[spud]

Can we control the draw distance on the clouds? With the longer view distance in 4.09, it's terrible to see the clouds draw and undraw around you.

[GentleKiller]

i really support your idea


a HUGE BUMP!!! hock: :lol:

[MrOblongo]

How about multiple layers?

[spud]

No idea. My big issue would be to get them to draw farther first.

It would also be cool to make a cloud as an FMB object like the smoke. Then we could sock in a particular place at will. Many mountain peaks were shrouded in clouds much of the time in the PTO

[VT-51_Razor]

That's an excellent idea Spud, but do you think that it would negatively impact the frame rate as an FMB object? I mean, it would be really easy to get carried away placing them, especially if they are a bit on the small side.

If they were put into the FMB as an object, maybe the thing to do would be to give them the ability to be placed vertically, such as the lights are, with Right Click+F4

[spud]

Interesting to scale one up a notch. BAM!

[spud]

Where are the clouds?

effects/clouds/CloBoard.mat
effects/clouds/Cloud.mat
effects/clouds/Cloud4x4.mat
effects/clouds/Cloud4x4_nosort.mat
effects/clouds/DATA.cld
effects/clouds/cloboard.tga
effects/clouds/cloudata.cld
effects/clouds/clouds4x4.tga
effects/clouds/cloudsA.tga

?

[spud]

Got it, files.SFS

The path isn't there, so I didn't see them!

Data.cld

Code:

[GENERAL]
CLOUDS_GENERATOR 2
TYPE CIRROCUMULUS
    MAT_DENSITY    0.4
    NGHBR_ABSRB    0.97
    PLANE_DISP    2
    INTERSECT    0
    TIER        2
    Z_TO_X        1.0
    N_PER_SQ    1
    DZ_Z_RATIO    0.15
    BASE_R_DISP    2.5
                                LEVELS_MUST_BE_HERE
    LEVELS        2
    LEVEL 0
        F_UP    0.15
        F_DOWN    0.1
        F_SIDE    1.0
        F_DIR    1.0
        DENSITY    4
        K_THIN    0
    END_LEVEL
    LEVEL 1
        F_UP    0.2
        F_DOWN    0.1
        F_CEN    0.0
        DENSITY    4
        K_THIN    0
        K_FADE    0.7
    END_LEVEL
END_GENERATOR    

[GEN_TABLE]    
    0.410260
    0.615040
    0.919614
    0.840541
    0.300180
    0.575701
    0.320353
    0.268746
    0.688314
    0.699332
    0.165441
    0.845088
    0.345134
    0.409314
    0.480361
    0.106845
    0.317240
... and so forth for pages.

All the load.ini files seem to have something like:

Code:

[APPENDIX]
  HighClouds  = MTO_Clouds256.tga
  HighCloudsNoise  = CloudsNoise.tga
//  CloudsMap  = CloudMap4x4km.tga

The cloudsmap is remarked out. Presumably one of the others is the default and called instead of 4x4km version.

Cloud4x4.mat looks like this:
[code][ClassInfo]
ClassName TMaterial
[General]
tfDoubleSide 1
tfShouldSort 1
tfGameTimer 1
tfSpriteLight 0 //

[spud]

Uncommenting the 4x4 seems to work, and the clouds seem to draw a little farther out, though certainly not the 50km suggested by its VisibleDistanceFar 50000.0 setting.

the cloud tgs all can open except the effects/clouds/clouds4x4.tga file.

The cloboard tga looks like a cloud sorta. The cloudsA is a little blob of white fuzz.

Perhaps the cloboard actually functions like a texture map or the map_c or map_h and the cloud density within a given area is determined by this.

clodata lists a bunch numbers which presumably are the relative locations of clouds or cloud planes?

[spud]

Anyone else have any ideas here?

[spud]

Punt

[I/JG27_Waggel]

Sounds a little bit stupid but if there is a chance to make a cloud as an object for use in mission editor . . . you also can make them as moving objects . . . with waypoints. I dont know if this could be done . . . only a little brainstorming.