There is much confusion about how to use orthophotos when creating airports in WED. Here is a “long forgotten” YouTube video created by Laminar Research’s WED Guru Michael Minnhaar aka @triplemon . The video shows scenery creators the right way to do it. While the tutorial video is 4 years old and created for X-Plane 11, the information in it is still quite valid:
Turn up the volume – the soundtrack is a bit quiet.
Here are the official minimum and recommended official hardware requirements.
Take the minimum requirements with a pinch of salt. “Minimum” does not mean “usable”. In my opinion ( with 30 years of hardware support experience to back me up) the “Recommended Hardware requirements” should really be the Minimum hardware requirements for a decent X-Plane 12 experience.
But what if you don’t know how your CPU or Graphics Card stacks up?
How it compares to the specified :
CPU: Intel Core intel i5-12600K or Ryzen 5 3500 or better, or Apple Silicon
or
Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 8 GB VRAM (GeForce RTX 3070 or better, or similar from AMD, or Intel Arc B580)
Go to CPU Benchmark and check where your hardware compares in the “pecking order”. When you are looking at CPU’s you want to look at the Single Thread CPU chart.
Don’t do this if your X-plane machine is also your general home/office machine.
This works both for Windows 10 or Windows 11.
The most effective Windows performance tip: Turn off Windows indexing.
Windows is constantly indexing new folders and can suddenly start doing this while you are flying. If you are using your PC exclusively for X-Plane or gaming, turn this indexing service off.
In the search box type Services and scroll down to Windows Search:
If it shows the word Running in the status column, click that line and click Stop the service:
Restart the PC and go back to the Services list and check that it is blank in the Status column and that Manual appears in the Startup Type column.
A few weeks ago I was faced with a PC which continually crashed when running an absolutely virginal installation. By virginal, I mean complete fresh download of X-Plane, with no plugins or addon’s of any kind installed.
Every test I performed on Windows showed no fault. Not even stress tests. Other programs worked without problems, but not X-Plane 11. The hardware was not brand new – but still pretty much state-of-the-art , but this was the first time it was used on a dedicated X-Plane machine.
X-Plane stubbornly crashed ( or better said, it froze) after a few minutes.
I was tearing my hair out!
Then, just by chance, I touched one of the RAM modules. It was HOT. The module was fitted with a nice heatsink—it wasn’t just a board with exposed chips. But still… it was hot—too hot.
I got one of those clip-on RAM module coolers (They are cheap at Amazon) :
and I added another chassis fan which was pointed straight towards the RAM modules.
Result? No more X-Plane crashing.
Moral of the story:
The CPU, GPU, and motherboard might be adequately cooled, but don’t forget to check the temperature of the RAM modules, particularly if you are using one of the XMP modes.
Anti-virus programs, by and large, check each file on your drive before reading or executing it. So surely it slows X-plane down when flying?
Yes indeed it does.
So do you disable the AV scanner on your dedicated X-plane machine?
Well, rather not…
But since you know that every file in your X-Plane12 folder is virus-free, it’s not necessary to waste system resources scanning them every time you run X-Plane.
So, simply tell the AV scanner to skip scanning the X-plane folder.
If you use a 3rd party AV program, follow the instructions for excluding the X-Plane 12 folder from Virus scanning.
If you use the built-in Windows security app (used to be called Microsoft Defender) , type sec in the search box and select Windows Security
Click Virus & threat protection
Under Virus and threat protection settings, click Manage settings
Under Exclusions click Add or remove exclusions. Allow the app to make changes and then
Click + Add an exclusion.
Click Folder from the drop-down list and select your X-Plane 12 folder.
This is a Windows-only tip.
If you have been using the computer for tasks other than flying, we all know that it’s best to shut down the computer and boot it up again from scratch before starting X-Plane.
But which is better – Windows Restart, or Shut down and Reboot
Or is there something better still?
Most people think the best way to get a clean start is to shut down the machine and restart it a few seconds later. This, believe it or not, does not give the cleanest start. The reason why is that Windows goes into a sort of hibernation state [not full hibernate] where the Windows kernel state is saved, enabling a faster restart time. This is called Fast Startup.
