[Particles] Fade diffuse scale in screen-space relative to sun angle

[richard.september]

Hi all. A really neat improvement to the particle material would be to include the ability for the overall brightness or diffuse scale to fade down in screen space relative to the screen space orientation of a World Light. I have seen this behavior in other engines and it drastically improves the sense of depth in a particle.

The end result is a nice gradient between the world light and the ambient light. This is a very good look for transparent particles such as smoke or clouds because it gives a sense of depth. This gradient would shift depending on the facing angle of the world light. A world light at 50% angle would produce a smooth gradient. at 0 or 100% angles it should fade between full world light or full ambient light. This would simulate, with a decent amount of accuracy, a 3-dimensional look to a particle.

Does anyone know if this is currently possible with a custom shader in unigine today? otherwise I hope this feature can exist someday in the tool. This would be for transparent particles of course.

Edited November 10, 2019 by richard.september

[silent]

HI Richard,

Thank you for the suggestion.

Particles improvements has already been made internally in separate branch. I believe that similar effect was already implemented (WIP):

I believe that it would be merged to the main branch after 2.10 SDK update.

[richard.september]

Oh my GOD! that looks great! I can't wait for 2.10!!!

Is that also transparent shadows that I see too? Fantastic!

[silent]

Hi Richard,

To be more clear - new particles will be available after 2.10 release (maybe in small update like 2.10.1 or even in 2.11).

Quote

Is that also transparent shadows that I see too? Fantastic!

Yep, exactly :)