The Beta 3 is available since yesterday, including for the demo.
As with the previous update, you don't need to uninstall anything. From the main menu you have an option to update. I did that yesterday evening for the demo, and it told me it was going to download only 38 MB
No differences in performance though, so I still need to bring some settings to low in the game graphics (especially the reflections).
I did a short test flight from Boeing field to the city center and I was blown away by the details. It's really a completly different dimension from the FSX autogen. There's details everywhere. Of course it's generic, but it looks so convincing it's unbelievable.
Flying an helicopter at low altitude, trying to find a spot to land to simulate a rescue mission for example, is really exciting, unlike in FSX or P3D :/
The only bad thing is the road traffic totally ignores you. They drive though your aircraft as if you were a ghost. But ok, that's a limitation I can certainly tolerate
Another thing I noticed: For a stupid test, I launched a flight in evening/night time, then I landed on one of these big highways with 3D lights and a lot of traffic. Three things were quite amazing:
- the lights of the streets were actually illuminating my aircraft. So during my roll to stop, I could see my cockpit and airplane body switch from light to dark depending on the position of the spots on the side of the road.
- the lights of the traffic were illuminating my plane as well ! Every time a car or a truck would pass nearby (or through) me, their front lights were illuminating the body of my plane.
- the landing/taxi lights of my plane were illuminating the objects all around me, including the ground and the traffic cars/trucks.
In XPlane the planes and all objects have realy lights that really illuminate the scenery. No more stupid white opaque triangle under your plane like in FSX or P3D.
And if I'm not mistaken (but I need to check again), I believe the landing lights are also illuminating the clouds when you go through them...