GTR2 Weather

Weather.txt

• Weather.txt is in UserData\Log
• It is automatically generated every race session
• To prevent it from being re-generated, set it read-only: Right Click > Properties > Attributes: Read-only
• Game generated weather.txt files are pretty boring and rarely exhibit any changing weather, even when Changeable weather is set in-game
• Use an app like Autosim Weather Generator for GTR2 to generate more plausible weather scenarios. It has a rather nice and intuitive visual, drag-and-drop style interface that anyone can grasp.

Autosim Weather Generator:

(1) Autosim Weather Generator Demonstration, (2) Using the Autosim generated weather.txt in GTR2:

Changeable Weather

• Setting Rain to Changeable in-game is the only setting which will use Weather.txt

Threads

• Efforts to create weather file sets like we create new sky sets?
  • "Has there ever been an effort to create weather.txt files for all the kinds of weather conditions, something like how various people over the years have made sky textures for all the kinds of weather conditions?"
• Weather files?
• GTR2 not reading or generating weather.txt
• Changeable Weather Problem
• Cloudy skies, Rainy days in GTR2
• can't really see the dry line after a rain
  • "you need to wait around 8 laps then you will see what is shown on screenshots"
  • "What I still wonder ... does the track really gets dry after rain finally ?" [1]
    • "yes the track does indeed get dry but it takes some time but the more wet the track is the faster it will dry out..."
• Rainfall Settings Observations
  • List of Rainfall, Track, Ambient, Conditions, Forecast, Tyres Autoselected at various rain levels
• Off course there are dry and wet paths in the AIW files!
  • "At least in all base tracks from Simbin. It is defined as Lateral Offsets in the WP_path. First parameters are dry path and second are wet path."
• Revisiting the Changing Weather Patch Mod
  • "Problem: Temperance variance too wide: Can be 10C Ambient and 20C Track or 30C+ Ambient 40C+ Track"
  • "Problem: Temperature doesn't go up during the day and down during the night"
  • "Problem: Temperature doesn't go down with rain meaning wet tires overheat on a wet track because the track temperature doesn't go down being wet"
  • "Theory: I don't think these problems are solvable but a good work-around might be to replace the UserData\LOG\weather.txt with a 'good all-round' weather file that can address the first two issues (I think)."
  • "Modifying Average rain = 0.x to a higher value just gave me higher chance of constant rain. Think it just a multiplier of chance of a rain day?"
  • Hex edit EXE to enable changeable weather broken in Steam GTR2
• How to make a dynamic weather during race sessions in GTR2?
  • Weather files explained - NoGripRacing Forums

Apps

• Autosim Weather Generator for GTR2
• Weather Generator for GTR2
• Weatherfile Generator for GTR2 2.3

Car Setups

• Nissan 350Z - Monza (100% Rain)
• Porsche 911 Bi-Turbo - Monza (100% Rain)
• Mosler MT900 - Monza (100% Rain)
• Gillet Vertigo Streiff - Spa

Modding

• Simple Tire Modding for GTR 2

Related

• RFE Weather - RFE Plugin Series 1.1 for rFactor
  • RFE Update for rFactor Default Tracks 1.2
    • Sardian Heights RFE 2.1 - Sardian Heights RFE pista convertida para o plugin weather.
    • Lienz GP RFE 2.1 - Lienz GP RFE convertido para plugin weather
    • F1 1988 Track Pack RFE - All featuring season accurate laps, weather, and grids, complete with the RFE weather plugin to provide the best possible experience.
    • Toban Raceway RFE - Unofficial conversion of the Toban Raceway track to "Plugin RFE Weather" adding weather effects.
    • More Race Department "weather" search results for rFactor downloads

Shovas's Weather Scratchpad

weather.txt

File Structure and Syntax:
- Use spaces not tabs
- Use space indents to be safe and to be consistent with original weather.txt
- Check brackets
- End with empty blank line

Troubleshooting:
- Ensure Rainfall Changeable in-game
- Symptom: Conditions/Forecast Icons stop working reliably.
  - Advice: Check file structure and syntax

TBD: Forecast is the last minute of the session for Practice1 45min(?)
- I don't think so. It might be something like the next Conditions change (eg. Sunny to Rainy or Rainy to Stormy or any sequential combo of those)
  - There may be something weird about 'minimum threshold of change' to update the Forecast icon
- Race 60min: Forecast is Minute 1
  - Race is special: Time is stopped until you start race, then you can't get back to the timing screen with the weather forecast
  - Any Minute with a different Conditions?
  
