Thank you for your continued work on the weather mod Buckeye
Off to download now cheers pal
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Just wanted people to know that a small update to the cloud mod is in the works. Most of the changes are minor and are mainly designed to make the mod "play better" with the WOFF weather files, but in particular, with JJJ65's absolutely fantastic and stupendous mission editor. The mission editor adds so much functionality to the game that I encourage anyone with a serious interest in the game to get it if they don't have it already.
The biggest change that the ME will allow me to do is to match the horizon "fog color" with my custom made cloud types. Up to this point, WOFF has used a few stock fog color values that apply to all clouds in a particular weather pattern. With the cloud mod and JJJ's editor, each cloud type can now have its own personal fog color. Overall, this should lead to a greater variety of lighting conditions with different cloud types, particularly the "heavier" clouds. Later, I may also be able to experiment with occasionally causing rain on a day that is forecast to be dry, but that will not be included as part of this update.
Please make sure to thank JJJ for creating and continuing to improve his ME, without which this update would not be possible. Thanks, JJJ65!
Finally, as always, I am open to any suggestions people may have about the mod. Cheers!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Putting the finishing touches on the cloud mod update now. In addition to updating the clouds already in the mod, for the first time, I will be including a few small changes to some of the original WOFF clouds as well. The main difference that you are likely to notice is that I have toned down the thick, white band of fog you see on the horizon with some of the WOFF clouds.
The main change that applies to many of the other clouds in the mod is that I have found a way (with the able assistance of JJJ65 and his mission editor) to give a single cloud type the ability to have two fog color settings instead of just one. This will allow for an even greater variety of clouds and lighting conditions to exist in the game. Finally, and again due to the mission editor, the player will now be able to experience different wind directions from all over the compass dial (over 50 in all but still predominately from a W or SW direction), instead of the 12 stock background wind directions found in WOFF.
While the mod will work without JJJ's mission editor, the player won't be able to experience these new features without the ME, so again I recommend that you install it if you haven't already. The ME is easy to use and adds a tremendous number of features to an already excellent game.
Hopefully, the update will become available before the end of the day tomorrow.
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Here it is: the latest update to the Optional Cloud Mod. The new version is 2.5
From the readme file:
10 September 2017 • New: Mod is now designed to work specifically with JJJ65's Mission Editor to allow for a greater variety of horizon fog effects, wind directions, and wind speeds (Thank you, JJJ65)! • New: For the first time, OCM 2.5 now includes changes (optional) to several original WOFF cloud types (see revised installation instructions) • New: When used with JJJ65's Mission Editor, some clouds now can have more than one background sky color, leading to an even greater variety of skies and lighting conditions • Increased number of possible background sky colors from 7 to 14 • Reduced white fog band near horizon affecting some WOFF clouds • Adjusted horizon fog color of several additional clouds • Additional small changes and tweaks
Installation and use of the mod has changed slightly. In addition to the main BB and PR cloud folder, there is now an optional WOFF cloud folder that can also be enabled, which contains several changes to already existing WOFF clouds. The user does not have to enable this option if they prefer to stick to the original WOFF clouds.
My favorite changes are the changes to the background sky colors and the addition of wind directions from all over the compass. Both of these additions would not have been possible without the assistance of JJJ65 and his mission editor, so be sure to thank him if you like these new mod features.
Finally, I have also included an update to my historical weather mod. Following is a summary of the changes to version 1.43:
1.43 10 September 2017 • Inserted an occasional "nice" day to break up a few extremely long stretches (20 days or more) of rainy or overcast days • Adjusted snow cover somewhat • Reduced number of "wet" days in early 1917 by a few days • Minor text changes
Both updates are available through the links at the bottom of the first post in this thread. Please address any questions about the use or features of the mod to me on this forum. As always, thanks goes out to OBD and all others who have contributed in some way to WOFF UE. Enjoy!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Sounds fantastic BuckeyeBob Thank you for this il try it out later this evening
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
BuckeyeBob, thank you for making such an impressive mod (with Triple-J's help). I took it for a spin and after two missions my impressions are as follows: - the sky is much more busy with many, many more clouds (or it's simply the period I'm flying in - May) - some of the clouds seem more "fluffy" - some clouds seem to be more transparent - some clouds seem to be "dirty" - I guess it's the interlacing of the two colours of clouds? Not sure. Very nice effect. See the pic below.
