Seasonal Effects Hub — Version 2.15.0 Beta
Massive Update: Live Weather Effects + Stability Improvements
This release is one of the biggest updates yet, expanding the addon beyond holidays and into dynamic, real-time environmental effects. Your forum can now automatically display rain, snow, fog, sunshine, and cloud animations based on each visitor’s actual location and weather conditions.
🌦 New Feature: Live Weather Overlay System
When no seasonal holiday is active, the addon can now fall back to a beautiful animated weather system powered by OpenWeather.
Based on the visitor’s current conditions, your forum will now display:
🌧 Rain effects
Snowfall
🌫 Fog/mist haze layers
Drifting clouds
Sunbeam/clear skies effect
This includes:
Dynamic intensity scaling (uses the existing effects intensity setting)
Animated environment layers
Smart condition detection (rain, snow, fog, clouds, clear)
Real-time location-based weather fetching
A small weather label tag (temperature + location + condition)
Example label:
61° · San Jose · Clear Sky
To enable this:
ACP → Options → Seasonal Effects Hub → Live Weather Overlay
You must add your OpenWeather API Key (free and paid plans supported).
Visual Quality Improvements
This update also includes numerous refinements:
Better layering and blending for cloud and fog effects
Improved performance on mobile devices
Cleaned and optimized CSS animations
More stable rendering in Safari and Firefox
Updated snowflake + fog visuals for realism
Core Addon Enhancements
Added extra safety checks for geolocation permissions
Improved fallback handling when API keys are invalid
Added helpful on-screen error states (e.g., Weather: API key missing, Weather: location denied, Weather: fetch error)
Optimized script timing to prevent layout shifts
Improved responsiveness on high-refresh displays
Reduced CPU footprint during background animations
🛠 Bug Fixes
Fixed template behavior when no holiday is selected
Fixed label sometimes not showing under dark themes
Resolved several small JavaScript errors during weather fetch
Fixed edge-case where addon may activate too early on slow devices
Upgrade Notes
After uploading this new version:
Upgrade via ACP or CLI
Verify your Weather API Key is entered
Ensure geolocation is allowed (browser prompts the visitor)
Zip file is included as usual through XenForo’s release builder.
Thank You!
This addon continues to grow into a full dynamic visual experience for XenForo communities — holidays, seasons, and now real-world environment effects.
More upgrades are coming, including:
Animated sunrise/sunset cycles
Wind-based particle simulation
Full 7-day forecast themes
Storm effects
Stay tuned — and enjoy the new update!
