Some New Cloud Testing

[bustr]

But isn't that the way clouds are in real life?  i.e., don't they tend to form at a particular altitude due to atmospheric variables?   And they tend to dissipate at roughly the same height (e.g. climbing out through the cloud deck)?

I tried to keep this in mind when I laid out my weather system and in the cloud menu Hitech did to. Oh, back when Hitech first released the new generation cloud editor, I built a Cumulonimbus and blew my FPS to pieces. That is probably why there is not one in the cloud menu. Testing it I even lost my bearings inside of it and ended up in the ground from a dive I couldn't pull out of. There may still be an FPS reason to not having clouds with a lot of vertical structure like cumulus. As you can see from the jpeg most clouds are in layers at an elevation.

Before I created my weather system I brushed up a bit on clouds, just like I did on Pacific volcanic islands before I built Oceania.

[bustr]

Just to be fair since I'm throwing around concepts about the cloud editor and very few players ever look in it, here is what is in the cloud editor. You can make cloud files for any terrain file in the list of terrain files under the ah3terr folder. Those are the files with .res extensions, then play with them offline. Click on File and you will see "open terrain" in the drop down. So for Bruv, here is his chance to see if he can come up with what he wants. Just push buttons and see what happens. That is all I did with the terrain editor and then the cloud editor. Hitech made them both user friendly to help promote game content. I keep asking my wife to erase the bullseye they paint on my back each time I open them...

What I followed as guidelines.
1. - Keep the cloud blocks minimum 40 miles apart to not effect FPS. You can see the 40 mile separations between white blocks. Hitech set this rule, I'm assuming from his testing.
2. - Set a cirrus layer above the clouds 30k or higher. If you use thicker layers than thin, visually it just clogs up how things look. They should be about 30k or higher.
3. - I decided to use clouds in the manner they form related to altitude.
4. - I chose to have all cloud blocks move NE at the same speed, spawn time, life span, and cool down time. Simple way not to violated the 40 mile rule between blocks.
5. - Current map is Oceania and I've expanded the cloud list showing the default 15 offerings.

[Brooke]

Very nice, Bustr! 

[Zener]

bustr,

Are all these cloud layers opaque when using a bomb sight or just certain ones?

[bustr]

In the game, if it's even a small puffyball, you cannot see through it but, with the balls there are many small openings to see down through. Hitech's cloud layers have openings, just the size of the individual clouds varies as they do in the real world. Cirrus layers you can see through in degrees from thin-thick. I set the one for this terrain starting at 30k and it's thin. The clouds I used at the strats, you should be able to see through openings or, just go around and try again, even come in below the layers.

And then there are those 40 mile strips of air with no clouds at all.

You can test all of this offline with any terrain file in your ah3terr folder by making a cloud file and running it to test all of the 15 types in the menu if it's that important to you. So far none of Hitech's cloud blocks I've chosen have configurations that block level bombing.

[Chilli]

   Very nice!  Any chance in colliding into unseen mountains    

[bustr]

I have no interest in rigging a cloud box for things like that, I'm looking at the underlying terrain and putting a box over it of the type and reasonable alt they would form. If I was, I'd just use the solid overcast cover and set it to 3000ft and be done with it. Then everyone would be in the frying pan together.

[bustr]

Testing cirrocumulous.

[bustr]

A quiet moment on central Mindnao.

[Zener]

Pictures 1 and 4, the clouds don't look realistic because there are way too many small ones.  A few that size here and there or small ones among some really large ones would look more real.  The others look fantastic.

[bustr]

Feel free to make clouds, the new cloud editor has that ability.

Then submit to Hitech to see if he will allow it in the MA. Otherwise the cirrocumulos look about like what I spent time today looking at photos of. Hitech is a pilot and spends time with the clouds we have. Also, those in the screen shot, I was about 30k looking down at them and they are at 15k. It's all frame of reference and size perspective in the arena. I was using CM eye mode and not fixed position perspective. Once I build a weather file, I have to fly around the arena in CM mode at up to 20000 and faster to see everything close up and far away.

So, open the cloud editor and show us how to do it right so we will know how.

[Zener]

That's not going to happen, bustr.  I don't have time to spend hours and days and weeks learning a program on a trial and error basis just to make clouds.  If I had that kind of time, I'd fly more often.

I assumed you posted the pictures to get feedback, and that's what I provided.  I guess that my assumption was ill founded.  I simply stated that in my opinion the clouds in two of your pictures did not look real AND the others looked exceptionally real.  You don't seem to have any problem accepting kudos but when someone suggests something doesn't look quite real it's go make your own. 

I really don't care if you put non-realistic clouds in the game or not.  They are about as important to the game as trees or what color the bomber hangars are; nice window dressing, but ultimately of little importance.

For what it's worth, I am a licensed pilot also though I fail to see how that makes any difference in judging posted photos.

[bustr]

I grew up flying around the world, my late father soloed in a glider at Dunstible Downs, England 1960 towed by Tiger Moths. And started powered flight training out of the Peshawar airport in Austers. He retired a multi engined commercial instructor just before he would take his ride to get a jet ticket. FAA grounded him for a pace maker. I got dragged along by him since I was 5 in may types around the world. I've seen Hitech's popcorn cirrocumulus in the Hindu Kush and around the world.

Posting these screen shots is just to show you guys someone is working on clouds for terrains. If I was posting for advice I would have asked for advice. I don't do that because it turns into "step aside sonny boy and let an expert trash your day". While none of the experts have ever created cloud files or clouds or terrains. And their opinions about something in a 3D computer emulation like clouds and terrains end up being, I'm told how to sculpt an elephant by a group of blind art critics who just handled a statue of a Wooki.

The clouds in the menu are Hitech's and I used them with concern to game play and type at elevation over terrain. And reported my observations on FPS issues as I was testing the clouds as weather system on terrains. It does not take very long to learn the cloud editor if you want to show Hitech how to do it right in your "opinion". There is one cumulus sheet, street formation type I don't agree with the ultimate cross sectional shape once it fully forms, so I didn't use it. It never forms out of a square\rectangular cross section along the streets so I won't make players look at that, it just looks strange. And pictures of it in here would have someone up in arms with an "opinion".

[Zener]

It does not take very long to learn the cloud editor if you want to show Hitech how to do it right in your "opinion". 

This right here demonstrates the fundamental misunderstanding you have about my comments.  You are taking them as if I am saying something YOU did is WRONG... when I'm not saying that at all.  All I said was that, in my opinion, a collection of small clouds so densely packed in one area of sky doesn't give the appearance of a "real" looking sky, while some of your other efforts look extremely realistic.  It's just a comment.. do with it what you will, including taking no action OR ignoring it, I don't care.  I didn't say you should change it; I didn't say your effort was worth less in any way.  In fact, I said it doesn't really matter because they're just window dressing and don't effect game play.

That said, I think you ARE mistaken when you equate someone's ability to judge how realistic an image appears to them on the basis of whether they choose to (or not) devote the time to learn a graphics editing program.  This seems to me the same as saying no one should ever disagree about the coverage of a news story unless they first go get a journalism degree, or they shouldn't form a political opinion about anything unless they first run for office.

[Mister Fork]

Ummm.... ok Zener.

Moving along.  Clouds look nice Bustr. Do we have the ability to have simple overcast layers?