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Offshore Landmarks-: North Sea (released)


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Cool add-on, also when you fly an airliner... If you fly into Amsterdam for example you can see a lot of ships, windmills etc.

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10 minutes ago, Er!k said:

Cool add-on, also when you fly an airliner... If you fly into Amsterdam for example you can see a lot of ships, windmills etc.

 

Yes, but the sim has a hard limit on what you can see, it needs to cover 1.5% of the screen to be shown. So while you would see ships and oil platforms (certainly at night) from FL380, the sim most likely will not show them.  See why we add a lot of very large tankers?

 

But that said, if you fly into Amsterdam, London etc you are often at FL100 when you get to the coast.

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Looks fantastic, I’ve often thought oil/gas platforms in the n sea would be awesome. Especially if we can land on them. Can’t wait for this! 

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2 hours ago, Mathijs Kok said:

 

We are indeed using some of those models.  But this is an internal project. 


Ah, ok - glad to hear it ;)

I'd done some freeware placements for the platforms off Santa Barbara and Alaska ( starting back around FSX and updated for MSFS ) and had always intended to add custom platform models and animated support boats - but the time to model and optimize all the platform variants was pretty daunting.
Really curious to see how this turns out!

Cheers!

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23 hours ago, ravenn22 said:


Ah, ok - glad to hear it ;)

I'd done some freeware placements for the platforms off Santa Barbara and Alaska ( starting back around FSX and updated for MSFS ) and had always intended to add custom platform models and animated support boats - but the time to model and optimize all the platform variants was pretty daunting.
Really curious to see how this turns out!

Cheers!

 

Would you be interested to assist (testing) the Team?  If so contact me on mathijs.kok@aerosoft.com.

 

And indeed, if we would have to model all these elements it would be impossible to do a project like this, it would cost close to 500k in modeling. So I am basically going on a massive shopping spree and buying the rights for these models. A major investment but one that will pay of handsomely. For example models like this: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/watercraft/industrial-watercraft/fast-emergency-response-vessel

 

When we have the models we only need to create the LODs, add the effects (flares, lights, sounds etc) and place them (for that we have 8 persons who work in this industry. All in all still a major project, but one that can be completed in a reasonable time. When that is done we might look at the Gulf of Mexico (very different structures there) and possible the Middle East. 

 

Here is a example of the LODs that the main modeler added this weekend:

 

Please login to display this image.

 

I think we'll make a small demo project in a few weeks so you can fly around and land on the objects. 

 

 

 

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This is great!

I do not fly often over any sea, but always when i am over the northern sea i think that it is much to clear.

Will all your ships be static, or will they get a route that they follow?

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6 hours ago, Ha_Ma said:

This is great!

I do not fly often over any sea, but always when i am over the northern sea i think that it is much to clear.

Will all your ships be static, or will they get a route that they follow?

 

We are still considering the movement. I did experiment a bit today with moving ship traffic (some great freeware for that), but when there is no static object in the frame, you simply do not see if a ship is static or moving. Simply too slow.  For some objects like the fast ferries:

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and the fast emergency response vessels:

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It would make sense to have them moving about.  As want to include every possible helicopter landing pad (even those that only allow hoist operations) ships with those will have to be static. But as said, I simply could not see if an oil tanker was moving or not. And I also do not believe that I would notice if I saw the same ship a week later it was in the same location. 

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Mathijs Kok said:

 

We are still considering the movement. I did experiment a bit today with moving ship traffic (some great freeware for that), but when there is no static object in the frame, you simply do not see if a ship is static or moving. Simply too slow.  For some objects like the fast ferries:

Please login to display this image.

 

and the fast emergency response vessels:

Please login to display this image.

 

It would make sense to have them moving about.  As want to include every possible helicopter landing pad (even those that only allow hoist operations) ships with those will have to be static. But as said, I simply could not see if an oil tanker was moving or not. And I also do not believe that I would notice if I saw the same ship a week later it was in the same location. 

 

 

For me moving objects would be the reason to buy a product like this. I want a living world and seeing the same ship at the same spot every time would probably ruin a bit of immersion. 
Anyway, I’m sure everyone are not thinking the same as me.

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On 4/1/2022 at 2:37 PM, Mathijs Kok said:

 

Yes, but the sim has a hard limit on what you can see, it needs to cover 1.5% of the screen to be shown. So while you would see ships and oil platforms (certainly at night) from FL380, the sim most likely will not show them.  See why we add a lot of very large tankers?

 

But that said, if you fly into Amsterdam, London etc you are often at FL100 when you get to the coast.

 Would it be possible to make some of the lights on the models a ‘streetlight’, since these are visible at much further ranges?  I don’t know if this would be possible, but really, I just like seeing the lights while at cruise at night.

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Btw, there will be some really weird vessels included.

