Hello all,
First off, I hope everyone had a good Labor Day. I've been quite pleased with the reception of the simulator as of recently, and the interest in it. Back in August, I've experimented with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphics framework, something that was beyond me until I've started to dabble with it, and from there evolution of the product and my knowledge in WPF came at an exponential rate. After innumerable late nights working on it, and with the moral support I've received from friends wanting to see this become a finished product, it has gotten to a point where it looks very polished in even less than a month. Unfortunately, development of the simulator is on a hiatus as I have some academic obligations to fulfill throughout the semester. On the flip side of the coin, I would be able to resume progress in the winter, and in the late spring when there are no classes on my end, and it's been proven before that I can get much done in a small timeframe, and I am willing to prove that again.
Until then, I've some news to share about the latest iteration of what's going on behind the scenes. Here are some new additions to the simulator:
National Mode
National Mode is a feature that works best with software like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). This opens a window of opportunity to let you use a chroma key filter on the simulator window over a video feed of your choice. It's basically your personal STAR. From there, you can:
- Toggle the Lower Display Line on or off
- Run a forecast
- Show the Station ID
cc17926 has a video demonstrating this feature, as a matter of fact he had provided this suggestion to me personally and I took the time to implement it, and I believe it's quite remarkable what you can do with National Mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS2FitNtquIExtended Forecast
The iconic Extended Forecast is a recent addition to the simulator. Using the State Tabular Forecast issued by your Weather Forecast Office (WFO), you can choose a city that you can use from a list for that product, it's simple as that.
What to work on nextThe Almanac is in the works, and most, if not all data, will derive from your Weather Forecast Office's Climatology report. This includes the normal temperatures, sunrise and sunset data, so on and so forth.
National Mode is still being perfected at the moment.
Predefined flavors and custom flavors will be a feature to behold in the future. The current builds nonetheless, on principle, have a way of changing around flavors on the development side, so they're technically modular, and that capability will be fully realized in the future.
Additional thoughtsAs it stands, the WeatherSTAR III Simulator is still under closed alpha development, it is being tested with a select group of people and is subject to a beta release sometime in the future.
Thanks to Brian who runs the site, I have a medium where I can post release notes as soon as features are implemented or fixed. Here you'll see changelogs and other fun stuff as soon as they come, to get you an updated look on what's to come, and what's now here.
I look forward to fulfilling bug requests, feature requests, and let you all in the know of the things to come. Until next time.
