Is there a way to create volumetric clouds like the default weather clouds? How are they constructed? Are they 3D objects given special material?
I am asking, because I would like to move away from 2D sprite based particle systems and create better looking, “animated” clouds of billowing smoke, like the ones, for example, during a rocket launch. I would like them to cast shadows and be shaded/receive shadows themselves, which 2D sprites can’t do.
I can definitely design a 3D animated morphing mass of a billowing smoke cloud, but the material that would make them look like clouds (with soft fringes, but still getting shadowed and casting shadows) doesn’t seem to exist. I experimented with Fresnel material, and it looked promising, but just not quite right.
I guess the clouds must ultimately be a 3D object by the time they’re rendered in the scene but in a previous dev stream Asobo have referred to using a Perlin noise algorithm which seems likely to define the cloud layer which seems less likely to be amenable to alternative use for a rocket launch. I think you’d need to code something similar for your application, i.e. textured voxels evolving the way that makes sense for the rocket blast.
I think there’s a fire-fighting mini-game / career (?) in the sim which might have fancier effects than the typical 2D sprites.
I would love to give the textured voxels a try, however, unless there is a method in the SDK, there is no way to implement that - you can’t just insert graphical objects unless they are supported by the engine. I would also, for example, like to render my own 3-D spline (to use as a rope) but that is not supported either.