Mitch-Seasonal Effects Hub 2.19.0 Beta
- Author Mitchy71
- Creation date
Seasonal Effects Hub — 2.19.0 Beta Released!
This is one of the biggest upgrades yet — your forum now reacts to the time of day, the weather, and even the sky above.
NEW DAY / NIGHT SYSTEM — FULLY LIVE!
Your forum now changes personality depending on the time:
Day Mode Enhancements
Soft atmospheric tinting
New sun sprite with subtle animation
Optional daytime airplanes that fly across the screen (image-based, not CSS!)
Beautiful animated moon glow effect
True starfield background with density control (Low / Medium / High)
Optional orbiting satellites that traverse the screen for a dynamic night sky
Night brightness control — adjust how dark nighttime should appear
Your community will literally see the forum “go to sleep” and “wake up” with the world.
🌦 Smarter Weather Effects
The weather overlay has been upgraded across the board:
Improved Condition Detection
Mist, haze, smoke, and similar conditions now intelligently switch to Clouds when cloud cover is high.
No more “always stuck on mist.”
More Realistic Visual Layers
Updated fog behavior
Improved cloud sprites
Smoother transitions between weather states
Mini Forecast Panel Enhanced
The forecast overlay at the top now displays cleaner condition labels and formatting.
Winter Snow Improvements
Snow accumulation system started (experimental)
Cleaner snow fade-in/out behavior
Upgraded snowflake animations
🛠 Under-the-Hood Improvements
Template cleanup & performance tweaks
Better handling of geolocation errors
Reduced overlay stacking to eliminate ghost elements
What’s Coming Next
More realistic snow-bank buildup
Melt cycle
Better shape-mapped snow at the bottom of the screen
Additional plane & satellite variations
Weather-specific soundscapes (if you want them)
Release Notes – Seasonal Effects Suite Update: Day/Night Mode + Weather Forecast Overlay
Concise Version (Short + User-Friendly)
New Features
Automatic Day/Night Mode
Forum visuals now adapt to local time or real sunrise/sunset data from OpenWeather.
Includes smooth ambient lighting, moon/sun overlays, and configurable brightness levels.
Enhanced Night Environment
Added dynamic twinkling stars across the entire screen and optional moon image overlay.
Weather Forecast Overlay (NEW!)
The OpenWeather API now displays real weather conditions, temperature, and location directly on the forum.
Supports rain, snow, fog, clouds, and clear skies with matching animations + image sprites.
Improvements
Seasonal effects and weather effects now coexist seamlessly without visual overlap.
New admin options for brightness, color depth, and effect intensity.
Performance optimizations reduce CPU load across all animated overlays.
Fixes
Weather and holiday effects no longer override each other.
Adjusted brightness levels to prevent overly dark night mode.
Full Detailed Release Notes (Professional / Developer-Focused)
Major Feature Additions
A brand-new system that adjusts the forum’s atmosphere based on:
Local system time
Automatic sunrise/sunset using OpenWeather
Manual override (Force Day / Force Night)
Features include:
Soft global tinting for both day & night.
Night sky populated with animated, randomized twinkling stars across the entire viewport.
Optional image-based moon and sun overlays replacing CSS shapes.
Fully integrated with all existing Seasonal & Weather overlays.
CSS brightness tuned to preserve forum readability while still giving an immersive night ambience.
2. Weather Forecast Overlay (Powered by OpenWeather API)
Users now see a small, elegant weather forecast label, showing:
Current temperature
City / location
Weather description (e.g., “Light Rain”, “Overcast Clouds”)
The overlay automatically syncs with the animated weather effects.
Supported conditions:
Rain (CSS raindrops + image sprites)
Fog/Mist (CSS fog + optional fog icons)
Clear skies (sunburst effect + sun icon)
All conditions scale with the global Intensity Setting.
Enhancements & Improvements
Night Mode Visual Upgrades
Expanded starfield now covers the entire viewport, not just upper header.
More natural star twinkling with randomized timing + variable brightness.
Reduced background darkening to improve content visibility.
New Admin Options
Day/Night mode toggle & override
Brightness control for night shading
Enable/disable moon + sun image overlays
Custom star density selector
OpenWeather API style (CSS-only vs. image-enhanced overlays)
Performance Improvements
All overlays now use optimized DOM batching.
Reduced layout thrashing by consolidating animations.
Improved visibility checks to prevent off-screen animations from wasting resources.
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue where weather icons would not render if holiday effects were disabled.
