X-Plane 11.51 Beta using "Vulkan" instead of OGL (Open Graphics Library)

[Peter Hollands]

In Austin Meyer's latest video about the new Vulkan Beta for X-Plane 11, he states that one of their priorities was to remove "Stutters" in the simulation frame rates caused by the Open Graphics Library. (OGL). This is because OGL compiles Shaders "On Demand". And while OGL is compiling, the simulator has to stop for quite a few microseconds. Vulkan pre-compiles all Shaders, once, and once only, when X-Plane is first started. And by once only, I means just the very first time X-Plane 11.51 is started and not on subsequent starts. This means that there should be no just stutters caused by just in time compiling by OGL.

My 2012 Mac does not have enough Ram in the GPU to use Vulkan  / Metal.

The pressure to upgrade my computer is mounting.

Full Beta release notes here. Always make a second copy of X-Plane (you can just copy the entire folder) and use that for an upgrade, to preserve your original copy. If you have an AMD GPU you  will probably double your frames per second in X-plane. NVidia cards usually get a frame rate about 20% faster.

It would be nice to hear from you if you try this out.

Best wishes, Pete