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I am also doing some testing on this topic. Besides blender GIS, I tried another Add-On for 'blender'. It is called 'BLOSM' (previously known as blender-osm). It also generates Buildings (either from Google Maps/Earth or from OpenStreetMap). There is a free version available and a Premium Version (affordable <20 Dollars).
BLOSM provides terrain image download from different sources.

For some reason in the paid version it is not not possible to get tile data from Google for users in Europe. (This is probably a political issue.) I wonder if this restriction also applies to the UK.

In addition to that there is another Open-Source software available called 'QGIS'. It provides also Sattelite Images from different sources (such as: Google, Microsoft Bing, OpenStreetMap and Mapzen) for heightmaps. This looks promising to me.

So far, I did not figure out all options ... since there are so many!

Hello James,

many thanks for considering this idea!

I'm not able to estimate, how much effort it takes to implement this. For me, it would be sufficient to be able to edit it in boat.ini and split the scenario. But your proposal would be an extraordinary improvement, compared to work with different models and different scenarios.

But if you have an idea how to modify settings stored in boat.ini during runtime, it would also be helpful to modify the name of the ships model e.g. as for sailing vessels, which look different depending on wind direction.

All these are just a 'nice to have'.

Thanks!

Just found out that a direct export from blender software works as well. Colours are also rendered in BC.The Directory in Othership then only needs the *.obj and *.mtl file and the boat.ini. Name of the *obj file is used in the ini file.
In blender I modeled the ship so that it sails in y-axis and the top is in z-direction. When exporting from blender to Wavefront set the Forward Axis to z and the Up Axis to y. This is done in the Export Dialog (upper left corner). If the model is already scaled in blender the *ini file looks like this:

FileName="my_model.obj"
ScaleFactor=1
YCorrection=0
AngleCorrection=0

Depth=3.4

I am working on scenarios to explain COLREG rules. Is there any way to add day signals to the ship model without touching the 3d model itself? I'm looking for a way to add e.g a black ball for a vessel at anchor or a cone or hour glass for a fishing vessel?

I converted models created in blender successfully to 3ds. There is a free software available that includes other converters. The software is called WINGS3D. So I was able to export e.g. wavefront *.obj files from blender, open them in WINGS3D and then export them to *.3ds. They work fine in BridgeCommand. WINGS3D also contains an export tool to *.x, which I never tried. WINGS3D is available for WIN, Linux and MAC. 

Is there any possibility to add a flashing light to an othership which is MOVING?
I tried to add 'Sequence(4)="LLDDLLDDDDD"' but this does not work.
Any ideas?

Hi everybody,

so far I did not manage to create a real world model for Bridge Command. But I understand that a heightmap file is required.
I found a service on GitHub where you can get heightmaps from the entire world:

https://tangrams.github.io/heightmapper/

On Github there are also some Python libraries that allow to get the areas by script. I tested it by taking a screenshot from the web browser output for some islands. I was able to visualize it in a GIS renderer called "Geomorph" (Freeware). The results look quite promising.

I thought I should share this here.    (What is the English translation of  "Klugscheißer"  )

Best regards
bona

Hello everybody,

I am new to this forum.
Thanks for creating this great simulator and sharing it. 

I played with it a little bit and want to use it for radar practice.

What I was missing so far is a model of a sailyacht as own ship. So I designed one using a CAD system. From there I can export VRML2 or STL and import it into Blender. First I started to design a model in 1:100 scale ... which looks tiny in Blender software. So I scaled it in the CAD system. But then the output of the VRML is huge. 50 MB instead of 4 MB. I know that huge models will be a problem for BC rendering engine ... so they are for Blender. So I try to keep the model small.

Maybe someone can give me recommendations on the following questions:

1 - I cut off the underwater geometry of my model. Do I need this for simulation?
2 - What is the best strategy to create own models? Create a small one and scale in boat.ini of BC or design real scale first?
3 - Any suggestions to easy add colours and textures to the model. (mostly I am using Linux ... I have Blender installed ... which is not easy to learn).
4 - From what file I can convert the model into the DirectX models that are used by Bridge Command. I've read that there Plug-Ins for Blender available. Is there any other way?

Thanks in advance!!!

Ralf