I remember back then before release, one of the advertised and often talked-about features is how snow can dynamically accumulate the scene. I don't think I'm seeing it anywhere.

Any part of the game world that's really snowy and cold is already covered thick with snow when I get there (for example, Winterhold). And I don't think they will melt or go away - in those areas, it seems to snow forever.

And then there's parts with not so much snow, like there was this one time I was exploring around some place which I forget the name of. It started snowing, and I was looking at the patches of soil that wasn't covered in snow yet - the snow partciles on screen got thicker and thicker, but I am still seeing brown soil on the ground, nothing seems to be accumulating.

Tried observing the rocks, I dont' see snow accumulating on them either.

This forum is so lively right now.

Bump

I think snow just covers the surface, doesnt actually accumulate.

They probably couldn't get it to work properly, or had issues with time constraints so it was cut, or lessened. Not surprising really - making snow dynamically accumulate would be difficult, and they did talk about it a long time before release when it was probably mostly a concept.

Snow does not accumulate, it only paints all the stuff with white textures. You would need pretty powerful machine to have dynamic snow accumulation and this game is made for xbox which is 6 years old.

So it's confirmed this feature has been removed? I clearly remember they were hardly working on it being not satisfied from oblivion weather engine...

If I were a developer... I wouldn't advertise a feature unless it's already implemented. It's just like when a politician says he'll do this and that, but when he wins the election, he doesn't do any of it...

Crysis had snow accumulation shaders BTW...

Agreed and I think the same thing happened to the aurora in the sky. All I see are stars.......LOL

It's PR talk. It's a shader effect (if Bethesda wasn't using DX9 and having to deal with dated hardware, possibly could have been a more complex version) that does a similar effect. No game out there could actually calculate snowfall and deal with it accordingly. That'd be a HUGE undertaking for processing power and RAM.

If you really thought snow would actually accumulate, I feel sorry for you.

Um...there is an aurora.

I didn't expect snow accumulation to be done any other way than shaders anyway (as I said in my other post, Crysis used shaders for dynamic snow too), but the issue at hand is that it doesn't even seem to be doing it? Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough?

If someone claims that this feature is in, they should capture a timelapse video or before/after screenshots at the exact same position and camera angle... because I'm curious!

That was another of the famous Bethesda PR lies, (Tod and Pete) to boost inicial sales.
There s no snow acumulation, all that happens is a single layer of white that imediately appear when the game say: Snow. And magically disapear when the game say Sun. Same engine as Oblivion, just upgraded to add a layer.
Snow falling is just a screen as in Oblivion ands Morrowind, it comes out of rocks, trees its the same old engine.
Trees doesn t sway under the wind as announced. Some trees always sway, some never.
Character engine is the same as morrowind, same limitations, same strange walking, no progression under weight, you are or are not encumbered. Can t see secondary weapons. Can t be left handed...etc;
Ho yeah and combat is less dinamyc than Oblivion, You can t choose the side you ll slash or hit, strange because its the same engine too.

Until now the only engine that have been upgraded is the GFX layer to be able to use more modern techniques.

there is already a thread for this but anyway the crysis one has many shaders , wet , frozen , and so one , its fairly easy even to implement new ones throught some coding in modding sections , and it doesn't take much resources , its all on the engine capabilities either it can or it can't ...

Dynamic snow accumulating.

What they meant: When it snows some textures will change to reflect the weather and receed when the weather system normalises.
What people read: When it snows you will see the snow build up, and up, and be able to watch it melt just like in real life! We could make snowmen and have snowball fights!!

It's and advertising line to make people's minds race with ideas and dreams.
Technically not a lie as the phrase is vague, however people hoped for more.

well I haven't seen it yet and I have been playing alot since release. All I see are stars in the sky and the moons of Nirn, No Aurora whatsoever.

I think a lot of people have an expectations problem from watching too many advertisemants for this game. Of course developers are going to oversell the product, that's their job. I hardly followed any ads or interviews and never heard about "dynamic snow accumulation." What I did see when I finally started playing the game was this....I killed three spiders before entering a temple just outside a town. After I completed the quest and re-emerged from the temple, I was shocked to see my 3 dead spiders covered in a layer of white snow. It blew my mind...I've never seen that in a game. So what you see as disappointment I found as a very pleasant surprise. My only advice would be relax, and enjoy the game for what it's worth.

Head towards the northern coast, pray for the skies to clear and look up. The Aurora is beatiful. Although I have only seen green so far, still stunning each time none the less.

Yeah because that was the selling point of this game? I only even heard of this in this thread... dang if I'd known I'd never have bought this game

I see auroras quite often. Green and blue as well as purple and blue. They are beautiful! First few times I stopped and stared.

So it's basically just like how they did it way back in 1997 with Daggerfall: just swapping the textures out between snowy and non-snowy.

Had to lol at this for one reason, just ran into M'aiq and he mentions this.

All I wanted was foot prints.