Henrik Nielsen's Global AI Ship Traffic for MSFS

[jarmstro 2,405]

2 minutes ago, sidfadc said:

So because I'm lazy whats the downside to just activating all routes on performance?  I'm assuming the boats only load in if I'm in the area correct???

I've got the lot in my community folder and all is well. I can't see any point in excluding any of the regions?

[St Mawgan 1,406]

If I'm flying from the UK I would expect to see vessels from all over the world. Not having folders from the other regions will probably mean that you won't see those if that's where they originate from. Plus, the total size of all the regional folders is extremely small so I see no reason not to keep them all. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by St Mawgan

[McDaniel 53]

Thank you all for the magnificent work on this pearl of freeware! Is there traffic in the port of Rotterdam? I have seen some ships outside the port but none inside?

[JimBrown 596]

1 hour ago, St Mawgan said:

If I'm flying from the UK I would expect to see vessels from all over the world. Not having folders from the other regions will probably mean that you won't see those if that's where they originate from. Plus, the total size of all the regional folders is extremely small so I see no reason not to keep them all. 

 

1 hour ago, jarmstro said:

I've got the lot in my community folder and all is well. I can't see any point in excluding any of the regions?

The reason that there are separate region folders is that some users were experiencing problems with having too many *.BGL files in their community folder. The current GAIST package contains a total of 2,079 BGL files. If your system can handle large amounts of BGL files, then great, you can enable them all at the same time. For others, they may have to choose which region to enable depending on where they will by flying so that the number of BGL files on their system does not exceed a particular amount.

Also note that the region folders do not contain any ship models, they only contain the traffic information. The models are in their own folder. So, if a traffic file for some area in the UK needs a ship model for a ship from, say, Panama, it will be able to find and display it.

...jim

 

[jarmstro 2,405]

1 minute ago, JimBrown said:

 

The reason that there are separate region folders is that some users were experiencing problems with having too many *.BGL files in their community folder. The current GAIST package contains a total of 2,079 BGL files. If your system can handle large amounts of BGL files, then great, you can enable them all at the same time. For others, they may have to choose which region to enable depending on where they will by flying so that the number of BGL files on their system does not exceed a particular amount.

Also note that the region folders do not contain any ship models, they only contain the traffic information. The models are in their own folder. So, if a traffic file for some area in the UK needs a ship model for a ship from, say, Panama, it will be able to find and display it.

...jim

 

Ah. So what do the .BGL files do to the system? Crash it or use memory meaning that other scenery won't be rendered in favour of GAIS?

[JimBrown 596]

I'm not one of those affected (I can have all regions enabled, as well as AIG and a few other things, total BGL files over 4,000). But from what I understand is that for some users, too many BGL files will cause their system to CTD while loading MSFS. I have no idea why. There is a thread somewhere in this forum about it.

...jim

 

[fluffyflops 1,865]

1 hour ago, JimBrown said:

I'm not one of those affected (I can have all regions enabled, as well as AIG and a few other things, total BGL files over 4,000). But from what I understand is that for some users, too many BGL files will cause their system to CTD while loading MSFS. I have no idea why. There is a thread somewhere in this forum about it.

...jim

 

ah this would explain a few things then 

[nbrich1 117]

It doesn't CTD per say, The sim freezes @40% when attempting to load a flight. Many currently (or Still) have this problem.. since SU8 or SU9 ish. (All ships packages loaded perfect prior to SU8 or SU9: there was never an issue) but since then there is an intermittent problem with a few users).

(I guess there still is the suspect that a limitation has been set in the sim that if too many bgl are set to to be loaded in a flight which exceeds the threshold, then sim hangs at @40%. It still is imperative for all to know if there is a limitation that has placed on bgl loading of a flight.).

There is another weird anomaly going on whereas if you load up the sim and go into a flight but haven't changed the aircraft, the sim locks up when trying to load a flight like it seems that without changing the aircraft that is yielding a NULL value and the sim hangs @40 % ish when trying to load into a flight.  With the only solution being, force the sim to close, reboot the sim, change the aircraft (or change the livery of the existing), and voila the sim loads. Go figure!! (and nothing else changed in the sim except the aircraft).

   *The previous forum on the ships issue is here : https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/global-ai-ship-traffic-v2-native-version-and-great-lakes/459135/997 .  (The problem is not consistent, I guess it all depends where you are loading your flight and how many bgls are being called.)

Anyways, not to deter from the ships package, this global ship package is amazing, from the days of FSX to P3D into MSFS. Simply one of the best add-ons to make your sim come alive!! Well done Henrick and associates.

Norm

PS: (Will take this issue to zendesk again and probally with the same brush off that was received the first time... since it is not part of the default sim!!!)

 

[TacomaSailor 191]

Long Beach, California - I see 10 or so ships in the anchorage while flying over the harbor with V3.  When I get within 1/2 mile and 1000' AGL of some of the ships - they start spinning and making a circular wake but never moving from their point of rotation.  At times they spin in a complete circle, at other times a half circle and then reverse.  My community folder is empty except for V3 and NorthAmerican routes.  Winds set at 9.5 mph.  

[captain420 3,099]

So glad to see v3 is finally out! Will this mod work with seafront simulation addons or do they conflict?

Also is the folder gaist-us-lakes folder needed anymore?

[jimcarrel 688]

I run both together, no way can I tell if anything is amiss. All seems okay

[KL791 2,277]

14 hours ago, TacomaSailor said:

Long Beach, California - I see 10 or so ships in the anchorage while flying over the harbor with V3.  When I get within 1/2 mile and 1000' AGL of some of the ships - they start spinning and making a circular wake but never moving from their point of rotation.  At times they spin in a complete circle, at other times a half circle and then reverse.  My community folder is empty except for V3 and NorthAmerican routes.  Winds set at 9.5 mph.  

The spinning on the endpoint happens from time to time. It is eliminated in the real time version.

[KL791 2,277]

7 hours ago, captain420 said:

So glad to see v3 is finally out! Will this mod work with seafront simulation addons or do they conflict?

Also is the folder gaist-us-lakes folder needed anymore?

In theory, yes. Will you have conflicts in some areas? Yes. Will it increase the problem for those users having problems with freezes? Yes. So I will not recommend it. My recommendation is to stick to GAIST and load one or two regional route packages for the area you fly in to avoid unnecessary stress on the system loading routes on the opposite side of the Earth not relevant for your flight.

That said... I run GAIST V3 and our real time traffic beta version at the same time as GAIST V3 includes navy ships, which mostly do not emit AIS signal and therefore are not very present in the real time version. And that combination works perfectly in terms of performance. Models in GAIST are fairly low poly.

[jarmstro 2,405]

There's something I don't understand. The recommended setting for the Ships slider in Settings is from 6 to 10. Shouldn't it be set to 0 because if I have Gais installed I don't need any MSFS default ships? On the other hand does setting it this low limit the number of GAIS ships I see? What is the reason for setting it between 6 to 10 if you have GAIS installed?

[roland_lfor 249]

You need a minimum of 4 to 6% to see GAIS. My understanding is that you have 100% of GAIS with around 8% set.

Henrik recommends to set10% as a maximum to avoid generic ship traffic from MSFS.