Head in the clouds - making a cloud particle system

[Dandi8]

Hey guys, after racing on the Sol 2 map in Wipeout, I got inspired to make some clouds in UDK.

I tried making a mesh but without being able to make the cloud texture face the camera it looked bad. So I thought - particles.

Here's where I am so far:


As you probably can see, the particle is a bit square for a cloud. How can I make it more random?

Is there a better method to making clouds?

Cheers.

[Visceral89]

Watching this thread. I would also love to know.

[rebb]

Play around with the Min/Max XYZ Settings in "Initial-Location".

[Dandi8]

Min/Max just expands my 'box' :-/ So I need to find a way to spherify and randomize the clouds.

[JA53N]

Have you tried adding a Sphere for the Location? Can be found under Location > Sphere.

[Dandi8]

I did. It just makes a small blob out of it and when I try to expand it with min/max of the sphere, it becomes a box again.

[rebb]

Sounds like you are spawning too many particles, which end up "filling" the Min/Max Volume. Try tweaking the Spawn-Rate and Lifetime Settings as well.

Edit:

You can for example try spawning X particles with varying Sizes in a Burst, and give them Lifetime of -1.
That seems to make them live forever - altho i'm not sure if thats such a good idea ( cue Queen Song ).

[Dandi8]

Why's that not a good idea?

[5hfifty]

In my experience you need to use the particle speed settings inside the sphere initial location to make the particles take a spherical form, even if it's just a very low speed. You need to get rid of the Initial Location all together. Also you can say disable spawning in the negative Z axis of the sphere to make a flat bottom to the cloud, and using a few close together in the level to make some cool looking clouds.

This was something I was going to do eventually for my project, hehe. Yours is looking good so far, nice texture!

[rebb]

Not sure, i don't have a lot of experience with UE3 - but it's probably not an issue if you only use a single burst spawn.
Did you try this setup yet ?

[Dandi8]

@5hfifty:
That's basicaly what I'm doing

Just without the particle speed thing. Even if I make it low speed, the clouds are going to have a noticable 'creation' process and would be expanding in front of the player's eyes and I want them to look as realistic as possible.

Oh and the texture is actually a sampling of a few clouds in a picture I made and some less than fancy brushwork

@rebb:
I didn't. What I have is I made the max draw count about 100 or so and a very quick respawn rate. Is that bad?


Any ideas on how I could make the material look a tad more realistic?

[MadV]

If you're looking for another way to do this, it could easily be done with planes. Good performance too.

Check out the techniques presented here: http://stephenjameson.com/tutorials/...etric-effects/

[Forgetful]

For clouds that are far away I would say that sprites are the way to go. If the clouds are indeed far away you will never notice the axis tilt of the planes. Just make sure to spawn them so they are spread out and vary in size/transparency. You could also use multiple UVs to get a few different shapes mixed in there.

[Froyok]

If you're looking for another way to do this, it could easily be done with planes. Good performance too.

Check out the techniques presented here: http://stephenjameson.com/tutorials/...etric-effects/

Whoaw, thank you for share this great tut !

[MadV]

Not my tutorial, to be clear. Just something I came across, but you're welcome.