X-Plane 12.3.0 Release Notes

Laminar Research is pleased to announce the beta release of X-Plane 12.3.0, including the long-anticipated debut of the Weather Radar. Cloud precipitation can now be scanned in 3D space in real time, empowering pilots with a plethora of new tools to conduct a successful mission and navigate the skies safely!

But that’s not all. 12.3.0 also introduces Synthetic Vision, A330 Improvements for visuals and systems, WXR and WX APIs for Developers,  ExVis/Networking Synchronisation Improvements, Historic Weather, New Art Assets, extended camera controls, and much, much more…

This update continues the company’s commitment to providing pilots, enthusiasts, and professional users with an ever-improving simulation environment. By pilots, for everyone!

NOTAMS

Version History

Release Date: September 12, 2025

Fixes and Enhancements

General

• Changing the time using L and K keys will work again in manual date and time mode (XPD-17280)
• Enabling the Control Pad will no longer drastically reduce performance (XPD-17269)
• GDL-90 output improved now sends precipitation, turbulence, icing and METARs to EFB apps
• Fixed network UI so that ForeFlight appears under first-class supported GDL-90 apps
• Various crash fixes

Aircraft

General

• Fixed stutters caused by the X1000 (XPD-17118)
• Fixed dataref sim/cockpit2/engine/actuators/hardware_throttle_ratio returning -0.01 instead of 0.00 at idle
• Fixed arrivals not available after activating SEC FPLN to a new airport (XPD-17295)
• Improved autopilot handling of overspeed and over-AOA (XPD-17305)
• Add a blip to the air data instruments when the aircraft passes the sound barrier
• Added Peaks Mode and Sea Level to the EGPWS terrain display
• Fixed X1000 broken traffic, storm scope, weather and TAWS map when navigation map is in track-up
• Weather radar will no longer show “off path” when under 6000 ft MSL in auto mode (XPD-17323)

Airbus A330-300

• Improved autopilot when calculating allowable bank angle (XPD-17307)

Beechcraft King Air C90B

• Fixed the altitude selection button (XPD-17288)

Lancair Evolution

• Fixed display of fuel time in Weight & Balance screen (XPD-17278)

ATC

• Fixed an issue where cancelling an approach request would lock the approach type, preventing other approaches such as ILS from being requested (XPD-17272)
• Cancelling an IFR flight plan will no longer cause a crash to desktop (XPD-17291)
• Fixed various crashes to desktop (XPD-17320)

Graphics

• Fixed glaring light blooms from SSR on aircraft (XPD-16783)

Scenery

• Fixed deploy position for catering trucks (XPD-17276)

Weather

• Fixed an issue where manual or real-world weather settings where not applied correctly (XPD-17268)

SDK

• Fixed double-dispatch of commands when popping a window (XPD-17245)

Release Date: September 4, 2025

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).

Release Date: August 12, 2025

Fixes and Enhancements

General

• Fixed an issue when generating icons for an aircraft (XPD-17122).
• Improved experience for demo users, including a new dialog to show all available demo areas.
• Upgraded FMOD to version 2.02.29.
• Fixed an issue when repeatedly popping out instruments and windows (XPD-17123).
• Fixed an issue where edit fields wouldn’t save the entered text when leaving the field by pressing the tab key.
• Fixed various crashes.

Aircraft

General

• New commands to set and release the parking brake now apply brake pressure gradually over one second instead of instantly.

Airbus A330-300

• Fixed electrical loads display between BAT1 and BAT2.

Baron 58

• Weather Radar: Simulated radar beam attenuation due to strong returns/cells.
• Weather Radar: Simulated noise and smearing of the return image at high display ranges.
• Weather Radar: Fixed incompatibility with Avitab.
• Added sounds to all switches when using X-Plane commands (XPD-16799).
• Improved engine sounds (XPD-17148).

Boeing 737-800

• Improved sound and animation of the park brake handle.
• Fixed parking brake when using a cold & dark start.

Cirrus SR22

• Fixed label for Baro knob on the PFD (XPD-15710).

ATC

• Updated navigation voicepacks to AIRAC 2508.

External Visuals

• Saved flap handle location for replay and External Visuals (XPD-16558).
• Disabled “Flight Configuration”, “Weight and Balance”, “AI Flies Your Aircraft” and “Toggle Replay” menu options, and hid the “Flight Configuration” toolbar button on External Visuals.
• Fixed water jettisoning synchronization (XPD-16703).
• Synchronized chocks and doors for the Boeing 737-800.
• Fixed synchronization of airport vehicle wheels.
• Fixed synchronization of parking brake commands.

