Let's discuss the weather system

  • Thread starter R9NALD9
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R9NALD9

R9NALD9

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South Africa
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Ok so I'm a huge fan of the game and the racing, physics etc. are all top notch.

A huge thank you and congratulations on Livetrack 3.0 as it is a fantastic system which is far superior to anything else out there.

That being said, although I love the weather effects in the game...I've got some issues. Mainly my biggest gripe is that career is basically scripted...the weather will always be the same for each race if you stay in a particular class for more than one season. Also, I never do custom race weekends because no matter what I set the weather to...I know what it'll be...no surprises, and no 'oh crap' moments during the race forcing you to immediately rethink your strategy and adapt.

Sure I can set it to random...random across multiple slots...but then you risk it going from blizzard to sun to storm...not realistic at all.

This takes away a huge part of what makes racing fun.

So I thought about this and obviously they can't and won't redo the a huge part of the system until maybe Pcars3. My thinking was a simpler system that would fit the purpose and can be implement on user choice for custom race weekend and can also be implemented in career...which will solve the 'weather always being the same at the same race' issue.

Although my concept is most likely far from perfect...it might be a start and hopefully something Ian or @The_American can read and use to give us a better more random unpredictable weather system.

What I'm thinking is firstly to randomize the amount of slots to be used.

Now obviously this must vary and not many races will have 4 or 3 different weather conditions. So when randomizing there must be a system in place for the chances that it lands on 1 slot to be higher than 2 slots etc.

For instance, and this is not final figures, just an example:

50% chance for 1 slot
25% chance for 2 slots
15% chance for 3 slots
10% chance for 4 slots

Then based on this we'll need preset chances of each weather condition (sun, storm, blizzard) for each track. So the chance of a storm at Spa will be must higher than it would be at Laguna Seca...and chances of a blizzard will be much higher at Nordschleife than it would be at Monaco.

If all the percentages of each track is set, and if it is a simple percentage figure it might be easy to make adjustments to each track's chances of getting specific types of weather easier, then it is as simple as running a randomize on each slot available.

Furthermore if possible they can add a check for certain scenarios...doesn't have to be that much...for let's say if 4 slots was selected in the random draw for amount of slots. If a certain weather type like storm have been selected at a previous slot then reduce the chance that it gets selected gain...but only for extreme options like blizzard, heavy fog and storm etc.

This is very simple and probably much harder to implement than it sounds but it could be possible?

I really hope something can be done...F1 2017 is a far inferior game in most aspects compared to Pcars2...but their weather system and strategy element makes races so much fun. Can only imagine what gaming heaven we will be in if a weather system can be selected where you don't know what will transpire during the race.

Let me know what you guys think and add on or make alternative suggestions if you like.
 
I acknowledge that random can go from snow to sun , but does it really?

What I do experience is random much to often equals rain. Or is it just me living in the Netherlands and thinking it rains a lot (while it actually doesn't).

Not sure why you consider F1 2017 a far inferior product. It's pretty damn solid imho, just as pc2 is.

And I do love the weather systems in both games. It is really immersive.
 
In all honesty, I hope they change the weather slots system. It's by far my least favourite aspect of it.

What I'd like to see it replaced with is the Dynamic from the F1 games for example where you don't need to input anything and the weather is sorted for you throughout the race weekend. I think SMS could expand on this by relating it to the time of year and location.

Of course, you can choose one static weather for the whole race but that's what I'd prefer.
 
jake2013guy
In all honesty, I hope they change the weather slots system. It's by far my least favourite aspect of it.

What I'd like to see it replaced with is the Dynamic from the F1 games for example where you don't need to input anything and the weather is sorted for you throughout the race weekend. I think SMS could expand on this by relating it to the time of year and location.

Of course, you can choose one static weather for the whole race but that's what I'd prefer.
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Agreed. It is pointless to go into the race knowing exactly what the weather will be...the slot system just doesn't do it for me. Or at least give us the option to exclude some options from random...have slot length vary...just so many issues with it.

The system I mentioned can also incorporate the seasons that during winter the chance of a blizzard is more than during summer off course etc.

In terms of pure fun and strategy F1 17 is the best out there.
 
Scaff
As far as I am aware and have found to date, it is.

I've not had snow appear on random with the season set to summer or autumn, and I don't think all locations get snow due to geography.
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I meant a weather pattern as multiple slots would based on the location and time of year. For example, there can be a higher likelihood of a torrential downpour for hours in April-September at the Sepang circuit and less so for the other times of year.
 
I think an easier way to address this at the moment (and I repeat, I think) would be to let you select what type of weather systems you want within random on a particular race.

Lets say for example from all the weather systems I only highlight all the clouds, all the rains except thunderstorms and clear. No fog, snow, etc.
 
I think it fine, yes a little tweaking here & there but overall it's a lot better than what I'm used to :)

Sometimes I hope it does rain as I'm faster than the AI in the wet, it starts to go cloudy & I think YES! rain you bugger, then get thick fog & crash :( but that's what it is, random. I've had races completely dry even though i set 4 slots to random, that's just the idea, 50/50, you just don't know.

Oh dear, I'm starting to sound like a crazed fanboy :( I do apologise. I've only just got the game & loving it :)

Some of these ideas are pretty cool though :cheers:
 
I think @The_American said somewhere around here that they are looking to get rid of weather slots for PC3. My main gripe with it is that it can be predictable. I think Gran Turismo 5/6 had my favorite systems when it came to when it would rain, the duration of the rain, and the strength of the rain. All you had to do was set the chance of precipitation.
 
Scripted weather in career was the biggest problem with the career in PC1 for many people, and we were all told repeatedly that it couldn't be changed, and would therefore be a change for PC2, rather than a patch. Now it's the same in PC2, we're being told it'll be sorted out in PC3?
 
