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Lightning

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Lightning

Postby legoboyvdlp » Thu Sep 06, 2018 10:03 pm

Hi,
I don't think I've ever seen anything like this:

Image

Is the lightning bolt still simulated? I only seem to get in-cloud flashes, perhaps it broke along the way. Or maybe it is dependent on the various settings in the advanced weather dialog?

It also seems sometimes that the clouds load in too late, particularly if I have high visibility in the custom METAR string - as I move forwards I see clouds further away. Are clouds perhaps controlled by LOD?
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Re: Lightning

Postby wlbragg » Thu Sep 06, 2018 10:10 pm

Yes, I am still getting lightning! Advanced weather "Thunderstorm".
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Re: Lightning

Postby legoboyvdlp » Thu Sep 06, 2018 10:13 pm

Including the bolts - not just in-cloud lightning just to be sure? Maybe the screen update rate or frame rate are not high enough? Thanks for the help - was wondering about this.
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Re: Lightning

Postby wlbragg » Thu Sep 06, 2018 10:32 pm

Yeah, I tested it just now and am getting bolts. I am using fgdata that is maybe a week old and fgfs maybe a few weeks old?
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Re: Lightning

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Sep 07, 2018 1:06 pm

a few weeks ago i was flying and it was storming outside... i was seeing flashes and hearing thunder outside... it was really weird and surreal... suddenly i realized that i was seeing lightning in-sim and the thunder was real and outside... that's when i asked, either here in the forum or on the mailing list, if the thunder sounds were in the sim now or if they were still controlled craft side... since i was in the UFO, i wasn't hearing the thunder in-sim because it doesn't know about it like the c172p does... if/when thunder is added and controlled in-sim by the weather engine, that'll be a great thing because then it won't matter what craft you are in when lightning strikes and thunder rolls...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Lightning

Postby Thorsten » Fri Sep 07, 2018 1:08 pm

that'll be a great thing because then it won't matter what craft you are in when lightning strikes and thunder rolls...


It does matter though... the Shuttle cockpit is sound-proofed to keep the hearing of astronauts intact during launch - you wouldn't hear a thing. In an old all-metal bird, it'd get all sorts of interesting echo and reverb.
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Re: Lightning

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Sep 07, 2018 1:15 pm

well, yeah but still the sound could be routed through a "pipe" into the craft's sound controller so... geez... that's really starting to bite because it still puts the sound control in the craft... there's got to be a way... RL has all kinds of sounds that are heard all the time but when you get into a building or vehicle, those sounds are muffled or eliminated or overridden by other closer local sounds in the building or vehicle... there's gotta be a way because even taking the walker out by itself without any craft loaded should allow thunder and rain falling to be heard...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Lightning

Postby Thorsten » Fri Sep 07, 2018 1:18 pm

Environment sounds are one of the areas where there's just no one working on it. I have a huge collection of them for movie-making purposes, a subset of them in public domain which could be used 'as is' and even the idea of dynamically letting FG assemble a picture what kind of terrain you are in (and hence what ambience would do) - but no time to do anything about anything.

I think for 95% of situations, giving complete sound control to the aircraft but storing the wav files centrally with FGData is not a bad idea - it's true that the sound environment would be richest when you're out with the walker, but honestly, most of the time I am not.
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Re: Lightning

Postby Mihajlo » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:34 pm

Since Thorsten wants this to be realistic (hence the reason why it's aircraft dependent), but so far it hasn't materialized and some people want a thunder sound maybe the compromise would be to have a thunder sound whenever you select any external view (not just the walker) and when you are inside the aircraft it plays a different customized or muted sound for that aircraft or no sound like for the shuttle. In x-plane for example you have the same sound regardless of position and aircraft, so I could hear thunder sound from 35000 ft inside the cockpit which is not realistic, so I understand why it should be aircraft dependent, but having no sound even outside the aircraft is not ideal either. So my reasoning is that it's better to at least have a sound outside that's independent of any aircraft than nothing. It's also realistic.
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Re: Lightning

Postby Thorsten » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:47 pm

Since Thorsten wants this to be realistic (hence the reason why it's aircraft dependent), but so far it hasn't materialized and some people want a thunder sound maybe the compromise would be to have a thunder sound whenever you select any external view


No, the reason it hasn't materialized has nothing to do with my ideas about realism - simply nobody has worked on an FG-wide environment sound system. So we can make whatever compromise we want, but as long as nobody starts working on it, it won't happen, and when somebody starts working on it it'll be as that someone designs.
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Re: Lightning

Postby Mihajlo » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:59 pm

I wasn't implying that this hasn't materialized because of your ideas about realism. I was just suggesting that maybe for starters it would be better to at least have the sound outside the aircraft than nothing all. It can be just a simple thunder sound outside the aircraft. It doesn't have to be anything fancy like a FG-wide environment system. x-plane has a simple thunder sound that's not environment dependent. Personally I would be perfectly happy with this (though I wouldn't mind having something better) , but even something simpler like this may not get implemented, which is evident from the number of aircraft that currently have thunder sound, so I get your point.
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Re: Lightning

Postby Thorsten » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:30 pm

It can be just a simple thunder sound outside the aircraft.


If that's not residing aircraft-side, you need an FG-wide environment sound system to play it. Which we don't have.
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Re: Lightning

Postby Mihajlo » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:36 pm

So no easy way out. Too bad. I guess if there was an easy way someone would have implemented it by now, though of course other factors also contribute to this, so this is likely not the only reason.
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Re: Lightning

Postby legoboyvdlp » Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:41 pm

The cloud gets illuminated like this:

Image
but I have yet to see any bolts or rain shafts.
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Re: Lightning

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:48 pm

you should have flown to KRDU using AW when Hurricane Florence was around... some of my simulation had lightning and you could see rain shafts in the distance... one can also set the stormy weather options and get quite a thrill... i used to get the c172p tossed up on the terminal building at KSFO when the lightning stuff was added and i was using the stormiest weather setting available...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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