Lets Fly VFR Flight Simulation.
X-Plane 11 Plugins What are They?
X Plane 11 Plugins - What are they?
X Plane 11 Freeware Plugins come in many varieties so lets look at the different types and what they can do to make your X Plane 11 experience truly amazing! You will find plugins in the form of aircraft, Airports, Ortho tiles and Lua Scripts and tools made by Lua Scripts. All these X Plane 11 freeware plugins are generally very easy to install and use and in doing so will improve the quality and experience you have while flying in X Plane 11.
Freeware & Payware Plugins / Add ons.
Lua Scripts.
Lua is a programing language but don’t panic! You don’t need to know how to program it to get some amazing X Plane 11 freeware plugins. Lua itself is downloadable from X Plane.org and is easily installed into X Plane in a few seconds. Truly its that quick. This gives the basis for many other programmers who love to make tools that animate X plane 11 in one way or another. There are scripts that help us with our weather and may give us more volumetric clouds or change the sharers to improve the quality and colors in X Plane. There are non Lua scenery updates changing the quality of graphics like runway textures and power lines for example taxi signage and much more.
Top X Plane 11 Plugins.
There are certainly quite a few great plugins so I thought I would share with you some of the best plugins currently available to get your flight simulator looking amazing.
OVR Virtual Reality Tool
OVR plugin for Oculus Rift Users has been available since 2019 and is a fantastic tool created by Arnold Alting. The script gives you in cockpit VR control of your settings in what looks like a small tablet. The plugin gives you control of supersampling which is a fantastic tool and makes the cockpit so much more crisp in appearance with a moderate impact on FPS. It also allows you to adjust lighting and see the impact on FPS real time.
The Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW) feature is a piece of magic whic makes a slower PC performance which is struggling in VR a lot more smoother. It simply adds in frames where they were to be missed and makes the whole VR flying experience a lot more livable.
This tool has to a large extent been overtaken by the Oculus Tray Tool which operates in the same fashion but its a great tool and I thought It was worth a mention. I am unaware if it will work with non Oculus products but for free its a great X Plane 11 Freeware plugin.
Reshade
Reshade xp11 3.3.2 is a great X plane 11 Freeware plugin used my a great many people in the X Plane community. The plugin created by Pilot83 was last updated on Xplane.org back in June of 2018 so its getting a bit long in the tooth but people are still finding this a very useful tool.
Reshade by Pilot83 changes the shaders and gives you control of a lot of presets and the option for users to create their own settings. It allows you to adjust the depth and strength of colors on the ground and in the air to make them more realistic.
The Reshade plugin is very simple to install. It only needs downloading and unzipping. The plugin needs to be placed in the X plane 11 root directory. When you first start Reshade you need to point it to your X Plane 11 root directory so it can find the plugin. Then you need to select a key stroke to turn the menu on and off which then allows you to choose from a lot of presets.
These are color enrichment or night presets as well as cinematic ones. You can also create your own color presets if you like. The only issue I am aware of currently is that it does consume some precious FPS so you may need to check the performance on your system to know if its worth the FPS vs graphical improvement. Check out Q8 Pilots YouTube video on the install and use of the plugin HERE!
Better Push back Plugin.
Better Push Back is a great plugin for the Airline pilots amongst us. This is an X Plane 11 Freeware Plugin all pilots will appreciate when reversing out from the stand. Created by skiselkov this plugin allows you to control the tug with your own rudder controls to reverse you out ready to taxi on your next flight f the day.
You can get this top plugin from GITHUB Here! This is a FREEWARE plugin and is also quick to install in your X plane 11 Resources\ plugins folder.
Better Push Back - How to use it!
To use the Pushback simply activate it in your plugin menu in game. Click in the start position of your aircraft then drag the T shape back and rotate it with your mouse wheel. The symbol will be yellow if the plugin can turn the aircraft to that position. If not the T will be red. You may need to move it or rotate it more so the tug can get you to this position.
Next hit Space and you will get a voice message – “Plan Acknowledged!” You have to use the plugin drop down menu to accept then the tow tug will drive up and connect to your aircraft.
