Volumetric clouds
by Adam Beer · in Torque 3D Professional · 06/29/2010 (6:43 pm) · 6 replies
What would be the best approach to do volumetric clouds in T3D? Has anyone made any attempts at doing this?
About the author
Adam is the owner of Ignition Games, an indie game and software development company.
#2
What I am going to do is model about ten different "cloud fragments" and then cluster them together fractally into groups of about 20.
Then, im going to make two materials for clouds. CloudsSkyLight and CloudsDirectLight. as the time of day changes, I will take the clouds that are closer to the direct of the sun or moon and change those models to those mapped with the DirectLight material, and the far side ones with the Sky Light material.
We will then take the color of the sky light and shade the clouds with something based on that, and then do the same for direct light.
This should yield the dramatic cloud looks of having red clouds facing a setting sun, and dark clouds facing away. Or silver clouds facing the moon at night.
Its fake, but should be much more tractible than calculating the shading in realtime or even partially real time. It takes forever to calculate the scattering on just one cloud.
07/01/2010 (2:58 pm)
I have been working on this too, Adam. Several days of research has basically brought me to the conclusion that photon-scattering modelling cloud shading is essentially too slow to run in a game at this time.What I am going to do is model about ten different "cloud fragments" and then cluster them together fractally into groups of about 20.
Then, im going to make two materials for clouds. CloudsSkyLight and CloudsDirectLight. as the time of day changes, I will take the clouds that are closer to the direct of the sun or moon and change those models to those mapped with the DirectLight material, and the far side ones with the Sky Light material.
We will then take the color of the sky light and shade the clouds with something based on that, and then do the same for direct light.
This should yield the dramatic cloud looks of having red clouds facing a setting sun, and dark clouds facing away. Or silver clouds facing the moon at night.
Its fake, but should be much more tractible than calculating the shading in realtime or even partially real time. It takes forever to calculate the scattering on just one cloud.
#3
Of course that would not render any shadows, but cloud shadows could be emulated using T3D's simi-busted drop DECALS, as cloud shadows do not need to be perfect representations of the REAL clouds overhead.
07/01/2010 (3:14 pm)
There was a rather convincing attempt some time age in the TGEA days, i believe a clever use of large slowly animated particle FX. It was in a blog, but i cant seem to find it right now. The performance was reported to me very minimal impact wise. Of course that would not render any shadows, but cloud shadows could be emulated using T3D's simi-busted drop DECALS, as cloud shadows do not need to be perfect representations of the REAL clouds overhead.
#4
if you get some reasonable results, please update the resource for the changes in T3D, I know this would help out a few projects some of the people are working on in the community
Thanks
07/01/2010 (8:48 pm)
Here is the link www.torquepowered.com/community/resources/view/13135if you get some reasonable results, please update the resource for the changes in T3D, I know this would help out a few projects some of the people are working on in the community
Thanks
#5
Looks promising but not thrilled about the price for it.
At least the sdk is free to download and check out though (adds 5 minute timer on app)
sundog-soft.com/sds/
07/01/2010 (10:15 pm)
Anybody looked at implementing SilverLining into T3d?Looks promising but not thrilled about the price for it.
At least the sdk is free to download and check out though (adds 5 minute timer on app)
sundog-soft.com/sds/
#6
I'll actually talked to the C.E.O over there and he is a pretty cool guy! His name is Roderick, and if you request an eval kit; he'll be happy to send you the link for testing purposes. The license only applies if you decide to use in a commercial project. I actually have the latest SDK of simul weather now. I'm just not a strong enough programmer. If anyone does decide to go this route please keep Roderick updated on your progression. He may be willing to release weather content pack for T3D, like he has done with DarkBasic.
07/02/2010 (7:06 am)
www.simul.co.uk/weatherI'll actually talked to the C.E.O over there and he is a pretty cool guy! His name is Roderick, and if you request an eval kit; he'll be happy to send you the link for testing purposes. The license only applies if you decide to use in a commercial project. I actually have the latest SDK of simul weather now. I'm just not a strong enough programmer. If anyone does decide to go this route please keep Roderick updated on your progression. He may be willing to release weather content pack for T3D, like he has done with DarkBasic.
Torque 3D Owner Trigger
VW
www.vterrain.org/Atmosphere/Clouds/
www.simul.co.uk/weather - Sure I remember the Weather SDK being insanely expensive…
[EDIT]
Yeah for some reason they have removed the pricing now so you have to contact them, but before they did that –
[License] [With Source] [Binary]
Standard $7000 $6000
Lease
Initial Fee $1500 $1000
Final Fee $7000 $6000
MMO $4500 / yr $4000 / yr Support – 1 year free with license, then: $950 / yr
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