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So I've decided to be "the next blackrack" and started working on clouds. I added fog and cloud layers, but they're a bit scuffed, any help on how to improve the layers and add *more* cloud "layers" would be nice! Do you like clouds? Me too. This mod adds cloud layers! And will eventually add weather too. Plans for future updates: Weather *Requires Patch Manager and Shoemaker* Get it here: https://spacedock.info/mod/3741/Cloudy https://imgur.com/a/ksp2-fog-q4VTv4F

So due to time restrictions KSC needed to launch a plane during fog. The flight was pretty uneventful, but I managed to do some cool tricks here and there and land in the fog! How cool is that?? https://imgur.com/BrPi3Ih

Release thread: This thread is for the development of a mod I am working on called Modular Climate & Weather Systems (MCWS), which is meant to allow climate and weather data (and possibly simulations) to interact with KSP's physics systems in a modular fashion. I am creating this thread to get feedback and suggestions. I also currently don't have any climate data to use with this thing, which is something I would like to have before a full release. Completed features: Functioning API to take in data from other plugins and interpret it for use in the flight scene. Can currently take in wind, temperature, and pressure data. A very refined stock wind simulation. GUI that displays various aerodynamic and thermodynamic information. New set of prograde/retrograde markers that display prograde/retrograde but adjusted for wind. Reader plugin that can read .bin files of climate data based on configs. Current To-Do List: Make some kind of climate data for this thing. (insert additional things that may come up) Installation Download from: Github: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/ModularClimateWeatherSystems/releases Dependencies: ModularFlightIntegrator ToolbarController ClickThroughBlocker HarmonyKSP (Bundled with download) Documentation (WIP): https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/ModularClimateWeatherSystems/wiki Source: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/ModularClimateWeatherSystems/tree/main License: MIT

