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User mods, screenshots & videos => Other => Topic started by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 02:42:44 pm

Title: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 02:42:44 pm
With great pleasure I release here a first version of my weathermaker mod
that allows to improve and extend outerra's weather experience.


The "physical apperance" of the generator placed in the scenery is that of a windsock so to immediately appreciate the winds generated. (not to be confused with my passive windsock)


features:

1) different weather patterns depending on season for spring, summer, autumn and winter

2) more cloud variability, simulating the different types of prevalent clouds during the seasons, including very low lying clouds that give thick fog.

3) wind changes are more recognizable, including variations in windspeed, wind-heading and turbulence

4) sea-state and waterbody waves change with wind and rain

5) snow is able to accumulate: as more snow falls, snow patches grow on the ground

6) speed up weather change by changing outerra's timeflow multiplier in the F2 menu.
   (the default speed of weather-evolution is set to appear "realistic" so there should be no need change the multiplier but it can be useful for a more
"intense" weather-experience)




Download the weathermaker from here :

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f8hkrobvi9l7wzg/AAAN-PnZFaQFaSVpFgMYSLFba?dl=0

https://youtu.be/9l3Mq3qYQ7I


installation: click on self-installing  weathermaker.otx file


use:

spawn the weathermaker from the vehicles menu:


key C: external camera view (preferred)

key v: internal (fps) camera view

key L: switch on a "weathermaker label" and the seasons indicator: useful to find your weathermaker once you have moved away from it. This is needed
                   as weather pattern or season for the moment can only be changed by entering the weathermaker (I will work to make this unneccesary in a future updated version)


key J: switch between different daily weather patterns

key H: switch between seasons

key CTRL+S: show/hide a weather report as a running text banner on the top of the screen (useful to especially when flying... note that this is WIP and some info on cloudheights is wrong)


Important notes:

1) once set a given daily weather pattern with the J key and a season with the H key you can explore if you like how the weather will be during the day by going to the outerra F2 menu and moving the time_of_day slider back and forth, alternatively for slower time variations you can use the arrow left-right keys to advance/recede in time and get a kind of visual weatherforecast.

2) once you are happy with a days weather exit the weathermaker and explore outerra worldwide. You may not change the daily weather pattern from a distance (for this you need to ENTER the weathermaker...and so the label is useful to find it again from a distance) but you can still control the weather variation "from a distance",  through its time variation accessing the outerra F2 time_of_day slider or as said by using the arrow keys. So if you are fishing in a small wooden boat with rough sea and you severely risk to sink you can still calm the sea by moving time forward or backward as needed..hopefully   =D




Once the weathermaker is spawned outerra's default weather settings/automatic weather are deactivated.
All weather and waves are controlled by weathermaker as long as there is one active.
Note that on the contrary the fog and atmosphere parameters in the "env" menu are still controlled
by these menus so you can still change these at will even when weathermaker is spawned.

To get back outerra's default weather/waves you need to exit outerra or alternatively
open the scenery editor, select the weathermaker and delete it from the scene.
Then you can again set outerra's weather from the "env" window.



A final note for "unconventional use" of  the weathermaker: you can also combine the default weathermaker with my weathermaker. How does this work ? Spawn my weathermaker and choose a weather. Then exit outerra or remove from scene my weathermaker. Outerra will remember the last weather settings created by my weathermaker in the C:user\Outerra\data\earth7\planet.cfg file and take it as a basis for its own weather evolution it seems. So if you produce for instance low lying clouds and low snowmin with my weathermaker then outerra will use these in its own weathermaker "as a base configuration" or something like this - at least this is what it "feels"

Enjoy !
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on November 24, 2019, 03:55:31 pm
we will have to study it thoroughly .. another great contribution of fly77. thank you very much

:)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 04:15:52 pm
just press J and H until you get the weather you want  =D
by the way you can still use the left and right arrow keys to "scan" through the timeline to get a kind of "weatherforecast" so to check if you like not just what you see now but also the weather to come.
To check the weather for the whole day faster you can do it also in with the F2 time_of_day slider, so you get an overview - or visual forescast if you like - of "todays' weather"  :))
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on November 24, 2019, 04:33:28 pm
Imagine now an application like the ones on mobile phones to have real time anywhere on the planet. and that could be integrated from outerra ... ^-^

https://youtu.be/ikygXkGSRvU
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 04:46:53 pm
maybe with a plugin...besides it will be in ...the next ? ...outerra update...who knows  ::)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: Jagerbomber on November 24, 2019, 05:10:36 pm
outerra updates?
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 05:28:48 pm
even a minimal update would already satisfy us  ::)  =|  Mine for instance seems to have become a little "unstable" and often crashes while playing. Don't know if something happened to my PC or if its just because of the new water patch
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on November 24, 2019, 05:59:18 pm
even a minimal update would already satisfy us  ::)  =|  Mine for instance seems to have become a little "unstable" and often crashes while playing. Don't know if something happened to my PC or if its just because of the new water patch

I think your pc is a victim of climate change  :))
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 24, 2019, 06:08:57 pm
possible !  :)) :))  So it means I need to make not only a weathermaker but also a climate-maker mod !  so I can adjust the climate to my needs  =D
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: Jagerbomber on November 24, 2019, 06:38:19 pm
Just freeze all the water and you'll be fine.