Graphics

• Fixed a crash when using Intel ARC GPUs.
• Improved cloud rendering performance.
• Set up the sun for the HITS view so that the user’s camera does not affect it (XPD-17134).
• Improved tree lighting.
• Improved cubemap placement — cockpit reflections should now look more natural.
• Better adaptive exposure fusion, especially for interior views, to avoid overly high contrast.

Scenery

• Added long hangar facades.
• Added Quonset hangars.
• Added universal hangar door facades.
• Added open variants of side sheds.
• Added several new gabled and arched hangars.
• Applied decals to all Terminal Kit elements.
• Applied decals to all older buildings (offices, parking garages).
• Improved weather effects on parking garages.
• Improved weather effects on all open hangars (interiors no longer accumulate snow).

Weather API

• General improvements.

Weather Radar

• Fixed vertical mode to provide the correct texture to plugins.

SDK

• Custom avionics will invoke after-draw callback (XPD-17065).

Release Date: July 23, 2025

Fixes and Enhancements

General

• Fixed an issue where using ProtonVPN would cause X-Plane Identity to fail due to a 00:00:00:00:00:00 MAC address.
• Fixed an issue taking screenshots when using AMD GPUs.
• The Texture Browser no longer displays images without a sampling usage to prevent validation errors.
• Improved the date/time settings dialog.

Aircraft

Airbus A330-300

• Added key sounds on the FMS for SEC-FPLN and ATC COMM buttons.
• Improved normal map effects on the glass screens.
• Improved Lua scripts for better performance.
• Improved parking brake logic.

Beechcraft King Air C90B

• GPWS status messages are no longer printed to the log or console (XPD-16780).

Cessna 172 Skyhawk

• Dome lights can now be controlled using the mouse wheel (XPD-17071).

Cessna Citation X

• Changing the destination airport no longer locks out the FMS.

Cirrus SR22

• Improved cockpit sunshades with enhanced geometry and animation (XPD-15505).

McDonnell Douglas MD-82

• GPWS status messages are no longer printed to the log or console (XPD-16780).

Robinson R22

• Fixed OAT gauge to correctly display three-digit temperatures (XPD-15889).

ATC

• Improved ATC behavior when starting a flight on 10NM or 3NM approach.
• Improved waypoint sequencing during STAR to approach transitions (XPD-16279).
• Refined SID/STAR selection logic (XPD-16273).

Flight Lessons

• Fixed minor issues related to the parking brake logic.

Scenery

• Improved visibility of PAPI and VASI lights.

Systems

• sim/graphics/misc/kill_g1000_ah dataref works as expected again. (XPD-17069).
• Closing both firewall valves now correctly shuts down the engine on single-engine aircraft with wing tanks only.
• Added two new commands for weapon arm/disarm logic:
  • sim/weapons/re_arm_aircraft_PLN – re-arm to Plane Maker defaults
  • sim/weapons/dis_arm_aircraft – dis-arm aircraft
• Fixed an issue where popup instruments without a screen did not respond to mouse clicks (XPD-17029).

Weather

• Added support for historic weather (up to one year in the past).
• Real-world weather can now be based on either simulator time or actual time.

Weather Radar

• Added four new datarefs:
  • sim/cockpit2/EFIS/EFIS_weather_sweep – Pilot radar antenna sweep (0 = forward, positive = right)
  • sim/cockpit2/EFIS/EFIS_weather_sweep_copilot – Copilot radar sweep (note: not an actual antenna; this value is frozen during opposing antenna sweeps)
  • sim/cockpit2/EFIS/EFIS_weather_vertical – Pilot radar vertical scan
  • sim/cockpit2/EFIS/EFIS_weather_vertical_copilot – Copilot radar vertical scan

SDK

• Fixed a crash when DataRefTool queried weather radar datarefs before the aircraft had finished loading.
• Fixed an error where the FBO for custom avionics was cleared before the draw callback (XPD-17072).

Release Date: July 8, 2025

Known Issues

• There is an issue taking screenshots of X-Plane using the build-in function.

New Features

Weather Radar

A brand-new weather radar system is now available in several of our default aircraft, bringing enhanced situational awareness and realism to your flights.

Available in:

• Boeing 737-800
• Airbus A330-300
• Cessna Citation X
• McDonnell Douglas MD-82
• Cirrus Vision SF50
• Beechcraft Baron 58

Features:

• ±15° manual tilt and auto tilt.
• Multi-scan modes (Auto, On-Path, All, Single-Elevation).
• Ground clutter suppression, predictive wind shear (PWS), and stabilized antenna sweep.
• Full API for aircraft developers.

