SkyGen by Betis

Alright, so I submitted this on Friday, and it finally got accepted today . And since then, I've made lots of improvements (realism [[a lot better]]/rendering time) and whatnot, so I submitted the update as soon as it got accepted, wait for that, It's a lot better. It'll be here by tomorrow I hope, hopefully I won't have to wait so long again. I uploaded it while it was new because I wanted to get it out there, but it wasn't ready . Now it is... get the update when it's here.

Well, as you can see the clouds are quite crappy. The filter makes them look really good. The preset stays the same too. Lighter sky though.

**by filter I meant update

Well ya, when I saw it on the homepage, I was like, , It looks like the ones that inspired me to make one not so crappy.

Here's the default with the update. (took 7 seconds to render with 5x AA, 1.5 without)



And the Night Preset (about the same times)

Hey if you look at the last preset, you can see faces! That's why I had that one.

Thanks guys, It feels good to be complemented by people like you that are "Famous" on FF.

I hope this gives me my 5th HU, that would be nice.

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Betis wrote: I hope this gives me my 5th HU, that would be nice.

Congrats on your first four!!!

I know I've seen some compliments about this filter, but Can someone give me some constructive criticism? I'd almost like that better because I can learn from it.

Like, I shouldn't use so many components for the sun/moon part, or "Well, the stars look good up to 1024x1024, but higher than that you can see it clumping, here's what you should do..."

Stuff like that. If you have the time. Thanks.

Well see, the night-time thing is technically not nighttime, it's just a really dark sky, and I can't do anything about that, unless... hmm... well...

The night-time doesn't add any rendering time I don't think, so I might leave that in, unless you have some more convincing reasons. Maybe I'll combine some of the controls too.

I do like that Corona idea, I was doing that and a glow with the stars, but it used blur so it was adding to rendering time quite a bit. ... I'll find a different method.

I'll be sure to check out other filters too.

Thanks for criticizing me . I'd like some more from other people too though.

EDIT: Also, I'd like to know which controls I should probably take out, like Haze and whatnot.

It is, and I used to have a High Res checkbox, because at higher res, if that detail is dropped, it doesn't look good, but then again most people aren't rendering at 4096 or above, so I should do that, thanks.

Edit: I'm taking out the Haze and Image as Sky controls, they're kinda pointless.

Hehe, ya I like Var. 3 too, but in an attempt to reduce lag with SkyGen v2 (which I'm now working on), you cannot produce results like that, now it looks like this...





But it's a lot less laggy, and looks better when you're not in outerspace.

Anyway, great to see so many well-known people here commenting on my filter!

I almost feel loved. <.< anyway...

Do you think I should have some sort of 'Awesome Sun' checkbox? and then you can turn that on if you want?

Alright, here's the default preset for v2. Do want?



Now I halved the render times too, 3.5 instead of 7 seconds.

Without stars, they add to the render time a lot because of AA.

and here's a new sun with the "Surreal Sun" checkbox on. I know it's not the same... but it was hard to reproduce, even when mimicking v1.



What I'm seeing is, because the cool sun increases render time, when I turn it off, it still slows it down. I use a switch, and I think when a switch is off for an input, it doesn't render it, it only renders what's switched on, am I missing something? If it stays like this, I might take it out, it's a big dig on render time.

Post some pictures of the nebula!

Yes, the moon was in picture 2, but not anywhere else...

And 'that addition', do you mean, the 'Image as Sky' control? I took that out, but I can add it back in.

And if you guys have cool techniques on how to do radial stuff for the sun streaks (I used refraction, so it's kinda laggy), I'd look intoo those.

We should have Ãœber do something, he's snippet master.

Good, I'll keep it.

Wow I can't believe I'm up this late.

Anyway I think that'll work. It's fast too.

And the sun, you can color it whatever you want.

Hmmmmm.....I was just thinking that it's possible to do a realistic moon with the craters, darkened seas, etc.....

Hey, the suggestion is for you.....I'm retired!!!

LOL.... okay, okay.....

I can tell you how to make it if you are interested.....you can start with what you have and profile grad map a subtractive combo of Perlin and Cells/Ripples noise.....or modify an existing planet filter with it......

That last pic looks great, you know those pic where you see all the detail in the sun could look cool as a version of your filter