Is simply debug stuff telling me how many weapons of any type are in flight .
HiTech
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: NatCigg on April 18, 2017, 04:41:11 PM
me likes. :aok
maybe some lifr fog next? :x
maybes some rain drops. :x
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: DubiousKB on April 18, 2017, 04:58:03 PM
Not easy to generate by the first look. But VERY exciting to see....
I can see the after action reports now, large missions pass by eachother on either side of the cloud bank... No enemy contact flight lead!!!! :devil
+1 for having to look at instruments to know which way is down!
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: bustr on April 18, 2017, 05:04:22 PM
How big was your FPS hit this time?
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: thrila on April 18, 2017, 05:38:42 PM
I like it.
My only question was going to be what height is it's base, but then you answered that by diving through it.
Precipitation and turbulence associated with it would be fantastic, but I would definately be happy with just clouds. :)
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Kanth on April 18, 2017, 06:18:58 PM
I saw the notification for it on youtube and watched the video and almost commented (on youtube) on the FPS hit from over 200fps down to like 39fps was the lowest I saw, but you are already aware and have a solution. I'm glad I came here and read first before saying anything.
So it just looks cool!!! :rock
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Mano on April 18, 2017, 06:19:51 PM
Very nice. :aok
Can the terrain do lightning strikes as well? Just curious.
(http://i.imgur.com/rfIoaym.gif)
:salute
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: LocoMoto on April 18, 2017, 06:25:10 PM
Woohoo! Floating cloak islands :rock
Cant wait to ambush players flying in my dar :x
And using them to hide my bombers or forcing fighters to rush their attacks.
HiTech, I recommend creating some type of box within these clouds that simulate turbulence, sometimes violent at times making it difficult to fly any other way but straight and level. That would keep it realistic and keep players like me from trolling the community in-game by exploiting this new grey out magic :aok
I can only imagine hitting cumulonimbus with fighters on my 6, killing throttle and yo-yo'ing bombers in the soup reversing course while the fighters fly through haha. That kind of stuff tests the paitence of the best interceptors. Inpaitent interceptors usually add to my kill counts when I land.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: pembquist on April 18, 2017, 06:53:11 PM
I want to see how well a Spitfire carries ice.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: colmbo on April 18, 2017, 07:46:18 PM
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: LocoMoto on April 18, 2017, 10:46:15 PM
Cumulonimbus exist because of one thing only and that's convection. We all know when warm air meets cold air these clouds form and are commonly known as thunderstorms. What most people dont know is that the actual science of it is a lot more complex. I wont break it all down to make my general point. What I will say is what allows cumulonimbus to climb to 20k, 40k, somtimes 80,000 feet into the lower stratosphere are updrafts. Large colums of air that are more bouyant than its surroundings and also very wet. Leave out the jet stream which can be a major contributing factor in its creation, updrafts are turbulent. Sometimes violently with the taller reaching cumulonimbus.
Now I know im preaching to the choir when it comes to basic meteorology here. My point is there is absolutely no reason to have this type of cloud in the game unless it comes with the turbulent enviroment that comes with it.
Without it I assure you it will be exploited and under appreciated for what it could and should be. A natural vairable to the enviroment that was usually avoided unless absolutely necessary to enter.
I know it might make things complicated but I am right here. I love the idea and hope you can nail this great idea.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: LocoMoto on April 18, 2017, 11:06:55 PM
I think you could make it work too! Especially since your gonna white or grey out everything outside of the canopy. You dont have to visually match whats happening over to a players screen. In those conditions your just flying with your guages and the map.
Maybe increasing the winds dramatically inside the cloud at different altitudes. Enough to simulate turbulence to some degree.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: hgtonyvi on April 18, 2017, 11:15:13 PM
:rock :rock frame rates increase will be a plus.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: hgtonyvi on April 18, 2017, 11:19:47 PM
IMC. A whole new dimension to the game. Digging it.
100 foot overcast at TT!
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: cav58d on April 19, 2017, 11:34:25 AM
Clouds look awesome btw, this will be an amazing addition HT! <S>
I love the idea of eventually adding moving weather systems. Doesn't necessarily have to include precip, but I like the idea of CB clouds, maybe periods of IMC, turbulence.
Kind of like battlefield levolution but better!
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Dobs on April 19, 2017, 12:18:59 PM
IS that a GPU computation or CPU computation occurring for cloud?
But I think it looks pretty damn nice!
And having danced through Cumulus many times...sometimes its bumpy, other times its smooth. But the big Thunderstorms that Loco talks about carry a "there is no peace time mission which requires you to penetrate a thunderstorm".....
