Hi all,
I've had some time last weekend to follow an idea I had. I converted some of my code from the ISO Surface project to an atmospheric effect. The main idea is that the poly to levelset method I use also would allow me to pick any closed mesh to drive an atmospheric effect. The conversion worked well and I had to change only a few things. The prototype already renders some nice effects. I also added a mapslot for the density and the color. Unlike the max native fog effects you can drive the density with any 3D texture map. For the color slot I went one step further and converted the density to the u value of the uvw channel. You can put a gradient ramp into the colorslot and it changes color depending on the density of the sample. Of course 3D maps work as well.
I am planning to add a BRDF as well. It should be possible to light the fog like you can light afterburn clouds then.
But enough words now. Here is a short animation. I hope I can add some pictures soon, too. It's based on the scan of the ajax statue you can download from
http://www.jotero.com/.
http://www.dimo3d.info/ajax.movAt least a proof of concept.
Render on,
Dieter
