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andqui · 08-01-11, 12:05 AM

I am unclear if these methods of changing the weather require the user to exit the SH world or if they can be applied instantaneously. As far as I know, the stop the rain fix requires the user to exit to the SH3 menu, apply the fix, and then load a save, which is a bit of a pain if you need to do it every time the weather changes.

From what I've been able to find, the weather data I found in the first post requires a bunch of detailed programming knowledge to even be able to read it- the organization provides a FORTRAN program, of all things, to read the information, which is a bit beyond me at the moment. I think that anyone can agree that this will be impossible without some sort of script to format the mass of information into the relevant parts needed. For the purposes of SH3, it would be necessary to split the world up into regions, such as N. Atlantic, middle Atlantic, South Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, etc, and then "average" the weather in each of those areas to a single daily value for visibility, wind, and cloud coverage. The game would have to decide which region the player was in (without leading to weird behavior at the boundaries of the regions), and then have the weather automatically changed depending on the date and region. Outside of the sh3-modding challenges, getting and compiling the data alone would be extremely difficult.

There's a World War 1 modification of MS Combat Flight Simulator 3 called "Over Flanders Fields" which includes a feature like the above- they got hold of weather data over France, Britain, and Germany from 1914 to 1918 and applied it in game, and it's a really cool feature. I think that land weather data like that is much easier to find, added to the fact that the only area you need to really cover is France and Belgium, as opposed to pretty much the whole ocean except for the Pacific.

What got me thinking about this is the fact that the variability of SH3's weather is so invariable. The bad weather fixes have cured the endless loops of 15 m/s winds, which was vital, but now, playing GWX3, we have weather that pretty much changes once every 24 hours, and is so predictable. Besides the length of day/night, I can't tell much difference between summer and winter as far as weather is concerned, and not once in my time playing SH3 have I ever been in fog together with calm winds, which is how ocean fog exists the vast majority of the time. The weather patterns in the Caribbean seem identical to those in the North Sea. It feels like it lacks "character," and that you replay the same loop each patrol, which of course you do.

08-01-11, 12:05 AM	#8
andqui Soundman Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 149 Downloads: 195 Uploads: 0	I am unclear if these methods of changing the weather require the user to exit the SH world or if they can be applied instantaneously. As far as I know, the stop the rain fix requires the user to exit to the SH3 menu, apply the fix, and then load a save, which is a bit of a pain if you need to do it every time the weather changes. From what I've been able to find, the weather data I found in the first post requires a bunch of detailed programming knowledge to even be able to read it- the organization provides a FORTRAN program, of all things, to read the information, which is a bit beyond me at the moment. I think that anyone can agree that this will be impossible without some sort of script to format the mass of information into the relevant parts needed. For the purposes of SH3, it would be necessary to split the world up into regions, such as N. Atlantic, middle Atlantic, South Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, etc, and then "average" the weather in each of those areas to a single daily value for visibility, wind, and cloud coverage. The game would have to decide which region the player was in (without leading to weird behavior at the boundaries of the regions), and then have the weather automatically changed depending on the date and region. Outside of the sh3-modding challenges, getting and compiling the data alone would be extremely difficult. There's a World War 1 modification of MS Combat Flight Simulator 3 called "Over Flanders Fields" which includes a feature like the above- they got hold of weather data over France, Britain, and Germany from 1914 to 1918 and applied it in game, and it's a really cool feature. I think that land weather data like that is much easier to find, added to the fact that the only area you need to really cover is France and Belgium, as opposed to pretty much the whole ocean except for the Pacific. What got me thinking about this is the fact that the variability of SH3's weather is so invariable. The bad weather fixes have cured the endless loops of 15 m/s winds, which was vital, but now, playing GWX3, we have weather that pretty much changes once every 24 hours, and is so predictable. Besides the length of day/night, I can't tell much difference between summer and winter as far as weather is concerned, and not once in my time playing SH3 have I ever been in fog together with calm winds, which is how ocean fog exists the vast majority of the time. The weather patterns in the Caribbean seem identical to those in the North Sea. It feels like it lacks "character," and that you replay the same loop each patrol, which of course you do.