Call it Stratus, Cumulus, or Nimbo Stratus and you'll be good:) (http://www.wxdude.com/singalongcompanion/clouds/files/url.png)
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Skuzzy on April 19, 2017, 12:52:27 PM
Quote
We will be adding "In Cloud" I.E. complete grey out masking in large clouds like this that will drastically improve FPS when inside the cloud.
Just a reminder.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: bustr on April 19, 2017, 12:54:47 PM
Clouds look awesome btw, this will be an amazing addition HT! <S>
I love the idea of eventually adding moving weather systems. Doesn't necessarily have to include precip, but I like the idea of CB clouds, maybe periods of IMC, turbulence.
Kind of like battlefield levolution but better!
All of the fronts created in the cloud editor are moving weather systems made up of clouds as fronts you can make very tiny to as wide as the arena traversing in any direction at speeds that can be set form 1 to hundreds of miles per hour.
If we created the front at one corner of the map as wide as the map and gave it enough depth to look like a real world system, say 1\10th width of the arena, it would eat your FPS. And only a small number of players at a time would see the system as it would take hours to cycle across the map unless it's depth was set as deep as say half the width of the arena. So to give everyone the opportunity to see the weather system, you would build several mirror systems behind it say 1\10 the width of the arena and launch them at staggered intervals in the cloud editor. I did this all across my terrain bowlma for a total arena weather system. Hitech made me scale it waayyyyyyy back because his testing showed bad FPS hits for the rest of you. But, it was massive and covered 75-80% of the arena including very low sea cloud system hiding many of the water ways to protect the task groups.
I also created it to be localized constantly repeating weather systems between 20-28 minutes in cycle, so all players no matter when they logged in would see weather. And there would be weather about everywhere you jumped to on the terrain. Hitech mentioned this generation of codeing he is working on would have less FPS impact than the current cloud system codeing. And I get the impression I will have to create a new weather system for bowlma due to the new cloud program when he releases it. Hopefully I can bring back my large scale weather system.
I don't suppose you ever noticed the large fronts that cycle across all of the islands on bowlma about every 30 minutes at 7000ft? That's what I had to reduce everything to so your FPS wouldn't suffer. You guys lucked out on the permanent heavy cloud covers I had over the HQ\city\strats\ports to make them harder to drop laser guided single finger salutes on.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Dawger on April 19, 2017, 01:01:16 PM
The inside of a thunderstorm is not much fun but it is exciting.
I entered one at 4,000 feet (quite unintentionally). About 3 lifetimes later (probably less than 30 seconds in the time frame existing outside the cockpit) I got slung out at 9,000 feet with the throttles at idle and the nose pointed down 25 degrees.
I was pretty mad at ATC and was going to give them a piece of my mind but they had evacuated for a tornado and wouldn't answer or that was the story Center gave me when I found a working frequency.
I have been in a few others, smacked my head against the ceiling and listened to the wings creaking over the sound of the fire hose being sprayed on the windshield.
I would prefer clear skies and 12 noon in AH please.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 19, 2017, 01:50:58 PM
Houston loves to put people through weather. I just flat out refuse now. I will fill out the paperwork.
The last time they did it to me we were coming in from the east--it was eye opening. I told them to send me to San Antonio and bring me back in from the west but they would have none of it. My RSP was a genius with radar and I slaved to his display to pick our way around as best we could in IMC. We were doing a fair job of it and then I heard him say, "This is gonna' hurt." About five seconds later the airplane went up, then down, and then back up again like a football being punted.
Then dead calm.
I was told all the side trays came out of their holders, hung in midair, then slammed back down (they've since had latches added).
When I went to apologize to the boss on the ground he said with a big grin (before I could utter a word), "That was interesting." He was a good sport.
Never again. I am NOT brave.
(The storms I saw in Nigeria will spit an airplane out in little pieces. No thank you!)
----
Any way, that's a good first attempt but you'll need a LOT more density--and turbulence.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: LocoMoto on April 19, 2017, 01:58:03 PM
The inside of a thunderstorm is not much fun but it is exciting.
I entered one at 4,000 feet (quite unintentionally). About 3 lifetimes later (probably less than 30 seconds in the time frame existing outside the cockpit) I got slung out at 9,000 feet with the throttles at idle and the nose pointed down 25 degrees.
I was pretty mad at ATC and was going to give them a piece of my mind but they had evacuated for a tornado and wouldn't answer or that was the story Center gave me when I found a working frequency.
