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#4513490 - 03/30/20 12:54 PM Weather and air activity  
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orbyxP Offline
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orbyxP  Offline
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I have an excel spreadsheet which includes the actual weather as reported by the RFC communique. It is very different in a lot of instances than the WOFF default weather with much more days of no flying and limited flights.

My spreadsheet divides the weather into (1) air activity not affected by weather (2) limited air activity due to weather (3) no flying due to weather.

So, for limited flying, then the air activity should be set to light or very light. It would be great if the cloud mod and mission editor could be expanded to include this feature.

I will upload my excel file at some point in this post so that anyone can refer to it while playing WOFF.

EDIT: Anyone is welcome to use this file as they see fit. I was able to collect about 690 days of weather data from 1916 to end of war. There are about 300 days which I skipped (or could not find any weather data) and assumed that the air activity during those days were either normal (during quiet front) or very active (during offensives).

If the row does not have "limited flying" or "no flying" comment, then the air activity was not affected by the weather for that day, or morning, or afternoon, or evening.

Last edited by orbyxP; 03/31/20 03:16 AM.
#4513491 - 03/30/20 12:58 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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RAF_Louvert Offline
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.

Orby, that would be outstanding! Thanks mucho for offering to make your work available to us here, I for one can put it to good use and I am sure others will as well.

Cheers!

Lou

.


[Linked Image]

Three RFC Brass Hats were strolling down a street in London. Two walked into a bar, the third one ducked.
_________________________________________________________________________

Former Cold War Warrior, USAF Security Service 1974-1978, E-4, Morse Systems Intercept, England, Europe, and points above.
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#4513501 - 03/30/20 01:50 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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OrbyxP, as the author of the Historical Weather Mod, I can easily create a "hardcore weather mod" that can incorporate much of your information. Just PM me a copy of your spreadsheet and I can get right on it.

NB regarding the current Historical Weather Mod: Although the mod attempts to maintain as much historical accuracy as possible, my access to historical data is limited. Whenever I read or find historical data about the weather on a particular day or week, I try to incorporate it into the mod. However, my mod also has to take into account gameplay and the "fun" factor. By that I mean that many people might get frustrated from NOT being able to fly on too many days and just stop playing (unlike the actual WWI pilots who had no choice in the matter, being soldiers and all). wink

But for those who do desire the full on WWI experience, I can easily put together something that reflects that, once I have the data.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513505 - 03/30/20 02:04 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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Two more points about how weather is determined in WOFF:

1) The weather conditions determined by the Historical Weather files do not always directly translate into the weather for a particular flight. That is, there is a large degree of randomization that is not under my control. For example, the weather for a particular day in the Historical Weather file may be set to "Medium." However, the game may instead display either "Medium," "Light," or even "Heavy" weather conditions instead.

2) Although there is a setting in the Historical Weather files that used to control mission frequency, that function has been mostly taken over by other factors in the game code written by OBD that modders don't have access to, so changing these values in a mod probably won't have much effect, unless OBD changes the code.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513526 - 03/30/20 03:28 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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Shredward Offline
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Remember too that the Front was very long, with different weather systems in different areas of the Front. The RFC communique weather summaries might be valid for a sector of the front, but very different conditions could exist elsewhere. This was often true even within the British section of the lines - the weather in the Ypres Salient, and along the coast was often very different than that on the Somme, which again was often different to that of the Champagne or the Vosges. We are continuing to tweak the datafiles, using war diaries and many other sources, so that activity takes into account these differences in local weather, as well as the surge in activity where a major battle or offensive is underway.
Cheers,
shredward


We will remember them.
#4513543 - 03/30/20 04:05 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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Exactly so! I don't disagree at all. There are a number of limitations to the "one size fits all" approach.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513567 - 03/30/20 06:03 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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orbyxP Offline
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Thank you for your comments Lou, Shredward and BuckeyeBob. I would like to clarify why I'm doing this and how I did it:

1. The spreadsheet is a summary of RFC communique weather reports for each day that I could gather. The air activity level is directly affected not only by offensives, but a lot of times by weather as well which causes a major reduction in the air activities.

2. When the RFC communique noted only that there were a limited amount of work accomplished, I added that to the spreadsheet as limited flying. For example, During the Battle of the Somme, on July 8th, 2016, it notes: the weather was unfavorable. Three reconnaissances flying at low altitude were successfully accomplished. This includes the activity for entire RFC on that day (except maybe for test flights and such). The next day did not mention the weather and it was the most intense day of fighting, thus, a lot of air activity was recorded on the 9th.

