2 hours ago, Seafront Simulations said:

Hi again all,

A brief update.

Some users are reporting disappearing boats from our Enhanced AI set. This has been introduced as a result of SU5. We have reported this to MS/Asobo. It wasn't there when we were developing the product. We are also seeing many more loitering/static boats than there should be but are checking to see if that's the result of something that 'snuck in' during release or is also SU5.

One separate but rather significant issue we have reported to MS/Asobo is the that the water traffic (ours and theirs) doesn't update with the plane's position (i.e ships don't appear ahead of your route). The sim doesn't track your position and bring in ground traffic relevant to where you are. So when you take off you might see some and then they slowly fade away with just a few of the coastal leisure boats appearing when you land. The only less than ideal work around we've observed is to change the weather and/or time to give the sim a 'kick'. MS/Asobo are looking into this too but we have no idea of timescales for a fix/update. I believe it was an issue pre-SU5 but no one really noticed until now.

To the idea that we're trying to make a quick buck: After paying modellers (yes we use commercial models and are proud to support that community), source material, software, commission, other usual business costs and various taxes we actually receive very little from each sale, especially for the number of hours that have been invested over the last 11 months. For example with the free Channel Islands, St Martin, the practical re-work of the entire UK South East as a result of World Update 3 and the Balearics, working with a moving target, plus developing much of our tooling from scratch etc. Adding thousands upon thousands of boats to marinas, dressing the scenes and hand animating (for our other sceneries) is not a quick job. We have invested way more money and effort than many sane people would because we have and hope to continue to enjoy it. We have bought, converted, and remodelled/repainted lots and lots of models for the sim as you can see in St Martin - many don't lend themselves to freight, utility cargo however. The payware model is the only way we could sustain this hobby and that has meant setting up a company. It's our belief that no one wants to wait years and years for the additional traffic so this is how we've approached it. We saw a way of getting some real world AIS data into the sim to really lift the amount of traffic and wanted to bring that to people that were fans of our other products. We apologise to those that are not seeing what they expected, and we agree there are some areas that have far less than they should. No one wants that especially us. -We actually have enough data for some 250,000 routes but of course need to balance performance, loitering times etc. The sim is quite crude (currently) in how it deals with timings. We are working with MS/Asobo to rectify SU5 changes and historical issues that impact the releases negatively and are also making improvements on our side. We are being open and honest here about the what and why but for now please accept our apologies for focusing on the improvements and spending a little less time on the forums.

to be honest i think the guy who was blaming you was maybe just a little bit upset due to other issues in his life or with SU5..

I bought both products and yes i expected more models as it was advertised, or at least as i undersood it, but i am confident that you , now as you got the feedback from a few users, will put the focus a little more into that direction 🙂

Being so rude as the guy has been, is fully misplaced.

Wish you all the best and thanks for the update and open communication !

4 hours ago, xxd09 said:

Some talk over on the RTMM forum that  running Henrik,s  ships causes problems 

MSFS 2020 appears to close down normally but in fact crashes

Recommended that Henrik,s ships are not used at the moment until updated 

xxd09

I have now, both Sea and Mr. Hendrik installed, and no such pauses or stutters...I do though allow a 2 minute idle before taxi, as I have seen that for at least 90 seconds,  MSFS at Ultra is still adding and filling in content and shader action.  When I then take off for instance, from Orbx KORS...I fly west over the channel(s) and they are fully populated with Mr. Hendrik's awesome, detailed ships, boats, sail craft, and there is no stutter on approach, fly over and departure from.  I do suggest that everybody go grab a coffee, beer, or ham sandwich, while you let your plane sit on the tarmac for a couple of minutes. This will help for sure.

Edited August 2, 20214 yr by Sesquashtoo

15 hours ago, Nemo said:

I've yet to see any wake effects. Wasn't this advertised too? Any location/time where it can be seen?

Yes, there are wake effects on all vessels, from sail boats,  a VERY GOOD fast spreading wake effect from motorboats whipping across the water (my favorite!) and the freighters all have wake effects. They have to be moving though and not resting at station.  You might have flown over ships that had yet to be activated by the A.I. engine to move.  Even Hendrik's ships and boats will be 'at rest' before their routes kick in. Even in P3D or FSX this happens.

Edited August 2, 20214 yr by Sesquashtoo

3 hours ago, Seafront Simulations said:

Hi again all,

A brief update.

Some users are reporting disappearing boats from our Enhanced AI set. This has been introduced as a result of SU5. We have reported this to MS/Asobo. It wasn't there when we were developing the product. We are also seeing many more loitering/static boats than there should be but are checking to see if that's the result of something that 'snuck in' during release or is also SU5.