Are HAT files caching weather file data and we might need to enable rebuilding? -->
- Always Rebuild HAT="1" // Build HAT database everytime tracks are loaded (for development purposes)
- Nope, still happens

Minute{} Blocks:
- Must specify numeric minute Minute=1.23, not just "Minute" or else GTR2 seems to think the last Minute is the initial conditions and the other Minutes are ignored 
- Minute=0.00{} is the initial conditions / It appears to be skipped / Must start with Minute > 0 or higher  (Minute=0.10 works)

Rainfall (in-game):
- Rainfall is not the same as Conditions
- No, doesn't seem to be: Does Rainfall specify max Conditions? Ex. Rainfall 80% means max Conditions=80?
- Rainfall:
  - Can't test because Rainfall < Changeable doesn't generate weather.txt
	Rainfall:	Track,		Conditions,				Forecast
	None: 		Dry,		Sunny,					Sunny
	10%:  		Damp, 		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	20%:  		Damp, 		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	30%:  		Damp, 		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	40%:  		Wet,		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	50%:  		Wet,		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	60%:  		Wet,		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	70%:  		Wet,		Cloudy w/Rain,			Cloudy w/Rain
	80%:  		Flooded,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm
	90%:  		Flooded,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm
	100%: 		Flooded,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm,	Cloudy w/Thunderstorm

Session:
- Weather start offset by 30sec in sessions? Something's going on with a delay...

Temperature:
- Default Temperature Progression: Ambient 20+, Track: 22+

Conditions Icon (Conditions: Sunny/Rainy/Stormy):
- Conditions is not the same as Rainfall in-game
- Confirmed 240318: 
	0-61 Sunny (Sun)
	62-90 Rainy (Cloud w/Rain)
	91-100 Stormy (Cloud w/Rain and Lightning)

Forecast Icon (Conditions: Sunny/Rainy/Stormy):
- Requires Minute{} block
- When no Minute{} blocks are specified or if there are no more Minute{} blocks remaining then Forecast seems to be the next closest dry/wet level (not sure if it goes up or down or why)
  - Maybe it assumes a return to initial session conditions
    - This seems to be confirmed 240319
- Forecast seems to change 30sec ahead of Minute{} with the change or maybe it's 1 Minute{} block ahead
- Confirmed 240318
	0-61 Sunny (Sun)
	62-90 Rainy (Cloud w/Rain)
	91-100 Stormy (Cloud w/Rain and Lightning)

Track Wetness (Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded):
- Track wetness based on fixed Conditions (Confirmed 240318)
  - TODO: Confirm these do or do not progress over time (ex. 5 Dry eventually becomes 6 Damp?)
	0-5 Dry
	6-35 Damp
	36-75 Wet
	76-100 Flooded
- Track wetness (Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded) is not the same as Conditions (Sunny/Rainy/Storm)
- Track wetness does not progress (drier or wetter) by On/OffPathWetness in Minute{} progression.
  - It seems to be based on time, Conditions, temperature, and number of laps (the more AI the faster)
- Track wetness floods dynamically based on Conditions and un-floods dynamically
  - Dry->damp_>wet->flooded—>wet->damp-dry:
    - 20C Amb 30C Track
    - 90min Practice:
	  - 0 AI 40min still flooded, ...
	  - 1 AI 40min still flooded, ...
	  - 10 AI 30min flooded->wet, ...
	  - 20 AI 20min flooded->wet, ...
	  - 29 AI 15min flooded->wet, never dry
	- 180min Practice:
      - Damp ~65:00 (-115min)
    - 300min practice 
      - Wet 285:00 (-15min)
      - Damp 185:00 (-115min)
    - 600min practice 1
	  - 29 AI
	  - Cars stop lapping 485:00 (-115min)
	  - Wet 585:00 (-15min)
	  - Damp 486:00 (-114min)
	  - Dry ~275:00 (-325min)
	- 600min practice 2
	  - 3 AI
	  - Cars stop lapping 515:00 (-85min)
	  - Wet 548:00 (-52min)
	  - Damp 472:00 (-128min)
	  - Dry 253:00 (-347min)
	- 600min practice 3
	  - 0 AI
	  - Cars stop lapping  N/A
	  - Wet 515:00 (-85min)
	  - Damp 393:00 (-207min)
	  - Dry 248:00 (-352min)
    - Start Flooded > Wet (Minute 0.10)
      - 600min Practice, 0 AI
      - Wet 516 0C
	  - Wet 541 10C
	  - Wet 552 20C
	  - Wet 564 30C
	  - Wet 568 40C
	  - Wet 573 50C
- Flooded Time to Wet by AI Count and Temperature
  - Starts Flooded, and immediately dries out at Minute=0.10{}
  - 600min Practice
    - 0 AI
	  - Wet 516 0C
	  - Wet 541 10C
 	  -  Wet 552 20C
	  - Wet 564 30C
	  - Wet 568 40C
	  - Wet 573 50C
    - 10 AI
      - Wet 584 0C
      - Wet 584 10C
      - Wet 586 20C
      - Wet 587 30C
      - Wet 587 40C
      - Wet 588 50C
    - 20 AI
      - Wet 588 0C
      - Wet 587 10C
      - Wet 587 20C
      - Wet 588 30C
      - Wet 588 40C
      - Wet 589 50C
    - 29 AI
      - Wet 590 0C
      - Wet 590 10C
      - Wet 591 20C
      - Wet 591 30C
      - Wet 591 40C
      - Wet 591 50C
- Nope: I bet I could include and progress any of the parameters inside Minute{} blocks (eg. OnPathWetness, OffPathWetness)
  ^ Scratched: Wetness does not seem to progress in Minute{} blocks.
    - But Wetness does progress so it seems it's a function of time-conditions-temperature and those do progress in Minute{} blocks

