New weather system = wow!

[Les]

After some initial testing -

In the 'Type' settings.

*The type of cloud has to be selected before placing the cloud object onto the map, after that it's type can't be changed again.

In the 'Configuration' settings.

*'Ra' is Radius a, which is how far the clouds spread North/South on the map, and is limited to a maximum 100,000 units.

*'Rb' is Radius b, which is how far the clouds spread West/East on the map, and is also limited to a maximum 100,000 units.

*'H' is cloud height, which has a maximum of 10,000 units.

*'Rain' doesn't work.

*'Dynamic' doesn't do anything that I've seen.

In the 'Properties' settings

Edit- I just opened the FMB up again and there are seven more sliders/variables there than before, but I haven't had time to check them out.

*'Thickness' is limited to a maximum of 350 units.

*The two sliders max out to ten but I'm not sure what they do, or even what they're called, it may be a subtle effect related to the clouds sense of solidity and movement.

In general, the advanced clouds aren't an absolute frame-rate killer under all circumstances, and they can actually look pretty good. But I'm not seeing anything much better than what we had in IL-2:1946, and what does look different doesn't seem to be working properly as far as I can tell. Might be good for screenshots or very selective video shots, but a lot of it just doesn't look very good or is outright faulty. That's what we were told before release though, so no surprises there.

In testing with a single Hurricane in the middle of the Channel I've been getting varied but consistent frame rates from in the teens to into the forties with all video settings on full. Would have to look further into though to see if the extra clouds really are playable, some definitely aren't.

In terms of bugs, there's an immersion-killing sort of pop-up/drop-out happening with the clouds when maxed out to a 100,000 unit radius. It's not at the edge of the radius itself, but their viewable distance. Which means they don't provide a solid overcast as far as you can see.

Putting the 'wrong' settings in will cause a crash to desktop when the mission loads.

If anyone can add to this or correct any mistakes in what I've found, please do.

Edit - Here's a short vid showing something that looks like overcast when flying under some low level cloud. Saw some other nice looking clouds while looking into this, but would have to play with it further to show something good that no-one's seen before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPFZ3J1BF2c

Edit2 - Just for reference, here are some more examples of cloud effects using the FMB -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DwZGxbRLIU

[hc_wolf]

Hi guys. I posted this a while ago. Here are some basic mission settings you can use to see the full effects of weather (that is working). Rain etc does not work. But fly through clouds and you will ice up. There is lightning if you look carefully.

Feel free to tinker with wind, direction and could size settings etc. Save it to missions and you can go to FMB also and adjust and fly.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...weather&page=2

[Dores]

Originally Posted by Les

After some initial testing -

In the 'Type' settings.

*Only the 'Thunder' type of cloud works, all other on the list look the same.

You have to set the type before you place them on the map. After they are placed, the type cannot be changed, for some reason. Try to select flat overcast, then put that on the map - then deselect and hover the mouse over the local weather, it should say something like "OvercastGEN" or something.

This way I got overcast and all the other types working.

[Les]

Thanks for that, will edit my post.

[Ataros]

I think you can load weather dynamically in your mission using this script the same way you load a group of aircraft (as a small sub-mission file). This way we can change weather in a mission say every 20-30 minutes.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=21518

[150GCT_Veltro]

You colud have these clouds on IL2 modded two years ago. Nice, but not so good for DX10 i think.

[ChrisDNT]

About the two videos of Les, it shows well, unhappily, that it's the same like in IL2, clouds stay too low, it looks for the moment impossible to have a standard grey sky either with stratus or alto-stratus.

[bDAWg]

I've been wondering if it's possible to create a rougher sea surface with the weather options?...the channel looks way too calm...some choppy waves would add to the realism..and is the weather in the campaign dynamic?

[ChrisDNT]

It would be also nice to be able to change the color of the sea ---> black sea everywhere !