Weather Settings and more...

Hi all,

I looked at our blue sky and the giant cloud formations here in Germany. It looked so wonderfull that I got reminded at DCS. I was thinking, how the hell can I get those cloud formations.

First I was curious what happens with the different weather settings. To make it easy, I startet with these settings:

Summer: 20°C

QNH: 768

no wind, no turbulances

no fog (don't know why it is so foggy)

and than increased the cloud numbers from 0 up to 10 to see the difference. These pictures show the difference between 0 clouds and 10 clouds. Find out, that the jump from 8 to 9 is big.

Cloud 0:

Cloud 1:

Cloud 2:

Cloud 3:

Cloud 4:

Cloud 5:

Cloud 6:

Cloud 7:

Cloud 8:

Cloud 9:

Cloud 10:

I will play around with the settings a bit more to find out how the hight and the cloud thickness influence the appearance. I would be glad if you guys could also submit pics of cool weather formations with the settings so we can replicate it.

What I miss a bit are those giant cumulus clouds which are about 1 km in height.

Looking forward to see your settings and pics and hope to get some feedback here.

Happy flying

Demon

Informative, thanks!

It is strange that it looks so foggy in your pictures.

Anyway, I think (and I hope) the weather is on the list of things to improve in DCS. One of the problems is the inability of the current weather engine to get smoothly from broken to overcast, hence the big change between 8 and 9. It was explained somewhere that this is the reason why dynamic weather doesn't get overcasts. Another thing would be different cloud coverage depending on the location.

Having an overcast somewhere, with a few holes to dive under, and only broken clouds somewhere else, hopefully with believable clouds (ie. clouds that have various sizes and do not look all the same) would be great

Hi all,

 

I looked at our blue sky and the giant cloud formations here in Germany. It looked so wonderfull that I got reminded at DCS. I was thinking, how the hell can I get those cloud formations.

 

First I was curious what happens with the different weather settings. To make it easy, I startet with these settings:

 

Summer: 20°C

QNH: 768

no wind, no turbulances

no fog (don't know why it is so foggy)

 

and than increased the cloud numbers from 0 up to 10 to see the difference. These pictures show the difference between 0 clouds and 10 clouds. Find out, that the jump from 8 to 9 is big.

 

(...pictures...)

 

I will play around with the settings a bit more to find out how the hight and the cloud thickness influence the appearance. I would be glad if you guys could also submit pics of cool weather formations with the settings so we can replicate it.

 

What I miss a bit are those giant cumulus clouds which are about 1 km in height.

 

Looking forward to see your settings and pics and hope to get some feedback here.

 

Happy flying

 

Demon

Hi Demon,

This fog with no fog set seems strange!? You couldn't re-check that fog is not set could you, as I play with weather a fair bit and this doesn't seem right - I've sometimes found it's defaulted ON when I'm not expecting it? This looks a lot like fog is ON!? Sorry if your right and I'm wrong, but it really doesn't look right?

I agree it would be nice to have some nice cumulus nimbus and whatever the next grade down is - but as far as good old bog std cumulus cloud goes - when you're near or in the layer I find the DCS clouds really rather good - you do need to be close to them tho - but they have real volume, scale, detail and the density seems (close to) right to me!? Very convincing when scooting through / around them I'm thinking.

But yes big monsters in a patchy sky would be awesome!

The cloud cover difference at 8 to 9 is massive, and caused me some head-aches on a mission I was flying... I agree.

Dynamic weather is pretty cool took off in 10-10 conditions recently and landed in something like 2-10 in a couple of hours - I like that change.

Anyways if you get a chance let me know on the fog thing - cheers V

I suspect the fog is there because the time is set to be early in the day.

It was explained somewhere that this is the reason why dynamic weather doesn't get overcasts.

I was going to post that it does - you've just got to get the settings right - but was beaten to the punch...

Dynamic weather is pretty cool took off in 10-10 conditions recently and landed in something like 2-10 in a couple of hours - I like that change.