I have been in a few others, smacked my head against the ceiling and listened to the wings creaking over the sound of the fire hose being sprayed on the windshield.
I would prefer clear skies and 12 noon in AH please.
my god Dawger luckily you got out of that updraft! I would have been livid.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Devil 505 on April 19, 2017, 02:40:59 PM
I'm also questioning the need for cumulonimbus clouds specifically. It would seem better to have a more dynamic variation in the regular cumulus and stratus clouds.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: bustr on April 19, 2017, 03:08:21 PM
Because some genius will pop in a bunch of them flowing across the terrain at about 70mph and the game players will play hide-n-seek in and around them thinking it the greatest game play enhancement since the claw fighters mothership floating super carriers were introduced during an AHcon weekend. The cloud editor is a player content creation program just like the terrain editor. If there are no FPS problems with gaggles of towering cumulonimbus floating across the arena, get ready to play hide-n-seek. I'm looking forward to putting back in a larger cloud front system in my terrain with base elevation 4000-5000 agl clouds after watching how my terrain has been utilized.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: hitech on April 19, 2017, 03:11:13 PM
I'm also questioning the need for cumulonimbus clouds specifically. It would seem better to have a more dynamic variation in the regular cumulus and stratus clouds.
Sigh , Post like this make me think I should never post about works in progress.
The cumulus is just one example of the new system. The reason I am working with it , is because it is by far the most demanding form to simulate. If the system performs well with it, the others are a piece of cake.
HiTech
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Devil 505 on April 19, 2017, 03:17:51 PM
ah, I did not realize the cloud types will be interconnected in the final system.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: NatCigg on April 19, 2017, 03:25:28 PM
yeah. the cirrus is part of the anvil. the top of the anvil is similar to top of stratus. the body of the thunderhead should give the density. hopefully the gray can be thinned to make a variable fog. and cumulus will benefit from better conglomerations. one thing i would like to see is that if we are getting a total gray, they we can not see through the cloud cluster before we are in it and gray.
:salute
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: The Fugitive on April 19, 2017, 04:09:27 PM
Sigh , Post like this make me think I should never post about works in progress.
The cumulus is just one example of the new system. The reason I am working with it , is because it is by far the most demanding form to simulate. If the system performs well with it, the others are a piece of cake.
HiTech
Perfect answer! :aok
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Mister Fork on April 19, 2017, 04:21:45 PM
Sigh , Post like this make me think I should never post about works in progress.
The cumulus is just one example of the new system. The reason I am working with it , is because it is by far the most demanding form to simulate. If the system performs well with it, the others are a piece of cake.
HiTech
:aok +1
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: cav58d on April 19, 2017, 05:10:52 PM
I was pretty mad at ATC and was going to give them a piece of my mind but they had evacuated for a tornado and wouldn't answer or that was the story Center gave me when I found a working frequency.
Right, because it's ATC's fault you were flying a non radar equipped airplane in an area of convectivity.... :noid :huh :O :( :rolleyes: :eek: :eek: :headscratch: :headscratch: :headscratch: :headscratch: :bhead
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: cav58d on April 19, 2017, 05:17:27 PM
(The storms I saw in Nigeria will spit an airplane out in little pieces. No thank you!)
On my last trip to Africa we did a leg from Nairobi to Tamanrasset, Algeria. If it wasn't stressful enough skirting South Sudan, and then overflying Congo, Central African Republic etc, there were massive thunderstorms from wheels up until the Sahara.
And Nigeria...Did I ever tell you how much I hate Nigeria? I'd be happy if I never stepped footing Lagos or Abuja ever again =)
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 19, 2017, 05:27:10 PM
On my last trip to Africa we did a leg from Nairobi to Tamanrasset, Algeria. If it wasn't stressful enough skirting South Sudan, and then overflying Congo, Central African Republic etc, there were massive thunderstorms from wheels up until the Sahara.
And Nigeria...Did I ever tell you how much I hate Nigeria? I'd be happy if I never stepped footing Lagos or Abuja ever again =)
I spent two years there. I can hardly blame you! :)
The lightning shows were amazing. Africa is the only place I've ever diverted TWICE on the same flight. Couldn't get into Port Harcourt even though we could see the runway because of standing water... Returned to Abuja only to get told to hold... The storms rolling south from Jos...one after the other after the other...44 knot direct croswind, no grooved runway... Time to go somewhere else. :O
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: cav58d on April 19, 2017, 05:31:22 PM
You poor poor desperate man...kidding. Hope it was well worth it, you made stupid money and came back stateside to a great job!
