SHO Weather
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Image: GTR2 Start Weekend Launcher with preconfigured weekend weather for test days, Practice, Qualifying, and Race sessions
About
This effort morphed into Real Weather for the Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin. You're probably looking for that.
- SHO Weather is now primarily a weather generation script which generates quasi-realistic weather using real weather data for each track location
- The generation script outputs GTR2-compatible weather files in bulk
- These weather files are being integrated by The Iron Wolf in-game by adding options to the in-game Rainfall selector along with the Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
Download
Want to help?
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Weather costs $10 per location from OpenWeatherMap.org. For that price, you get 40 years of data with hourly granularity. The data is open, can be freely shared, and has potential for re-use and repurposing for other mods, games, or software. I think it's good value.
Changes
24050501
- Average weather generated for each GTR2 original track location based on real weather data
- Launcher updated to allow launching with a random track's weather file
Install
- Extract to GTR2 folder
- Run __GTR2__Start__Weekend.cmd and choose desired Weekend Weather
- Choose "Changeable" for Rain option when starting your session
Weather will now progress per the custom UserData\Log\weather.txt file put in place by the cmd script.
Launcher
The launcher is a simple cmd script that handles swapping in and out custom weather files with the stock UserData\Log\weather.txt file.
The launcher handles setting the read-only attribute which prevents GTR2 from re-generating the file every session. It then undoes this when you exit GTR2 so everything goes back to normal.
Weather
GTR2's original weather generation algorithm is very uninteresting and you'll rarely see the weather change in a single session.
These custom weather files create more interesting weather scenarios in each session which basically means that there will be some kind of weather change in each session.
Autosim Weather Generator
The Autosim Weather Generator is available from eSports-racing.de and still works on Windows 10(*).
- It was working fine until I installed Visual Studio with .NET and now it seems to be acting up. So, you may have to uninstall Visual Studio and/or those .NET packages to see it work.
Here's a demonstration of the app:
Here's what one weather set looks like in the app:
Real Weather Data
I purchased real weather data from openweathermap.org for all of the original GTR2 track locations. Anyone can purchase any location for USD $10 per location from openweathermap.org.
I'm providing it here in case anyone is interested in making projects out of the data.
The data license is a Creative Commons-like attribution license which means you're basically free to do anything you just have to attribute the license.
See Modernizing_GTR2_with_the_Crew_Chief_GTR2_Enhancements_Plugin#Real_Weather for tracks covered so far and tracks planned for the future.
Weather Generation Script
I have a weather generation script up and running in PHP which generates GTR2 weather files using the OpenWeatherMap data to find min/max/avg temps, humidity, dry/rainy/stormy and generate weather files that generally reflect realistic weather for the track location.
I plan to release the generation script and the generated weather files in upcoming releases.
Download Real Weather Data
See Weather_Data#Racing_Circuits_Real_Weather_Data for full details
Old Changes
...
Weather File Troubleshooting
- Ensure Rainfall Changeable in-game
- Symptom: Conditions/Forecast Icons stop working reliably.
- Advice: Check file structure and syntax
Weather Notepad
These notes are generally tested and confirmed true
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
Session vs Weather File Sections:
- Driving School = Dynamic Weather, not based on weather.txt (Confirmed with read-only dry weather.txt 240506)
- Time Trial = Open Practice (says so in Garage screen)
- Free Practice (Race Weekend) = Open Practice
In-game Session to Weather.txt Name mappings:
- Driving School: Fixed Weather (not in weather.txt)
- Time Trial: Practice1, Practice2
- Open Practice: Practice1
- Free Practice: Practice1, Practice2
- Qualifying: Qualify1, Qualify2
- Warmup: Warmup
- Race: Race
Are HAT files caching weather file data and we might need to enable rebuilding? -->
- No. Still happens even when setting: Always Rebuild HAT="1" // Build HAT database everytime tracks are loaded (for development purposes)
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
- Does Rainfall specify max Conditions? Ex. Rainfall 80% means max Conditions=80?
- No, see Rainfall table below.
- Rainfall:
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
- Unable to check Rainfall level vs weather.txt file because Rainfall < Changeable doesn't generate weather.txt
Temperature:
- Default Temperature Progression: Ambient 20+, Track: 22+
Conditions Icon (Conditions: Sunny/Rainy/Stormy):
- Conditions is not the same as Rainfall in-game
- Weather.txt Conditions - Confirmed 240318:
0-61 Sunny (Sun)
62-90 Rainy (Cloud w/Rain)
91-100 Stormy (Cloud w/Rain and Lightning)
- The real cut off between Sunny and Rainy and Rainy and Stormy is somewhere between the integer values (ie. 61.65 - 61.70, and 90.XX - 90.YY) but might as well just consider it an integer cut off of 61 and 62
Conditions Thresholds
- Looks like it uses the next Minute{} for the Forecast
- Confirmed next Minute{}, not influenced by time difference, either, and not influenced by subsequent Minute{} blocks after the first. Only the next Minute{} block matters.
