Is there a way to generate/regenerate snow without destroying terrain?

[a sentient mcnugget]

And by generate, I don't mean the odd snowball in random loot but a way to farm snow.
Will placing topsoil in the winter biome generate terrain with snow on it? (I'd try it out but it's late and if anyone else already has the answer, I'll listen to it.)

[seven]

If you place topsoil down in the snow biome it will have the appearance of snow, but if you dig there you just get clay. There is a snow block available in creative that will give snowballs when dug.

[a sentient mcnugget]

Originally posted by seven:

If you place topsoil down in the snow biome it will have the appearance of snow, but if you dig there you just get clay. There is a snow block available in creative that will give snowballs when dug.

Thanks for answer.

Wish there was a mechanic like in minecraft where falling snow accumulates on ground.

[Brevan]

If you accept a mission in the snow biome, dig up some snow before resetting the POI. If you're content with a few thousand snow (Yucca Smoothies for days), then this works fine.

[a sentient mcnugget]

Originally posted by Brevan:

If you accept a mission in the snow biome, dig up some snow before resetting the POI. If you're content with a few thousand snow (Yucca Smoothies for days), then this works fine.

Great idea and that's exactly why I wanted snow in the first place (Yucca Smoothies).

[One Dandy Cube]

Originally posted by put dispenser here:

Originally posted by seven:

If you place topsoil down in the snow biome it will have the appearance of snow, but if you dig there you just get clay. There is a snow block available in creative that will give snowballs when dug.

Thanks for answer.

Wish there was a mechanic like in minecraft where falling snow accumulates on ground.

A long time ago, Joel one of the devs had a blog post showing that snow did accumulate over time on blocks but it was scrapped. I wished it stayed.

Here the link:
https://joelhuenink.tumblr.com/post/119628060363/weather-here-is-a-very-early-first-peek-at-our

[FT]

Originally posted by One Dandy Cube:

A long time ago, Joel one of the devs had a blog post showing that snow did accumulate over time on blocks but it was scrapped. I wished it stayed.

Here the link:
https://joelhuenink.tumblr.com/post/119628060363/weather-here-is-a-very-early-first-peek-at-our

Aww, that looks really cool.
I wonder how badly it performed or what glitches it caused that got it scrapped.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by FT:

Originally posted by One Dandy Cube:

A long time ago, Joel one of the devs had a blog post showing that snow did accumulate over time on blocks but it was scrapped. I wished it stayed.

Here the link:
https://joelhuenink.tumblr.com/post/119628060363/weather-here-is-a-very-early-first-peek-at-our

Aww, that looks really cool.
I wonder how badly it performed or what glitches it caused that got it scrapped.

My guess? Two words: Structural Integrity.

Imagine what kind of additional load that would cause to be constantly recalculating for accumulating snow? *Shudders*

[FT]

Ooh, good point. My first thought reading that (SI) is how many folks would build something that's barely "held together" only to later have it crumple after it gets snow added.

I suppose they could've maybe made that snow (as apposed to the ground block) weightless? I think that would solve any SI issues, but not sure.
If they went that route, it'd be about as easy to make that same weightless snow the same thing that coats land and anything else, then just don't allow it to be made into placeable blocks or anything like that. Probably still a lot of graphical checks though. I wonder if there are other games that get away with it like Minecraft but with more intense graphics.

[Crater Creator]

As I recall from when I played builds with the accumulating snow, it was strictly a graphical effect. Meaning, that it was morphing the terrain on a sub-voxel level, but it never added blocks of snow. I surmised it was using similar tech to the terrain “density” that allows for gentle hills instead of stair steps.

I have pondered that weather could be made more meaningful by dropping water from the sky, having it impact as actual water blocks that form puddles, and eventually flood low lying areas if the storm is big enough. I think this could be accomplished in a mod - in a hacky, non-performant way - except I haven’t figured out how to make this only happen during a storm.