Sooooo…
I added a weather system that is server based. Each zone is responsible for forecasting it’s own weather and delivering information to the client(s). Storm duration, intensity, type and so forth. Lighting is handled by the server as well so placement is congruent from client to client. Clouds in the skybox with roll in/out with the storm info.
Why would I bother?
Well… I know that the graphics for this game will never be insanely awesome, so I am opting for atmosphere instead. Make it “feel” a certain way, and you the users brain will fill in the blanks.
Anyways… here is a sample. Not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but the basics are there.
http://youtu.be/U2woalWAs1U
10 Likes
Very nice!
I’ve always preferred atmosphere and immersion in a game over super-brilliant graphics (I think your graphics look good already, as well).
Will the weather affect the character or the surrounding? E.g. will the character get slower reaction if they are cold or will some terrain get slower to walk in if it has been raining?
Very nice, indeed… May I ask how you did those clouds?? Looks great.
Yeah, it looks really cool. I think this will do a lot to the feel of the game. Do you add any buffs/debuffs on the player based on the weather too? Like make them a bit slower in the rain and idk, a bit better at hitting the enemy when its sunny?
wow, that looks really nice. How did you do the rain, cloud and lightning?
@t0neg0d said:
Well... I know that the graphics for this game will never be insanely awesome, so I am opting for atmosphere instead. Make it "feel" a certain way, and you the users brain will fill in the blanks.
Yes, atmosphere is everything... and good job on putting some thought into the system so that it's not just "hah! it's raining" then "Hah! now it's not" randomness. :)
My weather system is still only on paper... so I envy others. :)
Hmm… let me see if I can answer all the questions. If I miss one… smack me, I’ll answer it eventually.
Will it effect players. All stats are based off the following code, so apply modifiers via spells, weather, etc are extremely easy to handle.
[java]public class cStat implements Serializable {
String name;
float base = 0, altered = 0, equip = 0, effect = 0, factored = 0, current = 0;
public cStat() { }
public void initStat(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public void setBase(float value) { base = value; totalFactored(); }
public void addBase(float value) { base += value; totalFactored(); }
public void subBase(float value) { base -= value; totalFactored(); }
public float getBase() { return base; }
public void setAltered(float value) { altered = value; totalFactored(); }
public void addAltered(float value) { altered += value; totalFactored(); }
public void subAltered(float value) { altered -= value; totalFactored(); }
public float getAltered() { return altered; }
public void setEquip(float value) { equip = value; totalFactored(); }
public void addEquip(float value) { equip += value; totalFactored(); }
public void subEquip(float value) { equip -= value; totalFactored(); }
public float getEquip() { return equip; }
public void setEffect(float value) { effect = value; totalFactored(); }
public void addEffect(float value) { effect += value; totalFactored(); }
public void subEffect(float value) { effect -= value; totalFactored(); }
public float getEffect() { return effect; }
public void setFactored(float value) { factored = value; }
public void addFactored(float value) { factored += value; }
public void subFactored(float value) { factored -= value; }
public float getFactored() { return factored; }
public void setCurrent(float value) { current = value; }
public void addCurrent(float value) { current += value; }
public void subCurrent(float value) { current -= value; }
public float getCurrent() { return current; }
public void resetCurrent() { current = factored; }
private void totalFactored() {
factored = base+altered+equip+effect;
if (factored < current) current = factored;
}
}[/java]
All objects are derived of a collect of stats (among other things). A stat can be anything (obviously), so effecting the players attack speed, movement speed, overall weight, etc, etc, etc is as easy as calling addEffect… or subEffect. If these are timer based, that expire automatically–or in the case of weather changes received from the server (also considering player skills that would counter the effect)… could potentially effect any number of attributes.
