Creating Clouds with Dynamic Weather Tab

[Bosun]

Is there a good tutorial that isn't 3 years old, regarding the intricacies of the dynamic weather engine in the mission editor?  I've looked all over and cannot find one. The tutorials I did see from Youtube, all 2.5 and earlier, I followed steps from and mimicked their placement, sizing, etc..., but could not achieve any patterns that resulted in anything except wind on an clear sky.  Even mashing systems up and creating conditions for wind in excess of hurricane forces, still netted no clouds in the sky, at all, anywhere on the maps.  

I'd like to use dynamic weather in missions, so any help is appreciated! 

 

[Ziggy]

hey Bosun,   there's a grim reapers youtube vid called Mission Editor: Dynamic Weather & Extreme Weather Tutorial | DCS WORLD

it helped me make some sense of the process.

[Ironhand]

On 11/5/2022 at 4:11 PM, Bosun said:

Is there a good tutorial that isn't 3 years old, regarding the intricacies of the dynamic weather engine in the mission editor?  I've looked all over and cannot find one. The tutorials I did see from Youtube, all 2.5 and earlier, I followed steps from and mimicked their placement, sizing, etc..., but could not achieve any patterns that resulted in anything except wind on an clear sky.  Even mashing systems up and creating conditions for wind in excess of hurricane forces, still netted no clouds in the sky, at all, anywhere on the maps.  

I'd like to use dynamic weather in missions, so any help is appreciated! 

 

Those old tutorials are still valid in the sense that nothing has changed with the dynamic weather tab. What changed were the clouds with v2.5 of the sim. You can still get rain, etc, it just doesn't look the same. Here's an example of the same dynamic weather setting pre- and post- 2.5 using the same TRK. You can still generate rain, it just takes more editing and, often, you end up with sun showers because of the “new” clouds reduced density.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Ironhand

[Bosun]

2 hours ago, Ironhand said:

Those old tutorials are still valid in the sense that nothing has changed with the dynamic weather tab. What changed were the clouds with v2.5 of the sim. You can still get rain, etc, it just doesn't look the same. Here's an example of the same dynamic weather setting pre- and post- 2.5 using the same TRK. You can still generate rain, it just takes more editing and, often, you end up with sun showers because of the “new” clouds reduced density.

 

 

 

 

I think the dynamic weather tab needs to be tinkered with then - because as stated above, I've followed every tutorial I have seen and mimicked their weather, and have not gotten a single cloud in the sky at all.  

[pimp]

This is an old video, but the first 35 minutes helped me understand the basics of how weather works and how to create dynamic weather. I haven't tried it with the new clouds yet tho.
DCS Dynamic Weather Tutorial

[Ironhand]

44 minutes ago, pimp said:

This is an old video, but the first 35 minutes helped me understand the basics of how weather works and how to create dynamic weather. I haven't tried it with the new clouds yet tho.
DCS Dynamic Weather Tutorial

If by “new clouds” you mean the current clouds, it’s not set up for them. It still uses the 2.5 clouds or something similar. However I haven’t checked after this last update.

[Bosun]

Still no luck in getting clouds generated with the Dynamic Weather tab for missions.  
I've even copied over some LUA files from other people's postings, prior to the update.  

Has anyone successfully created clouds using the Dynamic Weather tab since the 2.8 update? 

[Ironhand]

The Dynamic Weather tab no longer seems to generate weather. Just tried some settings that would normally generate clouds and rain. Nada.

EDIT: To clarify, it generates the wind patterns but it looks like the clouds have been removed.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Ironhand

[MadKreator]

11 hours ago, Ironhand said:

The Dynamic Weather tab no longer seems to generate weather. Just tried some settings that would normally generate clouds and rain. Nada.

EDIT: To clarify, it generates the wind patterns but it looks like the clouds have been removed.