- Seems like there is some +/- margin on thresholds 61/62 (Sunny/Rainy) and 90/91 (Rainy/Stormy) where they may be one or the other
- 56/56 (61 - 5) is the minimum where Conditions/Forecast sticks to Sunny (>56 Forecast is sometimes Rainy)
- 67/67 (62 + 5) is the minimum where Conditions/Forecast sticks to Rainy (<67 Forecast is sometimes Sunny)
- 85/85 (90 - 5) is the minimum where Conditions/Forecast sticks to Rainy (>85 Forecast is sometimes Stormy)
- 96/96 (91 + 5) is the minimum where Conditions/Forecast sticks to Stormy (<96 Forecast is sometimes Rainy)
- Seems there's a +/- 5 threshold around pivot points anyway
- Forecast Icon appears random (one side of the threshold or the other) within +/- of threshold
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 appears to indicate a return to initial session Conditions
Track Wetness (Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded):
- Track wetness (Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded) is related to Conditions but is not the same as Conditions (Sunny/Rainy/Storm) (Confirmed 240318)
- But a session's starting wetness does seem to be directly related to initial Conditions. That is, a track is immediately Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded based on a session's immediate starting Conditions.
- Track wetness floods and drains dynamically based on Conditions, temperature, time, and total accumulating laps (the more AI the faster draining progresses)
- 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 Conditions:Wetness Levels:
0-5 Dry
6-35 Damp
36-75 Wet
76-100 Flooded
^ This might need to be reconfirmed as it doesn't align with Conditions testing below.
^ Maybe I let it progress for 15 minutes or something to see how it would flood
Starting Weather vs Conditions
- Tested at Donington GP 2004 (Confirmed 240513)
0.0000: Large Blue Sky Patches, Fluffy White Clouds, Dry Track, Not Raining
10.0000: Mostly Wispy White Clouds, Dry Track, Not Raining
20.0000: Same as 0, Dry Track, Not Raining
30.0000: Same as 10, Dry Track, Not Raining
40.0000: Like 0 but with maybe some gray clouds in there (Scattered Clouds? Wouldn't say Overcast.), Dry Track, Not Raining
50.0000: Large Blue Sky Patches, Fluffy White Clouds, Dry Track, Not Raining
60.0000: Same as 10, Dry Track, Not Raining
61.0000: Blue Sky, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Sunny, Forecast Sunny/Rainy
61.1250: Same as 0, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Sunny, Forecast Rainy
62.0000: Blue Sky, Not Raining, Dry Track, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
62.5000: Like 10 but maybe grayer, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
63.6250: Like 0 + 10 and graying, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Sunny
65.0000: Gray and Overcast, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
70.0000: Gray and Overcast, Dry Track, Not Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
71.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Dry Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
71.1250: Dark Gray and Overcast, Dry Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
72.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Damp Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
72.5000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Damp Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
75.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Damp Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
80.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Damp Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
81.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
82.5000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
83.6250: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
84.1875: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Raining, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
85.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
90.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Rainy
90.5625: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Rainy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
91.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
91.1250: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
92.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Rainy, Track Reflections
92.5000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Wet Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Rainy, Track Reflections
93.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Flooded Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
95.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Flooded Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
97.5000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Flooded Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
98.6250: Dark Gray and Overcast, Flooded Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
100.0000: Dark Gray and Overcast, Flooded Track, Storming, Conditions Stormy, Forecast Stormy, Track Reflections
^ Storming = Raining + Lightning + Thunder
^ Track Reflections not complete
Conditions Clear vs Cloudiness Levels
- Is there a threshold for Clear vs levels of Cloudiness?
- Tested in Open Practice at Donington, Dubai, Spa
- 0: Mostly blue sky with white clouds
- 1-62: Sometimes mostly blue sky, sometimes half and half
- 62-64: Mostly Cloudy
- 65-70: Overcast, threatening rain
- 71+: Rain
- Bottom line: Looks like I could reliably target Mostly Cloudy 62-64 as a new Weather Slot
- Confirmed 240605
TODO: Track Wetness vs AI Pitting
Mapping GTR2 Conditions to AMS2 Weather Forecasts:
0-61: Clear
62-70: Overcast
71-80: Light Rain (Dry/Damp Track)
81-84: Rain (Wet Track)
85-92: Storm (Wet Track)
95-100: Thunderstorm (Flooded Track)
Session Starting Conditions:
- OnPathWetness, OffPathWetness, TrackTemp: These are available but I haven't used yet
- These progress along with Conditions and AmbientTemp so I don't need to use them
- But it may be interesting to create different starting weather states using these
Weather
{
TestDay
{
Conditions=0.00
OnPathWetness=0.00
OffPathWetness=0.00
AmbientTemp=10.00
TrackTemp=10.00
},
...
