Here at Sundog Software, we've released a new rev of our SilverLining Sky, 3D Cloud, and Weather SDK. The big new features in version 2.7 are:

• Crepuscular Rays (God Rays) - shown above
  
• Automatic shadow map generation for cloud shadows
  
• Automatic environment map generation for reflections (compatible with our Triton Ocean SDK)
  
• Large cloud areas using dynamically generated impostors on all platforms
  
• Fixes to lens flare and multiple viewports
  

The crepuscular ray effect is an image-based effect, making it easy to integrate into any scene. You just specify the desired intensity of the effect when calling our method to draw the clouds, and SilverLining does the rest. It's smart enough to tone down the effect automatically if you're not underneath dense clouds, and as the sun goes out of view.

Shadow maps can be generated either for the current frustum, or to enclose all of the cloud layers in the scene. The latter is useful, since you can generate a shadow map for the clouds once and just translate its shadow texture matrix to simulate wind motion - this saves you the expense of rendering new shadow maps every frame. SilverLining computes the matrix for you to transform world coordinates into shadow map texture coordinates. All you need to do is apply the matrix we give you in your shaders, and multiply in the shadow map texture we give you.

SilverLining integrates with any OpenGL, DirectX9, DirectX10, or DirectX11 based game, and we include integration examples for the Havok Vision and Ogre engines among others. A separate indie-priced Unity package is also available in the Unity Asset Store.

Thanks for having a look!

Frank Kane
Founder & CEO
Sundog Software LLC

Click here to view the iotd

That looks amazing! Nice job.

Do you plan on making the terrain look better with the sky? I know it is not exactly the main part of your project, but could use some work.

Otherwise, it is very good looking!