One separate but rather significant issue we have reported to MS/Asobo is the that the water traffic (ours and theirs) doesn't update with the plane's position (i.e ships don't appear ahead of your route). The sim doesn't track your position and bring in ground traffic relevant to where you are. So when you take off you might see some and then they slowly fade away with just a few of the coastal leisure boats appearing when you land. The only less than ideal work around we've observed is to change the weather and/or time to give the sim a 'kick'. MS/Asobo are looking into this too but we have no idea of timescales for a fix/update. I believe it was an issue pre-SU5 but no one really noticed until now.

To the idea that we're trying to make a quick buck: After paying modellers (yes we use commercial models and are proud to support that community), source material, software, commission, other usual business costs and various taxes we actually receive very little from each sale, especially for the number of hours that have been invested over the last 11 months. For example with the free Channel Islands, St Martin, the practical re-work of the entire UK South East as a result of World Update 3 and the Balearics, working with a moving target, plus developing much of our tooling from scratch etc. Adding thousands upon thousands of boats to marinas, dressing the scenes and hand animating (for our other sceneries) is not a quick job. We have invested way more money and effort than many sane people would because we have and hope to continue to enjoy it. We have bought, converted, and remodelled/repainted lots and lots of models for the sim as you can see in St Martin - many don't lend themselves to freight, utility cargo however. The payware model is the only way we could sustain this hobby and that has meant setting up a company. It's our belief that no one wants to wait years and years for the additional traffic so this is how we've approached it. We saw a way of getting some real world AIS data into the sim to really lift the amount of traffic and wanted to bring that to people that were fans of our other products. We apologise to those that are not seeing what they expected, and we agree there are some areas that have far less than they should. No one wants that especially us. -We actually have enough data for some 250,000 routes but of course need to balance performance, loitering times etc. The sim is quite crude (currently) in how it deals with timings. We are working with MS/Asobo to rectify SU5 changes and historical issues that impact the releases negatively and are also making improvements on our side. We are being open and honest here about the what and why but for now please accept our apologies for focusing on the improvements and spending a little less time on the forums.

Open response to the owners of Seafront Simulations:

This response/info was exactly a response, that I hoped you would post, and you indeed have.  Your post, and plausible explanation for why I did not receive the visuals and 'value to date' from my two purchases, tells, me that I made the right decision to not knee-jerk, and go for a refund. I will as I stated in another post,  will 'sit in the bushes' and wait for your updates, and hopeful actions from Asobo, to correct what you describe is happening and that I can concur on my system is happening.  No ships as you approach,  boats from your Enhanced A.I.  poofing out in front of you, no matter if you could reach out and grab the top sail.  So...I'll wait for your updates/corrections/new material injection, and also hope that Asobo GETS WITH THE PROGRAM on so many other bugs and blemishes, besides what you describe in the A.I. engine end of things.  So, no refund looked for...but only you making these two programs,  more immersive and premium with every update to them.

Cheers,

Edited August 2, 20214 yr by Sesquashtoo

11 minutes ago, Sesquashtoo said:

I have now, both Sea and Mr. Hendrik installed, and no such pauses or stutters...I do though allow a 2 minute idle before taxi, as I have seen that for at least 90 seconds,  MSFS at Ultra is still adding and filling in content and shader action.  When I then take off for instance, from Orbx KORS...I fly west over the channel(s) and they are fully populated with Mr. Hendrik's awesome, detailed ships, boats, sail craft, and there is no stutter on approach, fly over and departure from.  I do suggest that everybody go grab a coffee, beer, or ham sandwich, while you let your plane sit on the tarmac for a couple of minutes. This will help for sure.

I've seen this too since I have activated ai ships from HN and SF on MSFS SU5. No such loading effects were present pre-SU5 but it's not a real problem to wait another 2 minutes.

4 minutes ago, Nemo said:

I've seen this too since I have activated ai ships from HN and SF on MSFS SU5. No such loading effects were present pre-SU5 but it's not a real problem to wait another 2 minutes.

Yep...I noticed that actually pre SU5.   MSFS still loads in, as it plops you down on your chosen situation, same as P3D and XP does. They all do it. So, I have always  waited by the computer until I saw that I was at/in my situation, and then would go for a coffee, or whatever to allow two to three minutes for the sim to fully load in.  After that...with MSFS, P3D, and XP, no stutters, no pauses, no shader windows opening up or terrain window messages stating loading in. None of that.   I think if everybody reading this, tried this as their new M.O. they would also see the immediate benefit of letting the whatever flight sim, have time to fuss around, for the first few minutes of plopping down upon the tarmac....

