For a university assignment on game systems I’ve chosen to do regular good ‘ol rain… with a twist. The assignment calls for creation of one of four systems (rain, sand, sound, text-based game) to be implemented in at least two game engines (I’m using one 2D and one 3D).

In the 2D game engine, ASGE, I’m having to create everything from scratch as it is primarily a rendering engine and does not have anything else such as a particle or physics system. Thus RainEngine is born: a particle system for rain, where each rain particle is contained in a group and this group is controlled with parameters that links it to the wider system.

Simulating rainfall isn’t too difficult; render the particles, adjust their angle and slide them down the screen, and perhaps add a small variable bounce effect when the rain hits an object (such as the ground). I intend to do that but I also intend to add some liquid dynamics by allowing the rain to flow down objects, such as sloped surfaces.

I also intend to add environmental attributes to allow the rain to adjust to the environment, for example:

  • Weather will affect size and density of the rain, which will affect its physics (i.e. its “splash physics”)
  • Temperature will affect the physical parameters of the rain at a molecular level (aka, turning into ice, snow, etc.). Each rain particle group will have its own temperature that will determine what the particles in that group are, and how it transforms.
  • Humidity- high humidity combined with a desert environment will result in a violent rainstorm with large dense raindrops.

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