Parameters

Scene Setup

These options configure how Global Snow integrates with your rendering pipeline. The available settings depend on whether your camera uses Deferred or Forward rendering.

Forward Rendering Path

Parameter	Description
Sun	Directional light used for relief and occlusion calculations. Auto-detected if not set.
Update SpeedTree	Enable to support SpeedTree and SpeedTree billboard objects. Applies snow-compatible shader variants to SpeedTree materials.
Remove Leaves	Prunes tree leaves using a SpeedTree variant shader. For best results, use custom winter tree models instead.
Billboard Coverage	Amount of snow rendered on tree billboards and grass objects. Range: 0-2, default: 1.4.
Grass Coverage	Amount of snow rendered on grass. Range: 0-1, default: 0.75.
Opaque Cutout	Discards transparent pixels (RGBA = 0,0,0,0) on opaque objects to prevent snow from covering holes in textures.
Fix Materials	Forces all non-transparent materials to expose an Opaque RenderType tag. Enable if some objects get clipped by the snow effect.
Fix Tree Opaque	Forces opaque rendering on tree objects that may have incorrect transparency settings.
Force VR SPSR	Enables Single Pass Stereo Rendering compatibility for OpenVR. Do not enable for Oculus SDK.

Deferred Rendering Path

Parameter	Description
Sun	Directional light used for relief and occlusion calculations. Auto-detected if not set.
Forward Rendering	Override deferred mode and force forward rendering instead. Maps to forceForwardRenderingPath.
Deferred Camera Event	When the snow passes execute. Default: BeforeReflections. Change to BeforeLighting if deferred reflections are disabled in Graphics Settings.
FP Normals Buffer	Use 16-bit floating-point normal buffer instead of 8-bit. Enable if you see snow artifacts at distance. Maps to floatingPointNormalsBuffer.
Excluded Cast Shadows	When enabled, excluded objects still cast shadows into the snow. Default: true.
Use Fast Mask Shader	Uses an optimized mask shader for object exclusions. Disable for objects with vertex-animated custom shaders. Deferred only. Default: true.

General

Parameter	Description
Show Snow In Scene View	Enables snow preview in the Scene View. May not be 100% accurate due to CommandBuffer differences.
Debug Snow	Visualizes the snow coverage for debugging.
Enable WMAPI	Enables the World Machine API integration for heightmap-driven snow.

Quality

Quick presets and distance optimization settings.

Parameter	Description
Quality Preset	Best Quality: high-res coverage, relief, occlusion, glitter. Medium: smaller coverage texture, 500 m distance optimization. Fastest: flat shading, 100 m distance optimization.
Snow Quality	Selects the snow surface complexity: Flat Shading, Normal Mapping, or Relief Mapping (raymarched 3D waves).
Relief Amount	Intensity of relief/parallax mapping on the snow surface. Range: 0.05-0.3, default: 0.3.
Occlusion	Adds local ambient occlusion shadows to the snow surface. Default: true.
Occlusion Intensity	Strength of the occlusion effect. Range: 0.01-5, default: 1.2.
Glitter Strength	Sparkling effect intensity. Strongest when facing the sun. Default: 0.75.
Snow Normals Strength	Strength of the normal map detail on the snow surface. Range: 0-2, default: 1.
Max Exposure	Limits reflected light to prevent overexposure. Range: 0-2, default: 0.85.
Smoothness	Snow surface smoothness/glossiness. Range: 0-1, default: 0.9.
Snow Amount	Overall snow intensity multiplier. Range: 0-2, default: 1.

Distance Optimization

Uses a simpler, faster algorithm for snow beyond a configurable distance from the camera. This is a Built-in exclusive feature that significantly reduces GPU cost on large scenes.

Parameter	Description
Distance Optimization	Enables the distance optimization system. When enabled, snow beyond Detail Distance uses a simplified shader.
Detail Distance	Distance in meters from the camera where the full snow shader transitions to the simplified version. Default: 100.
Distance Snow Color	Tint color applied to the distance-optimized snow layer.
Big World Anti-flicker	Reduces z-fighting artifacts on very large terrains. Default: true.
Ignore Normals	The distance snow ignores surface normals, applying flat coverage. Faster but less realistic.
Ignore Coverage	The distance snow ignores the zenithal coverage pass, covering everything above minimum altitude. Faster but less accurate.

Coverage

Controls where snow appears in the scene.

Parameter	Description
Layer Mask	Which layers receive snow coverage via the zenithal depth pass. Transparent objects are excluded by default.
Zenithal Mask	Which layers participate in the zenithal occlusion pass. Exclude particle systems here for better performance.
Ref Exclusion Layer	Layer number used internally during snow rendering for excluded objects. Choose an unused layer. Default: 27.
Exclusion Double Sided	Enable when excluding double-sided objects from snow.
Default Exclusion Cut Off	Alpha cutoff threshold for excluded semi-transparent objects.
Minimum Altitude	World-space Y value where snow starts. Default: -10.
Altitude Scatter	Randomness in the altitude boundary for a more natural appearance. Range: 0-250, default: 20.
Altitude Blending	Blending range for the altitude boundary transition. Range: 0-500, default: 25.
Vegetation Offset	Additional altitude offset for trees and grass. Default: 0.
Snow Tint	Tint color applied to the snow surface.
Coverage Extension	Area size around the camera: 1 = 256x256 m, 2 = 512x512 m, 3 = 768x768 m, 4 = 1024x1024 m. Default: 1.
Coverage Quality	Internal texture resolution: 1 = 512x512, 2 = 1024x1024, 3 = 2048x2048, 4 = 4096x4096. Default: 1.
Smooth Coverage	Smooths the coverage result for more pleasant transitions. Built-in exclusive. Default: true.
Show Coverage Gizmo	Displays the coverage area in the Scene View for debugging.

