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View Full Version : Is it possible for TF to mod new cloud types in CLOD?



Kling
Jun-29-2013, 08:15
Well i fly to the UK a few times a week and very seldom do we have the cumulus type of cloud in the area.
Mostly the cloud layers consist of Stratus layer clouds and many times they are half transparent.
Extremely seldom do cumulus clouds form over the channel.

Is it possible in CLod for TF to create stratus layers instead of cotton ball cumulus clouds?!

I would look better and be alot more realistic!
Sometimes i see gorgeous photos of the game that would look sooo soo realistic if it werent for the cotton ball cumulus clouds... :/

Best regards
Kling

Mattias
Jun-29-2013, 08:45
Regarding your question -clouds are being looked at but we don't know if we are able to make anything for the next patch. We are trying though :thumbsup:

Cheers/m

Roblex
Jun-29-2013, 09:16
I am sorry but I have to dispute the statements " very seldom do we have the cumulus type of cloud in the area." and "Extremely seldom do cumulus clouds form over the channel."

I used to belong to a gliding club based a few miles from Dover and while I agree that there were no usable thermals over the Channel there were still cumulus clouds that had drifted out, sometimes whole streets of them. Convection is the main cause of cumulus but you will even find them mid ocean despite the lower thermal activity and lesser amounts of pollutants. Getting cumulus in the narrow channel between England and France is not a problem.

On the other hand, I have no problem with introducing new clouds :-)

Gromit
Jun-29-2013, 09:39
If you want realistic weather over the UK we're going to have to model torrential rain and haze!:P

buster_dee
Jun-29-2013, 10:18
Sorry to get off topic, but I just HAVE to tell this story. My wife-to-be was an American student studying in Oxford. I had always wanted to see England, so her invitation left a man-sized hole in my wall and found me looking very touristy (read out of place) in an Oxford bus stop. It was April, with plenty of rain as evidence. Whenever I saw a crack in the clouds, I'd grap my coat and head for the door, hoping I could pry her from her studies for a walk. Before I could touch the doorknob, there would be a knock. Since she had been there a little while, she would anticipate the clearing before I, and would be coming to gather me up for that walk.

Afterwards, we did the math: in 11 days, we had accumulated 2.5 hours of sunshine--and worn out a brand new pair of shoes.

1lokos
Jun-29-2013, 10:29
Testing with FMB weater object I get nice clouds formations.

But are a problem that prevents achieve appropriate visual:
CLoD "visibility bubble" (you know, the grass rising...) which means that at distance only see clear skies...

Sokol1

Dutch
Jun-29-2013, 10:44
Afterwards, we did the math: in 11 days, we had accumulated 2.5 hours of sunshine--and worn out a brand new pair of shoes.

Wow, you must have walked a long way in those 2.5hrs to wear out the shoes, or was the damage from all the running to get out of the rain which soon followed? :D

Either way, the summer of 1940 was a rare event. Even rarer was the summer of 1976, which led to water shortages and instructions not to flush the loo too often. Ah me, the summer of 76. It'll never happen again unfortunately. :(

Thinking about it, maybe that's why I like Cliffs of Dover so much. Because it's always sunny in England in the virtual skies. :thumbsup:

Kling
Jun-29-2013, 10:50
I am sorry but I have to dispute the statements " very seldom do we have the cumulus type of cloud in the area." and "Extremely seldom do cumulus clouds form over the channel."

I used to belong to a gliding club based a few miles from Dover and while I agree that there were no usable thermals over the Channel there were still cumulus clouds that had drifted out, sometimes whole streets of them. Convection is the main cause of cumulus but you will even find them mid ocean despite the lower thermal activity and lesser amounts of pollutants. Getting cumulus in the narrow channel between England and France is not a problem.

On the other hand, I have no problem with introducing new clouds :-)


Fair enough...
Sometimes there are a few convective clouds over the channel, but most of the times its layers of stratus in the area... besides it woul look better.. ;)

Dutch
Jun-29-2013, 11:04
Ok, back on topic.

I made this little clip of the existing clouds soon after the TF patch, but I only posted it in the member's section I think.