 

I’m not much into the ME but I was hoping to be able set my practice missions on dynamic and then smash generate a few times and get some random cool clouds and weather without manually editing every setting, all I ever ended up with was clear skies and a few wispy clouds coming and going. Maybe thats not how it works but the dynamic weather certainly didn’t give me very much variation in all of my attempts…I could be using it wrong too lol

[Ironhand]

3 hours ago, MadKreator said:

I’m not much into the ME but I was hoping to be able set my practice missions on dynamic and then smash generate a few times and get some random cool clouds and weather without manually editing every setting, all I ever ended up with was clear skies and a few wispy clouds coming and going. Maybe thats not how it works but the dynamic weather certainly didn’t give me very much variation in all of my attempts…I could be using it wrong too lol

No. You were using it right. The clouds aren’t being generated since the last update. Only the wind is. I don’t know if that is by design or a colossal bug. So all you can accomplish with it for the present are winds that vary with time across the map (assuming, of course, that the systems still move across the map like they used to).

[St4rgun]

I tried to set it only once but isn't is intended to use a STATIC preset to choose the clouds formation, then switch to DYNAMIC tab and set the data there and leave it active? In that way the preset generates the clouds and the dynamic tab generates the winds. Is that right?

[Ironhand]

12 hours ago, St4rgun said:

I tried to set it only once but isn't is intended to use a STATIC preset to choose the clouds formation, then switch to DYNAMIC tab and set the data there and leave it active? In that way the preset generates the clouds and the dynamic tab generates the winds. Is that right?

In the past, they have been two completely separate systems. That may possibly be the intention going forward but it’s not there yet. And, currently, “light scattered” is the default static weather setting. So if it was currently set to use the static setting, you should have some clouds somewhere.

EDIT: Just as a double-check I set static weather to one of the heavy overcast options. No difference.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Ironhand

[RedRabbit_61]

What I've noticed is that the first cyclone created in the new dynamic weather is almost un-editable making it mostly impossible to really create the weather patterns desired.

I created a PDF tutorial with map templates a few years back using Shifty Movers youtube video and my knowledge of weather.  For those interested it is out on the User Files.

[XCNuse]

Re/Officially? confirming that this is definitely a bug now as of Stable 2.8.1.X

No clouds appear to be drawn when using the dynamic weather engine (yes I'm aware of what it  should be and that it's not the new stuff).

 

I was able to get into a scenario where rain drops were even being drawn on the canopy; however the sky was clear and blue.

I'd say if Raindrops = On and Clouds = Off

That's about as confirmed for it being a bug as it can get.

 

 

Which, at that point, any missions that haven't been updated to the 2.7+ preset cloud systems, means they are officially broken, as if they were designed with the classic dynamic weather engine in mind for low vis conditions... well... it won't be very low vis if clouds aren't being drawn.

(and ... yes ... for the second time, I am completely aware that it would be drawing the pre 2.7 clouds)

[grant977]

Were you able once to drag the systems around the map. It seems like you can’t move a system anymore.

[Ironhand]

20 hours ago, grant977 said:

Were you able once to drag the systems around the map. It seems like you can’t move a system anymore.

Was that really a thing? I don’t recall ever being able to do anything except right click on the map without the dynamic weather page disappearing. Any repositioning I ever made was via editing the lua file.

How did it work? Since oftentimes the system center is off the visible map, could you just drag any weather flag?

Edited December 31, 2022 by Ironhand

[grant977]

Ah I was asking if you were able to once drag systems. Guess not.

[Ironhand]

On 11/18/2022 at 5:58 PM, RedRabbit_61 said:

What I've noticed is that the first cyclone created in the new dynamic weather is almost un-editable making it mostly impossible to really create the weather patterns desired...

It's editable but you won't see the change unless you completely close out of the weather tab prior to loading the edited file.

 

Grant977, no you cannot drag the system within the editor. You need to edit the LUA file you save.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Ironhand

[Jagged8988]

Is this still a bug ?

Can generate all the crazy winds you want but clouds are nothing but little farts in the sky in Dynamic Weather ? 

[rayrayblues]

It's true. No more clouds in dynamic weather.

Wind and rain appear but clouds are light scattered at best.