Hmmm.. Okay, I don't think I explained that right..lol..
What I mean are two (technically 3 or 4) different elements..
You have a skydome which would contain a series of gradients simulating, for evening, morning, dusk, dawn, midday, etc.. and as a time of day system would clock out, you would gradually fade between these different gradients at given times.. evening time ones could have stars and the such...
The significance of the gradients are that you would set the distance fog to the same color as the fog at the horizon, which would create a very convincing effect.
Then... apart from those, you would have up to 3 different planes set up, any 1, 2 or 3 could, at any time, have an animated, scrolling texture for the clouds that could pan between light cover, heavy cover, etc. etc.. The lowest layer could be a dark, dense cover to simulate stormy skies and so forth..
The sun and moon would both be their own elements arcing overhead on a preset path and pace...
Basically, I'm going for a dynamic sky that is made up of individual elements that can be mixed and matched into different combinations.. set up ahead-of-time as presets, etc.
If you'd like to see some great examples of this in action, try and check out screenshots of Final Fantasy XI.. SE has done a *fantastic* job of creating very realistic skies and atmosphere in general in that game. It's basically the basis for my looking to do something similar via B3D, if possible.
Basically.. this would be an entire sub-system, but one that could be very useful and allow for some great results.
What I mean are two (technically 3 or 4) different elements..
You have a skydome which would contain a series of gradients simulating, for evening, morning, dusk, dawn, midday, etc.. and as a time of day system would clock out, you would gradually fade between these different gradients at given times.. evening time ones could have stars and the such...
The significance of the gradients are that you would set the distance fog to the same color as the fog at the horizon, which would create a very convincing effect.
Then... apart from those, you would have up to 3 different planes set up, any 1, 2 or 3 could, at any time, have an animated, scrolling texture for the clouds that could pan between light cover, heavy cover, etc. etc.. The lowest layer could be a dark, dense cover to simulate stormy skies and so forth..
The sun and moon would both be their own elements arcing overhead on a preset path and pace...
Basically, I'm going for a dynamic sky that is made up of individual elements that can be mixed and matched into different combinations.. set up ahead-of-time as presets, etc.
If you'd like to see some great examples of this in action, try and check out screenshots of Final Fantasy XI.. SE has done a *fantastic* job of creating very realistic skies and atmosphere in general in that game. It's basically the basis for my looking to do something similar via B3D, if possible.
Basically.. this would be an entire sub-system, but one that could be very useful and allow for some great results.