Speaking of cloud shadows.. feel like a ramble

[turner112 52]

Just feel like rambling about something I know nothing aboutCloud shadows seem to have been confirmed in another thread - http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...g_id=7303&page=Now, it doesn't exactly say what these shadows are, but I'm guessing it means shadows on the ground. (Or, self-casting, too. Or skylit. Or none at all.)However, one thing I'd note about the general look of clouds to date is a visual flatness, created by the case in which the cloud itself (3D) isn't shaded based on light sourcing.The new clouds look fantastic - and there are plenty of times in 9 that the clouds look pretty convincing.I'm wondering, though, if it's possible to faux shade these things... possibly by precalculating shadows in real-time intervals and using that data to create a shading alpha. So, there's this dichotomy between the 2D clouds and 3D clouds. Ironically, this effect would be much easier to pull off since the 2D alpha could just be added to the 2D cloud. But 3D poses complexity in that the 2D alpha would necessarily be positioned in front of a cloud, aligned and scaled properly for the current viewpoint. Invevitably, the alphas would end up causing odd overlaps and intersections.Hmm.{edit} Or do the 3D clouds already do this a little?Ok, I'm off to search for how the 3D clouds are done...------Andrew

[turner112 52]

Found this >http://ofb.net/~eggplant/clouds/And her paper:http://ofb.net/~niniane/clouds-jgt.pdf