xEnviro, Seasons and OpenSceneryX

[aussi]

Hi,

I’ve been putting a lot of hours recently into supporting seasons in OpenSceneryX, and I think I have it mostly ready for release. This will include support (chosen by the user) for the following season switching mechanisms:

1. Disable OpenSceneryX seasons - no seasonal support at all, default (summer) objects / forests etc all the time
2. X-Plane built-in dataref: Use a combination of the sim/time/local_date_days dataref and regional bitmaps to define when and where to show seasonal changes.
3. Four Seasons Plugin: Use the nm/four_seasons/season dataref that this plugin publishes to determine the season.
4. TerraMaxx Plugin: Use the maxxxp/seasonsxp/is_autumn,  maxxxp/seasonsxp/is_winter etc. datarefs that this plugin publishes to determine the season.
5. xAmbience Plugin: Use the xambience/custom/seasons/cur dataref that this plug-in publishes to determine the season. 

So I think you can guess where this is going: I see that support for Seasons is in the xEnviro roadmap, so would you like to work together to build support for your mechanism into OpenSceneryX?

Best wishes,
Austin G.

 

[Captain Kitten]

1 hour ago, aussi said:

Hi,

I’ve been putting a lot of hours recently into supporting seasons in OpenSceneryX, and I think I have it mostly ready for release. This will include support (chosen by the user) for the following season switching mechanisms:

1. Disable OpenSceneryX seasons - no seasonal support at all, default (summer) objects / forests etc all the time
2. X-Plane built-in dataref: Use a combination of the sim/time/local_date_days dataref and regional bitmaps to define when and where to show seasonal changes.
3. Four Seasons Plugin: Use the nm/four_seasons/season dataref that this plugin publishes to determine the season.
4. TerraMaxx Plugin: Use the maxxxp/seasonsxp/is_autumn,  maxxxp/seasonsxp/is_winter etc. datarefs that this plugin publishes to determine the season.
5. xAmbience Plugin: Use the xambience/custom/seasons/cur dataref that this plug-in publishes to determine the season. 

So I think you can guess where this is going: I see that support for Seasons is in the xEnviro roadmap, so would you like to work together to build support for your mechanism into OpenSceneryX?

Best wishes,
Austin G.

 

I have moved this in under the xEnviro Club since it is most fittting as a feature request for xEnviro.

To answer your question: xEnviro seasons will probably not require any other developer to do anything for it to work. It will alter existing textures or add it's own elements completely on it's own. There might be some details that have to be compatible, but that is not public info at this stage and does require not any other elements than the datarefs given on the xEnviro website. At least not as we know or disclose at this point. We will have more info on eventual further dependencies when we start the process of developing the seasons package.

DATAREF LIST

env/active
Type: integer
Range: 0 ... 1
Reflects the operational status of the plugin.

env/rain
Type: float
Range: 0.0 ... 1.0
The amount of rain at the current aircraft position.

env/snow
Type: float
Range: 0.0 ... 1.0
The amount of snow at the current aircraft position.

[aussi]

Thanks Magnus,

Although I could hook into your env/snow dataref, it doesn't feel quite right as that's not really a seasonal change, more of a local weather condition.

If you implement any further seasonal features in future, let me know and we can discuss incorporating support within OpenSceneryX.

Best wishes,
Austin G.

[Captain Kitten]

Definitely will do that. We do want xEnviro to work in as many scenarios as possible. We're just in the middle of finalizing some basic features after beta testing those and have to concentrate on finishing 1.10. Then we will take on the rest of the road map. Preferrably after a short break

[aussi]

Thanks Magnus. The reason I've reached out to everyone I could find who is working with seasons is that by default all OpenSceneryX objects will display summer versions. Although not so bad for spring and autumn, this looks strange if a plugin changes the ground textures to snow and everything sitting on top is green.

Of course, that only holds if the plugin delivers snowy textures in the first place, which is another story…