If you downloaded via Steam, an update is now available that addresses the initial issues.

See http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,20458.0.html

Thanks guys,I am already there.
I didn't want to have to download it fully via Steam as I have a 1 meg line at the moment
However,it seemed I had little choice.
Anyway it works at last!

I too sufered from the botched release. I bought the DVD as I would rather have something physical to (re)install from. But to no avail - I just got sea and sky and no in-game menu until STEAM released the patch.

Jury is still out on the game. I have only played it for a very short time ( due to installation problems hogging all my time ! ) At this point I am really not sure it is much of an improvement on ShipSim 2008. I don't like the fact the single missions menu is empty.

Eonel,if you go to the DLC menu you can download a couple of single missions.

So is there an Antarctica mission in the sim? I'm thinking something along the lines of... you have to navigate a submarine for some miles under winter pack ice, eventually arriving at region where one has to navigate an underwater tunnel hewn into a rock-face to your final destination (a secret base).

Not that I'm saying I know anything like that exists. A fantasy "what if" mission of course

If not that, well how is the sea bed modeled in general? Any good deep abyssal caverns we can explore?

I dont belive the sea-bed or anything below the sea-surface is modelled at all. - to be fair, it is a ship simulator, not Silent Hunter VI

When I put a small boat in huge swell, it will often dip under water and I see nothing but white.

Ah I see, thank you. Actually, my mistake old chap! I had initially confused this title with 'Virtual Sailor' and thought it was an updated version. I tried some missions a couple of years ago with that sim diving bathyspheres deep sea and sailing a Los Angeles and Akula class in and out of ports and around shallow coastlines. A pity this one doesn't model subsurface then, thanks anyway!

Hang on... how does Ship Simulator model rocks and shallow waters/sandbanks? What about navigating rivers and ports in surface craft (like a supertanker) where one's cargo is relative to the Plimsoll Line and one's depth under keel is essential to know?

P.S. Silent Hunter VI?! Oh dear, well if SHV was anything to go by, I expect the next version (if any) will be a dumbed-down console version only! I thought IV was good (III was better), but c'mon man! SHV wasn't anything close to a "simulator"... so disappointing, what a let down that was.

Maybe I was too harsh. Depth under keel is modeled as a concept, but not graphically.

There are maps showing the depth of the water and your relative position.

You can ground a tanker in shallow water. The throttle will no longer be effective and the boat will appear as if it is grounded.

But if your viewpoint goes below the water surface, you will see nothing but a white void and the underside of the sea-surface

For its flaws as a simulator, Silent Hunter V does graphically present underwater & the sea-bottom beautifully.

Well I uninstalled SHV quite soon after I bought it so I'm not too up-to-date on the patches and fixes but you say the sea-bottom is beautiful? So Ubisoft finally patched the 'sea-bottom bug'? When I bought SHV the graphical representation of the sea-bed was wrong - a few meters below the correct depth - so sunken ships (and probably more importantly, one's own U-Boat) appeared to "hover" above the sea-floor, while silt and debris was kicked-up without anything apparently touching it. The sea-bottom didn't have that bug in Silent Hunter IV and III, it was one of the things that put me off it. Looks like I need to start checking the Subsim forum again for any news, thanks.