Shuriken Particle System Receive Shadows?

Unity Engine
1

I’m trying to use the Shuriken Particle System as a simple cloud system for a planet, it easy enough to do.

  1. Take 1 Unity Sphere
  2. Add a Particle System
  3. Set Emitter to Spherical and Emit form shell
  4. Adjust radius to match

Play with the settings to get the cloud size and density you desire.

But try adding a directional light and spinning it to simulate a day/night cycle.

Now you should see the problem, the particles vary their ‘shadow’ independent of where they are, in effect all the clouds go light and dark in unison.

I’ve tried a few different shaders, but I think it is something to do with the normals of the particles all pointing in the same direction, compared to the direction of the sunlight, any ideas how to fix this?

2

The Unity dynamic shadow system does not handle large scale dynamic shadows, e.g. 100m+ scale objects from a distance?

Are there any settings that allow for large shadows e.g asteroid, planetary scale shadows?

3

Particle Systems usually use a material with a transparent shader. Transparent shaders do neither receive nor cast shadows.
You need to find a custom solution for the shading. My Cloud System contains some shaders which approximate the effect you are trying to achieve. It doesn’t work in all situations, but you may try it out.