unpredictable weather setting

[stucar17]

HI all,

So after some limited testing of the weather can some one recommend the best setting for unpredictability ?

I tried with the following settings

surface water 0%,
Starting weather 25%
Changeability : ranging from 6 to 10.

When the changeability was on 10 it seemed to rain for 30 secs then stop...

Is it completely random on 10? To the point that it could start raining and continue, or as it did to me, rain for 30 secs and stop before there was any surface water? If it is COMPLETELY random on 10 i suppose that is the setting i am looking for !

On the setting of 6 it seemed to start raining and in the 3 or 4 races we did it was the same. IE didnt stop till the surface water reached 95%, with 30 second breaks in between , and settings 7 and 8 seemed the same.......

I suppose what i am looking for is a setting that will be random enough where one race might rain from half way and continue, or get to about 50% wet then maybe stop and possibly dry out ?

Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks in advance

Regards
Stuart

 

[XS]

I too have only done limited testing but my results were almost opposite, lol. On 6-8 it wouldn't rain at all, even in long fifteen to twenty minute races, or it would rain for half a lap and was done after that. On 9 and 10 it wouldn't stop raining. Interesting.

 

[Lion-Face]

This is what I have found through testing.

Surface water: How wet the track is at start of race. (pretty self explanatory) Track will get wetter/drier depending on weather.

Starting Weather: How good/bad weather is at start of race. 0% = perfect through to 100% = heavy rain. It stays at this % for a short time into the race (roughly 3~4minutes) before the weather randomness takes over.

Changability: 0 - 10. 0=no change. 10=guaranteed change of weather. 5= 50% chance of change in weather.

It's completely random upon the load. Once you set the weather on the track, it will retain that pattern provided you stay with those settings. When you change a setting it will then change the weather pattern randomly based on the options you have selected. There is no way to guarantee light rain for race duration or anything like that.

 

[Lewis_Hamilton_]

Settings that I find to be the most realistic are; 0-20% surface water, 25% weather, chance of change at 4.

With these settings, I never know what the weather will be like by the end of the race, and all the weather changes happen gradually over time, rather than being sudden.

 

[RedBaron]

It would be nice to have short rain shower, then sun. But there are no settings that can guarantee that.

 

[Morgoth_666]

There is some amount of randomness to every setting, it's never exactly the same. I have found that on 0% weather, 0% dampness and 1 changeability it seems to rain better than 70% of the time within 5 minutes, at least at the Nordschleife alone, which isn't terribly pleasing. But no matter what settings I've picked you can't seem to guarantee anything(except with 0 changeablility), which is good.

It would be nice (sometimes) to define exactly what would happen, but I'm not sure how important working on something like that is, versus just having a good random setup.

 

[Griffith500]

I, too, find that if you start with 0% surface water and weather, changeability on 1, that it will almost be guaranteed to start raining heavily within 3 - 4 minutes. On the other hand, setting weather to 100% and changeability to 1, it will probably stop raining just as soon.

I think, then, something in the middle probably is best to start with, but any setting is fine as long as you leave it long enough. I remember having long real-time sessions online where the weather eventually settled into a "believable" pattern (but how often do we say real weather is unbelievable?), so maybe that's the key for the current system - it just needs time to settle down. Also setting the weather repeatedly a few times (just wiggle the changeability slider or something) might help jiggle the random number generator around a bit.

Of course, that's far from ideal, especially when it doesn't seem to change as long as the menu is still up (except online).

 

[cjr3559]

The weather settings have always intrigued me so recently I've been messing around with them a bit more closely.

I decided to start my own 24 hour experiment at the Nordschleife. Basically I'm going to drive 72 random cars from my modest 113-car garage (3 per hour, one every 20 minutes) with the weather change settings set by random dice throw. Track dampness and weather settings are based on conditions from the previous run, and the initial run started in dry conditions with weather conditions set at 0%.

Cars are also chosen by a random number generator, as was the starting time, which wound up being 1900 hours.

So far I'm 3 hours and 12 cars into this strange endeavor, and thus far it has rained in virtually all of the sessions except the first. There have been a couple times where the track conditions have dried to about 30%, but usually a monsoon starts in the next session and the track has never been dry since the beginning.

The only thing I've forgotten to do is write down the starting weather and weather change settings for each segment, mainly so I can see how the weather is effected by the 1-10 scale.

If anyone happens to read this, I'll post my stats later.

 

[ryzno]

Looking forward to the results. I've been wondering what the best setting would be for "real" weather.

 

[cjr3559]

Halfway complete and here are the results. As a side note, all of these runs were with the DFGT in bumper or cockpit view (where applicable) with all assists off except use of traction control in cars that have it. Many of these cars I've never driven before, let alone at night and in the wet. This may explain why many of my times are pretty slow.

So far the weather results are rain, and a lot of it. Other than the first run with the Zonda, the conditions were well over 50% wet surface with an hour or so where it dried out overnight. I was really relieved when the sunlight started to show around 5 a.m.

