Hello colleagues,
What do you think of MSFS2020 as a yacht simulation platform?
1 Like
not sure about the “simulation” part in that suggestion but there were watergoing vehicles in FSX/P3D and small niche market of addon water vessels like yachts and cutters. Wouldn’t be surprised to see them make their way into MSFS…
1 Like
I’m sure some 3rd party developer will do something like that
It might be in the same ballpark as my wish for UAS quadcopter simulation, e.g., DJI drones. I don’t think the data for the world used in FS 2020 supports the ground-level detail you’d need for realistic real-world detail looking out horizontally. Given the way unique monuments have been altered as they’re seen from the air in FS 2020 vs. real life, e.g., Buckingham Palace, I wonder what the chances are that you could sail into any port anywhere in the world and it would look at all like you’d get in real life. Also, isn’t most of the world underwater not that accurately mapped? So if the goal is to be able to sail realistically anywhere in the world, the sailing version of the sim might have a hard time coming up with accurate depths, especially near land where it matters most. I’m not a sailor but I’m just wondering about the difficulty of capturing sailing realism for the WHOLE world, which is the ambition of FS 2020 as a flight simulator for flying.
There are sims out there providing this already. The quality of coastal scenery is debatable though.
Accurate depths seem to be no problem actually. Data from coastal waters near land, where it only matters, seems to be readily available.
On water depths, I was thinking of the Italian cruise shipwreck of the Costa Concordia in 2012, where I remember, perhaps incorrectly, that the water depth charts were a mishmash of various dates, some of them relatively ancient (decades old) and relatively unreliable - and that was in the Mediterranean, which one would think would be one of the best charted waters in the world! Obviously, there were other problems there besides accurately knowing the water depth but it’s my perhaps incorrect remembrance that besides the captain’s arrogance of performing a “sail-by-salute” at night and sailing dangerously close to shore (and turning off the navigation safety system), the existence of the rock that he struck was not accurately shown on the depth chart (which did not keep him out of prison for his navigational dereliction or subsequent behavior in abandoning ship before most of the passengers!).
Edit_Update: Looking up old news accounts the “uncharted rock” was the Captain’s excuse early on for the accident, neglecting to say that he had turned off the navigation safety systems in order to sail close to the shore and veer off his official course.