Radar Modes Include:

• WX / WX+T / TURB: Active precipitation and turbulence detection
• MAP: Ground mapping
• TEST: Simulated return image for system check
• OFF: Powers down the system

The radar uses realistic modeling: it detects liquid water droplets (not ice crystals), simulates beam width, auto-gain by altitude, and the risk of “overscanning” cloud tops in cruise. For accurate scanning, tilting the radar down to catch lower portions of storm cells is recommended.

Airbus A330-300

This update introduces extensive enhancements across the Airbus A330-300’s avionics, flight planning, and flight control systems. Key improvements focus on VNAV fidelity, autopilot behavior, realism, and pilot usability. We now also support a fully functional Secondary Flight Plan (SEC F-PLN).

Flight Management and Navigation

• Support of a secondary flight plan (SEC F-PLN).
• CRZ FL ABOVE MAX FL is now a clearable message.
• Added FPL preview for CO ROUTEs; STATUS page now shows pilot-defined points, navaids, and routes.
• SIDs beginning with an IF (Initial Fix) without a connecting leg from the departure runway are now handled as per real-world logic — no NAV arm, HDG PRESEL used.
• Step climbs now possible via FCU (dial and push ALT).
• Improved climb/cruise/descent predictions with winds aloft, step climb fuel use, and constraint handling.
• Explicit discontinuities inserted after segments requiring manual sequencing.
• Enhanced VNAV logic: early descent, path capture from above, smooth acceleration, better path prediction in varying conditions, support for arbitrary deceleration segments.

Autopilot & Flight Control Enhancements

• Accurate roll rate and alpha protection response under FBW.
• Corrected autopilot disengagement during rollout with pedal/tiller input.
• More realistic auto-trim reset and deceleration logic post-touchdown.
• Supports managed climb/descent during missed approach and into subsequent approach.
• Airbus-style level-off preview now on the ND (replaces “banana”).
• Improved FMA consistency during approach, go-around, and transitions.

Systems, Displays & Quality-of-Life Improvements

• V-speeds suggestions now available, based on minimum available V2 — just double-tap the LSKs after entering the desired flap setting in the FMS.
• Fuel prediction logic reworked for consistency across flight phases.
• Realistic baro/STD handling per pilot side, including the correct warnings in case of no mismatches.
• New ECAM messages and ATSU simulation: ATIS, METAR, and PDC now fully supported with memo display, controller cab selection, and delay simulation.
• Improved climb thrust and climb fuel burn.
• More accurate cruise fuel burn.
• Improved autoland handling.
• FQ and totalizer sync corrected, no more negative fuel prediction bugs.
• Improved autobrake deceleration behavior and make deceleration less aggressive, close to real deceleration values.

Visuals

• Significant visual updates including improved decals, added dirt details, and entirely new dynamic cabin and cockpit lighting.
• The cabin lighting now features fully 3D lights, dynamic reading lights, and an auto purser function that adjusts lighting automatically based on flight phase and altitude.
• The cockpit lighting includes newly backlit instruments, realistic spill lighting to simulate bounce light, and enhanced annunciator spill effects for an immersive night environment.
• Added engine vibration animations.
• Changed the tail number for the Air Canada livery to C-GEFA.

Synthetic Vision

We’ve added Synthetic Vision to our X1000. This powerful feature enhances situational awareness by providing a 3D representation of terrain and obstacles directly on the PDF, just like in the real-world high-end GA avionics.

It supports runways, airport signs, horizon heading, and pathways for GPS flight plans and GPS and ILS approaches.

Engine Health

We’ve added a new Engine Health setting that allows you to simulate wear and tear on engines. A value of 1.00 represents a brand-new engine performing exactly to specification. Lower values (e.g. 0.98 or 0.99) simulate degraded performance due to worn compressors, cylinders, or bearings — resulting in higher temperatures, fuel flow, and throttle requirements for the same power output. This is especially useful for introducing subtle variations between engines on multi-engine aircraft.

Dedicated Avionics Screens

Avionics displays like the G1000, G530, MCDU, Citation EFIS or any plugin-defined avionics display can now be assigned directly to a dedicated hardware screen — no more relying on popup windows. This makes it easier than ever to build your perfect home cockpit setup. The dedicated screen can be a touchscreen where the bezel buttons are software, or the bezel can be hidden if dedicated hardware buttons exist.

