Procedural clouds

[olly]

Am I the only person who expected to find the cloud settings in the VraySky Material rather than the VRaySun?

I had also assumed this, that said, dragging the sky map to the material editor from a dome light is a bit clunky.

vlado is it possible to make a VRayLight available in the Skylight dropdown of the native Daylight system?
This area has always felt a bit clunky for me.

I have also just played around with an animated sun and clouds:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vpf...ew?usp=sharing

This sequence shows the following parameters animated over 200 frames:
Variety 0.3 to 0.0
Cirrus 0.2 to 1.0
X & Y offsets 0.0m to 144841.0m
X & Y phases 0% to 50%
Max file attached: vray6_cloud-test01.zip

If you look closely you see the same features repeating as they pass overhead, so what do the phase parameters actually do?

Cheers
Olly

[JonasNöll]

The new cloud system is really awesome! Really makes using static HDRIs in many cases obsolete now!
2 ideas that came in my mind though:
- Is it possible to get a mask that matches the current render view? Like a VRayCloudMask renderelement or so?
- Is it possible to have a spherical cloud mask (generated during rendertime) so that I could pipe the whole VRaySky into a composite and then use that mask to only modify the skycolor without affecting the clouds or composing other elements into the sky behind the clouds directly in 3dsMax?

[vlado]

is it possible to make a VRayLight available in the Skylight dropdown of the native Daylight system? This area has always felt a bit clunky for me.

Yes, and I will also probably need an option to use the scene environment rather than dragging the sky texture every time, or at least make sure this happens automatically when the Dome light is chosen in the Daylight system.

If you look closely you see the same features repeating as they pass overhead, so what do the phase parameters actually do?

They control the noise pattern for the edges of the clouds; the noise will repeat at values 0, 100, 200 etc. Here are two animations that I did for a test for the X and Y phases respectively where the value is animated from 0 to 100:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/119v...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11IW...ew?usp=sharing

[olly]

Yes, and I will also probably need an option to use the scene environment rather than dragging the sky texture every time, or at least make sure this happens automatically when the Dome light is chosen in the Daylight system.

Great to hear!

They control the noise pattern for the edges of the clouds; the noise will repeat at values 0, 100, 200 etc

Ah, I misunderstood the phase parameters then.
Is it possible to add a parameter to effect how a cloud system evolves over time?

[vlado]

Is it possible to add a parameter to effect how a cloud system evolves over time?

Maybe for the future

Best regards,
Vlado

[Macker]

Slightly off topic, but is this supported in Vantage? I note the new sky renders in vantage.

[s.balabanov]

Hello,

Slightly off topic, but is this supported in Vantage? I note the new sky renders in vantage.

Yes, we're working on it. There will be a Vantage update soon and clouds will be supported there.

Best regards,
Simeon

[pmrenner]

I managed to get some good parameter keyframes to get a nice timelapse. The only time I see a problem with repetitive tiling is at the end towards sunset. At the end, I am changing a few things including the height of the cloud volume (not the height from the ground plane).
(BTW this was rendered in about 36 mins! Awesome!!)

Also, I would love to see a drop-down with some preset sky types to get artists started...happy to contribute my R&D settings as I go!

https://youtu.be/2K9rgYliJCc

[justini]

Been waiting for this feature for such a long time, so thank you. A couple of observations and suggestions:

1) Currently the sky is limited to a single cloud layer + cirrus. A layer function allowing for multiple layers of clouds would be more versatile and realitic.... each with unique heights, density and phase parameters.
2) Cirrus layer is not adjustable or animatable via phase parameter. Can this be added? Currently is feels like a static 2D element only.

[Jiri.Matys]

I really like the clouds, Looks great even in first implementation. I made one test too.

But i am curious why whole sky and now the clouds are so low contrasty with low saturation. In my test I have to change that with color correction layer and/or post. Should I use color correction / post for sky every time or why it is not more like a real sky in default?

I had to use color correction in this test or it is even more washed out and doesnt look like that.

[seandunderdale]

But i am curious why whole sky and now the clouds are so low contrasty with low saturation..

Ive always found this with Sun + Sky...but I assumed it was something I was doing wrong. Ive never gotten that deep blue result that youre getting in your photo reference.

[sirio76]

Tone mapping? Here is my results using default sun sky, highlight compression, filmic tone mapping, LUT:

[vlado]

Photos generally have some kind of tone mapping applied.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Paul Oblomov]

Would be great to have Rayleigh (I remember somebody told me three years ago it would take two weeks to implement ) also, so clouds stop looking like plain smoke plumes.

[^Lele^]

I'd assume MIE comes into play for water droplets.
Rayleigh is the one that gives sky its blue color, but the interplay happens between light and particles about the size of the wavelenght.
Water vapour's bigger -> MIE -> greyish horizons.

Can you show samples of the look you don't like, Paul?