setOvercast ??

[tvig0r0us 27]

Has anyone noticed wether or not setOvercast is working?? I've not been able to use my weather randomization script to change the overcast, but the rain and fog seem to work fine. Just wondering if anyone else has seen this.

Thanks :)

[dwringer 45]

Been experimenting with the same thing myself, and I don't really have much to report other than that it does indeed seem to be nonfunctional.

I have tested:

setOvercast : not working

setRainbow : sets variable but cannot demonstrate effect?

setLightnings : sets variable but cannot demonstrate effect?

setWindForce : unknown, does appear to be working

setWaves : appears to be working

setWindStr : works, but must set wind to Manual in editor

setGusts : works, but must set wind to Manual in editor

setRain : working

setFog : working

setWindDir : working

it is odd because in the BIS functions, there is an a3>ModuleEvents>BIS_fnc_weatherModule script which appears to utilize these very functions; I presume it is a component of the weather module or intended to be used with the weather module. Regardless, I cannot get the module or the function to change the non-working parameters at all.

Edited March 10, 2013 by dwringer

[gammadust 12]

Notice the changes are not imediate. In fact if you monitor the "overcast" return, its value approaches slowly the value set by "setOvercast".

What i haven't figured out is how the first term in "50 setOvercast 0.5;" exacly influences this.

According to wiki "Set overcast to given value smoothly during given time (in seconds)."

EDIT:

I have the suspicion the transition duration is tied to the value set in the editor under "Time of changes", in my tests, bypassing the one we set.

Further testing revealed the above was not exacly the case, or at least changing it to a value below ~30 minutes, only influenced the amount of light in the skydome, not the presence of cloud coverage (which as a matter of fact only appeared after 30 minutes ingame time)

I figure this transition limits are hardcoded in the weather engine.

PS: if by any chance the OP created a ticket in the Alpha feedback tracker. Please update it accordingly.

Edited March 10, 2013 by gammadust

[dwringer 45]

I made a ticket, but I'm not sure what the update is. AFAIK setOvercast is still not working as it is supposed to. Also I'm not sure what you mean by your post. I did not notice any changes, including light in the skydome, when using the setOvercast command. Using the Overcast sliders in the editor works as expected.

In Arma 2, a script like:

0 setOvercast 0;

60 setOvercast 1;

would basically start you with a clear sky, and then transition to full coverage within 1 minute. The settings in the editor basically did the exact same thing as this, and do not appear to function differently now - the only difference is that setOvecast itself does nothing.

Go add a comment to the tracker yourself though, if you have more info :)

[gammadust 12]

Basically what i suspect is that with the new weather engine for changes to occur the engine apparently requires a minimum of 30 minutes for those to take efect. (This is speculation)

On the other hand if:

init.sqf

0 setOvercast 0;
60 setOvercast 1;

while {true} do	{
hint format ["%1\n%2", daytime, overcast];
sleep 0.1;
};

one can notice the overcast value does respond to "60 setOvercast 1;" despite slowly, where my speculation above may then come relevant.

On my tests it appears it takes those 30 minutes at minimum (also has suggested by the minimum slider value allowed ("Time of changes") in the "INTEL" panel in mission editor).

Since you had created the ticket maybe linking it wouldn't be a bad idea, it would help all in the thread to be on the same page, and avoid dreaded duplicates. Issue #0003567.

All in all not working as expected or as described in the wiki, but working nonetheless.

Edited March 10, 2013 by gammadust

[dwringer 45]

Sorry I didn't provide the link myself, was hoping to force more people into getting into the habit of using the Search on the tracker, since "setOvercast" is actually very easy to find ;)

But clearly I didn't understand what you meant the first time. Good find on that. If I could I would further clarify the nature of the issue on the ticket, but your note seems quite sufficient to bring it to the developers' attention. :)

I wonder if this is related to the added dimensionality of weather changes associated with the setForce command, which sets how quickly the wind speed can change.

Also something I did notice, changing the in-game time has an effect on where the clouds are in the sky, even when leaving all the weather parameters untouched.

Doesn't do anything to the overcast value, however. :\

[gammadust 12]

Also something I did notice, changing the in-game time has an effect on where the clouds are in the sky, even when leaving all the weather parameters untouched.

... also noticed that, which adds to my speculation that the cloud coverage over time is precalculated in "chunks" of ~30 minutes or something along those lines. I am noticing some performance issues if i set the in-game time to go backwards (as if keep asking the engine to generate another chunk of cloud coverage)

[fer 21]

setFog may also not be working quite as expected. Using this command to set the fog to 1 does not appear to generate fog as thick as that generated when you using the in-editor slider to set fog to 100.