What about Dynamic weather？

[t34577685]

I think it will be more interesting if there are Dynamic weather feature in the game.

For example:

sunny in the sky at the beginning of the game ,an then after 30 min ,it start to rain .

When I play ARMA2,I think if there are Dynamic weather feature in th combat mission ,it will be more interesting.

[PanzerMike]

Hmmm, not sure. The timeframe of a CM battle is only an hour, maybe 2 at the most. On the other hand, a morning fog that starts to lift might be interesting.

[MAurelius]

only 2???? - odd... since I keep playing those 3+ hour custom scenario battles....

[agusto]

IIRC the maximum is 3 hours fixed + 1 hour variable time, so the total maximum would be 4 hours.

[Oddball_E8]

IIRC the maximum is 3 hours fixed + 1 hour variable time, so the total maximum would be 4 hours.

1 full hour of constant "is this the last turn" stress???

No thanx!

[MikeyD]

Dynamic weather is one of those 'nice to have' options that would either be immediately forgotten about once its implemented, or morel likely people will complain when it starts to rain and visibility is reduced halfway through a scenario.

[sburke]

Dynamic weather is one of those 'nice to have' options that would either be immediately forgotten about once its implemented, or morel likely people will complain when it starts to rain and visibility is reduced halfway through a scenario.

rotflmao. But I set that (insert Tiger, AT Gun, FO etc here) in that position because he had great LOS and now my defense is a shambles!!!!

Personally I think it'd be pretty cool, but yeah I can see the s**t storm brewing.

[Heirloom_Tomato]

I was thinking about this today while we rushed to finish planting a field before the thunderstorms came. We finished the last few rows while the rains starting pouring down. We had a half inch of rain fall in 45 minutes. The ground conditions changed from dry but soft to damp/wet very quickly. 10 minutes into the rain fall the risk of having the tractor get stuck in the field would have been pretty good. I would think driving a heavy tank across ground like that would be a bad idea.

In the game we already have changing light condition as the sun rises or sets. This has a huge impact on LOS/LOF as a battle progresses. I love this feature as it adds an extra level of realism to the game. If you have a company of infantry to move across open ground at dusk and two hours to perform the attack waiting even half an hour increases the odds of survivability substantially. The added challenge of changing weather and ground conditions would to the realism again.

While having the correct colour of rifle butt or the proper shoulder patch on uniforms is nice, dynamic weather is far more important to me in making this game the most realistic combat simulation game ever.

[PhilM]

I was thinking about this today while we rushed to finish planting a field before the thunderstorms came. We finished the last few rows while the rains starting pouring down. We had a half inch of rain fall in 45 minutes. The ground conditions changed from dry but soft to damp/wet very quickly. 10 minutes into the rain fall the risk of having the tractor get stuck in the field would have been pretty good. I would think driving a heavy tank across ground like that would be a bad idea.

In the game we already have changing light condition as the sun rises or sets. This has a huge impact on LOS/LOF as a battle progresses. I love this feature as it adds an extra level of realism to the game. If you have a company of infantry to move across open ground at dusk and two hours to perform the attack waiting even half an hour increases the odds of survivability substantially. The added challenge of changing weather and ground conditions would to the realism again.

While having the correct colour of rifle butt or the proper shoulder patch on uniforms is nice, dynamic weather is far more important to me in making this game the most realistic combat simulation game ever.

I agree! But:

Presumably the former is somewhat less resource intensive than the latter?

Rain (etc) doesn't just start and stop immediately, nor stay still; so presumably we need transition conditions and changing weather moving across the battlefield?

I'd sooner see the dev resources go to improving (say, as raised in another thread recently) the positioning of and use of cover by troops within and across AS.

So, yes please: but not top of the list for me.

[womble]

Ground conditions are already reported to be dynamic. The ground gets softer if the scenario has precipitation. I have no idea (and I'm pretty sure no user has done any systematic testing) how fast this happens, but since it apparently does, it'd be trivial to have it happen at a faster rate in heavier rain.

I can't see how a "does the weather change" check every few minutes would eat the processor cycles. You could (for Normandy, at least; not sure how consistent the weather is in the RT T.O. and Italy) have an almanac of historical weather types...

[Rokossovski]

If I design a scenario with specific weather conditions, then I want the scenario to play using those specific weather conditions. Weather is typically chosen by the designer for a reason, and having that choice altered randomly or semi-randomly would be a bad thing.

As a toggle-able option for the designer (or person setting up a quick-battle) I could see a role for dynamic weather, even if it wouldn't be my cup of tea.

[PhilM]

Ground conditions are already reported to be dynamic. The ground gets softer if the scenario has precipitation. I have no idea (and I'm pretty sure no user has done any systematic testing) how fast this happens, but since it apparently does, it'd be trivial to have it happen at a faster rate in heavier rain.

I can't see how a "does the weather change" check every few minutes would eat the processor cycles. You could (for Normandy, at least; not sure how consistent the weather is in the RT T.O. and Italy) have an almanac of historical weather types...

Womble, your post followed mine - but I'm not sure if yours (esp my bold bit above) was in response to it? Anyway, FWIW, my "resource conflict" concerns were over the dev time required to bring to fruition and implement a realistic, changing weather, routine, rather than in-game processor time resource to run it once built ...

[Fizou]

I think it would be cool with dynamic weather and wind, but not a high priority.

[Ithikial_AU]

For what it's worth I think it would be a neat feature. Allow the scenario designer to set a starting weather and ground condition and then create rules regarding when other weather events would kick in. ie. Start = Overcast / Damp -> by T+30 the prevailing conditions should be Light Rain / muddy.

Up to designer and his testers to get the balance right and achieve the intended result.