I think this one layer of cloud looks ok. You can put in multiple layers of differing types for a more realistic look, but it brings your fps down to a slideshow.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqbS7dwOiYE

ATAG_Colander
Jun-29-2013, 11:29
The problem is, we have no access to the source code and contrary to what some believe, no support from any of the original devs whatsoever.
We are looking for ways around this for clouds but we are also looking into many many many other things at the same time (our spare time that is). This is why changes don't happen as fast as we all would like.

Kling
Jun-29-2013, 12:18
The problem is, we have no access to the source code and contrary to what some believe, no support from any of the original devs whatsoever.
We are looking for ways around this for clouds but we are also looking into many many many other things at the same time (our spare time that is). This is why changes don't happen as fast as we all would like.

We know Colander, my question was more if its possible with the current access that TF has. The clouds did change in looks with TF 3.00 thats why I asked if its possible to mod the current clouds to flatter stratus looking ones...
Its so difficult to ask things on a forum without them sounding like a request...
Was not my intention ;)

Regards
Kling

RAF74_Buzzsaw
Jun-29-2013, 14:59
We have a system of priorities for the all work we are doing on the game:

1) Fix the bugs with aircraft performance so they perform up to historical standards

2) Fix the faulty elements of the graphics environment and replace elements which appear abnormal.

3) Introduce new aircraft and graphics to the enviroment.

After the priorities are finished, we then move onto the creation of new elements for the game. So, in relation to our work with clouds, and with these priorities in mind, although we would like to create the types of clouds and weather formations you describe, (we have already created a number of new types of cloud representations) we must first of all, fix the 'Popup' aspect of the current cloud formations. This is an improvement we are working on for the next release.

Kling
Jun-29-2013, 15:30
We have a system of priorities for the all work we are doing on the game:

1) Fix the bugs with aircraft performance so they perform up to historical standards

2) Fix the faulty elements of the graphics environment and replace elements which appear abnormal.

3) Introduce new aircraft and graphics to the enviroment.

After the priorities are finished, we then move onto the creation of new elements for the game. So, in relation to our work with clouds, and with these priorities in mind, although we would like to create the types of clouds and weather formations you describe, (we have already created a number of new types of cloud representations) we must first of all, fix the 'Popup' aspect of the current cloud formations. This is an improvement we are working on for the next release.

Sounds great Buzzaw! ;)

Mattias
Jun-29-2013, 18:16
We know Colander, my question was more if its possible with the current access that TF has. The clouds did change in looks with TF 3.00 thats why I asked if its possible to mod the current clouds to flatter stratus looking ones...
Its so difficult to ask things on a forum without them sounding like a request...
Was not my intention ;)

Regards
Kling

:salute:

We always welcome ideas Kling :thumbsup:

We are trying our best to make the most out of the clouds but as Buzzsaw and Colander pointed out there is some areas we cannot yet tweak and it's not our highest priority at the moment. With that said I have to add that some of us have spent a lot of time trying to improve the clouds within the limitations we currently have :thumbsup:

Cheers/m

Dutch
Jun-29-2013, 20:43
The best thing that ever happened to 'Cliffs of Dover' was the removal by Team Fusion of the ridiculous icing within clouds in the middle of summer. It seems people have short memories. I have no idea of how many lines of code needed to be re-written to achieve this end. So when we ask for more or different clouds, maybe we should remember what it used to be like. Clouds were things which would break your aeroplane, and were to be avoided like the proverbial bubonic plague. Now we can fly through them in a normal fashion.

I'm sure the chaps will get around to a lot of things, eventually. :thumbsup:

Kling
Jun-29-2013, 21:41
The best thing that ever happened to 'Cliffs of Dover' was the removal by Team Fusion of the ridiculous icing within clouds in the middle of summer. It seems people have short memories. I have no idea of how many lines of code needed to be re-written to achieve this end. So when we ask for more or different clouds, maybe we should remember what it used to be like. Clouds were things which would break your aeroplane, and were to be avoided like the proverbial bubonic plague. Now we can fly through them in a normal fashion.

I'm sure the chaps will get around to a lot of things, eventually. :thumbsup:

And if you check the forum history, I was one of the guys that loudly asked for the icing to be removed from the game if possible...
Also if you read this whole thread I wasnt requesting TF to mod the clouds, i just asked if its possible to do at all. Different things!
One must be able to ask questions on this forum without them being interpreted as "requesting TF to do this or that"...

Im sure we all have full trust in in TF!!

