ANSWERED SAK - Freeze/Thaw Cycles on Lakes

[BeaverDriver]

Good Morning,

I went to fly up to one of my camps this morning out of Wasilla, AK (PAWS). Shortly after I loaded up and started taxiing out, it started to snow lightly, which of course it does up there a bit at this time of year. Unfortunately that also triggered the lakes in the area to all freeze at the same time, making them unusable to floatplanes. Typically once lakes open up, they tend to stay that way, and vice versa once they freeze over, as you know. Would it be possible to tie the freeze/thaw cycle to a date rather than a weather condition without too much trouble? I think I know the intent behind the process as it is now, and it's really innovative and on the surface a very good idea. It just creates some problems and unrealistic scenarios (of course, tying it to a specific date isn't all that realistic either, I realize, but this way you won't be caught enroute on floats with suddenly no place to land).

 

Thanks much, appreciate you looking into this.

 

Glenn

[BeaverDriver]

I just thought (after posting the above) that there is probably something in place already that prevents the water from freezing after a certain date regardless of the weather. I'll check that out and if that's the case, I'll amend my post above.

 

Thanks,

 

Glenn

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Glenn,

 

interesting observation, it never occurred to me that active snowfall would also change the lakes and rivers back to "ice" but, unfortunately, that's the way it works in FSX. We actually are using specific dates because the switch to ice textures, and back to water, is tied to the SAK seasons file, which has a monthly resolution. However, active snowfall in the current weather situation makes the FSX display engine "throw out" the seasons file and dynamically switch all local textures to the hard-winter variant, regardless of the date. I never liked that particular FSX "feature" but I'm not aware of any method to prevent this from happening. 

 

The only other method for simulating ice is via an external file exchange, using a control panel, in which the water texture isn't tied to seasonal variations  (I believe that's how it's implemented in Ultimate Terrain). However, that's an awkward process too and, more importantly, it would take away the influence of latitude and altitude on the onset and melting of lake and river ice, which I believe to be an important feature of our regions.

 

Cheers, Holger

[BeaverDriver]

Ahh, I see what you are saying Holger. Yes, UTX does use a control panel as you suggested. It works quite well, except if you have ice in Alaska, you have it in Florida too. I'm not sure the alligators would appreciate that . I guess this is something we are a bit stuck with if using real weather engines, so the answer then may be to set FSX weather manually as most float ops are over local areas anyway.

 

Appreciate you looking into this Holger.

 

Glenn

PS - great job on SAK by the by!!