Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
speedbird2001

AI Shipping Do Complete Packages Exist ?

Recommended Posts

Having recently returned to the UK, descending over the Channel, I am always amazed by the amount shipping that is chugging around beneath me. I then realised how much more fulfilling and immersive my Flightsim experience would be if there were a large number of AI ships in FS9. I paid a visit to Fs Shipyards which although appears to be an excellent site, does not seem to cater for complete packages such as an Fs Traffic or Ultimate Traffic. I am asking for the impossible or do packages exist that I could get my hands on. Any pointers would be much appreciated. RegardsTristan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Having recently returned to the UK, descending over the Channel, I am always amazed by the amount shipping that is chugging around beneath me. I then realised how much more fulfilling and immersive my Flightsim experience would be if there were a large number of AI ships in FS9. I paid a visit to Fs Shipyards which although appears to be an excellent site, does not seem to cater for complete packages such as an Fs Traffic or Ultimate Traffic.I am asking for the impossible or do packages exist that I could get my hands on.Any pointers would be much appreciated.RegardsTristan
Hi TristanI have often thought that a comprehensive addon like that would be a great addition to the sim. It is possible put a package together but it's pretty rare. There is a package that provides shipping plying between Wellington and Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand that is excellent. And of course both Tongass Fjords and Glacier Bay sceneries have boat/ship traffic that is very well modelled.I guess the big challenge would be that for each route the person making the package would have to create AFCADs to serve as a "destinations" and "waypoints" and that would be pretty time consuming. I recall that Holger Sandmann may have posted a tutorial on how to do this some time ago.I hope we get a volunteer to do the English Channel! That would be fantastic!CheersIan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi IanThanks, well perhaps I should volunteer myself. I can understand the difficulties. From an English perpestive a route from Liverpool docks to the Thames estuary would take you (as the crow flies) across the mainland. Having said that I am surprised that there is not a Dover-Calais package or something a long those lines.Tristan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As you barely can see the movements of ship when flying over it, how about a buttload of static ships? With EZ for example you can fill the channel easily..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Euh, EZ or IS, instant scenery, you slew to a position, select an item from a list, and by magic its in the sim.You can save it as a BGL file, and everybody can use it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Euh, EZ or IS, instant scenery, you slew to a position, select an item from a list, and by magic its in the sim.You can save it as a BGL file, and everybody can use it.
I would gladly do this for the English Channel as I have Instant Scenery. One problem is that there are not all that many really decent looking ship models. The other thing with sharing the .bgl file is that the people downloading it would need the models that are being used. But it's "doable" I think if anyone is interested. I'd prefer the moving AI approach personally, as even though you don't see much in the way of movement as you fly over, the ships are not going to always be in the same places and that makes it more interesting and realistic.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've been compiling cruise ship schedules in the US. I've taken many cruises and want to do an AI package as time permits. My last one we were sailing in the Carribean this past July. I was sitting on a chaise lounge at night on the top deck watching the planes flying above me while listening to the water and the wind. Very relaxing!!!! It would be nice seing the boats dock in the ports and depart. It is going to be a long process....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a good topic to raise as I too was wondering recently about adding boats and ships to our seas, I live on the coast close to a shipping port in Suffolk and there are always (as expected) plenty of ships around.I have recently added static boats and ships around the area using EZ scenery which is quite effective although I must admit an AI package would be even better.Having already added offshore add-ons from the ODG I too had a look at FS Shipyards which I have never looked at before and was wondering what the downlaods are, are they just static boats and ships then? However, I have notice that under the downloads section in the 'must have files' section there is a download for boats and ships AI Program, so what exactly is that?


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Having recently returned to the UK, descending over the Channel, I am always amazed by the amount shipping that is chugging around beneath me. I then realised how much more fulfilling and immersive my Flightsim experience would be if there were a large number of AI ships in FS9. I paid a visit to Fs Shipyards which although appears to be an excellent site, does not seem to cater for complete packages such as an Fs Traffic or Ultimate Traffic.I am asking for the impossible or do packages exist that I could get my hands on.Any pointers would be much appreciated.RegardsTristan
Good post!Awhile ago I used a freeware program (cant remember the name) that allowed you at least to populate the oceans with (static) ships of all shapes and sizes (and just about anything else on land and sea) I do remember it being rather time consuming ,but it did work. I don't no where all those ships went ,but you know how easy it is to tinker with FS .I suppose like all things simming there would of course be a bit of a trade of juggling performance with candies even if you could add moving ships. I did like the moving marine traffic in FSX (much more than the strange speeding and vanishing land vehicles) however on my rather old system FSX marine was about the only thing that did move.PS the static ships that I added to FS9 world ( looked as though moving anyway from upon high) did not have any affect on performance.Sure that prog is here at AVSIM.

photo-141290.gif?_r=1341161573?t=54318216?t=43542077

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The two payware applications that come to my mind are EZ-Scenery published by Abacus and Instant Scenery published by flight1.Searching for "ships" in the FS2004 Scenery Design library here turned up a number of static ships some with animated smoke and wake effects. some were already adapted for EZ Scenery libraries:ez_gmax_ships_library.zipezmaritime.zipezgmship.zip on flightsim.com is an upgrade to one of these.There were also some scenery libraries for Runway 12 Object Placer freeware, not as easy to use IMHO as the preview facilities in the other applications.For those who want to do ai ships look for tutorials on implementing float plane bases which regard ai water paths and docking plus created ai schedules.I have done a bit of work with static objects using EZ-Scenery and there are a number of libraries available for other than ship models available here and at flightsim.com.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What we need is a database dump (just one time) of position from here, http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/, a gifted talent who can convert the dump to an xml with lats and longs, and randomly add a library ship to it. And voila, whole world littered with ships.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What you need are navigation routes and due to security issues good luck on finding those if you want moving ai and not static objects.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Probably getting a bit carried away here with all this talk of extra AI objects but it would be nice if there were also trains that could be added as well, but as I said, I think that's taking things a bit too far...


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...