TWC Today Forums

WeatherScan Local Emulator Project => General Emulator Discussion => Topic started by: TWCToday on October 29, 2008, 11:23:58 PM

Title: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on October 29, 2008, 11:23:58 PM
Got a really cool idea or want to see a certain feature added to the emulator? Post it here. While not all suggestions will be implemented, they will be taken under advisement.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: narunetto on November 01, 2008, 01:04:38 AM
After getting a chance to use the emulator, its a great piece of work! But, there are somethings that I think could help to make the emulator near perfect.

1. Make all of your own graphics For example, some screens are screenshots from the actual XL itself, while this has integrity from the actual one, it also makes the quality a bit lower since the screenshot isn't from the machine itself. The Aviation screens, traffic screens look perfect because you made them yourself.

2. About the fonts.. what is rendering the fonts? Sometimes they look blurry and jagged and I just wondered why that happens.

Other than that the thing is great!
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 01, 2008, 01:19:43 AM
After getting a chance to use the emulator, its a great piece of work! But, there are somethings that I think could help to make the emulator near perfect.

1. Make all of your own graphics For example, some screens are screenshots from the actual XL itself, while this has integrity from the actual one, it also makes the quality a bit lower since the screenshot isn't from the machine itself. The Aviation screens, traffic screens look perfect because you made them yourself.

2. About the fonts.. what is rendering the fonts? Sometimes they look blurry and jagged and I just wondered why that happens.

Other than that the thing is great!
I think the fonts are 1 size too big. That will be changed AFAIK
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: narunetto on November 01, 2008, 01:34:27 AM
After getting a chance to use the emulator, its a great piece of work! But, there are somethings that I think could help to make the emulator near perfect.

1. Make all of your own graphics For example, some screens are screenshots from the actual XL itself, while this has integrity from the actual one, it also makes the quality a bit lower since the screenshot isn't from the machine itself. The Aviation screens, traffic screens look perfect because you made them yourself.

2. About the fonts.. what is rendering the fonts? Sometimes they look blurry and jagged and I just wondered why that happens.

Other than that the thing is great!
I think the fonts are 1 size too big. That will be changed AFAIK
Awesome.... one more thing I forgot to add: The ability to move it. I don't like it sitting in the middle of my screen all the time :P
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 01, 2008, 01:36:43 AM
After getting a chance to use the emulator, its a great piece of work! But, there are somethings that I think could help to make the emulator near perfect.

1. Make all of your own graphics For example, some screens are screenshots from the actual XL itself, while this has integrity from the actual one, it also makes the quality a bit lower since the screenshot isn't from the machine itself. The Aviation screens, traffic screens look perfect because you made them yourself.

2. About the fonts.. what is rendering the fonts? Sometimes they look blurry and jagged and I just wondered why that happens.

Other than that the thing is great!
I think the fonts are 1 size too big. That will be changed AFAIK
Awesome.... one more thing I forgot to add: The ability to move it. I don't like it sitting in the middle of my screen all the time :P
I guess that could be done but i dont think there is a huge priority to do it at the moment. The 4000 cant be moved either  :P
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Stephen on November 01, 2008, 04:45:26 PM
The 4000 cant be moved either  :P
Actually, it can (with the arrow keys). :yes:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Al on November 01, 2008, 05:16:15 PM
The 4000 cant be moved either  :P
Actually, it can (with the arrow keys). :yes:

 :o

i never knew that! haha
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 01, 2008, 05:57:16 PM
The 4000 cant be moved either  :P
Actually, it can (with the arrow keys). :yes:

 :o

i never knew that! haha
Wow i didn't know that either :rofl:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: toxictwister00 on November 01, 2008, 07:03:49 PM
I figured that out a couple of months ago by accident.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Zach on November 02, 2008, 12:21:01 AM
I figured that out a couple of months ago by accident.
I did it by accident on my first try, which was on May 3, 2008. :P
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Gil on November 02, 2008, 12:39:56 AM
Hah - noobs. :rofl2:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on November 02, 2008, 04:08:23 AM
off topic.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on November 03, 2008, 07:54:39 PM
By any chance could the emulator use the normal/original radar maps off of
weather.com?
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 03, 2008, 08:08:49 PM
By any chance could the emulator use the normal/original radar maps off of
weather.com?
The radar maps are from TWC. They are from TWC Gold IIRC
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on November 03, 2008, 08:15:17 PM
By any chance could the emulator use the normal/original radar maps off of
weather.com?
The radar maps are from TWC. They are from TWC Gold IIRC

I know that but this is what I am talking about.

