Rain rendering

[zoot]

A few ideas for how our rain particles could be improved:

(Note that YouTube has garbled the resolution, so the effect in the demos doesn't look anywhere near as good as it would in real-time.)

IMO it's particularly interesting how the particles without proper environment lightning essentially looks like snow.

Paper and hi-res video here.

Edited August 13, 2012 by zoot

[historic_bruno]

How would it compare with this simple concept? Basically applying animated textures to a cone, centered on the player's camera, with some calculations for camera movement.

[zoot]

How would it compare with this simple concept? Basically applying animated textures to a cone, centered on the player's camera, with some calculations for camera movement.

I believe the main difference is that the technique in the video simulates lightning comparable to raytracing. Without that, you won't get the distinctive prism-like optics that raindrops have, and so they will look more artificial or snow-like.