If you have lived long enough on planet Earth, you might have wondered why the sky is usually blue, yet red at sunset. The optical phenomenon which is (mostly) responsible for that is called Rayleigh scattering. This tutorial will explain how to model atmospheric scattering to reproduce many of the visual effects that planets exhibit. And if you want to render physically accurate visuals for alien planets, this is definitely the tutorial you’ve been looking for.
You can find all the post in this series here:
- Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering
- Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering
- Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering
- Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere
- Part 5. A Shader for the Atmospheric Sphere
- Part 6. Intersecting The Atmosphere
- Part 7. Atmospheric Scattering Shader
- 🔒 Part 8. An Introduction to Mie Theory
You can download the Unity package for this tutorial at the bottom of the page.