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ENAT - fully covered in snow


Tom_L

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I know there are limitations when it comes to snow coverage of surfaces in MSFS, but I also know (by just looking at the freeware LSZS) they can be overcome. That said, I feel the ENAT scenery is pretty unrealistic as the norwegian airport operators are very well prepared for snowy weather and are able to clear the airport surfaces even in the most adverse conditions. The more I dislike this airport fully covered in snow even outside snowy weather - it simply is highly unrealistic. I sincerely hope these issues can be overcome.

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Vor 1 Stunde, mopperle sagte:

Can you show a screenshot of what you mean?

See post above. Notice there's a dark patch, that's a snow-free surface, whereas every other part of the airport is covered in more or less solid white. I'd rather have all surfaces totally clear if it's not possible to achieve an in-between solution as that would make the scenery more believable. I know it's not easily done, but as I said some freeware developers (LSZS) have achieved convincing results.

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

Have you ever been at Alta during hard winter?

I have not been there, but I have been at other Norwegian airports in Janauray and February. Last year I have been at Bodø and I can tell you we had snow covered runways on our arrival (14. Feb.). So what you see might not be unrealistic.

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vor 17 Minuten, mopperle sagte:

So what you see might not be unrealistic.

The screenshot is from today with live weather. Here's a webcam view from a few minutes ago. I think you can have snow covered runways on any airport in Norway if there's actual or recent snowfall - no doubt. But I also think ALL airport operators in the world are eager to clean at least the runways asap in order to maintain safe operation. So having an airport in MSFS that displays a solid snow coverage whenever Meteoblue data suggests there's snow coverage in the area is the obvious, but not the best effort. And btw: I scrolled the timeline for the webcam and the airport surfaces were always clear even if there seem to have been the occasional snow shower.

 

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

There is another big difference between your MFS screenshot and te picture from the webcam. Maybe you can find it.

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Hi guys, we were aware of the "issue" in beta testing already. Here is the deal:

 

If you use a snow coverage of like 10-20cm you get a decent result. If it's higher you get the full coverage. MSFS calculates that based on the ground surface color. The darker it is the less snow it will have. That's why one apron part is not covered at all.

 

10cm

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20cm

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We already discussed that with Asobo and they evaluate an SDK extension so we can take control over things like this.

 

Now if that's a real showstopper to you we can generate darker ground textures for you. However if the snow is vanished (which will hopefully happen soon ;) ) it will definitely look wrong. Up to you :)

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Vor 1 Stunde, Marten sagte:

Now if that's a real showstopper to you we can generate darker ground textures for you. However if the snow is vanished (which will hopefully happen soon ;) ) it will definitely look wrong. Up to you :)

 

who knows when this will happen that far north :). What about putting this in a configurator, so the user can decide himself ?

 

Mike

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vor 13 Minuten, Mikealpha sagte:

What about putting this in a configurator, so the user can decide himself ?

Although I think there's issues with configurators in MSFS as well I'd like to support this proposal, as for users like me that prefer live weather can't influence the snow coverage.

 

Vor 1 Stunde, Marten sagte:

Here is the deal:

Thank you for the information, the 10cm or 20cm is looking great. I like your Alta as I generally like flying in Norway due to the interesting landscape. I'm fine with the satus quo due to the upcoming summer season but I would be glad if you could keep an eye on the "issue" as after every summer there will be a winter :-). And using live weather seems to be a bit of a lottery when it comes to snow coverage. See above...

Btw.: the developer of the freeware LSZS version mentioned changing the "taxiway, apron and runway shaders to obtain a more realistic effect with the snow". So maybe there's a third way....?

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vor 8 Stunden , Tom_L sagte:

"taxiway, apron and runway shaders to obtain a more realistic effect with the snow"

 

Most likely that's just a marketing slogan. You can't change the shaders in MSFS its a totally locked up system. But changing colors of the texture does the trick for sure ;)

 

Different scenery options are not supported by Microsoft (yet?).

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vor 15 Stunden , Marten sagte:

Different scenery options are not supported by Microsoft (yet?).

 

Oh, that's surprising, but I was already wondering why no MSFS scenery contains any configurator. So if you change textures in the Community folder, MSFS does not consider it at the next start ?

 

Mike

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Hello 
 

I would like to go into the problem of snow again. I have made two runway textures very dark as a test. These are not covered with snow as you can see. It is a technical problem of the MS2020. This is where Asobo comes in.

For the time being, we at Stairport Sceneries can only offer to create a slightly darker texture pack, which can then be exchanged manually by everyone. 

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Andreas

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Vor 1 Stunde, Mikealpha sagte:

 

Oh, that's surprising, but I was already wondering why no MSFS scenery contains any configurator. So if you change textures in the Community folder, MSFS does not consider it at the next start ?

 

Mike

 

Well you talked about a configurator like a seperate application to change textures. That won't work as Microsoft won't allow to ship that application. But you can obviously change textures manually by copying them into the corresponding folders. That's what we offer here :)

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@Marten, @eddp,

Guys, I highly appreciate your efforts, thank you. I admit I was under the impression (considering the statement of the freeware developer shader changes could make a difference) you didn't exploit what is possible in the current state of the sim - I probably was wrong!

As to your suggestion of darker textures: Well, I could think of an option at installation whether we have the choice of unrealistic, but cleared surfaces or not. However, I think when it comes to live weather more seems to be involved. Yesterday in ENAT there was a coverage of around only 5 cm (more or less - I used the color coded charts from their website) for the area according to Meteoblue data, nonetheless the airport surface was covered in solid snow too, using live weather.  So there seems to be settings within live weather that probably have to be considered. As live weather testing is time consuming - obviously - I'm not sure I will come up with any conclusion any time soon. Just wanted to say....

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vor 3 Stunden , Marten sagte:

 

Well you talked about a configurator like a seperate application to change textures. That won't work as Microsoft won't allow to ship that application. But you can obviously change textures manually by copying them into the corresponding folders. That's what we offer here :)

 

oh, Ok, thanks for the information. Then just making textures available here would be certainly a much appreciated compromise !

 

Mike

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I will carry out further tests to achieve satisfactory results. It will take some time, however, as it runs on the principle of trial and error and the Flusi has to be reloaded after every change. 

 

Andreas

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vor 5 Stunden , Tom_L sagte:

@Marten, @eddp there seems to be settings within live weather that probably have to be considered. 

 

Probably it's somewhat dynamic. If the engine defines snow falling for ENAT for like 5 hours snow will automatically build up. I experienced that in another situation. Same (reversed) logic with wet ground effects. They stay for a certain time even if the rain has stopped. 

 

Comparing it with the actual real world weather you will loose the game anyway :D

 

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  • 7 months later...

Hello @Tom_L

The textures have been changed so that the airport is no longer completely snowed in. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that Alta is in the far north.  Reference was 50% snow. The update will be released together with the altitude fix in the next days.

 

Best regards

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