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GDC 2022 Session Viewer

View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by pass type, topic, format and viewing experience. Use the experience filter to view sessions and roundtables that will be available on the virtual GDC event platform. Virtual sessions will be available to watch on-demand through April 1st, 2022 at 5pm PT. All days/times are displayed in Pacific Time.

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Simulating Tropical Weather in 'Far Cry 6'

Colin Weick  (Senior 3D Programmer, Ubisoft Toronto)

Emily Zhou  (Technical Artist, Ubisoft Montreal)

Location: Room 2001, West Hall

Date: Thursday, March 24

Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, All Access Online Only Pass - Get your pass now!

Topic: Programming, Visual Arts

Format: Session

Viewing Experience: In-Person/Virtual

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: Yes

This session describes the techniques and systems implemented to simulate tropical weather in Far Cry 6 as well as the challenges faced orchestrating these systems to produce dynamic weather transitions.

The central issue was moving between arbitrary weather states in a continuous day night cycle. It was necessary to create believable transitions from sunny days to heavy thunderstorms with high winds and soaked surfaces, while also ensuring that the sky would clear to reveal stunning sunsets as the environment gradually dried out.

This session will investigate the technical implementation and the artistic pipeline for portraying wetness on static and dynamic objects, puddles on the terrain and streaks on windshields. This talk will also explore topics such as: volumetric clouds, fog and atmospheric scattering, interactive particles systems for rain and lightning, improvements to ocean rendering, and the influence of wind and destruction on vegetation.

Takeaway

This session is meant to guide the game developer community through the challenge of incorporating dynamic weather into large open world games, which often contain many interacting graphical systems. Attendees will learn about the obstacles we faced, how we overcame them, as well as our thoughts on future improvements.

Intended Audience

This talk is multi-disciplinary and is directed towards programmers and technical artists and as such, some topics will be discussed in depth. However, this case study of how we collaborated as artists and programmers may be of interest to anyone curious about the graphics development of a large-scale project.