Simulating how weather affects an avatar

[Anika123]

Hi I am doing a game design course and am in my last year. The title of this thread is the title I have chosen for my final year project. My aim is to produce a program that will mimic the effects of weather conditions on a model in an effienct and realistic way. So for example when an avatar is running in an open world and the weather changes from sunny to cloudy I would like to create a visually realistic transition between dry and wet. The clothes should get heavier and darker and maybe the movement more difficult (shivering?).

So to get to the point - At the moment I am still searching for a starting point to kick things off. Does anyone know how it has been attempted in industry so far? Are there any tutorials or papers that I could read and attempt to gain further knowledge? Are there any games in which this transition has been done well that I could play through? And in your opinion is C# the right way to go?!

So many questions so little time!

Thanks

[swinefish]

Hi,

I don't really have much experience in game development, but I'd like to get into it. One place I have seen something similar done is in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (on the Wii). If you swim, after you get out of the water your clothes look dark and heavy and they drip with water, gradually lightening and drying out. Is this the kind of thing you're looking for? I know you're looking for weather, not swimming, but it might be a good place to start.

Good Luck,
M

[Anika123]

Hi,

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (on the Wii). If you swim, after you get out of the water your clothes look dark and heavy and they drip with water, gradually lightening and drying out.

M

Thats exactly the kind of thing im looking for as the effect is similar. Do you have any idea what method they use to get that effect? I have been looking at the possibility of model swapping or relief mapping/ displacement mapping...

Thanks for your reply and i will have a look at that game!

Ciao

[swinefish]

Model swapping would probably be very memory consuming, since you would have to have every model of your character in memory at all times, since the swap could happen at any time...

Relief mapping and displacement mapping are possibilities, they can be used very nicely. Certain effects can be implemented quite easily I imagine. A simple way to go beyond simply modifying the physical look would be to have slightly different versions of your character's movements - when it's raining, he hunches over slightly, when it's snowing his walking is more difficult etc.

If you have access to the vertex data of your models, you can give some nice effects. If clothes are wet, they tend to be baggy and heavy, so you could take the vertices that define the clothes and expand them slightly, then pull them down. As the clothes dry, this effect could be reduced until it returns to normal. This could give a lovely effect.

Good luck, and keep me posted on your progress :)

Keep well,
M

[SgtMe]

For things such as darker clothes, you could just use a new texture for the clothes. If you could keep the clothes as a seperate object from the body, then you could easily just make progressively darker textures, and load each one. You would only need a few to go from dry to wet. To get a better idea of what would happen, think about what happens when your out in the rain. You walk slower to avoid slipping, your clothes may get wet, your hair gets wet and flops down. Also consider the visual effect. Wet clothes are darker, but clothes such as a coats or things with a protective coating may glisten in the sun instead. Look up specular maps on google.

These are just examples of some of the things that happen, but there are many more. It really depends what level of realism and detail you would like to hit.

Good luck :)

[fansi099]

u should look at the sims 2 : weather ,spring,summer,fall,winter ,very vivid