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Clouds

Started by SiS-Shadowman Apr 20, 2006 at 7:28 AM 9 replies 1.9k views

Original Post

Apr 20, 2006 at 7:28 AM

how would you guys handle the clouds for an outdoor scene. 1. i'm not shure how i should implement them. do i need to place them all over my sky sphere or are they on a quad wich covers everything? 2. how many quads / textures etc should i need? i just want to place distant clouds ( wich appear really thin ). but their color blurs with the one of the sky at the horizon and the side towards the sun is lit, whereas the other side appears grey / darker. how can i simulate this behaviour?

XiotexStudios

Apr 20, 2006 at 7:34 AM

Depends... do you intend to animate them in any way?

If you don't then bake them into your sky sphere...

SiS-Shadowman

Author

SiS-Shadowman

Apr 20, 2006 at 7:44 AM

well, i want them moving around.
i have a dynamic day / night cicle and also want dynamic weather, this includes cloud movement etc..
but i'm not shure how i could simulate the "creation" of the clouds, but i'll concentrate on that, when the clouds look fine.

XiotexStudios

Apr 20, 2006 at 7:52 AM

Well for those clouds that are 'far-away' I would still consider baking them since that would add to the noise and content to the sky.

For the close up ones bill-board them (viewer facing polys).

Personally I have never been happy with the whole single-quad-multiple-layer type of sky you see so often.

SiS-Shadowman

Author

SiS-Shadowman

Apr 20, 2006 at 9:49 AM

but what other options do i have?
i saw one demo wich creates the clouds procedural, but this costs lots of gpu power and i don't want to spend all the power for the clouds. doesn't anyone have an idea how to create good looking clouds ( musn't be perfect ) wich are able to move? ^^ haven't found a tutorial yet.

jollyjeffers

245

jollyjeffers

Apr 20, 2006 at 9:51 AM

I think this sort of general graphics question will be better suited to the GP&T forum... [smile]

Cheers,
Jack

De Cowboy

Apr 20, 2006 at 9:58 AM

http://www.ofb.net/~eggplant/clouds/

That is how it has been done in ms flight sim.

Enselic

Apr 20, 2006 at 10:01 AM

Quote:
Original post by De Cowboy
http://www.ofb.net/~eggplant/clouds/

That is how it has been done in ms flight sim.

High quality stuff (y)

Clickable:
http://www.ofb.net/~eggplant/clouds/

SiS-Shadowman

Author

SiS-Shadowman

Apr 20, 2006 at 10:26 AM

thanks for the link.
i'll read that as soon as i can :)

*edit* wow, that looks more than just impressive, thats awsome :D
but isn't there something not that complex? i want to start with a simple model and then refine it, until i am satisfied, i doubt i can handle such a complex scenario at once :o

Enselic

Apr 20, 2006 at 12:34 PM

You will get quite good looking clouds just by having bunches of sprites forming clouds, with increased opacity the closer to the core they are. Like they do in MSFlight sim, but without shaders and dot products, and different colors at dawn and sunset and without support for 3DMax. [smile]

abso

Apr 20, 2006 at 2:49 PM

There are also perlin clouds. If you search this very forum you will find several excellent topics on.

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