How to change season settings of a region in FS9?

[Engjell Berisha 1]

In places like lower New York, theres still snow on the ground late March and everything is all white. I find this very unrealistic, and I have to move the date up to mid-April or so to get the scenery all green. The truth is it's there is very little white in any part of March in lower New York especially Long Island in particular.What I want to do is change the setting that tells FS that in march to display the winter/snow ground textures. I would rather it display the green spring textures. Well I would rather it did a fallish texture that is more dead foliage or such and then late march/early april would be the green. That would be the most realistic, but I have no clue as to how to go about this. :( Any help would be much appreciated, I've searched the forums but this doesn't seem to be something others have posted about.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

It has, in fact, often been discussed, but the search function is not very precise in the forum system.All files created by Resample.exe are essentially the same: - a source file, often in RAW format, with the areas coded as desired; - an inf file containing georeferencing information and bgl creation instructions.To create a seasons file is basically the same as a land class file... except that you must provide a source for every month of the year. Of course, you can use the same source for any number of months that you wish, but the inf file will have an entry for every month and indicate a source file for it.For example, here is an inf file for a new seasons file for part of the Caribbean. There are only 2 source files since we do not have Fall, Winter, or Hard Winter here, fortunately.

[source]Type = MultisourceNumberOfSources =12[source1]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_winter.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 1[source2]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_winter.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 2[source3]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 3[source4]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 4[source5]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 5[source6]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 6[source7]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 7[source8]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 8[source9]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_summer.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 9[source10]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_winter.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 10[source11]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_winter.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 11[source12]Type = RawBandLayout = BSQnBands	= 1ByteOrder	 = IntelSampleType = UINT8Layer = SeasonSourceDir = "."SourceFile = "Caribbean_seasons_winter.raw"ulyMap = 22.5ulxMap = -90nCols = 257nRows = 257xDim = 0.1171875yDim = 0.087890625Month = 12[Destination]DestFileType = BGLDestDir = "."DestBaseFileName = "FSX_Hispaniola_seasons"UseSourceDimensions = 0NorthLat = 20.24SouthLat = 17.50WestLong = -74.50EastLong = -67.80

Simply place the source files (the RAW images) and the inf file in the same folder as Resample, drag the inf file and drop it over Resample, and a new seasons file is created that will be activated in the Scenery Library the usual way.You can create the RAW images in any tool that you normally use for land class creation, but using the values for the seasons that are: - 0 = Winter - 1 = Hard Winter - 2 = Spring - 3 = Summer - 4 = FallOnce you have created the source files, you can also have that tool generate the inf file for a land class file, then make some simple modifications to change it into a seasons file: - make it a multi-source file, add the 12 sources, and be sure to number the sources correctly - change Layer = Season - change DestBaseFileName to the name of the final seasons file that you wish.It is not particularly difficult to do this, although it will take you a little bit of time.Just for the record, in FS 9 seasons commence, I seem to remember, sometime around the 20th or so of the month, whereas in FS X they begin on the first of the month (call it an oversight - "bug").Best regards.Luis

[scott967 56]

You might want to take a look at an updated snow map for North America I did a few years ago http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=94527 using real-world data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Main shortfall of FS9 is that the resolution of the season data isn't too good, so it is hard for example to have snow on a high elevation but not lower down. But you can use the NSIDC data it is described here:http://nsidc.org/data/docs/noaa/g02156_ims_snow_ice_analysis/index.htmland the actual data (suggest using 4km resolution for FS) is here:ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02156/which as of today (3/27) is current (often a couple days lag in uploading). There's also a folder "GIS" on that site (wasn't there last I worked this data) which appears to be the 4km data in GeoTiff, which might be an easier format to work with (depending on any GIS software you might have). As Luis indicated, you have to live with identical season coverage for 20 Mar - 20 Apr, unless you create different bgl files and swap in the one you want to use manually (or possibly, using a batch file if you want to automate it).Note that ideally, you would want to have a complete set of season maps, Jan - Dec, but if you just swap in a season bgl as needed, you would only need the season map for the month in which you fly (or two if you fly over the 19th-20th of the month)scott s..

[Engjell Berisha 1]

Well Scott it seems you've done all the work for me, I will try out your file. Thank You very much!I'm afraid all the information you fellas have posted is slightly over my head, I'm not too caught up on scenery editing/design. Although I will try my best to learn how to implement what the two of you have provided me with. I am very thankful!