Dutch
Jun-29-2013, 21:57
And if you check the forum history, I was one of the guys that loudly asked for the icing to be removed from the game if possible...
Also if you read this whole thread I wasnt requesting TF to mod the clouds, i just asked if its possible to do at all. Different things!
One must be able to ask questions on this forum without them being interpreted as "requesting TF to do this or that"...

Woah Dobbin! I won't be checking any history thanks.

Whatever gave you the idea that I was criticising? Just a reminder to all reading the forum, as to what it used to be like, that's all. :thumbsup:

Kling
Jun-29-2013, 22:40
Woah Dobbin! I won't be checking any history thanks.

Whatever gave you the idea that I was criticising? Just a reminder to all reading the forum, as to what it used to be like, that's all. :thumbsup:

Fair enough ;)

Roblex
Jun-30-2013, 03:00
I am not so sure I like the idea of stratus clouds as that is basically 'fog that is above ground level', usually no higher than one or two thousand feet. This would make navigation too hard for most people and high level bombing a waste of time. If people did not abandon the map all we would have is low level furballing which is what we are trying to get away from. Yes, people could climb up through the cloud layer and dogfight above a featureless white carpet, it might even help framerates, but then when they finish they will have no idea where they are.

It could be that Kling meant 'Cumulostratus' which is a low solid layer of individual flattened cumulus clouds covering most of the sky but it would be just as detrimental to bombing. Even with the current clouds I have been frustrated a few times by spending 30 minutes planning the perfect bombing run only to have a cloud block the target and render all my efforts and time wasted. Yes, in real life bombing raids were often frustrated by cloud over the target but this is not real life and players get annoyed rather than relieved when they get to come home without doing anything useful. If you only fly fighters then imagine a map where you have a 75% chance of finding that any time you climb above 10,000ft your guns will refuse to fire so there is no point to your sortie, well now imagine it took twice as long to climb that high :td2:

All in all, if you were to sit down and say 'What type of weather would allow us to see nice clouds, clouds we can hide in but not get in the way?' then it would be what we have now :D

By all means put in altocumus which is a layer of smaller less substantial clouds which can be set at an alt of up to 20,000 so still allow level bombing or just have a few maps with no clouds at all. Thinking about it, I don't think I can recall as single BoB photograph that shows anything more than high cirrus :laugh:

TheVino3
Jun-30-2013, 04:24
CloD can have weather "fronts", and therefore different weather above different parts of the map. So that would mean that there might be a Stratus layer (for example) over a certain area, moving a certain way, forcing you to make a decision about where you want to go and for how long etc. If possible I think that simulating as many different cloud types as possible is a far better decision than sticking with what we have now - which is...pretty crap, to say the least - regardless of whether that makes some bombing missions harder than others.

Of course at this point Im in no position to talk about what is possible and what is not in regards to CloD's weather system at this point, most likely any significant changes to it are a fair way off.

Cheers

Kling
Jun-30-2013, 06:22
CloD can have weather "fronts", and therefore different weather above different parts of the map. So that would mean that there might be a Stratus layer (for example) over a certain area, moving a certain way, forcing you to make a decision about where you want to go and for how long etc. If possible I think that simulating as many different cloud types as possible is a far better decision than sticking with what we have now - which is...pretty crap, to say the least - regardless of whether that makes some bombing missions harder than others.

Of course at this point Im in no position to talk about what is possible and what is not in regards to CloD's weather system at this point, most likely any significant changes to it are a fair way off.

Cheers

Yes something like that! :)
Different layers of clouds all the way up to 30 000 feet would indeed look beautiful. None of them would have to 8/8 (overcast) but more a way show a sky that looks alive...
Anyway, i cant for my life understand why 1C just like in il2 1946 decided to release the game with ONLY the cutton ball looking clouds from Il2 belonging to a game 10 years older.

FSX has some nice cloud mods that look extreemely realistic!

:)

Dutch
Jun-30-2013, 08:26
FSX has some nice cloud mods that look extreemely realistic!

:)

Yup, I have REX (Real Environment Extreme) for FSX, but whilst it looks impressive, It's not that good to fly through, as the clouds can be very '2D' rather than 3D. But you're right, it does look good.

I'd post some screenshots, but bitmaps are too big to upload. :(