While KSP simulates atmospheres with variable depths and densities it lacks dynamic weather limiting its utility as tool for exploring concepts in atmospheric science. Kerbal Weather Project was developed to remedy this. In KWP, weather and climate data from a state-of-the-art global circulation model was incorporated into KSP gameplay. This was accomplished through a global hourly climatology, enabling players to experience diurnal and spatial variations in atmospheric conditions. In addition, point weather data is provided for Kerbin launch sites, giving players the option of experiencing dynamic weather conditions that change from day to day. KWP features a text-based GUI showing remotely sensed weather data (in space) and in situ weather data (in the atmosphere). Compatibility KWP works with stock KSP and should work with the vast majority of KSP mods. KWP has been tested, without major issues, in a KSP 1.10 playthrough with 220 other popular KSP mods. That said, KWP may conflict with mods like real heat that modify the stock game's aerodynamic or thermodynamic system. KWP can still be used with these mods as KWP's override of the stock thermodynamic system can be disabled in the settings menu. KWP is compatible with the aerodynamics overhaul: Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR). Note that since FAR overrides KSP's thermodynamic system, pressure and temperature data from KWP will not affect flight dynamics when FAR is installed. Note that FAR may not be compatible with the latest version of KSP. Background Kerbin weather and climate analyses were produced using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS; Skamarock et al., 2012) a state-of-the-art atmospheric general circulation model developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). MPAS was run for six-years (1st year: spin-up) at a resolution of 2 x 2 decimal degrees. Fortunately, Kerbin’s atmosphere has the same chemical composition as Earth’s. In MPAS, terrain and biome data from KSP were used to classify land use, vegetation type, green fraction, and other geographical datasets. In addition to land surface modifications, several changes to MPAS were made to enable more realistic simulations of Kerbin's atmosphere. These changes are listed below: Axial obliquity was set to zero. Orbital eccentricity was set to zero. The solar constant was set to 1360 W/m2 The day length was set to six hours (21600 s) The Coriolis parameter was multiplied by four. An hourly global climatology of Kerbin was developed by averaging the results of the five-year MPAS simulation, by the hour. Results from this simulation were incorporated into the game via KWP. Required Mods Toolbar Controller Click Through Blocker ModularFlightIntegrator Recommended Mods Kerbinside Remastered - adds launch sites compatible with KWP. Note that the lite version of KWP does not include weather data at Kerbinside launch sites. KerBalloons - Launch weather balloons! Atmospheric Autopilot - makes flying during windy conditions a little easier. Downloads and Installation Instructions Full Version (84 MB): High resolution climatology, 5-years of weather data at stock and Kerbinside launch sites. GitHub: https://github.com/cmac994/KerbalWeatherProject/tree/master Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/2607/Kerbal Weather Project Lite Version (13 MB): Low resolution climatology, 1-year of weather data at stock launch sites. GitHub: https://github.com/cmac994/KerbalWeatherProject/tree/lite Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/2611/Kerbal Weather Project - Lite See the links above for information on how to install KWP. Alternatively, you can just use CKAN. KWP Animations Weather Animations Simulated Infrared (IR) Satellite Imagery for Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Light colors = high clouds or cold surface; Dark colors = low clouds or warm surface Precipitable Water (PW) on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Note vortices of high PW in tropics... those are tropical cyclones (hurricanes)! Upper level winds on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Surface Temperature on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Climatological Animations Average Temperature by Height Average Wind Speed by Height If the above charts are bit challenging to decipher check out the chart interpretation page on the mod webpage. KWP Gameplay A crewed weather balloon being carried away from the launchpad by northeasterly trade winds. An uncrewed glider flies into a strong headwind and ends up traveling retrograde! A polar orbiting satellite passes over the KSC providing remote sensing weather data along its track SRB Recovery with and without wind. Additional Information For more screenshots, animations, and information about KWP check out the official mod webpage. The science behind KWP, as well as its potential as an educational tool, will be presented at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in January 2021. A link to the AMS poster presentation is provided here. In addition to weather and climate analysis, the mod webpage provides several demonstrations detailing the effects of KWP on atmospheric flight and reentry. A series of short-stories are also included to highlight how KWP can be used for both shenanigans and serious science! What KWP Does: Adds climate and weather data to the stock game Climate data varies geographically, vertically, and diurnally. Point weather data varies with height and time and is valid only for a fixed location. Modifies air pressure, density, and temperature on Kerbin affecting the aerodynamics and thermodynamics of flight. The scale height of the KWP atmosphere is higher (8.5 km) than in the stock atmosphere (5.6 km). Consequently, air pressure and density will decrease more slowly with height when playing with KWP enabled. This makes re-entry and SSTOs a little more challenging. As noted above, if you'd prefer KWP not affect KSP aerodynamic and thermodynamics this can be selected in the KWP settings menu. Provides a text-based GUI for visualizing ambient weather, vehicle velocity, ground track, vehicle relative winds, and aerodynamic variables (e.g. mach number, shock temperature, etc.) What KWP Does NOT Do: At present, KWP does not add any parts or new visual effects to the game. KWP provides a framework for understanding what the weather on a planet with Kerbin's geography and orbital characteristics might look like. The results of the MPAS simulations (detailed on the mod webpage) could provide inspiration for fellow modders to create more realistic cloud cover and visual effects for Kerbin. KWP does not include orographic circulations or other small-scale circulations (e.g. thunderstorm cells). This is a limitation of the coarse resolution MPAS simulations from which KWP was derived. In KWP vertical wind speeds are typically very small (< 1 m/s) so unfortunately, aspiring glider pilots will not be able to stay aloft indefinitely by riding the wind. Future Work KWP provides a framework for implementing weather in the stock game. A rudimentary weather and climate API has been included with KWP. With this foundation laid it is my hope that real-world science missions, like the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) and the Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite (GOES-R), could one day be emulated in KSP or KSP2. Mods such as SCANSat and Orbital Survey Plus may be one way to realize this concept in KSP, by facilitating the mapping and visualization of climate data for science. Other possibilities include real-time charting or logging of weather balloon sounding data, similar to what is performed twice daily here on Earth. These pursuits could serve as educational tools for teaching basic concepts in atmospheric science. Acknowledgements KSP Developer Squad and KSP creator Felipe Falanghe. KSP modding community - specifically forum users @linuxgurugamer, @JoePatrick1, @Fengist, @DaMichel, @NathanKell, and @DMagic. These mod developers, by publishing their code publicly, provided a valuable teaching tool which facilitated many of the advancements implemented in KWP. Without their prior work, incorporating weather data into KSP would have been exceedingly difficult. License: MIT

This post is not about simulating actual weather systems or gameplay altering systems like wind - it's just about the visuals. I know there's not enough performance budget for this in KSP2 at the moment, but just look how immersive the game becomes with weather visuals. This is amazing, I hope KSP2 also gets this sooner rather than later.

How weird, crazy, or dangerous has your weather gotten? Is there a weather event you would like to share? Have you ever experienced a blizzard, tornado, or hurricane? Here are a few I would like to share: I've been hit by 5 tropical storms/hurricanes (that I am aware of). There was once a winter without any major weather events. There was a lightning strike in the middle of winter. Several thunderstorms have randomly dissipated right before hitting where I live. Strange... I participated in a meteorology program for at least a year.

