http://wiki.x-plane.com/beta

Our road-map is to get 10.10 running very cleanly.
Then, for 10.20, we plan to go to 64-bit to run with unlimited rendering options without crashing (though of course the sim may run slower!)
Then, for 10.30, to really fine-tune all the UI and many aircraft in the fleet as well.

So, that is the plan for the coming months, FYI.

austin

X-Plane 10.10 Beta 8 is here!
 
We are fixing bugs fast!
 
wiki.X-Plane.com/beta to see all the latest details.
 
Run your updater from the downloads section of X-Plane.com with the beta box checked to grab it!
 
New stuff:
Quick-Look now supports our new 2D panel scrolling
Quick-Flight is now under the file menu
Major revisions to the Baron and Kingair
Global scenery terrain regions tuned.
Added "TEXTURE_CONTROL_NOWRAP" to correspond to TEXTURE_CONTROL. This is needed to make orthophoto pol files with decals.
Aircraft:
 
10.10 beta 6 attempted to mark older cockpit objects as 'glass'. This seemed like a clever way to make HDR work but actually breaks more aircraft than it helps. This change has been removed for beta 7. As a result, the CRJ and other aircraft that use the panel texture as a window will not show clouds correctly in HDR mode. These aircraft will need an update to work with HDR enabled, but will work correctly with HDR disabled. X-Plane cannot guess-and-auto-update these aircraft for HDR.
The cockpit now contains most of the same options in Plane-Maker as the attached objects.
Invalid use of ATTR_cockpit is now detected and logged.
Bug Fixes:
 
Fixed crash on Windows with facades with empty meshes. This fixes the crash using the "Classic 3" airport facade.
Added support for some out-of-spec PFC Yokes
Fixes to solve some strange button behavior on various joysticks (ie. Cyborg Evo)
Fixed bus_load_amps dataref to read proper value
Landing lights accurately reflect their load on electrical busses now.
G430,G1000 and Avidyne instruments now work with panel regions.
Fixed some cases where water fog looks funny - there are still some bugs with water and fog.
Fixed black line when shadows on "Melt your GPU" with NV cards.
Fixed missing cockpit objects in Chinook and other older-style planes.
Fixed missing transponder on P32R and other panels that mix translucency and panels.
Fixed intermittent drawing of airports in sectional map.
Fixed plugin glue code: XPLMNavAid can find stand-alone DMEs.
Fixed incorrect culling of trees when forest exclusion zones go outside a DSF boundary.
Moved power tower wires to a later drawing group to avoid artifacts.
Fixed world being very dark for the first few frames in HDR mode.
Other tweaks:
 
if you ask to start on the ramp under operations and warnings, then the quick-flight screen honors that
real-weather should grab dew-point to display in ATIS reports, which is kind of nice.
supersonic model for bodies over-hauled a bit... should be more realistic now (the supersonic model for the wings should remain un-changed)
[edit]
 
No more Plane-Make crashing on startup on Windows.
 
Have at it and let me know how it goes!
 
austin

X-Plane 10.10 Beta 9 is here.
 
New Stuff:
 
*SUPPORT FOR FOREFLIGHT!
Go to the SETTINGS menu in X-Plane, INTERNET OPTIONS window, IPHONE/IPOD tab, and turn on the ForeFlight option.
Then, get ForeFlight from the App Store if you are the last one to have not already done so and run it! This is a map system that myself, and most other people, use in the cockpit, which is about ten million times better than using paper charts! Go to the (MORE...) menu at the bottom of ForeFlight and the to DEVICES item on the left. Touch it, and see the X-Plane window that appears... touch that, too, and a window will come up that lets you ENABLE it.
Now, simply fly X-Plane with ForeFlight running on the same wireless network and you can use ForeFlight just like you would in the cockpit! Cool!
 
Also:
 
*Supersonic engine thrust model improved to go from total pressure recovery to normal-shock recovery as you move towards the max inlet efficiency, and pass air subsonically to the compressor behind the inlet. This is still not a perfect inlet model since different inlets work in totally different ways, but this is the best superonic inlet model we have ever had, and the supersonic drag is now the best we have ever had as well. The supersonic drag model looks at each polygon of the acf model, finds its' normal vector and area, and treats it as a plate with a compression or expansion fan, and should now do a perfect job of tracking every single poly in the airplane.The new supersonic model, like ALL of the dynamics in X-Plane, considers all of the various bodies that you have created for the airplane. That is: ALL of the fuselage, misc bodies, nacelles, etc, are considered to be exposed to the airflow. This means that if you have multiple bodies one inside the other, the aero effects will be DOUBLED compared to reality! Also, if you have one body hiding right behind another, or behind the fuselage, then the drag effects will be DOUBLED compared to reality! This is why with the latest beta, some planes are not going supersonic that should: We are now computing the drag more accurately on each body, and having multiple bodies one behind the other simply add up the drag based on the frontal area of EACH BODY! A very simple case of this is an F-104 Starfighter model that uses a fuselage for the FRONT of the plane, and a misc body for the BACK! In this case, the front of the misc body is acting like a big flat-plate exposed to the air.. surely enough to keep the plane subsonic! So, to design a plane properly, do NOT use misc bodies and fuselage and nacelles stacked inside each other, or behind each other in a row. This will simply erroneously add up drag! When designing a plan e for X-Plane, the rule is really very very simple: Each fuselage, misc body, and nacelle has the local air aciting on it. That's it! So it is actually really simple. Now, there is ONE exception: Engine nacelles for jets. Engine nacelles for jets are assumed to NOT produce any drag. This is because the thrust for the engine that you enter in Plane-Maker is considered to already be based on installed thrust losses. So, if you want your ACF model to be accurate, then do not have hidden-away misc bodies with frontal area inside another body, and certainly do not have 2 bodies one behind the other to make a long body... the frontal area of the aft body will still be exposed to the air in X-Plane! If you want really detailed geometry (read: more than you can get out of a body in X-Plane, so you want to hook multiple bodies together) then it is time to build an OBJ for your airplane!  
*ForeFlight support! Grab ForeFlight version 4.7 and you can now use X-Plane as a "GPS" to practice your flying.
 
*New commands: Spot lite on, off, and toggle... kind of sorely missing before!
 
*Helo rotor rpm trim runs 0 to 1, so it is an interpolation between the lo and hi rotor rpm trim. This way, motion of the trim always DOES something, even if only a high OR lo rotor rpm trim is entered in Plane-Maker!
 
...And a bunch of other bug-fixes.
See http://wiki.x-plane.com/Beta for the whole deal.
 
Have at it and let me know how it goes!
 
austin

X-Plane 10.10 Beta 11 is here now!

Grab it by running your installer with the beta box checked.

Though I had only intended bug-fixes for this update, our artists could not resist tuning the aircraft models as well.

Total list here:

http://wiki.x-plane.com/beta#x-Plane_10.10_Beta_11

Plan for 10.20 is to go to 64-bit for unlimited memory-access

Plan for 10.30 is to really refine the aircraft and UI and existing features to really perfectly tuned.

Then, for 10.40, we can decide what exciting new stuff wants to go in there... but that is a discussion for another day!

Have at it and let me know how it goes!

austin