FMA capability indication for GLS approach in manual flight is now CAT 1 (was AUTO LAND before) ISCS dropdown lists are now constrained to remain within ISCS window ISCS text entry boxes now display a cursor Simplified CHOCKS option to allow switching off the park brake Addition of the smart thrust lever idle lock FCU lighting knobs below the FCU are now functional. Added Backup Nav tuning to RMPs 1 and 2 Added approach procedure on status page in case of alternate or direct mode reversion Fault injections can now trigger on increasing or on decreasing values of altitude and air speed Cargo fire extinguishing test is now operational ISCS sliders now allow editing the values with keyboard for better precision Added overflow management for the SD status page Rework of the SD COND, FUEL, and ELEC pages for better representational accuracy Electrical system now supports Battery charging test by switching them off and on. Electrical system now allows both batteries to feed the same bus simultaneously Correction of GW indication logic on the SD Improved list of inop systems for electrical bus failures APPR PROC underline on status page now has the right length CVR ground control is now reset on engine start as it should Manual engine start now uses both igniter channels Fixed the issue with the cabin disappearing when cockpit door open Reduced wing flex induced by landing gear shocks Changed chock and park brake logic for better compatibility with 3rd party addons
notable is to update to the new version ASAP as it covers a few bugs like the ELEC system-DC BUS1 and BUS2 FAULT(s) and non-working GHD in the original v1.6.2 release. In-between starting this update review, ToLiSS had then released another quick fix up date in v1.6.3 for the A319.
The "Baby Bus" in the A319-112 was last updated back in April to v1.6, but ToLiSS is never one to rest on his laurels and has here quickly done another update here to include a lot of the newer features, plus a few nice fixes to the earlier aircraft.
This has created a breakthrough of more elements and systems being available and installed in the aircraft, plus the point that more external X-Plane features (like Libradio) have been released. And with those changes also came a more in-contact or hands on approach to more of the aircraft. Most of the essential aspects including the modeling was brought in house by ToLiSS on the A346. The release of the Airbus A340-600 from ToLiSS was very significant aircraft for the developer. What is interesting is that many years back, I think there was a plugin that did the same for X-Plane 9 or 10, but it was banned by google for the texture usage, so it should be possible but maybe not as a built in feature. Overall there is a legal issue and complexity of implementation. But if LR would have used this technique it might not be the case. Regarding streaming textures, I don't think this is what they are going to implement, even as a feature, since as far as I understand (after few e-mails with Ben Supnik) this feature, if not used by LR, might seem as an opening door for illegal usage of that streaming feature. I don't think they decided what is the "new/old" format going forward but they probably want to minimize the scenery conflicting issues etc. What I understood from X-Plane blog, is that they are trying to make the Custom Scenery more hierarchical and better organized.
I have one issue with your prediction and its the "streaming textures" feature, if I understood you correctly.