Global AI Ship Traffic for MSFS: GAIST Ultra Version 3

This is Version 3.0 of the Global AI Ship Traffic Ultra. More than 400 new ships have been added since the last version bringing the number of unique ship models close to 900 and the number of ships including repaints close to 1800.  The route coverage has been expanded increasing traffic density though the focus is as usual to have diverse ship traffic according to what you could see in each region. To reduce the load on computer systems, the ship routes have in this version been included as separate regional packages, so you only need to install the routes in the area where you intend to fly.

Also, the ship models have been prepared to work with a future Real Time Version of the project under development.

Among the new models in this version are several new cruise ships, and different types of fishing boats complementing the existing fleet of regional fishing vessels from around the world.

Also, the increasing number of ultra-large containerships is reflected with new models and the fleet of oil and gas tankers expanded, and a number of ferries have been included in particular in the Pacific North West and in North Europe.

More than a hundred ferry routes are covered with their specific ferries, and you will find naval exercises with Navy ships from most regions. Watch a full-scale NATO landing exercise on the West Coast of the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark or the Brazilian or Chinese navies doing the same in their respective areas.

Watch the departure of a Tall Ship race from Saint-Malo, Kiel, or Sandefjord or an around-the-world sail race departing from Gothenburg... Go looking for Maersk Alabama in the exact spot she was attacked by pirates on the coast of Somalia as later depicted in the movie Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks. More than 40.000 ship movements ensure that the sea is no longer empty. 

Models and textures by Erwin Welker, Jean-Pierre Fillion, Knud Kristoffersen, Martin Rueedi, Larry Robinson, Dexter, Milton Shupe, Manfred Siedler, Bernardo Barroso, Paul Donnelly, Finn Kristoffer, Didier ‘‘Lagaffe’’ Puentes, Andrew Thomsen, Kevair, Robystar, Antonio Diaz, Sebastien Viale, Alberto Garcia, Cxema, Pascal Dumat, Rick Keller, Lazarus Starkweather, Dave Garwood, Darren Lane, Jan de Jong, Henrik Nielsen, and more

A great thank also to the many beta testers and a special thanks to the shipping company DFDS for providing documentation to make realistic models of their fleet of passenger and freight ferries and to DGzRS Die Seenotretter for allowing to model their 28m rescue boat Nis Randers.

You can find more information about their see rescue operation and support them here: DGzRS | MRCC BREMEN | Bremen Rescue Radio | Die Seenotretter.

Idea and conceptualization Henrik Nielsen, KL791

For support and additional information please follow our threads on the project on forums.flightsimulator.com, avsim.com, fsdeveloper.com, sim-outhouse.com in English, flightsim.no in Norwegian and Danish, on voovirtual.com in Portuguese, and pilote-virtuel.com in French.

Installation

Before installation please remove all old versions of Global AI Ship Traffic / GAIST.

To install please unzip and drop the included files in your Community folder. You must as a minimum have the folder GAIST Ultra, which contains all ships, and one route package installed, but you can choose to have one or several route packages installed depending on where you fly. Ensure your traffic settings for Ships and Ferries are 5-10% to avoid conflicts with other AI ship traffic including default.

The route packages are

• Gaist-Africa-Routes – including routes covering Africa's East and West Coast
• Gaist-Mediterranean-Routes - including routes covering the Mediterranean Sea, the North Coast of Africa, and the Black Sea
• Gaist-Euwest-Routes - including routes covering Western Europe from Gibraltar to Arkhangelsk
• Gaist-IndianOcean-Routes - including routes covering from Suez Channel through the Red Sea and over the Arabian Gulf to India's East Coast
• Gaist-Asia-Routes - including routes covering East Asian waters from Malacca Strait to Japan
• Gaist-Latam-Routes - including routes covering Latin American coasts
• Gaist-NorthAmericaCaribbean-Routes - including routes covering the Caribbean Sea, Mexican Gulf, and US and Canadian East and West Coast
• Gaist-AustraliaOceania-Routes - including routes covering Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania

Some longer routes pass from one region to another so you might see more traffic by having neighboring packages installed.

Once again, make sure to remove old versions of Global AI Ship Traffic before installing.

Known issues

• Models do not have hard decks - they will be reintroduced later.
• Effects will display best with ground wind setting between 5 - 15 knots. Below this wind speed not much to see, above they might look exaggerated.
• The MSFS engine is simple and not very stable; ships will sometimes be unstable or make strange movements if they meet other objects.
• Not all ships appear in harbor areas with heavy scenery; some prioritization by the sim engine can prevent some ships from showing.
• The project includes more than 15.000 textures and almost 900 model files, we do expect some glitches - if you find something really disturbing, please send me a PM here or comment on forums.flightsimulator.com.

Please notice that some models are intentionally not linked to routes at the moment but they will be needed once we launch a Real-Time Version of the traffic.

Models in Global AI Ship Traffic are the result of a long-time collaboration between a group of friends and developers. Please respect copyrights. Models are copyright of Henrik Nielsen, Erwin Welker, Jean-Pierre Fillion, Knud Kristoffersen, Martin Rueedi, Larry Robinson, Dexter, Milton Shupe, Manfred Siedler, Bernardo Barroso, Paul Donnelly, Finn Kristoffer, Didier ‘‘Lagaffe’’ Puentes, Andrew Thomsen, Kevair, Robystar, Antonio Diaz, Sebastien Viale, Alberto Garcia, Cxema, Pascal Dumat, Rick Keller, Lazarus Starkweather, Dave Garwood, Darren Lane, Jan de Jong and more.

Referencing models in other projects or any other use or sharing of the models included in Global AI Ship Traffic / GAIST can only happen after a written permit by the respective copyright holders for the individual models.

About the Developer: Henrik Nielsen

This mod was developed by Henrik Nielsen.

Henrik Nielsen has been developing AI boat, ship, and seacraft vehicles for Microsoft Flight Simulator since the early days of FSX/P3D.  His projects have been running for over a decade and have included support from many developers he has been in contact with over the years.  He has recently re-created his AI Ship/Boat traffic add-on for compatibility with the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020 release.

If you like Henrik's mods, please do consider donating to his projects so he can continue to provide the freeware you enjoy in your sim.

Donate

The developer of this mod/add-on (Henrik Nielsen) has worked hard in order to produce this freeware creation. If you enjoy and make use of this release, why not donate to the developer to help support their projects?

Adam McEnroe

Adam McEnroe is a flight sim enthusiast who has been simming since the days of FS95. Adam writes all of the download section editorials after testing each of the files. Adam has extensive knowledge using various flight simulator packages and thoroughly tests the files before writing about them. Adam also like to fly real-world aircraft in his spare time and is training for his PPL.

Should you wish, you can contact Adam via email at adam@flyawaysimulation.com.

Leave a comment