SOA CloudsMaker

UPDATE 7th Dec. 2021

Fixed a wrong update for 4.26

NEW VERSION 1.2 Walkthrough!

HOW TO ANIMATE CLOUDS IN-GAME & FOR VIDEOS

Quick tutorial

SOA CLOUDSMAKER is now also available for UE 4.27

UPDATE 1.2.1 - July 2021

• Fastsky error should be fixed.
• 5 presets added

UPDATE 1.2 - July 2021

READ CAREFULLY

The SOA CloudsMaker plugin has been rewritten from zero, for many reasons.

This new version will give you better visual results and let me update it more often in the near future.

I also deleted useless textures and features from version 1.1 in order to make the plugin lighter and easier to use.

Here some changes:

• Whole new visual quality, with a brand multichannel volume texture for details.
• Size, Contrast, Bias, Offset values are now inside a material parameter collection, so you can track them in a level sequence to create animated scenarios.
• Details have now more options, like additional realistic details.
• Multi-layer clouds feature added (beta) with debugging values to better understand what's happening.
• Height variations values now work properly to add differences under the clouds.

HOW TO START:

1) Open the test map in the SOA_CloudsMaker_v1_2 folder.

2) Go to the preset folder, open both the material instance and the material parameter collection to modify the shader.

3) Quality can be modified in the SOA_CloudsMaker BP detail panel.

TUTORIAL UPDATES: January 2021

Quick setup for SOA CloudsMaker:

UPDATE 1.1 - January 2021

• Better looking clouds
• One extra level of details
• New test scenes
• More textures & presets

BASE VERSION 1.0 - December 2020

The SOA CloudsMaker v.1.0 project will let you create photorealistic skies thanks to a fully customizable material for the new VolumetricCloud Actor (UE4.26). You can define the clouds' main shape, control the vertical profile, add volumetric details and noises, add natural movements, and control the overall quality. You'll also find ten presets and many textures to make your new realistic sky!

Here you can find a couple of videos example of the clouds presets, screen-captured from the viewport:

For support, please contact us at:

Technical Details

Features:

• 1 Actor Blueprint (SOA_CloudsMaker) to drag&drop in your scene
• 1 Master material and many material functions for clouds (with comments)
• 2 Default material preset + 13 Material Presets
• 3 Example maps to test your clouds (from the ground, with SunSky UE4 plugin, from space)
• 20+ textures to start
• 1 Mountain mesh
• 1 Planet mesh

Number of Materials and Material Instances: 2 Master + 5 Material Functions + 15 Preset Instance Materials

Number of Textures: 20+

Texture Resolutions: 32px, 128px (for billboard), 512px, 2048px, 4096px

Supported Development Platforms:

Windows: Yes

Mac: Not tested

Documentation:

In case of issues:

If you're working with the Unreal Sun&Sky plugin (which is active in the Architectural UE4 project type), the default sun strength is 75000lux, and you need to activate the "Extend default luminance range in Auto Exposure settings" option in "Project settings > Rendering" and restart the project.

If you're working with default Directional Light, Skylight, SkyAtmosphere, you don't need to activate that option if your Directional Light strength is 10lux. However, since the right strength for the sun in an almost perfect day should be 75000lux, I suggest you update that value and activate that option.