Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I couldn't find an answer to this type of question in the FAQ section, so I'll bring it up here. In flying from KBIL Billings, Montana, to KRAP Rapid City, South Dakota, this afternoon, as soon as I left the CRM region east of Billings, there was no longer any snow on the ground, only the usual plain brown color you would expect to see in the northern plains region of the US. I sorta thought FTX Global would furnish the snow, since it's winter up there in the northern US. Since I previously had North America checked in FTX Central, I checked Global/Hybrid, but still had the same results. Did I miss something here? Is this covered somewhere in the forums or the manuals? Thank you for any advice. Stew Edit: Sorry, the title of the post should be "CRM", not "NRM". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Goff Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Hi Stew, FSX/Prepar3D controls seasons through a lookup file that determines the season for any given 1x1km tile in the world. FTX Global does not replace the default global file, however regions do include a fine-tuned seasons.bgl file that accounts for snowfall and other seasonal variation more precisely. Holger has some more in depth explanations: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/18695-pnw-textures/?p=162697 http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/86437-season-transition-problems/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Thanks, Alex. So what I'm seeing is the default "winter" look from FSX, since a detailed winter look would require a manual crafting of the area only available in our full fat regions. I'll try bumping up the month to January and see what happens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Actually, I see what is happening. FSX thinks it's still Fall, whether there's been snowfall or not, since the Winter Solstice doesn't occur until December 21. After that date, the season in FSX changes to Winter, at which point we get snow on the ground in eastern Montana, even though it's already been snowing in the real world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Actually, I see what is happening. FSX thinks it's still Fall, whether there's been snowfall or not, since the Winter Solstice doesn't occur until December 21. After that date, the season in FSX changes to Winter, at which point we get snow on the ground in eastern Montana, even though it's already been snowing in the real world. It is for this reason that real world weather programs for FSX/P3D are so handy. Don't know if you use any weather app or not Stewart, but something to consider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 I run ASN when I don't want to "sight-see". But that being said, there's still no snow on the ground outside an FTX full fat region until FSX changes the season to winter. It's still fall as far as the sim is concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perk Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I don't think ASN modifies the seasons.bgl file to force snow textures on the ground when it's actually been snowing does it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perk Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 It is for this reason that real world weather programs for FSX/P3D are so handy. Don't know if you use any weather app or not Stewart, but something to consider. I don't think ASN or any of the other weather programs modify the current seasons.bgl file to force hard winter when it's actually been snowing does they? ASN'll give you snow in the air, but I think the ground textures are still determined by season setting. That would actually be a nifty feature, should be reasonably easy to determine a simple yes/no snow model for a given station. ASN's already got historical METAR data, so just look at the reported precip going back a few days, and any time it's rained and the temperature has been below 0C since, snow=1. Trick I guess is getting that into the seasons.bgl and interpolating between stations. Not to mention juggling .bgl files at load and unload time and providing a way to restore if the weather program crashed mid-flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I don't think ASN or any of the other weather programs modify the current seasons.bgl file to force hard winter when it's actually been snowing does they? ASN'll give you snow in the air, but I think the ground textures are still determined by season setting. That would actually be a nifty feature, should be reasonably easy to determine a simple yes/no snow model for a given station. ASN's already got historical METAR data, so just look at the reported precip going back a few days, and any time it's rained and the temperature has been below 0C since, snow=1. Trick I guess is getting that into the seasons.bgl and interpolating between stations. Not to mention juggling .bgl files at load and unload time and providing a way to restore if the weather program crashed mid-flight. Actually, you may be right now that you say that. Maybe I have been so immersed when the weather is bad that I just 'see' at that way I my head. Now, I have to check...this is going to bother me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennH Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 If a weather engine indicates active snowfall, fsx starts to bring in the winter textures on the fly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 If a weather engine indicates active snowfall, fsx starts to bring in the winter textures on the fly Now that's certainly interesting! I would be anxious to see that, but don't know if I would want to be flying in that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennH Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 It can look a little odd, but it certainly works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Yes, it does! I flew out of Victoria, BC, in a snowstorm this a.m., and as the flight went on, the scenery down below changed from autumn to snow covered. Eventually the whole landscape was transformed. That was totally unexpected! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Yes, it does! I flew out of Victoria, BC, in a snowstorm this a.m., and as the flight went on, the scenery down below changed from autumn to snow covered. Eventually the whole landscape was transformed. That was totally unexpected! Okay, so I wasn't too off base after all. I thought that is what I have been seeing when I fly in bad weather, but then as I said above, I get so immersed when flying that I don't always notice those details... At any rate, thanks for putting out all the info Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 I don't often fly in bad weather, but when I do...I drink...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Yes I have done some flights in Spring/Autumn with areas of snow and areas with no snow and I rather like the effect. In real world this is what Snow Squalls look like early or late in the season. In the winter you can't notice the snow squalls when everything become white. The recent snowstorm in Buffalo, New York is the perfect example of a Snow Squall, that one was a band of snow coming off the lake effect from Lake Erie and only falling along the eastern side of Lake Erie over Buffalo. A few miles north or south there is no snow at all and Buffalo got record snowfalls. This is common around the Great Lakes and west coast in PNW region as well. I see it when I fly around Oregon this time of year, FSX does show various bands of snow coming off the coast so to me it is really cool to see that simulated. Pretty close to what Snow Squalls look like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew47 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Thats why I ONLY fly in the ORBX regions during the Fall months. Matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryisenor Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Please note that although there is snow on the ground in Alberta and Eastern Montana this week is more common for there to be none on the ground at Christmas. It's usually January before the snow stays on the ground continuously. So the FSX season files are not too far off the mark. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Thanks, Larry. That seems to confirm what we've been seeing from FSX--change the month to January (or late December) and there's snow on the ground in those areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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