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Rain in KSP2?


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Rain seems like pretty much a given. If I'm not mistaken about the tech they went with for clouds, this works for atmospherics in general, and it's a short stretch to convincing rain effects from there. RDR2 being sort of state of the art for this. I don't think Intercept has resources to push it quite that hard, but based on what they've done already, I think they can get very good quality weather effects in general. Another place this can come in handy is Duna sand storms.

I think, the bigger question is whether the weather will be globally simulated and what sort of impact will it have on missions. This is a bigger discussion, and I think there has been a topic on this already. In short, you can do pretty convincing global weather sim on the cheap, but it's work. A simpler thing would be to make effectively an animated texture, and use it as a look-up for current weather for any given location. You can superimpose several such animations with different cycles to make it feel entirely unpredictable while making it super easy to implement. There are other techniques as well, but they're harder to keep consistent across a planet. But maybe I'm overestimating how important that would be.

As for whether effects, it should probably impact aerodynamics, but not be destructive. I think landing with a bit of cross-wind and turbulence is the right amount of challenge. But it's hard to say what Intercpet is planning for new planets. Maybe some of them are going to be challenging specifically because of the weather and winds.

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4 hours ago, TheMunRover said:

that would be a great idea, especially if there are clouds.

Sorry if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you might have missed this video. We know for a fact that there will be clouds in the game.

 

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Really hoping to see some forms of weather enter the game, especially Duna sandstorms, but somewhat doubtful it will happen. I hope Kerbin has no wind ever to keep it an easy mode training area and it has the occasional sun shower to give it a natural feel with some beauty. But as far as weather goes I hope it shows up and brings new nuances to planets with atmospheres so players kind of look at planets with atmospheres as their own challenge and the density of the atmosphere can serve as a maximum possible difficulty the planets atmosphere can present. Tidally locked atmospheric planets should prove fun with massive temp differences between the day and night sides driving insane windspeeds near the terminator though calm at the centers of the day and night hemispheres.

 

Also hope we can see natural clouds develop but I know this is a bit beyond what can be asked for.

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10 hours ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

I hope Kerbin has no wind ever to keep it an easy mode training area

Wind would add a lot of variety, though. I think I would prefer "wind affects craft" to be a setting when you start the game, and when enabled, work across all planets and moons with atmosphere.

And to be clear, wind should always be there, because it can add to weather variety visually, but affecting the physics could be a toggle.

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31 minutes ago, K^2 said:

Wind would add a lot of variety, though. I think I would prefer "wind affects craft" to be a setting when you start the game, and when enabled, work across all planets and moons with atmosphere.

And to be clear, wind should always be there, because it can add to weather variety visually, but affecting the physics could be a toggle.

Maybe KSC could have a balmy, low-wind, "training environment" in the early game, but other launch sites (which I hope will be standard in KSP2) could have much more challenging weather.  Launching in blizzards from Baikonur could be a fun challenge.  And not weather related, but Duna really needs giant sand worms, or at least there needs to be seismic data that hints at their existence with them only rarely destroying a base

Edited by darthgently
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8 minutes ago, darthgently said:

Maybe KSC could have a balmy, low-wind, "training environment" in the early game, but other launch sites (which I hope will be standard in KSP2) could have much more challenging weather. 

That might actually be the best way to address that. Throw in an option to start the game at a different launch site, and I'm sold!

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8 hours ago, K^2 said:

Wind would add a lot of variety, though. I think I would prefer "wind affects craft" to be a setting when you start the game, and when enabled, work across all planets and moons with atmosphere.

And to be clear, wind should always be there, because it can add to weather variety visually, but affecting the physics could be a toggle.

I wasn't trying to suggest no wind affecting craft in the game, just on the planet kerbin to keep it an ideal easy mode. Throughout the rest of the game I would love wind to be there, it would force players to build craft capable of dealing with it depending on the planet and act as a factor in the landing puzzles the devs have talked about including. I just think having wind in the starting area might be one factor added too early in the game for newer players.

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On 6/12/2021 at 2:45 PM, K^2 said:

Rain seems like pretty much a given. If I'm not mistaken about the tech they went with for clouds, this works for atmospherics in general, and it's a short stretch to convincing rain effects from there. RDR2 being sort of state of the art for this. I don't think Intercept has resources to push it quite that hard, but based on what they've done already, I think they can get very good quality weather effects in general. Another place this can come in handy is Duna sand storms.

I think, the bigger question is whether the weather will be globally simulated and what sort of impact will it have on missions. This is a bigger discussion, and I think there has been a topic on this already. In short, you can do pretty convincing global weather sim on the cheap, but it's work. A simpler thing would be to make effectively an animated texture, and use it as a look-up for current weather for any given location. You can superimpose several such animations with different cycles to make it feel entirely unpredictable while making it super easy to implement. There are other techniques as well, but they're harder to keep consistent across a planet. But maybe I'm overestimating how important that would be.

As for whether effects, it should probably impact aerodynamics, but not be destructive. I think landing with a bit of cross-wind and turbulence is the right amount of challenge. But it's hard to say what Intercpet is planning for new planets. Maybe some of them are going to be challenging specifically because of the weather and winds.

tbh even if they don't incorporate it at the beginning, the mere fact they have a system for clouds/weather in general already implemented makes modding any of this in so much easier than KSP. Plus you could probably exploit KSP2's API hooks to poll whatever data you needed and send it back.

They have me pretty excited with the possibilities for those willing to put in the time and effort to explore them that Intercept seems to be leaving open.

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On 6/13/2021 at 4:51 PM, darthgently said:

Launching in blizzards from Baikonur could be a fun challenge.  And not weather related, but Duna really needs giant sand worms, or at least there needs to be seismic data that hints at their existence with them only rarely destroying a base

I like the blizzards too. I would also like Laythe to have lightning storms. On the sand worms, given the science theme of the game, I think they would work.

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Just been thinking about it, still in the group of liking to have weather and its effects on our craft but be toggleable group. But something occured to me, has there been discussions on satellites and the ability to predict the weather yet?

 

I mean, after I have a strong space program with dozens of satellites in play, maybe already have a muner base and headed to Duna, it should be a simple thing (realistically speaking, not game implementation wise) for me to predict the weather to AVOID bad storms, lightning, rain, etc.

 

How would weather forecasting be accomplished if there is indeed weather that can destroy our craft ingame?

 

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10 minutes ago, Dientus said:

Just been thinking about it, still in the group of liking to have weather and its effects on our craft but be toggleable group. But something occured to me, has there been discussions on satellites and the ability to predict the weather yet?

There's been talks on space telescopes, and bringing stock SCANSat systems. would just need to add a weather layer that updates each time a region is scanned.

 

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