Well, I must say this was my impression reading this topic:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=69481

The main problem is that we have not graphic representation for overcast spots' date=' so the places that must be covered with overcast now are covered with our regular clouds.[/quote']

 

Basically as sobek said - right now overcast is an all-or-nothing graphical effect. You either have overcast everywhere or nowhere.

 

With dynamic weather, you should see more clouds where overcast should be, but it's obviously not overcast still.

 

What Yo-Yo is saying is that in the future they have to come up with a localized overcast effect.

 

So is there something new or did I miss something ?

No - it's always been that way, it's just a case of combining practice with trial and error...

DW, same mission, different places:

Somewhere a long time ago I posted a series of shots from different places in a test mission with DW showing various places transitioning from clear sky to full overcast as you moved across the map.

You also get nice showers and/or squals of snow transitioning into full rain/snow as you move towards the 'weather'...

ah - in the thread you linked..

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1134171&postcount=14

Hi Demon,

 

This fog with no fog set seems strange!? You couldn't re-check that fog is not set could you, as I play with weather a fair bit and this doesn't seem right - I've sometimes found it's defaulted ON when I'm not expecting it? This looks a lot like fog is ON!? Sorry if your right and I'm wrong, but it really doesn't look right?

 

I agree it would be nice to have some nice cumulus nimbus and whatever the next grade down is - but as far as good old bog std cumulus cloud goes - when you're near or in the layer I find the DCS clouds really rather good - you do need to be close to them tho - but they have real volume, scale, detail and the density seems (close to) right to me!? Very convincing when scooting through / around them I'm thinking.

 

But yes big monsters in a patchy sky would be awesome!

 

The cloud cover difference at 8 to 9 is massive, and caused me some head-aches on a mission I was flying... I agree.

 

Dynamic weather is pretty cool took off in 10-10 conditions recently and landed in something like 2-10 in a couple of hours - I like that change.

 

Anyways if you get a chance let me know on the fog thing - cheers V

Hi Vimanaman,

fog was definetely off. It was 12:00 midday and summer. Well, the fog actually is not the reason I've posted the pics. I want to get deeper into the DCS Weather and thought I start sharing the cloud coverage settings.

Well, thanks to al who participated until now :) It willl become intersting :)

Greets,

Demon

So as you fly as time passes by the weather slowly changes if set to dynamic weather that's cool! I am trying to messed around with the static weather settings at the moment will post a few screen shots of I find anything interesting. :book:

So as you fly as time passes by the weather slowly changes if set to dynamic weather that's cool! I am trying to messed around with the static weather settings at the moment will post a few screen shots of I find anything interesting. :book:

RE dynamic weather - In case I mislead you with what I said... I don't know if it changes in a fixed location i.e. if the weather systems themselves move, I've not had time to test that (anyone know?). But rather the weather is different at different locations so as you move from A to B - it can change from say an overcast to a bright and sunny aspect, with different wind strength and direction (presumably pressure as well no doubt).

Well, I must say this was my impression reading this topic:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=69481

 

So is there something new or did I miss something ?

I don't think you've missed anything - when I say 10:10 - that's what you'd call it if you were at the field thinking about going flying - but in DCSW dynamic weather (as it sounds you know already) it's using the 9:10 setting as an overcast, because that's essentially what it is, only using the cumulus stock, rather than the 10:10 specific global overcast effect / graphic / model (whatever). Both 9:10 and 10:10 are a full overcast and have no breaks / holes in their cover.

Hi Vimanaman,

 

fog was definetely off. It was 12:00 midday and summer. Well, the fog actually is not the reason I've posted the pics. I want to get deeper into the DCS Weather and thought I start sharing the cloud coverage settings.

 

Well, thanks to al who participated until now :) It willl become intersting :)

 

Greets,

 

Demon

Hi Demon,

There's something wrong somewhere as it should look like this - at the static weather settings quoted?

Shout if you can't solve it.

Dynamic weather is really fun to play with - gotta watch the wind strength tho as it can get silly / big fun in my experience:) You've got to play around with it to work it out - (there's a sticky thread on D weather on the A10C forum).

