Solar Eclipse / more astronomic depth

[mr burns 132]

I´m assuming most of us have learned from OFP up to ArmA how to navigate by stars &/or using a watch and the sun. We´re talking about one of the most unique features in any game, almost exclusively held by the original OFP/ArmA franchise. You can tell how much love was involved in creating OFP just by looking at those two features.

Now since BI has chosen to offer such in depth developement, and me being bored, i started wondering:

Will there be a visible solar eclipse if i just set everything right? (according to pic)

To make a long story short, it didn´t work.

I haven´t opened this thread to ask specificly for a solar eclipse feature in Operation Arrowhead. It´d be cool to have nontheless, don´t get me wrong.

The intention of this thread is to remind BI dev´s of a once great love they shared altogether. Building something unique, never seen before, and outclassing any other competitor while doing nothing more than following their personal esprit.

Please make OA a Game of the Year (no matter what year) candidate and not an ugly duckling bastard going to be known as the remnant of a once great franchise.

PS: Still, including solar eclipse would be rather kick ass! Same goes for aurora borealis for the regions where it happens. Suddenly i remember kegetys had a script for it in OFP, mmh memories......

[Flash Thunder 10]

Yep it is awesome to see the amount of detail in the night skies, I just wished that the lighting wasnt from a decade ago and the clouds were actual particles instead of a 2d transparent texture.

[Tankbuster 1746]

An astronomer friend tells me the moon is upside down in the game.

[maturin 12]

And before we go into any more celestial depth, can we please get a sky that doesn't have a permanent jet vapor trail on top, and one without visual seam lines at the poles?

[twisted 128]

yes.please.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Flight Sim has aurora and meteors, but even they never did solar eclipses.

A pretty sky is nice. However I don't spend a lot of time looking at the stars and moon in combat with bullets flying around.

[instagoat 133]

An astronomer friend tells me the moon is upside down in the game.

Actually, it rotates in certain positions in the sky, depending how you look at it. I´m delving into astronomy too, so this was quite the apparent... curiosity about the Armaverse.

It´s nothing big, even though I´ve pondered if it´d be possible to, like, do much more detailed night sky maps somehow and then use Arma as a helper in setting up astronomy sessions. You could even simulate different scope types down to the rivet...

OTing... but yeah, the moon rotates. The dimensions are about correct though, unless I´m completely off.

[galzohar 31]

Firs they should simulate light/darkness properly, then we can talk about better weather...

[SWT_Janowich 10]

The moon is upside down? Really?

[sic-disaster 311]

Wow, there was an Aurora Borealis mod for OFP?

Do want! If there is anything i would want to see before i die, it is Aurora Borealis :)

[mr burns 132]

Wow, there was an Aurora Borealis mod for OFP?

Do want! If there is anything i would want to see before i die, it is Aurora Borealis :)

http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=1907

See features, line 2 ;)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

My wishlist on this topic:

1. Solar and lunar eclipse. Keep in mind that for a given point on earth they will usually only be partial and not spectacular at all.

2. No more rotating moon :D Well, at least we can't snipe its size :)

3. Colorized stars. Yes, it's even visible to the naked eye in tons of light pollution. Just check out Betelgeuse or Aldebaran.

4. Stars as singular dots (or fixed size discs if dots are problematic with aliasing) which doesn't grow when you zoom in on them.

5. The dust band of the milky way. Should be very visible with that little light pollution given the magnitude of stars we are currently able to see.

6. Meteor showers originating from the correct places (i.e. the Leonids) at the correct dates.

7. The glowing horizon should provide some ambient lighting conditions.

8. Aurora borealis, but... Keep it within reason within the latitudes they would occur. Not sure if it's worth it though, given that "extreme" latitudes are problematic in the engine. Moving Chernarus to N80° was, well, disappointing but not really unexpected.

9. Planets, or is this pushing it? :D

Well, one can always dream - I have no real expectations I must say :)

[tpw 2315]

Hmm , sounds like you need to check out the fantastic free astronomy program Celestia. Has most of the above, but you can't shoot anyone in it though...

[dmarkwick 261]

An astronomer friend tells me the moon is upside down in the game.

I'm guessing the upside-downness of the moon is entirely subjective :) if for example you lived most of your life in the UK then you moved to New Zealand, the moon would be upside down. So I would guess that it depends on where in the world you view the moon as normal vs where in the world the game is set ;)

[ryguy 10]

Solar Eclipses only happen on a 100mi^2 area of the earth at any time. Putting in a solar eclipse would be more of an easter egg than something that would ever just happen by coincidence, it would be like winning the lottery if that happened by chance.

[mr burns 132]

Solar Eclipses only happen on a 100mi^2 area of the earth at any time. Putting in a solar eclipse would be more of an easter egg than something that would ever just happen by coincidence, it would be like winning the lottery if that happened by chance.

Same as, for instance, having all fir trees replaced by xmas trees on a particular date once a year?

That´d truly be astounding and never seen before! :butbut:

see my love for what they´re doing remark in first post ;)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Ahh... The memories :)

Just want to stress that a partial eclipse is not all that rare. It is also incredibly boring for most people. The partial shadow doesn't dim the light much. The total eclipse is spectacular and extremely rare, and tends to make animal life go wtf. Most likely you won't be able to setup a total eclipse, as the land is set by world parameters (need an addon to change those, but fully possible), and the selectable years are fixed and would appear "strange" if you tried to override them (not sure what is possible here).

Easter egg or not getting eclipses, it adds to all that depth that no other games come close to having: Real world stars reacting to where on the earth the land is placed (southern hemisphere land will get southern hemisphere stars), tidal waves, sun year cycle (try thirsk island for some magnificent midnight summer sun and winters in eternal darkness). Now, compare this to a certain other "milsim game" who always have full moon at same position with way to much illumination - every single night...

These kinds of things are partly what makes Arma unique. Why not have more of it? :)

And yes, Celestia have been with me for some time now :)

Edited April 12, 2010 by CarlGustaffa

[Vick 19]

Flight Sim has aurora and meteors, but even they never did solar eclipses.

A pretty sky is nice. However I don't spend a lot of time looking at the stars and moon in combat with bullets flying around.

the moons and stars arent for looking at during combat....obviously.

do you even have a clue why they want it? just for looking at during combat is your guess. lol.

[Flash Thunder 10]

Just an updated lighting engine would make it so much more enjoyable to play the game at night with the fog rolling in...

This game at night= Win

[M9ACE 0]

As Evil Echo mentioned, meteors/falling space junk would be a nice addition. However, how it is implemented should be thought out. Perhaps it could be made a function that can be controlled through the editor that way a creative mission maker could add a metor shower to their mission.

[norsu 180]

What I would like to see are better stars. Right now stars look just way too big especially during full moon. In OFP stars were tiny and looked great, only thing missing was moonlight. During overcast A2 stars look good though as you can barely see them but during clear skies they look like small moons.

[SteveJA 12]

Same as, for instance, having all fir trees replaced by xmas trees on a particular date once a year?

That´d truly be astounding and never seen before! :butbut:

see my love for what they´re doing remark in first post ;)

When i turned my pc on and saw those trees, i almost about put my tinfoil hat on lol

[Lethn 10]

As much as I'd like the idea I think the A.I and Performance and gameplay of Arma 2 needs some serious work before we throw fluff like that at it.