Swept-mesh wake / ribbon

A coherent body of snow or water is a mesh extruded along a path spine — not a particle blob.

SNOWFLOW surf + spells data texture · VS

How it works

Record the path as samples (here: CPU array; production: 96×3 data texture).
Build a static lattice of verts with attributes (column, row, side).
In the VS, place each vert from spine position + normal/binormal × cross-section.
curl bends the profile from a bank into a breaking lip.

P(s,t) = spine(s) + R(s) · profile(t, curl)

Curl (breaking lip)0.7

Width1.2

Height0.9

Wireframe

Pause path motion

Particles are great for spray; the body of the wake should be a swept surface so normals and silhouette stay continuous.

swept wake