Cheers V

So as you fly as time passes by the weather slowly changes if set to dynamic weather that's cool!

Yes it is..

Both 9:10 and 10:10 are a full overcast and have no breaks / holes in their cover.

Maybe the ME weather settings result in that for both in game, & I'm not sure if we're disagreeing here ( :) ), but 10/10 is unbroken cloud cover, (wherever you are judging it from), and I was pointing out you can get that from DW

0/10 clear / sunny

1/10 fair (often saved for high wispy cirrus)

2/10 to 3/10 mostly sunny

4/10 to 6/10 partly cloudy

7/10 to 8/10 mostly cloudy

9/10 broken

10/10 cloudy / overcast

Hi Weta43,

Just in game I mean :) - I think ED needed a 'work around' for DW (?) and made 9:10 essentially overcast - I only happen to have tested it cos I was trying to fly through the 'holes' for a particular mission I was running and found there weren't any at 9:10...

Cheers V

RE dynamic weather - In case I mislead you with what I said... I don't know if it changes in a fixed location i.e. if the weather systems themselves move, I've not had time to test that (anyone know?). But rather the weather is different at different locations so as you move from A to B - it can change from say an overcast to a bright and sunny aspect, with different wind strength and direction (presumably pressure as well no doubt).

Thanks for explaining that, Never had a sim that is able to do dynamic weather this is really great. :book:

Will watch out for winds for the KA-50 what's a normal type wind speed so I can change it down if it go's crazy? thanks.

Need REX on board

I've been using dynamic weather but not really seeing things change the further out i go from point A to point B, am sure it's working just fine like real life I guess it's very very small changes. :book:

If find DW very much a case of 'trial & error', but I'm getting the results I want - the sticky thread on A10C forum will have some excellent guidance on making more of a science of it...

I usually set two systems,(usually cyclonic), with pressure around the late nine hundreds - and then launch the flight (just to test the conditions). I jump around the map using F11 and if I want to check further detail I use LCTRL + F11 (free camera) and zoom over the mission objective or mountain pass, etc. to see how conditions are in that local.

Sometimes I just set the systems then just hit 'generate' (lucky dip as it seems to set the system pressures at random) and use the chart symbols to pick a promising weather scenario for what I want and then check that out. Like I said there's probably better ways...

Obviously when you find what you're looking for that scenario it can be saved and is fully repeatable.

The wind thing I mentioned is simply that the wind speeds can be quite high (perhaps not surprising if I'm setting a couple of deep low pressure systems up:)) mid teens MPS etc.

I've been putting 5 or 6 systems in which creates more diversity across the map, then editing the pressure differences down so that the winds are 'reasonable'.

fog problem resolved

Hi Demon,

 

This fog with no fog set seems strange!? You couldn't re-check that fog is not set could you, as I play with weather a fair bit and this doesn't seem right - I've sometimes found it's defaulted ON when I'm not expecting it? This looks a lot like fog is ON!? Sorry if your right and I'm wrong, but it really doesn't look right?

 

I agree it would be nice to have some nice cumulus nimbus and whatever the next grade down is - but as far as good old bog std cumulus cloud goes - when you're near or in the layer I find the DCS clouds really rather good - you do need to be close to them tho - but they have real volume, scale, detail and the density seems (close to) right to me!? Very convincing when scooting through / around them I'm thinking.

 

But yes big monsters in a patchy sky would be awesome!

 

The cloud cover difference at 8 to 9 is massive, and caused me some head-aches on a mission I was flying... I agree.

 

Dynamic weather is pretty cool took off in 10-10 conditions recently and landed in something like 2-10 in a couple of hours - I like that change.

 

Anyways if you get a chance let me know on the fog thing - cheers V

Hey Vimanaman,

I tried again the settings and the fog is gone. I guess what happened is this: I first loaded a mission in ME with fog settings. Then I hit the new button and somehow allthouogh the fog was disabled it was somehow in the memory and showed up. As I tried it yesterday with a "clean" start, it worked as it should. Just to let you know ;)

Cheers

Demon

Nice one, glad you solved it.