Hello,
I got a question related to this product : I watched your videos, and I didn’t see any video showing a flight through the clouds. I am curious about the results. Also, I wondering the impact on performance (I imagine there can be many pixel overdraw at close range). Would it be possible to provide some information about this use case (for example, as used in a flight-sim, or for ground level clouds).
Regards,
Hello, thanks for your intereset on the asset.
The clouds use raymarching to be drawn into a mesh cube. The action occurs inside this cube, so the material is drawn on its inside. The material is complex with a large number of instructions, and you specify the amount of samples from the procedural textures’s density you want per pixel at camera fustrum. This amount of samples is called Raymarch Steps, you also can specify the amount of steps the code will use on the shadowing, so there is a product between RaymarchSteps and RaymarchShadowing Steps. Despite the amount of steps used, the GPU will only draw the amount of pixels from the camera perspective. So, a flight inside the clouds is cheaper because you are close to them or even inside, so I stop raymarching as soon I reach full density. The camera movement inside the clouds might produce artifacts depending on the speed, and since it is cheaper draw the clouds while passing inside them, you can increase the RaymarchSteps while flying moving into its direction and when inside.
There is an old video which I show the feature of flying by them: https://youtu.be/rkSBIx_rZjc and Im also preparing a demo executable where you can fly inside the clouds and there is also a high density florest. The demo will be done till Friday November 17th. Also there is a preview of this demo, with an empty landscape at the 1st post.
The best use case for the asset is from the ground level clouds. My intention is to produce a cloudscape as good as the one you can see in the game Horizon: Zero Dawn. So it is still being perfected to that point, but the result up to now is very pleasing. For flight simulator it still needs improvements, for example: I still need to change the shader to work on a curved mesh instead of a box mesh. This would significantly reduce the area GPU would care to evaluate. You can use it as it is for a flight simulator, making the mesh really big and moving this mesh along with the Character. The main material is already set to be able drawn the clouds seamlessly during the flight,
I hope I could answer your doubts. I would really appreciate you considering the purchase, because the product is still young and will be receiving updates to improve for sure, and now it is quite cheap, with its price probably increasing as soon it reaches maturity.
Cheers!
Trying hard (two heads actually thinking) to fix an issue with scalability, where when you change it to anything lower than Epic, the clouds disappear. During this investigation we found out that the issue is not with the main material (where there are mostly HLSL code), but something related to the Render Targets. So, for now we are looking deep into the engine source code to figure this out and while doing this we made accidentally a discover that will improve the shader a bit regarding performance and also what we can call version 2.0 with great looking clouds!
Finally got an understanding of whats going on regarding the scalability settings… and made a solution for it… the best possible… but felt into the asset not working with blueprint nativization when project is packaged… but still works perfectly in editor. So, this will be the final solution for now (Im marking the blueprints affected as not nativizationables) and I will submit two bug reports in the hope the engine developers fix them: one for the scalability (just reporting, not affecting the product anymore) and one for the nativization issue.
Now, I will start mounting a package for submission which will include:
Once the package is submitted, I will post the final executable demo (already using the fixes and settings above) and also posting a small video (I promisse) covering the demo, why it was made the way it is, explain the conclusions behind it and also show a mechanics I have developed to create another auxiliary blueprint which drives the main blueprint and sets automatically everything necessary to automatically set performance modes for the cloudscape system as: low, mid, high, epic, cinematic and insane profiles. This mechanic automatically changes not only the scalar settings, but the materials, texture sizes, and allows two scalar to control independently the performance and details. This blueprint will be given for free for everyone that has purchased the CloudscapeSeasons asset sending for everyone the source code for the demo mentioned, since it was used there… just send me the purchase ticket copy to my e-mail: [EMAIL=“.fe.lima@gmail.com”].fe.lima@gmail.com
Cheers and happy thanksgiving for all!
I have just upload the video for the version 1.1 explaining the changes for the asset and the motivations and explanations for the executable demo that I will upload next. The video is 1h45min long, but it has a lot of useful information for those who made the store purchase and might also be interesting for those using render targets into their projects because Im showing how I have addressed some issues during the project. The demo is very big, since it has a lot of assets, but if you really want to try it after watching the video, I think you should, it will worth the experience in my opinion.
new video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=InBJKNQcU9M
demo will be next after 1 hour or so after this post.
New demo can be downloaded (1.9GB) : here
Be sure to watch the video from the previous post before downloading the demo, Have fun!
Good Lord that ground fog is incredible!
I knew you would like it 
Update version 1.1 is now live for both 4.17 and 4.18. Make sure to update your installation.
