Clouds

[ultimaterandombanana]

Well... I have an idea on how to make some clouds for kerbin and other planets, I just need to know if my idea would work (probably not).If my idea is not possible we could use this thread as a discussion on ideas on another approach (like a plugin) or something

So here we go:

First you could create a part that has normals on both sides, no collision mesh and the clouds texture.

Next you either create a plugin to put it in orbit of the planet and make it spin or some type of edit for the persistence file.

Here is my impression of what it could look like

Your ideas and comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

ultimaterandombanana

[OopsThatNotWork]

Well im sure this would be a well appreciated mod by alot of people and I wish I could tell you how to do it, but good luck. Expect some more responses here shortly.

[Tex_NL]

To make it even better: use an animated texture.

And to give the cloud layer some depth you can generate a smoke/fog layer at the correct altidtude

[EndlessWaves]

First you could create a part that has normals on both sides, no collision mesh and the clouds texture.

Next you either create a plugin to put it in orbit of the planet and make it spin or some type of edit for the persistence file.

No. Part rendering cuts off at 5km or something.

I don't quite see what advantage you'd have from attaching part components over just spawning the model.

[Scotius]

Wait. Majjir made his hex grid visible at some height above the planet. It's visible in map mode, but what if someone makes it visible in normal screen, and then replaces hex grid with cloud texture?

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Maybe kerbin is low pressure? resulting in clouds lower than 5 km? And since the scale of kerbins atmosphere. It should be lower than 5,000 meters.

[Lazurkri]

you know what'd be cool to do with this? make it part of a weather Mod.... I mean, that way we'd have to deal with the same things that real life rocket launches have to deal with.

[KAO]

Wait. Majjir made his hex grid visible at some height above the planet. It's visible in map mode, but what if someone makes it visible in normal screen, and then replaces hex grid with cloud texture?

it should work in theory, I mean, there are times when the orbit paths of objects pop up for some reason in normal screen. Problem is that the hex grid that Majjir made is a two-dimensional object, and the orbit paths are lines. Clouds would not work as two-dimensional objects or lines, so the whole thing hinges on being able to place something besides those in-game

[Tex_NL]

it should work in theory, I mean, there are times when the orbit paths of objects pop up for some reason in normal screen. Problem is that the hex grid that Majjir made is a two-dimensional object, and the orbit paths are lines. Clouds would not work as two-dimensional objects or lines, so the whole thing hinges on being able to place something besides those in-game

Generating 'real' clouds shouldn't be that hard. Form a distance a texture will suffice, we pretty much all agree with that. Up close a texture just won't do and that's why I already suggested generating some kind of 'fog'. And even this 'fog' is already in the game: exhaust smoke. Just generate enough at the correct moment to limit visibility and obscure the texture. Once through the clouds the smoke can clear and the texture will be visible again.

[Greys]

While each hex of the hexgrid is 2D, the entire thing is a 3D model where the hexes are placed tangent to a sphere; the mesh is one fifth of the globe in five instances. The hexgrid itself would be a terribly inefficient layout of polys for this purpose, but the methodology, as long as you can make it visible in game and not so visible on the map screen, is perfectly suited.

As long as you're borrowing from Majiir, his particle system is much stronger than the one KSP uses for exhaust effects, much better suited to building clouds with.

[InfiniteDice]

While each hex of the hexgrid is 2D, the entire thing is a 3D model where the hexes are placed tangent to a sphere; the mesh is one fifth of the globe in five instances. The hexgrid itself would be a terribly inefficient layout of polys for this purpose, but the methodology, as long as you can make it visible in game and not so visible on the map screen, is perfectly suited.

As long as you're borrowing from Majiir, his particle system is much stronger than the one KSP uses for exhaust effects, much better suited to building clouds with.

I was thinking of weather for a while now, just too buy with other stuff to bother.

Since you can only be in one place at a time I'd only generate the weather within the local load distance. Or extend the load distance and have it load further. Generate base weather, then a random/changing element, so you may have a steady .1 m/s wind from the east, then a random gust that deviates slightly from the main direction. Then every hour or so game time see if the base weather changes etc.

For the physical effects, you could use a set of GameObjects with the renderers off... and have particle generated FX clouds with the energy/intensity variables cased to the weather condition. You'd make the cloud iskinematic and move it via code, and change it's altitude based on it's density. Moving over water it gains density and drops altitude.. moving over land it rains and drops density.

I think locally it would be really neat. You could also generate rain and have the rain game object follow the player location so long as they are in a rain zone. Distance fog can be used beyond to make the rain look deeper than it is.

The wind force is simply force applied to parts/vessels matching the weather direction/speed. That can be universally applied to all rigidbodies in the area.