Corrected layering so stars and weather effects no longer disappear behind XenForo UI elements.
Adjusted z-index relationships across all effect types for consistent behavior.
Fixed over-darkening of night mode on some themes.
Ensured fallback behavior when OpenWeather API returns errors.
Developer Notes
Fully backwards compatible with all previous versions.
Template updated with new modular regions for easier overrides.
All star, moon, and sun overlays autogenerate on DOM load for max compatibility.
Weather forecast supports graceful failure messaging when API conditions are invalid.
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
🌫 Fog/mist haze layers
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
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!
Version 2.12.0
This update is the biggest upgrade yet — bringing full automation, international holiday support, customizable effects, and a brand-new intensity system.
The add-on can now automatically enable the correct holiday effect based on the current date — no manual switching required.
New holiday themes with unique animations & overlays:
Lunar New Year
Diwali
Eid (Eid Mubarak)
Pride Month
Canada Day
Each includes:
3 themed floating icons
Custom animations
Holiday text overlay
Unique themed overlay backgrounds
Added Veterans Day
A respectful animated theme dedicated to honoring veterans.
Admins can now create their own holiday theme directly from the ACP.
Includes:
Custom display name
3 user-defined icons
Custom CSS injection
Automatic integration into the main effect template
Perfect for regional holidays, community events, or branding effects.
A brand-new setting that dynamically scales every effect:
Low
Medium (Default)
High
Adjusts:
Number of icons
Spawn rate
Animation duration
Speed multipliers
Works with all holiday themes, including custom ones.
All 3 winter snow styles were updated to support:
Intensity scaling
Better animation randomness
More natural falling patterns
Code Quality & Fixes
Fixed template issues preventing holiday switching
Improved consistency across animation timing & sizes
Added separate overlays for each holiday for better atmosphere
Ensured all effects run on DOMContentLoaded for reliability
Cleaned up CSS opacity, blending modes, and glow effects
ACP enhancements to prevent save buttons from disappearing
Added missing option definitions & fixed database syncing issues
Improved error handling in auto-selector listener
New listener added: templater_setup for automatic holiday switching
New option set added under Seasonal Effects group
JSON files updated & synced for XF 2.3.7 compatibility
Entire add-on tested against XenForo 2.3.7 with no template conflicts
Seasonal Effects Hub – Animated Holiday Themes for Your XenForo Community
Bring your forum to life with beautiful seasonal animations!
Looking to add some holiday flair to your XenForo forum?
Seasonal Effects Hub is a lightweight, customizable add-on that adds animated effects for multiple holidays throughout the year — all selectable from the Admin Control Panel.
Perfect for creating atmosphere, running events, or adding a festive touch during special times of the year.
Choose from three different snow styles:
Add a romantic vibe with floating heart animations, now using customizable heart images.
- Light gentle snow
- Heavy drifting snow
- Magical sparkly winter overlay
Celebrate the fall season with drifting autumn leaves using real leaf images.
Spookify your forum with animated flying bats and a subtle Halloween glow overlay.
More holidays coming soon!
Choose the current holiday effect via:
ACP → Setup → Options → Seasonal Effects Hub
Available choices:
- None (Disabled)
- Winter / Christmas
- Valentine’s Day
- Thanksgiving
- Halloween
Some holidays have multiple variations (like the 3 winter modes).
You can choose the effect style under the same option group.
The add-on overlays effects without modifying any templates.
- Pure CSS/JS
- No dependencies
- Performs well on modern devices
- Non-intrusive overlay design
- Upload the contents of the ZIP to your XenForo root.
- Go to ACP → Add-ons → Install from archive
- Choose the ZIP and click Install
- Go to Setup → Options → Seasonal Effects Hub
- Select your holiday effect and enjoy!
You can easily swap out the default images:
Just upload your images into:
- Winter snowflakes (optional)
- Valentine’s hearts (heart1.png, heart2.png, etc.)
- Thanksgiving leaves (leaf1.png, leaf2.png, etc.)
- Halloween bats (bat1.png, bat2.png, etc.)
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The add-on will automatically rotate through them.
- Complete holiday effects system
- Admin option group + effect selectors
- Seasonal overlays
- Image-based animations
- Modular code designed for easy expansion
- New holidays (Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, New Year’s)
- Date-based auto switching
- Per-user toggles (allow users to disable effects)
- ACP preview system
- Intensity / performance controls
Developed by Mitch McLean
Created with love for the XenForo community.