Hello! This post is not a request. The KSP2 team has complete creative control. This is not a post about wind or floods or heavy snow or other gameplay changing related features. This is just a list of videos created using Unity that show how beautiful and immersive a celestial body can be if it has weather and other environmental visual effects in addition to clouds and atmospheric scattering / lighting (things that have already been confirmed). I think visually simulating alien climates / seasons / weather .. even vegetation .. would be revolutionary in gaming (weather caused by a different atmospheric chemistry and different physical properties like temperature and pressure). Rain Storm and Lightning Snow storm Vegetation Volumetric Lighting and Flowing Fog Volumetric Clouds Tornado and whirlwind Sandstorm Avalanche (could be with snow, dirt, mud & rocks) Lava, melting ice, mud slides (could not find examples for all) Snow / sand / dust footprints Snow / ice environment Oceanic and flowing river water, dynamic waves Just thinking about how all this would look like on exotic celestial bodies is beyond imagination. I repeat, it's not a request, it's just something I dream of seeing - on alien planets - someday. Weather, climate, seasons.. they are part of the planet with atmosphere as much as the terrain and lighting.

Colonies need more challenges Say, a real-life colony would face the planet's hostile environment. A surface colony on Venus wouldn't exactly be easy to make, as it would have to contend with extreme weather. That's what I suggest. On Duna, you couldn't rely solely on solar panels, since sandstorms could form. On Eve, you have to contend with temperature, pressure and possibly acid storms. A floating colony on Jool (assuming the atmosphere could be chlorine) can withstand unbelievably powerful winds, and an oxidizing atmosphere. Even planets with little or no atmosphere would not be as safe as it would have to deal with radiation and possible asteroid rains (On planets like Dres this would be frequent, since they are in an asteroid belt, or even moons that are inside the rings of some planet). Also on Jool, colonies on its moons would have to face the radiation that Jool itself possesses. A good way to prepare is to predict what might happen, with weather stations being built. Weather balloons could also be launched. This could bring a significantly greater challenge to building colonies.

How about dynamic, realistically generated weather? It's always GPU, GPU & GPU related improvements like prettier graphics but let's give our CPU's something new to work with. I for one would like to experience this.

