Sky Addins

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Sky Addins Architecture

The Rombo Sky engine features a flexible Sky Addins system that allows for the integration of additional atmospheric phenomena and celestial objects through three RGB sockets. This modular approach enables users to enhance the sky with various effects while maintaining proper integration with the main atmospheric rendering.

The system provides three RGB slots for attaching additional sky elements:

  • Slot 0: Primary slot, with special handling for Moon rendering in Night Time mode
  • Slot 1: General-purpose atmospheric phenomena
  • Slot 2: General-purpose atmospheric phenomena

Each Sky Addin can interact with the main renderer's systems, properly integrating with atmospheric scattering, respecting time-of-day lighting conditions, interacting with cloud layers and fog, and supporting animation and dynamic effects.

Performance Note: While the system allows for multiple simultaneous additions, consider the cumulative performance impact when combining complex effects. Each addition contributes to the overall render time.

Moon

Special Slot 0 Integration: When the isNight parameter is enabled in the main Rombo Sky Renderer, the Moon addin should be connected to Slot 0 for proper integration with the atmospheric system.

The Moon Sky Addin provides a realistic lunar object with proper surface detail, accurate lighting, and atmospheric interaction. It features tidal locking to the view direction with adjustable rotation to simulate libration effects. Works in combo with Sun to provide Moon phases. To enhance Moon appearance a 3D bloom effect is provided.

Color Parameters

ambient
(RGB: 0, 0, 0)
Controls the ambient light color applied to the moon. Useful for adjusting the dark side visibility. Default black allows natural atmospheric scattering to light the dark side.
tint
(RGB: 0.9, 0.732, 0.54)
Controls the tint color of the moon's surface. Default warm tint simulates natural lunar coloration. Adjust for different atmospheric conditions or creative needs. Set it to red for example to simulate a realistic 'blood moon'. Tint color affects also bloom color.

Color interactions:

  • Ambient affects dark side visibility without changing bright side appearance
  • Tint affects overall moon color character
  • Tint colors also bloom effect
  • Both interact with the atmospheric scattering system

Illumination Parameters

brightness
(0.0-2.0, soft: 0.5-2.0)
Controls the overall brightness of the moon.
exposure
(0.0-5.0)
Fine-tunes the exposure response curve for the moon's illumination. Higher values increase contrast between light and dark areas.

Key differences:

  • Brightness is a simple multiplier for overall luminance
  • Exposure affects the contrast and response curve
  • For most scenarios, adjust brightness first, then fine-tune with exposure

Surface Detail

bump
(0.0-1.0)
Controls the intensity of surface detail through bump mapping. Higher values create more pronounced craters and surface features especially close to the terminator between shadowed and bright zones.
scale
(0.1+, soft: 0.1-5.0)
Controls the apparent size of the moon in the sky. Adjust based on desired visual scale relative to the scene.

Glow Effects

bloom
(0.0-1.0)
Master control for the bloom effect around the moon. Higher values create a more pronounced glow.
bloomParams
(Vector3: 0.1, 0.5, 0.2)
Fine control over bloom characteristics with three components:
bloomParams.x (0.1): Bloom terminator - controls where the glow effect begins on the moon's surface
bloomParams.y (0.5): Bloom spread - controls how far the glow extends from the moon
bloomParams.z (0.2): Distance bloom intensity - controls how bloom intensity changes with viewing distance

Insights:

  • Set Bloom X and Y to zero for a 360 radial bloom when full Moon
  • Bloom Z can be used to dramatically change night illumination

Positioning Parameters

vector
(Vector3: 0, 1, 0)
Direction vector for moon positioning. Controls the direction in which the moon appears in the sky. Both skyPosLatLong and skyPosMoon can be used here (Sky->Tools). The latter provides real-life Moon position based on date and time of the day and can be used to simulate real-life sky scenarios (by checking Verbose, we can have accurate Moon data in the renderer verbosity).
rotation
(Vector3: 0.1, 0, 0)
Controls the rotation of the moon with three specialized components:
rotation.x (0.1): View rotation between -180° and +180° - rotates the moon left/right around the view direction
rotation.y (0.0): U-coordinate rotation - simulates moon libration in the horizontal direction
rotation.z (0.0): V-coordinate rotation - simulates moon libration in the vertical direction

The moon is tidally locked to the view direction by default. Use rotation parameters to adjust its orientation while maintaining proper lighting.

Integration Parameters

addin
(RGB: 0, 0, 0)
Input socket for additional Sky Addins. Here we can chain other Sky Addins for when all other Addins slots are busy. Main advantage of using this dedicated port is that added feature will stay on the bottom of the current Addin. For example if we plug a Star addin here there won't any star on the shadowed part of the Moon for a more realistic rendition because effectively there ain't no stars between Earth and Moon.

Usage Recommendations:

  • For realistic moon: Use default tint with moderate brightness (0.8-1.2) and bump (0.1-0.3)
  • For dramatic night scenes: Increase brightness (1.5-2.0) and add subtle bloom (0.2-0.4)
  • For detailed surface: Increase bump (0.4-0.8) and adjust exposure for contrast
  • For lunar effects: Use rotation parameters to simulate moon phases and positions

Stars

Documentation coming soon...

Aurora

Documentation coming soon...

Nebulae

Documentation coming soon...

Quasars

Documentation coming soon...

Stylized Clouds

Documentation coming soon...

 
 
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