With a rewritten rendering engine that gives Vulkan support, X-Plane 11.50 is out now

I've held off on testing the Vulkan renderer so far. Mostly because I've been busy with other things. But it looks like it's time to give it a spin again!

Interesting! I've seen many comments (from the developers I think) that the graphics engine really isn't their main bottleneck, but more or less "everything else". But another native Vulkan-based engine is always welcome!

I'm looking forward to tests of it on Phoronix (or other sites).


Last edited by AzP on 10 September 2020 at 1:40 pm UTC

Interesting! I've seen many comments (from the developers I think) that the graphics engine really isn't their main bottleneck, but more or less "everything else". But another native Vulkan-based engine is always welcome!

I'm looking forward to tests of it on Phoronix (or other sites).

I could be wrong here, but moving to Vulkan should make the VR stuff work in Linux? As I believe native Vulkan is a requirement at this point?

So there is that... which also means I should really dig into it with my overly expensive Thrustmaster Warthog set up + Valve Index :)

Interesting! I've seen many comments (from the developers I think) that the graphics engine really isn't their main bottleneck, but more or less "everything else". But another native Vulkan-based engine is always welcome!

I'm looking forward to tests of it on Phoronix (or other sites).

I could be wrong here, but moving to Vulkan should make the VR stuff work in Linux? As I believe native Vulkan is a requirement at this point?

So there is that... which also means I should really dig into it with my overly expensive Thrustmaster Warthog set up + Valve Index :)

Nah, that worked with OpenGL as well. What didn't work were the index controllers since the default bindings left you without the ability to interact.

Performance wasn't the main focus of going Vulkan. It was really about getting the rendering engine into a debuggable state where they could actually fix things according to real data instead of having to guess where the OpenGL driver was having issues. This in turn should (eventually) lead to a stutter free flying experience. Having a more modern platform for the future was of course a thing as well. Eventually they will have to overhaul the weather (rendering) engine.

Whenever I see "linux support" and "VR support"... I feel like that doesn't always guarantee "VR on Linux support"

linux + valve index + this game = ?

Interesting! I've seen many comments (from the developers I think) that the graphics engine really isn't their main bottleneck, but more or less "everything else". But another native Vulkan-based engine is always welcome!

I'm looking forward to tests of it on Phoronix (or other sites).

I could be wrong here, but moving to Vulkan should make the VR stuff work in Linux? As I believe native Vulkan is a requirement at this point?

So there is that... which also means I should really dig into it with my overly expensive Thrustmaster Warthog set up + Valve Index :)

Nah, that worked with OpenGL as well. What didn't work were the index controllers since the default bindings left you without the ability to interact.

Performance wasn't the main focus of going Vulkan. It was really about getting the rendering engine into a debuggable state where they could actually fix things according to real data instead of having to guess where the OpenGL driver was having issues. This in turn should (eventually) lead to a stutter free flying experience. Having a more modern platform for the future was of course a thing as well. Eventually they will have to overhaul the weather (rendering) engine.

From my understanding of it, that would have required OpenGL to Vulkan wrapper? As I thought SteamVR only supported Vulkan on Linux. Granted, I could be completely wrong.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/5/133261370000921428/


Last edited by slaapliedje on 10 September 2020 at 4:55 pm UTC

probably runs better than microsoft flight sim too

I bet they had Berlin's new airport ready before Berlin had? :D

probably runs better than microsoft flight sim too

Ha, I bought FS 2020, tried to run it, it asked me to log in... tried to find my old hotmail address, finally got in, it said it needed the xbox live app.. I grumbled, installed it, then it proceeded to crash to the desktop before even trying to download the data. So I promptly removed the game, removed the xbox live crap, and refunded the damn thing.

Runs great on my system. Gave me roughly 10 more FPS, and it's silky smooth. Took a flight through New York City which is kind of the "iron man" test of flight simulators because of how dense the scenery is, and it hovered around 30 frames per second.

Runs great on my system. Gave me roughly 10 more FPS, and it's silky smooth. Took a flight through New York City which is kind of the "iron man" test of flight simulators because of how dense the scenery is, and it hovered around 30 frames per second.

That's been my experience as well. I use NYC as the same "gauntlet" FPS test (as well as San Diego's runway 27 approach or anything at LAX) and I'd say I'm maybe getting 30% better FPS, around 30 FPS myself over NYC, vs prehaps 20-25 before (or worse) on high settings with ortho, weather add-on, shadow add-on, XPRealistic, etc with a 1080ti in 3440x1440. Not bad.

Interestingly, when the first Vulkan builds came out, the FPS gains were crazy, like 100% (double) improvement, but as they've worked on it and stamped out bugs the gain has notably dropped.

