What's the rain-drop texture?
 

Yesterday, I was sailing in a heavy storm, Sept. N-Atlanctic W of Schotland.
It was pitch-dark, and rain was showerring.
But somehow the rain just doesn't look right: it's to white/bright, and the pattern isn't random enough.

I guess there's no way to make a rain-shower look differently - pattern-wise - so I thought I could try to change the texture of a raindrop itself.

Where is it?
I've found this one: Senin.tga, located in ...:\Program Files\SilentHunterIII\data\Misc.
Does this thingy stand for a rain-drop?

GWX here, btw.

There's no texture for the rain, it's generated mathematically, the parameters are stored in scene.dat, here's the values you can change

Rain

RandomWind (Random wind parameters)
--ChangeTimeMin (The minimum time after which the random wind changes)
--ChangeTimeMax (The maximum time after which the random wind changes)
--RandomWindSpeedMax (The maximum intensity of the random wind)
--RandomWindSpeedVariationSpeed (The speed of intensity change for random wind)
--RandomWindHeadingVariationSpeed (The speed of heading change for random wind)
DropsNumber (Total number of rain drops)
FallSpeed (Rain drop fall speed)
RainIntensityChangeSpeed (The speed of change for rain intensity)
MinSize (Rain drop minimum size)
MaxSize (Rain drop maximum size)
HeadColor (The color of the start of the drop)
HeadAlpha (The alpha of the start of the drop)
TailColor (The color of the end of the drop)
TailAlpha (The alpha of the end of the drop)

Ref

Ok, thx for this clarification. :)
(Btw, then what is this Senin.tga for?)

OMG, I've never messed with SH3's dat-files!
I thought I could simply edit a texture.:oops:

Well...
I'll post a screenie later on, of the rain I'm currently getting, in GWX/pitch dark/heavy storm.
Then I'll explain how I would like it to be, ok?:D
I can give you a hint: if you play Oblivion, then you know the kind of rain-showers I want.

This is the rain I get in GWX:

http://www.61shap.org/pilots/Paajtor.../GWXrain1a.jpg


Whether in external camera, on the bridge, or through binoculars...it looks the same everytime.
Even though it's late-summer, it appears as snow to be honest.
And the odd thing is, that is blinding to much at closeby, while it should be blinding further away (forming a curtain)...it seems as if it's only raining within 2m around me (or my viewing point).

How can this be changed, to look a bit more realistic?
In a storm as seen above, rain shouldn't be a steady stream like it is now...it should come in showers, gusts of wind blowing curtains almost horizontally.

I'm thinking of a few values to change:

- ChangeTimeMin > set to have more frequent wind-changes
- RandomWindSpeedMax > set to greater max-intensity of the random wind
- RandomWindSpeedVariationSpeed > set to higher intensity

- DropsNumber > higher
- RainIntensityChangeSpeed > higher
- MinSize > allot smaller
- MaxSize > a little smaller
- HeadColor > darker
- HeadAlpha > more transparant
- TailColor > darker
- TailAlpha > a little more transparant

Now I have 2 questions:

- which scene.dat should I try to edit? One is in default SH3/data, the other is in ...:\Program Files\SilentHunterIII\MODS\GWX - 16km Atmosphere\data (in my setup)
- which program should I use, to open the .dat-file?

Use time traveller's mini tweaker to edit scene.dat, you can edit either file, if you edit the one in your sh3 folder the changes will reflect inmediatly, if you edit the one in the mods folder you must disable and then reenable the mod for the changes to take effect. Also remember that you need to exit sh3 and then restart it to enable the changes, if you just exit the mission/patrol it doesn't work because sh3 preloads most files at startup.

Ref

Would it be possible to make the drops slower, more white and increase their numbers, to simulate something that looks like snow?

It's possible, but you'll have snow even on the tropics.

Ref

Well, with the weird climate changes around the world, that wouldnt be so strange..:rotfl::rotfl:But could this be implemented in the commander, and activated if you start from the northern bases in winter only?

Weird Climates?
 

:hmm: Seth, with all due respect, I assume you are referring to winters being cold and summers being hot? Hmmmm?:yep:

:oops:Winters cool and summers hot, or winters hot and summers cool.. When its warmer at christmas then it was all summer, something is wrong..:yep::rotfl:

Winters Cold, Summers Hot
 

:rotfl: Perhaps you should take a look at the weather today...hmmmmm?:hmm:

Hottest years on record for USA occurred in 1930's...hmmmmm?:hmm:
Most scientists in the 1970's predicted a new ice age coming soon...Hmmmmm?:hmm:
All ice ages melted prior to industrialization...hmmmmmm?:hmm:
Wonder why the ice melted...hmmmmm?:hmm:


I would think you would appreciate some extra warmth in Norway. Cold today (January), hot in summer.
Whoops...that's the way it goes, buddy!:rotfl:

:up: thx!

To be continued, I hope.

Hey, its atleast 1 meter of snow here i am now (Currently Tromsoe). I actually like the winter, but enough is enough!:rotfl:
Back to topic: Could a weather mod based on the commander include snow? IIRC, SHWeather has a setting for mediterranean weather. Couldnt this be made to work for the snow to?

I guess it would be possible, but does it snow in the middle of the ocean?, snow requires a very specific set of temperature/humidity...

Ref

IIRC, the snow can fall everywhere, also in the middle of the ocean..
Here is a link to the story of a ship that went sown in a snowstorm /blizzard outside Newfoundland.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2002/...ks_020127.html