[brother_david]

Ive done some testing with using Basic Clouds along with scatter sky and Cloud Layer, in order to get the clouds gathering at the horizon. That way i get a nice cloudy horizon while also getting moving clouds, check the image attached. Im using a circular sky texture, check link attached for the texture itself, this partcular one is low res but works with higher resolution of course

A side note, this is also a way to get around skybox, if you dont like using that.

Anyway, i like this trick but the only thing keeping it down is that basic clouds isnt effected by the sky/sun light. That causes it to keep being lit at night. Any chance anyone has done something similar?





Link to the thread i posted on the BeamNG forum, with some more info, texture used and so on

https://www.beamng.com/threads/neat-clo ... ick.62814/

[Duion]

That's an unusual way of doing it, that idea never came to me. What is the supposed benefit to that, since you cannot have it moving, or it would become obviously ugly?

Have you tried cloud layer that is affected by daylight? Otherwise I would just make another for night, like Torque3D does now with the night skybox.

You could also use a very large cloud layer with lots of variants so you occasionally get cloudy areas and clear areas, which then move all over the map, which is also more realistic, since the very cloudy areas can also be over your head. To the simulate the more cloudiness at the horizon you can use fog.

[brother_david]

That's an unusual way of doing it, that idea never came to me. What is the supposed benefit to that, since you cannot have it moving, or it would become obviously ugly?

Have you tried cloud layer that is affected by daylight? Otherwise I would just make another for night, like Torque3D does now with the night skybox.

You could also use a very large cloud layer with lots of variants so you occasionally get cloudy areas and clear areas, which then move all over the map, which is also more realistic, since the very cloudy areas can also be over your head. To the simulate the more cloudiness at the horizon you can use fog.

In BeamNG i use TOD all the time so the clouds *need* to be effected by daylight, even though i rarely use night in the game. Ideally for me they would be able to rotate but personally i dont mind if its static. Its a cheaty way to create the feeling of built up clouds at the horizon without having to use cloud layer normals maps, it hard to get those looking as good as actual photos of horizon clouds. Ive added a cloud layer to have moving coulds too but the horizon clouds are meant to just stay at the horizon, no matter what TOD it is.

I cant use a diffusemap/texture for cloud layer right? I thought it always had to be a normal map? Im not at my home computer now but i quickly tried and had no success using the .png ive used for the basic clouds in the screenshots. Also, i didnt think i could align cloud layer textures to be centered on the sky, so that it doesnt show/loop/repeat the edge of the texture.

The large cloud layer texture is a great idea, thanks, will be a good way to add diversity without using a ton of layers!
To use fog at the horizon i think wont create what i try to create, too much of a sharp edge IMO.

[Duion]

You can also use real clouds aka particles/billboards or even 3D models, the Pacific Demo uses particle/billboard clouds, which have a real location in 3D space. The only drawback of that is, that you can fly to the end of the world and see the clouds up close. There is no need to fake anything, you can as well just build it in 3D. I even used a cylinder around the map with an alpha texture and mountain background, it looked amazingly convincing, but only until you flew there to see it was only a backdrop. You could even make the cylinder or dome with alpha texture rotate so the clouds move, so many possibilities.