I have a dark room, and want to simulate shaft of moonlight coming through window…
The window looks like a window, but is opaque, so am not sure what the best approach to get the look would be? If it were not opaque, I think a directional light would do it(?)
Yes, when the geometry, like a cave entrance or something like that, when it supports the use of realistic lights, then it’s not a big issue, it’s when you don’t have a true opening in the wall (doorway, window, cave entrance), then it can be problematic.
We use Volumetric Light Beam linked above for our bullet holes in our game, well its a proof of concept feature right now. Latest version its really performant, its only 1 draw call for all beams.
Its not a 100% realistic look. but its close enough
How restricted is the camera? I was playing with volumetric lighting recently and was less than pleased with the performance. I realized that I could smoke and mirrors it with a single quad that always faces the camera and a custom shader. It doesn’t work from all angles though, but I could imagine you could do some trickery with the shader.