All in all this was pretty exhausting, and I still have 12 more hours to go. The most difficult weather setting was deciding the overall conditions before each run. While not scientific, I tried to select a condition that best represented what I finished with in my previous run. This was very difficult to determine at night. For example, if I started a run with 75% conditions and finished with no visible rainfall, I reduced the setting by 25% for each time that I completed a lap with no rainfall. This was easier to figure once the sun came out.

1900: Pagani Zonda C12 '00, PP 517, SH, dry, 8:38.868


1920: Mazda Familia Sedan Sport 20 '02, PP 375, CS, 0-13% wet, 10:12.008


1940: Mazda Roadster RS (NC) '07, PP 405, SH, 9-45% wet, 10:04.764


2000: Ferrari 599 '06, PP 544, SS, 45-57% wet, 9:54.566 (I)*


2020: Honda INTEGRA TYPE R (DC2) '98, PP 407, CS, 47-60% wet, 9:50.505


2040: Volkswagen Lupo Cup Car '00, PP 382, SH, 38-50% wet, 10:17.318


2100: Opera Performance S2000 '04, PP 481, SH, 37-67% wet, 9:56.414


2120: Chevrolet Camaro LM Race Car, PP 638, RR, 54-70% wet, 9:23.036


2140: Volkswagen Lupo GTI '01, PP 343, CS, 47-72% wet, 10:47.745


2200: Mazda Autozam AZ-1 '92, PP 317, CS, 57-70% wet, 11:58.702 (I)*


2220: Toyota 86 GT '12, PP 405, SH, 42-60% wet, 10:19.060


2240: Mazda Furai Concept '08, PP 655, RI, 7-51% wet. 8:39.532


2300: Toyota Prius G Touring Selection (J) '03, PP 327, CM, 51-96% wet, 11:35.779


2320: Mazda 2, PP 335, CM, 100% wet, 12:02.498


2340: Mercedes-Benz A 160 Avantgarde '98, PP 318, CM, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 2, 100% wet, 12:15.50


0000: Dodge Challenger SRT8 '08, PP 485, SH, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 2, 85-100% wet, 12:04.920


0020: Jay Leno Tank Car '03, PP 526, SH, Weather at start 50%, Changeability 2, 64-90% wet, 13:09.644


0040: Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1 (R32) '93, PP 448, SH, Weather at start 25%, Changeability 10, 44-60% wet, 10:24.726


0100: Ford SVT F-150 Lightning '03, PP 442, CS, Weather at start 0%, Changeability 5, 21-40% wet, 9:56.414


0120: Nissan Calsonic Skyline GT-R Race Car '93, PP 563, RH, Weather at start 0%, Changeability 9, 10-20% wet, 8:49.414


0140: Mitsubishi Lancer 1600 GSR Rally Car '74, PP 416, SM, Weather at start 0%, Changeability 4, 2-10% wet, 9:25.817 (I)*


0200: Volvo 240 GLT Estate '88, PP 306, CM, Weather at start 0%, Changeability 4, 0-36% wet, 11:20.076


0220: RenaultSport Lutecia Renault Sport V6 24V '01, PP 436, CS, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 8, 40-81% wet, 10:04.729


0240: Citroen 2CV Type A '54, PP 206, CM, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 5, 80-100% wet, 17:57.310


0300: Ford GT '05, PP 562, SH, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 4, 87-100% wet, 11:56.085 (I,3)*


0320: Hommell Berlinette R/S Coupe '99, PP 391, CS, Weather at start 50%, Changeability 9, 76-90% wet, 11:41.293


0340: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 '09, PP 636, SH, Weather at start 25%, Changeability 10, 80% wet, 11:14.855 (I)*


0400: Opel Speedster Turbo '00, PP 419, CS, Weather at start 25%, Changeability 7, 80-100% wet, 11:24.789 (I)*


0420: Volkswagen Lupo GTI Cup Car (J) '03, PP 376, SH, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 3, 88-100% wet, 12:04.167


0440: Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 Kompressor '98, PP 396, CS, Weather at start 50%, Changeability 10, 74-90% wet, 10:30.641


0500: Mitsubishi Lancer EX 1800GSR IC Turbo '83, PP 374, CS, Weather at start 25%, Changeability 6, 70-74% wet, 10:27.939


0520: DMC DeLorean S2 '04, PP 401, CS, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 5, 63-70% wet, 9:51.482


0540: Lamborghini Countach LP400 '74, PP 504, SH, Weather at start 50%, Changeability 6, 60-73% wet, 10:09.057 (I)*


0600: Toyota FT-86 G Sports Concept '10, PP 472, SH, Weather at start 75%, Changeability 6, 70-100% wet, 11:14.291 (I)*


0620: Mercury Cougar XR-7 '67, PP 457, SH, Weather at start 100%, Changeability 7, 84-100% wet, 11:34.980


0640: Toyota Celica TRD Sports M (ZZT231) '00, PP 405, CS, Weather at start 0%, Changeability 8, 74-80% wet, 9:59.762


0700: Jaguar XJ13 Race Car '66, PP 589, SH, Weather at start 50%, Changeability 5, 70-74% wet, 10:19.848

*means 'race incident', or loss of control or struck barrier. A number following indicates the number of incidents in a given lap.