What’s new
To everyone who used the initial release, you will notice several extremely useful new features included in the first free update. You can now:
- Use collections as geometry and collision source
- Detect overhangs for more realistic distribution
- Control snow depth and resolution
- Added more detailed controls
Let’s take a closer look at these new features and what you can do with them.
Collection as Source
Right at the top of the Geometry Nodes instance, you will see a new set of inputs. The first is a toggle to enable using separate collections as your geometry and collision sources. It will then combine the objects in those collections and use them instead of the source object mesh.
The new recommended workflow is to add a “SNOW” collection to all objects you want to effect, then add a simple mesh somewhere in your scene as your snow effector. This simple mesh is where you will add the Geometry Nodes instance, selecting your collection as source and unchecking “Show Source” below.
In the future, you can then select this mesh to make changes to snow properties for the entire collection.
For greater control, optimization, or simplification you can also add simplified bounding box objects into a “SNOW_COLLIDE” collection and then use that instead as your collide target.
Overhang Detection
Another exciting new feature is Overhang Detection, which will now prevent areas that are shaded from receiving as much or any snow compared to areas in the open air.
Snow Depth
It is now possible to add more layers and displace them vertically to give your snow meshes more depth. The previous version did not simulate large snowfalls very well, so this should help with showing those conditions.
While this feature can work very well, there are some edge cases where it will lead to artifacts and poor performance. There are a few settings in “Additional Features” that should help with tuning your setup, but be prepared to make some adjustments.
Additional Features
Minimum Size
This new setting lets you cull snow points under a certain radius. This is extremely useful to clean up isolated islands and noisy edges.
Noise Scale
Allows you to set the scale of the noise used to randomize snow, helping to prevent uniform and flat surfaces.
Noise Factor
Change the strength of snow randomization based on the noise set in the previous property.
View the full list of features and what they do here: Simple Snow 2 – Feature Overview
Tavern .blend file used above is available under a CC-0 license from here: https://www.blendswap.com/blend/28068
J.W. Sargent 