Airbus-Style Flap Handle Behavior

The Airbus flap handle now behaves like a series of switches, triggering flap position changes only when near a detent — improving realism for the A330-300.

Auto-gated flap axis

Additionally, there’s an optional joystick setting to replicate this hard-gated flap logic on any aircraft, simplifying setup for multi-aircraft environments.

Copilot eye-point for uncollimated projections

Aircraft can now be set up with two distinct eye-points for pilot and co-pilot positions. The eye points support lateral as well as rotational offsets and can quickly be swapped with the new commands sim/operation/eyepoint_pilot, sim/operation/eyepoint_copilot, sim/operation/eyepoint_toggle

Air Data Sensor Simulation

The calculation of dynamic pressure for both subsonic and supersonic flight was improved, and X-Plane now supports equipping planes with different pitot tubes that are either corrected for supersonic speeds or not. By default, all existing planes receive perfect pitot tubes that read correctly also in supersonic speeds, but designers can change this in Plane Maker to see the effect of supersonic speeds not reading correctly on an uncorrected pitot.

Planes can be equipped with unheated, heated, or heated and aspirated TAT probes. New datarefs are available for aircraft designers to get the readings of these probes, and their behavior both on the ground (stagnant, warm air around the aircraft in sunny conditions) and in flight (TAT probes can ice over and indicate the temperature of the ice rather than the surrounding air) is simulated. Heated TAT probes can be selectively failed, leading to wrong indications, which in turn cause Mach and wind calculations to be wrong.

The wind indicator is now simulated using air-data input that is subject to limitations. Wind reading will be incorrect on the ground, and depend on correct input from pitot, static and TAT sensor all of which have limitations and failure modes.

Pro Settings (Professional Users only)

A new configuration file option makes it easier than ever to deploy and synchronize X-Plane settings across multiple machines — ideal for professional or multi-computer setups. This simplifies initial setup and ensures consistency in distributed environments.

Fixes and Enhancements

General

• Improved performance when using the replay system.
• Fixed an issue where old replay files couldn’t be opened.
• Fixed an issue where replay files couldn’t be opened from the main menu.
• The map screen now displays holding patterns, improving situational awareness during flight planning and approach (XPD-16873).
• Removed the engine number filter from the aircraft selection screen.
• Aircraft parked at a gate with a jetbridge now receive ground power automatically – even without a diesel generator cart.
• Added OS timezone support.
• Removed the confusing GMT offset field when setting the simulation time. X-Plane now handles local time correctly on its own, including daylight saving time. Set your local time directly and let the sim do the math (XPD-15833).
• Improved the performance when using TrackIR.
• Fixed several crashes.

Aircraft

General

• Water intake now occurs only when the scoop is open.
• Improved climb, cruise, and descent performance modeling for aircraft using default FMS by allowing interpolation beyond tabulated weights — better handling of higher cruise altitudes.
• Vertical navigation now correctly distinguishes between barometric and true altitude depending on equipment: baro-capable (e.g. G1000) vs. GPS-only (e.g. GNS430).
• Airbus autothrottle behavior now restricted to aircraft with Airbus FBW (A320 or A330), preventing inappropriate logic in other aircraft.
• Revised beta/reverse thrust detection: Even without throttle input, commanded beta/reverse status now reflected accurately in jet_rev and beta_rev datarefs.
• Hardware trim axis now drives trim wheel directly, decoupled from electric trim logic for more realistic mechanical aircraft behavior.
• Running start initializes hydraulics properly. Prevents RAT deployment in mid-air starts on aircraft with hydraulic deployment logic.
• FMS progress page now correctly handles manually sequenced legs and legs that cross the International Date Line.
• DME signal simulation improved. Signal now fades in and out realistically.
• Support for extended FAA DME service volumes.
• Signal loss now behaves realistically. When out of DME or VOR range, indicators fade, speed/time estimates reset, and bearing pointers no longer snap to the origin (0,0,0) of the local geoid — especially important when flying over oceans.
• VOR bearing pointers now freeze on last-known heading upon signal loss, while ADF needles gradually drift — just like in real-world operations. ADFs will still pick up on static discharge and will point to lightning strikes as they happen.
• Support for secondary flight plans. You can now create and switch to a secondary flight plan using the default FMS — a major step toward real-world dispatch workflows.
• ATC connection improved via AOC menu. More reliable and realistic interaction with ATC when using the AOC functions in the default FMS.
• ATSU/ATIS support added. The default Airbus MCDU can now request and receive ATIS information through the ATSU system, simulating realistic datalink weather retrieval.
• Autobrake deceleration values can now be set by the aircraft designer instead of being hardcoded into X-Plane. See sim/aircraft/specialcontrols/acf_autofbrk_decels[].
• Added parallel/series switching of batteries for engine start. Some airplanes allow the starters to take the batteries in series, getting double the voltage to the starter. This allows the starter to spin faster, at the expense of depleting the batteries faster (used on the Honeywell/Garret TPE engine).
• Added fuel enrichment command for starting Honeywell/Garret TPE engines.

