Don't forget the sky

Having just watched a very vibrant sunset, I began to think of games that have done skies well..
Ashes has described emphasis on weather and of course seasonal effects, which have great potential to add visual spectacles, diversity and immersion. A lot of games have nice skies but very little in diversity of effects and colours- sunset/dawn colour variation, cloud distortions, moon halos..
Clouds especially would be fun if they could be diversified and generated with enough randomness. Almost all games just run with various puffy whites or grey rainers. No trails, no ripples, whisps, crops...
However you feel about Star Citizen, it is a great example of atmospheric effects and visuals.
There's also big potential for some otherworldy and magic phenomena and scapes, tied perhaps to certain times, events or just simply rarity. One thing that would be really neat, is weather/solar effects that come up based on events that happened through the past cycle, or something particular done by players- reminded of Legolas' identifying the red sun indicated blood had been spilled... If there is especially more player deaths, a certain comet could be visible that night, or a particular item removed from a dungeon makes for northern lights, or completely dense foggy morning.. you get the idea.

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Comments

Tyranthraxus

We'll get a day and night cycle - but now that you mention it? I don't think we've seen any update videos yet that show it off. We've seen the skies darken/change with weather, at least.

clone63

It's certainly not overly relevant to gameplay (minus us wanderers) so I doubt it is currently high priority. And I don't really have high hopes the skybox/ clouds will be anything special but.. maybe down the road as patches and such roll out, it's something that could get a bit of attention for the sake of spice and content.

mobtek

stars wheeling across the night sky....

CROW3

RDR2 and the latest Assassin’s Creed titles have some good examples of atmospheric effects.

Wololo

mobtek wrote: »

stars wheeling across the night sky....

I just want to know what's up with Verra having multiple moons?
And how epic that would look on the night sky; for those that remember the 2 moons in Skyrim going trough theyr phases. The enhanced night sky mod made this even better. Just imagine that with today's tech and UE5

Warth

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

We'll get a day and night cycle - but now that you mention it? I don't think we've seen any update videos yet that show it off. We've seen the skies darken/change with weather, at least.

Just google UE5 Lumen Day/Night Cycle Showcase

Its really nothing special anymore in UE5 with Dyamic Lightsources

daveywavey

CROW3 wrote: »

RDR2 and the latest Assassin’s Creed titles have some good examples of atmospheric effects.

I was wondering what possible relevance an astromech droid could have here.... and then I re-read it...

Hinotori

There's some great aurora effects

Chime

Wololo wrote: »

mobtek wrote: »

stars wheeling across the night sky....

I just want to know what's up with Verra having multiple moons?
And how epic that would look on the night sky; for those that remember the 2 moons in Skyrim going trough theyr phases. The enhanced night sky mod made this even better. Just imagine that with today's tech and UE5

Oh this would be cool. Seeing the moon phases and effects in the sky would be great for screenshots too.

Strevi

The sky will fall... if there are no clouds.
If I climb a tall mountain, I want to see the clouds from above.

TheDarkSorcerer

I don't think creating a beautiful sky will require an insane amount of resources to create. But i do think it is an important design element. Especially with the changing weather and seasons.

Balanz

mobtek wrote: »

stars wheeling across the night sky....

Will the rising and setting of constellations rotate through the game year?

Will there be planets, or wandering stars.

I can imagine being an in game astrologer.

AidanKD

Did you see the clouds in the desert preview? They looked pretty great! So hopefully they can replicate that well. I'd like to see flashing clouds during a thunderstorm actually follow with the sound of thunder. Nice immersion to set the tone of wherever you may be.

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