Custom Micro Pattern

The micro patterns rely on two main features:

• A background
• GRIB Smoothing

The GRIB Smoothing is not a problem, and the value it can take are now available in the pattern editor.
The problem can come from the backgrounds. Up to now, they refer to an image, part of a jar, accessed through a getResource() method.
In order for the user to be able to come up with his own patterns, there is now "protocol" for the background.

Click the image to enlarge it. Notice in the fax URL (a background is just a non-transparent fax), it begins with ext-resource://.
Whatever is after that is the URL of the image you want to set as a background. In this case, it is picked up in the resources directory. But it can come from the web as well, it just has to begin with http://...
Notice beside the "Projection" drop down list, you now also have the possibility not to display the chart contour.
The GRIB smoothing parameters we talked about before are the 2 last parameters at the bottom of the dialog displayed above.

Micro Patterns

Combining the chart backgrounds and the GRIB smoothing, we can come up with a local pattern, which can actually make some sense, specially for local conditions (wind and kite surfers might be interested).

The image above is the display of the following request:

  GFS:42N,32N,128W,116W|1,1|0,3..168|PRMSL,WIND,HGT500

It is displayed with a GRIB 2D smoothing of 6 (cells are 10x10 nm) and a time smoothing of 3 (one frame every hour). The total time is one week, that makes 168 frames.
At the entrance of the San Francisco Bay, the wind goes from WSW on Wednesday at 06:00 UTC, to South and 12:00 UTC, to North on Friday at 00:00 UTC. Interesting...
This feature - and the associated background - will be available soon, in the next patch version of the software.