I am putting together a ‘Solar System’ project, and am using a blueprint that creates a realistic star/sun that burns at 3000K, and is complete with solar radiation/flares.
The sun takes centre stage (0,0,0) in the scene and at the same co-ordinates is the sky sphere, that has a ‘purple nebula effect’. The sphere itself is scaled up to around 100K. I have made four other space materials for the sky sphere, of which are interchangeable via the ‘C’ key, and controlled via the player controller blueprint.
When the level is played the sun, shows it’s full detail (solar radiation/flares), however, when I change the space material, the suns effects are almost lost, e.g. becomes dim, and radiation subsides, though flares are faintly seen.
I have noticed also, that as you look away from the sun, the sky sphere material, goes from dark to light, this exposure happens over a few seconds.
Another observance was that if I change the inital sky material and then hit play, the sun’s effects are fine. Problems only seem to occur when the material is changed.
I’d like to know how to retain the sun’s effects, no matter whet sky sphere is selected, and also like to keep the sky sphere at a set exposure.
Please could any of you out there help provide a solution for this? Thank you in advance.
Hey VaSSiLi.
Thank you for your reply.
I tried that, and the sky sphere materials are very dark. The star also appears darker and suffers the same loss of radiation/flares.
Have you any other ideas, please?
What do you change the sky material to? Does it affect the exposure the same way? It sounds like your issue is still eye adaptation, and your content was created based on whatever point the adaptation was at at the time. I’d consider setting the min/max exposure to 1(with no bias) in the post-process settings for the time being to balance out your values. Make sure they’re near the correct range for each other, but also look at your lights again. Starting lighting with exposure enabled is a nightmare because you’re always compensating for it, so it’s easier to block everything out and get it looking correct with no adaptation, then enable exposure and tweak both together.
The sky materials are dds texture files (2048x2048) that are imported via a program called Spacescape, by Alex Peterson.
Initially, prior to changing the material, all is cool, on the first change the star effects are lost. The star itself has a PPV, and I’ve set the Unbound to on. Still no change. When you relate to the post-process settings, where actually are they? in Project settings? I can’t find anything to do with Min/Max exposure, just ‘Auto Exposure’ under Project Settings\Rendering\Default Settings.
Based upon the attached screenshots, is there anything that looks obvious to you? I think your stated theory sounds cool, however, I don’t know how to block everything out initially.
For a realistic sun, shouldn’t it appear white when viewed from space? The orange glow shown in the screenshot above is due to interactions with Earths atmosphere.
Good point, just for now though, orange is cool with me; would like to know how to preserve the solar ration/flares, no matter what space theme is applied.
