Killer dynamic weather

I was just thinking about the potential for future weather systems in on-line racing and it struck me, nearly all circuits have their own weather systems that feed into weather stations and collections via satellite or internet feeds, but basically information is available via institutions like the met office around the world in near enough real time as data feeds. Plus if a circuit doesn't have this the weather forecasting system can be used instead as a less accurate way but a way none the less.

EA already use data feeds in their games to dynamically update and display relevant and time sensitive ads. The same premise could be used to offer weather options and settings, like:

Day, Wet, Day, Night, hot, cold, windy, icy etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, or any combination of. (user set)
Dynamic (system controlled - automatic)
Real time location base (i.e where you are situated according to your profile either in offline career or as an on-line lobby host)
Real time circuit based (i.e. the circuit weather as it is, including time of day / night, temp, wind etc..)
Real Historical (want to do a career or on-line race at Le Mans in classic cars from 1996?? How about the historical weather and daylight/night time settings, temp, wind as it happened!!!)

IT'S THE NEXT STEP ;O) Surely?

I think this pretty much is.

Now imagine Shift 2 with a dynamic weather...

Hopefully this is one of the things they are keeping secret because this is something that would probably take a lot of time getting each track to feel right under each condition. I've seen the live weather system in action while playing Madden NFL 11 and it uses a system that really only follows what's going on in the USA since that's where all the games are, it'd be interesting to see how they did something like that on a global scale.

I was actually thinking about this the other day!

You are sitting driving around Le Mans. There are clouds coming overhead out your window in the corner of your eye, and the game mimics the real weather where you are.

nickyf1 wrote:I was actually thinking about this the other day!

You are sitting driving around Le Mans. There are clouds coming overhead out your window in the corner of your eye, and the game mimics the real weather where you are.

unless it's blizzard's

This would be really cool except for anyone who's trying to do any kind of serious online racing (aka TORA). It'd be unfair to have a rain in Lobby A and no rain in Lobby B unless there was some way to manually adjust how much rain there is, where it comes from, and when it arrives & leaves.

Good point.

Has anybody driven around the behemoth version of Nurburgring (GP and Nordschleife combined) with snow on it in PGR4? So much fun.

Stonewall458 wrote:This would be really cool except for anyone who's trying to do any kind of serious online racing (aka TORA). It'd be unfair to have a rain in Lobby A and no rain in Lobby B unless there was some way to manually adjust how much rain there is, where it comes from, and when it arrives & leaves.

New option to add.

SPAN LOBBIES - Yes / No.

This also crosses over into another area I was thinking about; Lobby grouping for multiple on-line lobby races. Many things up in the air on my thoughts over this, there are many requirements and several options and ways of proposing this, each with its own constraints and compromises ;O(

Although the likelihood of needing more than one lobby in something like Forza 4 is low since it has 16 player lobbies.

depends where you race!!! Here, you are most probably right ;O(

Was thinking today how much space would the forza3 lighting system take up compared to the new forza 4 lighting system,My guess and it is a guess is that the new F4 systemwould take a lot less space,hence leaving space for dynamic weather.

AAR FACEPALMER wrote:Good point.

Has anybody driven around the behemoth version of Nurburgring (GP and Nordschleife combined) with snow on it in PGR4? So much fun.

On Bikes in the snow around Behemout OMg so much fun.

Any way Yes Dynamic weather is the way to go to simulate real life weather patterns from today or histroy would be amazing, I dont expect to see anythink like this until the next xbox etc.

Graphically and engine wise the xbox couldnt handle anythink like this at the momment but in terms of looking forward its fantastic

I remember playing a game on the PC years ago that used previous weather at the circuit and created the same weather pattern in game. I'm sure it was GP3 or 4, but I really can't remember.

I still can't believe that weather in general isn't a standard in all racing games these days. Years ago we had dynamic weather in PC games and we had wet races in the old TOCA PS1 games. What are they doing?

Focusing too much on bells and whistles is what they are doing.

dumbing for the masses

bump.

something like this is going to have to come into play, dynamic weather maybe but at the very least there will be rain...

now i think that's going to open the door into changing tire compounds mid game. but that's a different conversation entirely...

but will there be different kinds of rain? light--->moderate---> Downpour

maybe there will be a moderation kind of thing where it toggles back and forth a few times between each category over the course of a race. (and sometimes not even rain at all...or dry up with a dry line...everyone comes in for slick just to have the whole thing then be soaked by a downpour ...

that'd be brilliant.

+1000000

makes me miss F1 2011 (I don't have F1 2012 yet)

The only thing the latest F1 games got right was the weather. GP3/4 on the PC had the best weather I have seen and those games are so old now. I really do hope the next generation of consoles allows for changeable weather.

F1:CE had great weather effects and implementation. Its the only game beside GT5 that has true dynamic weather that has good enough graphics to be able to actually perceive the change in weather and how long good or bad weather will last. Weather also does not go in cycles... For instance,
sunny>>cloudy>light rain>> rain>> heavy rain
on F1 CE and GT5
sunny>>cloudy>>lt rain>>cloudy>>lt rain>>cloudy>>sunny

GT5's weather had really inconsistent effects on track conditions. I remember doing on an F1 race at Suzuka and it started to rain. Pitted for wets but when I get back on track there isn't any grip, and I lost about 9 positions. Pitted for softs and proceeded to do laps times that were 2+ seconds faster than my previous best, all while throwing up huge amounts of spray from the standing water.

I think certain games (Forza) there isn't even a basic level of day/night wet/dry anywhere to be seen. That would really be the first stage, and then work from there.

360 cant handle realistic weather and lighting models.

PC games now and using realistic lighting and weather correctly.

What is different is getting the game engine to lets say you get a temperature decrease when it rains decreases grip but how much what part of the tyre for example is affected and you then see a line drying up on the track what is the temperature difference between this part of the track and the wet side.

There is a long way to go yet.

I highly doubt we will see realistic weather but should see Day Night Racing on forza 5 with a weather system.

Even if it IS present in the next edition, we'd have to either switch it off completely, or stick to one weather type, imagine multiple lobbies with "random" or "dynamic" weather in each, one lobby would probably have rain starting to fall say halfway through the race while the second lobby down would remain dry, it would wreak havoc with the live timing and some drivers and teams would no doubt kick off about it...

Very true, it would have to be 'Sunny/Dr' or 'Wet' with no real inbetween.

unless lobbies can cope 100 cars around the ring of which they should using new specs