It’s been a while since the last update, and unfortunately it’s likely to be a little while till the next one due to upcoming university coursework. I’ll still try to spend a couple of hours every few nights on this though if I can.
Anyway onto the update. Firstly I’ve fiddled about with the atmospheric settings to add a bit of a more “blinding” effect from looking at the sun, though I feel it might be overdone for when you’re not looking at the camera. Maybe something to add would be a modifier that increases based on how central the sun is to the screen.
Secondly I’ve added some planetary objects to the previously empty sky. There is now a sun which orbits the sky during the day and stars which become visible at night. Pictures below!
From inside the dome - Click to enlarge images
From outside the dome – Click to enlarge images
I have also been working on other parts of the engine. I added a modified version of my camera from “Blocks” with the physics interactions stripped out. I have also been learning how to use vertex/fragment shaders, I planned on converting the sky calculations to the graphics card but I may save that for another time now. In the more immediate future I plan on using shaders to add dynamic shadowing to the terrain, possibly using the shadow-mapping technique.