[JTB]

It is important to have clouds. I want to make a rendering of a building in London. Imagine having a clear sky in London!

[Maximus3D]

LoL Sinik good one!

/ Max

[iandavis]

you guys are not very sensitive.... the correct term for Maxwell's skies is:

" Cloud Challenged "

sheesh

[JTB]

Accurender has fractal generated clouds with very simple settings. Actually Accurender has always been one of the easiest and more complete ( and fast) rendering tool. The quality is lower than all these new engines (mental ray, vray, maxwell etc).

[Maxer]

Clouds are a necessity in a physically accurate environment.

[JTB]

Very good point !!!

[subspark]

A point that seems to be re-made every week. Please, we just want our subsurface scattered, accurate (real-world) cloud models to be generated with the physicall sky. I could give a hundred or more different websites with reference regarding such an implementation.

Cheers.

[Mihai]

You actually like those so called clouds, computer generated? I haven't yet seen realistic clouds, they all look like crap anyway....If clouds are so crucial just add them in post. A cloudy day look is something else, that could be controlled with better physical sky params but making realistic looking clouds with all the light interactions that goes on in those volumes would have a great impact on render times, when it takes a couple of minutes to just paste a picture in there.

[goncalo]

yah Mihai is right... cloud generated in computer... not much realistic...

Photoshop is the best solution, put your clouds there from a real photo, and also in the glasses to make the reflexes ... but need to know how to do it well... to looks good also

[aitraaz]

Ok so in general, cg clouds are 'crappy,' and it would be better if NL leave this on the wish list for a long time...

agree, but on the other hand, if you take a look at the TGD alpha gallery (Terragen 2), atmospheric rendering has come a long way, and some of the skyscapes are actually quite nice...

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/tg ... rymain.php

[Maximus3D]

I think, and i'll speak for myself now as always saying this that clouds could and probably atleast initially should be kept quite simple looking. Basically just a perlin noise with variations and modifications as it looks quite good enough at the correct scale

..then later on for Maxwell 1.25 or 1.5 or something then you could start implementing procedural 3d clouds that interact with Maxwell's physically correct sunlight and all those things such as haze and fog and whatever more

Also it would be nice if you could render out a separate sky channel for quick and easy compositing so you don't have to work your ass off doing it manually.

/ Max

[subspark]

Thats absololute BullSh*t. Im sorry but computer generated clouds look realistic when you render and shade them correctly.

Here take a look:

http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/communi ... kos/2.html

Some great results here for Real-Time clouds:
http://www.vterrain.org/Atmosphere/Clouds/
(look at swell)

I can give you 10 or more different links to fantastic examples of superb computer generated clouds.

If Gregory Glezakos can render photorealistic clouds in Lightwave's old renderer and Ken Musgrave in his opwn radiosity engine then Maxwell has it made!

I surely don't have to remind you that Next Limit are the pinnacle of Fluid Simulation. How do you think clouds form. They arnet made of cotton wool or fairy floss

Remember that fluid simulation can do far, FAR more than water simulation. Just like Maxwell its a physically based system.

I can't wait!

Also have a look at procedural cloud formation here:
http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/ ... clouds.htm

Enjoy guys and dont be too quick to dismiss the true power of computer graphics. Theres more out there than I alone can possibly imagine.

EDIT: Unfortunately Ken Musgrave's site is down so I have supplied some of his images below:

Procedural Cloud Model with Radiosity:



Fluid Simulation to form clouds:


Cheers again!
Paul.

[JTB]

Subspark, this was probably the most well put and documented post I have ever read. Thanks for the support, I guess NL team must take the clouds wish more seriously now!!!

[Hervé]

don't forget this guy....

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/taiki_e.html




http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/ac.mpg

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/air.mpg

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/taiki2.mpg

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/taiki1.mpg

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/planet1.mpg

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/taiki2_e.html

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq1a-ogs/taiki3_e.html

[Mihai]

Honestly, I think you've been looking at CG clouds for too long and comparing different solutions, instead of looking at the real world.

All those samples you showed me, I couldn't use them. They look weird, too dark, too wispy and flat, that's the problem with all these CG clouds. The definition is just not there, unless perhaps you are willing to wait for it or have a 2000 proc render farm. Otherwise forget it...

Even those postage stamp videos don't make it, imagine if you had to render them at print rez.

Maybe in a few years....but for the time being it's not practical.