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Realistic Snow

Susi

Grizzled Veteran
Jan 31, 2008
457
295
Finland
Finally had time to draw how realistic snow should be
made.

doublelayerground.jpg


I think it would work quite well?
 
Depends on what kind of snow it is? If its drift/powder snow one would just sink and disapper into it ^^
If its -20 - -50 the surface would freeze to something resembleing to ice, That would actually almost become an effort to break through this layer..

I get the idea but.. If you are able to walk through snow soft enough to reach your knees, if you throw yourself down onto it you will not "Float", You will simply end up in a hole of soft snow.

That is atlest my 22 years of experience with snow xD
 
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YouTube - Snow Storm Spokane WA Playing in the snow

YouTube - JUMP IN THE SNOW

No you dont, that looks like really light powder snow,
but still they dont sunk in to ground.

Also, snow doesnt never freeze. Water on top of snow
does. Which means that there need to be first
something like +10 celsius to melt top of snow to water
and then -25 to freeze it to ice.

Which doesnt happen so often. So i dont think
that steel snow we have use to ingames is realistic
either.
 
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No you dont, that looks like really light powder snow,
but still they dont sunk in to ground.

Also, snow doesnt never freeze. Water on top of snow
does. Which means that there need to be first
something like +10 celsius to melt top of snow to water
and then -25 to freeze it to ice.

Which doesnt happen so often. So i dont think
that steel snow we have use to ingames is realistic
either.

*coughs* I never ment that they sink to the ground, but you made a decent hole in the snow that you "disapper" into. Deep enough for someone to vanish into if they put their head down. (seen from someones perspective 50-100 meters ahead)
You do not float ontop of the snow =/ You sink down into it.

But fair enough, *raises the white flag and submits*
Something in the middle of those two drawings I'd say, but for the sake of simplicity of a game, land ontop it is.
 
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You are going to sink in, even the people in thouse vids you posted do.

You won't sink all the way to the bottom of deep snow when lying down, no, it's a matter of ground preasure, lying down your weight is dispersed over a much larger surface area, whereas when walking, only the surface area of your foot carries all the weight, and thus you sink deeper when walking.
 
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The people in the video run from shallow to deep snow. If you watch closely, they do sink into the snow when running(more visible in the second video). Also, the conditions have to be just right for your scenario to be possible. IMO this is too rare for it to be implemented.

I would have nothing against running slower in snow in the game. Gameplaywise it would be cool if people have a reason to use roads instead of big snowy fields.
 
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Oki raises hands up and wave white flag. :(

Somebody else can tell better idea how to do it!

Because 3d-computer world doesnt understand
mass, only it has is a surfaces. So beetween ground
and snow surface, there is nothing. And my idea is
a keep your view point over surfaces allways.

Also if you could go under snow, you could easily
prone to gap, and anybody couldnt find you.

And, no engine cant live draw a hole in that point where
you are.

But steel snow where you dont sink at all even when walking is heck
rare. And that kind of steel snow where tanks doesnt
sink doesnt even exist.
 
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I think Unreal endgine 3 is a bit too limited to make realistic snow. You could try making 2 ground layers, one nodraw(or ground) that you walk on and 1 textured that resembels snow. But this would be too complex and would still not look good enough.
If you got the Source SDk you can try making snow like this using "brushes", but its kinda sheap.
 
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for this to be done *properly* players would have to impact the snow and leave behind markings ( quick comerades make snow angels to protect us from the evil germans!!!). Grenades would need to disturb the snow , probably making a small crater in the snow. and the differences in hardness and age of snow would need to be accounted for. Snow hardens after sitting for a while, those who have made a Quincey know that it does not require warm weather to melt the snow, but a few days for it to set before it is hard enough to carve into a shelter ( the much easier version of an igloo).

I'd rather see this done right instead of done cheaply, so its something I look forward to in future games but I am not crossing my fingers for it yet.
 
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As Knighted said, the kinds of features you guys are asking for require technology to be in a more refined state than it is today.

All I'd like to see is realistic snow "crunching" when you walk through it, snowy grenade blasts and artillery hits, and realistic looking falling snow, if it's being used. I really loved how CoD2 did snow effects in the Russian singleplayer campaign. It really did feel "cold" somehow when you played it.
 
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guys, use some common sense. they aren't going to model snow. they're going to simulate it by making sprites that fall from the sky and snowy ground textures with bump mapping, they aren't going to create two layers of terrain for you with ballistic properties of their own.
 
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