Slope

Controls how snow interacts with slopes and cliffs.

Parameter	Description
Ground Coverage	Base coverage on flat ground. Range: 0-0.5, default: 0.
Slope Threshold	Normal angle threshold above which snow is removed. Higher values allow snow on steeper surfaces. Range: 0-1, default: 0.7.
Slope Sharpness	Sharpness of the slope-based snow removal transition. Range: 0-1, default: 0.5.
Slope Noise	Noise amount applied to slope-based snow edges. Range: 0-1, default: 0.5.
Noise Tex Scale	Scale of the noise texture used for snow variation. Default: 0.1.
Distance Slope Threshold	Slope threshold applied to the distance-optimized snow layer. Range: 0-1, default: 0.7.

Coverage Mask

Use an alpha texture to paint snow on/off areas. White (alpha 1) = snow, black (alpha 0) = no snow.

Parameter	Description
Coverage Mask	Enable/disable the coverage mask system.
Mask Texture	The alpha texture. Mapped to world space at the specified center and size.
World Center	Center position of the mask in world coordinates.
World Size	Size in meters. A size of 2000 means coverage from -2000 to +2000.
Fill Outside	When enabled, areas outside the mask bounds are filled with snow. Default: true.

Appearance

Visual appearance of the snow surface.

Parameter	Description
Snow Complexity	Flat Shading: fastest, smooth surface. Normal Mapping: adds surface detail. Relief Mapping: raymarched 3D waves with parallax.
Occlusion	Adds local shadows to the snow surface. Available with Normal Mapping and Relief complexity.
Glitter Strength	Sparkling effect intensity on the snow. Strongest when facing the sun.
Max Exposure	Limits reflected light to prevent overexposure when the sun is very bright.

Features

Optional snow features that can be enabled individually.

Footprints

Parameter	Description
Footprints	Enables human-shaped footprint decals on the snow surface.
Footprints Texture	Custom texture for footprint stamps. Replace with your own for different shapes.
Auto FPS	Automatically generates footprints as the first-person character moves.
Duration	Time in seconds before footprints fade out. Range: 1-240, default: 60.
Scale	Scale of each footprint stamp. Range: 0.04-1, default: 1.
Obscurance	How darkened the footprint depression appears. Range: 0.05-0.5, default: 0.1.

Terrain Marks

Parameter	Description
Terrain Marks	Enables collision-driven snow deformation trails.
Duration	Time in seconds before marks fade out. Range: 1-240, default: 180.
Default Size	Radius of each terrain mark. Range: 0-1, default: 0.25.
View Distance	Maximum rendering distance for terrain marks. Range: 0-1024, default: 200.
Auto FPS	Automatically leaves terrain marks as the FPS character moves.
Roof Min Distance	Minimum distance from an overhead surface before marks are stamped. Prevents marks indoors.
Step Max Distance	Maximum distance between consecutive trail marks. Prevents trails across teleports.
Rotation Threshold	Minimum rotation in degrees before a new mark is stamped. Useful for wheels.
Texture Size	Internal resolution of the terrain marks render texture.

Snowfall and Snow Dust

Parameter	Description
Snowfall	Instantiates the SnowParticleSystem prefab. Default: true.
Intensity	Emission rate of snowflakes. Range: 0.001-1, default: 0.1.
Speed	Fall speed of snowflakes.
Wind	Horizontal wind force applied to snowflakes. Range: 0-2, default: 0.
Distance	Maximum distance from the camera where snowflakes are visible. Range: 10-200, default: 100.
Use Illumination	Snowflakes receive Global Illumination via Standard Shader material.
Receive Shadows	Snowflakes receive shadows from scene geometry.
Snow Dust Intensity	Intensity of wind-driven dust particles near ground level. Range: 0-1.
Snow Dust Vertical Offset	Height offset for the dust particle emitter. Range: 0-2, default: 0.5.

Camera Frost

Parameter	Description
Camera Frost	Adds a screen-space frosting overlay. Default: true.
Intensity	Strength of the frost effect. Range: 0.001-1.5, default: 0.35.
Spread	How much of the screen edges are covered by frost. Range: 1-5, default: 1.2.
Distortion	Amount of image distortion caused by frost. Range: 0-1, default: 0.25.
Tint Color	Color tint applied to frosted areas.

Ground Check

Parameter	Description
Ground Check	Method used to detect if the player is on ground: None, CharacterController, or RayCast.
Character Controller	Reference to the CharacterController component (when using CharacterController mode).
Origin	Object that leaves the footprints, for example your character in third person view. The ground ray is cast from this object. If not set, the camera is used (when using RayCast mode).
Ground Distance	Maximum raycast distance for ground detection (when using RayCast mode).

Mask Editor

Paint snow on/off directly in the Scene View.

Parameter	Description
Mask Editor Enabled	Activates the Scene View mask painting tool.
Texture Resolution	Resolution of the mask texture. 1024 for coarse, 2048-8192 for fine detail.
Brush Mode	Add or remove snow with the brush.
Brush Width	Brush size in world units.
Brush Fuzziness	Softness of the brush edges.
Brush Opacity	Opacity of each brush stroke.

Next Steps

• Snow Volumes - set up trigger-based snow zones (Built-in exclusive).
• Additional Topics - moving objects, coverage mask, integrations.
• Scripting Support (C#) - runtime API reference.