Physical Skylight and Atmosphere 1.1 is out!

About

“Physical Starlight and Atmosphere” is a full environmental simulator that takes inspiration of ‘sandbox’ game worlds and editors, bringing visual consistency between every object in the scene.

Apart from our Sun, this addon can simulate any other star. Sky is not only static sky dome, but the whole atmosphere – from ground to the space and beyond. Calculations are based on physical properties of how light is interacting with gaseous medium. This is why I did not name the it “Real Sunlight and Sky”

How does it work?

This addon fills your Blender scene with air (or any gas of your liking) where density at the ground level is the highest and in the space – lowest, then a Star of your choice illuminates the air using physics laws – easy as that!

Lighting is calculated based on Rayleigh theory of light scattering through gaseous and liquid medium. Most critical part of the calculation is the fog. Like in real world, it changes based on altitude of observer.

Although my work is based on physical functions and research, my usual approach is to stick with what looks right. That’s why there are some ‘artistic’ liberties taken (or rather, manually fitted values based on reference images) to make it stand out from the crowd.

Physical Starlight and Atmosphere 1.2 is out!

Note that 1.2 only works for Blender 2.81 and above!

• v1.1 for Blender 2.80 and above
• v1.2 for Blender 2.81 and above

Version 1.2 is a step from ‘early access’ to full product. We did a full refactoring focusing on stability, functionality and production ready-ness. Nevertheless we have included some cool new features too. See full changelog below.

v1.2 changelog:

• Sun can be rotated and animated via UI gizmo or SunPosition addon
• Panel moved to World settings
• Optional Properties panel (enabled by default)
• Reset to default values button added
• Sun and sky radiance is now accurate and represent real world values (watt/m² )
• Procedural stars (enabled by default)
• Extra node groups are now hidden
• Absorption color is inverted to keep consistency with Blender material settings
• Ground offset parameter is actually useful
• Fog addition and removal from materials is automated
• UI panel visual and functionality improvements
• Occasional animation and render crash fix
• Sky transparency render bug fix
• Zero-division error fix

Not tested