 

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That is a Offshore Accommodation Vessel (more commonly referred to as a floatel). It can offer comfortable accommodations for the crews that work building off shore installations. It is more comfortable (as it is very stable), safer, has way more amenities like movie theaters, gyms etc. The crane like structures are gangways that allow an easy passage from one ship to the other shop or platform (called 'walk to work').  This model will be a major challenge as it has a crazy amount of detail. 

 

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5 minutes ago, TomAce said:

For me moving objects would be the reason to buy a product like this. I want a living world and seeing the same ship at the same spot every time would probably ruin a bit of immersion. 
Anyway, I’m sure everyone are not thinking the same as me.

 

But again, if you see a 300 meter livestock carrier going forward at 20 knots and you circle it with an marine patrol aircraft going 200 knots you simply will not see the ship moving. And if it is outside any visible static structure, how would you ever be able to see it is at the same location? And keep in mind that when ships are in visible range of land they often ARE static and on anchor. At this very moment there are 58 ships at anchor on the coast of Rotterdam.

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5 minutes ago, ual763 said:

 Would it be possible to make some of the lights on the models a ‘streetlight’, since these are visible at much further ranges?  I don’t know if this would be possible, but really, I just like seeing the lights while at cruise at night.

 

Yes, that is one of our most important issues. Visible ranges are limited in the sim and we need to stretch that as much as possible.

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I promised you we could show a lot of images every time we added a new model. This is a small tanker used to bring chemicals to the platforms and to bring waste back to shore. 

 

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Tomorrow we will show a panamax sized tanker.

 

 

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You want to ruin me? First EBBR and now this beauty? I think i will need a new pc to....

No just kidding :) Great work!!! I know this sea, and its a very busy place for ships.

Can't wait when the addons comes out. Now just a good coastline and its complete at the North Sea.

Keep on the great work over there!

 

Greetings.

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Love this. The offshore oilplatforms and sea activity is a large part of my home airport. So this is something I have always wanted to see. Now we just need a Super Puma or S92 helicopter addon for MSFS. :)

 

Are you only planning generic platform/rig models, or are you planning to also recreate some of the real ones out there.

For the Norwegian sector there are a some notable platforms like the large Troll-A and the classic Ekofisk/Statfjord/Gullfaks platforms.

 

I'm not sure if you know about these sources for rig and platform placement.

This is a official continuously updated list of movable rigs locations.

https://kartverket.no/en/at-sea/efs

https://www.kartverket.no/efs-documents/plattformer/Riggliste.pdf

 

The Norwegian internet pilot planning service ippc.no has a location, ICAO-code and metar for all the permanent oil platforms.

 

You just need to select landing sites on the left menu. Also shows platforms in the Danish sector, but looks like UK platforms are not shown.

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On 4/1/2022 at 1:37 PM, Mathijs Kok said:

 

Yes, but the sim has a hard limit on what you can see, it needs to cover 1.5% of the screen to be shown. So while you would see ships and oil platforms (certainly at night) from FL380, the sim most likely will not show them.  See why we add a lot of very large tankers?

 

But that said, if you fly into Amsterdam, London etc you are often at FL100 when you get to the coast.

 

This is an exciting project.  For some reason, I get more excited about this kind of stuff than anything, as it just helps to make the world feel alive.  Will it be compatible with Seafront Simulations products?

 

As to this issue, this freeware project resolves it by adding a single massive triangle that would essential be underground or underwater.  From what I have seen, it works very well, as you can see those tiny white cones from much higher altitudes.  Not sure whether that's the same limitation you're referring to.

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Woahhhhh I always wanted that!!!! :D I can't wait!!!

 

After this, we will need Offshores plateform shuttle helicopters (AS225, S92 etc)

That will be a real challenge to reach and land on those plateforms and ships on High winds and bad visibitity.

 

btw, will the plateforms and ships sway with the waves? or will remain static

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1 hour ago, Scandinavian said:

Are you only planning generic platform/rig models, or are you planning to also recreate some of the real ones out there.

For the Norwegian sector there are a some notable platforms like the large Troll-A and the classic Ekofisk/Statfjord/Gullfaks platforms.

 

It will be a bit of a mix. We do have a few accurately modeled platforms, but simply not for all. The main issue is that the 'accurate' models are normally rather low poly and we really want details for this project. The manual will explain exactly how detailed all models are.

 

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1 hour ago, Scandinavian said:

I'm not sure if you know about these sources for rig and platform placement.

 

Yes. It is amazing how detailed the Danish are with these things. 

 

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1 minute ago, SkyLaneOfficial said:

After this, we will need Offshores plateform shuttle helicopters (AS225, S92 etc)

 

We are talking to the fine people who are making helicopters. 

 

2 minutes ago, SkyLaneOfficial said:

btw, will the plateforms and ships sway with the waves? or will remain static

 

At this moment it is not possible to land on animated objects, so if it has a heli deck it will need to be static. We are still talking to the people who advise us on how important movement is. At this moment it seems to be that it is simply hard to see the very small movements of larger vessels. 

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