Make sure to watch the new video to know what have changed, the new tweaking parameters, the sky blueprint driving volumetric fog (engine implementation), how to produce a ground moving fog efforthless (using the cloudscape layers), and also to check the demo:
and also check the demo shown in the video to see the performance: (1.9GB) : here
Also check the updated roadmap at 1st post!
Cheers!
FAQ updated with roadmap changes and with version 1.1 release. See posts 23, 24 and 25.
As per user’s requests, in two weeks we will release a series of videos of "How-To"s for every feature in this product. We will start with 5 at once and every 3 days a new one, all of them no more than 10-20min. Covering from basic daylight and nighttime setups, dealing with curves, day and night cycles, creating your own cloud, changing cloud shapes (we will create a heart shaped clouds), etc
Stay tunned.
As per user request Im going to post a solution for large scale materials with transparency (like oceans) which clips the cloudscape on certain angles or when looked from the above of the clouds. The solution will show the clouds on top the ocean (free community ocean project as example). Im just not posting it yet, because we are checking several other material options and see if the solution will not cause any other strange phenomena if applied.
The video is up (16min)! Check it out and leave comments here please. Any issues that might appear being from the cloudscape, tell me and even if it is not, Im glad to help figure it out, like this one.
Updated roadmap on 1st post!
and
Getting my hands on Dev kits for Xbox and Playstation in 2018 first quarter!
Thanks everyone for your interest in Cloudscape Seasons, purchases in Holiday Sale event went well and there are several people already modeling their cloudscapes!
**Don’t forget **to check the support thread in few days for the “How-To” video series, where we will go covering from basic setup, run deep into main volumetric techniques used in the asset, the main raymarch material, tips about HLSL, the cloud layer materials and masks, the setup for the base and detail materials, modeling new shapes, It is a must watch videos for who purchased the assets and everyone else looking for some tips for the techniques used. Subscrive the Youtube channel if you want to, follow on twitter, subscribe to this thread, dont forget to rate the asset at the marketplace to support our efforts! Use this thread for your comments and critics so we can improve even more this asset.
Remember that current price of $24.99 will last this December 31st and it will go to $49.99! Don’t miss the opportunity for this deal! 50% off. Check the video if you didn’t: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mrYqDGbhNoM
Also: **updated roadmap on 1st post! **
and
Getting my hands on Dev kits for Xbox and Playstation in 2018 first quarter!
Thank you so much for this sale!
I thought it would take me some time to get my hands on this, so thank you!
I hope to learn how to model very detailed clouds, like the reference image below:
Fortunately for me this I don’t need it to run in real time, because I’ll be using this for cinematics. Would such modeling be possible?
It is possible! You got lucky because I still have time to put this exactly picture in the “How-to” video series Im preparing, so you will learn step-by-step how to do it. It will be based the new material I released in the version 1.1 for the Cumulus clouds, but the height will be using the height for the Cumulonimbus. We can mask some space in the layer texture section to have the areas we want more empty while surrounded by those majestic mushroom like shapes. About the colors, we need to tune the density + extinction color + ambient color to have those bluish shades. The interesting in this photo, is because was it was took in a very high altitude (by the camera angle and cloud formations, around 7,000 meters sometime near 2pm during Summer nearest to equator line), the sunlight is basically white and this one gives the most beatifull scattering effects for this particularly picture. There will be a second cloud layer for that Cirrus cloud which looks like a veil at the most high altitude (8,000 meters approx). Also, the turbulence which causes the crispy effect have to be zero to preserve the cauliflower shapes at the top of the clouds.
You can place 0 at the wind strength bp in each clouds layer to have it static and you can fly between the clouds starting at the camera position going down, making sure the Raymarch steps is minimum 360 and still have more than enough FPS for cinematic capture. The better sunlight for performance is the static or stationary ones if you want seeing the landscape bellow the clouds at some point during the cinematic.
The videos are under production and I will release 5 at once, being the next ones released in 3 days interval. The amount is not fixed, because we are still waiting for user sugestions or doubts to increase the video count, but they will be at least 20 vides from 10 to 20min.
That’s really good to hear (wow you know a LOT about clouds 
)
I can hardly wait, this is so exciting! Thank you once again.
Im glad with that picture you provide, because we will also use it in the the video series to do a step-by-step implementation of a future feature: lightining and lightining bolt effects, which will also be volumetric!! Total geek stuff! We thought to do it live, but it would be really exhausting because we expect it to last 2 hours… we might even divide the video itself in segments for better management.
Wow I look forward to it! I can hardly wait