Started playing with Eco-Systems last night- and could not resist making this (being an Aviation Buff)- it's just a set of four FS Clouds that became a very simplified WW-II poster idea as I played with it...

Here's a LARGE set of only FOUR clouds placed on a small ECO-PLANE...

Same Cloud Set- but with a different Atmosphere...

Here's the same clouds- but mapped onto an ECO-PLANE that is stretched out to the horizon. And I have reduced the density and sizes of the clouds...

And again- a different atmosphere.

Keep IN MIND that these are VERY SIMPLE formations! These clouds can be made to look MUCH MORE realistic than THIS!

I'm only using a very small sub-set of the clouds- and have barely tapped the POTENTIAL of these. I really think E-ON should get onto this. I'm sure they could do the additional tweaks to make these cloud formations far better than this...

Here's the next twist- TWO layers of ECO-PLANE clouds. The higher one was rotated 90 degrees for variation. The TOP sky layer is of course Vue's horizontally mapped clouds.

When you THINK about it... it makes sense to use VERTICALLY mapped clouds for lower altitudes and HORIZONTALLY mapped clouds for the high altitude skys.

One potential bug is that when I add a separate and distinct new layer of ECO-CLOUDS (rather than just copying raising and and rotating)the new layer seems to confuse VUE's handling of the first layer and it will no longer work. It seems like a memory handling thing I suspect...

That last image looks best. The rest are pretty flat, although I know they can be made to look better. What's really lacking in all of these is the true sense of "volume". Not surprising considering they're not volumetric. Is there a way to somehow use these as density maps for one of the volumetric materials or something? Or maybe there's some other workaround. This is definitely promising though. - Oshyan

Of course- again- these are VERY SIMPLE formations. If you look at the PDF and Video in the lower thread you will see that Microsoft built these as more complex shapes in box-like structures. That type of design gives them FAR MORE of a volumetric look and diverse character.

There are 16 total cloud shapes- I'm only using FOUR of the basic Cumulus shapes. Adding some of the whispy forms and further ROTATING the CELLS at 45 degree angles gives the clouds even greater density as well as a VAPOR-LIKE edge.

As I've been saying- YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET! These clouds can look tremendously better than THIS!. Check out the Cloud Tool SDK in GMAX and you can see the actual complex shapes that Flight Simulator uses. But it is nothing beyond what any modeler could make in one day.
But that's E-ON's job- not mine. If they spent just ONE WEEK working on this idea I'm SURE they could crank out a bunch of ECO-CLOUD formations that would look really GREAT!

Well done, yet again. You were able to convince E-ON in the toon effect area(congrats), I trust you'll have the same success convincing of them of this :) Most of us have been wanting for REAL puffy clouds for eons(lol).

The TOON Stuff still has a ways to go- I think E-On has just finally begun to address the Python Issues- More will happen there as more advanced users start working with the Toon Materials. I've done some R&D stuff- but I don't know PYTHON...

Here's a more Volumetric looking STORM CLOUD- actually two that were cloned from one. NOT my BEST Lightning Prop- I have 11 more- but not quite ready in VOB format.

The Storm Cloud is made up of a Nimbo-Cumulus ANVIL shape
(flat bottom) and I threw in a couple of WISPY Clouds for a VAPOR-LIKE Vortex and some HEAVY RAIN washing down. These from the Flight Sim set. STILL SO MUCH MORE can be done with these cloud shapes. I've barely scratched the surface of the many beautiful cloud shapes that can be made from them...

I love that lightning! Is it yours, or did you d-l it from somewhere?

"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything."

Dawn Sky with THREE layers of ECO-CLOUDS for a "thicker" effect...

The Lightning came from somewhere in the vast cosmos of Poser Free Stuff here at Renderosity (I think). It was a PZZ file I imported- I'm still converting a lot of my Poser stuff directly to VOB format and that's on the list- as well as a bunch of other weather EFX. The lighting actually was NOT working- until I CRANKED-UP the luminosity to 100%- then it glowed like...- a BOLT of LIGHTING!

Happy Easter!-- another beautiful pastel Dawn Sky made with THREE Cloud Layers. Again- Vue loses track of the second and third layers! You can copy and paste them- and they will work fine- but if you try to change ANYTHING on the layers they will go BLANK- and will no work anymore!

E-ON needs to make a special MULTI-ECO-CLOUD-LAYER format!
(But I bet they won't-- until enough people complain about it...)

Oh well...

A COSMIC Three Layer SKY---in Honor of Kai Krause and whoever the heck it is at E-ON who make these EFFECTS the DEFAULT!!! (I never use them- this is the first time!)

LIKE G R O O V Y and W O W !!!

Thanks. Great skies, this stuff is so cool! Now I'm gone to search the Poser FreeStuff archives!

"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything."