Global AI Ship Traffic FSX and P3D News and Support

[KL791 170]

Yesterday I released together with the project team the package 179 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic and the Global AI shipping project that I started almost two years ago has now really got global coverage.

 

Several threads have discussed the shipping project here on AVSIM, and I have responded in some of them, but I think it is time to have a proper thread for news and support on the project also here on avsim.

 

First a few words on the project - another thread here on AVSIM talks about "Henrik Nielsen AI Ships" - that is not really a good heading as the project has been created with the help from several model designers and repainters including to dates: Jean-Pierre Fillion, Knud Kristoffersen, Didier "Lagaffe" Puentes, Robystar, Finn Kristoffer, Andrew Thomsen, Kjell A., Erwin Welker, Sébastien Viale, Alberto Garcia, Antonio Diaz, Paul Donnelly, and Robystar. Add to that all the people who have been involved in beta-testing and solving particular issues or providing information about the ships.

 

The project consists of many download files - sorry for that but it is a result of the long development project - for installation you need to follow a particular order as some files updates older files. When I started the project I only had 63 ships, so the diversity on the routes was limited. The newer routes takes benefit of all the ships so with the new traffic.bgl installed you can see more than 40 different ships on one route - and a place like Rio de Janeiro will have a different traffic coming in every single day during a 14 day period with more than 250 models activated in that area.

 

The following packages exists - the ones marked by *** are obligatory if you want all ships - and you should install in the order of appearance here:

 

63 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic for South America and Europe V1 (Download #175622) ***

Patch for 63 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic for South America and Europe V1 (Download #175703)

AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic US West Coast (Download #176133)

Caribbean AI Ship Traffic for 63 AI Ships (Download #175702)           

75 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic - Mediterranean Sea and Asia (Download #178959) ***

Patch for 75 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic (Download #179076)***

AI Ship Traffic for North West Europe (Download #178960)

AI Ship Traffic for US East Coast V1 (Download #179258)

P3D replacement effects for AI ships and AI Ship Traffic (Download #179348)

130 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic (Download #182953) ***

AI Ship Traffic Mexican Gulf and Caribbean Sea (Download #183304)

130 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic - Patch/Fix (Download #184092) ***

179 AI Ships and AI Ship Traffic (Download #188085) ***

 

Still the project is not finalized but it is getting towards the completion - the parts missing are the arctic areas including Greenland and a proper update of the routes for the United States released earlier in the project.

 

For a small video introduction David Robles made a nice video about the project:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cma0PVfrFac&list=UUKFYbDe0mheZ-llBTVQnHrA

 

And a few screenshots:

Kuala Lumpur

Istanbul

Hong Kong

Persian Gulf

North Sea

Somalia

 

A few words on support:

Please include a screenshot and tell where the problems occurs - a name of the ship also helps in identifying and resolving eventual issues.

 

 

 

[KL791 170]

hmmmn... the system was unresponsive so I managed to create the same thread three times... I hope the moderators can delete the two others and you can post eventual responses in this one...

[ZKOKQ 651]

Henrik, outstanding work. A big thanks to you and your fellow developers of this project. I know what I will be installing in the morning.

[kiki 8]

Great work! Thanks for that.

 

I installed all the files today and had a short test flight. It looks like some of the wakes don´t have any boat in front of them. Am I right? I´m running FSX and here is a shot from my flight.

[KL791 170]

Hi,

Did you fly down low to check...? At least some of that looks like traces of FSX default leisure boats which are very small and difficult to see from the air... Do you have leisure boats at high in the settings and where did you make the screenshot? The criss crossing of routes is not something you would normally see with my routes, which are mostly parallel and spaced by 500 metres in order to avoid ships from affecting each other or colliding.

 

Normally I keep my settings at 10 % for ships and ferries and also for leisure boats.

Best regards

Henrik

[FSlikerX 1]

Hi,

 

This looks awesome...

Is it possible to use with P3Dv 2.4?

 

Best regards

[KL791 170]

Yes, it works and has been tested with P3Dv2.4 - you will however not see the wakes as nicely as in FSX - especially not if you use animated waves. It appears there is still a small bug in P3D regards to particle effects - once that is solved I will post replacement textures - but the pictures above of Arina Arctica in North Sea (with Wake) and Selena (no wake as she was not moving) near Somalia are both from P3Dv2.4. In FSX the Arina Artica will have a nice bow spray like the one you see on the picture of USS Bainbridge in the Persian Gulf which is done in FSX and not in P3D.

[BeechPapa 30]

First a few words on the project - another thread here on AVSIM talks about "Henrik Nielsen AI Ships" - that is not really a good heading as the project has been created with the help from several model designers and repainters including to dates: Jean-Pierre Fillion, Knud Kristoffersen, Didier "Lagaffe" Puentes, Robystar, Finn Kristoffer, Andrew Thomsen, Kjell A., Erwin Welker, Sébastien Viale, Alberto Garcia, Antonio Diaz, Paul Donnelly, and Robystar. Add to that all the people who have been involved in beta-testing and solving particular issues or providing information about the ships.

 

Henrik, I am the member who started that other thread. I apologize for attributing only your name to the project. Everyone did fine work, and should be acknowledged. I began that thread for a simple question, and was surprised that it became a place for general discussion. Should any moderator see this, please feel free to re-name the other "Henrik Nielson AI Ships" thread to “AI ships question” or something more specific as to place focus on this thread (filled with useful info and gorgeous screenshots) for general discussion. Thanks to everyone who worked on AI Ships for your contributions to this project. You have added a whole new intricate and alluring dimension to FSX maritime environments.

[KL791 170]

No offense taken  It is nice that there has been so much attention on the project in different topics - but I just wanted to make sure that everybody gets credit as this has far from been a single-person project.

[northtexas 5]

 

Normally I keep my settings at 10 % for ships and ferries and also for leisure boats.

Best regards

Henrik

 

So those settings are only for the default ship & boat traffic and have no effect on your ships?

[KL791 170]

These settings also apply for my ships - the setting for "ships and ferries" must be above 5 % for my traffic to appear. If you don't want the slightly unrealistic ships of FSX to appear then you can reduce the setting to 10 % and you will mostly just have my ships. The leisure boats you can put as you like - it does not affect the ships.

[Sesquashtoo 1,047]

Just finished installing all your packages, and very much appreciated, for all that you have done here.  Finally, FSX and P3D seas are alive and animated. Here I am having just landed upon a tanker, and with it heading into San Francisco Bay...from the Pacific...will hitch the ride...shut down the rotors...and enjoy the hitch-hike...

 

 

 

1  http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/1mf

 

2  http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/1m1

 

3  http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/1mW

[Alti 11]

Hello, i use this freeware as long time and i think its great to became Life on the sea.

Thanks for this great work!

im not able to craete such thing, but i hope its poosible that in future also icebergs became such (real) routes

from the poles... It would be great, when also icbergs and ships crossing the sea.

happy new year!

Alti from Austria.

[KL791 170]

I am actually working on it... Greenland and the arctic areas will be in the next update and moving icebergs are not that difficult at all... this is from a test from Greenland:

 

[BeechPapa 30]

Icebergs sweet! Would it be possible to land on them via helicopter or bush plane?

[KL791 170]

Yes, these were done with hard surface on the flat side... but you might need good brakes - as you see they are not exactly horizontal 

[Diigg 2]

A very interesting project. The boats are compatible with DX10?

[KL791 170]

Yes

[toriu 7]

Thank you so much for this wonderful nautical project. I can't begin to imagine the time and skill involved by all the team.

Most of my life I've been around ships and the sea, so now I can virtually sail on.

[Mickeyj 34]

I am actually working on it... Greenland and the arctic areas will be in the next update and moving icebergs are not that difficult at all... this is from a test from Greenland

Many thanks for this add on i enjoy it a lot. I like the ships with chopper pads on ´em like the one you just showed. Perfect!!!

[KORDATC 79]

This is simply amazing.  I'm really hoping to see some ships on the Great Lakes sometime.

 

Thanks Again,

Rob

[boris4356 1]

I am really glad to see that this project is gaining the widespread exposure it truely deserves!

 

I have been using Henrik and team's Ai ships for quite a while, and it makes a huge difference to the immersion level when flying over water to see these detailed ships.

 

Having moving icebergs will be a real treat!

 

Looking forward to adding the latest download for even more boat traffic!

 

Thanks!

Bill

[Sesquashtoo 1,047]

No offense taken  It is nice that there has been so much attention on the project in different topics - but I just wanted to make sure that everybody gets credit as this has far from been a single-person project.

I just read this post, and therefore, wish to thank each person as an individual, who is responsible for bringing my seas and coasts to life.  I flew out on my first ship 'rubber-necking' flight in a helo yesterday after fully installing all your file links, and in the order that you recommended, in both FSX-MS and P3D 2.4.  Simply wonderful....and also the fact that they (the ships) are able to be landed upon for mission-specific exercises.  I took a hitch-hike aboard a tanker, from out to sea, to under the Golden Gate Bridge, and into the Bay, proper.  What fun was that, to feel like I was on that ship and watching all the ORBX action around me, full out.

 

Sincerely thank you to each person on the team and all of your generosity regarding this.  Have a most Happy and prosperous New Year to all!

 

Mitch

A very interesting project. The boats are compatible with DX10?

Yes they very much are. I am running them in:

 

FSX-MS,DX10 via Steve's Fixer v2.6, DSR 2.0/1smoothness..and they don't affect frame rates with ships and ferries at 100 percent on the slider.

-------------

P3D v2.4/DX11, DSR 2.0/1smoothness..and they don't affect frame rates with ships at 100 percent on the slider.

This is simply amazing.  I'm really hoping to see some ships on the Great Lakes sometime.

 

Thanks Again,

Rob

Me too!  That would be simply fantastic!!!!

[Ian S 46]

Thank you very much to all involved in this fantastic add-on. With things like ASN and FTX Global, it is the icing on the cake in creating a totally immersed world to fly in.

[KL791 170]

Thanks for the all the nice feedback... The option of taking a ride into port exists in many places... Here it is Navios Bonheur entering Rio de Janeiro at dawn - 08:15 GMT and 06:15 local during the Brazilian summer months.

 

 

Regards to the Great Lakes - I will give it a thought - I found a couple of potential models, so it could maybe become part of the next update if time allows.