Other sims?

[Taz1969]

Does anyone play any of the ship sims.I have seen a couple in searches.Just wondering if anyone has played any and if so which ones and what are your thoughts.Are they realistic?

[GoldenRivet]

i have not read any really good reviews. that said i have never used them.

based on what i have heard you are limited to port cities out to something like a 30 mile radius. So no traversing expansive oceans to ferry cargo from San Fransisco to Hong Kong.

Also heard there were very limited ports to choose from.

just my .02

[Taz1969]

kinda what im reading too,hmmmm,well just wondering,always up for a good sim ,guess ill have to wait and see what the future brings us

[Graf Paper]

From what I've read in various places, Ship Sim was supposed to be the "Microsoft Flight Simulator" of sailing.

Then again, it took many years for MS to bring Flight Simulator to its current level of detail and realism so there's still a chance Ship Sim can do the same thing eventually.

I do like that there are a good vareity of ships. You can even sail the RMS Titanic and some other famous ships.

Virtual Sailor is one I've only heard of by name.

[3Jane]

There's others

[Sonarman]

Ship Simulator 2008
In my opinion the best attempt yet outside commercial maritime simulators. Ship Simulator 2008 is primarily mission based with lots of different tasks to undertake. Also there is a mission editor and the community has made good use of this to provide lots of freely downloadable content.

Although its true there are only a few areas in Ship sim they are very well modelled and do not really feel too small. What happens now is that you can sail to the end of one area then across a generic "open sea" section and then a new port area is loaded.

I'm glad V-Step has taken a quality over quantity approach although it means a lot less ports they are much more real than the generic ports of say SH4 or Dangerous Waters.

the ports in Ship sim are:

The Solent (Lower Portsmouth, Southampton, Cowes, Ryde Pier)
Marseilles
San Francisco
New York
Hamburg
Rotterdam

Bear in mind that multiplayer has now been introduced and is good fun, particularly when you play a tug assisting large vessels.

In addition various propulsion systems are modelled including pods, hovercraft, waterjet etc

Ports Of Call Deluxe 2008
Last week saw the launch of a new game based on the classic title Ports of Call which some oldies (like me) remember from the Amiga. The new version is now fully in 3d it's a kind of shipping tycoon with a 3d simulator attached that pops up when your ships need to dock/undock or when you need to navigate through icebergs, avoid collisions etc. It's only in German at the moment but the developer has an English version ready to go once he has negotiated a publishing deal. Uniquely the game features a red/green stereo 3d mode (with 3d glasses), should be pretty cool. see more about this title here


Virtual sailor v7
Virtual Sailor is also quite good and has a tremendous variety of community made stuff but the physics in general are poor as is the berthing/manouvering. And being community based the addons vary tremendously in quality.

[Taz1969]

I would like to try Ship sim 2008.It looks pretty cool,i do like the looks of the harbors.I really wish they would let u do some transits and really would like to see canals in the game.I have been threw the Panama Canal many times while in the army and would really like to see someone make this trip come to life in a game like ship sim.So is Ship Sim some what realistic?Do the ships act like a ship?

[Sonarman]

Yes in general the ships in Ship Simulator 2008 feel very realistic, much more so than in the rival "Virtual Sailor" program, but I suspect this is largely because the community who make the ships do not know the correct data to input for proper handling rather than a fault of the program itself. I was less the impressed when my tiny steam tug in Virtual sailor managed to pull a huge supertanker around at 14 knots, also bow thrusters are way too effective and you can pull into dock at 12 knots press the mooring key and immediately come to a dead stop, definitely unrealistic.

Whilst canals are present in Virtual Sailor you have to turn collision detection off to use them which rather spoils the fun!