Utilizing Snow

[Radenska]

Hi, I'm working on a map right now that I want to try snow with. It's meant to be on a mountain summit or flat so as the elevation gets higher I'd like to add the snow.

Does anyone have any experience with making snow work in TF2 maps? Any tips and suggestions for lighting/bloom/textures?

Thanks for any help.

[Vander]

I'm curious about this as well. I'm planning a map that will use snow as well as ice....provided I can make the snow and ice look decent. Specifically, I'm looking to have something embedded in ice. Visibile to someone outside the ice.

[MangyCarface]

This would be "sort of" expensive, but try using env_embers brush entity with negative speeds so that they fall, and make sure the color is white. Set the ember type or whatever to pulled. Should look like snow.

Vander, try fooling around with a func_brush textured with one of the glasses. Use its render properties to make it more icy. Try rendermode world space glow with renderamt set around 190 and rendercolor a light blue. Place an env_smokestack inside of it at its bottom and make it very light blue in color. Give it high spread and no wind and it will shroud the ice brush in condensing water, make it look cold. Perhaps this would work?

Also, Radenska, there is a tutorial somewhere in the tut section about icy cliffs. Check it out.

[Spike]

Just use displacement tools and blend textures to create the snow. For making ice you can use a translucent texture with some bumpmapping.

[Vander]

Thanks Mangy, I'll give that a go. A bit advanced for me at this stage, but I have to start somewhere, right?

Spike's seems more simple, but I'm not sure if bumpmapped textures fit with the TF2 texture theme?

[Radenska]

Thanks for the advice. Mostly I want to stick as close to a TF2 feel as possible for consistency. I'll post some results when they come through.