Daisy Yacht by Deltasim Studio

By Bill Stack
11 April 2009

The Need

Would you believe that not all flight simmers want to simulate flight? Some want to do very unrealistic things with their simulators, such as "driving" a Cessna 150 down highways and piloting a float plane like a boat on waterways. So the notion of a simulatable yacht for Microsoft Flight Simulator® piqued my curiosity.


Deltasim's Daisy Yacht

The Answer

Deltasim Studios produces several marine craft such as sailing ships and boats, speed boats, naval vessels, and a United States Coast Guard cutter.

Its Daisy Yacht is a 96-foot motor yacht with animated parts. It has a virtual cockpit with panel, gauges, and switches in full 3D. The boat has full interior with furniture and marine equipment.

To start a simulation with the Daisy Yacht, Deltasim instructs simmers to land an amphibious aircraft in water, stop and turn off the engines, change the airplane to the boat, and create a "flight" with this craft from this position. You could also start a flight at any airport near water, such as LaGuardia in New York, Logan in Boston, and City in London, then slew the boat into the water.


Deltasim's Daisy Yacht Details

Major Features

The Daisy Yacht looks like a boat inside and out from all angles.

It has the following moving parts: rudder, throttle, gauges, switches, door, hatches, flags, crane with pontoon, windshield wipers, and radar antenna. It also has the following controllable parts: crane with pontoon, wipers, speed, reverse engine, turns, leans, and lights.

Most of its instruments were made specifically for marine navigation.

It has its own sound set.

One model is offered in three color schemes.


Deltasim's Daisy Yacht Cabin

Nice Features

Deltasim's Daisy Yacht is very easy to install. All files are deposited into the correct folders, and all three versions appear in the aircraft-selection menu.

Detail is extraordinary. Marine vessels have many more exterior objects than aircraft because aerodynamics are not such a concern. The Daisy Yacht has ladders, railings, antenna, and numerous other items that are normally found on private marine vessels. Its cabin is impressive.

The marine gauges on the instrument panel are appropriate and realistic.

Having been a motorboat and sailboat mariner on the open seas and inland rivers in my younger years, I can attest that the Daisy Yacht handles like a 96-foot boat. It moves slowly (compared to an aircraft) and requires a large turning radius. It accelerates slowly and decelerates quickly because it's pushing water. It moves rather fast for a 96-foot boat; I got its top speed to 34 knots.

Night lighting is realistic and impressive.

The bow and stern wakes are realistic within the simulator's limits.

The documentation shows how to install the craft and select it from the aircraft menu thereafter. It also explain keyboard commands for controlling the craft and working the boom. Explanatory screen shots are included.

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.	London, England	San Francisco, California	Tennessee River, U.S.A.
Deltasim's Daisy Yacht in the Waters

Issues

Because Microsoft Flight Simulator® was not designed for marine simulation, the Daisy Yacht is a out of its correct environment. There are no marine navigation aids to follow, no docks for to tie up at, no shallow waters to avoid, and no rough seas to negotiate. You often can't tell where the shorelines are until you're on top of them, and the boat will actually move onto dry land if you're not careful! The GPS shows useless aviation information instead of marine navigation information. None of these problems should come as any surprise to anybody, however, because we all know that we're using a boat in a flight simulator and a flight simulator to sail a boat. Accordingly, we can all assume that buyers would be aware of these conditions from the outset. [If you're looking for something designed as a ship simulator, there is such a product available: Ship Simulator 2008.]

The intense detail, the number of 3D objects, and the lighting effects on this craft make it memory hungry. It reduced my frame rate from the usual 20 frames per second to 12 frames per second at the outset to less than five per second after a while. It also made the simulator very slow in performing other functions such as using menus and changing from one model of the yacht to another. My unusual uses of the computer and flight simulator, such as making screen shots and taking notes, surely made the problem worse. After Deltasim did not answer my question about this problem, I tested further. I restarted my computer to have a clean memory for FSX. Before activating the yacht, I restored all my settings to FSX default. All FSX and add-on aircraft work just fine with default and maximum settings in my flight simulator, but not the Daisy Yacht. It continued to gobble up memory and diminish frame rates even with a restarted computer and restored FSX default settings.

The product descriptions on the Flight Sim Pilot Shop and on Deltasim's web site say nothing about computer requirements such as minimum processor and memory capabilities or about optimum display settings. Deltasim said those data are in its documentation, but I didn't see them.

The documentation didn't display properly until I created "documentation" and "image" subfolders and copied the respective files into them. It also has several large screen shots that add nothing to the instruction.

The fuel menu shows the craft to be almost 65,000 pounds overweight when both fuel tanks are full. To get the craft within its maximum stated weight, I had to reduce fuel to 32 percent in each tank. Deltasim said the fuel is ballast and the craft will sink if the fuel quantities are altered (remember that gasoline weighs less than water). This information should be in the documentation.


Deltasim's Daisy Yacht at Night

Summary

I'm very impressed by the appearance and performance of Delta Sim's Daisy Yacht both at a glance and close up, and I can live with the lack of marine navigation aids and equipment because we're using a boat in a flight simulator. But I'm turned off by the low frame rate at the start and the deteriorating frame rates thereafter. I would recommend this product for those users who want to navigate waterways in a flight simulator with these performance issues in mind.

Bill Stack

Learn More About DeltaSims' Daisy Yacht

Bill Stack is author of several books about flight simulation, a regular author in flight-sim magazines, and a contributor to Flight Sim Com. His website is www.topskills.com