Unfortunately Nigeria will always be a destination for us. I understand a Renaissance hotel was put up in Lagos. Abuja Sheraton, woof.
That being said, EVERYWHERE else i've been in Africa I've really enjoyed.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 19, 2017, 05:36:19 PM
I got out of debt, that's for sure. Made some nice friends. Picked up some experience (along with non-recurring malaria and typhoid) that made me a better pilot. I'm glad I did it, but I won't lie--I was scared outta my mind on the United flight to London where we picked up the jet from MX to go into Abuja.
It was worth it. (And I did enjoy the rockstar treatment.) :D
Different world to be sure. "Most folks don't pick Nigeria for their first long-term international gig, bro. Go ugly early, huh?" LOL
I liked the continent. Angola and Rwanda were shockingly nice. It's a bit backwards but I will definitely always have a soft spot for the place--and one particularly lovely gal I met. :devil
But the lack of radar and weather info is definitely a challenge. I will have to post some pictures of those cumulonimbus mamma supercells for Hitech.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Shuffler on April 19, 2017, 06:08:17 PM
I love this!!!
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: LocoMoto on April 19, 2017, 06:14:29 PM
See rule 4
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Shuffler on April 19, 2017, 06:19:55 PM
I got out of debt, that's for sure. Made some nice friends. Picked up some experience (along with non-recurring malaria and typhoid) that made me a better pilot. I'm glad I did it, but I won't lie--I was scared outta my mind on the United flight to London where we picked up the jet from MX to go into Abuja.
It was worth it. (And I did enjoy the rockstar treatment.) :D
Different world to be sure. "Most folks don't pick Nigeria for their first long-term international gig, bro. Go ugly early, huh?" LOL
I liked the continent. Angola and Rwanda were shockingly nice. It's a bit backwards but I will definitely always have a soft spot for the place--and one particularly lovely gal I met. :devil
But the lack of radar and weather info is definitely a challenge. I will have to post some pictures of those cumulonimbus mamma supercells for Hitech.
Sigh, Grew up in the Belgian Congo from 1963 to 1971. Awesome place for an 11 year old boy to grow up. We lived 450 miles south of Kinshasa on the Kwango river, in the middle of the Bayaka tribe. Sweet memories of some wonderful people and times. :aok
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Volron on April 19, 2017, 08:19:56 PM
Sigh , Post like this make me think I should never post about works in progress.
The cumulus is just one example of the new system. The reason I am working with it , is because it is by far the most demanding form to simulate. If the system performs well with it, the others are a piece of cake.
HiTech
But of course if you don't post anything at all, then you'll get posts that say you are "slacking off, not working, yadda, yadda, yadda.".
It's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" thing. :noid
I like it personally. The one thing that popped into mind however is cloud effects; forming/dissipating and whatnot. From what I can tell, clouds are "placed" in locations and don't ever move or form/build/dissipate. I'll need confirmation from you or a terrain builder on that. It would be neat if something like this could form, move across the map and dissipate, anywhere. Not at "set areas" of the map. You could ignore the effects these clouds would have in real life (wind effects), both to save a brain pain for you guys to code, but still adds immersion and some damn nice views. This would probably mean that you'd have to add a weather tab to the clipboard, so folks can plan missions around them. If I see a bunch of cumulonimbus over a strat, then I'll plan to hit something else unless I want to chance that they'll have moved on by the time I get there. :) But that would probably require an engine change/new engine? :headscratch:
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 19, 2017, 08:46:15 PM
Sigh, Grew up in the Belgian Congo from 1963 to 1971. Awesome place for an 11 year old boy to grow up. We lived 450 miles south of Kinshasa on the Kwango river, in the middle of the Bayaka tribe. Sweet memories of some wonderful people and times. :aok
Cool story. :aok
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: ImADot on April 19, 2017, 10:32:08 PM
I like it personally. The one thing that popped into mind however is cloud effects; forming/dissipating and whatnot. From what I can tell, clouds are "placed" in locations and don't ever move or form/build/dissipate. I'll need confirmation from you or a terrain builder on that. It would be neat if something like this could form, move across the map and dissipate, anywhere. Not at "set areas" of the map.
It used to be, and I'm sure it still is, that you can use the cloud editor to add clouds to any terrain. You place the cloud fronts, choose the cloud type, choose the cloud altitude, choose the direction and speed, and choose how long they last before they start over. So yes, they do move across the map, but it's not random.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Shuffler on April 20, 2017, 07:24:18 AM
LOL rule 4 for explaining to some twit why he should not act like an ass.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: hitech on April 20, 2017, 08:21:53 AM
Sigh , Post like this make me think I should never post about works in progress.
