[REL]SH3/4 Weather Report + RealWeatherFix mod.

[Stiebler]

Subtype Zero and I have done a lot of experimental work to try to improve the weather in SH3, principally to reduce the 'rainy-storms' (periods of thick fog, heavy rain, wind 15 m/s).

This has resulted in the release of two items.

The Weather Report is another article from NYGM research, with corrections and additions by the Romanian devs. Everything you ever needed to know about weather in SH3 and SH4, combined in one five-page PDF file. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (TM) to read this file.

The RealWeatherFix combines the settings that we feel are appropriate into one mod. Owing to the fact that there are so many different campaign files out there, and various alterations to the key file 'scene.dat', it is not realistic to provide separate substitute files for every available variant of SH3. Instead I have written a short program that stamps our data onto your existing files, while making back-ups of the originals. Full instructions with the read-me.

We can't fix everything, since the devs themselves acknowledge that the algorithm for SH3 weather is defective (corrected for SH4, though). There was a strong tendency to produce rainy-storms. Our parameters greatly reduce this tendency, resulting in a marked improvement to game play. Tested with stock SH3, NYGM, GWX.

Both items (NYGMWeatherReport.zip and RealWeatherFix.zip) can be downloaded from:

http://hosted.filefront.com/TeddyBar/

You can also download the current versions of NYGM from the same site. The weather changes have not been made to current NYGM, but will appear as standard in the forthcoming version 2.7. Meanwhile you can use RealWeatherFix to make the necessary weather changes.

The RealWeatherFix has been tested not least in a rolling campaign in NYGM, over a period of five game years. Before becoming too critical about supposed failures of the RealWeatherFix, please remember that the weather algorithm uses *random* parameters. We will only consider alleged defects if you can reproduce the faults in triplicate (ie, from three patrols minimum) and provide accurate documentary evidence.

Stiebler.

[onelifecrisis]

Sounds awesome!

One question... you mentioned scene.dat? Does this utility change scene.dat and if so will it affect sensors (some of the settings in there do)

[difool2]

Very cool. One thing I didn't get much of at all using my settings was fog. Will try and report back.

[Sailor Steve]

Looking forward to trying this one.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Stiebler, I just added [REL] to your thread title May attract a few more folks to this thread. Nice work by the way


RDP

[onelifecrisis]

Great! Installing now

(great readme btw )

[Kumando]

Can it be used in a mid of a patrol?

I run SH3 (with GWX 2.0 Mod) via SH3 Commander, which in turn launches SH3Weather, and then the game.

Can I use this program prior to running SH3 Commander ? Is it compatible with SH3Weather or will it produce strange results ?

Thanks...

[Dowly]

Sounds nice.

[mikaelanderlund]

Cool . Can it be used with SH3Weather?:hmm: .

Mikael

[Clash]

My game won't load! Red progress bar didn't start moving and i have to reset my pc.
I use GWX 2.0 with SH-Commander 2.7

How can i restore the old status of my game? I was in my base before patrol.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Clash

My game won't load! Red progress bar didn't start moving and i have to reset my pc.
I use GWX 2.0 with SH-Commander 2.7

Same problem here - without SH3 Commander. I used the 16km scene.dat in case that makes a difference. I've restored my old files no problem.

[Meridian]

Getting the same error.

Progress bar moves about 5% and locks when loading a mission. I'm also using a 16km mod.

I also used the JSGME install method.

[Clash]

Looks like I screwed up the original scene.dat! Game crashes after restoring old files - game loads but CTD short before start. Is there a way to get the clean scene.dat back?

edit:
looks like the stock scene.dat is deleted after using the .exe two times:
First time: stock scene.dat->originalscene.dat plus new scene.dat
Second time: new scene.dat->originalscene.dat, stock one deleted plus new scene.dat

Is that right?

Edit: I got my game working again with the original scene.dat. Anyone got a idea where the problem is with this mod for some of us? I'am not using the 16km Mod

[Subtype Zero]

Hello, Kaluens! I am the collaborator with Stiebler on the RWF, although he did all of the coding. Although RWF was tested on NYGM and GWX 1.03, it was not tested on GWX 2.0, nor on any GWX version with the 16K mod. It should work on GWX 2.0, unless 2.0 altered the structure of scene.dat in some way that we are not aware of. Same applies to anyone that uses the 16k mod.

RealWeatherFix.exe is designed to be run only once, before you start SH3 or load a patrol. Make sure you follow the readme instructions exactly. This stamps the new values into scene.dat and copies new values to the three campaign_XXX.mis files. Then, follow the instructions to enable RWF to be loaded via JSGME. Be sure to move the backup campaign files and the scenoriginal.dat file to a safe place somewhere else on your computer. Finally, delete the RealWeatherFix.exe file from your data folder.

RWF can be used with both SHCommander and SH3Weather, although using SH3Weather with RWF will cause some unpredictable weather changes because SH3Weather also changes the campaign_XXX.mis files. Our recommendation is to not use SH3Weather with RWF, although it should not crash or damage your installation.