As for how I did the lightning (This worked for a really great looking torch effect as well):
Lightning—lighting effect
[java]
// for the dureation of the lightning effect
float lColor = (float)(Math.random().3f)+.7f;
lLight.setColor(new ColorRGBA(lColor, lColor, lColor, 1));
// otherwise, set the light to Black
[/java]
Torch—lighting effect
[java]
if (!skyBox.getIsDay()){
float red = ((float)Math.random().2f)+.6f;
float green = red-.2f;//((float)Math.random().2f)+.4f;
float radius = ((float)Math.random()2)+6;
torch.setColor(new ColorRGBA(red,green,.0f,.8f));
torch.setRadius(radius);
}
[/java]
As for the lightning & rain display—
A billboarded quad set to Bucket.Sky - for the lightning
A particle emitter – for the rain
the code in the update of the control is fairly straight forward:
[java]
public void update(float tpf) {
int pos;
float x, y;
pos = (int)Math.round(Math.random());
x = (float)(Math.random()(size3));
if (pos == 0) x = -x;
pos = (int)Math.round(Math.random());
y = (float)(Math.random()(size3));
if (pos == 0) y = -y;
weather.setLocalTranslation(x, size, y);
if (showLightning) {
lShowCount += tpf;
if (lShowCount > 1.5) {
// Set material to notta after lightning ends
effectNode.setMaterial(mat_LTrans);
showLightning = false;
lShowCount = 0;
lLight.setColor(ColorRGBA.Black);
} else {
if (lBegin) {
// Position quad & set material… need to update to image defined by server
effectNode.setLocalTranslation(lV);
effectNode.setMaterial(mat_L);
lBegin = false;
}
// Flicker lightning light
float lColor = (float)(Math.random()*.3f)+.7f;
lLight.setColor(new ColorRGBA(lColor, lColor, lColor, 1));
}
}
}
public void showLightning(float[] position, int imageIndex) {
lV = new Vector3f(position[0], position[1], position[2]);
lBegin = true;
showLightning = true;
}[/java]
3 Likes
I like it… How about your clouds?
Oh yeah…
The skybox (or hemispheres is an ugly monster atm. But, here is the general idea:
I have have an outter hemisphere with the night star material. Another slightly inside of it with the day material, that is alpha’d out or in depending on the game time. These are static, though if I had ambition, I would expand the star map to another hemisphere and position them accord to seasons (not going there personally, but the seasons and season changes are defined in game)
Inside of there are two hemispheres, creating a sphere. Each is texture with alpha mapped clouds (more than likely rendered in photoshop… with some minor alterations). The bottom hemisphere is a mirror image of the top. Now, to cycle heavier clouds in, I do texture swapping on the hemisphere that is out of view to make it appear to be a seamless transition.
This all works, but… here is what I would like to do:
Create a single static grid that is mostly flat and eventually curves out of view towards the edges. I’m desperately trying to create a shader that I can set the x, y coords of the texture… so in repeat mode… as long as it is tile-able, the shader will move the clouds for me… but I am relatively shader illiterate and my attempts so far just produce a non-moving texture 
2 Likes
Almost forgot… the fairly hemispheres are small, rendered to the sky and follow the player.
I tried to get them to follow the chasecam… but this did some ugly things, so eventually I’ll have to figure this out, or things get weird when you zoom out from the player.
Another quick update… shows the skybox night to day fade… and also uses a shader for cloud movement now. Allowed me to flatten the mesh used the cloud layer to give a more linear look to the cloud movement. The final will use 2 separate cloud layers and allow for overall alpha manipulation… movement speeds/direction changes… and applying a varying color overlay to change clouds from white to gray… etc, etc, Really happy with the overall effect of the shader movement. Thanks @pspeed for the tips!
http://youtu.be/tKlRfiJLwa4
6 Likes
Excellent ideas. Im going to work on the same in the next (or next) milestone in our project, so im trying to get all the inspriration i can get. If I think of something genius, i’ll let you know. Thanks a bunch for the ideas!
As I said already I like even your normal graphics very much and now it’s really great.
And thank you for sharing your ideas.
I find that your clouds look very good. As does your whole project. Looking forward to more reports like this.
I just want to ask about the cloud perspective (or lack thereof). What made you choose that particular method? It just seems very hard to get multiple cloud levels etc. to work well. Have you tried a skydome instead? And in that case, why did you choose a sky box instead?
If you haven’t seen it, here is an example of typical skydome clouds with proper perspective. I just made a hemisphere with blue background and a low res noise texture for clouds (so they look flat and awful), but you can at least see how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_c6APDTZ4U
1 Like
I just downloaded texture and added to a regular skydome with simple projected plane in the shader. What I want to know is why someone would use a skybox instead of this? It’s a serious question, I don’t know the benefits/drawbacks of either.
I don’t see any background images in the video, which is why I was curious. Of course it would make 1000 times more sense to use a box when using textured backgrounds. I know that much. 
Is it to reduce vertex count? This actually works with very low res skydomes.
Wow, that is great. Okay androlo, time to go for “the Weatherer” after you finished “the Forester” 