Version 8.32

Versions 8.30, 8.31, and 8.32 were released in rapid succession to include a couple of bug fixes that didn't make 8.30.

Note!! The effectiveness of control surface deflections has changed in 8.32. As a result, artificial stability and custom autopilot constants are likely to need retuning. Artificial stability systems are likely to flutter at low frame rate; planes with custom autopilot constants are likely to bob up and down like dolphins in the vertical AP modes (Alt Hold, VVS, etc.)

Here's Austin's description of 8.30-8.32:

X-Plane 8.32 has a few tiny little big-fixes since 8.30, specifically the ability to handle aircraft checklists larger than 200 lines, record the date properly on all flights in the logbook, the ability to handle all sorts of corrupt real-weather files gracefully, and run on good old Windows 98.

So what's new for 8.32 since 8.21? TONS!

Major frame-rate optimizations... about an EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT FRAMERATE INCREASE!
Here are some frame-rates in the default case... the speed improvements are even GREATER in the "Full-Screen With HUD" and "Full-Screen No HUD" views.

Mac Powerbook OS-X:
Mac G5 OS-X:
Intel P-4 Windows XP:

X-Plane 8.21:
16.2 fps
23.3 fps
27.3 fps

X-Plane 8.30:
25.8 fps
42.8 fps
46.2 fps

As well, load times are about the 25% faster if you have TONS of objects and roads turned on, and OVER ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT FASTER (less than half the time required to load!) in many cases.

Scenery enhancements:

More-advanced lighting model... we now have seperate light sources for the sun and moon to get our lighting DIRECTION correct in all cases... and we worked on the moon phase to get it more accurate as well.
Sergio has also tweaked some of the terrain textures a hair for the new global scenery to look a little better.
A nice default HUD is visible in the "full-screen-with-HUD" view even if your actual craft does NOT have a HUD.
Landing and Taxi lights: Attach each or any of them to any landing gear in the plane so you can mount taxi lites on nosegears and stuff like that.
Rain on the windshield... Set the weather to rainy overcast and go flying.
Go to the "Special" menu in X-Plane and view the sky color statistics right alongside the control deflections... This is for you if you want to tune the backgorund sky color images like you can tune the control systems!
Helipads are now lit with green lites as per FAA spec.
Night lighting is now darkened a bit... it was so bright before that the landing lights did not always come on if the moon was full!

Flight-Model Enhancements:

More accurate effects from control-surface deflections: Ailerons, elevators, and rudders. Now we look at WHERE on the wing the lift from the ailerons, elevators, rudder, and flaps are applied (which of course we have ALWAYS done) but now we use the LOCATION of that lift (how close to the wingtip is it) to determine the lift DISTRIBUTION on the wing to determine the effective ASPECT RATIO of the wing and TIP LOSSES and ANGLE OF ATTACK CHANGE on the wing due to the deflections and resultant lift-coefficient changes.

In other words, if an aileron is deflected near the wing TIP, that shifts the lift center OUT closer to the wing TIPS, which increases the tip losses and reduces the aileron authority since the ailerons are out near the wing tips where the tip losses occur. this is not as much of a problem for elevators, though, which do not concentrate their effects near the tip where the losses are but instead distribute their lift equally since they are typically full-span, so they keep closer to a theoretical distribution.

The sim does NOT have any pre-conceived notions of where the controls are for YOUR plane though... it looks at where the elevators, ailerons, flaps, and rudders are on YOUR plane to see what the lift distribution will be (every frame, depending on control deflections) ...so the tip losses and resultant angle of attack and lift and drag change will be based on the actual location of the controls on YOUR plane. This results in more accurate stall-angle changes from deflection of control surfaces and flaps as well!
More-accurate windmilling of the turbines in those jet engines... whether the engines are running or not.
Induced drag and lift slope are now refined for swept-wing airplanes to be more accurate.
As well, the aspect ratio of all flying surfaces now considers the delta wing chords you can tune in Plane-Maker, to be more accurate.
Ground effect is improved for helicopters.
Ice usually forms slowly in stratus (rime) but very fast in cumulus (clear), as per real icing conditions... with its resulting impact on lift, drag, and aircraft weight.
Joystick DAMPING sliders are now gone! they are now replaced by "control-addition" sliders, which should be at ZERO for maximum realism. Rather than messing up the flight model by adding artificial damping, like all previous versions, these sliders now ADD some additional control input to help stabilize the plane, as you would do if you were a better pilot. err.. uhh... if you were in the real plane, that is.
Joystick power-ratio logic is now reversed as well... sliders should be at ZERO for most linear response, and dragged up as needed. Only add as much non-linear response as you have to.

