Quick snow discord

For further help join our discord server.If you feel that some parts in documentation need more or better descriptions,contact us.

https://discord.gg/G9pH6rV83d

Quick snow documentation(based on v1)

INSTALLATION

1. go to Edit > Preferences...
2. on the left panel go to the tab "Add-ons"
3. top right click on "Install"
4. now select Quick Snow v1.0.zip  that you downloaded and wait for a short while before the data is copied to your Blender AppData folder.
5. now you can find the panel  in the sidebar of the 3D view under "Snow" tab!

Properties description

Did you know that you can hover on almost any blender sliders, toggles, or drop down items to read their description? We pack a lot of information in our properties description. Taking time to hover in order to gather information is always a good reflex. If you feel that some items need more or better descriptions,contact us.

The Documentation is arranged panel wise for better and quick work.

Quick Snow main panel

1.Global parameters

Use Snow Displacement

Enabling this feature will automatically adds snow displacement to objects after creating snow.By default it is turned on. 

Apply to all material slots

Enabling this feature will automatically adds snow to all slots of a material of an object.

Global snow coverage

changing the values will globally change the snow coverage value on every object when local snow coverage of that object is not enabled.

2.Object preset

Object preset will let the addon to adjust settings based on the preset selected which allow to use the best setting on any objects. 

Note:For foliage assets you must select foliage preset otherwise the addon will skip the transparent and translucent shader. 

3.Select snow

Textured Snow

Textured snow with full PBR materials .You can choose any one of 1K,2K and 4K textures.Each snow texture is designed to meet its quality in every scene.

Procedural Snow

procedural snow by mixing various procedural noise texture.

simple snow

preview quality snow using only principled BSDF.

4.Create dynamic  snow

Creates dynamic snow material among the selected objects with the original material and the selected snow material.

Note:Your material must have a node connected to material output to create dynamic snow.

5.Append snow material

Appends the selected snow material to the active or selected objects.

6.Remove Snow

Removes snow nodes and restores previous shader of a material of an object.If the snow material was appended it restores to previous snow material.

Dynamic snow properties

Note:This panel will be visible after creating dynamic snow on a object.

1.Lock snow rotation

On enabling lock snow rotation feature ,the snow will lock its rotation and you can rotate the object without rotating  snow on the object.

Note:This feature works on the active object only.

2.Normal Blend

Normal blend feature blend snow by calculating height based on normal map.It automatically takes the node which connects the  color of normal map as default.

It works on the active material. The value ranges from 0 to 10.

Note: This feature requires a normal map for the object. 

3.Pixel Blend

Pixel blend feature blend snow by calculating height based on any  map except normal map.It automatically takes the node which connects the base color of principled BSDF as default.

It works on the active material. The value ranges from 0 to 10.

Note: This feature requires a albedo/diffuse map for the object.You can manually insert the bump map(if you have) to the base color node.

4.Blend Softness

Blend softness blend snow by creating a soft gradient on the edge.It does not require any map to work.

It works on the active material.The value ranges from 0 to 10.

Snow Displacement

Note:This panel will be visible after creating dynamic snow on a object.

1.Enable snow displacement

This feature will add snow displacement to your active object.

Note:You need to enable cycles render engine to use snow displacement.

4.Invert displacement(beta feature)

Inverts the final snow displacement .Useful in mountain or terrain creation.

4.Snow Displacement Strength

By default all objects have snow displacement of 50 when displacement is enabled.

The value ranges from 0 to 100 but you can even increase the displacement more than 100.

4.Dicing Scale

Dicing scale is similar feature as in bender's subdivision modifier.

Note: You have to switch to cycles experimental feature set to use dicing scale.

Snow Material

Note:This panel will be visible after creating dynamic snow on a object.

The textures are mapped on objects by UV map.If you don't have a UV map for object,then the material will be flat color.

1.Snow Tint

The color which is being multiplied with original snow texture

2.Tint multiplier

The multiplication factor of snow tint with original snow texture

3.AO Strength

Ambient occlusion Strength controlled by AO map

4.Subsurface Amount

Increasing  the value will increase the amount of subsurface scattering on the material.

5.Subsurface Color Intensity

Intensity of subsurface scattering color on the material.

6.Snow Softness

Amount of snow softness which is multiplied with subsurface radius.

7.Snow Wetness

Amount of snow wetness which is controlled by roughness map.

8.Snow Glitters

Amount of snow glitters which is controlled by  a baked texture map.

9.Specular

Specular Strength same as that of principled BSDF.

10.Normal Strength

Strength of snow normal map.

11.Bump Strength

Strength of snow bump map

12.Texture Scale

Texture scale of snow texture(UV mapped)

Note: By default the snow texture will scale according to the object dimension.

Snow Mask

Note:This panel will be visible after creating dynamic snow on a object.

1.Gradient mask

Gradient mask allows to remove snow from the bottom part. It works by masking with procedural gradient mask.

2.Vertex paint mask

Vertex paint mask allows to mask out the areas where you don't need snow to accumulate by manually painting a mask. 

Note: Painting a black mask will remove snow, whereas painting a white mask will add snow.

3.Texture mask

Texture mask allows to mask snow using procedural texture.You can change the texture location and scale of the object.

1-FBM musgrave texture

2-multifractal musgrave texture

3-noise texture

4-FBM musgrave texture combined with noise texture

4.Cavity mask(beta)

Cavity masks allows to mask out the snow in cavity.

5.Edge mask(beta)

The edge mask is used to mask out snow in edges.