Weather? Day - Night Cycle?

Woldn't it be great if when we create a server we had an option to set the map's :

• - Weather (snow, rain, foggy, sunny, thunderstorm : with rain? [Yes/No], wind)

• - Time (day, night, noon, dusk)

• - Day - Night Cycle [Yes/No] (if map has day and night version)

I thought the weather added to the setting of each particular map. A dark, snowy LazeRazer just wouldn't seem right...

i can see a good reason for implementing this since the Helios Corp. does possess weather control technology.

but as Vortex said, maybe should limit which options each map can use coz i don't think snowing in egypt (where ever LazeRazor is) doesn't seem fit.

Being able to choose between playing during the current daytime setting each map already has and a new, nighttime setting complete with ballpark-style lights would be neat.

Heavy rain would be cool.

Have it at night time, and whenever someone juices, it's all of a sudden day time. Then night again when it ends. :lol:

On a more serious note, I wouldn't agree with heavy rain as that would really make the snipers' long range jobs too hard. Light drizzle could be a healthy cosmetic though.

What about custom maps?

EDIT : I thinked of using the exsisting day-night versions too, forgot to post about it.

we need mod tools

We need a 1 T cargo full of bacon, to corrupt uber and give it, to US!

MUHAHAHAHAHAhaha....if only.

Good idea...

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3453&p=39158&hilit=weather#p39158

Yep. Already thought of by XBox. Also, apparently not do-able, since it hasn't been done. Idk, perhaps they can for their favorite second child, the steam users.

Like I said before, I love reminding the PC section that their ideas have been done months ago. Reinventing the wheel, shows talent to figure it out for yourself, but is not anything new nonetheless.

Or it's simply not worth the trouble
Weather effects are easily possible in UE3 but I'm not sure if it's easy to change those effects each map load, especially if you want secondary effects upon the map itself(ie snow buildup, puddles, etc)

Might also be size restraints, if I remember right XBLA games can't be larger than 2GB and adding multiple weather effects might push that limit

I was saying that most people already complain that the "sky is black" with certain graphics cards. I may not know exactly how the game was programmed or runs, but I would say the sky is a static texture made not to change. To make weather would require every map to be remade with new settings and textures, or every map to be patched to run dynamic sky and weather script (like current fog) completely different. Probably not within range of possible for xbox.

Thus, why I said probable for steam.

Pretty much. The Skybox in UE is basically a texture that is kind of projected onto a dome sitting over/around the play area. It can be rigged to move(ex: UT's CTF-Face and remakes) but rigging it to change would take a bit more work depending on what you want to do(ie Night<->Day would be easier than Sunny->StormClouds+changing weather effects)
Ack, it seems the Skybox has been phased out in UE3 for the Skydome: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Building_A_SkyBox
I'm not sure how weather effects like Rain/Snow are done in UE3(I can't even remember for UE2.5) but I did find this on the UnrealWiki:
Real-time fully dynamic weather effects including rainy, snowy, windy, hail and cloudy with volumetrically and physically, interactivity in environments

Like you said, it would probably require a semi-overhaul of the maps. I do think it would be doable on the 360, but would probably require a physical disc

Mh..in Valve's hammer you had a 3D skybox, you placed the map inside that and you had a moving sky, yay. Isn't there a way to just make a trigger? to make it rain just in certain areas without having to remake the map by 0?

I loved messing with the skybox in gmod. The raveball in the skybox with some NPC's just made some wonderful giant dancing flashing combine.

Not sure how it would work in UE3 though, can you place entities in the skybox/dome?

If the skysphere can move (and is actually spherical, not just a dome...), simply make it big enough that the equator is a decent distance below the arena. Rotate it based on the day/night setting.

It would take more than just a rotating skysphere/dome as you'd have to adjust the lighting on the fly
No idea if UE3 still uses the Sunlight actor or not, but that was the main source of lighting/shadows in UE2.5 for outdoor levels and required some custom coding to allow dynamic color shifting

Or make separate maps? I'm sure the maps aren't too terribly big, and a skybox change + particle effects can't add too much more. However this would exclude the Xbox, but meh. (And in the server browser you could have the different versions of the maps show the same name )

My idea was to have the game load one time period per match, not switch during play. Lighting would only need to be set once. New lighting sets would have to be added to each map, of course.

Would be neat if the weather conditions were reflected by the weather at the location of the server.