Simply following the instructions of the tow tug makes the whole process amazingly easy. Park Break on and off are about all you need to do from connection to disconnection and taxi. Check out this video from MR K-Man Youtube Channel with a description on how its done.
XRAAS - Runway Awareness & Advisory System.
X-RAAS is the X Plane 11 Runway Awareness & Advisory System which is a great X Plane 11 freeware plugin. It is simple to download and install by pasting the file in the X Plane 11 Resources plugins file.
This system gives you voice warnings as you taxi, about to enter a runway, runway remaining and altitude warnings in any aircraft from the Robin 401 to the Boing 757. Its a very useful plugin that runs in the background and does not require any input from you as the pilot other to turn it on and of should you wish. The system also warns you of aircraft close to you that may be a danger. It does also know aircraft when they are on the ground and taxying etc so you get warnings near the airport.
A very worthwhile realistic x Plane plugin so you can download it here! X-RAAS PLUGIN Download
Head Shake By Simcoders.
Headshake by Simcoders is a great freeware plugin for giving you a more realistic 3D cockpit view. The plugin brings effects like shake from engine vibration as well as G forces in the cockpit. When taxying and turning it also looks towards the direction of turn automatically
Headshake also simulates bumps in turbulence, taxi bumps in the pavement as well as a realistic touch down bump. You can adjust the settings also to keep a head level with the horizon effect which is what we tend to do in real world flying to a point.
The Headshake Menu has been made intuitive by Simcoders and is very easy to use. If your using virtual reality then this plugin may not be as good for you as the view movement I could possibly see you feel unwell. This may be different person to person. I have found this plugin personally to be very useful when flying on a monitor in 2D. The movement is smooth and realistic. The look ahead feature is without doubt the best feature of this great X Plane 11 freeware plugin. Highly recommended for non VR users.
Download Headshake by Simcoders from the Simcoders Website HERE!.
Terrain radar + Vertical Situation Display 1.24.1
Terrain Radar by DR Gluck is a great X Plane 11 Freeware plugin to keep you safe when decending in bad weather to an airport when there are dangerous mountains nearby.
The Terrain Radar + Vertical situation Radar is one of the most useful X plane 11 freeware plugins especially descending into a mountainous area in cloud. This is challenging enough without mountains to avoid. I have used this on aircraft that have radar displays and its worked very well. It only works with larger aircraft that have a radar display as it’s not a separate screen like a tablet.
AVI Tab VR Tool.
Avitab by FOLKO is yet another fantastic X Plane 11 freeware addon that allows moving maps as well as PDF files to be displayed like an iPad in the cockpit.
Avitab allows users in both VR and 2D environments to use a moving map as well as PDF files to display any information the user wishes.
his could be charts, airport layouts and checklists the user can create in Microsoft word or notepad and save as a PDF File.
Simply download the file and place it in your Xplane11\resources\plugins file and it will be available once you get into the cockpit of any plane. This is one of the most useful x plane 11 freeware plugins you can have at your fingertips. You can download Avitab Here.
Conclusion.
I hope you find these great X Plane 11 freeware plugins as useful as I have. They make the whole experience in cockpit so much better.
Having a great moving map at your fingertips as well as the ability to have your checklists in PDF for displayed in Avitab makes the world excellent. No loss of immersion.
The terrain radar and X-RAAS plugins bring that level of realism previously hard to imaging. We see and hear these in YouTube videos so having these in X Plane 11 is amazing and can only make the experience even better.
The headshake plugin has been a great one for me prior to getting into VR. The look ahead feature especially when in the circuit and just making turns is a top feature you wont live without once you have it. Again if you venture into the world of virtual reality then you may have to pass on this great plugin.
Gunnie
LetsFlyVFR
21/2/2021
Author.
Brendon McAliece is a multi lingual-expat who brings over three decades of flight simulator/PC building experience as well as over two decades of real world jet fighter experience as a weapons/egress technician. He holds a sport pilot certificate giving him real world flying experience. Hi travels have taken him from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and his home of Australia. He has a passion for travel, languages, flight simulation as well as guitaring and coffee. You can read more in his blogs below.
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