Just FYI for everyone, these kinds of FPS results are common for flight sims. These aren't competitive first person shooters, and don't require crazy high 60-90+ FPS. 30-40 FPS is the sweet spot, higher isn't really noticeable. For comparison, BTW, MSFS on my Windows drive (the only reason I have a Windows drive) gets about 35-45 FPS for me.

Fun fact: One of the most notable XP independent add-on devs, mSparks, is a Linux guy, developing all of his stuff on Linux and then porting out to other OS's... He's the "Cloud Art" dev and assisting on the (excellent) freeware volumetric cloud add on "Enhanced Cloudscapes."


Last edited by iiari on 11 September 2020 at 12:50 am UTC

I was going to install it and try it out, but apparently only have half the required disk space... need to beat Witcher 2 to free some up...

X-Plane 11 is still just awesome. In my opinion it has better flight physics and overall simulation aspect, then new Micro$oft Flight Sim. It also has a lot of community created content for free, and new Vulkan API works even better on Linux, than on Windows (!). Especialy if you have older PC, and I am one of these poor guys, you'll feel the difference. Totally worth it and still kicking. Plus - with mods, and some of many paid weather engines, it still can look just as beautiful as new MSFS. Of course, world scenery in MSFS is soooo much better and realistic... but it's obvious. And of course ATC. ATC in X-Plane sucks balls :/


Last edited by Avikarr on 11 September 2020 at 9:24 pm UTC

Oh, and here is my screenshot from X-plane. I took it couple of days ago. Cool, right? No paid scenery or weather was used. Just free mods for weather. Swiss mountains!
!Screenshot (open in new tab)


Last edited by Avikarr on 11 September 2020 at 9:16 pm UTC

This game sounds great.

The dealbreaker for many in UK will be the online connection speed, Ok the MSFS will look awesome, but looing at specs, I'd get away with high, but would need aCPU and GPU upgrade sonner rather than later. Am looking at the RTX3070 but not right away. Problem is the Cryptominers might try to grab all the cards again.

The dealbreaker for many in UK will be the online connection speed, Ok the MSFS will look awesome, but looing at specs, I'd get away with high, but would need aCPU and GPU upgrade sonner rather than later. Am looking at the RTX3070 but not right away. Problem is the Cryptominers might try to grab all the cards again.

The dealbreaker for MSFS2020 should be that it is not only a microsoft product, but a microsoft lock in. Eventually microsoft is going to want a return on their investment. Of course they're playing nice now, but it won't stay that way. Having microsoft in a niche product is a scary thing. There is a reason why they got rid of fsx and nothing has changed since then.

The dealbreaker for many in UK will be the online connection speed, Ok the MSFS will look awesome, but looing at specs, I'd get away with high, but would need aCPU and GPU upgrade sonner rather than later. Am looking at the RTX3070 but not right away. Problem is the Cryptominers might try to grab all the cards again.

The dealbreaker for MSFS2020 should be that it is not only a microsoft product, but a microsoft lock in. Eventually microsoft is going to want a return on their investment. Of course they're playing nice now, but it won't stay that way. Having microsoft in a niche product is a scary thing. There is a reason why they got rid of fsx and nothing has changed since then.

Absolutely Ehvis, Microshaft cannot be trusted, they flogged FSX to Dovetail for the FSX Steam edition didn't they? Other issue is its equally for Console, and sometimes like DNF the console centric development kills the spirit of a game. Hope X Pane can get something that more than competes, sometimes the eye candy seduces, but soon falls short in some way.

Hope X Pane can get something that more than competes, sometimes the eye candy seduces, but soon falls short in some way.

I don't think that is realistic. The resources that need to be put into it are way beyond the total size of the flight simming market. The only reason microsoft can do it is because they can leech of their bing maps. And even then I'm highly suspicious about them actually covering the cost. At least X-Plane is an open platform with a large community that brings us stuff like Ortho4xp that allows us to do it ourselves.

I don't think that is realistic. The resources that need to be put into it are way beyond the total size of the flight simming market. The only reason microsoft can do it is because they can leech of their bing maps. And even then I'm highly suspicious about them actually covering the cost. At least X-Plane is an open platform with a large community that brings us stuff like Ortho4xp that allows us to do it ourselves.

Well, I think that MSFS for X-Box and the large sales that will likely generate will do a lot to generate revenue, and I think they see this as a long term play and platform, with the add-ons in their store generating a lot of revenue. We'll see.

X-Plane has to do something, though. While through various add-ons and hacks it can reach some near MSFS visuals, the OOTB product is far from competitive. X-Plane's founder and head Austin Meyer has said in interviews before that he's against ortho for visuals, so that certainly won't be their approach going forward. He's indicated he's all for better and more beautiful autogen. We'll see...