Clouds are not so volumetric

[VanZant 48]

I was testing a mountain map and this is how clouds look at 1700 m.

You can see how they are cut abruptly against the mountain, but the thing is that looks better in a still image because ingame they are like huge white sprites floating around.

There is no fog sensation or smoothness, only things floating, and this can ruin the inmersion in such maps.

BIS, that needs more work! ;)

[seamusgod 1]

cloud probably collide with mountain's geometry mesh so it cannot intertwine. they probabaly cannot turn off cloud's physics because that's how they simulate wind moving clouds.

[Blaf 1]

cloud probably collide with mountain's geometry mesh so it cannot intertwine. they probabaly cannot turn off cloud's physics because that's how they simulate wind moving clouds.

It's not about physics, it's about volumetric shader not being applied to cloud particles.

[dmarkwick 261]

My guess is that "volumetric" in this case means "intelligently layered". Genuine volumetrics would be prohibitively expensive IMO, but I agree there are various shading techniques that can minimise clipping issues but I don't know that they are within the abilities of Truesky.

[white 1]

so volumetric clouds are a lie. is that it?

first crysis had them in 2007 im sure it mustve been optimized a lot by now.

well i leave them on disabled in order to be able to play anyway, the good thing is that i always know where east is, lol.

Edited April 10, 2013 by white

[Minoza 11]

@white

Actually they always were a lie when it comes to real time rendering, I've yet to see a game that has true volumetric clouds. No, Crysis didn't have them, they just appear volumetric as they do in Arma 3 when viewed from certain distance.

[sproyd 2]

Its sort of a white lie. If you put a fixed wing aircraft in the game the clouds appear volumetric when you are flying towards them and as your perspective changes but when you get close the illusion is shattered. I made this video a while back and you should be able to see what the volumetric clouds look like when you get closer (the F-35 and A-10 parts).

To be honest the clouds overall look great compared with the disabled setting or A2. However, they don't operate as well as the Particle Effects but that's because it would be just too expensive. At the moment I get a few FPS performance hit enabling clouds but its kind of worth it for me for the realism impact.

[liquidpinky 11]

Its sort of a white lie. If you put a fixed wing aircraft in the game the clouds appear volumetric when you are flying towards them and as your perspective changes but when you get close the illusion is shattered. I made this video a while back and you should be able to see what the volumetric clouds look like when you get closer (the F-35 and A-10 parts).

To be honest the clouds overall look great compared with the disabled setting or A2. However, they don't operate as well as the Particle Effects but that's because it would be just too expensive. At the moment I get a few FPS performance hit enabling clouds but its kind of worth it for me for the realism impact.

Try flying through them in first person instead of third, big difference in appearance.

[Sneakson 1]

These endlessly spinning clouds are killing me but the clouds disabled clouds are so ugly... #firstworldproblems

[white 1]

@white

Actually they always were a lie when it comes to real time rendering, I've yet to see a game that has true volumetric clouds. No, Crysis didn't have them, they just appear volumetric as they do in Arma 3 when viewed from certain distance.

i think they were volumetric in the first crysis, i know a lot of things were scrapped for crysis 2 and 3 in order for them to be able to run on consoles.

another game that i believe uses volumetric clouds is war thunder

[Minoza 11]

i think they were volumetric in the first crysis, i know a lot of things were scrapped for crysis 2 and 3 in order for them to be able to run on consoles.

another game that i believe uses volumetric clouds is war thunder

Those clouds in Crysis 1 had some serious limitations, one of them being clipping - they fade out at certain distance and blend in with static background. This was to prevent shading artifacts in the distance and in that regard, Arma 3 clouds are better solution. I don't know what technique is War Thunder using for cloud rendering but they do look nice.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Minoza