Beechcraft King Air C90B

• Fixed an issue where the needle of the right oil pressure gauge was not displayed correctly (XPD-15469).

Boeing 737-800

• Instrument artwork has been reworked, including an updated Navigation Display (ND) and improved EICAS and ND artwork using the correct real-world font.
• Minor cockpit updates include backlit chronometers and 7-segment displays (radios, transponder, pressurization displays, etc.).
• The barometer and minimums knobs have been reworked for realistic interaction and behavior.
• The Flight Control Computer is no longer engaged if both autopilots are flight directors are off (XPD-16468).

Cessna Citation X

• Upgraded the Citation Primus FMZ to use the new VNAV system developed for the Airbus.
• Clamped the VTK caret on the Citation PFD.
• Fixed pressure and density altitude calculations for landing airports in the FMS.
• Added air data and flight summary to the PROG page.
• Improved the overspeed warning (XPD-16284).
• Improved the visualisation of the MFD flight track line (XPD-16436).
• Fixed an issue where Direct-To entries outside the flight plan didn’t work correctly.
• Fixed a displaying issue on the progress page (XPD-16435).
• Tweaked fuel flow and climb power settings.

Grumman F-14 Tomcat

• Improved the flap master warning (XPD-16705).

Piper PA-18 Super Cub

• Updated flap handling to use a Johnson-bar style system, just like in the real aircraft.

Sikorsky S-76

• Added 4-axis autopilot.

ATC

• Improved taxi route calculations for more accurate and efficient ground movement.
• Support for DCT (direct-to) as the first and last element in a flight plan.

Autopilot

• Introduced a new autopilot system called Heli DAFCS, capable of controlling all four axes: cyclic roll, cyclic pitch, anti-torque pedals, and collective. This includes a new Auto Hover mode and several new commands for improved helicopter handling.
• Improved the transition when engaging the autopilot — servos now engage more smoothly, reducing abrupt control changes.

Avionics

• Fixed a GPS runtime error that could occur at touchdown (XPD-16858).
• Fixed a sim crash that could occur when changing arrival procedures.
• Fixed a bug where the timer on the G1000 would not count down after passing 1h and 30 min (XPD-16755).
• The G1000 now allows selection of approaches or departures at airports other than the origin or destination — just like the real unit (XPD-16543).
• Display airports in the avionics, even if the runway length has been declared with 0ft (XPD-17043).
• The G1000 now supports dead-reckoning mode in case of a GPS failure. If the GPS receiver is failed, the G1000 will allow navigation with degrading accuracy for 20 minutes. RNAV approaches are disabled when in dead-reckoning mode.

External Visuals Synchronisation

• Significantly improved synchronization of visuals between MASTER and EXVIS computers in multi-display setups — now including ground traffic at the airports, jetway extensions, boats and static aircraft.

Enhanced GDL-90 support

Data broadcast for EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) applications like ForeFlight and FlyQ now includes FIS-B and TIS-B information on all traffic and weather in X-Plane. X-Plane now broadcasts NEXRAD, Icing, turbulence and METAR information in GDL-90 to supported EFBs.

Weather

• Improved the METAR parser (XPD-15436 & XPD-15414).
• Improved turbulence when using real world weather.
• Improved cloud drawing (XPD-16052, XPD-16410 & XPD-16241).
• Improved altimeter jumps during cruise (XPD-16320).

Plane Maker

• The Manufacturer field is now a free-text input instead of a dropdown list.
• Improved tooltips for various settings to aid usability.
• Colored spheres are now used for better visual visualization in the 3D preview.
• Added additional information related to the Water Rudder (XPD-16702).
• Added setting for pitot tubes to be corrected for supersonic speeds.
• Added setting for total air temperature sensors to be heated and aspirated.
• Added settings for weather-radar installation in the aircraft.

SDK

• Added support for all mouse cursor types via the SDK.
• Fixed an error when using XPLMSetDestinationFMSFlightPlanEntry where an approach could not be activated (XPD-16216).
• New API for the Weather Radar.
• New API to read and set the weather in X-Plane.

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