Is there a particular purpose to the shadow function on the atmosphere node?
I'm just wondering what others are using it for. Was toying with it just now and found it was a great way of slowing down my render more than anything else.
I can not think of any specific purpose behind that feature. No renders using that feature here that I am aware of.
Not much information on the WIKI.
http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Planet_Atmosphere_-_Functions_Tab
Perhaps can be used as a simpler variation on another technique of having two atmospheres, one for primary features only, one to supply the secondary features only.
Yes it seems a somewhat experimental feature. I can see some purpose to it, but there are other ways of breaking up the atmosphere or giving the appearance of variety without the shadow function.
"Shadow function" gives you an alternative way of defining which parts of the atmosphere are in shadow. This can be really useful if you need certain areas of the atmosphere to be in shadow but you don't want to enable "received shadows from surfaces" because it can be slow. For example, if you want everything below a certain altitude to be in shadow, you can do this with functions or shaders. For the Paramount 100 Years ident, I used a combination of altitude-based functions and Simple Shape Shaders to create the shadow of the low-lying hills and the main mountain. It was fiddly to set up, but well worth it for the render time saved.
Matt
Oh I see... well I've been using it to fake shadows of clouds so I guess I'm accidentally using it the way it was intended.
Thanks Matt for the explanation. I do like that Paramount ident.