Reposted as the image didn't show (it did in the message preview!!) Hi, I've followed all the tutorials I can find on making alpha planes, and they all work great in standard atmospheres. However, when I use a volumetric atmosphere, you can see the the outline of the transparent parts of the plane. My question is, is there a simple, blindingly obvious solution to this that I've missed, or is this a peculiarity of the volumetric atmospheres and should I avoid using them with alpha planes? I've searched this forum but no one seems to mention a similar problem to the one I'm experiencing. I've also attached an example of what I mean. Thanks

Yes, this is a sad problem. I never found a solution to this except turning down the haze, or using a regular atmosphere....

I tried your suggestion, helped a bit but the colour shift was still there. Oh well, back the regular atmospheres, and save the volumetrics for the scenes where I don't try to cheat!! I'm a bit surprised though that none of the 'distant forests using alpha planes' tutorials and suchlike didn't mention this problem though, unless not everybody is effected. Thanks for the reply Nick

To solve this problem, I use a terrain or symmetrical lattice instead of an alpha plane. Load your alpha image into the terrain editor and flatten it down to 1 or 2 percent picture and clip it. Then texture and put into your distant background. Same effect, no ghost and no increase in render time because your terrain is so flat. In the volumetric atmospheres, things in the distance get so monochromatically washed that sometimes I just give it a fast and simple preset. Depending on the light and the atmosphere, if I do texture with the same pic I used to clip the terrain, then I sometimes add a little luminosity to show up the texture better. Cheating? There's no cheating....only different tools and different methods. If one way of doing something is labeled 'proper' and another way labeled 'cheating' then I think we just limit ourselves and the possibilities. Especially in our chosen art form!! Monsoon

Thanks Monsoon, I'll give that a try. The cheating comment was a bit tongue in cheek, as e-on software shows you how to do basic distant forests from primitives in the manual. I agree with your point about not limiting our opportunities to create art by tying ourselves down to a rigid procedural methodology. Whatever process is used to create that art is perfectly acceptable, as long as the resulting image is not a direct copy of another's work, of course Nick

That's good to hear Nick....let me know how it turns out for ya!

This problem doesn't exist with all volumetric atmospheres. Try another one. I only get these bad effects with the following atmospheres: Cape Town Mombasa Morning in Gafsa Gafsa Nevada

Not in the others.
Moving the sun a bit or rotating the alpha can help also. See image above.

Guitta