38 replies to this topic

[Lee200]

I've just finished a completely new version of the Weather Patch which I think you will have fun with.  You can download it from my website located here:

https://gplmotorworks.gplworld.de/

Thanks to the '55 Mod team for their test support and especially to Stefan Roess for hosting the website.

BTW, Stefan has cooked up a nice surprise for everyone too.  


https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be
Be careful, it can be slippery out there.  

Lee

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What Is It?:  The Weather Patch continuously changes the visibility on-the-fly to simulate fog, rain, or haze.

It works during training, qualification, and race for all mods, all country .exes, all tracks, and with the D3D7v2 and OpenGLv2 rasterisers.

Online players see the same visibility regardless of when they join the server.

As the visibility decreases, so does the track surface grip to simulate a wet track.  Also, the AI will slow down.

How Does It Work?:  The Weather Patch uses GPL's Fog Effect which, before now, could only apply a constant density, gray colored fog throughout qualification and race.  Normally, the fog's density is set in the track.ini file, but the Weather Patch automatically and continuously changes the density on-the-fly and track.ini file settings aren't needed.

The density and change duration are random, but are based on the track's length.  So each track will have different fog characteristics.

How Do You Use It?: See this link to my website which contains the link to download the Weather Patch and how to add patches:

https://gplmotorworks.gplworld.de

I place the Weather patch in one of the Options directories to make it easy to turn on and off with GEM+'s checkbox.

Important--the patch only works with v2 rasterisers!  Do not use it with the Night Patch!

What Should You Expect To See?:  The Weather Patch continuously adjusts the visibility during qualification or race.  Sometimes the visibility will be very good while at other times, it can be quite poor.  Be careful when the visibility is poor as the track surface can be very slippery.

Replays:  The patch works during replays.  All the replay buttons such as fast forward, pause, .etc, and the time slider work normally and the visibility is automatically updated although it make take a few seconds to adjust.  If your replay includes qualification and race segments, the patch automatically adjusts.  You can use a saved replay as well as the normal qualification/race replay screen.

Other Notes:

1.  If you enter and exit your car or use the replay time change features, elapsed time and visibility may no longer be in real time.  Press the "Live Feed" button to synchronize the display.  This is not a bug with the patch, but is a feature of GPL.
2.  To minimize possible frame rate degradation, visibility changes are purposely limited to twice per second.  This may create a slight flickering effect when the visibility is worst.  
3.  The Fog Effect is always active so it may obscure the horizon at some tracks.  Some tracks have a distant horizon which makes them more susceptible to the effect.  Tracks with closer horizons, such as Monaco, are not obscured as much.
4.  Do not use the Weather Patch at the same time as the Night Patch as the two patches are not compatible with each other.
5.  The online server does not have to be patched for the Weather Patch to work.

Attached Files

•  Weather 4.jpg   70.21K   163 downloads
•  Weather 3.jpg   84.01K   174 downloads
•  Weather 1.jpg   65.84K   165 downloads
•  Weather 2.jpg   78.07K   143 downloads

Edited by Lee200, Mar 26 2017 - 07:38 AM.

[Claudio Pablo Navonne]

Thanks!!!

[twinpotter]

Thanks Lee and all concerned for this patch !
Again another wonderful add on

PS: Does the weather also hinder the AI as well as yourself (offline) ?

Thanks again

TP:

[Fat Rich]

Wow! Looks amazing

A big thank you to all involved

[John Woods]

Thank you Lee for this patch, Stefan for the movie, and everyone who helped out.

Need some new words like ultrabrilliant, superamazing...

Leefantastic!

Edited by John Woods, Mar 26 2017 - 10:31 AM.

[Lee200]

twinpotter, on Mar 26 2017 - 08:41 AM, said:

PS: Does the weather also hinder the AI as well as yourself (offline) ?

Read Post #1.  

[twinpotter]

As the visibility decreases, so does the track surface grip to simulate a wet track.  Also, the AI will slow down.

"MISS READ THAT LEE"

TP:

Edited by twinpotter, Mar 26 2017 - 11:35 AM.

[JonnyA]

Thanks Lee!

[fajanko]

Thanks Lee!

[Arturo Pereira]

Thank Lee!!!

[Lord]

I wonder if it can be perfected to randomly (and on-the-fly) put haze, heavy rain, normal rain and clear sky: that would be the nail it needs IMHO

[Lee200]

Lord, on Mar 26 2017 - 01:34 PM, said:

I wonder if it can be perfected to randomly (and on-the-fly) put haze, heavy rain, normal rain and clear sky: that would be the nail it needs IMHO

I don't understand.  It already randomly varies the visibility from very good to very bad.

