Realtime, volumetric, dynamic clouds are now possible on current games hardware. Available for PC and major console platforms, the Simul Weather SDK is an interesting product that illustrates just how far we've got in this area.
Simul Weather is a C++ library which generates weather system data and updates it in real time. Simul Weather creates volumetric cloud data and provides realtime access to that data via a lightweight API. The cloud system generates pure volumetric data, it is cross platform and renderer-independent. The sample applications that come with the SDK show how realtime clouds can be rendered using the generated cloud data, in various graphics API’s.
So features include;
* Live, realtime volumetric clouds
* Eye-wateringly fast
* Physics-based cloud generation
* Realtime weather-changes
* Clouds you can fly through
* Simple C++ API
* Windows, console versions
* Renderer-independent
* Sample render code and shaders available
* Documentation for OpenGL, DirectX implementations
* Works with any 3D API or engine* Built-in load, save and XML streaming
Simul Weather can generate live, moving, animated skyscapes - alternatively, you can render a sky at the start of each level. The SDK is now available to developers wanting to incorporate realistic live weather in the next generation of games (and indeed one has already been confirmed to have licensed it, Midlands-based Eutechnyx).
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