Time of day related object-replacement

[mondkalb 1087]

Aloha there,

the OFP Veterans amongst you might remember the Christmas tree Easteregg.

If your system clock is set to the 24th Dec (and apparently also on the 25th) OFP has all the small conifers on Everon replaced by decorated Christmas trees.

Now here is what I have been wondering:

How has this been done? How did OFP know when it was time to replace what object with a specified different one? Was it 100% hard-coded to an exact .p3d name? And, even more importantly: Does this engine-mechanic still exist in ArmA2 / OA?

Large-Scale usage of this could be islands with seasons depending on real-time date. (I know, having four separate islands is way more practical, but still)

And now longshot #2

Since ArmA2 buildings support an interesting new lighting feature that basically makes buildings look inhabited at night through some lit windows, whereas others aren't lit.

Brings up some old memories, eh?

The idea behind this is, can this time-related RVMAT Change be used/exploited in any way to create buildings/foliage that change their appearance depending on the editor-set date. Though I mean the date and not only time.

This could be then applied to an Island that does have all four seasons which actually depend on the editor-date.

Edited May 14, 2011 by Mondkalb

[mr burns 131]

Excellent thought, i wish you all luck in pursuing this and getting to it´s roots!

This one belongs to the nicer features you can´t find in any game, if only it was used better - your idea with islands having real seasons depending on editor date is equally awesome as would lit windows at night be, or taking it a step further, having a switch that tells ArmA to look for your current isp location and base all weather, season and time on it :eek:

Back in ArmA1 when CWR was released they also had the x-mas tree feature, at least i remember that Dev´s were in touch with BI about it. W0lle might be able to help out with that.