If you merely restart Windows without shutting down, this forces a complete stop of all processes and is unaffected by fast startup. So it appears that the best approach is to restart the computer just before flight. But, you must already be booted up.
You can, of course, completely disable fast startup and accept slightly longer boot-up times as the price of a clean boot-up:
Go to Control panel –> Hardware and Sound –> Power Options
On the left click “Choose what the power button does”
Under Shutdown Settings, clear (untick) the checkbox next to “Turn on fast startup” option.
However there is a third option which is not quite so well known:
Holding the [SHIFT] key down while clicking shut down gives you the best of both worlds. The machine shuts down completely, and does not use Fast Startup. The subsequent boot-up results in a totally clean Windows start.
As you fly in X-Plane 12 your frame rate is continually changing depending on the current graphic load. If you have a high-end graphics adapter and CPU, or if you tend to fly in country scenic areas far from big cities, you may find that you are “wasting” frames but are still subjected to slight stuttering.
The VSYNC setting can help. Vsync, short for monitor vertical synchronisation, is a setting in X-Plane that helps smooth out visuals. It works by matching the frames your computer generates (frame rate) with the rate your monitor refreshes the image (refresh rate). The NVIDIA driver also has a Vsync setting which accomplishes more or less the same thing. However, they don’t work together, so first instruct the Nvidia Driver to “Use the 3D application setting” :
Then tick the Vsync checkbox (located at the bottom of the X-Plane Graphics Settings screen):
Before using this tweak, make sure that Windows has correctly identified your monitor and has applied the maximum frame rate.
If you have low-end hardware, you may find that the penalty for using VSYNC is a slight slowdown of X-Plane. There should be little or no penalty for high-end equipment.
Try this out and see if it helps. If the result is worse, you can always uncheck the Vsync box.
For an explanation of how Vsync works with X-Plane click here
This tip applies to desktop computers, not laptops.
Many simulator pilots do not appreciate the importance of clean, consistent power reaching the motherboard.
X-Plane is a very demanding application that can easily stress your computer components. During times of high power draw, a “noisy” electricity supply and/or an inadequate PSU can cause problems. There are two things you can do to protect your computer system and ensure voltages to the individual motherboard sections do not fluctuate when a load is applied.
First, ensure that your PSU (switch-mode Power Supply Unit) provides at least 30% more power than the total power requirements (at full X-Plane load) of:
Expect a modern computer system fitted with a high-end graphics card to require a PSU rated at least 850W.
The tool to use is an online PSU calculator. Here is a good one from MSI
The other thing you can do is to invest in a small UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). A UPS’s job is to instantly switch in a battery-powered mains power voltage when a brief electricity fluctuation occurs. This may happen if the mains power fails briefly or “flickers” or if a brownout occours. Effectively, a line-interactive UPS “smooths out” the power fluctuation, protecting your flight from a sudden, unexpected crash-to-desktop. It can also protect your expensive motherboard and CPU from voltage surges far better than a surge-protector.
While the purpose of a UPS is to maintain constant power to the computer and the monitor, it does not need to be rated more than 1500VA for a high-end X-Plane system since it just needs to maintain power to cover the brief interruption or to give you enough time to save your flight and shut down properly. A much more powerful inverter would be required to bridge lengthy power interruptions.
If you dislike long flights that suddenly crash, invest in a good quality, over-specced PSU and a small UPS.
Believe it or not sometimes too high a frame rate can cause Microstutters. Here is an interesting article about how to tackle microstutters. The article from How to Geek is aimed at gamers, but there is a lot of food for thought if you are suffering from this.
Another somewhat older article in a similar vein from PC gamer is here.
If you have heard about VSYNC but are still a bit confused about whether to enable it on an X-Plane system or not, here is an excellent article from HowToGeek
Here is an analysis of the article relating to X-Plane:
See this tip for how to use Vsync in X-Plane
