# Space Nebula and Starfield Plugin ✧ V1 + V2 + V3 ✧ for UE4 **URL:** \ **Category:** UE Marketplace\ **Tags:** unreal-engine, fab\ **Created:** [September 20, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138 "2016-09-20T18:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/1 "2016-09-20T18:20:50Z")
![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/8/2/682bf93cc7164db886a59385bd75d3baa2bf7e7c.jpeg) ``` Volumetric Space Cloud and Starfield System ``` ![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/a/4/5/a45c7bb23dfb69b5c75fcc133662fd165758d7a9.jpeg) **New Space-Nebula and Starfield V3 Demo-Hallway!** It gives an **interactive overview** of all the new Plugin’s features, like various use-cases of the **Volume-Creation-Pipeline** , as well as different techniques of **Volume-Raymarching**. Within the Editor this Demo-Level will show how to adapt and extend those features in order to create your own specific type of Space-Nebula and Starfield scenes. Space-Nebula and Starfield Plugin V3 is a complete overhaul of V2, following the same principles of Nebula-Creation and -Rendering, but it is now a more **general Tool to Design and Visualize Volume-Textures in UE4**. Under the hood it is implemented using C++ and Compute-Shaders, allowing Blueprint and Material to be used for minimalistic, yet powerful design and customization purposes. _V3 Demo-Hallway Screenshots:_ [![Google Photos](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/a/d/b/adb498a751f3dff15f4619d7c480c85a22d54f11.png "SpaceNebulaAndStarfieldV3 DemoHallway · Sep 10, 2019 – Jun 28, 2022 📸") ](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMAGqZCqvd50ohTsi2-bcCqDa1xZzPl6eqesjKOOHqaG-PcQjgtaBAfjf3RItWUJA?key=SGpjU2JaUXV0YTJCY09JRFZrYkFQeHV4M1dFUUZB) **Example-Content:** - Nebula-Alpha, -Zed, -Omega, -Kappa - Galaxy, Sun, Atmospheric-Cloud, Polar-Lights, Rainbow - Basic example for painting Nebula and Flow - Basic examples of applying Nebula- and Vectorfield-Volumes into Niagara - Procedural Starfield - Import examples of Brain-CT and Mitch-Meyer’s Cloud - Signed-Distancefield testings Nebula-Sigma, Gas-Planet, Metaballs - Fun with Cellular-Automata, Cyclic-Cellular-Automata and Cellular-Nonlinear-Network **Nebula-Creation-Features:** - Nebula-Material - Lightsource - Nebula-Combine - Flow-/Fluid-Simulation - Mean-/Median-Blur - Various Cellular-Automatas - Color-Lookup (Color Transition, LUT) from Curves and Color-Points - Microstructure - Distancefield Acceleration **Nebula-Rendering Features:** - Advanced Rendering (like V2) (Color-Lookup, Microstructure, Acceleration) - Simple Rendering (Basic Raymarcher) - Block Rendering - Signed-Distancefield Rendering (Color-Lookup) Unreal-Engine Compatibility: 4.25+ Tested on Windows DirectX/Vulkan and Linux Vulkan [Documentation](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCZIz6evhyAI0VxObato5LFehGvHT8qBUnyI574eH58) * * * # **Marketplace** ### [Marketplace](https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/space-nebula-and-starfield-v2) ✧ V2/V3 ### [Marketplace](https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/space-nebula-and-starfield) ✧ V1 * * * # **V3 Demo Hallway** ### ✧ [Download](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pd6SrT2waPdXw92mw1i91UFH0Onrr7HK/edit) ✧ > **(Old Demos)** > > V1/V2 ✧ [Download](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Woxd1stTQ1X8-0OwIc1JKtTvYfLp6SYm) (Win64) > V2 ✧ [Download](https://drive.google.com/open?id=19EJrPq2hepVqMJnjEDbI9dhSoDsDKR8S) (Win64) > V1 ✧ [Download](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxObmjUEdjmiUjJ0OTNrYnpoZW8) (Win64) * * * # **V2** [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulkF1yxq9qI) [Screenshots](https://photos.app.goo.gl/1t4Lqsw4DjKLU1Cf8) ​ * * * # **V1** [Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4fuVo0kXY0) [Screenshots](https://photos.app.goo.gl/vHhyBVxZKs9RG7iT8) > **Other Videos** > > [Gustav Holst - The Planets (1916)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E-tqx-1AM4) [Chiptune](https://youtu.be/Z1QGTftx3Oc) [Experimental/Ambient](https://youtu.be/reMxUNUcq6w) * * * **SCIENCE** > **** > > First Mapping of Interstellar Clouds in Three Dimensions - [NASA Astrobiology](http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/first-mapping-of-interstellar-clouds-in-three-dimensions/) > > Scientists just 3D imaged the birthplace of stars using sound - [Science](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/scientists-just-3d-imaged-birthplace-stars-using-sound) > > New 3D map will help solve long-standing cosmic mysteries - [Australian National University](http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/new-3d-map-will-help-solve-long-standing-cosmic-mysteries) > > ![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/a/a/e/aaef04e36ecb08c44238f6176e7b773f3c865d04.png) > Musca molecular cloud (G301.70-7.16) located ~150 to 200 pc from Earth > > ![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/8/7/387266fe3c5ddbede1f0c3872033f0a578738a9c.png) > > The image shows parts of the ESA GAIA Star Atlas of the milky way [Technical Document](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z5ovxptU9CWzQ3oB2ETU3IaiF5tbVBpW) * * * _Acknowledgements:_ [Ryan Brucks](http://shaderbits.com) (Principal Technical Artist at Epic Games) - for his works on volumetrics and textures [IQ](http://www.iquilezles.org) for his revolutionary work [Aris Tritsis](http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~tritsis/index.html) for his work on the mapping of Space Nebulae. [Prof. Dr. Christof Rezk-Salama](https://www.hochschule-trier.de/informatik/christof-rezk-salama) Graphics and Visualization Department, Hochschule Trier [Mitch Meyers](https://www.mitchmyers.tv) for his awesome VDB Cloud Packs _- Communication -_ [thauros-development@outlook.com](mailto:thauros-development@outlook.com) ---
