View source for How to determine the season of the terrain

{{Infobox-Applicable-FSVersion
| FSXI = false
| FSXA = true
| FSX = true
| FS2004 = true
| FS2002 = true
| FS2000 = unknown
| FS98 = unknown
}}

== Introduction ==

In the [[Seasonal_textures | seasonal textures]] tutorial it is described how you can code seasonal changes for your object. As an improvement over using the 6F8 variable it is mentioned there that you can also check the day of the year. But how can you find the correct dates for the changes of the season in your area?

==== TMF Viewer ====

To do so you will need to use TMFViewer, which comes with the Terrain SDK. In the TMFViewer open the file seasons.bgl, which you will find in scenery\base\scenery. Using View -> Seasons you can now switch between the 12 seasons (months) that the default terrain scenery uses. The colours represent the season used at a certain location.

Below you see 12 images attached for the northwestern part of Europe. The colors match the seasons like this:
<PRE>SP yellow
SU green
FA red
WI grey
HW white</PRE>

The last remaining link before you can start coding is the days at which the different seasons start. The table below lists the start and end dates of the different seasons for FS2002 and FS2002:

<PRE>Season  Start   038A    End     038A
1       15/Jan  15      14/Feb  45
2       15/Feb  46      17/Mar  76
3       18/Mar  77      17/Apr  107
4       18/Apr  108     18/May  138
5       19/May  139     18/Jun  169
6       19/Jun  170     19/Jul  200
7       20/Jul  201     19/Aug  231
8       20/Aug  232     19/Sep  262
9       20/Sep  263     20/Oct  293
10      21/Oct  294     20/Nov  324
11      21/Nov  325     21/Dec  355
12      22/Dec  356     14/Jan  14</PRE>

For FSX the values are:

<PRE>Season  Start   038A    End     038A
1       1/Jan   1       31/Jan  31
2       1/Feb   32      28/Feb  59
3       1/Mar   60      31/Mar  90
4       1/Apr   91      30/Apr  120
5       1/May   121     31/May  151
6       1/Jun   152     30/Jun  181
7       1/Jul   182     31/Jul  212
8       1/Aug   213     31/Aug  243
9       1/Sep   244     30/Sep  273
10      1/Oct   274     31/Oct  304
11      1/Nov   305     30/Nov  334
12      1/Dec   335     31/Dec  365</PRE>

If I take a place at the left bottom of the images attached, this would for example lead to the following days for the seasons:

<PRE> 77-169 spring
170-262 summer
263-324 fall
325- 76 winter</PRE>

As you see this area does not have HW by default. You can now use these days to code the seasonal changes, as described in [[Seasonal_textures | this]] tutorial.

[[Image:season1.jpg|thumb|left|Season 1]] [[Image:season2.jpg|thumb|left|Season 2]] [[Image:season3.jpg|thumb|left|Season 3]] [[Image:season4.jpg|thumb|left|Season 4]] [[Image:season5.jpg|thumb|left|Season 5]] [[Image:season6.jpg|thumb|left|Season 6]] [[Image:season7.jpg|thumb|left|Season 7]] [[Image:season8.jpg|thumb|left|Season 8]] [[Image:season9.jpg|thumb|left|Season 9]] [[Image:season10.jpg|thumb|left|Season 10]] [[Image:season11.jpg|thumb|left|Season 11]] [[Image:season12.jpg|thumb|left|Season 12]]

[[Category:Scenery_Design]]
[[Category:Terrain_Design]]