Anyways, I just took a trip in a tatra because I've been wanting to.  The first update (sorry, I'm not sure version numbers) warned me that the base version of the update didn't match mine, but I "ignored" it, and did the following update(s).  It stuttered quite a bit for a while, despite not needing any terrain downloads, and terrain quality loading was pretty slow.  (and road lines are still pretty darn ugly and jagged).  But then I went on my trip in the tatra and it was usable for that and didn't encounter any bad issues (besides the general Outerra weirdness we know and my general framerate not being high) (and man, OSM having no icons whatsoever for navigating (with just text) is awkward, and I still wish we could disable the map autozoom).  But I had no interaction whatsoever with water (besides seeing it at a distance of course).  However, roads cut through the "forest shade" effect pretty harshly.

woops, off topic.  :facepalm:
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on December 07, 2019, 10:25:13 am

Just freeze all the water and you'll be fine.
...

beginning to freeze outerra lakes and seas !  =D

(https://i.postimg.cc/7ZwPS9Ld/ice.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/vc2dsWft)

(https://i.postimg.cc/KzpW9GFC/ice2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/34p9NHkZ)

(https://i.postimg.cc/mk9gB2LF/ice3.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/N2gcxtrg)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: Jagerbomber on December 07, 2019, 01:27:23 pm
 =D :facepalm:

Is the ice actually floating?
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on December 07, 2019, 02:01:37 pm
yes of course .   And will inhibit boat passage as well...its modeled as heavy floating "ice boats" with its correctly shaped collision boxes . So titanic hitting an iceberg and sinking becomes possible   =D  as well as icebreakers . need to check how many and how big I can "spawn"...to cover large swathes of sea. probably very big ones just can be created as static. then in principle it should be possible to freeze entire lakes and part of sea...will try
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on December 07, 2019, 03:05:10 pm
yes it seems possible to freeze entire bays with "static ice" ...sorry for the crappy geometry of the ice .. probably a mix of different shapes and sizes  plus mixing static and dynamic ones also modulated with view distance should make possible fascinating frozen worlds !

(https://i.postimg.cc/bJHCZ4zV/big-ice.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/8JcB3KfL)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: Jagerbomber on December 07, 2019, 05:10:29 pm
Crazy.
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on December 07, 2019, 05:33:19 pm
yes...outerra is incredibly versatile !
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on December 07, 2019, 06:57:41 pm
chunks of ice everywhere and a huge blue one ... I want one for me
 :D
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Blue_iceberg_south_polar_circle.jpg/1280px-Blue_iceberg_south_polar_circle.jpg)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on December 08, 2019, 01:07:19 pm

https://youtu.be/bKaVhXn49xY
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 26, 2020, 11:54:53 am
Please download from here the upgraded version of my weathermaker for the new 64 bit outerra version
I corrected some issues with cloud-coverage that is different in the 64bit outerra version. Also I added snow-melting, in addition to snow-accumulation.

Download from here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17wYzyCP8ToCj2ZLufSt2XWZITwrQiETS?usp=sharing


The control keys and functionalities remain the same as for my previous version (see beginning of the post & video).
basically H key for season change, J key for weather chage, L key for label to indicate season and find the weathermaker once again when you exit it.
Note that the keys are active only while you are entered it.
This is the reason for the label...so you can find it again and re-enter to change weather. For other functionalities (weather-report) see beginning of the post



Why its useful ?
The weathermaker allows rapid switching between the four seasons, and change weather conditions rapidly with just a key-press, including change of wind, turbulence, rain , snow, snowlevel and seastate..etc.
It allows to create a wide variety of atmospheric conditions beyond those you'd probably imagine to set in the F11 menu, without requiring any effort from your side :).

The weathermaker generates its own dynamic weather changing during the day...but it will be the same all over the world

For worldwide changes of weather effects: combine it with dynamic weather in the following way:
1) spawn the weathermaker
2) select season (H key) and weather ( J key) that you most like
3) then open editor (F7) and delete the weathermaker
4) now open env menu F11 and re-enable dynamic weather

the reason to use it in this way is that when spawned by default it disables the dynamic weather, since it can't work together with dynamic weather while its active.
But once set you can delete it and re-enable dynamic weather, which now uses the new cloud type (cloudbase, cloudthickness...) , snow and seastate generated by weathermaker. re-enabling dynamic weather you get back the realistic global cloud coverage and daily weather evolution. 



(https://i.postimg.cc/8cb65z0p/weather1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/JHGnYM8v)

(https://i.postimg.cc/tRdPDBCK/weather2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/K4zR8rTf)

(https://i.postimg.cc/Jz0krmc8/weather3.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/K1Xzf6Hp)

(https://i.postimg.cc/5Nxzr8X6/weather4.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/NLzL997c)

(https://i.postimg.cc/KvJTh4TQ/weather5.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/4mHyzfBh)


Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: aWac9 on November 26, 2020, 01:23:36 pm
thanks fly .. as always a great job.
Thank you very much for sharing

Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 26, 2020, 01:31:37 pm
you're welcome....this was not much work...it required just a little "repair"....big effect with little effort ;)
I love the forests with snow and hope in the next version we will get snow dynamically accumulating on trees ...that would be crazy cool

(https://i.postimg.cc/FRzrcszF/screen-1606415011.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/G80nnRv6)

(https://i.postimg.cc/mg3gW5K4/screen-1606415641.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/yDdHFvVp)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: allymotors on November 27, 2020, 07:00:23 pm
Great work fly77!!

Here is a Christmas postcard made with weathermaker.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/En3l7NDUYAA0tfC?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: weathermaker (release)
Post by: fly77 on November 28, 2020, 03:59:10 am
nice !