Seasonal Textures

[Guest midibyte]

Why do areas like the western United States and various other areas look different when the seasons change? I live in Southern California and it looks pretty much the same year round. Heck, even sometimes it is greener during the winter months if it has been raining quite a bit. I was just doing a flight over Florida and it looks as brown as Pennsylvania. FScene textures and BEV offer no relief in my frustration in this. Is it just not possible because of texture usage to get this right? Any information would be appreciated.Scott

[Bob Scott 7,711]

I use Ruud Faber's FScene textures. Much, much better...but not perfect.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

[Guest]

you need a good landclass

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Yea I know what you mean - the terrain around Dubai & the rest of the MidEast is GREEN! :(You're flying over Jordan and it looks like Scotland down there!

[Guest midibyte]

Which landclass exactly doesn't turn So Cal brown, or Florida for that matter?SCott

[Bob Scott 7,711]

None are perfect, but I use Justin Tyme's (FSGenesis) landclass for the US. As for the rest of the world, you guys need to find your own Justin to deal with that stuff. :-)CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

[scott967 62]

Here is an approximate view of the US seasons for NovGreen=summerYellow=springGrey=WinterWhite=Hard Winterhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/133767.jpgMost of the US, except Arizona, is in texture zone B.scott s..

[Guest midibyte]

Holy cow. Man, that is what I am using. Doesn't make a difference. So Cal still turns brown. Same thing with Florida. I am thinking it has nothing to do with landclass at all.Scott

[michal 44]

I think it is combination of landclass and textures. Simply put it there isn't there yet a product that devlivers in terms of the proper view of the western US. I think folks at BEV recognize that and will be working on their own solution. This no longer should be such an impossible task - with Google Earth and NASA World Wind you can readily judge how well you are doing.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[Guest pixelpoke_from_MSFT]

Scott,FS has five "seasons" plus night. Those seasons are: SPring, SUmmer, FAll, WInter, and Hard Winter (snow).As another Scott in this thread posted (with the image), for each month in the FS world we have a seasonal map that defines what part of the world experiences a particular given season. The data for this map are derived from a variety of sources, and while not perfect, is a reasonable (if not a bit coarse) approximation of what happens in the real world (ie, Maine experiences fall at different times than, oh, say, Kansas).Not every texture set has a full range of seasons, but most do, if only so that colors blend better (evergreen forests are still green, but a different shade of green to better mesh with other textures).As others have said, you're a bit at the mercy of what the seasonal map claims the area is. Most of SoCal references textures that only have a summer, a winter, and a hard winter seasonal variant. If you want to be adventurous, you could try copying and renaming the SU variants to be WI variants instead. You could do this with any of the default files or 3rd party add-ons.The tiles it'd be best to rename would be: (all files end with a number from 1-7, like so: 002b2su3.bmp )002b2SU003b2SU011b2su030b2SU034b2SU038b2su046b2SU050b2SU051b2SU052b2su058b2su053b2suThat should about cover it (although I may have missed a couple). Cheers,Jason

[scott967 62]

I looked at some, and I don't see that much difference between summer and winter. The default land class has texture 030b2 in downtown LA, 051b2 in Santa Monica Mountains, and 003b2 in the high desert. All of these look pretty much the same to me anyway. Can't say for Florida.scott s..

[Guest pixelpoke_from_MSFT]

Scott,There *is* a difference, although I agree it can be subtle. The original Scott (who started this thread) sems to feel there's a (detrimental) difference, and that he'd like to get around it.Florida is a different case. :)Cheers,J

[Guest kurtj]

I would like to get Las Vegas to look brown all of the year. It looks white from Nov. 21st (something like that) to March 21st. I would like to get rid of the snow in Vegas so if anyone has a solution for this I would like to hear it. Thank You,

[Guest midibyte]

I just dont see why much of the western united states cant always call for summer textures, and florida as well. I swear I can go outside and take a picture and nobody could tell if it were January or July from the picture.

[Guest Kingair315]

Most who live in S. California, including me, cant tell the difference between summer and winter. Yes, it varies according to the rain, and foliage. On our lot, we have two orange trees and a lemon, and five fir trees, these are green year round, but irrigated.Then you do have rain in the fall and spring which has a little effect. Scenery for the FS, is created as an average. In S.CA, in the spring if you go to the desert, you see a dramatic difference in March or April. But, that may only last a week to a month, seldom longer, then it looks the same as before. If you go to the mountains, they also can be green year round, so there are seldom changes there.As a resident, it looks pretty much the same summer or winter and in farming areas, they have three crops a year, and so it is green year round.