Thank-yous go to both of you for the collaborative effort. Hope to see more of your genius. My hat is off to you.
Now for a wish: I wish the clouds could move, float with the wind...
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
Thank you for your comments, Fullofit. I appreciate the feedback. Not sure I can take credit for the "dirtier" look, however. I did add some cloud textures to some cloud files, so that may account for the busier sky.
As far as getting the clouds to move about and float on the wind, I'll get right on that!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
By now, most of you are probably familiar with my never ending quest to do something about the weather--at least the weather that exists in WOFF. In addition to my own efforts, JJJ65's ME has opened up all sorts of new opportunities in this regard. With that in mind, here are a couple of pics to illustrate what I am working on in order to improve the fog in the cloud mod.
BB Fog OCM 2.5
New Fog
BB Fog OCM 2.5
New Fog
I have made similar changes to the two mist files. In fact, you can now experience low level rain and mist even on supposedly dry days! Depending on how people like this new feature, I may consider extending it to other cloud types, such as shower clouds, for example.
Thanks again to JJJ65 for agreeing to continually update his ME in order to accommodate my peculiar weather obsession!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
BuckeyeBob, interesting changes. Will this also have an impact on ground fog? Can you demo that?
(System_Specs)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper PSU: Ultra X3,1000-Watt MB: Asus Maximus VI Extreme Mem: Corsair Vengeance (2x 8GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, Unbuffered CPU: Intel i7-4770K, OC to 4.427Ghz CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M Liquid CPU Cooler Vid Card: ASUS GTX 980Ti STRIX 6GB OS and Games on separate: Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD Monitor: Primary ASUS PG27AQ 4k; Secondary Samsung SyncMaster BX2450L Periphs: MS Sidewinder FFB2 Pro, TrackIR 4
My ancient video card doesn't have video capture (I'm hoping for something in my stocking for Christmas), but I can take some still pictures that shows the fog at ground level. However, most of the update will only affect the fog at higher levels, as seen in the above pics. It's still a noticeable difference, but not as noticeable lower to the ground, I'm afraid.
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
The following is a view at 2000 ft. of OFF_BB Fog.xml using OCM 2.5:
This is the same view using the update that I am working on:
Below a certain height, the fog effect is diminished, so that is why I took the picture at 2000 ft. You can see that the main difference is the cloud cover. There may also be some small differences at ground level, but they are subtle.
Another advantage of the update (that I can't show with a still picture), is the elimination of the "flashing" blue sky you frequently see at ground level and low altitude when you scan the sky with older versions of the mod that use fog and some of the original WOFF clouds. Once you attain a certain altitude the problem goes away, but it is noticeable when you are taking off or are otherwise low to the ground. This should be gone in the new update involving the BB fog and mist files. For now, I plan to leave the PR fog files as they are.
I hope this helps!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
That my friend is a MAJOR improvement. Can't wait to try it out. I am constantly being surprised with all the great mod improvements to WOFF.
(System_Specs)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper PSU: Ultra X3,1000-Watt MB: Asus Maximus VI Extreme Mem: Corsair Vengeance (2x 8GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, Unbuffered CPU: Intel i7-4770K, OC to 4.427Ghz CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M Liquid CPU Cooler Vid Card: ASUS GTX 980Ti STRIX 6GB OS and Games on separate: Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD Monitor: Primary ASUS PG27AQ 4k; Secondary Samsung SyncMaster BX2450L Periphs: MS Sidewinder FFB2 Pro, TrackIR 4