Developer News and Announcements Latest Topics

NEW Development Screenshots and Videos - Unreal Engine

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 20:55:57 +0000

Hello Captains,

Here are some news of #AcrosstheSeas. Currently I'm working on the prototype of the sim in the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 (actually 5.1 ). Most of the work is at the moment to improve the watercraft physics in UE. One of the next things is to get back the 2d panel and the first person view.

At the same time I'm working on the scenery design. For the first new demos of the sim, I will include all 3 sceneries that are also available in the current Unity alpha version. So Dover/Calais, Rostock Baltic Sea scenery and the harbor area of Cape Town will be included.

The new 64bit floating precision in UE 5.1 works really good so far. So no more origin shifting for larger sceneries are necessary. This is really a big deal and this is the next step to allow very large sceneries. I did a first test with the an earth scaled planet done and it works really well.

One of the most important thing is to find a good solution for wake effects in Unreal. This feature is currently completely missing in the sim.

Thank you to all, for your amazing support. I will do my best, to get done a first Unreal demo of the sim.

Regards

Marko

Across the Seas - Maritime Simulator Unreal Engine based Version

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 10:15:29 +0000

Ahoi Captains,

Across the Seas is not dead. After an long time without any news about the sim and it's current state, I'm back with good news.

After the first internal test version in UE 5 with an mostly off Blueprints based version, I wasn't very happy with the result and the state of AtS. So I decided to take an fundamental step and so I started from scratch with UE and a C++ core code of the sim. So after getting a lot of headaches and pain, now the physics and the watercraft controller are full written in C++. Also the base of the GUI is completely C++ code.

Across the Seas will now be developed in UE 5.8. This version brings a lot of improvements like a good implementation of 64bit floating point precision (with Unreal's Large World Coordinates) and mesh terrains and other UE features like Metahuman, Metasound and Megalights.

I'm quite happy now with the way the simulator looks and feel. Most parts of the water and weather systems are done. With the further development of the sim, I will also make improvements and adding more features to the watercraft / player controller and also to improve the GUI.

So the release of the first UE based prototyp, I have decided to give it a go at the late Q3 or early Q4 of 2026 release. Like the old Unity version, I will update the alpha/beta version during the development period. Here is also an Trello Board with the status of the sim.

Main features of the Unreal Engine version:

- C++ code base for physics, watercraft controller and the GUI

- Support for very large sceneries

- Native DLSS 4.5 and Nvidia's Frame Gen integration (FSR integration Work in Progress)

Stay tuned for more news and the first new version of Across the Seas.

Regards
Marko

Development Screenshots and Videos - Unity3d version

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 22:15:35 +0000

Baltic Venture - Coastal bulk carrier

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 10:07:33 +0000

Hi Captains,

here is the next ship for Across the Seas fleet. The Baltic Venture a coastal bulk carrier.

Length: 140.85m

Width: 16.70m

Draft: 3.60m

Displacement: 5589t

Marko

List of included Ships and Sceneries

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:20:15 +0000

The official list of ships and scenery which will be included in Across the Seas. It's not final and it still can change until the final release of AtS.

List of included Ships

Ships included in the Tech Demo

Agile Solution - Multi-purpose Cargo ship
Baltic Venture - Coastal bulk carrier
FGS Puma S-72 - German Navy Fast Attack Craft (missile boat)
FLB-23 small fire fighting boat
Kutter - small fishing vessel
Global Emerald - Medium sized PSV
KNM Skjold - P960 Royal Norwegian Navy stealth missile corvette
Ocean Sovereign - Large Container ship
Ocean Star - Cruise ship (based on the Regal Princess)
Pegasus - Harbor Tugboat
USS Freedom LCS 1 - Littoral Combat Ship
USS Mahan DDG 72 - Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer

Ships to be added later (Release Version)

MS Finnstar Ropax Ferry
LNG Tanker
USS Gettysburg CG-64 Ticonderoga class Aegis Cruiser
Cruise Ships - to be announced
Some Leisure boats - to be announced
Tugboat - to be announced
Container Ships - to be announced
Submarines - to be announced
more to be announced

List of included Sceneries

Dover / Calais - included in the tech demo
Cape Town - included in the tech demo
Rostock - Gedser - included in the next release of the tech demo
more to be announced

Regards

Marko

New scenery feature, scenery streaming.

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 22:10:11 +0000

Hello Captains,

Sry for the silence, but we are working hard on the sim. We have reworked the whole scenery loading for the sim, the scenery loads now via a streaming system. That system allows us to create very big sceneries without the annoying floating point error in Unity. We have also integrated the scenery streaming to the Dover / Calais area. Our Dover / Calais has a size of 50km². Now we have splitted the area in 64 quads with a size of 6.25km² and these quads are reloaded according to the position of the player. Another advantage is, we can create more dense scenery of the harbours.

In the first picture you can see the terrain in the lower right corner.

On the second picture after staying on course 270 new quads on the left side are loaded and the other quads on the right side are deloaded.

Agile Solution - Multi-Purpose Cargo

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:51:17 +0000

The Agile Solution is a multi-purpose cargo ship.

Marko

Fishing Boat Type D

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:30:50 +0000

First In-Game tests of our new Fishing Boat (German Type D) model in Across the Seas.

Length: 17.6m

Beam: 5.6m

Draft: 1.91m

Some impressions of the fishing vessel in the port of Calais.

Marko

FGS Puma Fast Attack Craft - Gepard S143A class

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:22:46 +0000

The Gepard class was Germany’s last class of missile bearing fast attack crafts. The 143A class is an evolution of the old Albatros 143 class.

General characteristics
Displacement: 391 tons
Length: 189 ft (57.60m)
Beam: 25.7 ft (7.80m)
Draft: 8.6 ft (2.60m)
Propulsion: four Diesel Engines MTU 956 TB 91
With 13.235kW (17.748hp)
Speed: 40 kn
Complement: 5 Officers, 31 Enlisted
Armament: 1x Oto Melara (Breda) 76mm
4x MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles
1x RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) launcher, 21 cells
2x MG50-1 machine guns
Mine laying capability

Welcome to Across the Seas - Maritime Simulation

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:07:27 +0000

Welcome to Across the Seas, a Unreal Engine based maritime Simulator.

Core Feature of the Sim.

Single and Multiplayer based experience.
All type of maritime Vessels, from civilian to naval vessels, from surface ships to submarines.
Moddable Game. Create and sail your own created maritime vessels.
Living platform, not a single released game. We want to a create a living platform with updated content and new challenges.

Import your own created Ships.

Import and sail your own created ships. We are working on the implementation of an FBX file importer. So you can create and share your ships with the community.
Create your model with the 3d program of your choice. FBX is not limit to 3ds Max or Maya, you can also use Blender to create your ship models.
We also evaluate the possibility to allow user-created sceneries.

Control your favorite type of ship.

Control large ships like huge Container or Cruise ships.
Not limit to civilian type of ships. You can also sail different Naval ships in Across the Seas.
And of course, AtS offers the possibility to control Submarines.

Regards

Marko