CG Shaders – Directional Masking

Here’s a simple version of something i made way back in the day in Unreal – Up Vector snow. This works similarly to the RGB masking from the last shader, except you don’t have to paint a mask. Instead, the shader creates a mask based on the world normals, applying snow to all faces facing upwards. I also included a vertex color mask to paint out areas. This will allow you to prevent snow from showing up in places that don’t make sense, like underneath an overhang or inside a building. Finally it includes a layer of ice that is independently tweakable and paintable.This makes it almost as robust as my old shader. I decided to not include stuff like wind direction and heat sources, as it requires a bit of scripting and the visual effects are somewhat minute. Still, if you’ve been following along so far i’m pretty sure you could figure it out.