New stuff:

NAVAID editing works perfectly... add new DMEs, markers, etc, in the MAP screen in EDIT mode and have them all added and working perfectly without having to re-start X-Plane!

Tiny change to an autopilot instrument for the little 'alert' message to come up at just the right times.

Replay works as you expect, evern if you are paused when you enter replay mode.

Flight data recorder works properly with the CALI statements, even if the real elevation of the ground is different than the elevation in our scenery database.

Less wind shear in direction from real weather... should make planes more manageable.

Space shuttle GPS operational.

Custom transmission pressure and temperature limits settable in Plane-Maker.

Custom mast torque instrument limits settable in Plane-Maker as well.

The current livery is available as a dataref.

Even more customizable airport lights for airplane authors.

HUD instruments will hide if inside a group that is hidden - customize your HUD.

Tuned: load time improvements on Windows.

No more stutters while flying for a long time in one area.

Objects were rotated a fraction of a degree, now fixed.

austin

New Stuff for 9.20:

Countless frame-rate and RAM optimizations. One of the many examples is the new scenery-loader: Texture loading now uses as many cores as you have. Photo scenery should load a lot faster on multi-core machines, especially if you have four or eight cores.

General New Features:

DOME projection option!
It is in the rendering options screen.
This is designed for the bigger sims... It requires a level-2 key to use!
All sorts of edge-blending and offsets are avail as well in the Rendering Options screen to get multi-projector setups on conical or cylindrical screens!
Pick a joystick axis (on MASTER machine if a network) to be VIEW LEFT/RIGHT
Pick a joystick axis (on MASTER machine if a network) to be VIEW UP/DOWN
Go to the buttons: ADV
Pick a joy button to be: view/circle
Pick a joy button to be: view/forward
Pick a joy button to be: view/3d_path_toggle
Pick a joy button to be: general/zoom_in
Pick a joy button to be: general_zoom_out
Now fly around with a different joystick, or on autopilot, or with PFC hardware, or with A/I flies, or whatever.
Then, hit the joy button for view/circle, then the button for view/3d_path_toggle, and you will see the plane from the outside, leaving a flightpath behind it.
Hit the buttons for general/zoom_in and general_zoom_out to get a better look, and steer your view around with the joystick
NOW HERE IS WHERE THIS GETS AMAZINGLY COOL: YOU CAN DO THIS WITH MANY EXTERNAL VISUALS, AND THE DISPLAY WILL SPAN THEM ALL.
NOW HERE IS WHERE IT GETS EVEN COOLER: AN INSTRUCTOR CAN HAVE HIS OWN JOYSTICK AT THE INSTRUCTOR OPERATORS STATION TO STEER THE VIEW AROUND AFTER AN APPROACH TO SHOW THE PILOT WHAT HE DID!
So, if you have networked copies of X-Plane, and an instructor station, and an extra joystick, the instructor can steer the view around with a joystick at the IOS with the flight-plan displayed to show the pilot what he just flew!
MAP page shows a magenta line sprouting out from any VORs that you have tuned on the OBS radial you have selected....
kind of nice for evaluating whether you are tracking the radials OK. Really useful on the IOS.

BOUNCERS!
See the systems screen in Plane-Maker, BOUNCERS tab.
You can enter the spring and damping constants of various stuff that could bounce around in the cockpit.
The data you enter here will drive datarefs that you can then use in your custom OBJECT cockpit files that you make.
Click on the links below to see some possible 'bouncer' type objects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU9USxJ9vPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8gPRgw5_y8
Garmin-400 support as well as 430 and 530... This is nice for the Eclipse-jet, which uses this system.
Marker flares!
Put them on in the special equipment page in Plane-Maker, and be sure to add a parachute-flare button to the panel as well.
Then, toss out marker flares that float down!
They will float down, and sit on the ground and burn as well!
There is also a joystick command to deploy them.