just get rid of the  white info bar and the Doppler Radar --- Mile
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on November 03, 2008, 11:31:12 PM
the radar/satellite images i use with the emulator are latitude/longitude centered, this helps for a more local radar in terms of the maps. in my opinion, i do not like the other maps. there are other maps that can be used, but i can post a few samples of those and get some opinions of those ;)
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 03, 2008, 11:57:35 PM
the radar/satellite images i use with the emulator are latitude/longitude centered, this helps for a more local radar in terms of the maps. in my opinion, i do not like the other maps. there are other maps that can be used, but i can post a few samples of those and get some opinions of those ;)
Sounds go. We can get a poll up sometime
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Mike M on November 06, 2008, 10:26:40 AM
Would it be possible to have the emulator let us zoom in or out the local radars? I've seen some Weatherscans that have a more zoomed out radar than others. For example, mine showed a radar covering almost all of PA, whereas most others in the area had a tri-state radar. Also, how about having different combinations of packages than the ones on the pull-down menu (ie. LF and Traffic Report or LF and Boat & Beach)?
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: iPod on November 07, 2008, 12:33:56 PM
For the sake of making it easier to close, can you put to emulator in the task bar?  Also, sometimes on my computer, the task manager doesn't work.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Mike M on November 07, 2008, 12:39:55 PM
For the sake of making it easier to close, can you put to emulator in the task bar?  Also, sometimes on my computer, the task manager doesn't work.
Yeah, I would like to see this too. The task manager sometimes takes forever to close a program.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: iPod on November 07, 2008, 12:45:38 PM
For the sake of making it easier to close, can you put to emulator in the task bar?  Also, sometimes on my computer, the task manager doesn't work.
Yeah, I would like to see this too. The task manager sometimes takes forever to close a program.

Well at least this program doesn't take forever to close because were not closing a non-responsive program (usually)
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: mixutah on November 23, 2008, 03:20:55 AM
I run two screens on my computer, could it be made to be moved to the second screen??

Thanks the program rocks!!!!! :clap:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 23, 2008, 11:05:46 AM
Yea thats something Brian is looking into. Also for those who have trouble closing with the task manager just kill the process. That should terminate it right away. However a solution to make it easier to close the program is being explored
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: snowyiet on November 26, 2008, 05:32:55 PM
Animated weather icons would be nice.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Zach on November 26, 2008, 06:27:39 PM
Animated weather icons would be nice.
I don't think that's possible. :no:

You'd need Adobe AE to animate them, in which they don't come out transparent. ;)
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: beanboy89 on November 26, 2008, 06:43:33 PM
Animated weather icons would be nice.
I think the emulator should make me mixed drinks. Now that would be nice.  :happy:

:P  :rofl2:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCDude on November 26, 2008, 08:21:05 PM
Animated weather icons would be nice.
I don't think the Weatherscan XL even had animated icons. :no:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 26, 2008, 10:35:32 PM
Animated weather icons would be nice.
I think the emulator should make me mixed drinks. Now that would be nice.  :happy:

:P  :rofl2:
:rofl2: :rofl2:

Im sorry snowy, animated icons for the XL do not exist in a format that can be used by the emulaor.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on November 27, 2008, 01:18:50 AM
in a hypathedical sense, if this version of the XL did animate the icons, then i would look towards animating them, however this version of the XL did not. also it works out to an advantage anyway because asking the emulator to animate them may be pushing my luck, HOWEVER its not impossible! i have had a good track record to this point of achiving what was necessary to make the emulator as realistic as possible. i may venture into animating them one day, the only problem is with that, theres no source to the animated icons.. i only have static .png images of the icons.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Gil on November 27, 2008, 11:07:07 PM
Just throwing this out there: Might be a good idea to do away with the Hardware fingerprint thing. People reformat and stuff, and it's kind of a hassle (I assume) for you.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: TWCToday on November 28, 2008, 11:05:10 AM
Just throwing this out there: Might be a good idea to do away with the Hardware fingerprint thing. People reformat and stuff, and it's kind of a hassle (I assume) for you.
Well in fact we plan to revamp that a bit. It will be worked into the config server so that there will no longer be a need to wait for us to issue a key.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on December 31, 2008, 10:28:34 PM
The XL V.1 Version of Weatherscan had animated icons

The version of the XL that this program emulates (XL v.2) had the animated icons discontinued.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on January 28, 2009, 11:59:23 AM
Can there be an option to enter multiple zip codes for the traffic incidients so it provides more information for multiple areas/highways/etc. nearby.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on January 28, 2009, 12:13:43 PM
Can there be an option to enter multiple zip codes for the traffic incidients so it provides more information for multiple areas/highways/etc. nearby.

the current configuration for the traffic reports allow any incident reported in a radius of approx. 10 miles to show. i do not believe it is necessary to provide multiple zip codes, however the zip code is not restricting only to your town, its just centering the radius.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on January 28, 2009, 12:17:47 PM
Oh.  :pinch:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on March 02, 2009, 03:52:00 PM
Is there a specific format you need to make the icons move?  If I was able to get the .gifs of the icons, I could make them whatever format.

