Hello all. I have a few basic questions about rendering clouds - I mean any kind. Volumetric, sprites, whatever.
I cannot find any decent tutorials on how to create them. I’ve played old games like Ace Combat 6 and Battlestations Pacific, and the clouds in those games were rendered really nicely. But were they volumetric? By the looks of them, they were clumps of 2d sprites put together.
Can someone give me any information on the topic? I have no idea where to begin.
bumping - still no information found
TrueSky = Volumetric. 
Orbit Sky = Sheets. 
TrueSky will give more of that AAA feel, and, volumetric … bonus!
Orbit will be sheets, so, flying in them is still a 2D type feel.
Thanks for the reply mate. I know about both of these - what I was asking was how to get started making my own. I’m getting nowhere trying to find a tutorial - I literally don’t care if i have to do it with 2d planes and alpha masks at this point.
ah i see - hmmm, i have no answer.
Try stuff like this:
Bake to texture like this:
https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/getting-the-most-out-of-noise-in-ue4
Taking it to the advanced level:
http://shaderbits.com/blog/ray-marched-heightmaps
The way I tend to approach it is by modelling the desired cloudshape in Houdini, then use that mesh as spawnposition for various soft and hardedged textures on sprites to get a nice mix. In some cases it’s necessary to color the clouds based on vertexcolor of the emission mesh. Sometimes it can be done by using lights. It all depends on the usecase. Another thing to watch out for if you are going to fly through the clouds is not having such large sprites that they visibly rotate to face you. Often, locking one axis can help with this.
This was the technique used to create this scene (Not in unreal however):
These clouds hold up well enough to fly around and even through. They are not perfect but it’s a starting point