}
- Conditions=100.00 + Minute=0.10 shows Flooded and Forecast Stormy>Rainy briefly then quickly switches to Sunny
- So it's a good way to show the driver where the track state came from
- Minute=1.00 takes a little too long
- Minute=0.50 probably about right...too slow really
- Minute=0.25 Not bad
- Minute=0.75 Little bit too slow
- Minute=0.625
- Minute=0.28125 Not bad actually
- Minute=0.25 Probably about right
Real Time Weather and Time Scaled Weather:
- Real Time: Weather file Minute{}s occur at real time speed regardless of Race Weekend Distance Factor or 24H Race Length Factor (Confirmed 240515)
- Interestingly, Minute{}s do not actually appear to represent time but distance (eg. At Imola, rain came in at the same point even when I was much slower).
- Time Scaled: Weather file Minute{}s occur at Real Time speed for Practice/Qualify/Warmup sessions and at a speed factor of Race Weekend Distance Factor or 24H Race Length Factor (Confirmed 240515)
- Ex. 100% Distance: Weather events occur at real time speed
- Ex. 50% Distance: Weather events occur 2x faster
- Ex. 24H Race Length: Weather events occur at real time speed
- Ex. 12H Race Length: Weather events occur 2x faster
- Time Scaled Weather is not affected by Daylight Acceleration (Confirmed 240510)
- Game-generated weather.txt Warmup and Race sections never have Minute{}s
- But Warmup and Race do respect Minute{}s if they have them
- A 24H race would need 1440 Minute{} blocks then
- Tested Race Weekend with Changeable weather and no Minute{}s in Warmup and Race and it did not progress weather like I see in 24H races so there's some difference there
- 24H Race Game Generated Weather Files
- 24H weather.txt does not have Minute{}s for Warmup or Race but I do see variable weather Conditions and Forecast going through Prac/Qual/Warm/Race
- I guess Changeable weather under 24H is handled inside the game
- Real Time weather.txt has many more Minute{}s with a much more granular Minute{} progression in steps of 1-2 minutes each
- Time Scaled weather.txt has much fewer Minute{}s with 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)
- Both Real Time and Time Scaled AmbientTemp seems to have a +/- 10C range
- Examples:
- Hockenheimn 24H:
- Session lengths: 90/90/60/45/15/1440
- Minute{}s: 90/90/60/45/0/0 (Warmup and Race had no Minute{} blocks)
- Monza 24H:
- Session lengths: 90/90/60/45/15/1440
- Minute{}s: 90/90/60/45/0/0 (Warmup and Race had no Minute{} blocks)
- Testing:
- Weather.txt is generated once at beginning of 24H, it doesn't get rewritten each session
- Weather.txt persists after exiting GTR2, so no need to alt-tab out and copy&paste the file to save it
- Conclusion:
- Time Scaled Weather's purpose is to simulate longer weather patterns in shortened sessions
- In other words, fewer weather events that are longer in duration rather than many weather events of shorter duration
- Nothing seems to suggest it allows for scaling up limited weather.txt Minute{}s to sessions with more minutes
- Meaning, you should have enough Minute{}s for the session length (eg. 60min = 60 Minute{}s, 3h/180min = 180 Minute{}s, 24H/1440min = 1440 Minute{}s)
To Be Confirmed:
- Weather Minute{}s are NOT about TIME, they're about DISTANCE
- True for Real Time AND Time Scaled or just Time Scaled? Because seems to conflict with observations above about Real Time.
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
Session Lengths:
- Practice 1/Practice2/Qualify 1/Qualify 2/Warmup/Race
- Race Weekend: 90/90/45/45/15/3h
- 24H: 90/90/60/45/15/24h
- Some championships have variable qualifying times (ie. 20min) but I didn't see more than 60min qualifying sessions
AMS2 Weather Notes for Reference
AMS2 Weather Slots: - Real Weather: Real Historic Weather based on race date - 1-4 Slots AMS2 Weather Forecasts for Slots: - Clear - Light Cloud - Medium Cloud - Heavy Cloud - Overcast - Light Rain - Rain - Storm - Thunderstorm - Fog - Fog With Rain - Heavy Fog - Heavy Fog With Rain - Hazy - Random AMS2 Weather Progression: - Sync to Race: Evenly spreads out slots and ensures all slots are used in the session's time - Real Time: Each slot represents an hour - Acceleration: 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 30x, 40x, 50x, 60x
Weather Scratchpad
These notes may not be tested or confirmed true
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?
Session:
- Weather start offset by 30sec in sessions? Something's going on with a delay...
Track Wetness (Dry/Damp/Wet/Flooded):
- 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 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
- And the initial state could provide interesting possibilities for starting weather scenarios
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
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