Volumetric clouds - flattening

Development Rendering
1

I haven’t yet actually put the new .26 features to the test.

I was wondering if anyone who has understands the process enough to answer this question:

Is it possible to render the exact same cloud that gets computed volumeteically in a 2D flat image- as it would appear when seen from below?
Without the use of a scene capture to get the rendered result that is.

Obviously, the use would be a cheaper reflection into the water for a near static sky scene, since you could potentially use this as the base upon which to overlay other things (like the character). Clouds being the very backdrop of a reflection and all.

I think the clouds wouldn’t look the same without the engine’s lighting process bouncing on them, but the point is you don’t really need that to sell a moving reflection when the general shape matches, and the cost would be a lot cheaper for the scene compared to a render target.
at least, this works out OK with non-volumetric clouds…

2

Without using a capture I don’t know any way to accomplish that. For reflections you have a few options though.

Volumetric clouds get captured by the skylight, if your game has TOD this is probably the most efficient way to reflect them given that you’ll have to recapture the skylight at runtime anyway. If you’re also using Single Layer Water then they’ll be reflected in SSR.

The volumetric cloud actor has a reflection sample count scalability setting, which I thought would affect planar reflections but from my testing it only seems to work with the skylight recapture and raytracing. Planar Reflections seem to be locked