Exploration Yacht SACHA for Vehicle Simulator

Exploration Yacht SACHA for Vehicle Simulator

README for Exploration Yacht SACHA V1.0 model and its sailable inflatable motorboat by DVOMarineDesign for Vehicle Simulator. January 16th, 2011.

http://www.dvomarinedesign.com

This is a model of an imaginary exploration yacht for confortably sailing in many parts of the World, especially remote areas.

The package contains two models, the exploration yacht and the inflatable motorboat.

Features:

- Fully detailed 3D model

- Fully functional bridge

- Many custom made instruments and sounds

- Advanced graphics and visual realism

- Realistic dynamic behaviour

- Complete bump mapping and reflection effects

- Separate sailable inflatable "Zodiac" motorboat

- Several in-game animations.

Main characteristics:

The Exploration Yacht SACHA:

Displacement: 500tons

L.o.a.: 55.66m -182.5ft

L.b.p.: 52.55m - 172.3ft

Beam: 10.49m - 34.3ft

Draught: 3.05m - 10ft

Speed: 18.1kts

Power: 2300hp

14 passengers including the owner

9 crew members including the captain.

The maximal speed of 18.1kts is obtained after 1 minute and 18 seconds at full thottle.

The vessel needs 4 minutes and 50s to go from 18.1kts to 5kts when stopping the engines.

In case of emergency "crash stop" (full reverse engines), the vessel needs 27 seconds to go from 18.1kts to 0kt.

The inflatable motorboat:

Weight: 285kg

L.o.a.: 4m - 13.1ft

Beam: 2m - 6.6ft

Draught: 0.18m - 0.59ft

Speed: 31kts

Power: 40hp

Between 500 and 600 hours have been necessary for designing and completing this addon.

I hope you'll enjoy sailing aboard her.

My philosophy about modeling addons for a simulator is realism before all. I want to feel like I'm aboard a ship when virtually sailing a ship. That needs a lot of work in term of design of the ship herself, in term of graphic realism and in term of behaviour into the simulator. Of course any simulation software has its own limitations but the hunt for realism needs to use many features offered by the simulator and to work out several new solutions, in order to be as closer as possible to this objective.

I want metal to look like metal, wood to look like wood and same thing for leather, rubber, plastic, fabrics, peeling paint, rust...etc... to actually feel that sensation to be aboard. When I'm in a virtual ship and thanks now to technic like bump mapping and reflection, I want to feel the need to actually touch the materials, to put my hand on a varnished wooden table or to stroke a cushion or a sofa, I want to feel the need to wipe droplets or salt strains from a window and so on.

In term of behaviour and sounds, I want to feel the lenghty motion of the ocean under my feet and to have realistic speed and accelerations characteristics.

All of that needs some thinking, several trials and a lot of time.

That needs a decent hardware as well, please read and be sure to be fully aware of the minimal requirements below before acquiring the model.

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-----PAYWARE:-----

This model is proposed as a payware. That means, if, by looking at the various in-game screenshots or if you already have used my previous models, you

value the hard and long work involved and if you think it is worth a few bucks, you have to purchase it in order to be able to download and use it in Vehicle Simulator. More, purchasing this addon will allow me to develop other models for Vehicle Simulator and its future updates. Developing serious models is really a long task and a real commitment once one is started. Doing so on a regular basis necessitates some financial motivation and support, with no other choice than providing a minimal decent income to the author.

Please note, you can make an additional donation at any time after the download by using the Donation button on our website , for any of my models.

A purchase with the mentioned amount will allow you to download the ship for an unlimited time, for your own computer only. But you MUST keep all the necessary codes and passwords the author may provide you the first time you download for that. Any datas loss regarding that will no longer allow you to download again later.

With one purchase, you can install it on as many personal computers you have at home. If you need to install it in other places for allowing other persons to use it, you must purchase as many models as computers you want to install it on.