I also noted in my spreadsheet when the weather would sometimes change on the same day from morning, to afternoon, to evening. For example, some days, there would be no flying in the morning, then in the late afternoon, the weather would clear up and activity would resume. Therefore, I would not fly a mission in the morning on that day and fly in late afternoon. A bit more challenging I would assume to end a mission past sunset and make your way back to base.

3. I intend to use this spreadsheet when planning missions via the mission editor so that I can modify when I should fly, or limit the amount of air activity or cancel flights on those days mentioned in the Communique.






Last edited by orbyxP; 03/30/20 06:16 PM.
#4513575 - 03/30/20 06:24 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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VonS Offline
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Thank you OrbyxP for these developments; I look forward to the spreadsheet. And, Buckeye, sign me up for that "hardcore weather mod" - we gluttons for punishment eagerly await it.

Von S smile


~ For my various FM/AI/FPS/DM Mods. for First Eagles 2, WoFF, RoF & WoTR, and tips for FlightGear, recommended is to check over my CombatAce profile (https://combatace.com/profile/86760-vons/) and to click on the "About Me" tab while there. ~
#4513651 - 03/31/20 03:11 AM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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orbyxP Offline
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Excel file is uploaded in first post.

Cheers!

#4513667 - 03/31/20 09:04 AM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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Beanie Offline
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Cheers orbyxP

Regards


'Der Fuchs'

BOC Member
'BWOC BWOC BWOC'
#4513712 - 03/31/20 02:18 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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Thank you, OrbyxP.

In case you want to have a crack at this yourself, the OFFHistoricalWeather191x.txt files are very easy to edit, once you understand their structure. The only other requirement is a good Excel spreadsheet, which you already have. Let me know if you have any questions.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513746 - 03/31/20 05:01 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: BuckeyeBob]  
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orbyxP Offline
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Originally Posted by BuckeyeBob
Thank you, OrbyxP.

In case you want to have a crack at this yourself, the OFFHistoricalWeather191x.txt files are very easy to edit, once you understand their structure. The only other requirement is a good Excel spreadsheet, which you already have. Let me know if you have any questions.


I am happy to adjust the text files. Are you able to let me know when to use light, medium heavy and none in various combinations as an example? Or when to use the numbers 1 to 6 (? I think) also as an example? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

For instance, the common weather that affected air activity in various degrees were "low clouds", "haze, mist or fog" , "strong winds", "rain-storms" and "heavy rain". How do I bring those conditions into the campaign weather using the text files?

Last edited by orbyxP; 03/31/20 05:19 PM.
#4513763 - 03/31/20 05:58 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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Tell you what. I've looked at your file, and it doesn't look like it will take too long for me to adjust my files with your data and then show you the results. Or, you can do it yourself. Either way is fine with me.

Give me a little time and I will post a reply showing what each line in the WOFF historical weather file does.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513779 - 03/31/20 07:04 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: orbyxP]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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Here goes: each record must have exactly 12 lines, with the last line being "EOR". The first two lines in the example below are only required at the start of the file and indicate the total number of records and the number of lines as described above. (Spoiler tag for those without top secret security clearance or who don't want to know the details).


1 // # of records
12 // # of lines
1 // day
1 // month
1918 // year
2
1
1918
6 // weather (1 = Good, 2 = Light, 3 = Medium, 4 = Changeable, 5 = Heavy, 6 = precipitation)
Thick clouds and snow likely // brief weather description
1 // number of missions ( 0 - 3, 0 = missions scrubbed, no missions that day)
Medium // precipitation (None, Light, Medium, Heavy)
Heavy // snow cover during winter months (None, Light, Medium, Heavy)
EOR


Note: missions can be scrubbed for any reason, but the game assumes it is due to precipitation. Presently, there is no way to model weather on less than a daily basis, other than skipping missions on days that you want to model bad weather in the morning, with clearing skies in the afternoon, for example.


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4513799 - 03/31/20 09:25 PM Re: Weather and air activity [Re: BuckeyeBob]  
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orbyxP Offline
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orbyxP  Offline
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Washington State
Originally Posted by BuckeyeBob

Note: missions can be scrubbed for any reason, but the game assumes it is due to precipitation. Presently, there is no way to model weather on less than a daily basis, other than skipping missions on days that you want to model bad weather in the morning, with clearing skies in the afternoon, for example.


Thank you for the explanation. I can start on it since I am able to reference my source documents.

However, I don't see a way to include the weather conditions I had seen most often in the communique - "low clouds", "haze, mist or fog" , "strong winds". There are a LOT of entries with these three combined in one way or another. These are what made the air activity less and/or the missions challenging to complete.

NOTE: I think I may have found a way to do it. But I will take this discussion to the MODs section now.

Last edited by orbyxP; 03/31/20 09:35 PM.

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