AIS feed into VSNG?

[GolfTango]

Hi all,

Was wondering if it was possible to feed in AIS data feed into VSNG and associate them with models? So sailing around you would be realtime ships.
This possible? If so please how? If not... can we request as an idea to be added?

Thanks.

[yitianetie]

Hello,

Yes, it could be an interresting feature. You should contact directly Ilan by email as he does not check often the forums. He usually answers quickly to emails.

Kind regard,
Etienne

[GolfTango]

Will do, thanks.

[herlev214]

Did you get a reply form Ilan on this?
Think it is an awesome idea.

[smorris]

Considering the logistics of getting a real-time feed would seem to make this a quagmire since most AIS feeds are based on your current geolocation. This sounds like it would have to be a subscription service to be practical.

[GolfTango]

Sorry for delay guys, been a little occupied this side, I did hear back from him, he asked for some further details on ideas which unfortunately I haven't had the chance to send back yet, I'm in South Africa and we've had a range of disasters lately and was extremely ill too so, will be in touch with him soon. There are free AIS feeds out there so shouldn't require subscription, also abilities to add your own if in the area have been demonstrated elsewhere. Will update soon.

[PapaCharlie]

Is there any update on this subject?
I'd be very interested to see real traffic injected into VSNG

Rgds PC

[Graubart]

Hi all,

what is already possible today is to use Boat Beacon on Adnroid or iPhone. This allows you to focus an area on a world map and it displays AIS-based the boats around the center of this area. This information can then also be streamed to another machine in your local network, which could e.g. house OpenCPN map plotter. There you can also import the AIS stream of your own boat, as exported from VS:NG. This works in real-time, so you get the boats around you at least on your map plotter (I use a second screen for this). This is especially satisfying when using nautically accurate sceneries in VS:NG, as e.g. the great works of Thorben Beimel (Baltic Sea, Norwegian coast).

In theory, the Boat Beacon output would also be a potential input stream for VS:NG, to be combined with a set of generic low-poly AI-boats for the purpose of displaying moving real-time traffic within the sim. However, so far this feature is not implemented.

Also, Boat Beacon does not offer this service for free, it costs around 20 $/year, if I am right. If you want to use high resolution, scalable nautical vector maps within OpenCPN, you also need to purchase them. It is however possible to purchase them without the update services (which means that they are not suitable for real navigation) for a fraction of the price of a real nautical chart. Basic OpenSeaMap charts are available for free.

The combination of Boat Beacon, OpenCPN and VS:NG proves a very powerful combination which allows you to navigate around other traffic, just without seing it within the sim. For this last step, Ilan would need to develop a feature to receive AIS streams and a series of AI-boats needed to be developed. The area limitation of boat beacon would also ensure that the sim (or your PC) do not collapse from loading and displaying 1000s of vessel positions every minute.

[NisseNudel]

Many of us, like me, have access to own NMEA stream from own AIS receivers or local AIS networks and feeding direct into open CPN. So, the possibillity to feed this stream olso to VSNG, would bee a very nice future.
In the first place, even just a simple polygone box or a even a marker in VS would be perfect.
On a second PC screen I have the Open CPN, with al AIS real traffic and my own Ship running.

Regards//Nisse

[GolfTango]

Thanks Graubart, will give that a go soon.

I did email him sometime back but haven't heard back yet. I let him know some ways of doing it (getting ships into the sim from NMEA feed). Hopefully we will see something on this soon?

NisseNudel, yes piping in a feed from even your own AIS feed (ie, SDR radio dongle) would be great, I think I mentioned this too to him. Lets hope.

B

Hi all,

what is already possible today is to use Boat Beacon on Adnroid or iPhone. This allows you to focus an area on a world map and it displays AIS-based the boats around the center of this area. This information can then also be streamed to another machine in your local network, which could e.g. house OpenCPN map plotter. There you can also import the AIS stream of your own boat, as exported from VS:NG. This works in real-time, so you get the boats around you at least on your map plotter (I use a second screen for this). This is especially satisfying when using nautically accurate sceneries in VS:NG, as e.g. the great works of Thorben Beimel (Baltic Sea, Norwegian coast).

In theory, the Boat Beacon output would also be a potential input stream for VS:NG, to be combined with a set of generic low-poly AI-boats for the purpose of displaying moving real-time traffic within the sim. However, so far this feature is not implemented.

Also, Boat Beacon does not offer this service for free, it costs around 20 $/year, if I am right. If you want to use high resolution, scalable nautical vector maps within OpenCPN, you also need to purchase them. It is however possible to purchase them without the update services (which means that they are not suitable for real navigation) for a fraction of the price of a real nautical chart. Basic OpenSeaMap charts are available for free.

The combination of Boat Beacon, OpenCPN and VS:NG proves a very powerful combination which allows you to navigate around other traffic, just without seing it within the sim. For this last step, Ilan would need to develop a feature to receive AIS streams and a series of AI-boats needed to be developed. The area limitation of boat beacon would also ensure that the sim (or your PC) do not collapse from loading and displaying 1000s of vessel positions every minute.