Vision Pro as a monitor for X-Plane 12 – with a detour
Laminar Research wants to use the Apple headset for a realistic cockpit display in X-Plane. However, this requires a PC with CloudXR 6.
This is how Laminar Research imagines X-Plane 12 on the Vision Pro.
(Image: Laminar Research)
X-Plane 12, which according to the manufacturer is the “world's most advanced flight simulator”, is coming to Apple's mixed-reality headset. From visionOS 26.4, expected in the coming weeks, the Vision Pro will become an external display for the software. The manufacturer Laminar Research is using a special trick that comes with the update for the glasses.
Feedback from the headset
This is the so-called Foveated Streaming, which uses Nvidia's CloudXR technology. Only the areas that the user is currently looking at are transmitted particularly quickly to the Vision Pro. This is intended to save bandwidth and still enable a particularly good image impression. It is also possible to combine streamed content with locally rendered content. For X-Plane, this means according to the announcement that the simulator version 12 can be brought to the Vision Pro either from a sufficiently fast PC or a cloud system with Nvidia RTX graphics.
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This then serves as a high-resolution immersive display for X-Plane 12. For this to work, a “Companion App” for the Vision Pro is necessary, which Laminar Research will distribute via the App Store. On the PC or cloud side, the headset is then recognized and displayed as a streaming output option. The process goes in both directions: With Apple's ARKit, X-Plane 12 can then track the cockpit position. The simulator is also intended to connect “physical and digital worlds”.
Planned “VR Update” for X-Plane 12
In its developer documentation, Apple had previously listed a number of other use cases for the new Foveated Streaming: in addition to transmitting high-quality games from a powerful computer, this also includes CAD software. Remote desktop applications over longer distances (i.e., outside one's own Wi-Fi network) are also conceivable.
X-Plane 12 currently costs $60 for download, and $100 for the DVD set for offline installation. The application is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac, with a PC being necessary for the CloudXR solution. Laminar Research also announced a “VR Update” for the coming months, which is intended to add additional mixed-reality and VR features to the simulator.
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