Starfield Community Discovers Rain Only Ever Falls on the Player, Developers Explain Why

Some within the Starfield community were surprised to learn that rain only ever falls on the player this week after a Reddit post revealing the normally unseen trick saw nearly 30,000 upvotes.

“In Starfield, rain only exists in a small area around the player,” redditor thelastfastbender wrote alongside a screenshot showing the effect in photo mode.

The Reddit post then made its way onto social media where the video game community helped explain what’s going on. It turns out pretty much all video games handle rain like this, although usually in a slightly different way.

Thomas Francis, lead visual effects artist at Darkest Dungeon 2 developer Red Hook Studios, posted to say rain is normally attached to the camera rather than the player character, which is why the effect is visible in Starfield’s photo mode. This is done “because it is less performance intensive than simulating particles everywhere. Why spawn particles across the world when a few hundred particles in front of your camera does the job just as well,” Francis said.

Gamers have discovered our secret lol.. Could have been avoided if you parented the rain to the camera Bethesda pic.twitter.com/U0sTNgGQwH

— Tom Francis (@TomFrancisVFX) September 25, 2023

This technique is used for pretty much everything, Francis added, including snow, dust, and even blades of grass. “Anything that flies across your screen as you are moving in a zone/biome is probably using something like this,” Francis explained. “It’s optimized and easy for us developers to control.”

The Starfield rain Reddit post has sparked yet another fascinating ‘developer tricks of the trade’ moment on social media. Francis went on to explain that video game rain does not make anything wet, rather it triggers a system that tells the environment to “look wet”.

Starfield rain has even prompted a debate about whether learning how the sausage is made ruins player immersion. As Francis put it: “sometimes it’s better to believe in the magic than knowing the trick behind it.”

I am legit realizing folks don’t necessarily understand that “rain falling” does not “make things wet” in games, and those are entirely separate systems effects. It makes sense that that doesn’t make sense but it’s fun to realize how “behind the curtains” even simple things are. https://t.co/oMG3zQNjs9

— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) September 27, 2023

I see that Starfield rain box being discussed. Here’s a gaming secret:

Every game ever made is held together by duct tape. Only difference between them is the level of skill used to hide it…

Except Rollercoaster Tycoon. That one is perfect.

— Remerai (@Remerai) September 27, 2023

Polygon has a helpful article in which developers explain more on what’s going on with Starfield’s rain. 3D environment artist Karl Schecht said: “Whether you’re in first or third person, the rain looks solid. But switch to photo mode, zoom out, and you’ll see the rain is actually a small particle system, about 3×3 meters, that hangs out above your character.”

The Starfield rain discussion rekindles memories of the Fallout 3 metro, which is simply an NPC with a train on their head.

Cant wait for their reaction when they find out that Fallout 3 metro is just an NPC with a train in the head pic.twitter.com/VSZjkklh4a

— JWulen (@JWulen) September 26, 2023

In 2017, Paul Hellquist, co-founder of Stray Kite Studios, revealed that in BioShock, if the player would have taken their last point of damage they instead were invulnerable for one or two seconds to trigger more “barely survived” moments.

In Bioshock if you would have taken your last pt of dmg you instead were invuln for abt 1-2 sec so you get more “barely survived” moments.

— Paul Hellquist (@TheElfquist) September 1, 2017

In other Starfield news, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard recently revealed planet exploration was brutal before being “nerfed”. IGN also spoke with the creator of Starfield’s controversial paid DLSS mod, who hit back at pirates.

If you’re playing through the game, be sure to check out IGN’s Starfield walkthrough.

Image credit: reddit / u/thelastfastbender

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.