Weather

Link to TES4 Construction Set Wiki: Weather

Weather Dialog

To the left side of the Weather window, all Weather objects are listed by Editor ID. By right clicking in the list, you can add or duplicate a Weather object. The Weather data fields are broken up onto four different tabs: General, Precipitation, Sound and HDR.

General Tab

Choose Colors

• Type:
  • Ambient - An underlying color for the scene.
  • Cloud Layer - The color of the cloud layer.
  • Fog - Fog color. This also adjusts the color of water reflections.
  • Horizon - The color of the sky at the horizon.
  • Sky (Lower/Upper) - The color of the sky at lower and upper levels.
    • Horizon color blends into lower sky color and lower sky color blends into upper sky color.
  • Stars - The color of the stars.
  • Sun - The color of the sun disc.
  • Sunlight - The color of the sunlight. This is the directional light color for the scene.
• Time:
  • Day - The color of the specified component during the daytime.
  • Night - The color of the specified component at nighttime.
  • Sunrise - The color of the specified component at sunrise.
  • Sunset - The color of the specified component at sunset.
    • See climates page on how to define these times of day.
• Components
  • Specify red, green, and blue components of this color by typing in the values you want or using the spinners.
  • Use the "select color" button for a more graphical color selection interface.
  • Use copy/paste buttons to duplicate colors from one type/time to another.

Fog Distances: Specify near and far clip planes for fog during different times of day. These also affect how water reflects the fog color.

• Near: The distance at which objects should begin to display fog effects.
• Far: The distance at which fog effects should achieve full opacity.
• Pow: The strength or opaqueness of the fog. Fog effects are calculated as a curve. A value of 1 is linear, less that one pushes the curve toward the near value, and a value above 1 pushes the curve toward the far value.
• Note that typical values for near planes range between 900 and 1200 game units; far planes between 10,000 and 250,000. Fog distances are generally smaller at night.

ImageSpace Modifier: Editor ID of the IS mod that is used by the weather type.

• Note that ImageSpace Modifiers are associated with time of day. A different modifier may be associated with Day, Night, Sunrise, and Sunset.

Cloud Textures: Modifies the texture used and the cloud speed for multiple layers.

• Layer: Selects which cloud layer to make changes to.
• Cloud Speed: Selects the speed the clouds move on the current layer.
• Unnamed text field: Filename of texture (.dds) for current layer.

Sliders

• Wind Speed: How windy it is. Affects cloud and tree movement.
• Trans Delta: In game hours, how long it takes to fully transition into this weather type once a transition begins.
• Sun Glare: How much glare there is around the sun disc.
• Sun Damage: How much damage the sun does to vampires during daytime hours.

Precipitation Tab

Precipitation

• Unnamed text field: Filename of precipitation model (.NIF).
• Begin Fade In: Slider specifies the point in time along a transition into this weather type when particles will begin to enter the scene.
  • Ex-> A value of 0.8 means that you will begin seeing precipitation particles after this weather is 80% transitioned in.
• End Fade Out: Slider specifies the point in time along a transition out of this weather type when particles will no longer appear in the scene.
  • Ex-> A value of 0.2 means that you will no longer see precipitation once a transition out of this weather type into another one is 20% complete.

Thunder/Lightning

• Begin Fade In: Slider specifies the point in time along a transition into this weather type when particles will begin to enter the scene.
  • Ex-> A value of 0.8 means that you will begin seeing precipitation particles after this weather is 80% transitioned in.
• End Fade Out: Slider specifies the point in time along a transition out of this weather type when particles will no longer appear in the scene.
  • Ex-> A value of 0.2 means that you will no longer see precipitation once a transition out of this weather type into another one is 20% complete.
• Frequency: Slider determines how frequently you will see thunder/lightning.

Weather Classification: Choose the appropriate classification for this weather type. This will affect things such as water surfaces, NPC dialogue, and other game logic.

Lightning Color: Choose a color for lightning flashes.

Sound Tab

• The list box defines every sound associated with this weather type.
• Drag and drop sounds from the object window (Miscellaneous/Sound) into this list box.
• Double click a sound to toggle its type. Wind and precipitation sounds play as looping sounds while thunder sounds will play as a one-time sound when a lightning strike is initiated by the system.
• To delete a sound, right-click the sound and select delete.

HDR Tab

• No longer used. ImageSpace Modifiers are used instead.

See Also

Climate