Clouds - Can they be made?

[MachNix]

Diablomax,
Is the sky a sold blue?  If it is, you can have a format problem with your terrain's .awa file.  AH2 will ignore the .awa file if there are errors.  Try this:
1. In the game folder Aces High II/ahiiterr, rename your terrains .awa file (if it exsists) to 'terrain name'_copy.awa replacing 'terrain name' with the actual name of your terrain. (ex. myterr_copy.awa).
2. Open Notepad and copy/past the following:

0,0,10,132000,1000,8,8,100,100,1000,1000,1000,3000,3000,3000,0,16500,0,132000,0,0,0,0,316800,0.500

Make sure it is all on the same line and is the only line in the file. (Each layer lives in its own line.)  You can have a line return at the end.
3. Click File > Save As, navigate to the Aces High II/ahiiterr, and save the file as 'terrain name'.awa
4. Start AH and see if the sky has changed.  You should see a cirrus cloud layer somewhere between 16 and 17 thousand.  It will start immediately and be visable from the ground.

GL

[Diamax]

Hi MachNix!

Well, I don't know what you've done, but now I can definitely see traces of clouds high up in the sky, yes! those are cirrus clouds, they appear faint from the ground, but the more altitude I get the better I can see them, nice clouds!
And yes, before my sky was clear blue, no trace of a cloud.

Yes, those are clouds! and I wish I could make them too.
I didn't see clouds in any terrain for so long, I like them, I would also like to see puffy ones like cumulus, and stuff like that.
Teach me, please!

Thank you!!

[Diamax]

Comparing the two files, the one that you made and the one that I made, I can see that there are formating differences, and I don't know squat about this, but the difference is very clear.

Hmmm or maybe not, in both files there are 24 commas, therefore 25 groups of numbers.
However my line is longer than yours, for some reason (digits), but is not a lot longer.

[Diamax]

I'm starting to get the handle out of it... still many questions but I start having a lot of nice clouds and soon is going to be totaly overcast... not raining though... just nice, cool, sunshade...

The issue with making the awa file with the Cloud Editor seems to be positioning, maybe is just my fault, and I don't position the front nicely, but now I position them using the values inside the awa file. I fiddle with them until I get them right.

Thank you guys!
Thank you MachNix, your examples helped me a lot, and the explanations (comments) as well.

[Diamax]

I wonder if there is a way to put comments inside a .awa file, cuz that would be really handy, especially until I get more familiar with this stuff.

Thank You!

[MachNix]

Glad you got it working.  I start with the CE to get the layers placed and pointed in the right direction, then work inside the awa file to getting the timings set.  As a last step I go back to the CE to check the maximum cloud count.  I read somewhere that the limit is 900.

If you have not already figure out the awa file, here are the fields:

First Create (sec)
Down Time (sec)
Speed (MPH)
D from A (ft)
Alt Variance
Cloud Rows
Clouds per Row
Min Cloud Type
Max Cloud Type
Min Width (Direction of Row)
Min Height (Vertical)
Min Depth (Perpendicular to row direction)
Max Width
Max Height
Max Depth
Ax (ft) Center of Map is 0, right side is positive.
Mean Layer Alt (This alt +/- 1/2 alt variance.)
Ay (ft) Center of Map is 0, top is positive.
Wx from A (ft)
Wy from A (ft)
Vx
??? (0)
Vy
Transparency (Between 0 and 1)

[Diamax]

Hello MachNix!!

Well I figured some of awa file out, I think about half of it (13 entry values).
Now that you posted all that info above, I am going to go figure out the rest of it, and when I'm done figuring out I will come back and post my understanding of it.
So far what I didn't figure out completelly I got somehwat of an idea, so using your info I should be able to get all or most of them completelly figured out.

Thank you MachNix!

[Dux]

...ummm.... ???

You guys know that you can open the AWA file with the Cloud Editor, don't you?

It beats trying to interpret the text file. Just sayin'.

Not really sure why you seem to be doing it the hard way.

[Skuzzy]

Very dangerous to manually manipulate that file as there are boundaries in many of those fields and if you are outside of them, or not on a boundary, it could get wonky.

[Diamax]

Hello guys!

Here it is what I came up with.
I tried to make it as clear as possible, so if anyone else needs help understanding these awa files... well here we go anyway.
If there is any mistache, well just shout it out, I was very tired when I was doing the second half of it, putting it toghether.
Be aware that there might be formnating errors, due to the nature of the posting system, so you would have to copy/paste into notepad the following, and put it all in one piece there.

