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Interview With Henrik Nielsen Conducted by Dominic Smith Development Henrik, could you tell us how and when you started developing for flight simulators? I started modeling and building ships with LEGO bricks when I was a kid, and ever since then, modeling has always been a part of my life (in one form or another). In 2011 I bought FSX for my son, in a desperate attempt to keep him from playing shooting games (that was before TacPack arrived to FSX and became his favorite). Since then we have spent many hours flying across the FSX landscape, exploring as we went. However, as fun as this was, I soon discovered that the oceans contained in the MSFS world were sparsely populated, apart from the occasional default ships. Desperate to populate the seas, I searched the internet for some ships. I must have searched every corner of the Web for MSFS ships, but what I found was mostly naval ships. There were very few decent modern civilian ships. In the first instance I didn't really think about doing them myself but after having done a small scenery of a Danish harbor town, where I needed to do a couple of simple ship models, I got the idea to do a larger shipping project to try to fill those empty seas. That idea later grew into the dream of making a truly global AI shipping project for FSX and P3D with all types of ships, and covering all the coastal waters - a kind of the WOAI for the seas of the simulator. Henrik, could you tell us a bit about your ship designs? The ship models I create are actually quite basic, with simple animations and effects. They are only intended as AI models and designed in mind for minimal impact on FPS. There are many people who do far better models but keeping my models basic allows me to create more models, adding a diverse and densely populated life to the ocean without sacrificing on frame rate. This is the key element in the shipping project because the ships are always secondary to flying. What good are intricately detailed ships on the ocean if you can only stutter past them? No, the simulator needs to soar like its planes, and so does the FPS. What do you consider your best or most popular work? I have created a number of sceneries but have only published one so far - the Global AI shipping project which has come as several different packages. This project now includes more than 250 unique models and over 540 different ships if you include the repaints. Some of my favorites are the Norwegian coastal express ferry Nordstjernen and the classic cruise ship Funchal. Both are beautiful examples of the vision of ship design before the utilitarian age of crude and ugly cruise ships and ferries. Other favorites are the models of the Danish Thetis class frigates which combine perfectly with the FSDG scenery of Nuuk, Greenland. They provide a fantastic opportunity for some helicopter training in bad Arctic weather. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a project? The most challenging part of a project always comes in the final days of production, before it is due to be launched to the public. You want the project to be as perfect as possible but the clock is against you and however good your final project is, there is always room for improvement. That can be said of life too, can it not? This is particularly problematic of the Global AI Shipping project due to its sheer size and scope. There is no way you can hone and control every little thing. The routes stretch over thousands and thousands of kilometers, with most routes clocking 4300 kilometers in order to fit with a one-week traffic loop, with a different ship passing every 4 or 6 hours. You simply cannot check every single mile the ships travel, to verify that they don't hit something. There may be strange rocks jutting up in the middle of the virtual ocean, and coastlines in some places may be inaccurate by hundreds of meters but it is a calculated risk you have to take. What distinguishes the AI ship project? With the collaboration of many talented and enthusiastic designers, we have created a package that adds realism to the extensive waterways and oceans around the world. You will find ships or boats synonymous with that region of the world; crab fishing boats off the shores of Alaska, local ferries in Norway, cruise ships in the Caribbean, oil tankers in the Persian Gulf... In short, the ships in this project are accurately placed in accordance to region. Which tools have you used for creating the package? The packages are done with six tools: a basic version of Photoshop combined with DXTbmp for textures, AIBTC and Google Earth for creating the routes, and Gmax and ModelconverterX for modelling. I tend to stick with Gmax as it is most familiar to me and I know it delivers what it promises. Some of the other team members prefer Blender, SketchUp or 3DS. It is a personal choice; each of them can do the job you require. Who would you consider to be your mentors or inspiration in the development world if you have any? Paulo Ricardo, the designer of sceneries such as Mega Route Rio Sao Paulo, Mega Sao Paulo X, and most recently, Fortaleza 2014, is a good friend of mine and has been a great inspiration. It was he who got me hooked in the first place, while enjoying a coffee in a non-consequential cafe in a Sao Paulo shopping mall. He taught me the importance of performance when creating models - keeping draw calls low and avoiding excess details which wouldn't be seen from a plane anyway. Jean-Pierre Fillion, who later joined the project, was another great inspiration. His beautiful freeware packages for the Saint Lawrence River gave me some of my first ships on my FSX seas. Finally, I have to thank people like Didier "Lagaffe" Puentes, Milton Shupe and all the other great designers who try to push their projects to new heights. Excusing my terrible pun, they really push the boat out, paving the way for the rest of us. Henrik, do you develop payware/freeware or both and why? We have received much invaluable feedback and comments on our project, much of it being positive. This we appreciate because each team member thrives on creating and growing projects that become a part of us. That being said, even if the quality is by many compared with payware I choose to remain a developer of freeware because it does not hold the same stern commitment as its payware brother. For me at least, modelling is a form of relaxation, as reading may be for someone else. If the project becomes obligatory, the enjoyment disappears and so does the relaxation. Not good news for anyone's blood pressure, especially when I already spend countless hours in the air for my job! The Team How many people work with you or your team? In total, we were fortunate enough to have around thirty people who have been involved with the Global AI