ArmA 3 Weather Facts

ArmA 3 editing; configs, modeling, missions, textures, terrain etc.

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Snake Man
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ArmA 3 Weather Facts

Post by Snake Man » 2022-06-26 10:46:28

This topic is my almost live notes when researching and learning about ArmA 3 (random) weather system. For the record I've done random weather since OFP era, its nothing new to me... until ArmA 3 threw all that ofp/arma1/arma2 info out of the window and now the weather is, just.. odd.

2022-06-24T09:47:10Z

Random weather was driving me nuts. Been trying to learn how the new ArmA 3 weather works. It is extremely frustrating to debug/test it because weather changes according to bis wiki take at least 90 minutes, not my idea of fun to just sit and wait until that time passes.

init.sqf:

Code: Select all

0 setOvercast (random 1);
forceWeatherChange;
Above does instant random weather at mission start.

Then (edited and not yet git committed version of) PMC_weather.sqf should "sleep nextWeatherChange;" amount, then do a new weather with "30 setOvercast (random 1);" and synchronize it with simulWeatherSync command.

When you run the above two commands (setOvercast and simulWeatherSync), that will restart nextWeatherChange result, so even if you had 65min, 25min whatever in there left, when you run those commands you get a new number to sleep on.

... I think ;)

2022-06-25T14:32:00Z

Created mission, init.sqf:

Code: Select all

0 setOvercast 0.5;
forceWeatherChange;
Then monitoring loop started which RPT logged nextWeatherChange, overCast, overCastForecast and rain.

Well after initial mission editor default minimum 30min nextWeatherChange ran out it jumped to 488 minutes! :o

At this time overCastForecast was set to 0.101725 so looks like ArmA 3 engine DOES indeed have default built-in random weather with some crazy ass nextWeatherChange delay.

2022-06-25T19:01:00Z

Long wait is over for some reference numbers. NWC stands for nextWeatherChange return value.

We started mission like this:

Code: Select all

10:25:14 Weather was forced to change
10:25:21 "NWC: 29.9169 min, 1795.02 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:25:26 "NWC: 29.8338 min, 1790.03 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:25:31 "NWC: 29.7508 min, 1785.05 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:25:36 "NWC: 29.6677 min, 1780.06 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
And once this mission.sqm set 30min timeout reached zero:

Code: Select all

10:54:10 "NWC: 1.0714 min, 64.2842 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:15 "NWC: 0.988192 min, 59.2915 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:20 "NWC: 0.905013 min, 54.3008 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:25 "NWC: 0.822054 min, 49.3232 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:30 "NWC: 0.738861 min, 44.3317 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:35 "NWC: 0.655678 min, 39.3407 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:40 "NWC: 0.572487 min, 34.3492 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:45 "NWC: 0.489282 min, 29.3569 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:50 "NWC: 0.406069 min, 24.3641 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:54:55 "NWC: 0.32289 min, 19.3734 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:55:00 "NWC: 0.239956 min, 14.3973 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:55:05 "NWC: 0.157033 min, 9.422 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:55:10 "NWC: 0.0738302 min, 4.42981 seconds, overCast: 0.5, overCastForecast: 0.5, rain: 0"
10:55:15 "NWC: 488.054 min, 29283.2 seconds, overCast: 0.499993, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:20 "NWC: 487.97 min, 29278.2 seconds, overCast: 0.499931, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:25 "NWC: 487.888 min, 29273.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499869, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:30 "NWC: 487.804 min, 29268.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499807, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:35 "NWC: 487.721 min, 29263.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499744, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:40 "NWC: 487.638 min, 29258.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499682, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:45 "NWC: 487.555 min, 29253.3 seconds, overCast: 0.49962, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:50 "NWC: 487.472 min, 29248.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499557, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:55:55 "NWC: 487.388 min, 29243.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499495, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:56:00 "NWC: 487.305 min, 29238.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499433, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:56:05 "NWC: 487.222 min, 29233.3 seconds, overCast: 0.49937, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
10:56:10 "NWC: 487.139 min, 29228.3 seconds, overCast: 0.499308, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
When nextWeatherChange reached zero:

Code: Select all

18:57:26 "NWC: 1.00645 min, 60.3867 seconds, overCast: 0.140372, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:31 "NWC: 0.921289 min, 55.2773 seconds, overCast: 0.140311, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:36 "NWC: 0.836198 min, 50.1719 seconds, overCast: 0.140249, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:41 "NWC: 0.751139 min, 45.0684 seconds, overCast: 0.140188, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:46 "NWC: 0.666048 min, 39.9629 seconds, overCast: 0.140127, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:51 "NWC: 0.580762 min, 34.8457 seconds, overCast: 0.140066, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:57:56 "NWC: 0.495768 min, 29.7461 seconds, overCast: 0.140004, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:01 "NWC: 0.410775 min, 24.6465 seconds, overCast: 0.139943, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:06 "NWC: 0.325358 min, 19.5215 seconds, overCast: 0.139882, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:11 "NWC: 0.24043 min, 14.4258 seconds, overCast: 0.139821, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:16 "NWC: 0.155143 min, 9.30859 seconds, overCast: 0.139759, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:21 "NWC: 0.0700521 min, 4.20313 seconds, overCast: 0.139698, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:26 "NWC: 58.0509 min, 3483.05 seconds, overCast: 0.139637, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:31 "NWC: 57.9659 min, 3477.96 seconds, overCast: 0.139576, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:36 "NWC: 57.8808 min, 3472.85 seconds, overCast: 0.139514, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:41 "NWC: 57.7959 min, 3467.75 seconds, overCast: 0.139453, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:46 "NWC: 57.7108 min, 3462.65 seconds, overCast: 0.139392, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:51 "NWC: 57.6256 min, 3457.54 seconds, overCast: 0.139331, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:58:56 "NWC: 57.5404 min, 3452.42 seconds, overCast: 0.139269, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
18:59:01 "NWC: 57.4551 min, 3447.31 seconds, overCast: 0.139208, overCastForecast: 0.101725, rain: 0"
So in this attempt there was just insane 488 minutes timer for the first weather change and once we reached that, the weather did not even change hehe.

I googled "arma 3 random weather" but nothing worth while was found, so guess not many people are interested in random weather huh.

My current thinking now is that... I should just use my own SECONDS setOvercast (random 1); time and do simulWeatherSync after that time has ran out and completely ignore this nextWeatherChange command as I have no clue what "next weather change" means in reality, yes weather changes when that timer runs out, but HOW and why does it change :o

Is it random weather built-in? Is it just a random delay until volumetric clouds are calculated/changed? No idea, bis wiki explains nothing as usual, no info on the forums... uuh.

As I'm finishing writing this post I have ArmA 3 running on the background with -noPause startup parameter and notepad++ monitoring RPT log, NWC is 112 min left until the next weather change, so dunno how many of these changes I want to experience here, the RPT has few of them overnight I believe.

It not like my random weather is not working, but I still would like to fully learn and understand how weather actually works in ArmA 3.
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