Now if you are talking about displaying actual raindrops, that is something that can be done, but it requires using modified track .3DO files.  Wet Spa and Wet Mosport are good examples where the track maker has modified the track .3DO file to add raindrops.  I've looked into automatically doing this with a patch, but it's probably impossible to do as the track .3DO file structure is extremely complex.

[Brian Speake]

Many thanks for the update.

[Jim Pearson]

Excellent!  

[Roo]

amazing, thanks Lee

[marco lenarduzzi]

This is amazing ! Thank you Lee and all concerned !  

WOW ! Just watched the video on Youtube. The effect is stunning and that was some great racing too.

Edited by marco lenarduzzi, Mar 27 2017 - 03:26 AM.

[Lord]

Lee200, on Mar 26 2017 - 02:52 PM, said:

Lord, on Mar 26 2017 - 01:34 PM, said:

I wonder if it can be perfected to randomly (and on-the-fly) put haze, heavy rain, normal rain and clear sky: that would be the nail it needs IMHO

I don't understand.  It already randomly varies the visibility from very good to very bad.

Now if you are talking about displaying actual raindrops, that is something that can be done, but it requires using modified track .3DO files.  Wet Spa and Wet Mosport are good examples where the track maker has modified the track .3DO file to add raindrops.  I've looked into automatically doing this with a patch, but it's probably impossible to do as the track .3DO file structure is extremely complex.

No man, I wasn't talking about that: I'm sorry if I didn't get the message out clearly enough.
What I'm talking about is since it will already shuffle between haze and heavy, normal and light rain, I thought it would be the cherry on the top if it could shuffle between clear sky and all of the said conditions: in this way it would be a more complete package, at least from where I'm seeing it. I'm not at all bashing on you or your work, mind you, but just asking if there is room for some further improvements down the line by you or someone else who wants to look at the actual code and how it works with GPL. I'm asking that because I've tested the patch for a while and it didn't ever display a sunny/clear weather after all the possible conditions were shuffled through.
I'm not asking for actual raindrops "GP4 style" since it will be objectively a mess: 3DOs have followed very different "standards" in almost 20 years of development, so it would be impossible without checking every single track out there. It would be something to be remembered for the ages, but it's like landing a man on Pluto as of the available tech and time ^^;

[Clutch]

Good work as ever Lee and thanks for adding more dynamics to this brilliant game.

The video looks superb!

[Lee200]

Lord, on Mar 27 2017 - 05:28 AM, said:

What I'm talking about is since it will already shuffle between haze and heavy, normal and light rain, I thought it would be the cherry on the top if it could shuffle between clear sky and all of the said conditions: in this way it would be a more complete package, at least from where I'm seeing it. I'm not at all bashing on you or your work, mind you, but just asking if there is room for some further improvements down the line by you or someone else who wants to look at the actual code and how it works with GPL. I'm asking that because I've tested the patch for a while and it didn't ever display a sunny/clear weather after all the possible conditions were shuffled through.

As mentioned in the notes, it's not possible to have a completely clear sky as the fog effect is always active.  So even at extremely low density values, the distant horizon including the sky will be obscured somewhat.  The effect differs from track to track.  Many tracks have a distant horizon which will always be obscured while some tracks, such as Monaco, have a closer horizon and aren't obscured as much.

Even if it were possible, I don't think a completely clear sky is realistic for a weather patch as typically rain and fog don't go from pea soup conditions to unlimited visibility in a short time.

There were several technical challenges that had to be overcome for the patch.  Getting it to work well offline was relatively easy, but ensuring that all online players see the same fog density at the same time, but still using random changes for variety was tough.  As you know, online player can join the server at different times which greatly complicates things.

I also spent several days trying to get the cars to display spray behind the tires.  I succeeded in getting one or sometimes two cars to do this and it is a cool effect, but I couldn't get all cars to do so.  

[Stefan Roess]

Another great patch, Lee!
Ok when I call you the "Magic Patch Machine" from now on.


Thx to all for the positive feedback on the movie. Nice that you like it.

Lee200, on Mar 27 2017 - 07:06 AM, said:

I also spent several days trying to get the cars to display spray behind the tires.  I succeeded in getting one or sometimes two cars to do this and it is a cool effect, but I couldn't get all cars to do so.  

Maybe one day it might be possible.
It is good to know that it is possible at all....even just for 1-2 cars atm.

Edited by Stefan Roess, Mar 27 2017 - 07:27 AM.