Hre is my take. Since SU5 with aircraft that usde mdl, the cvt only creates new texture files not model files, and that might be partly behind the issues. With the global ship model, I am not sure, since i already have the ship cvt file from before but the CTD don’t happen, so all is good.
There is a FPS drop when traffic is on, i dont see a difference with ships or not. The suttering is the same as before, shortly when encountering new ships. Overall, I think the ship mod is working, but one has to test how it will work with the new ships, if it will create new CVT’s files precisely. I would be happy to test
i suspect performance will improve when ASOBO fixes the MDL issue because atm the only issue affecting ships is sometimes the mod draws some of them and throws them into airports. It creates Frankenstein aircraft too. But that is an ASOBO issue. Not a mod issue. Mod works fine.
This is what i have observed with a fresh install of the shipping mod
Started from Lydd and started flying towards Dover. Within a couple of mins i got the massive stutters. Checked the CVT folder and saw it had converted 16 ships in one go. 90 seconds later another 10 ships in one go. In my visible range I could see one ship.
I have no clue how it worked previously to SU5, but i never got any stutter and i don’t recall ever seeing such big batches of boats being converted at the same time, but i could be wrong.
ok, hmm, that might be the issie. Model should also be created. since update su5 only texture has been. Still works though but might account for the fps drop because that might mean each time you encounter them it is gonna be as if 1st time, except for the old ones in your old cvt file you already created cvt model foles for. ASOBO needs to fx this.
Still better than fsx aircraft, that causes CTD. The ships don’t atleast. hnielsen needs to get to his pc to see how the lack of model cvt will affect his new models and stuff. Ironically his lake ships probably have cvts already.
Yup. I’m out of my depth with this one No idea whats going on.
Going to remove it again for the time being. Happy to put it back to test any specific situations if required… i want to see this working again. Miss those beautiful ships!
I meant that if you are not in an area near waterways where ships would be (such as in the middle of a continent) then the problem does not arise, presumably because the add-on has no objects to generate in that area. My specs are i5-9600k, 32GB RAM, RTX 3080, 1TB nvme SSD just for FS2020. I run mostly high settings, a few med, a few ultra, boat traffic set to 80. The problem could not be experienced before SU5 because the Flight Assistant feature did not exist before SU5.
Although it’s not perfect, it works fairly well. However, it conflicts with the ship traffic mod in some way. With both installed I noticed ships with aircraft textures sitting on the apron at JFK. The problem doesn’t exhibit itself when either of the mods are installed by themselves.
I’ve been flying with the Global Ship mod for about a week, and am a bit confused. I have flown the same route numerous times, and get stutters at the same point each time on the route. It was my understanding that once a ship was converted, I wouldn’t see these stutters & freezes. I have right now, 143 folders under the CVT folder, each of which contain one or more TEXTURE folders. It would seem that each time I fly over this route, I sometimes get a new TEXTURE folder somewhere, as the main folder count under CVT hasn’t increased, although there are now 432 TEXTURE folders embedded in those 143 folders.
Apparently (I guess), one or more ships are being converted each time I fly this route, although upon encountering a stutter or freeze, looking around in the water, I generally see nothing below me.
I now see from a prior post that I should be expecting model folders or files also… is that correct?
Hi all, can confirm everything working OK here. I have both folders from pre-SU5 linked via Add-ons Linker and the Channel was busy this morning with no stutters or loading freezes. Was tracking with Little Nav Map and only other mods running were BlackBox’s Bird Dog, FS Kneeboard and Bijan’s seasons pack.
Unfortunately it is not limited to Easy Airlines; It can be provoked by other AI or simobjects in Community folder - and it goes between all simobjects. It seems like the AI engine just randomly picks models and textures. I start to miss FSX…
Potentially you see a new ship at that same place every time; the routes are programmed often on a weekly basis with up to 54 ships passing the same point during the course of a week, so that should correspond with the creation of new folders everytime you fly. Regards to your second question:
I need to return home - arriving tomorrow - to see. I don’t have MSFS on my laptop.
Ok… I can understand that a different ship may be tracking that same route at another time that I pass over it, but shouldn’t I be able to see the ship when it is created?
It’s ok if you wait to answer until you return home.
well better than nothing, still my FSX/LEGACY mod was better because had 100 models as oppose to 53 models and much more liveries.
In anycase had to delete it beecause, just like the mod you are using, it uses MDL files. MDL files are causing crashes to desk top for many(most) users. The mod you linked uses mdl files so it will cause problems for many(most) users.
