Randomize Cloud Formations with SH3 Commander?

[panthercules]

As I was looking at my newly-restored clouds (had some wierd issue with GW briefly where I went for a couple of weeks in game through all sorts of wind/seas conditions but not a single cloud in the sky), it struck me that the clouds I was seeing looked pretty familiar. I began to wonder if it would be possible to provide a lot more variety in the cloud graphics by having several different cloud designs/patterns and have SH3 Commander randomize a selection from among the many available choices each time you started up the game.

I have no idea how the game handles generating the clouds, or if the cloud graphics mechanisms are so entwined with things like the 8Km vs 16Km visibility mod files or other mod files so that trying to have SH3 Commander do this would screw up some other aspects of certain mods or you would have to have a separate set of random cloud graphics for each major mod out there (like RUB, IUB, GW, NYGM, etc.), which sounds pretty unworkable. I always felt like the weather effects really added to the enjoyment of the IL-2 series and SH3, and if this would work without a lot of effort i think it could add a lot to the SH3 experience. Anybody know if this would be do-able?

[JScones]

With SH3Cmdr R2.5, I can pretty close to boldly state that any aspect of SH3 can be randomised.

Your task could be achieved one of two ways:

1. If the clouds are stored in image files, use the Random folder structure. Images shouldn't clash with any mod, but I would naively suspect that there may need to be some consistency in image size and content - and this may be linked to other environment files. But hey, I really have no idea other than it could be done. ;)

2. If the clouds are defined by data file settings, use the new "Randomised Events" feature. gouldjg is successfully using it with his Hollywood Chaos mod, and it's the way Hemisent's Thermal Layers mod has been implemented. Less likelyhood of conflict, but even if so, easier likelyhood of rectifying.

[Dowly]

This would be great to have! :rock:

[panthercules]

Ok - sounds like this should be possible - now someone just needs to step up and do it :)

If I had any artistic skills I might actually try this myself, but I shudder to think what my clouds would look like even if I knew what files there were in and how to manipulate them. I hope someone with some actual skills will see this and take a shot at putting something like this together. [where's the emoticon for "begging"?]

[Hartmann]

Very interesting !! :rock:

i think that there are only two clouds textures in the game

Nori00.tga

Nori01.tga

and CloudsTransition.tga

[panthercules]

Very interesting !! :rock:

i think that there are only two clouds textures in the game

Nori00.tga

Nori01.tga

and CloudsTransition.tga

LOL - well, I tried messing around with those 2 Nori files, and sure enough you can see the effects in the game :o

It proved my conviction that I have no talent for drawing clouds - somebody else will definitely have to do this if it's going to get done. :yep:

That cloud transition just looked like a simple white square, so I can't imagine what the game must be doing with it to create the transition/partly cloudy effects. Maybe whoever fixed that gawdawful crazy dome effect when you looked straight up in the stock game could take a whack at creating some additional sets of Nori files or something so that SH3 Commander could randomize these clouds into a really cool-looking set of skies.

[Dowly]

I tried it too. I made the files seamless, but still the sky didnt look quite right. The seams were visible in one case and in other there was spots where there was no clouds at all.

I have some nice pics to use as skies, I just need to figure out how to make it! :damn:

[panthercules]

C'mon you artistic wizards out there - surely someone understands how these cloud files/pictures work and could throw something together for us weather-realists :)

Maybe some nice cirrus, altocumulus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, and my personal favorites, the cumulonimbus - gotta have something for those pesky Catalinas and our friendly Condors to play hide and seek in, don't we?

With the new randomization capabilities of the latest SH3 Commander versions, this seems like such a natural enhancement (not to be confused with the ever-popular "male enhancement") to the game - somebody please rise to the challenge :up:

[Dowly]

C'mon you artistic wizards out there - surely someone understands how these cloud files/pictures work and could throw something together for us weather-realists :)

Maybe some nice cirrus, altocumulus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, and my personal favorites, the cumulonimbus - gotta have something for those pesky Catalinas and our friendly Condors to play hide and seek in, don't we?

With the new randomization capabilities of the latest SH3 Commander versions, this seems like such a natural enhancement (not to be confused with the ever-popular "male enhancement") to the game - somebody please rise to the challenge :up:

I made some test and it seems that the sky is formed by 4 square tiles. With 8km visibility, I see 4 tiles. Might be more on 16km.

Anyway, I have to make the picture seamless on every side. And it have to be pretty simple. And then there´s another problem. I cant understand how to get the sky visible behind the partial clouds. My partial clouds cover whole sky! :rotfl:

I do some more test when I have more time (Which I dont have! :rotfl: )

[Dowly]

Ok, here´s some shots of the sky and the problem I´m having.

Oooo.... Nice sky!
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4421/11rf3.jpg

Huh?! WTF!!!?? :damn:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6306/112mh1.jpg

I´ve been struggling with this problem all the time. I wish that someone could give me a hint on how to get rid of that.

[panthercules]

Man - glad to see someone is still messing with this - things were looking pretty good with that first shot - but looks like you're getting the same sort of tiling I was getting when i played around with this too. Maybe this bump will trigger someone who knows the secret to chime in here and give us some great new cloud formations.

