024, and we will be back after a very much needed recovery and the review site returns again early into the New Year on the 7th January 2025.

 

So Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2025

 

Stephen Dutton

14th December 2024

Copyright:X-PlaneReviews 2024

 

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