Please notice, every download (first time or later times) will only be done after the author will personally contact you by email (usually within 24hrs). For downloading again the addon, you must contact the author by email with your original invoice received immediately after you first purchase it.

If you use and enjoy a lot the addon and you'd like to reward the author for that, you can make an additional donation by clicking on the link below or by copying and pasting the address in your browser:

http://www.dvomarinedesign.com/donation.htm

DO ENTER A CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS, in order to allow the author to contact you for sending due thanks.

Thank you a lot for your generosity and support.

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-----WARNING:----- ------COPYRIGHTS NOTICE:------

This MODEL AND ALL FILES contained in the archive are the sole property of Dominique Vaccaro, www.dvomarinedesign.com .

By unzipping this archive, you accept to not host the files of the models contained into the archive on any other server than the author's one, to NOT DISTRIBUTE THEM IN ANY WAY (email, private message, disk, hardware, software material...), to not sell them, to not modify, TO NOT USE ANY CONTENT or file(s) included (models, xx files, cfg files, wav sound file and all bmp or jpg textures) into this packages for another model, for another purpose than a use into the sole program Vehicle Simulator or for another person or application or commercial entity, with no limitation of time. BY DOWNLOADING OR INSTALLING THESE FILES, YOU ONLY OBTAIN THE RIGHT TO USE THEM ON YOUR PERSONNAL COMPUTER BUT YOU DON'T OWN THEM. THE USE OF SCREENSHOTS MADE FROM THESE MODELS IS NOT ALLOWED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE THAN SHOWING THEM INTO VEHICLE SIMULATOR SIMULATION RELATED WEBSITES OR FORUMS. ANY OTHER USE SUCH AS PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL, 3D OR IMAGE PRESENTATIONS, RAISE OF FOUNDS, CALENDARS, SEARCH FOR INVESTORS OR POLITIC INVOLVEMENT, ETC, MUST BE DONE VIA ANOTHER SALE CONTRACT BETWEEN THE USER AND DVOMARINEDESIGN (Dominique Vaccaro) AND WITH PRIOR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION FROM DVOMARINEDESIGN OR THE AUTHOR OF THE MODEL, Dominique Vaccaro.

You can run and use these models in unrestricted circonstances, off-line or during on-line sessions or meetings, as long as you do not redistribute them and do not request payment for using them.

In case you use screenshots in simulations websites or forums, you needn't a prior authorization BUT YOU MUST ADD "Model from www.dvomarinedesign.com", excepted if they're posted into the official Hangsim.com Vehicle Simulator forum, where you do not need to add this mention.

ANY INFRINGEMENT TO THESE TERMS WILL LEAD TO LEGAL ACTION.

The author will not be held responsible for any damage done to your computer or programs installed. By installing these add-ons, you fully agree with that term. However, in case of freezing or automatic restart of your computer, this is not the addons themselves which has been fully tested that will harm your computer but the unappropriated action you may do immediately after.

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-----Minimal hardware and software requirements:-----

2,8 GHz Dual Core processor or E6750 serie

2Go Ram, (or 4G0 with Windows Vista)

GeForce 8800GT graphic card with 1Go graphic memory,

Microsoft Windows XP,

Vehicle Simulator 2.24 or above.

-----Recommended hardware and software requirements:-----

3,0 GHz Dual Core processor or E8400 serie,

4Go Ram,

GeForce 9800GTX or better graphic card with 1Go graphic memory,

Microsoft Windows XP,

Vehicle Simulator 2.24 or above.

Please, do consider keeping your computer clean and optimized as far as defragmentation, latest drivers installed, no program running in the background and memory use are concerned. That really can have a BIG influence on performances.

