CloudLayer view distance

[tmorris]

When looking at the new cloud layer object in the 2.4 demos the clouds/sky looks really good. However the performance is really not great with the camera view distance set to 400k.

 

Do you have any tips or tricks for creating the endless sky type look without having to drop the world performance so low? Ideally we would like to keep the camera view distance between 10-50k, AND have an awesome looking sky.

 

Right now it seems like the choices are either a good looking sky that reaches far into the horizon or a performant world with very strange looking cloud circles (especially noticeable for higher altitude type cloud formations). We are trying to find a happy medium but it is proving rather difficult with the old style of terrain created through the landscape plugin. Even the new global terrain demo hovers around ~25 fps when the camera is pushed this far out which is much too low for our needs.

 

Also, any tips for balancing haze with the new system? I would really like to be able to adjust both a vertical distance and horizontal distance for haze rather then just  an all-directional distance.

 

Thanks for any thoughts you have on the matter, We would really like to make use of the of the new clouds but we cannot afford to lose so much world performance.

[silent]

Hi Taylor,

 

Clouds setup is actually depends on many factors. If you can tell us the use case and the following information:

1. What is the real use case? Flight sim or any other?
2. What is the target hardware (CPU / GPU);
3. Will clouds be visible only from the ground?
4. Will clouds be visible only from the top (10-15 km height)
5. Will be required to fly through the volumetric clouds?

About haze - I'm afraid it's currently possible only to control horizontal distance. If you can give us more information about this feature - we will try to implement it.

 

Thanks!

[tmorris]

1) Flight Sim (Both full scale and RC scale).

2) Min Spec: Quad-core processor AMD FX-4300 or equivalent DirectX 11 Mid-Range Video Card with 2 GB of video memory // Rec Spec:  I7-6700 Processor or equivalent nVidia GTX 1060, Radeon RX 480.

3) They will be visible from the ground.

4)They will be visible from the top.

5) Ideally yes, we would like to fly through the clouds.

 

For Haze, What is the bounding shape that the distance values controls? I had assumed it was a sphere based on my observation, I was hoping that it might be a cylinder or we might be able to choose, if it is already a cylinder then I will have to look closer!

 

Thanks