hi everyone.
Some tests using Light sources to fake GI (Terrain is not too good but was not the main interest here).
I set the Enviro light to Ambient Occlusion. Strength on surfaces and in atmosphere are set to negative values.
This creates some nice contrast by "pulling out" colour from there (use complementary colours). Global illumination settings are all at 0.
The sunlight is lined up behind 2 Light Source objects and only gives the blue tone in the atmosphere. No shadows, no highlights, disc not visible.
Glow in atmosphere and clouds is enabled.
The "sun" is made of 2 Light Source objects with different radii and settings. No shadows on the surfaces and atmosphere here as well.
A 3rd Light Source object is resonsible for the blue-grayish tinted "shadows" on the terrain in the foreground. No shadow casting here as well.
The darker colour fools the eye into thinking there were actual shadows.
A little bit of depth of field, AA 6, Micropoly detail 0.6.
Render time about 10 minutes.
Clouds are a Cloud Layer v3 layer. Cloud altitude 750, Cloud depth 10, Radius 50000, Falloff 0.5.
Density fractal shader has a Edge sharpness of 0.01, Cloud density is 0.75, and Coverage adjust 0.5.
Atmosphere Quality is 128 samples. The Haze density is set to 0.1. Other settings at default.
Works quite nicely, I think.
Thanks for watching. Cheers, Klaus