[Fizou]

For what it's worth I think it would be a neat feature. Allow the scenario designer to set a starting weather and ground condition and then create rules regarding when other weather events would kick in. ie. Start = Overcast / Damp -> by T+30 the prevailing conditions should be Light Rain / muddy.

Up to designer and his testers to get the balance right and achieve the intended result.

Yeah.. it wouldent have to be dynamic, changing at a random. Just give the scenario designer more tools would work just fine. Would probably be easier to implement too.

[Mord]

Ground conditions are already reported to be dynamic. The ground gets softer if the scenario has precipitation. I have no idea (and I'm pretty sure no user has done any systematic testing) how fast this happens, but since it apparently does, it'd be trivial to have it happen at a faster rate in heavier rain.

I did, in CMBN.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=101135&highlight=bogging&page=9

Pertinent posts are about 83-85.

http://ftp2.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1326374&postcount=83

Mord.

[snarre]

this gind dynamic wheather should be cool in operations but right now we dont have operations in game like we had in cmb;bb. hoply in some day .

[Childress]

Dynamic weather: meh.

[Canada Guy]

This would be nice but more importantly, I want to ensure that winter weather is portrayed accurately. Wind squalls can whip up a large amount of snow and create a type of haze. This should also include ski troops to accurately reflect their use and need in deep snow. i.e. keep walking in deep snow and you get very tired very fast, almost like swamp.

[Heirloom_Tomato]

If the ground conditions can already change based on the weather and light conditions also already change than maybe dynamic weather would not be too hard to implement. It would be great to see an increased set of options for setting the weather situation both in the editor and for QB's.

As the saying goes, winter is coming, and it would be nice to see the weather conditions change in game to match the kind of wild weather that can happen on the Steppes.

[LUCASWILLEN05]

I would like dynamic weather. As has been suggested best le the scenario designer set the parameters by percentage. For example the scenario starts with heavy rain. After a specified time, let's say 20 minutes( there is a 50% cchance it will turn to light rain. After a further specified time here is a 60% chance the sky becomes overcast.

The way I see this being implemented is by using a "tree" of options. At the specified time the AI will start calculating the probability of the weather changing and implement the chage when it happens.

We would need to limit the number of occasions the weather might change. Let's say for each hour of the scenario two weather changes are allowed. The actual times change occurs is calculated by the AI at the time frames set by the scenario designer.

Ideally we could introduce in game changes to the ground conditions. These would happen faster with worse weather conditions. You would cycle through ground conditions at a set rate depnding on he level and length of the precipitation. For example the ground conditions start as dry. A light rain starts. After a specified period the ground becomes damp. With heavier precipitation the ground condition changes at faster rate becoming wet and finally muddy.

[womble]

Ideally we could introduce in game changes to the ground conditions. These would happen faster with worse weather conditions. You would cycle through ground conditions at a set rate depnding on he level and length of the precipitation. For example the ground conditions start as dry. A light rain starts. After a specified period the ground becomes damp. With heavier precipitation the ground condition changes at faster rate becoming wet and finally muddy.

As noted, this already occurs. The reverse process would generally be a lot slower. It usually takes more than an hour for ground conditions to noticeably improve for the better, even when the day turns out hot and sunny.

[LUCASWILLEN05]

As noted, this already occurs. The reverse process would generally be a lot slower. It usually takes more than an hour for ground conditions to noticeably improve for the better, even when the day turns out hot and sunny.

Can't say I had actually noticed but then I had not been looking for this specifically. So, in principle it might be possible for BF to implement the coding for a dynamic weather system similar to what I suggested. There may of course be issuse around the coding but much of what would be needed is already there

What they would need to add would be the "weather tree" with options available by season.Obviously the same can be done for wind speed and direction. In theScenario editor the designer specifies whether weather will change or remain constant throughout the battle. Same decisions for wind speed and direction aswell as tempreture If no then we get the same as now. If yes this opens up a series of options the availability depending on season. Associated with each is a probaility of change similar in looks to the parameters we set under victory conditions. As previously described weather will gradually change.

Hence clear could change to either hazy or overcast. If overcast that could change to one of the rain conditions with a percentage set for each. That woul for instance allow us to have a sudden summer thunderstorm. The scenario designer can then set a variable amount of time until the weather changes again employing the "tree" system. Visually he player might see the sky clearing or starting to gradually cloud over and look increasingly threatening as it does in the real world.

In principle his should be possible in technical terms using verl little extra processing power beyond what is already being used. Much of it will go on "under he bonnet" and will not be seen by players until the weather does actually change.

[poesel]

Would a list not be much simpler:

Minute : Effect : Chance[%]

000 : rain : 100

030 : cloudy : 20

040 : cloudy : 50

050 : cloudy : 100

110 : sunny : 10

130 : sunny : 30

So it starts with rain. At minute 30 there is a 20% chance to stop raining. At min 50 it will stop raining. At 110 the sun may come out and so on.

One dice roll per turn. Getting the transitions for brightness looking good may be a problem. Also spotting may be hard coded with conditions?

It would be a very nice touch to have the sun come out during a battle. Especially if you bought a plane.

[RockinHarry]

I see one thing completely neglected, since also ARMA is mentioned here: While the sky and precipitation visuals change, nothing actually happens on the ground! This also applies to maps, where mission weather is already rain. (Change of) weather impression is completely ruined, when none the ground AND vehicle/unit textures stay all the same (dry!). Smooth and dusty textures would turn way darker and also shiny to a degree. Vegetation changes to more saturated greens and last, but not least, any sort of dust (by vehicles and HE) would either vanish or at least be diminished a lot.

Can´t tell if it all could be implemented by adding a different set of textures for wet ground conditions, or maybe just by changing shader parameters dynamically?