The weather mod

[GlobexCo 33]

Ok, I got bored of creating sci-fi bats... there was few interest in that old project (probably I'll release something later...)

Anyway, this is my new idea:

Maxis in 2004 planned a "Wild World expansion pack", and they wanted to include weather in SC4... have you seen something? So I want to create a mod that should add weather in SC4!

I saw some "fog lot" on the STEX, but "rain lot" and "snow lot" are missing... so I plan to release these things:

1 rain lot:

(64x64 size of a little city - correct me if I'm wrong) It's a bitmap animation with rain.

1 snow lot (compatible with PEG snow mod):

same as rain lot, but with snow

1 snow modular pack (compatible with PEG snow mod):

a prop pack to use in LE to add snow on buildings

1 snow street pack (compatible with PEG snow mod):

a transit enable lot pack to plop above Maxis streets to add snow

Those animation have to be modded in order to "be activated" during winter (snow) or during autumn/spring (rain); same thing for the lot pack.

So, my question is:

Is it possible to create this modded lots????

if not, is it possible to add it like the fireworks in SC4????

(I don't want to create a team, not for nowat least... but I need a lot of help in the mod part) I created this topic in this section because I need help on creating an high-quality rain/snow animation.

I added a poll, to see if there's enough interest!

[mntoes 270]

  I remember a long time ago someone made a rain mod. If memory serves me right though you could not save a city with rain working. I  think someone had a go at fog too but that was in the distant past as well.

Edit  I found this rain tool. Not sure if it's the one I remember though.

www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm

Regards

Mntoes

[Jazzmaster 716]

Believe this should be in the modding section? But Gizmo actually made a lot that generates grayclouds, rain and sound effects...don't think it's on the STEX but he had a site for it (not sure if it's even still up).

[GlobexCo 33]

Originally posted by: mntoes

  I remember a long time ago someone made a rain mod. If memory serves me right though you could not save a city with rain working. I  think someone had a go at fog too but that was in the distant past as well.

Edit  I found this rain tool. Not sure if it's the one I remember though.

www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm

Regards

Mntoesquote>

Yes, you're right!

But that rain tool is a terrain add-on, something useful to add water at different height level (and I've got that mod).

I don't want to create such a thing, I only want to create in-game effect so everyone without photoshop (like me) can see rain in-game!

About fog... look here - this is the eyecandy effect I want to add

I think that this first part shouldn't be in the mod forum beacuse I have to create animated bitmaps of rain/snow

[LivingInThePast 364]

@Globex: Wild World was NEVER a planned expansion pack. It was an April Fool's Joke by SimCity Central through some Photoshopping. Although I recovered the text through Archive.org, I cannot find the pictures. Nevertheless, here is a link to the text for the joke.

http://ps3dsc4.blogspot.com/2009/09/wild-world-april-fools.html

The weather mod you're thinking of  was created by an independent SimCity modder named Gizmo (http://gizmo.lunarpages.com/)

Some  other cool stuff is there, too, such as a mod that makes nights much, much darker . Before... After!

[GlobexCo 33]

Originally posted by: LivingInThePast

@Globex: Wild World was NEVER a planned expansion pack. It was an April Fool's Joke by SimCity Central through some Photoshopping. Although I recovered the text through Archive.org, I cannot find the pictures. Nevertheless, here is a link to the text for the joke.

http://ps3dsc4.blogspot.com/2009/09/wild-world-april-fools.html

The weather mod you're thinking of  was created by an independent SimCity modder named Gizmo (http://gizmo.lunarpages.com/)

Some  other cool stuff is there, too, such as a mod that makes nights much, much darker . Before... After!quote>

very interesting mods! But the rain effect is far from what you can do in Photoshop, and from what I see in pictures... there aren't enough drops. And where is snow mod? The last post about this has been written on "28 August 2008".

I hope my lot will look better... I think I'll start from Gizmo's mod.

I saw that post at Pseudo3d, but didn't noticed it was an April fool's joke . (I read it yesterday, and then I had the idea!)

[Nomadic 23]

Just wanted to point something out,

With SC4 and technology at the time of the release, making weather on SC4 would require powerful computers.

To put it simple, when it rains, the droplets collide with objects and kind of free flow. We all know that, but doing it in a computer game at that time?

The rain has to hit every single building and texture and produce the effect. With many props and textures in game, the calculations can overload the CPU seriously slowing down the game or even crashing the whole game.

With today's computer a city building game with these effects may still be impossible. The game engine has to render graphics, physics, and other events. In a FPS/RTS this is not much of a problem because only a small section is being rendered out of a map. Now with a city building whole map is being rendered nonstop.

Just my 2 cents

[GlobexCo 33]

Obviously we are talking about a simple animation of small objects, not a real rain/snow. It's impossible to modify all the textures or say to it "hey, rain, you can't go trough that building!"

I'm working on the snow. I'll post a picture soon...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I'm not sure about rain, but making winter is possible, although it would take a lot of work, and I don't know how much it would be worth it.

For snow, you could modd the game's night time to be like day time, and then use TruNite for the snow version.  Basically, instead of being "night", TruNite would be "winter".  Then you'd use timed props that appear at night for things like snow drifts, etc.

Another option would be to use seasonal props for everything, so that there would be several versions of the building for different seasons.

But as far as I know it's not possible to create seasonal base or overlay textures, so everything would have to be done with props.

For the snow falling, it might be possible to make an event which makes a pop up window (like when you have a fire) except instead of having the normal UI, it would be a custom UI, made up of an animated loop of snow falling.  I don't know if the game supports animated images for the UI though (you would be tiling a .gif of animated snow across the screen).  Since the image is tiling, and since the same image would be show for all zooms and rotations, it would really cut down on the filesize (the filesize would kill falling snow as a prop), and since it's part of the UI and not in your city, the snow will always be falling no matter where you go in your city (this would also be hard to accomplish with prop falling snow).

[tony126 0]

yes, it is possible to add it like the fireworks in SC4 with the Visual effect name 0 is like rain, snow, fogs, thunder, shower, drizzle rain, storm, snowstorm anything of the weather mod etc.

[Gn_leugim 853]

the idea is good, but, at the end, it will take a hell of a work. :\

[GlobexCo 33]

C'mon... the project was too big.

First animation was ready in january, but implementing everyithing in reader was too difficult.

Can you please lock this thread?

(please do not bump old threads...)

GlobexCo

 

[tony126 0]

GlobexCo,

Good luck with your project, but you do need to add them with the Visual effect name 0 will work like the fireworks itself in old SC4 by the Effect. Keep up the good work.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

tony126 please read what GlobexCo has said in the post above you. He has specdially said not to bump old threads. It is against the rules and you have done it twice even when told not to. This project will not be continued and no amount of posting will change that.

I agree with GlobexCo that the topic should be locked.