:foolish:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: tuez13 on March 09, 2009, 03:24:29 PM
Now, I know that there is a bulletins page for watches/warnings/advisories, but is there currently, or could there easily be, a page that is inserted between each of the standard pages (local conditions, aviation, etc.) when there is an alert issued for the local area or that of which you choose?  Perhaps there could be an option to either show a map of the area with the current alerts or show the bulletins page with the text of what is happening from the NWS.  Maybe both?  Just throwing it out there.

Is there any interest for storm reports?  That may be an option to show.

Also, it's purely semantics but I was wondering, is it possible to add a space between the wind direction and wind speed, i.e. W15 to W 15 (on both the current conditions and regional observations)?

I was also wondering/hoping if/that the program would also remove or overwrite the images that are not being used and are old.  Is this in the program?  If not, could it be easily added?

I'm thoroughly enjoying the emulator and I appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating an excellent piece of programming!
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: tuez13 on March 18, 2009, 06:06:07 PM
I think I touched on this in another thread, but I was thinking about it again this afternoon and thought it would be pertinent as a suggestion. 

To help users get the most accurate local forecast for their area, would it be possible to utilize the NWS spot forecast that they put out on their websites via entering your zip code?  Would that make it easier for the emulator to grab all the information from one spot for local current conditions, almanac, forecast and 5-day as well while getting it for a spot location of your choosing?  This might also be an easy way of accessing local watches/warnings/advisories as well since they're automatically listed on the site in order of severity. 

I'm just hoping to add in all kind of features to continue to make the program versatile and amazing!
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on May 25, 2009, 06:57:51 AM
I agree with tuez13 on that suggestion, but I also have a few small suggestions myself:

~I think it would be nice if the radars were changed to make them look more similar to the ones they used on wxscan
~If its not a lot of trouble, an option to go fullscreen would be cool (something like right-click|fullscreen )
~I also think it would be cool if you could put the actual voiceovers in, (not to say whoevers voice that was in there was bad :happy: ), but I  did manage to get my hands on a good quality version of the second voicever (The forecast for your area) if you wanted it, and maybe if you or someone else could find the first one (Your current condtions) and put them in, then that would be awesomel!  :dance:  :worship:
 
 Other than that I think the emulator is excellent!!  :clap:  :clap:
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on June 22, 2009, 04:31:14 PM
If you look at a real WXScan vid it shows that on the regional obs screen that the big text (NW) is in alignment with the small wind wording and that the numbers are spaced away from the lettering.

Possibly make that fix to the emulator?
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: wstarcraze on June 25, 2009, 01:28:37 PM
Oh and for the outdoor activity segment, can it show spring, summer, fall, and winter info instead of just autumn info?
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Zach on June 26, 2009, 08:23:00 PM
I was wondering, would it be OK to change my CINE name from TWCFanChris to just Zach because I don't go by that name anymore and since my name is Zach not Chris? :P
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Mike M on June 26, 2009, 11:44:28 PM
Oh and for the outdoor activity segment, can it show spring, summer, fall, and winter info instead of just autumn info?
It's already showing autumn data? We're barely into summer! :o
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on July 05, 2009, 05:58:00 PM
I agree with tuez13 on that suggestion, but I also have a few small suggestions myself:

~I think it would be nice if the radars were changed to make them look more similar to the ones they used on wxscan
~If its not a lot of trouble, an option to go fullscreen would be cool (something like right-click|fullscreen )
~I also think it would be cool if you could put the actual voiceovers in, (not to say whoevers voice that was in there was bad :happy: ), but I  did manage to get my hands on a good quality version of the second voicever (The forecast for your area) if you wanted it, and maybe if you or someone else could find the first one (Your current condtions) and put them in, then that would be awesomel!  :dance:  :worship:
 
 Other than that I think the emulator is excellent!!  :clap:  :clap:


