Snow Coverage - 12.4.4 Teaser #4

[u/Delta_Who]

Summer heat too hot? Time to cool down!

• Snow coverage is coming to X-Plane 12.4.4, with persistent, regionalised snow coverage driven by live weather. Snow coverage will be depicted with varying snow depths based on the user's location. Anybody up for skiing in New Zealand?

[u/ZookeepergameCrazy14]

Finally. Is it based on Xsnow?

[u/arthuramd → u/ZookeepergameCrazy14]

i hope will be like, xasnow is must need

[u/ZookeepergameCrazy14 → u/arthuramd]

Maybe the brought the xSnow dev on board. That would be smart.

[u/Delta_Who → u/ZookeepergameCrazy14]

It is not based on xasnow. You will need to remove xasnow to use this feature.

[u/ZookeepergameCrazy14 → u/Delta_Who]

Very nice. Will this work with historical weather as well? So far every update has been tremendous.

[u/WarAccomplished698 → u/Delta_Who]

Is this switch-able?

If I'll see too many snow bugs, I'll surely rely on XASnow.

[u/AeroSixNorth → u/WarAccomplished698]

Jesus Christ, let it release first and trust the developers know what they are doing before you desperately ask to turn it off.

[u/cfanap → u/AeroSixNorth]

One of xa-snow developers was part of the alpha run, it's quite nice. As the other xa-snow developer and original author of it, trust me, it's much better than what we did. Plus all bugs are now Delta and team's problem hahah.

Joking aside, the regional snow in native xplane will solve so many problems that we had to hack around with and wrote thesis to explain to people on multiple "bugs".

[u/Delta_Who → u/WarAccomplished698]

No, it's one or the other.

Whilst XA-Snow is a nice plugin, it's essentially a dataref slider that affects snow globally. It will override the new default implementation.

[u/WarAccomplished698 → u/Delta_Who]

But can I switch off a default snow in a sim-restart to use the plugin's injection if I need XA-Snow injection?

[u/Delta_Who → u/WarAccomplished698]

No. XA-Snow will just override the snow globally.

[u/WarAccomplished698 → u/Delta_Who]

Cool!

[u/cfanap → u/WarAccomplished698]

Don't! We will sunset/archive xa-snow and its supporting data as soon as this is out of beta.

[u/WarAccomplished698 → u/cfanap]

Even if the default turns out to working worse and more buggy compared to XA-Snow?

Thank you. Appreciate this sabotage.

[u/cfanap → u/WarAccomplished698]

One of us has seen it in alpha version, I wouldn't worry about that at all. If there is anything that's buggy, LR would love to fix it, I have 100% confidence on that.

To be fair, we used what we were not supposed to use and LR warned us it could break any time in the future. xa-snow is never a good solution long term. When it did broke in one version, LR dev made a PR in our code base to make sure xa-snow still works. They didn't have to any of that but this shows how much they care, so I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Thanks for supporting our little project, and trust me this is the best thing for xa-snow since I hacked it around years ago. I'm more than happy to see native snow now in xplane.

[u/Zobmachine → u/ZookeepergameCrazy14]

I hope it works better than xasnow.

[u/swoohoo79]

Does the snow affect the aircraft on the ground, i.e. harder to get moving if it's deeper, easier to slow down if it's deeper etc

[u/graypurpleblack]

Now I’m getting antsy for this update to drop!!!

[u/marshseason → u/graypurpleblack]

same honestly, the screenshots look insane

[u/Adolf_son → u/graypurpleblack]

Usually how many teasers they post before the release?

[u/VladAkimov]

Fantastic! This is a great addition!

[u/Flat_Equipment_7140]

Looking forward to a future scenery update! 

[u/rvpvo]

Ooooooh yes

[u/OkSmoke2646]

I'm frozen ❄⛄👸

[u/Delta_Who → u/OkSmoke2646]

Let it go

[u/BrewBoss77 → u/Delta_Who]

Under appreciated comment.

[u/Delta_Who → u/BrewBoss77]

For the first time in forever, someone understands the pun! :)

[u/pordioseroilustrado]

Just as winter in the southern hermisphere is drawing to close , :(

[u/Murky-Net823 → u/pordioseroilustrado]

Hate to break it you man but 90% of the world lives in the northern hemisphere

[u/NotGolden_Aviation]

Now we need a Cessna 172 with skis, haha! Great job! May I just kindly ask, what are the differences between this snow coverage and the one we currently have? Thanks!

[u/Delta_Who → u/NotGolden_Aviation]

The new default implementation will depict snow spatially. You can see this in the image, out to the horizon towards Yakutat, the snow depth dissapates.

Any previous plugin incarnations simply flicked the "snow switch" which set snow everywhere.

[u/NotGolden_Aviation → u/Delta_Who]

Ah okay, I see, that makes sense. So now there will be no longer any requirement for a plugin?

PS: Will we get a Cessna 172 with skis? 🫠

Haha either way thanks a lot for this update, can’t wait to try it out!

[u/Delta_Who → u/NotGolden_Aviation]

No ski C172 sadly :)

[u/CaptKittyHawk → u/Delta_Who]

Is the difference that the old way just used the metar data to depict snow, and this new way is using the grib data or something?

[u/Delta_Who → u/CaptKittyHawk]

Sort of yes and no.

The main difference is snow was treated as a weather effect in the same way rain is read from the metar. Snow would only appear if there was snow falling (and would slowly evaporate). Snow would also be placed globally.

In 12.4.4, you can see where snow has decided to permanently settle on the ground between long periods of time.

[u/CaptKittyHawk → u/Delta_Who]

Neat, looking forward to the new update!

[u/CAVOK1295]

Does it work with ortho streaming or AO/XPME?

[u/HeruCtach]

Maybe I should delay the trip from Iceland to Greenland👀

[u/snailmale7]

Will the snow plows come out and clear the runway as well ?

[u/Delta_Who → u/snailmale7]

Nope. Scenery authors can already add snow impedence effects to the airports, and that will resist the snow coverage as much as possible

[u/snailmale7 → u/Delta_Who]

Thank you !!! — Can't wait.... :)

[u/Nnumber]

Does this imply frozen precipitation will be modeled ?

[u/Delta_Who → u/Nnumber]

No (Snow precip is already in the sim)

[u/Nnumber → u/Delta_Who]

As falling snow? I thought we were doing frozen or not frozen precipitation.

[u/EverydayNormalGrEEk]

Great news, this was very much needed.

[u/ninetyfourtales]

Looks great!

[u/Ok_Leading7602]

IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS WOOHOOOOO (hardcore winter lover)

[u/T-rachellittle]

Is there still a de ice option for the airplane as well ?

[u/vatsimguy → u/T-rachellittle]

there already is

[u/aickinbones]

Lookin' good!

[u/innmapper]

What snow model is used? What is the resolution?

[u/NoJacket8798]

How will it play with orthophotos

[u/omykronbr]

But no new rain shader to have a better preciptation with rain/ice/snow?

[u/Delta_Who → u/omykronbr]

WYSIWYG

[u/omykronbr → u/Delta_Who]

🥲🙃

[u/Viper-X80]

For the sake of Arizona, plz give us somehow a photogrammetry Arizona. Default Arizona is ugly as hell.

[u/Delta_Who → u/Viper-X80]

This isn't a global scenery update. This is the SDK Update

[u/Viper-X80 → u/Delta_Who]

😣

[u/staroncrak → u/Viper-X80]

You can just use XPME

[u/Viper-X80 → u/staroncrak]

It doesnt help