These Materials-Enabled Second Life Weather Effects Will Have You Singing in the Rain

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Where the heck was I in January when Second Life user Ante Flan shared first shared this video of his materials-enabled rain effects? I'm such a sucker for seeing SL Materials (a term referring to the implementation of specular and normal mapping in Second Life) in action, I even had to make a gif out of it. 

If you're looking for a slightly more technical explanation of what you're looking at (beyond "Ooh, pretty," anyway) Ante's got you covered:

The ground effect uses a 64 frame animated texture and a custom mesh allowing for seamless looping and can be tinted or made transparent as an overlay for your standard ground textures. The falling rain effect is a single mesh object that takes advantage of Second Life's materials system to provide realistically lit rain that reflects light and a gorgeous look at any angle that particles can just not pull off.

Watch the full video of Ante Flan's rain effects, or buy them for yourself full-perm on the Second Life Marketplace. You may also want to check out Ante's animated materials-enabled water (perfect for any virtual pools you may be working on this summer) in action or on the SL Marketplace.

(Hat tip: Thaumata)

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times, and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Motoko Henusaki]

Very, very nice. I tried the pack out at Hangars Liquides, somewhere that traditionally sees a lot of (often acidic) rain, and it takes photos to a whole other level.

[2014]

sadly, most in SL don't know what materials is, don't know how to turn it on, or their graphics card crashes when they try to use it.