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X-Plane 12 performance on a M2 Max Mac Studio

It turns out that Austin Meyer, founder of Laminar and creator of X-Plane, uses a Mac Studio as his main computer (see interview). I imagine he has an M1 Ultra. That likely explains why my new M2 Max Mac Studio runs X-Plane 12 so well. I got the 32 Gigabyte RAM and 2 Terabyte model (I’ve found that capacity is the sweet spot). At max scenery settings, X-Plane uses about 23 GB of RAM for video, leaving 9 GB free for other things. So 32 GB seems perfect. I love how Apple Silicon GPUs can access all available RAM!

My previous desktop machine was an M1 Mac Mini with a mere 8 Gigabytes of RAM. Depending on airport and aircraft complexity, X-Plane 12 typically ran 10-15 FPS on the ground and 20-30 in the air (worse FPS if there are low clouds). Crucially, this was (and still is) on a 1080p monitor. Despite knowing quite clearly how non-performant my Mini was running a flight simulator, I was still unprepared how well my new Mac runs X-Plane. It now runs 25-35 FPS on the ground and ~60 FPS in the air. What I thought were bugs were actually caused by the underpowered Mini. For example, on the Mini, during replay mode, spoilers and reversers would always deploy laughably early even though I deployed them at the right time. That is no longer an issue. Taxiing was also rather challenging at low 10-15 frames per second. I’d oversteer all the time. Now taxiing is far more responsive. The aircraft also feels livelier in the air, as now I can descern the air buffeting aircraft even outside turbulent conditions.

Now all I need is the soon to be released Yawman Arrow controller. I have avoided buying other controllers because the Yawman looks perfect for my use case.

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I was watching BigJet TV’s Paris Airshow Preview and didn’t notice one of my E-175 gears didn’t extend. Landed at KRDD (Redding, CA) and found out pretty quick what happened... Oops. #FlightSim #XPlane #AvGeek

E175 resting on its left wing because its left gear wasn't extended.

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Using Migration Assistant via thunderbolt is insanely fast.

Migration Assistant dialog showing 612 MB/s transfer speed.
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I’ve been very patient with my M1 Mac Mini. But now I have an M2 Mac Studio on the way. Flight simming and photography will be enormously improved. Less likely: And now that Apple allows on personal device “testing” of apps for free, I might resume learning iOS development.

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Offline Apple Maps. FINALLY. #WWDC2023

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Little NavMap, open source flight simulation flight planning software, is pretty great. I should have looked into it for X-Plane much sooner. #FlightSim #XPlane

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Canceled YouTube Premium due to Google’s decision to once again allow election lies. Too bad they didn’t have a survey asking why I canceled.

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macOS Universal Control is so very good when I’m multitasking between my Mac Mini and my MacBook Pro. One keyboard + one mouse = total control of both.

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I’m slowly getting the canopies of my shrubs off the ground. Mostly to reduce outdoor cats hiding under them. I’ll do a lot to keep their destructive, bird killing lot out of my yard.

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Ash Throated Fly Catcher.

Ash throated fly catcher looking somewhere to the right. It has a black head with gray, white, and rust red on the wings. It is perched upon a high branch. They have cool spikes for hair.
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The new Fujifilm XApp is a vast improvement for transferring photos to a smartphone on the fly. But the app’s notifications alerting to the camera’s request to transfer photos are a bit aggressive. #Fujifilm

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Air Tractor N802WW was overflying rice fields this morning. I think they were practicing seeding the fields. #AvGeek #Fujifilm Oblique view of a yellow and black single propeller Air Tractor plane against a pale blue sky with cirrus. Underside of a yellow and black single prop aircraft. There’s a fan shaped seed spreader mounted under it.

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It is a few degrees warmer outside but 10% less relative humidity. The whole house fan made it more comfortable in a few minutes & humidity is dropping like a rock in here. Was 60%. I love it.

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Our native plants are going to love this storm! #CaWX

Doppler radar view of a south heading storm with lots of high intensity returns and lightning.
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I hope the PR hype for the new Fujifilm mobile app is worth it! Seems promising and I like its new settings backup. Out May 25th. Petapixel: “Fujifilm’s New XApp Offers Smooth Connection, Speed, and Activity Tracking”

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Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl OBT01 is on its way back to Long Beach. No idea what it is doing out and about. My ADSB receiver is tracking it. https://www.flightradar24.com/OBT01/3061cbdb

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My ADSB receiver (plane tracker) has been doing quite well under adverse conditions of its testing location. I plan to dramatically improve reception this week.

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Here is a Black-necked Stilt from the #SacramentoNationalWildlifeRefuge #BlackNeckedStilt #BirdsOfMastodon #Fujifilm
A Black-necked Stilt bird is waking through a shallow brown pond. Small forbs surround the pond, including low laying purple flowers and then, further in the background, yellow flowers. The Black-necked Stilt has a all-white underside and all-black back and top of head. It has long legs and a long black beak.

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We visited the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and it was busy with all sorts of creatures. Gray Buckeye butterflies, American Avocets, Lesser Goldfinches, dragonflies and more.  A brown butterfly with patches of orange and black eyes near the top edge of its wings. The butterfly is surrounded by green to brown grass.An American Avocet has a brown head and neck with black wings and a white underside. It’s stepping through a pond and beyond it is a floor of purple and then yellow flowers.A Lesser Goldfinch (we think) seems to be using gymnastics to collect grassy nesting material. It is upside down on a stand of grass or a slender branch. It has a beak full of small grassy material.A dragonfly hovers in midair amongst bokeh of grass. It has a slight blue iridescence and looks to be about to fly downward.

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Found my old Raspberry Pi 3 and finally got it set up as an ADSB feeder (aircraft tracker). Are people still skeptical of ADSB Exchange? Been a while since I’ve heard anything about them.