No, it doesn’t conflict with the ship mod, actually. What you are seeing is the texture rendering problem since sim update 5 where the sim randomly mix and matches different sim objects with mdl model files from the community folder. Since your mod linked above, as well as ship mod, as well as my fsx mod uses mdl mod, we will have there random texture rendering issues. To say it is a conflict is an overstatement since the sim would be messing upthe textures regardless if you had both installed or not. For example, those of us with just the fsx mods are getting Frankenstein looking aircraft sometimes randomly.
But ASOBO needs to fix that. Nothing the devs can do. Personally I think it has to do with how since SU5 the cvt folders are not writing cvt model files.
Mine has started conversions all over again, so Im getting stutters with each “new” boat.
That’s fine, and I usually try boat spotting for this reason.
That being said, this time it doesnt seem to update the same folder and files in the CVT location in the Community folder, but this time creates new folders and files in the app data roaming $PC$ folder. Is that normal?
Definitely a problem since SU5. I cleared out everything from the Community folder, including all CVT files from AI ships and other addons, then re-installed Global AI Ship Traffic. No other mods installed.
Masobo San still creates some Frankenstein ships. Not all are ships are affected though. Seems random.
The ones that are messed up are rendered with a mixture of correct ships parts and various bits from airport taxiways, aircraft, flags, equipment etc.
Occasional screen freezes when first approaching some ships, but not all ships.
After a trip over the Atlantic looking down to see if there were any ships in the real world I am now back with MSFS updated to SU5…
Just to make clear the basic assumption for the below - I uninstalled all add-ons before updating to SU5 and then reinstalled Global AI Ship Traffic and my own native AI Ship Test package. I run a high gaming computer with high or ultra graphic settings
Below first the observations regards to the Global AI Ship Traffic with non native ships carried over from P3D/FSX
Let’s start with the positive…
Loading time did not seem to change after installing Global AI Ship Traffic, neither compared to without Global AI Ship Traffic, nor compared to situation before SU5
No CTD occurred in or after any test flights - OBSERVE - no other add-ons installed at this point, but at least Global AI Ship Traffic alone did in none of the places tested cause CTD
Most ships appear completely normal, radars working, night textures showing
Frame rates and stutters not displaying any issues in most flights - also first flight - except in one test area where a sudden drop almost to freeze was experienced during 5-6 seconds after which all returned to normal
In one area with high density of ships - Rio de Janeiro - considerably less ships were displayed compared to previously and compared to what was displayed in LittleNavMap. This issue also existed before SU5, but it seems aggravated, though I need to have more time in order to confirm. For most users this wouldn’t mean anything for normal flight, but if you go hunting for specific ships it is annoying.
The stutters mentioned above occurred exactly in the area - Rio de Janeiro - where some ships did not display. One could think that the concentration of models to display was simply too high…Now, if some on a lower spec computer experience the same it could go worse than just stutters - if someone would help taking a flight from Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont towards the South along Copacabana and Ipanema and report it would be a help. Time of the day doesn’t matter - there should always be a lot of ships. Preferably compare what you see with LittleNavMap.
Now the most annoying on my system…
Somewhere between 5 and 20% of the ships depending on the flight shows up with wrong textures - I think the observation from @AviatorDown8227 regards to the model file itself being corrupt is most likely an optical illusion due to the textures - I had problems recognizing one of my own ships but on further inspection it was all good except the textures coming from other ships. However I will not exclude that is can happen, but with the 100 so models observed so far I did not find any issues.
On this screenshot two of three ships are perfect - the one in the background though has wrong texture.
From what I see the texture swapping occurs between models in the package, as I had nothing else installed, but observations from beta testers point to textures being messed up between all installed AI simobjects including airplanes. It seems like a basic issue in the way the sim engine assigns textures. I have not yet seen it happen with my Native models. Anyone can confirm if Easy Airlines is based on old FSX/P3D models or native models as there is confirmed to be texture swaps with that add-on?
A new CVT folder is created in Community, it does not contain models as before, just textures, where in the past there was also model files
Another folder is created $PC$/ache/packages/community/ however it appears just to contain empty folders
Finally, so far my Native test package displayed exactly as expected However, I need to include more ships to be sure, that the above texture swapping is limited to the models being converted.
I will think about the plan ahead, but think I will stick to the plan presented a few days back but eventually down prioritizing in the first place some elements like lighting and instead get as many models updated as fast as possible to native format.
Ps… apart from in the North Sea I didn’t see any ships from 37.000 flying in the real world, which also why I never bothered to put routes between continents… It just takes space on your disk, performance, and doesn’t really add much for realism for most users…
However, I need to include more ships to be sure, that the above texture swapping is limited to the models being converted.