No Render Surfaces / Transparent Planet

Started by WAS, December 09, 2014, 02:29:08 PM

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WAS

So with surface rendering, there is no way to simply remove the surface and have a ball of atmosphere? I am trying to put a light source in the center of a planet with no terrain/render surfaces off, but unfortunately there is still a black sphere.  >:( I do not like the sun being  a background object. I'm trying to make a whole solar system.  :P

Currently, there has to be a sun to light the atmosphere because the light source seems to be completely hidden and no light escaping. If there is no Sun, the scene is completely black.



Upon further investigation... it seems my light source does nothing... changing it's color and bumping strength provides no change in the image. Even with he light source removed from the planet.


Oshyan

#1
Your light source would need to have *extremely* high strength because the strength is proportional to the size/area. You'll be working with insanely big numbers if you want to try to make a realistic solar system, and I frankly don't think it will work from a Global Illumination/lighting perspective, at least if you want to have this "haze" you talked about. But that's not to say you shouldn't experiment. ;)

As for the black sphere, this is not the planet still showing up, it is a *part of the Atmosphere setup*. The atmosphere has a "floor" value under Height Control. This is to limit the atmosphere calculations so it renders faster, avoiding parts of the atmosphere that are almost always below the terrain. In your case there is no such part, so I guess you'd need a very high negative value for this, equivalent to the planet's radius. Not sure if that will work, but it's worth a try. Remember, it's measured in meters.

- Oshyan

Matt

The black sphere is caused by the "floor" setting on the atmosphere's Height Control tab. You can make this a very big negative number (bigger than the planet radius, but negative) to completely remove the black centre.

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Kadri

You don't need to use real scales all the time. You can use small Planets for example with small lights etc.
Just remember that Terragen uses some numbers like in the atmosphere settings related to each other.


WAS

#4
Quote from: Oshyan on December 09, 2014, 06:39:15 PM
Your light source would nede to have *extremely* high strength because the strength is proportional to the size/area. You'll be working with insanely big numbers if you want to try to make a realistic solar system, and I frankly don't think it will work from a Global Illumination/lighting perspective, at least if you want to have this "haze" you talked about. But that's not to say you shouldn't experiment. ;)

As for the black sphere, this is not the planet still showing up, it is a *part of the Atmosphere setup*. The atmosphere has a "floor" value under Height Control. This is to limit the atmosphere calculations so it renders faster, avoiding parts of the atmosphere that are almost always below the terrain. In your case there is no such part, so I guess you'd need a very high negative value for this, equivalent to the planet's radius. Not sure if that will work, but it's worth a try. Remember, it's measured in meters.

- Oshyan

I have used light sources through clouds before (explosions, trying to do a volcano) which cast light fine, and even give the plasma like effect I hope to achieve, I think that all has to do with haze density/cloud density.
Quote from: Matt on December 09, 2014, 07:06:51 PM
The black sphere is caused by the "floor" setting on the atmosphere's Height Control tab. You can make this a very big negative number (bigger than the planet radius, but negative) to completely remove the black centre.

Matt


I'll have a go with that floor control, I actually bumped it assuming I needed to.

Oshyan

It's the scales that are the issue here, not the light, shadow casting, etc. Or maybe I've misunderstood what you meant.

- Oshyan

WAS

Quote from: Oshyan on December 09, 2014, 07:21:27 PM
It's the scales that are the issue here, not the light, shadow casting, etc. Or maybe I've misunderstood what you meant.

- Oshyan

I'll see what I can do for the light distance and strength. They're already bumped further then the camera is stationed so I'm stumped there as to what you mean by the scales. I guess they need to be bumped 100x or so the distance.

Oshyan

What I mean is that for a light source of radius 1m and strength 100, you need a strength of 1,000,000 for *equivalent light output per area* on a sphere of 100m. So if your light source is going to be the real size of the sun in meters, the light strength is going to have to be... a crazy number. :D

- Oshyan