New Screenshots of SS5 on Stentec Site

[Jeroen Schlaman]

We will enhance the weather-model for SS5. Fog and cloud-layers will be added, and we're planning to add some other types (rain, etc.).

We also made a big improvement on the sun and moon model. The appearance and direction of the sun and the moon will be the same as in realtime anywhere on the earth. Also the moon has realistic phases, depending on the direction of the sun.
The ingame-lighting will be adjusted onto the amount of light the sun and/or moon are giving (even at night).
A nice sunset and sunrise can be seen during sailing now!

Our plan is also to include stars and show them on the exact position and angle anywhere on earth.

We're on low-activity next week due to christmas holidays indeed.

[yachtie2k4]

hey jeroen,
i just looked at the screenshots and vid's today, the graphics are looking insane, i hope the waves that are in the video are not going to be the actual waves in the game as they are not realistic.
cheers
rob

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Rob,

Thanks!
The wavefield will surely be optimized coming months. It's heavily under development yet, especially the visual aspect of it.

[yachtie2k4]

hey jeroen,
will it be possible for us to set our own waves or will the waves be linked to the wind? i hope we will have realistic waves, and maybe waves that break on reefs and the shore.
with the crew, when we create our own boats, will we be able to make proper dinghies and have crew on board or will it be like VSK5 where the only boats that have crew are those that come with the game? have you guys decided on what boats are being included in the game?
cheers
rob

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Rob,

As in SS4 you will still be able to set your own waves. For a maximum of 4 waves you can set height, length and direction of each individual wave. When waves set to automatic, they will be linked to the wind.
Our goal is that you can create your own ships including crew.
Which boats will be included with the first release is not 100% determined yet, we're working on that..

[Barry]

to Stentec.....

To clarify the position for myself will SS5 be suitable for creating sceneries for the "true age of sail".
Not galleons or large square rig boats but smaller MOVING gaff rig or similar small coastal vessels, user made or whatever.

Most importantly will there be a function to allow other moving boats, of gaff rig or similar format. These could have simplified functions as even a headsail raised would be enough as artificial intelligence. One single moving boat on empty coastal seas or rivers has no realism.

So far it just seems to be navigation and racing orientated from what I have read in the logs?

Thanks

Barry

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Barry,

We intend to implement something like boat-traffic. Other boats moving around in the sceneries. How this will be controlled and how advanced the AI will be, is something which is not 100% clear right now.
I can't give you all details about how the exact shipmodel will be (multiple masts, multiple sails per mast, etc.). At this moment we support multiple hulls, one mast per hull, one sail per mast (mainsail), jib, spinnaker and genaker.

[Barry]

Thanks Jeroen.. but hope the background boat "traffic" could also be made suitable for an era of a century or 2 ago. Just the function for gaff rig, or similar would do, as there is a basic gaff-rig very small boat in the 4.2 sailsimulator the "Optimist" but very basic.

mainsail gaff rig and jib would suit me fine, but...a a brigantine would be interesting and sailing barges and............

I don't think bermudan rig would quite be suitable though for my era of interest.

Would be nice to bring the coastlines and rivers to life circa 1800.

Barry

[yachtie2k4]

hey jeroen,
is there any chance we could have sails that changed colours depending on the veiw we are looking at? will there be proper shadows and stuff like that?
cheers
rob

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Rob,

What do you mean with changed colours depending on the view?
The lighting of the sails depends on the direction of the sun. When the sun is behind the sail, it will 'light-up'. This so called translucency can be changed, so thicker sails are less translucent then thinner sails.

Shadows is certainly an important issue for us and will be implemented. Whether this will be present in the first release isn't sure yet. If it's not being part in the first release, it will definitely be part of an update.

[yachtie2k4]

well, like harlequin colours. so if you look at it from one side it might be like purple, but from another view they will be red.
will there be reefs for waves to break over, and will the waves break onshore as well? i am guessing the wind and wind gusts will be more realistic? also will there be lulls in the winds when you're behind islands?
have you chosen what sceneries are going to be included yet. would love to see Cowes and out to fastnet rock.
any chance we are going to have some more high performance dinghies?
cheers
rob

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Rob,

The wind will be more realistic, because we are going to use GRIB file support. Therefore realtime wind can be generated for any place on earth.

We will include a so called world-scenery. This includes the whole world in a simple DEM-like terrain with simple texturing. So you can sail around the world from let's say Holland to Australia and sail along coastlines and open seas.
This world-scenery can be filled with detail by us or every other user (with the scenery designer - release unknown yet). You can pick a certain block of terrain (several km's square big) and edit this to your needs. After creating you can share it with every other SS5 user.

[Barry]

Hello Rob,

The wind will be more realistic, because we are going to use GRIB file support. Therefore realtime wind can be generated for any place on earth.

We will include a so called world-scenery. This includes the whole world in a simple DEM-like terrain with simple texturing. So you can sail around the world from let's say Holland to Australia and sail along coastlines and open seas.
This world-scenery can be filled with detail by us or every other user (with the scenery designer - release unknown yet). You can pick a certain block of terrain (several km's square big) and edit this to your needs. After creating you can share it with every other SS5 user.

--------------------------------

Hello Jeroen

With few details given about the scenery designer from the description it may be too basic for my interests.
Unless the basic satellite srtm2 data can be adjusted to open up the small bays, inlets, rivers, etc it would loose much realism.
An example in the river Conway scenery I made and the river Mersey upper reaches. The basic dem srtm2 data (or similar) requires terrain to be adjusted with some sort of dem editor as in the current SS4.2 and in the motorboat simulator.

The same applies to low lying islands, etc. These need to be manually adjusted to show up as not visible with srtm2 data.

Will the satellite data have to be downloaded first using broadband if high resoloution, as still using dial up connection which is OK for srtm2 as file size is fairly small for up to about 40 miles area?

Is so again no use for me as not ready to change over to it yet, plus new computer would then need wireless card etc.

Incidentally will SS5 be available on disc from my usual UK Stentec supplier, as with SS4.2 and motorboat simulator.

Will it include the relevant satellite world maps on DVD, etc to avoid having to download them?

Do you know what quarter of 2008 it might be available as seems to have been deferred for a "few years" so far since first mentioned, and interest on these forums has waned over the years?


Thanks

Barry

[Jeroen Schlaman]

Hello Barry,

The world-scenery will be delivered together with SS5 (so on DVD). Terrains can be adjusted with the Scenery Designer, so heights and coasts can be customized in any way.
Things not being part of the world-scenery (such as island), can be added later using the Scenery Designer.

We want to give the new SS5 a real boost, so it's techniques can meet current standards and it's ready for any future-releases. This takes some more time then expected. Nevertheless we are working very hard on SS5 from the beginning of 2007.

[Barry]

Hello Jeroen and sounds interesting and a big improvement on 4.2 sailsim scenery designer.

I look forward to trying it out when it "eventually", becomes available.


For now I think it is time for me to stop posting at least until the forum "spam" situation changes, and until people start posting again as of a few years ago

Thanks

Barry