API reference

Builds every subsystem, adds the particle meshes (and, by default, the flash lights) to options.scene, applies the quality level and applies the preset instantly. new WeatherSystem(options) does the same synchronously.

Call once per frame, after moving the camera. dt is in seconds and clamped to 0.1. It reads the camera's current transform, eases the weather toward the targets, gusts the wind, accumulates wetness and snow, fires automatic strikes and the thunder events, drives the fog and the audio, and re-renders the occlusion map when it needs it.

Renders scene through the weather pipeline: HDR scene → volumetric fog at reduced resolution → puddle SSR and fog composite → bloom → exposure × ACES → target (a WebGLRenderTarget) or the screen when null. It replaces renderer.render(scene, camera) and is optional. Leave renderer.toneMapping at its default when you use it. See Render paths.

Call after the canvas size or pixel ratio changes. render() also detects size changes on its own.

Removes the meshes and lights, frees GPU resources and closes the audio context.

Eases to a built-in preset by name, or to a partial WeatherPreset (missing keys come from clear). wetness and snowCover ease over about 4.5 s, then natural accumulation resumes. A preset with lightning > 0 arms a strike 1.5 s later. instant: true snaps everything. Throws on unknown names.

Sets any subset of the targets. wetness and snowCover go through wetness.force() (or setImmediate() with instant).

The targets plus the current wetness and snow cover, rounded to 3 decimals. JSON-ready, and usable as a preset.

Switches tier at runtime: particle counts, fog and SSR steps, fog resolution, shelter taps and the shadowLight's shadow map size. Throws on unknown levels. Read the current level from weather.quality.

Adds wetness, raindrop ripples, snow cover and shelter to a MeshStandardMaterial or MeshPhysicalMaterial, and returns it. ground: true adds puddles, the full snow blanket and SSR reflectivity. sway: true bends vertices above y = 0.6 m with the wind. Chains an existing onBeforeCompile, and is idempotent. See Wet surfaces.

The objects that block rain and snow: an array, one object, or null for every visible mesh. They must be in the scene. Objects with userData.weatherOccluder = false are always skipped. Re-renders the occlusion map.

Calls layers.set(layer) on the particle meshes (layer 0–31). The same as the layer option of create(). Next to NatureGL Water use water.overlayLayer. The camera must see that layer if you render with renderer.render() or weather.render() yourself.

Feeds your scene's light to the particles, the fog and the snow glints. Every field is optional, and it's cheap enough to call every frame.

A lightning strike now. options.position is a ground point, or options.distance a distance in a random direction roughly ahead of the camera. See LightningSystem.

Subscribes to 'strike' (immediately) or 'thunder' (when the sound arrives). Returns an unsubscribe function.

Instanced streaks in a 36 × 26 × 36 m box around the camera, and splashes on the occlusion surface within 16 m. maxDrops defaults to 90000 and maxSplashes to 2400.

Swaying billboard flakes in a 34 × 22 × 34 m box. maxFlakes defaults to 42000.

Branching bolts, multi-pulse flashes, automatic strikes and thunder timing. lights defaults to true.

StrikeEvent is { position, top, direction, distance, delay }, with delay = distance / 343.

Maps the weather to height-fog values, and drives scene.fog when the pipeline isn't used.

The wetness and snow model, and the material patch behind weather.patchMaterial.

Synthesized rain hiss, gusting wind and distance-filtered thunder (WebAudio, no assets). Muted by default.

A top-down depth map around the camera. Defaults: size 80 m, resolution 512, top 40 m, depth 60 m, follow true, floor 0.

Created by the first weather.render().