Implementation WeatherManager

[Linus]

Name: WeatherManager
Summary: A (library?) mod that adds weather to Terasology.
Scope: Module
Dependencies: MarkovChains
Current Goals:

• Rendering weather

Implemented:

• Global temperate climate simulation,
  • cloudiness
  • wind and
  • downfall

Phase: Implementation
Curator: DizzyDragon

The end goal of this module is to add a weather state to the game world that dynamically changes over time in a believable fashion. It will provide sensor components to allow entities to perceive this state:

• cloudiness/sunlight sensor component
• wind sensor component
• downfall sensor component
• temperature sensor component

The perceived state of these sensors can depend on their location in the world.
The module will also take care of visualizing the weather.

Other modules can depend on this mod to make the weather affect the gameplay. For example, the windmills could be wind sensors, which would force the player to think about where to place them. Similarly, crops could depend on rain.
I would love to see ships with sails too.

 

[Cervator]

Cool sounding

With a broader world gen phase in place I figure something like the climate simulator from Nym Traveel could be the source of general temperature ranges?

Also suddenly made me think of recalculating the climate map once per season (fairly low occurrence) to allow world-affecting climate changes to take effect - such as a player leveling a mountain or filling the atmosphere with CO2 from heavy industry

Living world = win! Although this would still be pretty far along in the "neat but not super important right away" category I hope to see more of over time

 

[Linus]

I updated the post to reflect the current status of the mod.

 

[metouto]

My mind wonders a lot ..... but as I was reading this the one thing that I thought about was rainstorms/lighting and just plain heat lighting .... maybe not what you all are thinking about but ......

 

[Linus]

@metouto: Actually, the generator is already generating thunderstorms. However, untill I add some visual stuff, the only way to know whether or not you are in a thunderstorm is by reading the console output .

 

[Linus]

I experimented with a cloud shader, based on perlin noise on shadertoy:
clouds (imagine the density and precipitation values would be provided by the weather module).

Should be able to port it to Terasology and override the default sky-shader sometime.
Needs tweaking though, clouds are a bit flat at the moment.

 

[manu3d]

The link you provided seems to be broken! Also careful that the SkySphere, is heading toward a considerable overhaul to allow for a dynamic and interactive backdrop. I use the term "backdrop" rather than sky because the backdrop from my point of view does not include clouds, which are part of the world instead, but does include the color of the atmosphere. One thing that would be really useful in this context is to somehow work out how the SkySphere can be modularized, so that the current skysphere stays as the historical default but modules can completely override it. This way, for example, if somebody wants to do a proper hunger games arena it can add screens in the sky detailing who died, like in the movie. If you wanted to have a look at this issue while you work on the clouds, it'd be a very good thing to work out. No pressure though: only if you feel like it.