Snow machines
Posted January 1st 2025
Associated movies
This article is somewhat of a companion piece to Tree in a Warthog. I could've covered the business of snow machines there, but really it's such a special topic, it merited its own article.
In BCM518 I unveiled a remarkable phenomenon obtained when playing around with a treed hog (a hog with a tree in it). I'd got the Scorpion wedged in under the hog, resulting in things being all jammed up. There was snow cascading out in spectacular fashion, along with bark fragments, and there was also some semi-rhythmical noise going on. I called it my 'snow machine'.
I now use that term for basically any assembly where a Scorpion is jammed under a treed hog, causing spectacular cascading snow - or at least with the potential for that, by giving it a knock or whatever. Bark fragments and noise are bonus extras you may or may not have. And certainly it's best to have noise I think; things sound more machine-like that way.
Creating a snow machine
The creation of my original snow machine was not shown as I'd failed to record it (made a mistake), but the creation of another snow machine was shown in BCM521, where I started off with a suspended hog. I haven't yet done a full exploration of how to produce snow machines (maybe I'll return to this later), but the basic idea is to first get a treed hog, then try and get the Scorpion jammed under it, against the tree.
This may or may not produce immediate snow flow. If there's no snow at first (such as was the case in BCM521), you may still be able to get some started by doing some ramming with a Banshee, to tweak the assembly. The same goes in regard to noise. There's potentially 'grinding' noise, which is often loud and rhythmical, and which can involve hog impact sounds. But you can also get 'scraping' sounds.
In regard to the tree insertion, the hog in my original snow machine had the tree near a front corner (see pic), and I believe that state arose from initially having the tree in the seating area (recall that the tree can then shift near a front corner, a state in which the hog can potentially do reverse rotation, something you can actually see me do with the hog around 5:54 in BCM518 after the jam has been freed). Two later snow machines I obtained used a hog with the tree in the nose.
Having the tree in the back of the hog may be unsuitable. I've never been able to get a snow machine with a rear-treed hog, despite trying. The closest I got was seen in the opening clip of BCM518; but although snow was flowing (and there was even noise), it was low down and not spectacular. I don't count that as a snow machine. Not a proper one anyway.
Sound variations
A fascinating thing about a snow machine is that you can potentially get many interesting sound variations from it by ramming into it with a Banshee (my usual method) or by blasting. I assume that such actions are causing small changes in the configuration, which leads to the new sound patterns. I devoted a whole movie to this, namely BCM519, showcasing sixteen variations, and you'll find quite a bit of chat about those in the written commentary.
Such disrupting actions can also produce other changes, relating to the flow of snow and bark. They can also cause the jam to free up. Typically that involves the Scorpion sliding clear and the hog sinking to the ground. Sometimes the hog may end up suspended though.
Cascading snow usually has a sound to it, and sometimes it's unusually loud. But curiously you sometimes get silent snow. I have no explanation for that.
What's going on?
When you see a snow machine operating, the question arises as to why or how the snow, bark and sounds are being produced. Here are my thoughts on that.
I think the snow is arising from hog contact with branches. Something which I think lends weight to that theory is the phenomenon of (isolated) suspended hogs causing snow, as seen in BCM522. I said as much in the closing remarks of that movie's written commentary, adding that "With a snow machine the snow tends to scatter more widely and wildly, but that would be because of the tank. The snow may be bouncing off its surfaces, or perhaps it's being sent away from the tank due to some other mechanism."
Having said all that however, note that at the start of BCM518 there was a configuration which, although I don't consider it a snow machine, was nevertheless producing snow, except at ground level, nowhere near the branches. Any full explanation of snow production needs to be able to explain that situation too. Also it needs to explain the directionality of snow flow. I'm not offering such a full explanation at this time, but maybe I'll revisit things later - perhaps in light of further examples I might obtain.
I think any flying bark fragments (see pic) arise from hog contact with the tree trunk, and the same goes for the striking range of sounds that can be part of a snow machine. Getting into more detail on sound pattern production is not something I can do at present however (there's surely scope for deeper analysis).
Boarding the hog or Scorpion
If you board the hog, you'll likely find that you're getting heavy vibration feedback in all three possible places. I think that's always been my experience so far. Also, I've never been able to shift the hog by driving. In the side-seat, conditions can seem quite blizzard-like!
Dismounting from the hog can cause death, such as seen in BCM521 around 2:25. I'm not sure what's killing you there, but maybe you're being splattered by the hog?
The Scorpion can potentially be boarded on each side, though you may need to carefully explore for the right position to do so. Once aboard, you may well find it immovable. If the snow machine is disrupted though (e.g. by a Banshee shunt), you might then be able to drive the Scorpion free. Dismounting while things are still jammed up may result in death - in which case I suspect you're being splattered by the hog.
Checkpointing
When you get a snow machine, I suggest the next thing to do is to checkpoint the situation, so you can play about with it. More specifically, get a delayed checkpoint near the snow machine (a delayed tunnel checkpoint for example). Curiously though, you may find that you need to be a fair distance away before the game will grant you the checkpoint.