Cannot choose "overcast" as weather condition anymore

[Gerdoner]

Hi all,
since yesteray I have a weird problem with rFactor. I can't seem to load a track as overcast:

- In the race details screen it says the weather conditions are sunny. Now, if I change that to overcast and load the track, it still loads the track as sunny (as seen in the session informations tab).

- If I change the track to overcast in the race details tab, switch the tab to say "select opponents" tab and switch back to the race details tab, it changed the overcast to sunny again.

I just tried a vanilla installation of rF lite, but I still have the problem.

Hope someone could help me out of this, I want to drive on overcast tracks again :S

 

[Gerdoner]

Noone's got an idea why this is happening? :frown:

 

[Doug62]

These sort of thing just happen for no real reason. Just like most programs, After long use they develop read errors. Why I have no idea but the only way I know off to fix these errors is to re-install the program to refresh all the program files. With rF the tracks and car mods are add-ons and refreshing rF install may not fix errors if there associated with one of these add-ons installed. Try refreshing the track and/or mod.

 

[nerdv8]

But also rfactor doesn't simulate the wet either

 

[Gerdoner]

But also rfactor doesn't simulate the wet either

But it does simulate overcast tracks -.-

These sort of thing just happen for no real reason. Just like most programs, After long use they develop read errors. Why I have no idea but the only way I know off to fix these errors is to re-install the program to refresh all the program files. With rF the tracks and car mods are add-ons and refreshing rF install may not fix errors if there associated with one of these add-ons installed. Try refreshing the track and/or mod.

Thx for your reply... uninstalled rF for the umpteenth time, checked my registry for anything to do with rF and even installed rF on another HD... still no luck. Don't want to format my whole system just because of that problem, but it drives me mad that I can't select that opition without apparent reason :S

 

[Doug62]

Yeah ok. It may not, or probably not rFactor itself that's at fault here. Have you tried just testing rF as it's base install? Without adding any tracks or mods. Your using rF Lite to install right? I would recommend using the full install. I got some flak over saying this before but I've been through all this and now prefer to use the full version and will always recommend it to others. Anyway just test rF straight from the install. If the problem appears then I would suggest the install your using may have the error and for you to D/L another one preferably from a different link or site.

I would recommend you run full maintenance on your PC. Disc clean, Defrag and error checking. Find and empty all the Temp file. Just generally clean it up without going to a re-format. That's usually a last resort. If you got the Windows dics with your PC you can run a repair which wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[Gerdoner]

It definately has nothing to do with the version i install.
I tried v1.255 and rF Lite on 2 different partitions and even v1.550.... still, I can't select overcast.
Cleaned and defragged the disk, same with the registry.... i'm running out of options :S I don't want to use a system recovery, last time I did it it did more damage then good. Is a Windows repair similar to that?
Anyway, thanks for your answers so far

 

[Doug62]

Have you updated your video card drivers lately? If not try that. It maybe a driver error. Errors can appear in any or all programs after prolonged use. It's always a good idea to run the install disc or D/L new drivers from time to time to refresh them. Personally I very rarely get problems and when I do their normally a easy fix. This one you have is unusual that a re-install hasn't fixed it. It looks to me like it's something outside rFactor like the graphics card. You used to be able to select overcast before on this PC. Have you added a new program just before you noticed the problem? Are any other programs having issue? Have you got other games that are now showing signs of errors similar to the one rFactor is having? Graphics issues.

 

[Gerdoner]

Well, that's what puzzles me.
If i'd get graphical errors I would check my gfx card (overheating? driver problems?)
If I'd get a game error like "fileXYZ not found", I could check the mod / the track / an original rF install for the file.
But this issue in the UI is just so random, I can't think what might be causing it.

Well, I guessed it might be an UI issue (had a custom one installed) or a plr - file (mine was heavily edited) issue. But when I re-installed rF I created a vanilla plr file, but still have the same problem.

Oh, regarding plr files, I forgot to add that if I change

QUICK Weather="0" // Random/season/sunny/etc.
MULTI Weather="0"

to

QUICK Weather="1" // Random/season/sunny/etc.
ULTI Weather="0"

in my PLR file it's actually the other way round... I can only select overcast, but not sunny conditions.
I uninstalled a programm I installed the day before the problem started emerging, but no luck.

 

[Doug62]

Well I'm at a loss to see what's going on. You may have to bite the bullet and do a re-format. I can't think of anything else.

My PLR reads like this.

QUICK Weather="0" // Random/season/sunny/etc.
MULTI Weather="0"

Now this is at default. When you change things in-game these values are changed automatically. If you look at the top of your PLR you'll see the last track, Car and driver you used before opening the PLR to read it. This changes when you change mods. So you see that the game makes changes to the PLR without you putting it in. If your adding the "1" yourself you maybe locking the game control out. Just a though? If the value is changing then this is working correctly.

Well there you go. Mine want select overcast either. Thought it maybe the track I was using so I tried a ISI track and same thing. After selecting overcast you select another option then go back to track settings it's gone back to sunny. Loads as sunny.

 

[William Levesque]

All of this for a couple of clouds ? Wow, you guys are bored !

 

[Gerdoner]

Hehe, only me I guess, Doug was just trying to help me.
It's just now that I know I can't do it, it bugs me... a lot.
If I hadn't noticed it I probably wouldn't miss it
(Yeh, no s**t Sherlock XD)

 

[ShadowXGold]

Overcast does nothing for me. I choose it but the sky is always sunny. In fact I've NEVER seen rfactor cloudy (except for special wet tracks). I'd actually like to see a screenshot of what a default rfactor track looks like cloudy.

All this time I just assumed that overcast did nothing because the feature was never actually included in the game. You mean to tell me rfactor DOES do overcast and my game is broken too?

 

[muzarati]

It appears that it's meant to, there are overcast sky textures, but for some reason it wasn't implemented? I find it hard to believe that they left it out? Could be the way the tracks are made? most of the textures are numericaly named sky01, sky02... etc but nothing I've tried seems to work?

 

[ShadowXGold]

Can someone at least tell me where the SKYS are located and (if applicable) how to view them? Is there an actual overcast sky in the the game folder. If so, I'd like to have a look at it just for curiosity's sake.

 

[muzarati]

They should be in the .MAS file or MAPS.MAS depending on the track, the textures will be DDS files, you have to extract them first.

 

[ShadowXGold]

ok, good good. And how may I go about extracting a .mas?

 

[muzarati]

open the mas file, find the file you want, right click and click "extract"

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

You'll need the specific tools from the dev corner at rfactor.net though - if you just double-click it will start Microsoft Office Access.

 

[muzarati]

Oops...forgot that minor detail