Custom Cloud Layer

Write your own cloud layer, a high peach-coloured haze that shows in any weather, and draw it in your world. The guide has five steps.

What you need

• The clouds running in your world (Clouds: on in /ms atmosphere info), see Setting Up Clouds.
• A cloud quality other than off for the player who checks the result (/cloudquality shows it).
• The mythicseasons.admin permission (operators have it).

Paths are relative to plugins/MythicSeasons.

Step 1: Pick a type

Use the type noise, a steady pattern that shows in any weather. The other types read the weather (simulated, surface-humidity, humidity, surface-wind and outflow) or draw only the patches of a shape (none), see Layer Types.

Step 2: Copy a shipped file

Copy cloud-layers/mars-ice.yml, the shipped noise layer, to cloud-layers/high-haze.yml. The file name is the layer's name. It may use a-z, 0-9, _ and -, and capitals are read as small letters.

Replace the content of the copy with this:

type: noise
color: "FFD9B3"
opacity: 0.35
coverage: 1.0
visible-from-inside: false
voxel-height: 8
min-y: 264
thickness: 24
noise-scale: 400.0
noise-seed: 77

• Only type is required. Other keys take their defaults, which the shipped cloud-layers/cumulus.yml lists.
• color is six hex digits (RRGGBB) in quotes: unquoted, YAML reads 000000 as a number and #FFD9B3 as a comment.
• opacity is 1.0 for solid cubes and 0.1 to 0.99 for see-through ones.
• coverage is how much of the sky the pattern fills, 0.2 to 2.
• visible-from-inside: false draws one surface, enough for a high layer. The default true also draws the inside faces, about twice as many.
• voxel-height: 8 makes rows 8 blocks high. The nearest cubes keep the default voxel-size of 32 in width.
• min-y: 264 and thickness: 24 make a flat band from about y264, three rows of 8. Choose a min-y above your terrain: without min-y a band sits below the world and draws nothing.
• noise-scale: 400.0 is the patch size in blocks, and noise-seed: 77 picks the pattern.

Step 3: Select the layer

Add the layer to clouds.layers in atmosphere.yml. Keep cumulus first, so it stays the first solid layer, the one players can be inside:

clouds:
  layers: [cumulus, high-haze]

Write a YAML list: a string such as "cumulus, high-haze" is read as one name that matches no file.

To draw the layer in one world only, keep layers: [cumulus] at the top and put the new list in that world's block:

worlds:
  resource_world:
    clouds:
      layers: [cumulus, high-haze]

Step 4: Reload

Run:

/ms reload

Chat shows Reloaded and Biome file changes need a restart (the second line after every reload). The layer needs no restart.

Step 5: Verify

Run this in the world (from the console, add the world name):

/ms atmosphere profile

Your layer is listed with its opacity:

Layer high-haze (see-through 0.35)

Below it, each number setting of your file gets a line such as opacity 0.35 (cloud-layers/high-haze.yml). Cloud layers: none means the world is not switched on or the list is empty.

Look up: a see-through band of cubes in your colour sits high above the terrain. Then run:

/ms atmosphere stats

The Renderer: line ends with the number of faces each layer draws for you:

layers cumulus <n>, high-haze <m>

high-haze shows a number above 0 once the layer is built around you.

Tune the look

Change a value in cloud-layers/high-haze.yml and run /ms reload again.

Each layer adds cloud faces for every player who sees it, so avoid many layers, small voxel-size values and long max-distance values. See Layer Options for every setting.

If the layer does not show

A deleted shipped layer file comes back at the next load. To stop drawing a shipped layer, remove its name from clouds.layers.

Next steps

• Layers explains how layers stack and how a season, world or profile changes one.
• Built-in Layers and Shapes cover the shipped layers and streaks, hooks and veils on a band.