Seasons in P3D

[kielsf4]

During the winter months when the weather doesn't permit flying too often I like to log some hours in P3D. I appreciate the progress P3Dv4.1 gave us but there is still lots of room for improvement in my opinion.
One thing that's bothering me is the way seasons are simulated.
It was around 10°C OAT when I took both photos on Jan 2nd. Unfortunately in P3D the snow on the ground is hardcoded to the date, so it doesn't matter wether it's plus or minus 10°C.
While snow of course is not directly linked to the temperature either I think simulating it that way would be the better solution.
What are your thoughts on this?

[Oracle427]

If temp were the case, then I would see snow all around here, when it should not be the case. Tennis this winter have routinely been -10C.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that will require input that is not available from anywhere I know. Is there a source of snow ground cover in a forecast area that could be plugged into a weather engine?

This logic would need to asking for regional effects of lakes, oceans, predominant winds/air mass type, etc. Not very easy to do without a source for all that data. Switching to temp based may alter the behavior, but still be incorrect just as often.

This is the same reason why an icing simulation remains elusive.

[Nick - A2A]

Tennis this winter have routinely been -10C.

That's some hardcore sporting action Oracle! Surely frozen balls become an issue at some point?

Autocorrect again, methinks? I just can't bring myself to ignore gems like that.

[kielsf4]

That's true, it would be nearly impossible to implement regional differences correctly in either case.

[Oracle427]

Gah, Samsung why do you hate me so much?

[MarcE]

The top left picture is BEAUTIFUL!!

What are your thoughts on this?

I currently (Southern Germany hardcore winter at 13°C, only the bees are missing) set my sim to november.. the day/night hours are similar but the textures are brown...

[kielsf4]

The top left picture is BEAUTIFUL!!

What are your thoughts on this?

I currently (Southern Germany hardcore winter at 13°C, only the bees are missing) set my sim to november.. the day/night hours are similar but the textures are brown...

Danke It's the "Kieler Förde".
That's the workaround I use as well, not ideal but better than looking at a winter wonderland while the temps are in the double digits.

[AKar]

Do you use any scenery addons? I understand these modify the dates the seasons are applied. At least Orbx regions do, albeit it is far from perfect still.

-Esa

[kielsf4]

Do you use any scenery addons? I understand these modify the dates the seasons are applied. At least Orbx regions do, albeit it is far from perfect still.

-Esa

Yes, the screenshots are in the area of FTX Germany North. The hard cut is from Dec 31st to Jan 1st.

[crippy]

I interestingly have the opposite problem. In Arkansas (USA) at KFYV I actually had to switch to a summer day to re-assure my self the scenery was set on Winter

[MartN]

Actually these are very beautiful pictures, both upper and lower...

[Lewis - A2A]

I will admit I do tend to stick to spring and summer in the sim for over here in the UK.

thanks,
Lewis

[shortspecialbus]

Goodness, I didn't scroll down far enough for the bottom pictures and I was about to ask what on earth you did to your sim to make it look so astonishingly good.

Then I saw the bottom pictures and remembered we still have so far to go, haha. As far as it goes, I agree with the poster who says to adjust the date to get the snow cover to be correct, back to November or whatever. However I only ever bother with this when flying in the area I live, where I know what the cover is like, which I admittedly don't do very often because I only have the ORBX Global stuff here, and I don't think that'll change anytime soon. Upper Midwest really isn't a scenery hotspot that developers just can't wait to model, sadly.

-stefan

[bladerunner900]

I will admit I do tend to stick to spring and summer in the sim for over here in the UK.

thanks,
Lewis

Same for me. It's 9° outside and a bright sunny day. The hills are green and the leaves are brown. P3D and ORBX would have it all covered in snow but we haven't seen snow here on the coast for a couple of years now. Sometimes I use autumn as well, depending on the weather.

Steve.