ANSWERED How does Global determine when to switch to snow?

[Perk]

I setup a flight from KJAC to KSHR yesterday with FTX Central set to Global - Hybrid.  Date and time set to system (11/18 at the time) which yielded "fall" as the season in P3D.  Leaving KJAC, and within the CRM coverage area, everything was covered with snow - which is exactly what I'd expect for Northern Wyoming in mid November.  As I was approaching the Bighorn river though, there was a fairly abrupt switch over to non-snow ground textures.  I'm assuming at that point I was leaving the CRM coverage area and moving into Global scenery areas.  So my question is, what does Global (and CRM) use to determine whether or not to use the snow textures.  Is it simply the Season setting and CRM uses snow in Fall while global does not, or is there something more complex going on?

 

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi there,

 

for more information about our custom seasons files (delivered with the FTX Regions) and limitations of the default seasons control file please see

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/18695-pnw-textures/?p=162697

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/86437-season-transition-problems/

 

Cheers, Holger

[Stewart Hobson]

Hello, Perk.  In addition to Holger's advice above, I would, and do, fly from "full fat" regions, like CRM, to areas in Canada and the US with Global Hybrid *unchecked*.  This is in line with previous advice from Holger in another topic, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Stew

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Stew,

 

um, no, because if you do that then you'd deactivate the FTX region in your scenery library menu. The correct choice is to either use North America mode or, if you're using other add-ons and encounter display issues like texture morphing while flying outside of the FTX region, then use Global with Hybrid mode.

 

Either way though that wouldn't affect the issue with the seasons control file except that in "non-hybrid" mode you'd deactivate the region's custom version as well and it's all back to default. 

 

Cheers, Holger

[Perk]

Thanks Holger, that's a really great, interesting explanation.  Have you guys thought about doing a "Seasons" add-on for Global?  I'd pay a reasonable amount for it if it's to the same level of quality as the Fat regions.

 

As an aside, I almost wonder if a weather add-on could be built to programatically modify the seasons files in order to switch over to ice in areas/elevations that are cold enough, and snow in areas that are both cold enough and have had precipitation recently.  Activesky taps historical weather data for instance, you should be able to build at least an on/off snowfall model based on recorded temperature and precipitation in the METARs.

[Stewart Hobson]

Hi Stew,

 

um, no, because if you do that then you'd deactivate the FTX region in your scenery library menu. The correct choice is to either use North America mode or, if you're using other add-ons and encounter display issues like texture morphing while flying outside of the FTX region, then use Global with Hybrid mode.

 

Either way though that wouldn't affect the issue with the seasons control file except that in "non-hybrid" mode you'd deactivate the region's custom version as well and it's all back to default. 

 

Cheers, Holger

Of course, you are correct Holger.  And I was less than clear in posting my thoughts about flying with "hybrid" unchecked.  Indeed, I always fly using North America mode, whether between "full fat" regions like PNW and SAK, or into or out of them like from outside CRM into CRM.  I apologize that I wasn't clearer.  But at least I read your previous posts about the subject and knew what the correct choice was! 

 

Stew