At its core, the suggestion to add weather and clouds is simple. Clouds, wind, perhaps even storms. Its easy to imagine how interesting it could be. But before we can really delve into the suggestion, we need to consider different ways weather could be implemented, and figure out what the best way would be for KSP. But first, lets talk about the elephant in the room: The fact that it can adjust difficulty: Weather and Difficulty: The way I see it, there could be a number of basic settings for weather. -Full disable: Weather is disabled. It is always clear. -Visual only: Weather does not actually effect you. -Storms only: Weather only effects you when you are in a "storm" like scenario. -Full: Weather, winds, etc, will effect you any time. Depending on the level of simulation, there could also be toggles/sliders for things like wing icing, damage from dust storms, or "gustiness". Also interesting would be a Sandbox option to add a weather system of your choice to a location (presumably your current one). Core Mechanics and Weather Simulation: The first question to ask is simple: How do we design the weather with regards to the game? I do not speak of merely how wind works (it would presumably be a form of modifier to the current aerodynamics), but rather where it comes from. KSP is a physics heavy game, and adding some full-blown weather simulator to it would not be very good for gameplay purposes. So what, then, is the best way to add weather? Three options come to my mind, and perhaps you can imagine others. I'll start with my ideas on the matter: 1. Exceptions to Standard. In this setting, the all-clear weather on Kerbin is still the "standard weather", and any other weather events are things that generate randomly, move across the planet for some time, and then disappear. For other planets, the "standard" could also be clear, or it could be a set windspeed and direction (i.e. if you wanted to give Jool a saturn-like atmosphere) or just being cloudy instead of clear (i.e. if you want to make Eve a little more Venus-like in appearance). These events would be storms, areas of wind, perhaps even benign weather like partly cloudy and drizzles. Whenever one disappears, a new one would generate at a semi-random location, and would randomly generate its path based on some planet-defined directional preferences. Some weather events could also follow a pre-determined pattern of changes over their path (i.e. a "hurricane" might have a building phase, an main phase, and then just be a normal storm on the last leg of its path) This results in a reasonably viable set of weather mechanics that shouldn't require too much processing power to simulate on a global scale. Values worth noting would include the max number of weather events per planet (a value that can change based on the planet), which weather systems can generate on any give planet, and perhaps "seed spots" which are the only region on a planet that can generate certain weather events (i.e. maybe only weather events that generate in certain sea areas have a chance of being generated as a Hurricane event, and only storms that are generated in northern areas have a chance of generating as snow storms). If two weather events overlap, one of them can simply take priority over the other as they pass through each other for simplicity sake. 1b. Permanent weather events: It would be good in this case to have a permanent type of weather event possible. These events would be designed into applicable planets. They would be used for things such as Jool, where you might want to have an equivalent to Jupiter's Great White Spot. 2. Extremely simplistic, low power weather sim. The idea here is to split a planet into a set of "cells" and have the simplest, easiest simulation you can that still causes a reasonable variety of weather, perhaps intermittantly "seeding" it with an effect to get things moving if need be (or to simulate seasons). One option would be to take the "exceptions to standard" idea listed in 1, but just replace weather events with randomly generated air masses with semi-random values for speed, humidity, and temperature (semi-random because they could be influenced by the location they are generated). Any time two of these masses meet, they are replaced with some weather event, based on the values of the air masses. By themselves, these air masses would generally just have some wind, temperature, and humidity, and some form of cloud cover ranging from zero to full. 3. Pre-decided weather patterns. Rather than worry about dynamic weather in this scenario, the developers simply "design" the weather on Kerbin (and each other applicable planet) for a set amount of time, such as a period of 1-4 of that planet's years, and then run it. When it reaches the end, it loops back to the start. The upside is that you can have some good weather variation without actually needing to simulate it. The downside is that the weather is predetermined and thus will repeat. You can get around this somewhat by starting each planet at a random point in its weather "track" upon starting a new career, so you at least don't find yourself seeing the same couple days of weather every time you start a new game. What effects can weather have? The first and most obvious effects are the visual ones. There will be clouds. You can fly through them. They may be simply rendered, but they can still be clouds. Also, there can be rain, snow, and lightning. When you are in space above a storm at night, you might see some occasional flashes from the storm from lightning. There would also be a simplistic fog effect too (perhaps most notably on Duna, where it could be used for sandstorms). If the weather isn't impressive enough visually, then I imagine mods will help fix that. Next we have mechanical effects. -Wind can, of course, cause some ruckus during launches and take-offs. It might be a good idea to add another runway to KSP, and to allow you to choose which one to launch aircraft from (and which end of the runway to do it from). You could display this choice while in the aircraft hanger when you click launch, along with the current direction and speed of the wind. -Wind gusts are another potential one. For simplicity sake, I assume that rather than worrying about what causes such turbulence and attempting to model it, that some weather systems or air masses may simply have a value indicating a chance of encountering gusts of somewhere between X and Y strength intermittently, and that when this happens the wind affecting your vessel rapidly changes for a couple seconds. -Icing could be something that occurs in fairly water-heavy worlds such as Kerbin and Laythe. If whatever Eve has can also freeze and snow, you could perhaps have it there too. -Being a Mars analogue, Duna could of course have sandstorms. These could be windy, reduce vision, and could be at risk of damaging some equipment if it is not protected or put back into its stored configuration (Engineer astronauts could fix them if you forget). -Planets with active volcanoes could have a permanent weather effect near them with an ash-plume storm, and wind direction matching the plume direction. The priority could be set such that this effect disappears whenever another weather effect is in the region, resulting in the volcano appearing to sometimes be erupting, and sometimes not (when in actuality, not erupting just means another weather effect is overriding it). -Given how weird Eve is (its SORT OF a venus analogue, but not really), you could probably imagine some interesting things for it. Dense but slow-moving and harmless fogs (insert Purple Haze joke), small tornado-like storms that look almost more tornado than storm (but which actually only have a small "real" tornado in the very center). -Weather effects could have their own science equipment associated with them. This equipment would gather science based not on location, but rather what kind of weather they are in (for these instruments, all vacuum areas would be considered the same "weather" pattern, unlike the current thermometer and barometer). -Some more major weather effects could temporarily override the biome in the region they are affecting for some instruments. These would generally be major things like hurricanes, or permanent weather systems like the "Great Jool Blot" (has a nice ring to it, actually). -Planets without atmospheres (and maybe those with really, really thin ones) would of course not have weather. Misc other thoughts and comments: -If the SUN is granted some weather, it could have "sunspot" events, along with rare "eruption" events. The sunspot events could just act like a biome for purposes of near-sun spacecraft science gathering, but eruption events could have other effects too. If one of these happens to be pointed towards a planet, you could generate an aurora effect around the poles of that planet. It could also cause a notable additional heating effect when a spacecraft near the sun is above its "biome." -Meteor showers are not weather (and should not be considered such mechanically), but could potentially be an interesting visual effect that occurs on planets with atmospheres at set points in their year, independent of weather. -I wonder if Jebediah Kermin has any type of weather he especially enjoys. Knowing him, probably hurricanes. While in an aircraft he designed himself. With an exterior pilots seat. During re-entry. With boosters ignited. And poor Bob in the cockpit screaming in panic about how horrible an idea this was.

