Few Suggestions for the Betterment of Rain FX

[TheShotte]

So, I finally was able to witness actual rain in-game (raindrops and surface water), as opposed to just rain drops on glass, and boy do I have some comments. To begin, let me share this short video I recorded yesterday with you.

First and foremost, as you can see in the beginning of the video, the actual rain drop effect on the puddles is considerably too small and way too repetitive. I think the drops themselves should be scaled up, and instead of using and multiplying one raindrop texture, the repetition would be far less noticeable if you made an animated texture with a few raindrops. Again, at the very least, they need to be scaled up considerably.

Secondly, the actual airborne raindrops. Considering the amount of them that appears on the glass, I think there is way too few of them in the air. I feel like there should be at least 40-50% more raindrops. Furthermore, they are big. Consider scaling them down 50-60% (if not more).

Finally, the surfaces. Concrete, asphalt, ballast, ties, etc get wet super quick. Almost too quick, the ground itself does not. So everything gets shiny, whereas the ground just stays dull (as if it was dry).

As you can see in the image above. The only thing is I failed to notice if it gets a little wet or not wet at all because it was dark. Also, in case the video is hard to see (I did capture at only 2K instead of 4K like the screens) I took a screenshot of the raindrop puddle effect:

 

[TheShotte]

Oh and I forgot to mention the sound. The sound itself of the raindrops is okay, however part of the rain sound is also this weird "running water" sound. It sounds way off, almost as if you were standing next to a river. The running water sound needs to be significantly lowered, and then maybe adjust it's volume based on the amount of rain coming down?

[Pixelade]

thank you for mentioning the sound. shouldn't sound like running water in a bathtub. should sound like rain on foliage, pavement, etc.

[TheShotte]

Yeah the "running water" sound is considerably too loud and noticeable. It straight up sounds like you're standing next to a stream/river.

[Pixelade]

the sounds from inside the signal boxes are even worse... sounds like the roof is getting ready to cave in from flooding when it's really just a light shower. hope this is adjusted.

[TheShotte]

To me the worst thing is the lack of cohesion. What I mean is, say you're driving a train - you will get nice amount of raindrops on your windshield, but when you look outside at the raindrops, it barely looks like it's raining, and the drops that appear on the platform puddles are like 5x smaller than the drops on the windshield, and again, the amount is completely off. Obviously they're still tweaking the game, I'm just writing this down to give them a rough idea as to what to tweak for good effect.

When it comes to the sound, if you were standing in front of the camera in the image below, and it was raining, then the sound would appropriate, because it legit sounds like you're next to a small running body of water.

Edited December 20, 2022 by TheShotte

[Pixelade]

4 minutes ago, TheShotte said:

To me the worst thing is the lack of cohesion. What I mean is, say you're driving a train - you will get nice amount of raindrops on your windshield, but when you look outside at the raindrops, it barely looks like it's raining, and the drops that appear on the platform puddles are like 5x smaller than the drops on the windshield, and again, the amount is completely off. Obviously they're still tweaking the game, I'm just writing this down to give them a rough idea as to what to tweak for good effect.

When it comes to the sound, if you were standing in front of the camera in the image below, and it was raining, then the sound would appropriate, because it legit sounds like you're next to a small running body of water.

Great observations! haven't noticed the rain drops on platforms yet.

Probably gonna start a list as most of us playtesters should be doing so. 😮