MuVIT Addons

There are a large number of downloadable MuVIT addons in the form of scenery and boats make this a very extendable platform. These include vessels, scenery, sea life, and other items. On this page, we will attempt to provide resources you can draw on but be aware that they can change over time, and while we will attempt to keep up sometimes times things change quickly. If you notice a broken link or other issues please let us know via the contact page so we can correct it.

There are a fairly large number of sites that cater to providing both vessels and scenery for Virtual Sailor which will function well as addons to the MuVIT platform. Some are obvious and easily found, others less so. We will attempt to keep this page up to date with a list of resources you can use to extend the application. Obviously there is the parent site listed below which has a very good selection, below you will find a catalog of other sites where you can find resources. This is an evergreen list so don’t be surprised if things appear or disappear depending on circumstances. For more information about the software and how to get it, you can go to the software page.

Vessel MuVIT Addons

Open console 26 foot vessel muvit addons
Mako 26 foot open console

There are a large number of power vessels available that run the gamut from runabouts, personal watercraft (PWC), and cruisers to large commercial craft. Additionally, there are many sailing vessels that again run the spectrum from daysailers to tall ships and some historic recreations. For our Americas Boating Course (ABC) classes, you will likely want to use a single-engine boat but it is useful to have dual engines to be able to demonstrate the difference in handling.

Some more advanced courses such as piloting, and coastal and offshore navigation can make use of the larger cruisers and the more sophisticated instrumentation available such as the radar, GPS and a chart plotter which all operate as one would expect in real life. The tutorials section of this website will have information on those and it will be announced in the news section when we post those.

We do modify the characteristics of some of the models to make them work better for our classes and to make them more realistic in terms of acceleration, these modified models are posted here individually. Before you add vessels read the tutorial and save some frustration when they don’t show up. We only provide the modified configuration file for the vessel unless otherwise noted, it is up to you to install the original model in the simulator. Also if you download a modified config file be sure to read the install notes and make a backup of the old config file.

Scenery MuVIT Addons

Scenery Sample
Sample of the many available sceneries

There is a good selection of basic scenery for the US, some include aids to navigation (ATONS) including sectored lights which appear during night time simulations. As a side note, the navigation lights on the vessels are properly sectored to aid in realistic night time navigation exercises. The integration with OpenCPN may mitigate the lack of ATONS where it exists, this may not be an issue as other simulators also tend to exclude aides to navigation since they essentially operate on a millpond in a make believe environment.

There are tools and documentation for creating your own scenery so you can feel free to do so if so inclined. NOAA, USGS, NASA, and other sources of topographic and bathymetry data are readily available on the internet. As time goes on it is my intention to build additional scenery and waters based on NOAA charts. Not difficult, just a bit tedious and time-consuming.