[Dowly]

Yep, when the seams are get rid off. I can make unlimited number of partial clouds skies.

Then again, I havent tested this on dawn/dusk. It might be that the blue on that sky isnt transparent. :doh:

[Dowly]

http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/3722/working18ux.th.jpg (http://img312.imageshack.us/my.php?image=working18ux.jpg)
http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/7866/working25mz.th.jpg (http://img312.imageshack.us/my.php?image=working25mz.jpg)

:smug:

Now on to the storm sky! :up:

[panthercules]

Looking pretty nice - you wanna make the files available for download or e-mail them to me so I can help test them in-game and see how they're affected by day/night and wind cycles?

[Dowly]

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/4612/lotragstsm8gt.jpg
:-j

I´ll make some better clouds before giving them to anyone. You´ll get the files tomorrow.

On another note, the storm sky is driving me nuts. I can´t use the same method I used on partial clouds as the storm sky have to be 100% covered with clouds in order to prevent silly incidents (Like rain with blue sky above you :) ).

[JScones]

Just another thought... Will you be creating seasonal cloud variations? If so, not only can you randomise your clouds in the Random folders, you could also change them based on season (by adding extra date folders under each random folder)...

[ref]

Ok, here´s some shots of the sky and the problem I´m having.

Oooo.... Nice sky!
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4421/11rf3.jpg

Huh?! huh?!!!?? :damn:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6306/112mh1.jpg

I´ve been struggling with this problem all the time. I wish that someone could give me a hint on how to get rid of that.
It seems that your images aren't tileable, you should use the offset filter in your paint program, and for example if your image is 1024x1024 then offset it 512 horizontal and 512 vertical, and check that there are no seams.

Ref

[Dowly]

It seems that your images aren't tileable, you should use the offset filter in your paint program, and for example if your image is 1024x1024 then offset it 512 horizontal and 512 vertical, and check that there are no seams.

Ref

Yup, tried that with storm sky. Horrible seams crossing the image. And it´s a pain in the butt to cover them up.

JScones, I´ll try to make some different clouds. The method I´m using now gives me a randomized cloud pattern. Maybe I try to add thin cloud layers, that you can see thru.

Panthercules: Here´s the sky file you asked
http://rapidshare.de/files/19826813/Nori00.tga.html

[Kpt. Lehmann]

This would be great to have! :rock:

Exactly. :up: :up: :up:

[panthercules]

Panthercules: Here´s the sky file you asked
http://rapidshare.de/files/19826813/Nori00.tga.html

Thanks man - I downloaded and installed this, but I've been chasing this same convoy through 3 or 4 days (game time) of heavy rain and 15m/s storms over the past few nights, so I've yet to be able to get a look at this - hopefully, the weather will change when I get back out there later tonight and I can see what this looks like.

Keep after it - I still think this would be an awesome addition if we could get some great cloud variety this way.

[panthercules]

Well, still no chance to check this out - I did finally get out of that monster storm that followed me for 7-8 days while I was stalking that convoy, but now it's been 3-4 straight days of absolutely cloudless skies. At least the winds have dropped from 15m/s to 3, so I have been able to get my last few external stores into my tubes, so I'll have something left to shoot at this new convoy I've just gotten a report on.

If I ever see "normal" clouds again, I'll let you know what your file looks like.

[JScones]

Why don't you use Skweetis' SH3Weather and set the weather to be exactly what you want to test? The related thread is current at the moment.

[panthercules]

Why don't you use Skweetis' SH3Weather and set the weather to be exactly what you want to test? The related thread is current at the moment.

I've been wanting to check that out, but I'm currently on patrol and since almost everything seems to like being installed while in port I figured I'd wait till I get back in order to try that. So far I've gotten very streaky weather this patrol - several days at first with no clouds, then about 7 days straight with storm/rain/15m/s winds, and now about 7 days straight again with no clouds at all. I only have one real career going at a time so I do more playing/testing that real testing, but maybe I'll load up the phony career I made to test my Yellow Submarine mod and try it out on that one if you can use that mod/program in one career without messing up another one.

[panthercules]

Well, I didn't have a chance to try out the weather tweaker yet, but I did finally see some of these new clouds while out on patrol. Here is a shot of the new clouds using the file from Dowly:

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1396361/0/nouser_1396/T1_-1_1396361.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1396361)

And, here is a shot showing the old clouds (not sure if they're stock or something changed with GW 1.0, but this was before loading up Dowly's new cloud file experiment):

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1400141/0/nouser_1400/T1_-1_1400141.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1400141)


At least this shows the possibilities of manipulating these cloud files - one thing I noticed though Dowly - your new clouds are very thin - most if not all the stars shone through them at night. Not sure if that's anything you did on purpose or not - actually a few stars shining through would have looked pretty cool, but it was a bit odd with as many showing through as did with this file. Just thought I'd mention it in case it was some setting you can vary.

I still think the possibility of having some random cloud formations using SH3 Commander would be a nice little touch to add - I hope Dowly or someone else with this kind of talent can make this work