You can have up to 4 landing lights. New "named lights" let you create independently controllable landing lights in your attached OBJ files. More docs on Airplane development:
http://wiki.x-plane.com/Category:Aircraft_Development

New Instruments:

All new user interface for the Plane-Maker panel editor!
New slip indicator type: INVERTED.
This is like any slip indicator, except you only use it when you are upside down.
Used on aerobatic airplanes.
New 4-digit ADF-frequency selector instruments.
Well, they use 'em in Russia!
4-digit angles for generic gages... lets you make metric altimeters
Better instrumentation for Thrust-Vector on the HUD and vector handle.
(X-Plane is now being used by duPont Aerospace to fly a VTOL jet concept).
(Importing instrument panels from other planes will keep the custom instrument attributes).
ANY number of instruments can now be added to the panel.
There is NO LIMIT.
Is that enough instruments?
6-digit fuel-flow for the EFIS-digital and engine-digital-only gauges.
The round gage with scrolling digits at the bottom will indicate in thousands of gph or pph if needed to fit the max fuel flow into 4 digits.
HUD reference changed a hair: The CDI's now sit on the glideslope angle, not the horizon.

Round trim indicators indicate trim, like they should, not control deflections, like they accidentally were.
The generic instruments have a ton of new features. Every instrument has key framing. There are new instruments (text display, pointer) and some of the other instruments have new features.
You can distort the moving parts of generic instruments by dragging their corners to make perspective views in 2-d panels look just right.
You can now specify parts of an OBJ file to be dragged in 3-d in a cockpit. Use this to make dragable throttles and yokes, or 3-d switches that can be moved around. File spec and ac3d plugin support coming soon.
You can specify up to 16 different dimmers for the instrument lighting, and pick which dimmer each instrument follows.
Generic instruments can have a new "back-lit" lighting mode... the LIT and daytime textures are combined. Use this to make back-lit mechanical instruments. Back-lighting will respond to the instrument brightness dimmers.
You can create up to 3 "spot light" masks for the 2-d panel. 3 dimmers control the spot light, which apply to burned in backgrounds and overlays.

General Refinements:

3-D flight paths work with FDR files... nice for people importing FDR files that want to see the whole flight in 3-D at once.

Seaplanes go to nearest water on the Planet-click, and the seaport you requested if you request if you requested one of them.

Track-IR works a little better... Now we have 5 axis: pitch, yaw, and 3 axis of translation.
No more time of day seeming to get out of sync between master and external visuals sometimes.
PREFERENCES folder lives in the OUTPUT folder now, not the RESOURCES folder.
This makes it easier to copy X-Plane to other machines without messing up its prefs... just copy the RESOURCES folder, not the OUTPUT folder.
Flight path display kept in sync across all external visuals. Get a lot of computers with X-Plane and make all but one of them external visuals and zoom out and hit 'o' a few times to see the flite path displayed across all the monitors... cool!
Better job of keeping track of flite path display and markers and stuff across all the external visuals.
Flight Data Record and Joystick-Dropped file markers go to all external visuals, as is used by the National Test Pilot School.
Rendering Option: Limit FR to monitor refresh.
This can reduce OSCILLATIONS in frame-rate if your computer is super-duper fast.
Better language-localization
Up to 3 chutes now!
Like the XB-70 has!
And you specify the angles the chutes come out of the plane, so you can get them in the right places better as well!
The parachutes also rotate around a little when deployed because, umm, I like them to.
Control-O auto-centers the mouse so the view does not jerk around when you switch to that view.
Reset flite path on the IOS or master to clear it from all displays.
Set the transmissions-per-second to the external visuals to whatever you like.
40 transmissions per second is default, but you can set it as you like if you think a different send-rate would be better.

Basic simulated Garmin 430 should allow you to go to fixes and navaids now, as well as airports.

Flight-Model Refinements:

More advanced ICING model for FAA-certified use... We now build up ice on individual propellers and engine inlets and wings,
and can fail individual parts of the de-icing system to have more ice on one wing than the other, for instance, if you fly in
icing conditions with the de-icing system on but the LEFT wing de-icing system failed!
Turbines and exhaust systems stay hot after shut-down for a while, as in the real planes.
Wake turbulence from other planes is now more realistic... we now consider the size of both planes,
and the G-load of the pane producing the turbulence, which determines the amount of lift, and thus wake turbulence, produced!
If you set the auto-brakes to RTO, and arm the speedbrakes, then the speedbrakes will auto-deploy on the rejected take-off.
Autopilot disco takes out the auto-throttle as well.

'Hide-prop-from-airflow-when-retracted' checkbox in the vectored thrust screen in Plane-Maker
to hide props from the airflow when retracted works better now... It really does stop all forces on the prop.

Flight-Model SYSTEMS Refinements:

Oil cooler designed differently for recips, turboprops, and jets to give more accurate oil temperatures.
Jets actually use their FUEL to cool the oil, unlike recips.