ALTHOUGH THIS MODEL MAY BE ABLE TO ACCEPTABLY RUN ON INFERIOR MACHINES, PLEASE, BE AWARE OF THESE RECOMMENDED MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS BEFORE MAKING YOUR DONATION AND DOWNLOADING THE FILEnS. LESSER HARDWARE CONFIGURATION MAY BE ABLE TO RUN THESE MODELS IN AN ACCEPTABLE WAY (like it has been done by several beta testers, with a E6600 cpu and a GeForce 7950Gt 512Mo for instance), BUT YOU DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

THERE WILL BE NO REIMBURSEMENT, for whatever reason.

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-----Utilization:-----

To install the exploration yacht and its separate inflatable motorboat, simply unzip the 2 models directories (Sacha & Sacha_zodiac) of the archive into your "vehicles" directory of your Vehicle Simulator game.

To enhance realism when using these models in Vehicle Simulator or to make their use easier, I'd recommend the following in-game settings:

Vehicle options:

- Vehicle Shadow on (you can always switch them off for better fps, you'll then still retain the reflection and bump mapping effects)

- Vehicle Shaders on

- Wide FOV on

- See Panel Outside on

- Dampen Rotations on

- Full Color on

- Positive throttle on

- Simple Mesh off

Land options:

- Mip Mapping on

- Dense Textures on

Water settings (those are recommendations but mainly suggestions for preverving a good realism/performance balance):

- Water Surface on "Shaded" (you can use "Reflect" settings but, unless you're in a some clean sheltered waters like fjords, some bays or lagoons or harbors, "shaded" is more realistic once at sea. As for "Refract", unless you're in a sunny lagoon, this setting, though very eye-candy, is completely unrealistic 99% of the times).

- Show Waves on (obviously!)

Suggested water colors balance:

- Water Red = 14

- Water Green = 40

- Water Blue = 67

- Wave Swelling = 50% (for high seas or non sheltered waters, less in ssheltered waters)

- Water Bump = 70% (for high seas or non sheltered waters, less in ssheltered waters)

- Brightness = 50% (or more if you use the "Reflect" setting in sheltered waters)

Atmospheric settings:

- Atmospheric Glow on

- Layered Fog on

- Wind Gusts on

Video properties:

- Use 24 bits depth buffer on

- Render inside window on

Functioning:

- Loading into the game is almost immediate, depending on your system. Do not switch off your computer during this process.

- To enlighten all portholes and windows + external halos at night, press Crtl A (anim.xx file).

- To open the main entrance doors at the stern, press Crtl D (or use your mouse in a vertical movement onto the object).

- To open the plexi-glass covers of the bridge wings docking stations and to switch on the instruments there, press Crtl S (or use your mouse in a vertical movement onto the object).

- To open the charts drawer under the charts table in to the bridge, press Crtl C (or use your mouse in a vertical movement onto the object).

- To switch on the engines/generators, energy and fuel tanks diagram as well as the communications & watertight stern doors diagram on the bridge, press E (engines main switch).

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-----Known issues:-----

- Sometimes, the halos of the lamps remain about 15cms below the lamps on ceilings instead of touching them when using the animation Crtl A. A reload of the ship (via the remove and then add commands within the vehicles tab) usually solves that problem.

- In some lighting circumstances, when the sun is tangential to the bridge's windows (so when it's between about 11am and 13.30pm, depending on the period of the year and your location), these bridge's windows are almost opaque. To solve that problem, go in the effects.cfg file and just replace "b2-vitres" by "no-sun" or whatever else that is different from the other entries. You'll then lose the reflection and bump mapping effect of the bridge's windows seen from the inside, but you'll be able to see through these windows in all circumstances.

- Some small gaps or disjointed parts, visible from close distance and under certain angles only (due to some deformations induced by the polygon number optimization process).

- Some users with Nvidia GTX 460/470 or 560/570/580 serie graphic cards may experience very low frame rate. Please do use the latest Nvidia 295.51 drivers, that solves it.

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If and only if you accept ALL the above terms, you can purchase the addon via our online shop at www.dvomarinedesign.com/shop/

Again, thank you for your support and generosity and Happy sailing!

Dominique Vaccaro (Dom)

http://www.dvomarinedesign.com