The cumulus is just one example of the new system. The reason I am working with it , is because it is by far the most demanding form to simulate. If the system performs well with it, the others are a piece of cake.
HiTech
I love the clouds. :banana: I'm lucky enough to be able to run the current ones with little issue. Not everyone is as lucky so this work is very important and appreciated. :salute
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Shuffler on April 20, 2017, 01:22:35 PM
I love the clouds. :banana: I'm lucky enough to be able to run the current ones with little issue. Not everyone is as lucky so this work is very important and appreciated. :salute
They are absolutely neat. On Bustr's map, I was trying to bomb a battleship that just kept peaking through the clouds below my 38. I finally had to drop below the clouds to make my bombing run. Ultra cool.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: oakranger on April 20, 2017, 02:07:45 PM
You should invest Tracker IR. Nice
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Dawger on April 21, 2017, 05:54:15 AM
Right, because it's ATC's fault you were flying a non radar equipped airplane in an area of convectivity.... :noid :huh :O :( :rolleyes: :eek: :eek: :headscratch: :headscratch: :headscratch: :headscratch: :bhead
I am going to take a wild guess and say you started flying real airplanes this century.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: cav58d on April 21, 2017, 10:58:30 AM
If you're IMC, you're kind of counting on ATC not to vector you into a storm or at least keep you out of depicted precip.
Even IF they do, it's your responsibility not to accept the vector or routing.
On every crap box I flew with an original AW date in the 70s,80s and 90s, all had at least a basic form of radar. Modern jets? Forget about it, with wifi, datalink, nexrad if domestic, and modern radar there isn't much of an excuse.
Every pilot flies through weather, anyone that says different is a liar, but blaming ATC is not fair or accurate.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 21, 2017, 02:57:43 PM
Even IF they do, it's your responsibility not to accept the vector or routing.
On every crap box I flew with an original AW date in the 70s,80s and 90s, all had at least a basic form of radar. Modern jets? Forget about it, with wifi, datalink, nexrad if domestic, and modern radar there isn't much of an excuse.
Every pilot flies through weather, anyone that says different is a liar, but blaming ATC is not fair or accurate.
It is if I do it! :P
But yeah. It's our own fault for being bullied/pressured into it. At the end of the day you cannot be afraid to say *NO*. It's a partnership but ultimately they work for us not the other way around.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Dawger on April 22, 2017, 02:30:15 PM
Many moons ago (two years after the aforementioned incident) I was flying along WITH THE RADAR ON headed south on the Victor Airway towards Baton Rouge. We were following a Bonanza at the same altitude.
Ahead was a tall boy in a line of tall boys but it wasn't painting on the scope. Bases were 1000 feet, which is pretty common down on the Gulf Coast.
ATC couldn't give us much information and after some discussion with the other pilot we decided to deviate west. That particular cumulus cloud just looked violent. Everything was bright white in the blazing sunshine but we decided to go west anyway. The Bonanza pilot told ATC he wasn't painting anything and would proceed on the airway. The Bonanza hit the ground in four pieces.
Radar is A LOT better now and there are multiple sources of information in the cockpit we didn't have back then.
In the previous incident I was pissed at ATC because they were strongly recommending particular headings to me and the last one they gave me put me square into a ball buster but as it turns out they were going to turn me a few more times but the tornado evacuation cut off comms. Yes, it was my own damn fault but I was in my first year and couldn't smell thunderstorms quite yet (I did learn though... Use ALL your senses when dodging the big ones)
And, no, I didn't have radar and, yes, I knew I was heading into a squall line of death and , yes, I did it on purpose.
On that particular run it was pretty common to punch the same squall line twice. A few times there were two squall lines 75 miles apart and I punched through them both twice. I was 20 years old and invincible.
We used to do some wild and woolly stuff back in the last century.
I am enjoying the sanctimony of the young pups on PIC responsibility in this thread.
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Vraciu on April 22, 2017, 03:03:53 PM
I'm hardly a young pup--nor sanctimonious.
You say it was your fault. Nobody can bash anyone who owns up to a mistake. We've all done it, or soon will. :salute
Title: Re: First Cumulus Nimbus attempt
Post by: Rich46yo on April 22, 2017, 09:41:25 PM
Well these kind of Cumulus clouds simply rock. Clouds like these were part of the war used often to duck in and use in the dog fight. The immersion they create is just fantastic. I'll be thrilled to see it. :aok