We hope all of you had a merry Christmas with your loved ones and a happy new years eve! Of course we have continued our efforts to offer you the best possible SNOW experience. That's why we have a new update for you that brings especially new visual changes. We completely reworked the lighting and environment values in SNOW resulting in several new CRYENGINE features utilized in the game like volumetric fog and clouds that dynamically impact the 24-hour lighting cycle featured in SNOW.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric Clouds
Dynamic 24 hour day / night cycle
Four different environment presets
Level design changes to improve immersiveness
Realtime lighting enhancements
New features
- Cycle through the environment moods clear, sunny, foggy and snowy using "p" on your keyboard
- Enable or disable your headlight using "t" on your keyboard
General Visuals
- Complete real-time lighting rework
- Global Illumination (SVOGI)
- Screen Space Shadows (SSS)
- Volumetric Fog
- Volumetric Clouds
- 4 new environment moods: clear, sunny, foggy and snowy
- Added variable wind to every level and weather setting
- Added vegetation bending caused by wind
- Updated most of the legacy terrain textures and materials
- Added multiple new terrain textures and materials
- Updated all legacy lighting prefabs
- Updated most legacy materials to better fit the new PBR setup
- Improved draw distances, LODs and vegetation in every level in order to improve performance and to prevent assets from popping in
- Added lens flares to bright light casters that face the camera
System
- Fixed a shader issue causing decals below a certain height not to draw
- "Fetch Data" now keeps experience and player level if the local one is higher than the backend
Level Improvements
Suzuki Nine Knights
- Reworked the start area of the level
- Reworked the ski lift areas
- Removed all spectators
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Updated Environment System
- Removed Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated, added and removed some roads and pathways
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Placed more lights around the level for better night guidance
- Removed unnecessary ambient lights
- Relocated some assets
- Added more decals, optimized their view distances
- Updated LoDs and draw distances for all world assets
B&E
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Placed more lights around the level
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Reworked the hotel area (still WIP)
- Used area lights to illuminate individual background houses and apartments
- Updated, added and removed some roads and pathways
- Added more detail assets around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
- Updated the terrain heightmap to make space for new "residential areas" and another skate park (still WIP)
- Used area lights to illuminate some windows and houses
- Removed crowds
B&E 2016
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Updated Environment System
- Placed more lights around the level
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Reworked the hotel area (still WIP)
- Updated, added and removed some roads and pathways
- Added more detail assets around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
- Updated the heightmap to make space for separate hotel area, garage, restaurant and residential areas (still WIP)
- Used area lights to illuminate some windows and houses
- Removed crowds
Fochi
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Placed more lights around the level
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Reworked the residential area behind the slope
- Used area lights as interior illuminators for buildings
- Added more detail assets around the level
S Games
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Updated Environment System
- Placed more lights around the level
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Added more detail assets around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Removed some crowds, relocated some others
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
John Olsson Invitational
- Start area updated
- Completely re-textured and restructured the terrain
- Redone some of the paths, streets and highways to better align with the terrain
- Used area lights to illuminate some windows and houses
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Placed more lights around the level
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Used area lights to illuminate individual background houses and apartments
- Added more detail assets around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Removed some crowds, relocated some others
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
Sialia
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
Whiteridge
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
X Games
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
X Games 2017
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
X Games Aspen 2018
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
X Games Norway 2017
- Start area updated
- Updated the lighting for every light entity individually (all lights affect fog, some cast shadows, all lights cast flares of different types depending on the reflector type)
- Added more vegetation around the level
- Removed all Dynamic Environment Probes and replaced them SSR + SVOGI
- Updated the view distance and LoD for most world assets
Known Issues
- Some users might experience limited shadow draw distances and darkened distance landscapes when SSAO is enabled (only happens on some GPUs)
- SVOGI might cause moving objects to leave streaks of temporal noise behind them (especially exposed in dark areas where a lot of bounced light is present). Higher FPS (or changing the Time of Day) reduces this issue.
- The Snowmobile might not align with the snow properly, at first spawn. Pressing “r” and then “Enter” will solve the issue.
- Some particle effects might not receive light values correctly. They may appear too bright or too dark in some settings.
We are constantly working towards delivering you the best user experience possible. Please keep reporting your issues and bugs via the Steam Community forums & SNOW Discord and to access our help desk check out Kayako.
