ARMA 3 - TrueSky Weather, Effects

[looter 10]

Has anyone found or heard about anything new with the ArmA 3 Weather Module? I noticed you can have it dynamically change over a period of time, and the description for the 'delay' field mentions SimulWeather, one SimulWeather function on the ArmA3 Scripting reference page on the wiki, and that rained is turned off in dev build at the moment which could mean some rain changes in beta, but that's all I know so far, haven't had any luck using the Weather Module yet. The new fog tech is great, hoping Weather gets some love in the beta.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Looter

[tremanarch 6]

could we have rain drops on the car window like here:

Edited July 9, 2013 by tremanarch

[marcai 1]

What actually would be a very important question relating to TrueSky is whether or not the game will sync weather on servers. Imagine flying into some clouds and thinking you're safe, only to be annihilated by ground AA who can see you flying in open skies, or in a dogfight with an enemy you can't see through cloud but can see you. It'd still look amazing, bit situations like those would put a bit of a downer on the effect if they are client-side.

[tremanarch 6]

even if its client side, the client could send a message to the server that it is hidden, and so just invisible - even if the other player looks in the blue sky. then when the airplane goes down it appears out of the blue sky..

not a brilliant solution - syncing is the better option! or for competitive play: clear sky or extremely cloudy ;) no in between states.

[Laqueesha 474]

could we have rain drops on the car window like here:

That would be awesome. Maybe even sounds of the raindrops hitting the glass, like in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Individual effects for snow and other types of weather as well.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Laqueesha

[zooloo75 834]

Hopefully BIS will utilize this tech to its fullest! :D

---------- Post added at 07:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 AM ----------

cloud shadows are already in the game! AT least thats what I think when clouds are flying it gets darker and brighter..

I made a Timexleration video to show this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl4aeEoFqgM

jump to 1:00 Minutes - it begins when the sun sets

(its more subtle than the other game)

I noticed this too when accelerating time; it only changes the overall ambient light - it doesn't cast any shadows.

[fragmachine 12]

In my opinion - whole weather system needs at best an overhaul - at least some serious tweaking. I'll left the rain topic as far as Bohemia is already well aware of the subject - but will mention one significant thing.

When on some distance away of us is raining, there should be visible streaks coming out of the clouds.

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=12046

Last time I've checked it, there were separate cloud formations having slightly different velocity, altitude, direction of progress - which is a good change.

Lightings set on 100% should hit the ground every one-two seconds and set on 1% should hit the ground every two minutes. Right now setting it up doesn't make a great difference.

Also there should be more varied cloud types apart from Cumulus and Cumulonimbous(at least):

CUMULONIMBOUS with anvil forehead (for stormcell creating)

ALTOCUMULUS

STRATUS

CIRRUS

CIRROCUMULUS

ALTOSTRATUS

Time of changes is there to change the delay from nice to bad weather (or vice versa).

Settings/sliders should be ALL independent from eachother. So we can force 100% lighting and 100% rain with 0% overcast setting (obviously in-game there would be clear sky, no lightings and no rain). There musn't be raining everytime it is lighting, or must it?

And finally, Advanced Dynamic Weather Module.

It needs to be a module (for example synced with different triggers - while triggers are cloud placement, their volume and cloud type,rain and it's denstiy, snow and its density) Also it should be possible to setup an altitude of each cloud pattern/cloud formation.

That way we would be able te get astonishingly clear sky above our heads and see incoming stormcell around 25km away off the Altis coast :cool:

We should be able to set wind direction/density and/or cloud movement on the editor map not just the INTEL tab.

There should be another LAYER for the weather itself like there is right now for Intro/Outro etc.

Edited August 31, 2013 by fragmachine

[jumpinghubert 49]

...and we need single raindrop simulation....no, i am joking. For me a slider for cloud altitude is enough. Not much work and great effect.

[fragmachine 12]

@JumpingHubert If you think I am joking - there were weather mods for A2 that calculated air pressure, humidity, weather condition cycles, etcetera...

Devs should be glad I didn't pointed it out before :cool:

BTW. Weather system in ArmA games could be really good with not much performance impact (you get it anyway with clouds generated by the engine) but what I was speaking are mostly not lacks but it's system shortcomings, unused potential of TrueSky.

Sadly, SADLY that generic always-above-our-heads hovering clouds is really BAD thing. That must change for sure. Setting up cloud altitude isn't enought if you can't have damn clouds localised by your mission-design wish. Of course cloud creating above heads is happening but it is rare to see, most of the time you will see clouds incoming, especially if those are stormcells. These can travel hundreds of miles before dissapear. From side of a weather fetishist and mission-designer perfectionist It would add a lot if not a TON of possibilities. Every mission setting would and could be different.

Edited August 31, 2013 by fragmachine

[progamer 14]

Can we expect to see full use of TrueSky weather effects including snow and other weather?

TrueSky's website: http://www.simul.co.uk/truesky

Made a ticket for full use of TrueSky weather effects that can give us most of our cloud and weather needs: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=13729

[clydefrog 3]

Don't expect anything when it comes to Arma 3.

Everything in that video looks far better than any type of weather effects currently in the game, doesn't even look like they're related (I know they are, it just looks on a completely different level).

Edited August 31, 2013 by clydefrog

[progamer 14]

Don't expect anything when it comes to Arma 3.

