Physically-accurate planetary atmosphere material.
NOTE: Unreal Engine 4.24 was released with the new Sky Atmosphere component. If you are using Unreal Engine 4.24 or later and considering using this asset you may want to consider using the new engine feature instead!
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Physically-accurate planetary atmosphere material intended for use by game developers, filmmakers and other artists. It is powerful, flexible, efficient and easy to use. Key features are:
Realism
The material simulates the behavior of sunlight in the atmosphere. It accurately reproduces real-world phenomena such as scattering and absorption which are responsible for the blue color of the sky and the red color of sunset and sunrise.
Real-time editing
No need to create any special assets. When you change parameters on the atmosphere blueprint you immediately see the result.
Flexibility
You are not constrained to only create Earth-like atmospheres. You have full control over scattering and absorption parameters. By customizing them you can achieve more alien or stylized look.
Surface and space view
The material supports both space and surface views with seamless transition between them.
Dynamic lighting support
Lighting parameters can be controlled in real-time using Blueprint Properties which allows creating dynamic solar systems.
Quality settings
Trade accuracy for performance or vice versa. Three quality options are available: High, Medium and Low.
Number of materials: 2
Number of material instances: 36
Number of material functions: 28
Number of demo maps: 4
Number of blueprints: 1
Number of utility blueprints: 4
Number of static meshes: 2
Certain limitations currently exist:
No documentation
Unfortunately due to lack of time I am unable to write proper documentation. You can always email me if you have questions though.
No custom material support
It is currently impossible to use this effect with custom planet surface materials.
No interaction with objects
Atmosphere effect cannot be applied to other objects (unless you create and apply a custom material with atmosphere support to them)
No interaction with Unreal lighting system
All materials are Unlit so Unreal Engine lights do not affect them in any way.
Planet textures featured on the screenshots are created by Robert Stein III and are distributed under CC-BY-3.0 license. For legal reasons I am NOT able to distribute these files through the Marketplace, so they are NOT included in this package. If you want to use these textures in your project you can download them directly from the author's website.