General New Features:

The glideslope indicator should be accurate even in hilly airports and stuff where it would sometimes be off by a bit before. This involves X-Plane resolving any discrepancies between the various terrain and NAVAID databases to make sure that the radio, actual, PAPI, and VASI glideslope all agree! This issue was most clearly found and pointed out by Alex Unruh, who noticed that the radio glideslope was not always taking you down right to the runway touch-down zone. What is interesting about this problem is that the USGS says that the elevation of the touch-down zone is one thing, but DAFIF says the elevation of the glideslope transmitter is something DIFFERENT than that! Oops! They can't BOTH be right! So now, X-Plane uses the USGS data to "break the tie", since that is where X-Plane puts the actual physical runway and the VASI and PAPI lights. This way, even if some government database or another is a bit in error, X-Plane "auto-locks" these critical elevation points together by setting the glideslope elevation to the runway touch-down zone elevation (whether you have sloped runways allowed or not) so that you always get a glideslope that takes you right down to the touch-down zone in the simulator... with the VASIs and PAPIs in agreement about how you should fly as well.
The EFIS airspeed indicator for jets is now more realistic... the stall speed bug moves depending on your flap settings, and the Vne bug comes down as needed to never indicate higher than your max allowable Mach number. As well, the MAX allowable speed comes down as the flaps come down to respect the max allowable speed with flaps down. Real jets do this... flying the (real) 777 or 777 type-rating simulator involves always keeping your eyes on the airspeed tape, which has little bugs that creep up and down depending on your flaps, Mach number, altitude, etc.
If your monitor resolution is a healthy dose bigger than your X-Plane resolution, then you can drag the X-Plane window around on the screen! This applies to Plane-Maker and the other apps as well, so you can drag multiple windows around on your desktop to see Plane-Maker and X-Plane at the same time... You can quickly experiment with designs in Plane-Maker, save them, and re-load them in X-Plane without exiting any applications!
Look in Plane-Maker, "Viewpoint" window, "Viewpoint" tab: You can set the camera offset there in pitch, roll, and heading. What does it do? Well, if you have the camera instument in the plane, then the offset will be this much. Why? Well, the cameras in the SR-71 and U-2 do indeed look straight DOWN!
"Special Controls" screen in Plane-Maker: Now you can specify whether the various control additions like "ailerons with flaps" or "elevator with aileron" can take you OVER the maximum deflection of the "Controls" screen or whether to keep you limited to the "basic" control deflections as specified in that screen... this lets you do mechanical systems like the Bonanza, or fly-by-wire systems like the F-22.
New VTOL/helo option: "tail rotor pitch change with speed"... it's just like the "cyclic change with speed". May be kind of useful. Some guy wanted it.
Change the carrier and frigate heading in the "Map" window if desired.
Tune your radios to the ATIS frequency and you will hear nearby ATIS reports as long as you are tuned to that frequency, as in reality. Of course, if your radio happens to be on the frequency of a nearby ATIS, you will keep getting ATIS until you change the radio frequency.
New artificial stability option: Get conventional horizontal stabs to track alpha just like the canards can now!
Retractable skids: Just set up the skids like any other helo (follow an existing helo in Plane-Maker for reference, and hit the "set to default skids" button in the upper-right of the landing gear page to turn the fairings into default skids) but then enter different retraction angles for the legs... the skids will retract properly to act as snowplanes! (then, to do a nose skid, add 2 more gear (positions 5 and 6) and fairing number 5 will be the nose skid! Edit the fairings to look like snow skis rather than helo skids.
Add the "button map mode" switch from the "EFIS" folder in Plane-Maker and set it to PLAN mode in the sim... then the map will center on the current waypoint dialed into your FMS, which you can cycle thru using the "PREV" "NEXT" buttons on the FMS. This lets you cycle thru all the waypoints in your plan before take-off!

New Joystick Buttons:

Joystick button options to run the magnetos up and down in steps... lets you cycle all the way through the magneto options with the joystick buttons.
Joystick button to toggle the CLUTCH on a plane or helo. Kind of convenient.
More joystick buttons for autopilot control.

New Instruments Selectable in Plane-Maker:

New auto-reverse on touchdown arm/dis-arm switch available for the panels in the "buttons" folder in Plane-Maker.
"Alternate Static Air" handle now available... use this when your primary static port fails, or you will get bad airspeed, vertical speed, and altitude indications!
Electric and Manual engine primers now available! They are in the buttons and handles folders in Plane-Maker.
"No Smoking" and "Fasten Seatbelts" switches... these are not the most exciting switches in the world, but the real jets have them, so we do now as well. These ones are modelled after the switches in the Boeing 777.
New start button with 3 positions: engine start/engine run/engine shut down. The Eclipse jet will have this!
Per-engine fuel on/off switch rather than mixture handle. A little easier in some cases.
POWER gage! The real Cirrus has this. Select output in either horsepower or PERCENT power in Plane-Maker "Engines" screen.
Thrust-vector indicator for the HUD.