0|0|30|132000|1000|8|8|0|2|1000|1000|1000|3000|3000|3000|0|4500|0|132000|0|0|0|0|316800|0.500
-+-+--+------+----+-+-+-+-+----+----+----+----+----+----+-+----+-+------+-+-+-+-+------+-----
A|B|C |  D   |E   |F|G|H|I| J  | K  | L  | M  | N  | O  |P| Q  |R|  S   |T|U|V|W|  X   |Y


A - Start Time Delay of cloud Front, in seconds, When the Cloud Front first appears. A zero value puts the clouds in right
    from the start.
B - Restart Time Delay of cloud Front, in seconds. When the same Cloud Front reappears, after it dissapeared.
C - Clouds Moving Speed in MPH. If you put a zero here, the clouds won't show up/move unless you are in the Layer setting.
D - Distance of the "D" from "W" - on the y-axis. This is the depth or length of the Cloud Front.
E - Altitude variance between the min and max altitude in feet.
    Example: If the average altitude is 4500 feet, and the altitude variance is 1000, then min alt of the clouds will be 4000 feet, and the max will be 5000 feet. It goes up and down 500 feet from the average altitude, which makes up for the 1000 value of the altitude variance.
F - Number of Cloud Rows.
G - Number of Clouds Per Row.
H - Min Type of Clouds (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 100, 101, 102). 100 is thin layer, 101 is medium layer, and 102 is heavy layer.
I - Max Type Of Clouds (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 100, 101, 102). 100 is thin layer, 101 is medium layer, and 102 is heavy layer.
    If any layer is selected, then same number is placed for H and I values (100, 101, 102).
J - Min Width of Clouds (Direction of Row) in feet.
K - Max Height of Clouds (Vertical) in feet.
L - Min Depth of Clouds (Perpendicular to row direction).
M - Max Width of Clouds.
N - Max Height of Clouds.
O - Max Depth of Clouds.
P - Position of the A point on the horizontal plane (clipboard map), in regards to the center of the terrain, which is zero, on the x-axis.
    Positive numbers move the A point in the right side (east) of the center (zero). Positive x-axis.
    Negative numbers move the A point in the left side (west) of the center (zero). Negative x-axis.
    The numbers represent distance in feet from center (0) to the A point.
Q - Average Altitude of the Clouds (Min+Max/2)
R - Position of the A point on the horizontal plane (clipboard map), in regards to the center of the terrain, which is zero, on the y-axis.
    Positive numbers move the A point in the upper side (north) of the center (zero). Positive y-axis.
    Negative numbers move the A point in the lower side (south) of the center (zero). Negative y-axis.
    The numbers represent distance in feet from center (0) to the A point.
S - Position of W point in regards to the A point. Default position of W is 132000 units (feets) east of A ( on the x-axis).
    This is the width of the Cloud Front. It's recomended that this number is always positive, so W stays to the right of A.
T - Position of W point in regards to the A point. Default position of W is 0 units (feets) same as A ( on the y-axis).
U - Position of V point in regards to the A point on the x-axis. Default is 0, it is recomended that it stays that way.
V - ??? Changing this number didn't seem to make any significant difference, if any.
W - ??? Changing this number didn't seem to make any noticeable difference, if any.
X - Position of V in regards to the A point on the y-axis. It's recomended that this number is always positive, so V stays above (north) of A.
    When the Cloud Front reaches the V point it dissipates. The V point shows the direction of the clouds.
Y - clouds Transparency/Opacity (0.000 - 1.000)


P.S. I did this because my CE doesn't really work the way it should.

[MachNix]

Dux,
There is a Cloud Editor?  Just kidding.  I use it to first setup the layers but cant set distances to the nearest foot using the mouse.  Precision is needed to get the layers timed properly.  The example that I posted above uses 960 clouds that have a peak of about 379 that settles out to between 300 to 340 clouds visible at any given time.  As a row of clouds disappears, they reappear somewhere else on the map keeping the cloud count relatively constant.

Diablomax,
The only thing I see different from my findings is Item E, Altitude Variance.  If you have a mean altitude of 4500 feet with a variance of 1000, then the layer will be between 4000 (4500 – 1000/2) and 5000 (4500 + 1000/2) feet.  At least, that is what it would say in the Cloud Editor – what actually happens in the game could be different.

Also, heed Skuzzy's warning about things getting "wonky."  The CE does, for example, keep you from mixing the single digit cloud types with the 100s, and I'm sure there are other perils so horrible they are beyond mention.  Of course you might want to try it just once to see what "wonky" means.

[Diamax]

Hi MachNix!

Well about the Altitude Variance... you are right, now after looking again into it, I discovered my mistache...
I am going to correct it in my earlier posting. THANK YOU for pointing that out!

Yes Skuzzy is right in his warning, but well as long as you keep everything tidy, should work. Of course editing the file like this there are more chances to make mistaches, but at the same time you have more control, especially when you are like me and have no control over the cloud front position while using CE, for some reason. Everything is fine when using CE, but positioning the front cloud. Besides for me is a real pain as CE is slow, and buggy, and I have to change my screen resolution everytime I use it, otherwise the controls won't show up (bad programming of GUI), not to mention that the front postion never adjusts itself to the map size, I have to do it manually all the time, and it leavers trails on the editor, that stay there until I close the editor.

Taken all these, in consideration I mostly use editing of the awa file, a lot more than I use CE. I would say that for the making of an awa file I use CE for 10% of the work, and the rest manual editing of the file, until is completelly done, and many times I don't use CE at all, especially now that I figured those things out.
I would like to use CE more, but it would have to be a better working editor, a much better than it is now. It has very nice options, but is not functioning properly for me. If CE would work as well as TE that would be great.

[Bogie603rd]

Originally posted by Diablomax
If CE would work as well as TE that would be great.

Amen!