project - designers and supporters providing beta-testing, images or plans - over a two and a half year span. Each has been an invaluable member of the team. Some of the designers have contributed single, but still important models, whilst others have been able to contribute more. Jean-Pierre Fillion, Erwin Welker and Knud Kristoffersen have delivered models and textures for several packages. What do the various members of the team do? The way we work together is very informal. Jean-Pierre and Erwin provide complete ship models. Sometimes we agree beforehand on what to do, on other occasions I just fit in what they have decided to create. Knud provides ideas, plans, and images and has also been responsible for creating the sound files as well as a large number of repaints. He is also the first person to test out my models in the simulator. Most of the other people involved in the project have delivered one or more models or, as with Paul Donnelly, have created a large number of repaints and documentation for selected models. My own role, besides having created over half of all the models included in the project, is to keep track of all the routes. Not an easy job, I can tell you. Then come the beta-testers. They have the final job of testing out routes from across the world. As I mentioned previously, it is impossible to be 100% accurate due to the enormous geographical scope of the routes but they are fundamental to the project and do a fantastic job, as do all the designers. Real Life Henrik, do you have any experience in real aviation? I work in marketing and my job requires me to travel all over the world, so I spend more time than most in the air, but always in the passenger seat. In fact, as I am writing this, I am flying over the south-western corner of Portugal! In the good old days, before pilots had to lock themselves away from their passengers, I used to visit the cockpit often. I also used to grab every opportunity to visit the bridge if I was on a ferry, or to visit ships in the harbor before everything was fenced off. A sad but necessary precaution. What started your interest in aviation? My interest in ships and airplanes has been with me since I was a child so for me it only seemed natural to design ships for a flight simulator. When I was seven years old, my dad managed to get me into the cockpit of a 727 over Hannover. After that, I wanted to become a pilot. That never happened of course, but I am doing the next best thing! Any memorable flights in real life? Many! I have my favorite approaches - arriving in Santiago de Chile is always something special as you descend with the Andes Mountains coming towards you on both sides of the plane. The sight is breathtaking! The best way to experience it is on the right side of the plane. From there you can enjoy the evening sun as it dusts the almost 7000 meters high Aconcagua in golden light. You pass so close that you feel that you can reach out and touch it. Landing at Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont; flying over the legendary beaches and straight towards the Sugar Leaf Mountain, and then turning 180 degrees to land on a short runway in the middle of the Guanabara Bay is another spectacular approach. But what I enjoy most is flying low and slow. I am too young to have flown on a DC-3, except once from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima in Venezuela, but that is what I would call real flying. The plane looked as though it might fall apart any time soon, but it was good enough to use in the Korean and Vietnamese war before entering commercial service, so why should it fall apart with me onboard? Have you ever considered doing flight simulator development full-time? No, for me this is just a hobby and it will remain so. Future How do you choose your next new design or project? My next new design can sometimes be rather arbitrary. I look out of the window from the airplane and if what I see is not in the simulator then there is a potential project. Probably the next projects I undertake will be harbor projects, with harbors close to airports. First up will be Port Said and the Suez Channel, which is actually already quite advanced. It always bothers me in the simulator when I land and the only thing you see is a hopeless default landscape that bears no resemblance to the real thing. Photo sceneries are good from 33,000 feet but you need the skyline when you fly low. For that reason, my favorite sceneries are those done by Paulo Ricardo, FlyTampa, and Dreziwiecki. Once I can't find any more ships to model, that would be something I would like to explore further. What simulators do you design for now and which ones do you plan to develop for in the future? I model solely for FSX and P3D and I don't see that changing, at least in the near future. P3D is still evolving - the graphical display of the water surface is far superior to that of FSX. Unfortunately that is not without complications (wake effects adopted from FSX) but hopefully there will be a solution for that in the future. In what ways do you see development changing in the future? The software tools and computer hardware used for development are both increasing with sophistication. Because of this, it is getting easier to design objects or sceneries while still maintaining a healthy frame rate. But with these advancements come drawbacks; as things begin to look more and more realistic I also think that many beginners will be put off by the seemingly complex projects. They will get scared of the complexity and drop projects because they simply don't think they can do it. Your Thoughts What can sites like FlightSim.Com do to support you and the hobby better? I think you're doing a good job already. Including the possibility for adding comments next to the files in the library was a very good initiative. It allows the designer good direct feedback; a few words of appreciation can fuel the next project. It could also become a way to make it easier to find support for freeware packages at the source of download. Henrik, finally, how do you feel about the future of flight simulation in general? I look forward to the next generation of simulators (whenever they are released). In my opinion graphical realism has to go up a level if it is to attract new players, especially ones who are used to mainstream computer games incorporating extremely realistic graphics. My son, who is a keen gamer, often complains about the graphical realism contained within the simulator, which from a developers point of view can often be frustrating. You see, you can't really compare a game which is set in a small world (single town or suburb) to a game where the whole world is modelled. Unfortunately though, this is (whether we like it or not) what newcomers tend to do. Henrik Nielsen Download Henrik Nielsen's files