New Systems Simulations:

Hydraulic systems can be pressurized by electric pumps, engine-driven pumps, and ram air turbines, and that hydraulic pressure can drive gear, brakes, flaps, flight controls, and/or nosewheel steering! This way you can get the hydraulic sources (and the systems that will fail when the hydraulic system fails!) just right for your plane! As well, you can set an instant and total hydraulic system failure, rather than just a pump failure (which can be overcome with other pumps) or slow leak (takes time to lose all presure). All of this is set in the "Systems" window in Plane-Maker.
As well, you enter the SPEED at which your gear will freefall if its hydraulic system has failed!
The "Failures" page now fails the vacuum PUMPS, not the systems. There is one vacuum pump per engine, up to 2 engine-driven vacuum pumps. These pumps pressurize the primary vacuum system, and the failure of either pump in a twin is ok since the other pump will still pressurize the system... the SECOND vacuum system is powered by the ELECTRIC system though... so simply choose the second vacuum system for a standby artificial horizon to get that instrument working on a standy system that is tied to the electrical rather than engine-driven vacuum system.
The number of generators, batteries, and inverters is now determined BY THE NUMBER OF SWITCHES FOR THOSE THINGS ON THE PANEL, not the number of engines. Why? Because a Cirrus has 1 engine but 2 batteries and 2 generators... and a B-52 has 8 engines but does not have 8 generators! This lets you simulate electrical systems with more accuracy.
Afterburner failure option! It's in the "Failures" window with the other engine failures.
New failure options: "Control lock left in" and "Fuel caps left off." You guess what happens when you activate them.
More airport lighting failures... individually fail the VASI, approach, and runway lights.

(This new system simulations stuff is new detail for FAA-certified flight training, but you still get the benefit.)

Minor Enhancements:

Generator and Inverter switch states are saved in the situation files, and sent to external cockpits as well.
VASIs and PAPIs are always lined up perfectly with the glideslope transmitters, so you never get conflicting information on the "perfect" glideslope.
Seaplane physics refinements.
Dragging your plane on the map turns OFF the map auto-center, as it probably should.
Better indicators and data ouput for the CLUTCHES that helos (and, in theory, airplanes!) can have.
In the map view you can turn plotting your own plane on or off... Turn it off if you want to practice navigation like in old-style planes with no moving maps.
The logbook now saves the entire aircraft name, not just an abbreviated name.
The screenshots you take in the "Special" menu now save in PNG, not BMP... smaller that way.
There are text files in the cockpit bitmaps for the TRIM indicators now... you specify the range of indicator motion.
Weapons stay hard-locked to the craft until launch, even during violent manuevering.
Smoke puffs from touchdown are now visible in replay mode, and from multiplayers touching down as well!
Also, we have more accuracy in the replay: Data is stored 10 times per second rather than 5 times a second to give more fluid replays.
Threading can be turned off... might be useful if you do not have 2 processors or a dual-core CPU.
Engine instruments are now auto-labelled on both left and right sides for the multi-engine all-in-one gages, even if the plane has "mirrored" instruments as specified in the "Limits" screen in Plane-Maker.
X-Plane no longer draws the aircraft geometry when in transparent-cockpit window.
Cabin pressurization inited to a bit BELOW the airport elevation, pressurizing the plane a bit right from the start, as in reality.
If you already have movies on your hard drive with the same names as the movies you are about to make in X-Plane, X-Plane won't complain and exit, but instead choose a different movie name!
If you do a vertical descent from over 100,000 feet, scenery is read in if needed so you do not descend into waterworld.
No more starting off on helipads just because you were close to one when you crashed your plane or opened a new plane.

Bug-Fixes

Various cockpit instrument verbal warnings (radio altimeter minimums, total-energy variometer) now play whether the instrument they are attached to is off-screen due to the panel scrolling around or not!
DG and HSI show magnetic hading now, not true heading, on the various external cockpits and replays, as they should.
Cockpit objects for OTHER planes always use the OUTER cockpit object if both an inner and outer object are defined, as they should.
"Open Text File for Viewing" no longer ignores vertain types of line returns on certain types of computers.
Non-standard FMS size will not make the text in the flight-plan open/save page non-standard as well!
Standard-6 panel instruments functional on the IOS screen.
World-Maker now saves facades.
Plugins can control the ground bumpiness now.
Railroads and powerlines appear in lower road rendering settings.
The 'Nearest VOR' function on the Garmin 430 should give the nearest VOR now.
The overlay images for fuselages work in Plane-Maker, even if their size is NOT power-of-2.
No more water-runway flags floating over the runways at KLGA.
Beaches no longer float above the land when runway-flattening is on with global scenery.
Cockpit objects no longer have only gray texture.
No more crash using V7 scenery in V8.
Joystick nosewheel steering toggle is now operative.
Autopilot disconnect annunciator now operative.
Cockpit obejcts visible in other planes at the right times.
G430 more speed-optimized... it does not slow the sim down in any mode.
Runway and aircraft lites can run in the daytime now.
Rain effect works fine in all views now.
Approach lites always lined up with the runways.

Version 8 Overview

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