Real Time Weather and Time Scaled Weather:
- Time Scaled Weather does not seem to be related to Daylight Acceleration
- Time Scaled Weather does not seem to be have any effect for custom weather.txt files
  ^ This implies that Time Scaled Weather is for game generated weather files
  ^ Which means it's not the weather.txt Minute{}s being Time Scaled but the game weather generation algorithm scaling based on session length.
  ^ This probably means that a few weather events play out over longer rather than the game generating many weather events to fill in the time
  ^ Should be able to confirm by checking weather.txt for a 24h race with Real Time vs Time Scaled Weather
- For 24h Race Game Generated Weather Files
  - Real Time weather.txt has many more Minute{}s, a much more granular Minute{} progression, in steps of 1-2 minutes each
  - Time Scaled weather.txt has much less Minute{}s, a broader Minute{} progression, in steps of ~10 minutes each
  - Real Time weather.txt has more variability in Conditions (ex. 0-40)
  - Time Scaled weather.txt has less variability in Conditions (ex. 65-74)
  - AmbientTemp seems to have a +/- 10C range for both
- Conclusion:
  - Time Scaled Weather's purpose is to simulate longer weather patterns in shortened sessions
  - Nothing seems to suggest it allows for scaling up limited weather.txt Minute{}s to sessions with more minutes
  - It seems like Time Scaled Weather is only for 24H races
  - 24H generated weather.txt Race Minute{}s still only represent 180 Minutes so it seems the game is internally stretching that over the entire period or possibly looping it
    ^ Neither stretching or looping behaviour is seen in regular race sessions: In regular races, it loops through the Minute{}s until they're done and does not loop, stretch, or condense them based on the session length.
  - Used ChatGPT to see if it agrees and it agreed: https://chat.openai.com/c/a3af0967-5df1-45e9-87a9-cdbf1789c4bd
  
Weather seems to interpolate between Minute{}s in some fashion although it's difficult to say how or what ratio, curve, or function is being applied:
- In a 15min Warmup with Real Time Weather:
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=0.10:  Becomes clear around --:--
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=1.00:  Becomes clear around --:--
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=2.00:  Becomes clear around 14:40
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=3.00:  Becomes clear around 14:15
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=4.00:  Becomes clear around 13:45
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=5.00:  Becomes clear around 13:30
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=10.00: Becomes clear around 11:30
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=15.00: Becomes clear around 9:30
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=20.00: Becomes clear around 7:30
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=25.00: Becomes clear around 5:30
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=30.00: Becomes clear around 4:00
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=35.00: Becomes clear around 2:00
  - Stormy->Sunny Minute=40.00: Becomes clear around 0:00
  - Warmup{} in weather.txt:
    Warmup
    {
     Conditions=100.00
     AmbientTemp=20
     Minute=15
     {
      Conditions=0.00
     }
    }
  - Time Scaled Weather seems to act the same as Real Time Weather
  - Time Scaled Weather: 10min warmup, 5min weather: Stopped on minute 5 and held the weather
  - Real Time Weather: 10min warmup, 5min weather: ...
  - Pit camera and Conditions Icon seem to be in sync
  - Minute=0.00{} is the initial conditions / It appears to be skipped / Must start with Minute=1.00{} or higher
  - Session Length vs Minute{}s:
    - At the end of a session, when there are more Minutes{}s then session minutes, weather keeps progressing through Minute{}s 
    - When there are less Minute{}s than session minutes, weather stops at last Minute{} and there are no other changes
    - Applies for Real Time and Time Scaled Weather
	- Basically, weather always plays through right to the end

5 Minute{}s +20 steps:
2.5m to Rainy, 4m5s to Stormy for both Real Time and Time Scaled Weather
- Minute 3 = 60 Conditions
- Minute 4 = 80 Conditions

10 Minute{}s +10 steps:
6min to Rainy, 9min to Stormy for both Real Time and Time Scaled Weather
- Minute 6 = 60 Conditions
- Minute 8 = 80 Conditions

15 Minute{}s +6.666 steps:
9min to rainy, 13min to Stormy for Real Time and Time Scaled Weather
- Minute 9 = 60 (59.994) Conditions
- Minute 13 = 80 (86.658) Conditions

30 Minute{}s +3.333steps:
Never gets to rain, never gets to Stormy on Real Time or Time Scaled Weather (
- 10m45s to *Forecast* rainy but never gets there
  - Minute 18 = 60 (59.994) Conditions