Also read over http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1169809-the-famous-dynamic-snow/page__st__20__p__17239068#entry17239068 and see if you discern the things I describe. Especially at 2:15-2:19... how the snow pops into place in the mountain crevasses. I think it's just an LOD thing, the one that pops in is slightly more detailed. But I don't know if this is anolyzed in realtime, precomputed with some kind of voxel algorithm, or is simply a static part of the mountain meshes (and a part of the mountain LOD).

Take a look again at that section of video (0:50-0:53) ... His left foot is hovering in air (the shadow on the ground is clue)! It's certainly a foot placement issue. I was really hoping with Havok Behavior and Animation they'd use the Foot IK solver (the game takes note of the terrain and places the feet accordingly) ... So I'm pretty sure that's a clipping issue.

According to Pete Hines, it's not, and in the thread about it, someone pointed out flaws that indicates it's in-game.

But anyway, the main problem that is discussed in this thread seems to be a result of how the snow is applied to objects, and I agree, it probably can't be fixed, at least not without completely redesigning the snow system, and even if they did that, I'm not sure if the technology available to Bethesda could convincingly pull off realistic looking 3D dynamic snow. But snow appearing on parts of the object that shouldn't have it sounds like something that could be fixed, I seem to recall that in talk about the engine, they mentioned some bit about programming that determines how much snow should accumulate on each part of an object, if that's the case, I'd think it wouldn't be too hard to tell it that snow should not accumulate on say... the underside of a rock.

Of course, we haven't seen side by side comparisons of snow and no snow, but right now, we can only judge it based on what we've seen.

ok I see the footing issue on (0:50-0:53)(still time for them to catch the issue) but I can't find these pop in snow textures on (2:15-2:19) can you give a lil direction on were there popping in at?
I found a rock that pops in and out on the left side torwards the bottom, under the arch way ruins in your given time frame.

That is not a dynamic snow, it's hand placed.

To make it actually dynamic you have to have a normal surface then when it falls it would slowly be filled with snow, making it thicker over time.
That would require a lot of processing power though.

you can see it dusting off objects properly

Lol thats not physical snow, thats a partical effect that is set to occur when, say a dragon, flaps its wings near snow or when someone runs over snow. Its the same exact thing used in games like Battlefield 2 where when a helicopter flies close to water it begins to spray water particles, its not dynamically moving the water.

I think the way they do dynamic snow will be when its snowing just randomly generate a snow like texture on objects, but not base it on where the snowflakes fall as some people think they will.

Im glad somebody corrected him, thoughs snow effects on uncharted 2 weren't even impressive, linear game highlights should no long be allowed here as comparision its much to easy to make a linear level do something than say make an entire dynamic world do something on top of every other demanding process.

If I understand how they are making the "dynamic snow" it is just a retexturing, which is rather lame.
I could be wrong, Im not quoting any sources, but Im pretty sure that is what they said when they talked about it...

Reminds me of the Radiant AI hype, "Every NPC gets their own unique schedule, this one will even feed her dog!" means they each get the same AI scheme with the same schedule.
(Although Radiant AI is way better than static NPCs...)

I never said it was dynamic. Read again. I said an illusion of accumulation.
I don't know how exactly how they did it, but maybe you do?

Looks great for a good start though, I'd say. I'd definitely want to see something similar in Skyrim.

I thought that when they mentioned dynamic... snow would actually accumulate during the game. Then maybe melt some, and accuulate some more.

I think what they mean by this is that textures on objects, such as rocks, replace eachother. So as it snows, a new texture with more snow will now cover the rock. Not snow actually falling as physics objects we all dream could happen.
Of course I could be wrong, thats just what I've picked up from what I read.

Doesn't mean they aren't using some foot IK solver

F3 has foot IK solvers in the ragdoll data for F3 characters. And while the character will bend the knee and stand accordingly, the foot is always clipping into the ground or never rested completely on it when on a steepish hill. :shrug: guess that's just not going to happen correctly.

A statement that "there will be dynamic snow in the game" does not mean that ALL the representation of snow in the game will be dynamic.

If there is even a little bit of dynamic snow, then there it is. My guess is that you will see dynamic snow in some places and under some circumstances, but that by far the majority of the snow will be pre-rendered art or textures.

I highly doubt that. Look at the end of the video.
Besides, it was clearly said in the GI that it was not a pre-defined texture.
The question is if it accumulates... and that our player will actually have to walk in snow and not on snow.