Weather

The weather dialog controls all aspects of weather in the game. On the left side of the dialog box is a list of all weathers defined for the loaded master file and plug-in. To create a new weather type, right-click in the box and select "new" from the popup. To create a new weather type based off an existing weather type, right-click the weather type you wish to use as a basis and select "duplicate". To delete an existing weather type, right-click that weather type and select delete.

The following discusses the individual tabs in the weather dialog:

General

• Colors
  • Type:
    • Ambient - An underlying color for the scene.
    • Clouds (lower/upper) - The color of a cloud layer.
    • Fog - Fog color. This also ajusts the color of water reflections.
    • Horizon - The color of the sky at the horizon.
    • Sky (lower/upper) - The color of the sky at lower and upper levels.
      • Horizon color blends into lower sky color and lower sky color blends into upper sky color.
    • Stars - The color of the stars.
    • Sun - The color of the sun disc.
    • Sunlight - The color of the sunlight. This is the directional light color for the scene.
  • Time:
    • Day - The color of the specified component during the daytime.
    • Night - The color of the specified component at nighttime.
    • Sunrise - The color of the specified component at sunrise.
    • Sunset - The color of the specified component at sunset.
      • See climates page on how to define these times of day.
  • Components
    • Specify red, green, and blue components of this color by typing in the values you want or using the spinners.
    • Use the "select color" button for a more graphical color selection interface.
    • Use copy/paste buttons to duplicate colors from one type/time to another.

• Cloud Textures
  • Choose a texture for the upper and lower cloud layers

• Fog Distances
  • Specify near and far clip planes for fog during different times of day. These also effect how water reflects the fog color.

• Sliders
  • Wind Speed - How windy it is. Affects cloud and tree movement.
  • Cloud Speed (lower/upper) - How fast the clouds move. Modified by wind speed.
  • Trans Delta - In game hours, how long it takes to fully transition into this weather type once a transition begins.
  • Sun Glare - How much glare there is around the sun disc.
  • Sun Damage - How much damage the sun does to vampires during daytime hours.

Precipitation

• Precipitation
  • Click on "Add NIF File" to specify a NIF file containing precipitation data.
  • Begin Fade In slider specifies the point in time along a transition into this weather type when particles will begin to enter the scene.
    • Ex-> A value of 0.8 means that you will begin seeing precipitation particles after this weather is 80% transitioned in.
  • End Fade Out slider specifies the point in time along a transition out of this weather type when particles will no longer appear in the scene.
    • Ex-> A value of 0.2 means that you will no longer see precipitation once a transition out of this weather type into another one is 20% complete.
• Thunder/Lightning
  • Sliders work the same as precipitation sliders. See precipitation section above.
  • Frequency slider determines how frequently you will see thunder/lightning.
• Weather Classification
  • Choose the appropriate classification for this weather type. This will affect things such as water surfaces, NPC dialogue, and other game logic.
• Lightning Color
  • Choose a color for lightning flashes.

Sound

• The list box defines every sound associated with this weather type.
• Drag and drop sounds from the object window (Miscellaneous/Sound) into this list box.
• Double click a sound to toggle its type. Wind and precipitation sounds play as looping sounds while thunder sounds will play as a one-time sound when a lightning strike is initiated by the system.
• To delete a sound, right-click the sound and select delete.

HDR

The HDR (High Dynamic Range) tab lets you specify HDR lighting settings for each weather type. During weather transitions, HDR settings will blend from one type to the next. If the user has HDR disabled, these settings will be ignored. Leaving them as all zeros (the default state) will cause the default settings from the INI to be used.

The HDR settings are:

• Eye Adapt Speed - decimal number between 0 and 1 (exclusive) - Controls how long it takes the camera to adapt to a new luminance level. Smaller values cause faster adaptation.
• Blur Radius - whole number between 1 and 7 (inclusive) - Controls how big the bloom around bright objects is. Larger numbers mean more bloom.
• Blur Passes - whole number, at least 1 - Controls the number of blur passes done on the adapted image. Larger numbers mean higher quality, but slower performance.
• Emissive Mult - decimal number greater than 0 - Larger numbers make objects with emissive lighting appear brighter.
• Target LUM - decimal number greater than 0 - Controls the luminance level considered bright. The larger the number, the brighter the scene must be to seem "bright".
• Upper LUM Clamp - decimal number greater than 0 - Controls the luminance level that your "eye" can adapt to. Larger numbers let the camera adapt to brighter scenes.
• Bright Scale - decimal number greater than 0 - Controls how briht the entire scene is. Larger numbers make the scene seem brighter, giving more bloom.
• Bright Clamp - decimal number - Used to reduce the brightness of the scene. Larger numbers make the scene seem darker, giving less bloom.
• LUM Ramp No Tex - decimal number - Used to make everything in the sky seem brighter. Larger numbers make the sky appear brighter.
• LUM Ramp Min - currently unused
• LUM Ramp Max - currently unused
• Sunlight Dimmer - decimal number - Used to control how much the sun brightens the world. Larger numbers make anything affected by the sun appear brighter.
• Grass Dimmer - decimal number - Used to control how bright the grass appear. Larger numbers make the grass appear brighter.
• Tree Dimmer - decimal number - Used to control how bright the trees appear. Larger numbers make the trees appear brighter.