    I was was watching a video posted by Brian on youtube of an early version of the emualator and I think all of the radars in that video were almost exactly like the ones in the real wxscan, so I think maybe an option to choose between the radars that are currently in the emulator and the radars that were in the video would be nice.  :yes: Btw this is the video I was talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ6EUCD373Y# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ6EUCD373Y#)
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: Mike M on July 06, 2009, 12:38:46 AM
That is an old version of the radar that used to be on weather.com's Gold site. It was replaced awhile back with the new Virtual Earth-based radar that you see now. We don't have control over that, it was replaced by TWC.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on July 06, 2009, 09:43:13 AM
That is an old version of the radar that used to be on weather.com's Gold site. It was replaced awhile back with the new Virtual Earth-based radar that you see now. We don't have control over that, it was replaced by TWC.
What about the satellite radar with no overlay? Has that one been replaced as well?
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: cc17926 on July 09, 2009, 04:28:11 AM
i dont understand what you mean "with no overlay"..
when TWC transfered from the old maps to the new maps, my emulator seemlessly worked with the new maps without any configuration, as with them now being Bing maps!
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on July 09, 2009, 06:16:22 PM
I mean the radar in your video that appears around 1:50. I was asking if that one had been replaced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ6EUCD373Y# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ6EUCD373Y#)
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on August 09, 2009, 11:05:53 AM
I was reading another post and saw something about a satellite weatherscan to go with the emulator. I think thats an excellent idea and its not like you need my help at all but i have the image overlays for all of the regions that I scaled down to 640 x 480 if you wanted them. I didnt include "At a Glance" but I can do those too if you want. Here's a link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/2mzzxnmzdvn/WxScan%20Satellite.zip (http://www.mediafire.com/file/2mzzxnmzdvn/WxScan%20Satellite.zip) (I also inculed a txt file of how I think it works)  :biggrin:

Edit: Sorry the images were transparent before. I dont know how they lost their transparancy.
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: tuez13 on August 09, 2009, 11:10:26 AM
Very cool...thanks for posting that!  I loved that era of TWC. 
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on August 25, 2009, 06:42:51 PM
I have looked at all the weatherscan videos I could find and compared them to the emulator and I've still had a hard time of coming up with suggestions, but here is a compilation of any suggestions I could come up with:

-I think the font for the LAS bulletin is slightly different from what i could tell from the videos of WSL.

-On the "up next" screen, the package that the arrow pointed to was white and any other packages were yellow

-For the "36hr Forecast", (1.) It said a city name at the top instead of saying "National Weather Service"
(2.)I think the font of the forecast was different compared to the official WSL , including the size difference between the yellow text and the white text if that makes any sense (3.) Instead of saying "Saturday" or "Saturday Night", the real WSL just said "Tommorrow" or "Tommorrow Night"

-As for packages I noticed a Golf package and a package called Airport (not similar to "Aviation" currently in the emulator) if those packages could be implemented into the emulator. Here are some photos:
 (http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7582/99672986.th.png) (http://img188.imageshack.us/i/99672986.png/)(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8402/20874729.th.jpg) (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/20874729.jpg/)(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5240/45898931.th.jpg) (http://img188.imageshack.us/i/45898931.jpg/)

-And this is not a big deal at all but I usually run the emulator in fullscreen (aka 640x480 resolution) and the borders usually are just on one side of the screen so do you think you could make the border could be optional?

  :D
Title: Re: Suggestions
Post by: BOLT96 on April 25, 2010, 11:27:08 AM
UPDATE 4/25/10:
Alright, I have done some more research and I have more accurate suggestions. (Sorry I didnt just edit my last post but I wanted to go in full edit mode.)

My first suggestion is about the fonts. Now I believe weatherscan used the "Akzidenz Grotesk Medium" set for the fonts; Medium, Medium Condensed, and Medium Extended. I have created a few images in powerpoint using the fonts listed above.

In the CC picture below, I used Medium Extended for the clock, conditions on the left, and the city name.
(http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/5171/picture2kcx.th.png) (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/picture2kcx.png/)
 
In the second CC picture below, I also used Medium Extended for the city names.
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2553/picture1yhd.th.png) (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/picture1yhd.png/)

In the 36 hour picture below, I used Medium for the description, and Medium Extended for the city name and time of day.
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9366/picture3ns.th.png) (http://img99.imageshack.us/i/picture3ns.png/)

For the Almanac, I used Medium Extended for eveything besides the day of the week.
(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/28/picture4u.th.png) (http://img153.imageshack.us/i/picture4u.png/)

And for the intro screen, I used Medium Extended for the message.
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6646/picture0.th.png) (http://img10.imageshack.us/i/picture0.png/)

My only other suggestion right now is about the transitions. If you could slow down the faded transitions from slide to slide, and take out the black transitions when going from the Local Doppler to the CC, and Local Doppler to 36hr I think that would be better.