Count me in on being let down by the career mode's scripted weather, but if the system is changed around, I hope we can retain the ability to script a weather sequence for custom races. I enjoy setting up the weather for some eyecandy at sunset, or just to create a scenario of my choosing.
 
Nah I'm pretty sure there is nothing more to random than just choosing a random weather from all that is available.

I did a 5 lap race with 3 random slots at Imola during Autumn. Start was heavy fog, 2 laps later clear sunshine...2 laps later storm. Now I don't mind the 2 lap transition as that was my own doing but fog -> clear sunshine ->storm just isn't fun to me at all and super unrealistic.

Unfortunately I don't believe this is not fixable in a patch. I'm sure they can if they want to.

Also to Mr Grumpy...I'm glad it is better than you are used to. Maybe give F1 2017 a shot and you'll see how far behind the times pc2 actually is in terms of weather.

The weather is really putting me off this game and I've stopped my career mode long ago. This is unfortunate as the actual racing and gameplay is a blast!
 
I have an idea for custom races but it involves a second person in the room. :P

What if we write a script:

You select the track and date how many wheaterslots and so on.
It will then give every wheather option a chance of beeing selected according to climate/season. You learn yoyr spouse or friend how to set up the weather and press start.

You don't know what wheater and it's the kind of wheater system we want. I know it's **** to have the need for a second person but hey...
 
R9NALD9
Start was heavy fog, 2 laps later clear sunshine...2 laps later storm. Now I don't mind the 2 lap transition as that was my own doing but fog -> clear sunshine ->storm just isn't fun to me at all and super unrealistic.
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Welcome to European weather!

A few weeks ago on my hour long (20 miles of town and b-road) drive to work I went through weather that went from fog, to bright sunshine, to snow, to sunshine, to rain and back to snow.
 
Scaff
While the random nature could do with some tweaks, the quality of the weather and the way it works with Live Track 3.0 is second to none in my view.
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Couldn't agree more! Live Track 3.0 is fantastic...just wished we have a way of implementing weather without knowing what is going to happen.
 
Mr Tree
What do you mean with that post? :P the doing as little as possible? :P
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What I mean is by that is the ability to create a race and not know what it's going to be by inputting as little as possible for the player. For example, in F1, you just need to select Dynamic as the weather.

Also, potentially allow the player to influence it by giving the option for them to select a rain chance.
 
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For Solo play, the "Random" selection needs a tweak. The weather program should be sensible. Why have snow pop up in a GT3 race or Formula race?

In Career, I don't know if it was easier to just script the weather. Maybe varying the weather in pc and consoles, would have been more difficult. I don't know, just throwing it out there.
 
05XR8
For Solo play, the "Random" selection needs a tweak. The weather program should be sensible. Why have snow pop up in a GT3 race or Formula race?
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Do GT3 or Formula cars have weather-manipulating devices that can prevent snow from falling if you happen to drive one at Road America in January? :P

A filter for the Random slot should not be difficult to implement. You won't know what's coming, but you can be sure what won't be coming. Underrated feature among game developers, IMO.
 
So I'm so desperate for a proper random weather system that I quickly took the liberty yesterday and wrote a script in about an hour.

I randomizes the amount of slots and weather conditions based on a percentage weight. It does not take season into account...yet, nor the location...though I doubt I'll ever do location...might be a phase 2 thing later on. I'm planning on maybe doing this on a website where you can generate a race and/or weather as well as through a car setup database in as well since we don't have one for pc2 yet.

Here is 10 results I quickly did with my script:

cloudy
clear
cloudy > heavy cloud > clear
sunny > rain
clear > cloudy > ligh rain
sunny > heavy cloud
heavy cloud
cloudy > clear
storm
overcast > sunny

There is quite a lot of further dependencies etc. I want to add in.

What do you guys think?
 
R9NALD9
So I'm so desperate for a proper random weather system that I quickly took the liberty yesterday and wrote a script in about an hour.

I randomizes the amount of slots and weather conditions based on a percentage weight. It does not take season into account...yet, nor the location...though I doubt I'll ever do location...might be a phase 2 thing later on. I'm planning on maybe doing this on a website where you can generate a race and/or weather as well as through a car setup database in as well since we don't have one for pc2 yet.

Here is 10 results I quickly did with my script:

cloudy
clear
cloudy > heavy cloud > clear
sunny > rain
clear > cloudy > ligh rain
sunny > heavy cloud
heavy cloud
cloudy > clear
storm
overcast > sunny

There is quite a lot of further dependencies etc. I want to add in.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...


I love it! I'd like to add locations too I'd be able to fix you up with belgian weather patterns! :P if everyone doed this for their country we'd have a database in no time! :D
 
Wolfe
Do GT3 or Formula cars have weather-manipulating devices that can prevent snow from falling if you happen to drive one at Road America in January? :P

A filter for the Random slot should not be difficult to implement. You won't know what's coming, but you can be sure what won't be coming. Underrated feature among game developers, IMO.
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:grumpy:...:lol:

What really got me peeved, was the default snow conditions for the Northern Hemisphere's Winter season. May have been the Christmas season, but after a while, I wasn't impressed.
 
Yeah current system is working on these weights:

'sunny' => 10,
'clear' => 23,
'cloud' => 16,
'heavy_cloud' => 11,
'overcast' => 9,
'light_rain' => 6,
'rain' => 6,
'heavy_rain' => 5,
'storm' => 4,
'snow' => 2,
'heavy_snow' => 1,
'blizzard' => 1,
'fog' => 2,
'fog_rain' => 2,
'heavy_fog' => 1,
'heavy_fog_rain' => 1,

The total must equate to 100.

This is just a sample set, so I'm more than happy to make changes or listen to recommendations.
 

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