Planetside Software Forums

General => File Sharing => Planets => Topic started by: bigben on July 15, 2017, 11:31:53 PM

Title: Global city lights.
Post by: bigben on July 15, 2017, 11:31:53 PM
Looking back through some of my old posts I found this: http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,2686.0.html (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,2686.0.html)  (Note to self... Check if vector data from OSM can be used for "lower altitude stuff)  I also had a clip of my subsequent lighting setup and here is a file with my global lights setup.  It includes a couple of low res image masks.  These can be switched with higher res images of your own.

Apart from providing some control over the intensity and distribution of the lights it also breaks the mask image up into small circles so the it looks a little more like lights rather than large areas of illuminated surface.

Key nodes:
Enjoy :)
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: bigben on July 16, 2017, 01:04:21 AM
I've been using the black marble 2012 image previously. Will have to update this to the 2017 version.  https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/NightLights/page3.php (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/NightLights/page3.php)  Fortunately available as GEOTIFF this time
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: Dune on July 16, 2017, 03:22:33 AM
Very cool of you to share, Ben. Thanks so much!
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: bigben on July 16, 2017, 07:26:09 AM
You're welcome.  Here's a test render with a 36K version of the 2016 city lights image. Luminance cranked up to 20. Cloud base at 1km.  The global cloud shader is new to me so I still have some new settings to get my head around.  I had to increase the density to get the clouds to show up a bit more on the night side. Maybe some tweaks to the lighting settings as well. Might end up with a duplicate cloud layer with one setting for the day side and one for the night.
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: Ariel DK on July 16, 2017, 01:53:45 PM
Nice stuff Ben, for your global clouds, try to set
- ambient to 0.02
in the lighting tab:
- light propagation to 0
- propagation mix to 0.1
- fake scatering to 4
- uncheck "Darker unresolve scattering"
- and decrease density to 0.005

That must to work for day and night side (or at least it's a begin)
is better to try with two clouds layer, and large render times
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: bigben on July 16, 2017, 06:26:22 PM
Thanks. I'll give those a try. 
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: Oshyan on July 16, 2017, 06:59:57 PM
Excellent, thanks for sharing! But might I suggest putting your notes and suggestions for use into a text file in the zip as well? I haven't looked at the TGD yet so it might already be in note nodes, so ignore me if so. ;)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: bigben on July 17, 2017, 03:48:23 AM
Yes, text file in the ZIP is probably a good idea too.

Quote from: Ariel DK on July 16, 2017, 01:53:45 PM
...
- and decrease density to 0.005

This one I'm not so sure about.  The main tweak I had to do previously was increase the density. At very low densities the clouds disappear in shadows
Title: Re: Global city lights.
Post by: Ariel DK on July 17, 2017, 01:21:17 PM
But they disappear completely? The clouds are more brighter now, so you dont want to lost some details in the day side.
also is good remember that doesn't exist a completely DARK side of the earth. in my scene, the city lights provide enough
light to the clouds, but Im also using an aditional source light (moon bright), and even so, is necessary increase just a little
bit the camera exposition (as in real life) to see every detail