Snowstorm

Weather reference

FXMasterParticle effectAPI type: snowstorm

Preview

Preview shows Snowstorm in Top Down mode with Background and Sweeping Snow enabled

Dense procedural snowstorm with side-view or top-down presentation and sweeping background snow.

Weather effects can cover a full Scene or be limited to Regions. Configure the placement or movement controls exposed by the effect first, then tune its appearance, population, and optional background controls.

Reference	Value
Package	FXMaster
Effect kind	Particle effect
Category	Weather
Runtime type	snowstorm
Exposed parameters	36

Snowstorm layers

Snowstorm is the denser and more directional snow effect. Within an enabled Snowstorm effect, the main airborne storm, persistent Background snow, and optional Sweeping Snow layer are configured separately. Disabling Snowstorm disables all of them.

Airborne storm

Choose Top Down before tuning Rotation Strength, Direction, Scale, Speed, and Density. Rotation Strength has its largest visual effect in Top Down mode and should remain lower when the flakes need to follow a more consistent route.

Background and sweeping snow

Background adds accumulated snow with fill, opacity, variation, drift height, and drift size controls. Sweeping Snow adds a separate moving layer with its own opacity, scale, speed, and strength. The background is intentionally less opaque than Snow’s maximum so more of the map remains visible through the storm.

Token trails and refill

Token trails use the same width, strength, refill, refill-time, and elevation controls as Snow. Configure these after the background appearance is established.

Important controls

• Top Down: Switches Snowstorm to the overhead presentation intended for top-down maps. This changes particle projection and movement, so set it before finalizing scale and direction.
• Rotation Strength: How strongly particles rotate as they move. 0 = no rotation; 1 = maximum configured rotation.
• Direction: Sets the primary travel direction for storm snowflakes. Directional Spread can add variation around this angle.
• Background: Render a persistent settled-snow surface beneath the snow storm effect. The surface follows the same stack placement, scene or Region mask, Levels selection, and below-token/tile settings as the standard snow background.
• Sweeping Snow: Adds the broad wind-swept snow sheet to the snow storm background instead of tying it to the main snowflake density.
• Token Trails: Create visible background trails as tokens move through the surface. By default trails remain for the current canvas session; Refill Trails Over Time can gradually restore the background.

Setup notes

• Snowstorm is denser and more directional than Snow and includes a separate Sweeping Snow layer.
• Rotation Strength has its largest effect in Top Down mode. Keep it lower when flakes should follow a more consistent direction.
• Background Opacity can remain below full coverage so map details remain visible beneath the accumulated snow.

Bundled preset usage

Preset	API name	Availability	Variants
Blizzard	blizzard	FXMaster	Normal, Top Down

Parameters

The table combines the settings available for this effect in Scene and Region contexts. Scene-only and Region-only badges identify controls limited to one context. Hover or focus an info button to see what the parameter changes on the canvas. Select it to keep the card open. Each card also includes the default, range or choices, context, availability, API key, and control type.

36 exposed parameters1 Scene-onlysnowstorm API type

iHover or focus an info button to see what the parameter changes on the canvas. Select it to keep the card open. Context badges identify Scene-only and Region-only controls; unbadged parameters are available in both. Hover or focus an availability condition to highlight the parameter that controls it.

Parameter	Control	Default	Range or choices	Availability
Below Tokensi belowTokens	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Below Tilesi belowTiles	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Below Foregroundi belowForeground	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Levelsi levelsScene only	scene-levels	All Levels	—	Always
Tinti tint	color	#FFFFFF (disabled)	—	Always
Sound FXi soundFxEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Sound FX Soundsi soundFxManualSoundIds	multi-select	Rule default	—	Shown when Sound FX = On and the matching enabled SoundFX rule uses Multi-Sound Mode = Manual with at least two configured sounds
Top Downi topDown	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Rotation Strengthi rotationStrength	range	0.35	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Top Down = On
Directioni direction	range	—	0–360 · step 5	Shown when Top Down = Off
Synchronized Directioni synchronizedDirection	checkbox	Off	—	Shown when Top Down = Off
Scalei scale	range	0.54	0.1–1 · step 0.01	Always
Speedi speed	range	0.82	0.1–1 · step 0.01	Always
Lifetimei lifetime	range	0.27	0.1–1 · step 0.01	Always
Densityi density	range	0.3	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Opacityi alpha	range	1	0–1 · step 0.1	Always
Backgroundi backgroundEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Background Filli backgroundMode	select	accumulate	Full Coverage, Fill Over Time	Shown when Background = On
Time to Full Coveragei backgroundDuration	range	180	10–3600 · step 10	Shown when Background = On and Background Fill = Fill Over Time
Background Opacityi backgroundOpacity	range	0.2	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On
Fill Variationi backgroundFillVariation	range	0.75	0–1 · step 0.05	Shown when Background = On and Background Fill = Fill Over Time
Drift Heighti backgroundDriftStrength	range	0	0–1 · step 0.05	Shown when Background = On
Drift Size (Grid Spaces)i backgroundDriftScale	range	0.01	0.01–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On
Sweeping Snowi backgroundSweepEnabled	checkbox	On	—	Shown when Background = On
Sweep Opacityi backgroundSweepOpacity	range	0.4	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On and Sweeping Snow = On
Sweep Scalei backgroundSweepScale	range	1	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On and Sweeping Snow = On
Sweep Speedi backgroundSweepSpeed	range	0.8	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On and Sweeping Snow = On
Sweep Strengthi backgroundSweepStrength	range	1	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On and Sweeping Snow = On
Token Trailsi backgroundTrailsEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Shown when Background = On
Refill Trails Over Timei backgroundTrailRefillEnabled	checkbox	On	—	Shown when Background = On and Token Trails = On
Trail Refill Timei backgroundTrailRefillDuration	range	90	10–3600 · step 10	Shown when Background = On and Token Trails = On and Refill Trails Over Time = On
Trail Widthi backgroundTrailWidth	range	0.5	0–2 · step 0.05	Shown when Background = On and Token Trails = On
Trail Strengthi backgroundTrailStrength	range	0.25	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Background = On and Token Trails = On
Token Elevation Thresholdi backgroundInteractionElevationThreshold	number-infinity	5	0–Infinity · step 0.5	Shown when Background = On and Token Trails = On
Darkness Activationi darknessActivationEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Darkness Activation Rangei darknessActivationRange	range-dual	{"min":0,"max":1}	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Darkness Activation = On

Direct-effect API example

The Direct Effect API creates a separate row shown through Manage API Effects. Add a stable apiMacro_…_p or apiMacro_…_f ID when later macro calls need to update or stop the same row.

const created = await FXMASTER.api.effects.play({
  particles: [{
    "id": "apiMacro_wikisnowstorm_p",
    "type": "snowstorm",
    "options": {
      "topDown": true,
      "direction": 270,
      "speed": 0.55,
      "density": 0.45,
      "backgroundEnabled": false
    }
  }],
});

await FXMASTER.api.effects.particles.stop(created.particles);

For complete API behavior, scene targeting, stack ordering, and toggle groups, see the Direct Effect API guide.