StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is fully released, and now on SimMarket.

Utah, United States, 15 September 2026. StrataSim Designs today confirmed that StrataWx for X-Plane 12, a separate build of its real-time weather engine, is fully released and is now sold through SimMarket as well as direct.

The build released on 4 September 2026 and went on general sale on 11 September 2026. It is a finished build, not early access and not a beta.

Where to buy it

Both routes deliver the same application and the same licence. What differs is who takes the payment and what they charge for it.

Store	Price	Link
Direct, stratawxfs.com	$40.99	View
SimMarket	$42.99, or 36.99 EUR	View

Prices are as listed on 15 September 2026. A reseller sets its own retail price and adds VAT at checkout where it applies, so their store is the only place that figure is current. Buying direct is the cheaper of the two, and we would rather say so plainly than let a buyer find out afterwards.

It is not on the iniBuilds Store. The three iniBuilds listings announced on 14 August 2026 cover Microsoft Flight Simulator only. If that changes it will get its own release rather than a quiet edit to this one.

What the build does

X-Plane exposes the atmosphere as writable data. So this build writes a true 13-layer wind column, per-layer turbulence and real cloud decks instead of relaying one uniform preset. That is deliberately the only capability claim we make for it.

Everything underneath is the engine the Microsoft Flight Simulator build already runs, and it works the same way here:

1. Aggregate. Live surface observations from around the world, upper-air conditions through the whole column, and an offline worldwide airport and runway database.
2. Model. A coherent atmosphere: winds aloft, temperature and the freezing level, cloud layers and structure, visibility and fog, surface pressure, convection, turbulence, and icing.
3. Inject. That atmosphere is written into the running simulator, and changes are eased rather than switched, so conditions move instead of snapping.
4. Follow. As the aircraft moves, StrataWx re-resolves the weather for the new position and looks a short distance ahead along the track.

The modes come across with it: live weather, a historical mode that replays past conditions from reanalysis data, and a sandbox for conditions you author by hand.

What it does not do

These are in the release rather than in a footnote, because a reviewer will find all three in the first hour and it is better that they come from us.

• One region, not a map. X-Plane exposes one atmospheric region around the aircraft, so this build writes the sky where you are and carries it with you. It does not vary spatially across the map: there is no line of storms standing over one state while the sun shines two states away. If a spatially varying atmosphere is the thing you are buying, this build is not it.
• It does not paint the aircraft radar. The weather radar reads the simulator's own weather state, and injected weather is written as a region rather than as individual cells, so a convective cell an external engine builds does not appear on the scope. That is already true of StrataWx on Microsoft Flight Simulator and this build does not change it.
• Windows only. X-Plane 12 runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. StrataWx is a Windows x64 desktop app and the X-Plane 12 build is the same. If you fly X-Plane on macOS or Linux, this is not for you.

What it changes for a buyer

• It is a separate product on a separate licence. It is not included in a Microsoft Flight Simulator purchase and it does not include one. The $6.99 cross-grade covers MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020 only and does not reach X-Plane 12. Two simulators from two different companies, two products, two prices.
• Keys we issue ourselves. A licence bought at SimMarket is minted by StrataSim Designs and validated against the same licence service as a direct purchase, so activation, the install allowance and the offline grace behave identically.
• The same support queue. Tickets go to stratawxfs.com/support and reach the same people, whoever you bought from.
• Free updates, forever. One purchase covers that product's updates for good. Nothing here is a subscription.
• It installs from the StrataSim Manager, the free hub that installs and updates every StrataSim product. Add the key there once and it downloads the build and keeps it current.
• Your contract of sale is with the store. Where you buy from a reseller, that reseller's terms and refund policy govern the purchase. Your licence and your support are the same either way.

"X-Plane hands the atmosphere over as data, so we write it as data, and that is a genuinely better job than relaying a preset. What we will not do is let that imply a weather map. This build writes the sky around the aircraft and carries it along, and anyone who needs weather standing still over a place they are flying towards should know that before they pay rather than after." StrataSim Designs

Availability

StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is available now, direct from stratawxfs.com at $40.99 and from SimMarket. It requires X-Plane 12 and Windows 10 or 11, x64. The separate Microsoft Flight Simulator builds, for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020, remain available direct, from SimMarket and from the iniBuilds Store.

About StrataSim Designs

StrataSim Designs LLC is an independent flight simulation studio formed in Utah, United States, building high-fidelity simulation tools with a focus on realistic weather. Its flagship product, StrataWx, brings aircraft-following, real-time weather to Microsoft Flight Simulator and, in a separate build, to X-Plane 12, backed by frequent releases and by pilot reports from the field. Learn more at stratawxfs.com.

Media contact

StrataSim Designs, help@stratasimdesigns.com, subject line PRESS. Review keys are available on request with no conditions attached to what you then write. Assets, boilerplate and our own list of what the product does not do are in the press room.

Ends

Notes to editors

• Two prices, and that is not an error. Direct is $40.99 and SimMarket is $42.99 or 36.99 EUR. A reseller sets its own retail price; we do not set it for them, and we are not going to pretend the two match.
• This is a retail listing, not a partnership. We are a vendor on their store. Please do not upgrade it into a co-development or exclusivity claim, because neither is true.
• The X-Plane 12 build is not on the iniBuilds Store at the time of issue. The MSFS builds are. Those are different products on different licences.
• The limit that matters most to a reviewer is in the release above rather than buried in it: X-Plane exposes one atmospheric region around the aircraft, so there is no spatial variation across the map.
• Naming. StrataWx, one word, capital S and capital W. X-Plane 12 keeps its hyphen. The studio is StrataSim Designs.