Edited August 2, 20214 yr by Sesquashtoo

On 8/1/2021 at 2:19 PM, Seafront Simulations said:

Hi Henrik,

Thanks for the response. It does literally deliver ten's of thousands of high quality, PBR, night-lit utility, fishing and cargo ships to the seas. Yes there are repeated models, but it still does exactly that. We purposely didn't state "ten's of thousands of types or varieties" so as not to mislead. (We actually contacted FSElite to correct an article when they said it was 'types'). The routes are not repeated (yet...we may add a few more boats on each of the longer routes). If anything we have learnt to provide more detail at launch and as we say, the majority of customers are very happy with what we've achieved. We still don't see competition between the addons, but we do need to rectify any potential misrepresentation of our products by others. For example to clarify on the 'upgraded default ships': They are not MSFS models that have been retouched etc, they are models we provide. We agree it's unfair you have been asked about our products too, that shouldn't have happened. 

Kind Regards,

Chris & Esther

Hi Chris & Esther,

I bought both products and based on the description, I definitely did not expect to get only a handful of ship models. That said, after installing your mods along with Henrik's I've been having a blast flying around in a spitfire hunting for ships. Together, these mods really help bring the MSFS world to life, so thanks to all of you for the countless hours you put in on this.

My review for others considering these products: I think together, they are pricey for the small number of models you get, but I also recognize the time it must have taken to enter all of the route information. I hope that Seafront will add more models soon. If so, I would definitely recommend it. By the way, I spent an embarrassingly long time looking for ships unsuccessfully until I finally read the documentation and turned up the slider past 60%.

-Matt

Hi All,

We have been able to further confirm that there's intermittent loading of our global shipping and will need to work with MS/Asobo to work out why. It seems that even changing the time/weather only give's the AI engine a little prod. Loading directly into the space where you expect to find traffic will usually (not always) give you the ships you expect (sometimes many more). With the inconsistency it is hard for us to diagnose what we now expect to be an engine issue. It seems there might also be some sort of caching between sim loading. After a fresh reboot this morning we started to see far more traffic on the water than last night with our current development build. Additional models will be coming in the near future, again focused on utility and freight, gas, oil. In the meantime a shot of the Solent, UK (one of the new models front and centre) and across the water from Dover from this morning - On other occasions at the same time and place only 0-1 boats have shown.

 

Edited August 3, 20214 yr by Seafront Simulations

53 minutes ago, Seafront Simulations said:

Hi All,

We have been able to further confirm that there's intermittent loading of our global shipping and will need to work with MS/Asobo to work out why. It seems that even changing the time/weather only give's the AI engine a little prod. Loading directly into the space where you expect to find traffic will usually (not always) give you the ships you expect (sometimes many more). With the inconsistency it is hard for us to diagnose what we now expect to be an engine issue. It seems there might also be some sort of caching between sim loading. After a fresh reboot this morning we started to see far more traffic on the water than last night with our current development build. Additional models will be coming in the near future, again focused on utility and freight, gas, oil. In the meantime a shot of the Solent, UK (one of the new models front and centre) and across the water from Dover from this morning - On other occasions at the same time and place only 0-1 boats have shown.

This of all the issues isn't something new arising from SU5 - it has been like that also earlier. I stopped recommending checking schedules for specific ships or promising specific traffic a long time ago because the chance they would not appear could be 30-50%. The AI engine in MSFS is for ships is far less stable than in P3D/FSX. 

 

I'm just testing my system after a CPU upgrade (3900x to 5900x) and for the first time I could see one of your ships in the Bristol Channel just South of Avonmouth.

While checking some models I found the tankers used up to 1million poly's. The lods have a bit less but still a large amount of unneeded and hidden from normal view that could be deleted. Also the PBR textures could use some size tweaking. This wouldn't be too bad if some tankers didn't spawn with 3-5 models next to eachother (most of the time nothing is there at all though, or they dissapear in front of you)

Now we bought something (pretty expensive for routes only) that barely works and we just have to wait for a fix.

Funny things happened couple of minutes ago..

I returned from holiday yesterday and used the evening for updating msfs and got even CTDs.

Today I put in my Community folder only FBW320N, LSZH and LIRF plus Ivao liveries etc for enhanced Live traffic.. and Global AI Ships folder.

In Zuerich airport there was heavy traffic: maybe 10 planes with mostly correct livery and some of traffic were heavy container ships ( 3). I even saw a landing ship ( Lufthansa cityliner) 🙂

 

Petteri

Unfortunately I see no Great Lakes traffic. Since this is where I fly the majority of the time it's kind of a waste of money for me. I was hoping. Oh well.

24 minutes ago, Daytona125 said:

Unfortunately I see no Great Lakes traffic.

They never said it was included. it's also not possible at the moment because the sim renders all boats at sea level (this dates back since launch, it's not an SU5 thing), so they would spawn underwater on the lakes.

Edited August 3, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

28 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

They never said it was included. it's also not possible at the moment because the sim renders all boats at sea level (this dates back since launch, it's not an SU5 thing), so they would spawn underwater on the lakes.

I guess I read "Vessels Global Shipping" on the Orbx site where I purchased this wrong. Live and learn.... https://seafrontsims.com/global-shipping