Clouds look painted

(2.3.2.420-gdeb9705) the clouds seem to have lost some of the realism they had? I agree with this thread that they look 'painted' rather than natural; I think it's that the underside of them is too bumpy? (Looking at them with 100% Density) Perhaps a diffused "mackerel sky" middle layer would help? Or if the variety actually changed the variation in height of individual clumps of clouds rather than lifting the cloud blanket as a whole? Or (/and) something to define how 'squished' and elongated the clouds are?

Perhaps have a slider for 'weather fronts' and change the contrails to a tic-box rather than qtty?

The cloud horizon also seems to have dropped in this version, so "White Ground" preset horizon has a higher horizon than "Clear" (resulting in you loosing a lot of the horizon perspective in the clouds when using a sky box.)

I think you could also do a lot better with under-lighting the clouds during sunrise/sunset; the sky it's self is really good, it just seems that the clouds let it down a bit in my opinion.

{Mentioned elsewhere, but it still annoys me that 100% Density does not equate to 100% cloud cover.}

I like the fact that you can change the position of the clouds with Longitude and Latitude sliders, but it would be cool if you could click a button to change the cursor to 'hand of god' and drag the sky about (And/or drag the horizon rotation) - this would just be an interactive way to change the numbers rather than a slider.

With the subtle movement of clouds as you walk, I would like to have a little bit of control over how quickly they roll (too slow/subtle for me just now) and have an option to re-start both the water ripple and cloud movement after a time of motionlessness (once the image has been rendered to it's best quality on-screen)

I would also like to specify the long./lat. in animation key-frames so that the clouds would move without having to specify a different time of day and having the sunlight change. And perhaps the density too so that the clouds built-up/cleared as the movie progressed.

(Related threads: Cloud level and Weather animation effects )

I was admiring a beautiful sky last night and thought it would be really cool if you could tic a box (/have a slider) in Enscape to have "god rays" (Crepuscular rays for the technical term)

There have been some recent comments on clouds (The grass is out of sight and Wish for v2.5 - no new big features, but fixing old issues) - So resurrecting an old post... (Please forgive any repetitions of previous requests)

The clouds were changed a while back when there was a subtle 'roll' added while you move; implementing this seems to have sacrificed a some realism and destroyed the 'variety' function.

Aesthetically:

• I think the clouds should get darker and less translucent as they get denser.
• They should take more of the sky colour below them and get softer as they get closer to the horizon.
• The lower the sun, the more influence the sky colour has across the clouds; in reality the 'sunset/sunrise' time only lasts about 5 min, but in the pretty world of Enscape I would like it to last much longer.
• Adding in a "smear" factor to elongate/stretch the clouds horizontally would allow much more creativity in scenes.

Some things I think could be improved with the clouds (working down the 'atmosphere' settings tab):

• The sky horizon is lower than the ground horizon so the clouds are dense and fade out too low for all the backgrounds. it would be nice to be able to define this, perhaps automatically linking it to the lowest transparent pixel of the preset horizon?
  • - An 'ocean' preset would be nice to add in here. As would a 'shoreline'. And a 'farmland'. And 'forest clearing'.
  • - I'm sure that the presets were sharper in previous versions; they seem quite blurred.
  • - It would also be good if the "white ground" was a shadow catcher that actually inserted a ground plane (choose the material - this may eliminate the need for the 'ocean' preset above)
  • - A two-layer horizon could produce a really cool illusion of distance if the closer one moved slightly with the camera.
• The Fog slider currently casts a subtle blue haze over the sky as a whole; you could currently replace it with an on/off switch.
  • - I think you need to be able to define a 'start' distance from the camera and a 'drop-off' to define the obscurity level of the effect.
  • - I think that you should be able to increase it so much that it completely obscures the clouds and horizon; you could create scenes where streets/piers vanish into a foggy distance.
  • - It should blend/blur where the sky/clouds meet the land/horizon
  • - And blur/blend the bottom edge where the land/horizon joins with the ground plane
  • - You could produce some interesting effects if you could tint this fog
  • - Adding in volumetric lighting to sunlight (and other light sources) passing through fog would be really cool.

• Clouds options;
  • - Density slider should not show any blue sky at 100% and if you go beyond that, the sky would darken like it was about to rain.
  • - Variety is currently linked to longitude; I feel that it would be better used to balance both sides of a weather front where 0% is in the middle and moving the slider pushed the balance so increasing the slider in one direction pushed the clouds from one side to the other. (see * below)
  • - Cirrus amount slider simply fades the overlay in the sky (weirdly, the shadows are stronger at 100% than at 0% - aesthetically I don't think changing this should have any effect on the shadows.) I think it should also be able to be moved with the Long/Lat sliders.
  • - I think that another mid-layer of clouds should be added here that would link to the softness of the sunlight shadows. Technically it would work the same way as the Cirrus layer does but look like a mackerel sky.
  • - Contrails slider should control the speed they move over the sky and the number should be per 12 hour period. (Changing the time of day during an animation currently flashes them over the sky like an airshow.)
  • - It would be amazingly helpful if you could drag the sky in the Enscape window to change the Longitude/Latitude.
  • - * I think that a better base for the clouds (rather than the random noise it is just now) would be a curved weather front where the density of the clouds could be changed on either side - this could then be moved and rotated in the sky for the best aesthetics. It would also define the direction that the clouds moved in as time passed.
  • - I think a slider should be added to control the influence that the clouds have on the strength of sunlight: 100% would be as it is now, 0% would let you create animations and sunlight studies with pretty moving clouds but a consistent sunlight and exposure.
  • - It would also be nice to control the speed of the clouds moving across the sky.
  • - I think that a definition or tic-box to turn on "presentation mode" could be used so that model time actually linked to real time; if you spent 1hr navigating about the model, then the clouds and sunlight would move the same 1hr. Perhaps a 'time ratio' could be set so that you could make time stand still or move at a fast speed while you move through the model. (This ratio would also link to the water animation) (This would also mean that the current 'roll' as you navigate would be obsolete.)
• Sun (& moon) brightness I think should have a 'lock' function that maintained the level of illumination, no matter if clouds covered it or not.
  • - There should also be a 'diffuse' slider that linked to the fog and (new) mid layer of clouds; this would soften the shadows.

Outwith this tab;

• I think White mode rendering style should bleach out the background and remove the colour from the sky.
• The Exposure should have some way to tell the program how much influence the sky has in the calculations for "auto exposure" and/or a way to lock the exposure for the sky
• The DOF should have a much more dramatic effect on the clouds and horizon preset/skybox