**Author:** ![hippowombat](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/hippowombat/32/906590_2.png) [@hippowombat](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/hippowombat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/2 "2016-09-20T18:31:58Z")
This is amaaaaaazing! How much is this going to cost? ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/3 "2016-09-21T17:19:17Z")
Thank you! If someone doesn’t have a lot of money but wants to do something awesome with our plugin, he/she should feel free to get in contact with us so we can figure something out 😉 ​ [![](https://i.imgur.com/ucdECdvm.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/ucdECdvm.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Arixsus](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Arixsus](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Arixsus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/4 "2016-09-21T19:05:59Z")
Ooooh. I need this! ---
**Author:** ![PerseusSmith](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@PerseusSmith](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/PerseusSmith)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/5 "2016-10-12T02:13:01Z")
Want! Any plans to release project assets? ---
**Author:** ![infinite.galaxie](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@infinite.galaxie](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/infinite.galaxie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/6 "2016-10-12T04:34:18Z")
I hope you’ll put this up for sale soon. I would love to use this! ---
**Author:** ![ThD\_ManiaC](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd_maniac/32/1194665_2.png) [@ThD\_ManiaC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD_ManiaC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 9:47am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/7 "2016-10-12T09:47:03Z")
ETA 7 Days 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/8 "2016-10-19T22:46:18Z")
\*\*[FONT=Courier New][INCOMING TRANSMISSION]… {Welcome Message} Today (((_the ESA Mars Probe did it,_))) the crew of the ISS did it, and we did it! Hello and welcome to the Space Corporation (formerly known as Interstellar Journey InCorp., IJI), your new spaceline-journey carrier! Get an impression of our custom flight offers in the teaser. For longer flights, please lean back, get in a comfortable position and select your desired mood with the available musical soundtrack choices. Thank you very much and enjoy your flight! \*Your Space Corporation - Your Journey \* …[END OF TRANSMISSION]\*\* ---
**Author:** ![infinite.galaxie](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@infinite.galaxie](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/infinite.galaxie)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 2:51am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/10 "2016-10-20T02:51:46Z")
I posted this on your marketplace comments section. Any chance this would work on 4.12? It looks great and I would love to buy it if it does. ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/11 "2016-10-21T12:30:46Z")
@itsalwayssummer we provide a 4.12 version now 🙂 currently testing the Nebula and Starfield for mobile as well ---
**Author:** ![infinite.galaxie](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@infinite.galaxie](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/infinite.galaxie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/12 "2016-10-21T18:23:23Z")
Ahhhhhh, thanks. I’m going to buy it now! ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/13 "2016-10-21T19:14:00Z")
thank you 😉 \<3 ---
**Author:** ![zerofiftyone](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@zerofiftyone](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/zerofiftyone)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/15 "2016-11-05T21:53:44Z")
Hey there; I’m interested in this but I’m having framerate issues with the executable demo. I also noticed there’s a fair amount of framerate hitching in the video too. Is this a particularly graphically demanding effect? ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/16 "2016-11-07T15:08:09Z")
// (focuses on early v1 related properties) > [@](#): > > Hey there; I’m interested in this but I’m having framerate issues with the executable demo. I also noticed there’s a fair amount of framerate hitching in the video too. Is this a particularly graphically demanding effect? \*Hello zerofiftyone, yes you are right, 3D noise generation and opacity/transparency calculation in real-time is a very demanding render task. The Nebula is nearly just GPU-/per-pixel-processing so every opaque object covering the Nebula (like a cockpit) will save these instructions. Additionally the starfield particle system influences the overall performance, especially the particle count parameter. But we tried to balance performance and appearance to allow a large amount of scalability on demand. **LOD and Noise Characteristics** By default you can choose between 3 different quality settings (switch these in the demo with key ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ in