Well... if you add it to races, you should set the entire server to rainy weather
Exactly my idea when i read yours.
It also would be epic to be able to adjust the weather (for normal players), even if it's just for the duration of a race. It would make them feel a little less retarded )
I can't follow. Who feels retarded because they have no influence on the weather?
I believe we are splitting hairs.
To be able to discuss a matter to practical extent it is necessary that the matter is fully understood though.
Hands of the clock are practically exclusive to our server; a very large majority simply lock the time at 12:00. The benefits of this feature outweigh the inability to effectively navigate on 1/8th of the playable map for five minutes out of every twenty-four.
The use of this time system on littlewhitey's has historical reasons. For once, there are two options to set the time on the server, SetWorldTime and SetPlayerTime. Obviously, SetWorldTime sets the time for the entire server population, and is also the time you can see in the SA-MP browser. SetPlayerTime is able to set a time for a single player.
Both only set the atmospheric daytime, but do not generate a clock textdraw that will enable the player to see the time.
To have such a textdraw there are two ways: Build a textdraw, show it to the player and update it with every update of the server time. Or use the built-in native SA clock textdraw using TogglePlayerClock.
Using the native clock has a simple advantage - it interpolates daytime. Updating the daytime using SetWorldTime or SetPlayerTime can only be done at a maximum precision of one second. Both functions only allow SA time to be set by hours and minutes - which we know equal minutes and seconds in real time.
Using these to update world time without having player clocks enabled on the clients will lead to daylight being updated chunky, which results in a 'jumpy' experience. The sun and the shadows will wander around the map in small 'ticks' like the seconds indicator of a clockwork.
As soon as the player clock is enabled for a player though, the client's clock will receive the time update and will then update the clock client-side with full floating point precision, using it's local system time, generating a smooth transition between daylight positions. The time does practically not run on the server anymore, but on the clients - which makes the day-night-cycle more realistic.
This, of course, only makes sense if the server has an actual day-night-cycle. Servers who lock their time simply use SetWorldTime once the server starts and maybe one SetPlayerTime once a player joins - if even.
As LW used the first ever and also standard gamemode that came and still comes with SA-MP, it's tradition was to come as close as possible to the singleplayer experience, which does incorporate a few basics as the day-night-cycle, the money drops, etc.
And as far as racing is concerned: track knowledge is the key to success