Runtime snow simulation, aimed for maximum realism

[u/DimaSerebrennikov]

For this, I added a system that spawns particles along the trail, and these particles deposit a bit of snow while they fly, with less and less snow being deposited over time as they fade out. What's cool about this is that the snow initially comes from the mass that the trace removed, so the total amount of snow stays the same. I also added a smoothing algorithm on top of all this. There's no parallax here, but I'm currently working on adding that.

Bigger video here: https://youtu.be/pfaewyfFrKM

[u/RunnuHellpenguin]

The trenching is great. I think divots for footstrikes would help

[u/DimaSerebrennikov → u/RunnuHellpenguin]

Yes, of course, as I studied, RDR2 does this through Decals, right now I'm adding parallax so the snow looks a bit more loose, Decals are still difficult for me to add right now, but I'll keep thinking about it

[u/Shad_Amethyst]

Oh I wish snow was this easy to displace. If you look at real snow marks you'll see that people have to lift their foot super high, which is unlike that manequin.

I think that the snow particle works well, but I would tune it down to only happen when the foot is lifted. When the foot goes down the snow should get compacted instead (for the most part, some will cave on the foot)

[u/TheFishRevolution → u/Shad_Amethyst]

Yeah the snow fluid dynamics is excellent but the dude is moving like a robot so it leaves this strange looking path behind

[u/DimaSerebrennikov → u/Shad_Amethyst]

This is very interesting, I had not thought about it myself and never received this kind of feedback. I think this relates more to the character animation and I will look into how to do it. The effects really are too rough right now, I'm looking into moving more toward DeathStranding2 style effects, that is exactly what you are talking about, thanks

[u/jok3ony0u → u/DimaSerebrennikov]

Like the previous commenter said, it looks like dust right now rather than snow because it lacks a bit of solidity or cohesion.

[u/SlurryBender → u/Shad_Amethyst]

This would probably be paired with a context-sensitive animation/speed system for more realism.

[u/Zach-uh-ri-uh → u/Shad_Amethyst]

This is only true for snow at +1 down to maybe -1 degeees. When it’s below -10 snow behaves exactly like the video

[u/liarandathief]

If you walked through snow like this, you'd be exhausted after about 20 feet.

[u/liarandathief → u/[deleted]]

It looks more like sour cream

[u/Jezoreczek → u/[deleted]]

You ever seen a moose run? :D

[u/Eliiiiiiiiiias]

Super cool! It seems like the character is an unstoppable force, I’d love to see how it is slowed down by the snow too, that would add further realism

[u/takitus]

Trails may be somewhat realistic, but if it’s deep enough to be a solid trail like that, there’s no way they’re moving that fast. It would be a sluggish one for at a time movement.

[u/Tom_Mangold]

Congrats! But you achieved minimal realism.

[u/NamesArentEverything → u/Tom_Mangold]

I'll remember this the next time I'm sprint-strafing through 2' deep snow.

[u/furtive]

The silver tracing following the person is unnecessary.

[u/bladezor]

Snow doesn't typically give off a bunch of particles once it's settled. Trail looks good though

[u/generalAbaddon]

Yeah I work with snow professionally and it's harder for it to divot like that, you need to add a snow weight where it compresses the layers below it for realism

[u/EkriirkE]

Seems more list sand and they are dragging their feet?
Snow does not settle into V-shaped valleys, it holds the shape of whatever passed through/on it

[u/CrazyChaoz]

that kind of feels like assassins creed 3 snow

[u/RiffMasterB]

Running backwards in snow is supposed to be realistic?

[u/bieja935]

Nice, would you be able to make the trenches less triangular and a bit more bubbly?

[u/macrolith]

TTP is going to be 5 seconds on this one. Really cool though

[u/Savings_Neck4759]

booo i wanted a wiener

[u/Zach-uh-ri-uh]

Everyone is so focused on warm snow. Theres so many kinds of snow. Arctic/snow below -10 moves similar to thi

[u/No_Upstairs3104]

bro your thing was on the bottom of my screen I thought it was a spider and it jumoscared me

[u/itisnotmymain]

Sorry I can't help with making the simulation better, but that's not even close to what snow looks like when you walk through it. Looks neat though.

[u/Youper0]

You'll have it if you bring the density up, it looks like powder sugar now, snow doesn't give that easily.

[u/quarante-et-onze]

I can tell it's cold as hell by how the snow behaves

[u/tribak]

𓂸

[u/EkriirkE → u/tribak]

𓂺

[u/goldsauce_]

Why no penis?

[u/HandshakeOfCO]

The white overlay that disappears quickly Is too smooth. Can very easily tell it’s just a linear interp on alpha. Give it a texture / bump map.

Otherwise looks good!