X-Plane 12 development update

[LonestarOne]

https://bit.ly/3CcNtkF

 

[ratkai]

two main questions ;

1. will x-plane 12 be optimized for m1pro and m1max?
i will buy an new apple computer which will be released at march 8th.
either an iMac 27/32" or an mac mini m1 max.
how many gigs of memory should be enough? 16 or 32? or monsterously 64gb, or is that overkill?

i have always been an x-plane fan, but since i have an iMac 2017, i bought an xbox series x and started to play msfs2020. it is great, but i miss the x-plane realism that msfs can't offer.

2. what do you guys think about bootcamp-possibility in the m1-computers? will the windows be developed for an new bootcamp-version when the patent to arm expires??

 

[HDFan]

"The X-Plane SDK supports the new ARM M1 Macs."

X-Plane 12 Development Update – March 4th, 2022 - X-Plane Developer

Here’s a quick update on X-Plane 12 to give you an idea of where we are, what’s being worked on right now and what the next steps are. At the end of last year, we started sharing early, rough builds of X-Plane 12 with a private alpha group, mainly 3rd party developers and subject matter […]

developer.x-plane.com

 

[iHorseHead]

What engine are you using?

 

[ratkai]

iMac late 2017 bit will buy a new Computer

 

[LonestarOne]

X-Plane 12 will run native on M1. I don’t know what optimizations are necessary (or even possible) for the Pro and Max versions of the M1 chip.

According to Laminar Research, the minimum RAM will be 8GB, recommended RAM will be “16-24 GB RAM or more.” The latter statement is a bit confusing, but my guess is that the benefit from having more than 16-24GB would probably be minimal.

 

[MacsRgr8]

There is a nice read on M1 and X-plane 11 on the forums over at x-plane dot org:

Apple M1x max SOC and XP

The new Apple M1xmax SOC annoncued today can have up to 64 Gb Memory and up to 32 GPU cores with 10 core cpu ( with 8 high performance cores) should work well with XP. As of now this is only available in the newest Macbook Pro models ( available next week), but this will surely be avilabale in a ...

forums.x-plane.org

Mac users will benefit of M1 Pro / Max even on X-Plane 11, as the “rosetta performance hit” is not that bad, as the CPU speed improvement overall by M1 Max related to the older Intel Macs is significant.
Also the graphics is using Metal API, so the GPU part of the M1 is natively used.

I run X-Plane 11 (with heavy scenery add-ons) on my Intel i7 2017 iMac, 32 GB RAM, Radeon 580 Pro 8 GB VRAM, and looking forward to upgrading the Mac. The app currently uses > 20 GB RAM and > 6 GB VRAM.
I hope to see the M1 Max (64 GB RAM) in an affordable Mac mini enclosure.

The M1 Max has a GPU-performance comparible with GeForce 3080 Mobile (Which is 2/3 - ½ speed of the Desktop 3080).
That is good… very good for a notebook…. I just hope for a desktop Apple can pull off a trick.. and give the Mac mini a speedboost over the “old tech” already used in the MacBook Pro.

Will be great to be running X-Plane 12 on the M1 Max, and compare it to the high-end PC’s.

 

[ratkai]

Cant believe how Will xplane 11 and 12 Will run with the m1 ultra chip.. interesting to see

 

[MacsRgr8]

Yeah, the Mac Studio Ultra will be a great X-Plane SIM machine.... I am drooling over it, but eh... it's somewhat above budget.

Price - Performance wise, I am very much tempted to get the Mac Studio M1 Max with 32 Core GPU and 64 GB RAM.

Checking out this X-Plane.org thread, the M1 Max is about 2 x the speed of the 2017 iMac 32 GB with Radeon 580 Pro 8 GB on X-Plane 11 (!). So that's including the "Rosetta performance hit".
X-Plane 12 will "fly" on the Max and Ultra! (pun intended).

 

[decafjava]

Very cool, my iMac is starting to stagger with X-Plane 11 at least with some add-on scenery thoiugh most of the time it is ok. Looking forward to the future.