Everything in that video looks far better than any type of weather effects currently in the game, doesn't even look like they're related (I know they are, it just looks on a completely different level).

You understand BIS will support this game for up too five years filled with a few dlc, an expansion pack or two and tons of free content updates?

[denco 16]

I'm still hoping TrueSky gets fully implemented in the game.

[progamer 14]

I'm still hoping TrueSky gets fully implemented in the game.

Great, and why your at it upvotes the ticket for full truesky in Arma 3 and have your freinds do so as well!

[ck-claw 1]

Up voted :cool:

[Vigil Vindex 64]

I have a feeling this is not being enabled due to the performance hit it would cause while other areas are still being worked on to improve performance. Similar to how the TOH flight model was removed because it would cause a 10fps hit and would bring averages down to unplayable levels. I think most people are lucky to get 30fps in an active situation.

[-=seany=- 5]

I have a feeling this is not being enabled due to the performance hit it would cause while other areas are still being worked on to improve performance. Similar to how the TOH flight model was removed because it would cause a 10fps hit and would bring averages down to unplayable levels. I think most people are lucky to get 30fps in an active situation.

I don't think so. With a flight model you cant really "turn it down" via options, it's there or not. But with improved weather effects, they could add it to the Ultra clouds setting.

Those screen shots do look very impressive I too hope they can add it back in.

Overall I think the current weather/atmosphere model looks much better than Arma2. One thing that does bother me though are the morphing clouds. They start changing shape and glitching near the screen edges. Most noticeable when turning left or right, some times it's worse than others. Oddly I have not seen anyone else mention this or any bug thread about it, probably just missed it though.

[progamer 14]

I don't think so. With a flight model you cant really "turn it down" via options, it's there or not. But with improved weather effects, they could add it to the Ultra clouds setting.

Those screen shots do look very impressive I too hope they can add it back in.

Overall I think the current weather/atmosphere model looks much better than Arma2. One thing that does bother me though are the morphing clouds. They start changing shape and glitching near the screen edges. Most noticeable when turning left or right, some times it's worse than others. Oddly I have not seen anyone else mention this or any bug thread about it, probably just missed it though.

I have tickets for those issues as well!

Morphing clouds: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=13467

You can't actually fly through the clouds or be inside them: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=13455

[Smurf 12]

You should be able to set clouds altitude or get them much lower than the height they have now.

[fragmachine 12]

We should be able to set altitude for various patterns of clouds, wind direction on various altitude, finally we should be able to place stormcell at any distance and place. Voted.

[austin_medic 109]

Well... ArmA 3 has in its intro splash screen saying it uses portions of Simul Weather, which I guess is TrueSky (judging off the website in the video in the first post), I might be worng though... Would be nice to have a developer post here confirm yes or no.

[progamer 14]

I found this on TrueSky's website:

Latest version of TrueSky.

DirectX 11 support.

Fully dynamic true atmospheric fade effects, including height-dependent fog and anisotropic scattering.

Truly volumetric clouds, faster to render than conventional sprite-based clouds.

Sequencing – keyframe control of clouds, time of day and atmospheric effects.

High dynamic range – all outputs in 16 or 32-bit floating point HDR.

Weather planning with Sky Sequencer. A production-quality toolset for designing weather effects.

Advanced real-time weather planning with Simul Sky Sequencer, a production-quality toolset.

Sky colours from physical calculation or user-defined colour keyframes.

Extensive range of API and engine support, now including DirectX 11.

Fully dynamic true atmospheric fade effects, including height-dependent fog and anisotropic scattering.

Truly volumetric clouds, faster to render than conventional sprite-based clouds.

Super-low memory footprint.

Built for multi-core.

Super-fast cached clouds.

Another point of info:

Simul announces the Sky Sequencer – a new tool for technical artists, animators and programmers. The Sky Sequencer edits a track of cloud and sky keyframes, so artists can plan out a series of weather and time-of-day events. The sequence can be played back in real- or accelerated time, to show the interplay of sky, clouds, atmospherics and weather effects.

A complete sequence, either one-shot or as a loop, can be saved and imported into any program that incorporates Simul Weather. To try out this powerful new tool, contact Simul on enquiries@simul.co.uk. http://www.simul.co.uk/archives/1017

[austin_medic 109]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?162909-Secret-SimulWeather-commands

Some of the commands in there can make it REALLY obvious ArmA 3 is using TrueSky for its clouds...

VR engine + TrueSky definately has some really messed up issues. setting cloudheight to 50 results in... electricity clouds... yes. real clouds go bye bye and all you see is swiggly lines that are supposed tobe the clouds, but are bent around in shapes that look like lightning, lol. 10000 height is for normal clouds.

Edited September 2, 2013 by austin_medic

[antoineflemming 14]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?162909-Secret-SimulWeather-commands

Some of the commands in there can make it REALLY obvious ArmA 3 is using TrueSky for its clouds...

VR engine + TrueSky definately has some really messed up issues. setting cloudheight to 50 results in... electricity clouds... yes. real clouds go bye bye and all you see is swiggly lines that are supposed tobe the clouds, but are bent around in shapes that look like lightning, lol. 10000 height is for normal clouds.

What do you mean "make it really obvious"? It's obvious because they've said it...

[progamer 14]

If you discover any Simul commands we don't know about yet, please post them here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?162909-Secret-SimulWeather-commands