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew of a mod that adds weather to KSP. I am not talking about simple clouds from EVE, but more functional, essentially a continuation of Kerbal Weather Systems. If anyone knows of an up to date mod, please notify me.

This is a topic to discuss things about weather in KSP2. For example, we know there will be clouds but will there be rain, thunderstorms, wind, Hurricanes, etc. Any questions or things you want to mention about weather can go here. Reminder: as always, please be respectful to other members, refrain from badmouthing other people, and spread kindness. That's all.

So I've created a mod or two in my time and after being asked numerous times to fully release my creations, I decided to open up my bag of tricks and start putting something together I have cracked Geo Caching, a rudimentary challenge creator as well as Scuba Diving and Wind (among others ) and now I am in the process of working out some form of a weather simulation to control the wind direction on the fly Looking for input if any care to offer some

I think weather, that effects the rockets would be pretty cool. - thunderstorm: If a lightning hits the active vessel, the SAS turns off for a few minutes. - fog: no effects, but could be visible before sunset. - snow: engines do not gimbal correctly and decouplers have a random delay of a few seconds because they are "frozen" - wind: thw wind shakes the rocket. - rain: water effects on the screen. So what do you think?

A few days ago I built a glider in KSP. Pretty awesome at fist, but it got boring after 3 flights or so because there was no way of staying in the air without descending. So I started thinking: "What if weather, wind, turbulences and thermics was added into the game?" This is basically what this suggestion is. Weather, wind and thermics. This would give gliders a sence and make the game more chalenging, for example when you want to land on Duna or Eve, but there's a storm underneath you or if you want to launch a rocket. Would you like to see a feature like this in the game? (And yes, I know that there is a mod that adds wind, but it's pretty Basic.)

What my suggestion is, that there could be stock weather patterns. For example, Clear skies would mean a better launch. Fog in the Morning could mean that your visibility goes down, and if you want to go to the Mun because you have a good window, you could attempt to go. Rain would be really good for aesthetics. Thunderstorms could be something to add a little bit of something that is not good and could possibly damage launched craft. On other planets, weather patterns could be different. Duna could have dust devils and sandstorms. Laythe could have more Rain etc. Eeloo could have blizzards. However, this should be a feature to be optional because not all players would want this opposed to others who want the game as realistic and challenging as possible.

I been wondering how an advanced weather system mod would work in ksp" I know there was a weather mod a while back but i don't think it had the overall scope of my idea, I would like to either be involved or inspire someone (that knows how to) make a weather mod that simulates the weather that would happen based off the landscape of Kerbin and possibly the other atmospheric planets. Even if preset 'conditions' were just baked in to the mod based off location that would cool too but i would rather not have seemingly random rain fall in deserts for instance. So with that said does anyone know how you would go about simulating the wind currents and stuff like that or how you would go about predicting that.

I know clouds have been brought up a lot on this forum, but I think clouds are only half the story. Weather is often a determining factor in the success or failure of space missions or aircraft flights, be it on Earth, or at the destination. 1. Wind - Wind plays a big factor when taking off or landing with aircraft. High wind speeds and storms also cause hazard for re-entering spacecraft, and for spacecraft wishing to launch. 2. Clouds - Clouds add a layer of uncertainty to approaches, as it is more difficult to judge where your spacecraft will touch down, (especially on a planet like eve where there would be very thick clouds). It'd also add nice aesthetics. 3. Rain - Again, mostly cosmetic, but adding another level of depth to the planets you are visiting. Every day is the same on the moon, but Laythe storms would add a different perspective to the mostly barren moon. 4. Storms - Storms would combine all of the above, not freak hurricanes which destroy ground bases (although poorly built ground bases or top-heavy landers might topple) but still a deterrence from landing. Weather is something which is closely tied to aeronautics and space, and I think I'd be a loss if KSP didn't implement some form of weather system. PS: No mod I've seen has successfully combined all of the above. I've seen Kerbal Wind: And I've seen EVE: But these two do not represent a fully functioning weather system.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/experts-say-climate-change-may-spawn-giant-flying-boulders/60596/ I think some might be interested in this.

If there is a mod that can make the game have weather system it will be very great, It can make the game have rain and snow doesn't matter if the rain or snow is just the effect. If feels good when you driving a car or a plane that you build by yourself in rain or snow