Rain

[Garmax]

so i was reading through the recent post which was locked for resugesting rain, so i went to look up the videos they were talking about one trying out a new particle effect in CA, the other the new rain from FH2

a problem they stated was FH2's rain was visible through buildings.. but in the videos, inside the building rain is not visible. anyone tried this out themselves?

[Rudd]

thats really interesting to me, as according to a couple of screenies, it seems to still go horizontal if you look up in Fh2, thats pretty neat.

[Leopardi]

No it doesn't rain inside.

[Bringerof_D]

we need that rain. if it works out make sure to make it a bit thicker though right now it seems like a light shower falling on days where there's still blue sky and sun its just little patches of cloud raining if you get what i mean.

on another note we also need those cars which run indefinitely until brakes are applied, that way we dont need to keep tapping keys to inch forward. it would also feel more like a real car v(will there be working windshield wipers?)

[crazy11]

a problem they stated was FH2's rain was visible through buildings.. but in the videos, inside the building rain is not visible. anyone tried this out themselves?

The rain in FH2 goes sideways if you look up so it actually looks pretty bad.

we need that rain. if it works out make sure to make it a bit thicker though right now it seems like a light shower falling on days where there's still blue sky and sun its just little patches of cloud raining if you get what i mean.

We cant make it thicker because it is already too close to the particle limit.

[Bringerof_D]

The rain in FH2 goes sideways if you look up so it actually looks pretty bad.




We cant make it thicker because it is already too close to the particle limit.

oh well, i guess then we could just lower the view distance on that specific map to give it the feeling that it's thicker

[sniperrocks]

I think the rain is great, considering the fact the that there is a particle limit
IMO, the biggest problem is that the ground, vehicles and buildings look dry, which really makes it feel like it's not actually raining :S

EDIT: Well actually, on second look, it actually kinda looks like fast falling snow
maybe a bit more transparent xD but good job!

[torenico]

The rain in FH2 goes sideways if you look up so it actually looks pretty bad.

Uhm yeah, but FH2s rain is 2D, while CA Rain is 3D i guess.

So in theory, 2D Rain would reduce lag, while 3D Lag would increment it.

And also the FH2 rain you can make pretty heavy torments, i asked for heavier rain on this forum using CAs system, my reply was "Would lag alot".

I might be wrong..

[master of the templars]

Rain in most games looks **** when looking up, luckily its pretty rare for a player to do this.

[dpq06]

rain sounds like lag to me. But still looks awesome.

[Hunt3r]

If the R-DEVs can find a way to get rain in PR, then that's just dandy.

[Killer-Ape]

rain sounds like lag to me. But still looks awesome.

Rain might actually improve your fps if it makes a fog, you know fog of war

[torenico]

Actually that Actoville map is awesome, Rain + Thunder makes it ace.

I dont care if the rain falls Horizontally when you look up, but atleast it doesnt rain inside buildings.

[Shaihuluid]

The video looks very nice. EOD 2 has working rain, doesn't it?

[BloodBane611]

Fog distance on maps with vehicles is at least 300 meters, no amount of rain will allow you to go below that because you'll end up with the sound bug. That's a fairly serious limitation, and there's no real way around it, short of having no vehicles.

[Rudd]

Fog distance on maps with vehicles is at least 300 meters, no amount of rain will allow you to go below that because you'll end up with the sound bug. That's a fairly serious limitation, and there's no real way around it, short of having no vehicles.

well you can set the view distance as more than 300 but the fog nearer, though that is very inefficient resource wise

[BloodBane611]

well you can set the view distance as more than 300 but the fog nearer, though that is very inefficient resource wise

You make a good point. I should have said that no reasonable amount of rain will make it possible to decrease the number of statics you need to load in order to not get the sound bug.

[Sniperdog]

We cant make it thicker because it is already too close to the particle limit.

I had this idea back when I didn't know as much about textures in bf2 but this reminded of it so I think I'll try it again now that I know quite a bit more...

But first a little background...

The reason the Rain in EoD and whatever other mods tried to use it looks horizontal is because the rain itself is a bunch of big rectangle textures falling down. The textures are always perpendicular to you like so:








Looking at it straight on it looks very thick (just multiply the texture by like 10)




BUT when you look at it while its above you it will like like a bunch of really wide strings of rain:



ALSO when you are inside buildings you can see the bottom half of the texture as it hangs through the roof. Because it is a particle the center of the texture is what decides when it disappears after hitting a building:



Combined Arms divided the texture into a bunch of smaller textures:



This fixed the looking up problem:



and the building problem:



But the main problem was of course particle count. You can only have so many of these rain drops...

My solution you ask? A combination of these two ideas with a little pizaz (lol)


A texture like so with circular drops that only occupy the top of the texture...



Of course when multiplied the top half of the texture thing becomes redundant...



When looking up you will no longer see the horizontal streaks...



(and when multiplied)



and the reason for the only the top half of the texture thing: no building leakage...



And of course no more particle count issues either...

My solution ain't perfect but its highly configurable and solves quite a few of the problems involved.


But avast, less talk more action (scurries off to the lab)

ps. I'm a big fan of paint...

[H.sta]

It might be becouse i was listening to song while reading this, but I read it as if it was a story, it was a happy story... i kind of liked it.

nice paint skills

but wouldn't it rain iside the building if you were to look down while inside?

[Sniperdog]

but wouldn't it rain iside the building if you were to look down while inside?

No... The particles die when they hit the roof so there wouldn't be any beneath you to see...

and before someone asks me an identical question about looking up

A. with a flat roof you wouldnt see it because the rain would be flush with the roof, if you look at an angle you would still only see half of the texture, but of course the empty bottom half.

B. You could possibly see it if you looked straight up with a sloped roof and turned facing the lower part but only for brief instants when the rain were to hit the right spot... not a huge issue imo.