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Physical Starlight and Atmosphere 1.2 – Blender

https://gumroad.com/l/PSaA

Physical Starlight and Atmosphere

“Physical Starlight and Atmosphere” is a full environmental simulator that takes inspiration of ‘sandbox’ game worlds and editors, bringing visual consistency between each and every object in the scene.

Apart from our Sun, this addon can simulate any other star. Sky is not a static sky dome, but the whole atmosphere – from ground to the space and beyond. Calculations are based on physical properties of how light is interacting with gaseous medium.

How does it work?

This addon “fills” your Blender scene with air (or any gas of your liking) where density at the ground level is the highest and in the space – lowest, then a Star of your choice illuminates the air using physics laws – easy as that!

Lighting is calculated based on Rayleigh and Mie theory of light scattering through gaseous and liquid medium. Most critical part of the calculation is the fog – like in real world, it changes based on altitude of observer.

Although my work is based on physical functions and research, my usual approach is to stick with what looks right. That’s why there are some ‘artistic’ liberties taken (or rather, manually fitted values based on reference images) to make it stand out from the crowd.

v1.2 changelog:

Sun can be rotated and animated via UI gizmo or SunPosition addon

Panel moved to World settings

Optional Properties panel (enabled by default)

Reset to default values button added

Sun and sky radiance is now accurate and represent real world values (watt/m² )

Procedural stars (enabled by default)

Extra node groups are now hidden

Absorption color is inverted to keep consistency with Blender material settings

Ground offset parameter is now actually useful

Fog addition and removal from materials is automated

UI panel visual and functionality improvements

Occasional animation and render crash fix

Sky transparency render bug fix

Zero-division error fix

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