real-time), plus we have a variety of noise functions that all perform differently, based on the algorithm and implementation (different noises also look more or less differently). We recommend using the custom [iq-value-noise](https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4sfGzS) or one of unreal engines noise functions for your personal preferred look and performance-profile. **Experimental Features** Advanced processing settings (additional light source, advanced color variation, …) are influencing the overall performance as well. In your final stage of the game you want to strip down all unused aspects of the package, like UI or Experimental Features (that are also running in the background within the demo). The demo currently offers very limited settings, for instance you cannot change the underlying noise function, which is critical and we might provide a more customizable demo in the future. **Render-to-texture** Additionally, if you don’t need a fully moving nebula, for f.i. a background, you can use the render-to-texture feature to create a cubemap, this way you get unlimited performance on the fly, f. i. if you arrive at a location within the universe. **Computational Limits** Experiences from the community already reported that quite beautiful and smooth space levels had been created for VR, but on the other side you could push any hardware to its limits by settings certain parameters out of bounds. We tried to balance the complex system by setting preset ranges and behavior to each of the parameters and UI sliders, while ordering and commenting all the functions and parameters extensively. As I said, the plugin basically contains one complex shader nebula material and one single starfield particle system (with quite impressive particle counts), and we we’re surprised how smooth it was running even on old hardware - not to mention that Unreal Engine is doing a lot of performance tweaks under the hood, which will even improve better in the near future, especially in the context of VR and upcoming features, like automatic LOD generation or noise improvements. Regarding the feature video - this is really not very smooth - which is caused to a large part by my hardware that was really struggling with HD-screencapture, while running the game from within the UE editor Hope I could help :)\* //depreciated (focuses on v1 related properties) ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/17 "2017-06-21T19:02:59Z")
some more shots from the development process ﾟ.\*・｡ﾟ [![](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_21e38222](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_21e38222](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_21e38222)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 7:43am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/18 "2017-07-18T07:43:27Z")
Out of curiosity, would your plugin be able to display laserscanned point clouds ? 🙂 We currently are searching solutions to render millions of points efficiently in UE4 for VR, but all solutions are falling flat so far in terms of performance… ---
**Author:** ![ThD\_ManiaC](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd_maniac/32/1194665_2.png) [@ThD\_ManiaC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD_ManiaC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 11:52am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/19 "2017-07-19T11:52:46Z")
Hi LegendreVR, currently we are working on some features to improve performance and artefact-free-movement for the upcoming update. Depending on your data, the render-technique could fit the purpose. We are working with 4k pseudo-volumetric-textures (256x256x256px =16,777,216 px) but in in some way ue4 also supports 8k textures. Take a look at RyanB’s volumetric-render-plugin, since our plugin is based on such raycast-rendering to know if it’s the right direction for you. Remember, we focus on the look and feel of space-nebulas, so some features like coloring or deforming are less required for your needs. We provide you something to play around with as soon as the current wip-performance-feature is ready 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ThD-Lee](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/thd-lee/32/439751_2.png) [@ThD-Lee](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ThD-Lee)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/20 "2018-02-07T12:45:05Z")
We finally just released the standalone Demo of Version 2 ! [![](https://media.giphy.com/media/xThtajXyXeh9uCRYm4/giphy.gif) ](https://media.giphy.com/media/xThtajXyXeh9uCRYm4/giphy.gif) ---
**Author:** ![scragnogg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@scragnogg](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/scragnogg)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 12:16pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/21 "2018-02-15T12:16:34Z")
Very excited about your V2 release. I’m part of a project called Stage 9 (recreating the Enterprise D from Star Trek TNG) and this would just be the icing on the cake for exploring different star systems! Amazing work. ---
**Author:** ![jojo8026](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@jojo8026](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/jojo8026)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138/22 "2018-02-25T15:06:38Z")
Any ETA on Version 2? [Next page](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/space-nebula-and-starfield-plugin-v1-v2-v3-for-ue4/74138.md?page=2)