Sky Creator

Dmitry_Karpukhin · April 27, 2021, 1:22pm

Sky Creator is an extensive tool to control dynamic time of day and weather settings using realistic volumetric clouds and atmosphere in Unreal Engine 4. With a built-in weather preset system you can create endless amounts of different looking weather and lighting conditions and switch any of them in realtime.

This thread is reserved for discussions, suggestions and troubleshooting.
Feel free to share your thoughts or questions!

Marketplace | Documentation | Discord | Roadmap

Features:

Built upon native Volumetric Cloud & Sky Atmosphere components allowing high scalability
Unified two-layered Volumetric Cloud material
Weather Presets: allows you creating endless amounts of different looking weather and lighting conditions
Modular design: you can easily control Sky Creator settings with your own time manager
Highly art-directable and customizable: from vast realistic cloudscapes to stylized looking skies
Simplified orbital model: you can set custom time for dawn, sunrise, sunset, dusk and for moon aswell
Lightweight (as possible) and relatively easy to use
Game-ready optimization
Built-in Weather FX (Particles): Rain, Rain Splashes, Snow
Built-in Weather Material FX (Shaders): Wetness, Puddles, Ripples, Snow
Photorealistic Starmap with rotation, star twinkle effect, moon phases, etc.
30 included Weather Preset examples - clear, cloudy, foggy, overcast, stylized etc.
Network Replicated

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EXpMiNi · April 28, 2021, 11:05pm

Hey, I have an issue with the volumetric fog and sun position, it seems it’s not aligned except when the intensity of the sun is at 1

Cheers

Dmitry_Karpukhin · April 29, 2021, 6:39am

Hello! Did you make some other specific actions like rotating Sky Creator actor? I’ve been unable to reproduce it unfortunately, volumetric fog alignes with sun position just fine to me. And sun intensity doesn’t matter too. Though I had some troubles with volumetric fog in 4.26, it sometimes behaves just weird.

dennitzo · April 30, 2021, 7:45pm

Hello @Dmitry_Karpukhin.

I found some bugs on the plugin Sky Creator.

Multiple explicit Category specifier are required in SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorWeatherSettings.h

Error message from UE 4.26.2 while “Package Project” for Windows (64-bit).

UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/Unreal Engine/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorWeatherSettings.h : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.

Reproducing another error with starting a new project, activate Sky Creator Plugin and “Package Project” for Windows (64-bit). When starting the compiled Game with the .exe file, an error occurred:
Screenshot by Lightshot

I hope to get an update of the plugin. Thank you very much and thank you for your awesome work!

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 1, 2021, 6:28am

Thank you for reporting back!
Okay, I think you can expect a hotfix for this in a nearest days. I’ll keep you posted.

dennitzo · May 2, 2021, 4:58pm

The update works just fine now. Thank you very much!

With best regards, dennitzo.

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 2, 2021, 5:43pm

Hotfix update v1.01 is up!

Deleted two legacy unused functions which were triggering an error “Explicit Category is required …” when packaging a build
Moved Rain & Snow particle emitters from GPU to CPU, which fixes an error “Assertion failed: OnRequestDefaultDataInterface.IsBound() …”. This is probably an engine bug, deserves a further investigation. This can be just a temporary solution for now
Default values to Rain & Snow particle count are reduced because CPU emitters are usually more expensive
Fixed wrong material link in static mesh “SM_SC_SkySphere”
Moved “Volumetric Cloud MID” variable in “Debug” Category
Reverted to false default “Per Pixel Atmosphere Transmittance” boolean values to Sun and Moon (can cause “shadow zones” if surface is below Planet Top of Sky Atmosphere)

@dennitzo, I’m glad that it worked out. Thanks again for detailed report!

anonymous_user_80c6fcd0 · May 2, 2021, 7:17pm

Hey, I just purchased your product and forgive me as I’m newer to Unreal but I have a few maybe beginner questions:

How do I change the background of below the horizon? Right now it is all black but unsure how to make it like the default background with blue below the horizon. I’ve played with all the settings but can’t seem to change this.
When I Installed the Plugin, I get the failed to load ‘SM_SC_SkySphere’. Is there something I am missing with this?
Seems like it interferes with my Cel Shade Post Process Effect. Mostly due to my lack of knowledge, but is there a way to have it Cel Shade take precedence?

I am using UE4 v4.2.6.1.

Thanks and the plugin is great btw.

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 2, 2021, 7:49pm

No problem!

Oh, completely forgot to add that one in documentation. This is easily fixed by turning on “Support Sky Atmosphere Affecting Height Fog” in Project Settings > Rendering. Sky below horizon will not be black after that, it will be lit accordingly to atmosphere color.
That should not happen… I can suggest to you to update engine version to latest 4.26.2, or at least to check out if ‘SM_SC_SkySphere’ is present in SkyCreatorPlugin Content/Meshes. If not, you probably need to reinstall the plugin.
Hmm, if your Cel Shade material works with SceneDepth, then I’m afraid it won’t work unfortunately. Raymarched volumetric clouds just don’t exist at SceneDepth pass, they’re added later in post-process in rendering pipeline I think.

