I don't think white lines is really that bad of an approximation. Look up photos of rain. Most of them range from nothing to white dots to white lines depending on the speed of the film being used and the size/how hard its raining (its white because the scene is being lit with white light and its a specular reflection).
Example of horrible rain
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Gran Turismo 5 had amazing rain effects in the trailer but the game however....
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Looks like droplets of milk
Example of horrible rain
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmTv3fceR4
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/07/23/new-project-cars-screens-rain-down-with-dynamic-effects/
GROUND ZEROES
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Very visible droplets when slow motion kicks in. No real problems with it during full speed either.
Some of these look nice, I guess it depends on how you implement it.
PS: SNK 4 EVA
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It's alright until you notice how the raindrop puddle impacts vanish a few meters in front of the camera.I liked the rain in Infamous ss
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oh man thats bad
I never thought a topic about the different implementations of rain would be so interesting. Is there another topic for snow?
That bright overcast sky will illuminate droplets of water on glass that way, depending on the angle. I wish I had time to find a picture that shows this.
edit: sort of what I mean:
Done right you wouldn't be able to see it. Often in movies the filmmakers will add milk to the rainwater so it shows up on camera, which is probably where the "white lines" depiction of rain in games comes from in the first place.