Skip to content

Adding Snow and Ice

Currently, this feature is used in SnowRunner only.

This section is a summary of snow and ice creation. It links to other sections for details.

Snow and Ice Coverage

To create snow/ice coverage on the map:

  1. Create a PBR Material that contains the snow_layer. The snow_layer texture must be selected as Layer 3 of this material. Other layers are up to you, but probably you will want to select textures in a winter setting for them. See Assigning PBR Materials to Terrain and [5.3.1. Material properties] for details.

  2. Paint with Layer 3 (snow_layer) the areas of the map you want to cover with snow. See Assigning PBR Materials to Terrain and Material Properties for details.

  3. Using the Geometry > Snow brush, add the depth to the snow in the areas painted with the snow_layer. For more details, see Snow.
    After using this brush, perform Rebuild Terrain.

  4. Since you have painted snow depth in some areas, the Editor will consider that your map is snowy and will automatically display additional layers within the Brush available for your PBR Material. Particularly, you will see the soft_snow and crust_snow layers there (see Material Properties for details). Usage of these layers is the following:

    • soft_snow - soft snow, it is typically painted mainly in the areas that contain a forest, bushes, and a lot of plants.

    • crust_snow - compressed snow with hard lumps, it is typically painted along the edges of the road.

    NOTE: These layers change only the normal map of the snow_layer only. This is necessary to vary the snow appearance as described above. The results of painting with these layers cannot be seen in the Editor itself, but are visible in the game.

  5. Paint the necessary areas with the soft_snow and crust_snow layers.

  6. Now, if your map contains some hard surfaces (e.g. the winter asphalt, winter stone, ice) as layers of your PBR Material, you can make them icy by painting them with the Geometry > Wetness brush, see Wetness.

  7. When your level is considered snowy, you can also change the amount of procedural snow on the surfaces of models and terrain layers (except the snow layer itself). This is done with the help of the Procedural snow coverage parameter of the Terrain, see Terrain Properties.

  8. If you enable the Settings > Show Snow By Up Vector option in the main menu, you will view the snow cover effect for models and plants on the scene, according to their texture settings.

Frozen River and Lakes

Frozen rivers, lakes, and other ice surfaces are created as a terrain with the material containing either ice_01 or ice_02 texture as a layer. They are not created as regular River objects.

Falling Snow

Falling snow and other weather conditions are specified in the Daytime Presets, see Terrain Properties.