Thanks for reaching out!

anonymous_user_80c6fcd0 · May 2, 2021, 9:26pm

thanks for the prompt response.

that did the trick
seems I only updated the sky creator plugin and now it works great
good to know. So I’ll play around with different ideas but thanks for the guidance, it definitely was affecting SceneDepth.

Thanks for the help

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 17, 2021, 7:21pm

Update 1.02 is up with following changes:

Fixed Moon disk direction when Sky Creator actor is rotated
Fixed visual bug with long Cloud Wind Skew when editing clouds in editor
Fixed Second Fog control in Exponential Height Fog
Lowered default value for Cloud Shadow Extent from 50 to 25 in Sun & Moon (better cloud shadows with same performance)

What you can expect for next big update: Precipitation and Weather FX enhancements.

AhoyGame · May 24, 2021, 4:59pm

Hey Dmitry! I think we spoke briefly on Twitter before your product launched about a niche use-case I have (localized weather). Is there any understanding of this in the plugin at all? I think you mentioned at the time that it might be possible to ‘paint’ into a render target to add/remove clouds from certain areas. That would certainly be a good start, but would that same method be able to impact weather effects and cloud type as well?

Appreciate this is an incredibly niche request, but just thought I’d renew the discussion as I’m considering picking this up soon. Cheers (and congrats on the launch)!

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 25, 2021, 10:56am

@AhoyGame, hey thanks!
Yes, additional render target for low cloud layer is still in to-do list, so you could paint or remove clouds with it in editor or realtime. Can’t promise for now, but probably you will be able to set different cloud height for render target to differentiate cloud areas even more. About impacting weather FX… well maybe, it really needs more research. There’s certainly no need to draw individual raindrops for rain cloud which is 500m away from camera, so it will need a different kind of FX.
That’s all I can say for now, unfortunately. There’s still lots of stuff that I want to add, which might take months ahead. One thing is to implement, but another is to make it work fast.
But still hope that it’s at least a somewhat good starting point for your project! Cheers

Dmitry_Karpukhin · May 31, 2021, 6:20pm

Another minor update 1.03 is up! For this time it’s just minor changes to get full compatibility with Unreal Engine 5. Glad to notify that now it works right away, without additional hassle.

Changed Volumetric Cloud material shading model to “Default Lit” instead of “Unlit” (makes no difference in UE4 4.26, but it does in UE5)
Added engine major version verification when initializing FPlaceableItem in editor module (that struct is a bit different between UE4 and UE5)

Don’t forget that since UE5 is in EA state, you still need to manually copy plugin folder to your project’s folder!
From “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.26\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\SkyCreatorPlugin” to “YourProject\Plugins\SkyCreatorPlugin”.
And bigger updates such as precipitation enhancements are still in an active development.

EXpMiNi · June 12, 2021, 2:18pm

Hey Dmitry, I tried to put manually SkyCreator into the Plugins folder and I have some error when I try to run UE5 :

Am I missing something ?

Dmitry_Karpukhin · June 13, 2021, 10:51am

@EXpMiNi, actually no, everything is correct. You need to look at logs in “UE5test/Saved/Logs”, there should be useful info I think. Do you also have Visual Studio installed with appropriate SDKs?

Dmitry_Karpukhin · June 18, 2021, 6:22pm

New update V1.04 is out! And it’s aiming for small fixes and improvements.

Fixed Moon Disk sorting priority in sky material – stars are properly occluded now
Fixed Moon Mask aliasing
Fixed “Auto Scale” for Volumetric Cloud Noise
Fixed “Cloud Wind Skew”
Added “SkyCreator_CinematicController” blueprint specifically for Sequencer
Added Moon Disk Rotation
Added ability to choose between “Editor Weather Preset” and “Editor Weather Settings” – second option is for direct variable control
Added two new quality options for Volumetric Cloud – “Ground Contribution” and “Multi Scattering Approximation Octave Count”
Renamed “Sample Count Scale” subcategory to “Quality” in Volumetric Cloud options
Renamed “Sync With Low Cloud Map Scale” variable to “Auto Scale” in Volumetric Cloud options

tosith · June 24, 2021, 3:12am

I have this error with 1.04 when I am trying to build a project:

UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(61) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(64) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(67) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(70) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(73) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): D:/UE_4.26/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin/Source/SkyCreatorPlugin/Public/SkyCreatorActor.h(76) : LogCompile: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
PackagingResults: Error: An explicit Category specifier is required for any property exposed to the editor or Blueprints in an Engine module.
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): Took 11,3429961s to run UnrealBuildTool.exe, ExitCode=6
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): UnrealBuildTool failed. See log for more details. (C:\Users\xxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\D+UE_4.26\UBT-xxxxxx-Win64-Shipping_2.txt)
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=6 (6)
UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): BUILD FAILED
PackagingResults: Error: Unknown Error

Dmitry_Karpukhin · June 24, 2021, 7:40am

Oh… I’m sorry about that, it’s actually a very silly mistake. Will be fixed asap.

anonymous_user_d4362572 · June 24, 2021, 7:55am

I bought an asset. Satisfied.
Could it be possible to create an environment like a storm? It would be nice if effects such as lightning strikes were included. Thank you.