Very happy to introduce DeepSky Haze - a physically-based atmospheric scattering package designed to easily add stunning natural fog and true volumetric haze effects. It takes advantage of modern rendering techniques such as temporal reprojection to give high-quality results, fast.
physically-based atmospheric scattering (classic Rayleigh and Mie)
true volumetric haze, using the directional light shadow map for light shafts
height-based fog with sun lighting
flexible zoning system to create effects for specific areas
create custom time-of-day variants for changing atmospherics during day/night cycles*
custom transparency shaders to integrate with the atmospherics
(*DeepSky Haze is not a time-of-day system, but allows you to create atmospheric effects that can be smoothly blended via a Time parameter.)
The system works on DX9, DX11 and OpenGL Core (for best quality and performance, DX11/OpenGL Core are recommended, mobile platforms are not supported).
Take a look at the main page and user guide, for more information and to download a demo (Windows only for now).
A1talR - DeepSky Haze is mostly designed for landscapes so to be honest I’ve never tried a space scene! Will do some tests over the next couple of days and see if it works. The next update will have some skybox-specific shaders, so that might be more suitable for you.
mittense - cool! Really dig seeing how it’s being used so thanks for posting
This looks really cool, but I have a few questions:
Do you modify / clamp the output pixel intensity to 1? Or does DeepSky Haze output full pixel intensity?
Would you happen to know if this works with Sonic Ethers Bloom / Dirty Lens package?
I ask because other implementations of Light Scattering packages don’t play well with Sonic Ethers Bloom package because the atmospheric scattering packages usually perform some sort of tone mapping which kills the high dynamic range needed for a good bloom.
No clamping at all when HDR is enabled on the camera, DeepSky Haze makes no assumptions about how the output is going to be used and simply outputs the full scattering intensity.
I’m afraid I haven’t tested it but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t - it’s implemented as a standard opaque image effect, so as long as it comes before bloom effects there should be no problem at all. All the screenshots and scenes in the trailer have tonemapping and colour correction image effects after the atmospherics.
Here’s a screenshot showing the atmospherics with Unity’s standard tonemapping. The only thing changing here is the exposure:
I’ve unfortunately been delayed due to hitting crunch time at the day-job (the usual E3 demo madness!) but I’m wrapping up v1.1 this weekend and submitting to the store on Monday. Can send you a package on Monday if you’d need it sooner (I guess it’ll take another week to actually hit the store)?
Just wanted to give an update. Apologies again to anyone that’s been waiting on updates; as mentioned previously the day-job has taken up pretty much all my time in the run-up to E3.
But DeepSky Haze v1.1 is currently in the review process, so hitting the store soon!
Here are the features you can expect:
Improved compatibility - minimum Unity version is now 5.2.1
New ‘Quick Setup’ window to add atmospherics to a scene with just a few clicks
Initial support for different height falloff options - currently Exponential (the default) and None (good for space scenes!)
Multipliers for scattering parameters to help fine-tune them to your scene size, or to create overblown effects
Complete re-write of transparency shaders - now uses the exact same functions as the main effect
Transparent shaders apply atmospherics per-vertex by default for big performance gain (per-fragment option still available)
Support for trees made with Unity’s Tree Creator (replacement billboard shader)
Choose which atmospheric effects are applied to the skybox (for when your skybox already has eg. atmospheric scattering)
Example custom transparent shaders and more documentation!
Lastly, here are some new screenshots from Unity’s Blacksmith asset pack available on the store, with DeepSky Haze added:
Hi Paulojsam, there are two main parts - a zone system (GameObjects in your scene) which define the atmospheric settings and then an image effect on the camera which does the rendering. Yes it works with multiple cameras, and each camera can have different settings
Improved compatibility - minimum Unity version is now 5.2.1
New ‘Quick Setup’ window to add atmospherics to a scene with just a few clicks
Initial support for different height falloff options - currently Exponential (the default) and None (good for space scenes!)
Multipliers for scattering parameters to help fine-tune them to your scene size, or to create overblown effects
New Fog Opacity parameter - control the maximum amount of fog, regardless of depth (not physically-based, but will still be HDR if enabled)
Complete re-write of transparency shaders - now uses the exact same functions as the main effect for better consistency
Transparent shaders apply atmospherics per-vertex by default for big performance gain (per-fragment option still available)
Support for trees made with Unity’s Tree Creator (replacement billboard shader)
Choose which atmospheric effects are applied to the skybox (for when your skybox already has eg. atmospheric scattering)
Example custom transparent shaders and more documentation!
Note for existing users: because the transparency shaders have been completely rewritten/replaced, you will need to update materials to use the new ones. Apologies for the inconvenience - the trade off is a big performance boost and better consistency with the main image effect. Any problems, do please drop me a mail!
Hi, unfortunately DeepSky Haze isn’t currently compatible with TOD Sky as they render their background clouds as transparencies.
I have some ideas to make this more flexible, but to be honest if you just need fog you might be better off with something simpler, as there will be some wasted performance.
Purchased at the weekend. Sadly, as several other people also reported in the ‘new forum’ that got axed, it doesnt seem to work in Unity 5.4 (recent beta versions). A fix for this would be most appreciated.
Also I’m probably doing something stupid but I’m having trouble getting the ‘volumetric light rays/shadows’ working when using it with the latest 5.3.5 Unity. Probably something silly I’m doing I guess, so far I’ve just been trying it using the default sample scene. Any tips most appreciated, cheers.