You can now assign electrical systems to run off of EITHER bus: They will run as long as EITHER bus is powered.
This is in Plane-Maker systems window.
Yet more electrical system refinement!
If the load is too high for the generators, their voltage starts to sag until the batteries take over!
The batteries are turned off or dead? Then systems start dropping of-line!
The more rpm you are spinning, the more amps the generators can put out!
It is when you demand too many amps of the generators that the voltage sags.
For some Cessnas, King-Airs, and Lancairs, this is a consideration during taxi: The load may be higher than the generator can provide, and higher rpm is used to keep the generators meeting the electrical system demands!
If you DON'T do this, then the BATTERIES will be taking the load, and gradually dis-charging during the taxi!
Fuel system overhaul:
Enter a different fuel pressure per tank in Plane-Maker: You can use this to control what tanks are burned first!
Also the l/c/r fuel-tank selectors and transfer-to and transfer-from buttons will take from or give to ALL
the tanks on that side, which can be nice for multi-tank planes! This is useful for various planes that always burn the MAIN tanks first, leaving the SUMPS full until you are fuel-critical.
Plane-Maker option in gear screen to specify whether or not the gear can retract on the ground. Amphib planes sure can use this!

The autopilot heading, alt, vertical speed, and airspeed adjust commands all now give a nice increment with a ONE-button hit,
but continue to give continuous motion when HELD.
Engines and oil pumps quit when inverted or otherwise pulling negative G!
This happens in most real planes! Don't like it?
Then check the INVERTED FUEL AND OIL SYSTEMS checkbox in the engines screen in Plane-Maker!
Inverter powers: Radar, autopilot, electric gyros, and/or torque indicators, all as controlled in Plane-Maker
If you find other stuff in real planes that are power by the inverters, let me know and I can add them easily!
Sep switches for art stab in pitch, roll, and yaw. (The yaw damper is art stab in yaw).
The XB-70 Valkyrie has this, so this could be useful if you are going to be taking in a check-ride in an XB-70 any time soon.
They might want you to know about the individual control of art stability on each axis, maybe.
Auto engine-sync option in Plane-Maker, Engines screen. Works for props and jets, too, like the real Eclipse-jet has.
ADG: Air-Driven Generator!
This keeps your elec system going after an engine-driven generator failure.
As your speed decays below stall speed, though, you will lose power for sure!
New options in Plane-Maker viewpoint screen for verbal 500 agl, gear, and stall warning callouts.
Autopilot discos in the stall, as it should.
Ground-power unit option in the failures screen... used to plug in the GPU!

New Equipment Failures:

INDIVIDUAL autopilot servo failure options: Aileron, elevator, auto-throttle, and yaw-damper!
New failures: Electric and engine-driven fuel pumps... Either can run the system!
The elec pumps have amperages that can be assigned in Plane-Maker, so you get a change in generator load
when you turn on the various fuel pumps!
Of course, you can assign those pumps to either bus, and any lack of generators and batteries that power that bus
will cause the electric fuel pumps to go down, which will fail the engine IF the mechanical engine-driven pump as failed as well.
New failures: bleed air, left and right. Used for pressurization

Gear INDICATOR failures. Kind of nice for training.
New failures: Elec trim runaway!
We have failures in pitch, roll, and yaw trim!
So now we can fail trim to lock it down motionless, or have it run away out of control!

New Data Output and Joystick and Keyboard Commands:

New joystick buttons page to make it easier to assign joystick buttons to ANY function!
New data output, flite plan legs: Useful to see what the autopilot has planned for you next!
OK, for the first time I know of, I have REMOVED a key command: Key commands for all flight controls are GONE! They never were right, since there was no right answer as to when the rudder and nosewheel steering would be connected... no matter what I did, half the people said it was wrong. So, use the mouse to fly, or, if you want to do it RIGHT, use a joystick and pedals!

New commands: Audio selector to com1 or com2.
Total energy audio control now is available as a joystick button and key command.
(New button in key-command window to REMOVE commands, as well).

New For X-Plane 9.00:

We now have:
867 instruments
25,737 airports
25,866 navaids
88,367 fixes
18,008 scenery files (each file is one degree of latitude and longitude)

...and more

New little tweaks and refinements for 8.63:

- Engine thrust from throttle settings over 100% is now allowed.

- Correct coloring of the sectional chart in all cases.

Tons !

Like way faster

Getting better and better.

Universal binary. Beta.