Sky Creator for Unreal Engine 4
Available on Marketplace
Current version: 1.23
Documentation will be updated and improved over time.
Requirements
Sky Creator requires Niagara to be enabled to display some Weather FX such as rain and snow.
Depending on your needs you also might want to enable “Support Sky Atmosphere Affecting Height Fog” in Project Settings > Rendering. If set to off (by default), the atmosphere won’t affect height fog and it will be colored by Fog Inscattering Color (black by default).
Installing the Plugin (UE4)
Open Epic Games Launcher, head to Unreal Engine > Marketplace or Library tab and find Sky Creator. Press “Install to Engine” button and choose the appropriate engine version for you.

Open your project the engine version of which have the plugin already installed and head to Plugins tab. Find the Sky Creator and set it enabled by checkbox. The engine will prompt to restart itself. Restart the editor and you will have plugin enabled and ready to work.
Installing the Plugin (UE5 EA)
Since V1.03 Sky Creator supports Unreal Engine 5 Early Access. Because of engine’s Early Access state, you can’t install plugins from Epic Launcher yet, so you’ll need to copy plugin folder to your project’s folder by hand unofficially. But make sure that you’re having latest version of the plugin installed on your version of UE4. Also be sure to have Visual Studio for Unreal Engine installed otherwise you won’t be able to compile source code.
Copy from:
“C:/Program Files/Epic Games/UE_4.27/Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/SkyCreatorPlugin” (or another directory where you have Unreal Engine installed
And paste to:
“YourProject/Plugins/SkyCreatorPlugin”.
Next time you launch your UE5 project, the engine will prompt “The SkyCreatorPlugin was designed for build 4.2X.0 Attempt to load it anyway?”, just click yes.
P.S. Please don’t expect a flawless work with early version of UE5! This support is currently unofficial.
Quickstart
After enabling the plugin go to category Lights in a Place Mode tab. Inside there you will find a new actor Sky Creator ready to be drag’n’dropped to your scene. But before adding it make sure that you deleted or at least disabled any other Directional Light, Skylight, Volumetric Cloud and Sky Atmosphere on your level.

Now Sky Creator is ready to use. Go to Details Panel and play with settings to your liking.
To create your own Weather Preset, right click in Content Browser and select
Add/Import Content > Miscellaneous > Sky Creator Weather Preset. After that select a Sky Creator actor in your scene and drag a new weather preset onto “Editor Weather Preset” variable, making a new weather preset active. Now open it and create a new weather conditions that fits to your game if you need to.
The creative power hides exactly there. Feel free to create something awesome.

To control Sky Creator’s time of day or change weather in runtime, separate controller must be used. Most of functions are already built in such as “Realtime Time of Day” or “Lerp Weather Settings” so you don’t really need to worry about it. There are an examples of a blueprint controllers in “SkyCreatorPlugin Content/Blueprints” which you can freely use in your scenes, but you can actually use whatever you want to or create a custom controller.
How to use Weather Material FX
If you want to use Sky Creator’s Weather Material FX, you need to add “MF_SC_WeatherMaterialFX” material function to your material and re-pin Base Color, Roughness and Normal connectors through it. By default, all included effects will be enabled – Wetness, Puddles and Snow. You may optionally disable some of effects using Static Bool node and plugging it into this material function.
You may also enable Occlusion and use Distant Occlusion with it by plugging “MF_SC_DistantOcclusion” material function into the Distant Occlusion pin in “MF_SC_WeatherMaterialFX” material function. See next paragraph.
How to use Occlusion
Occlusion effect is enabled by default. It uses Scene Capture Component 2D to capture a world heightmap at a certain radius around player camera once at a defined distance step to minimize performance impact. To use Occlusion effect with Weather Material FX, you need to enable this effect by plugging Static Switch node into the Use Occlusion slot of the “MF_SC_WeatherMaterialFX” material function.
If you’re using only this, you may notice that Occlusion effect is fading after reaching capture radius. To fix this you can use “SkyCreator_CaptureDistantOcclusion” blueprint. Place it in the middle of your level, adjust the width of this capture and click Capture Heightmap. After this, Distant Occlusion heightmap will be used on the materials in the area outside of radius of main Occlusion capture.
Sky Creator Actor Settings
Here’s all settings list which is meant to be set once in editor.
General
Use Editor Time of Day | Controls Time of Day by Editor. Disable if using a separate controller to drive Time of Day. |
Editor Time of Day | Time of Day in Editor. |
Use Editor Weather Settings | Controls Weather Settings by Editor. Disable if using a separate controller to drive Weather Settings. |
Editor Weather Type | Whether to use Editor Weather Preset or Editor Weather Settings. |
Editor Weather Preset | Current Weather Preset in Editor. |
Editor Weather Settings | Current Weather Settings in Editor allowing to direct variable control. |
Sky Creator Parameter Collection | Sky Creator Material Parameter Collection. Essential for a number of effects. |
Sky Sphere Radius | Sky Sphere mesh radius in kilometers. |
Show Debug Variables | Show or Hide debug variables across all sub-categories of settings. |
Sky Atmosphere
Sky Atmosphere Mobility | Sky Atmosphere Mobility. |
Transform Mode | – Planet Top at Absolute World Position places the top ground level of the atmosphere at the world origin coordinates (0,0,0) in the scene. The Sky Atmosphere is not movable when this option is selected. – Planet Top at Component Transform places the top ground level of the atmosphere relative to the component’s transform origin. Moving the transform of the Sky Atmosphere component, or one that it is a child of, moves the atmosphere within the level. – Planet Center at Component Transform places the atmosphere centered to the component’s transform origin. Moving the transform of the Sky Atmosphere component, or one that it is a child of, moves the atmosphere within the level. |
Planet Radius | The planet radius (kilometers from the center to the ground level). |
Atmosphere Height | Atmosphere Height defines the height of the atmosphere above the planet’s surface (in kilometers). |
Trace Sample Count Scale | Scale the atmosphere tracing sample count. Quality level scalability. The sample count is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.SkyAtmosphere.SampleCountMax’ when ‘r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT’ is 0. The sample count is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT.SampleCountMax’ when ‘r.SkyAtmosphere.FastSkyLUT’ is 1. The sample count is still clamped for aerial perspective according to ‘r.SkyAtmosphere.AerialPerspectiveLUT.SampleCountMaxPerSlice’. |
Volumetric Clouds
Bottom Altitude | The altitude at which the cloud layer starts (kilometers above the ground). |
Max Height | The altitude at which the cloud layer ends (kilometers above the ground). |
Tracing Start Max Distance | The maximum distance of the volumetric surface before which we will accept to start tracing (in kilometers). |
Tracing Max Distance | The maximum distance that will be traced inside the cloud layer (in kilometers). |
Per Sample Atmospheric Light Transmittance | Whether to apply atmosphere transmittance per sample, instead of using the light global transmittance. |
Quality | |
Ground Contribution | Sample the shadowed lighting contribution from the ground ontro the medium (single scattering). This adds some costs to the tracing when enabled. |
Multi Scattering Approximation Octave Count | How many octave to use for the multiple-scattering approximation. This adds some costs to the tracing. 0 means single scattering only. |
View Sample Count Scale | Scale the tracing sample count in primary views. Quality level scalability CVARs affect the maximum range. The sample count resolution is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.VolumetricCloud.ViewRaySampleCountMax’. |
Reflection Sample Count Scale | Scale the tracing sample count in reflection views. Quality level scalability CVARs affect the maximum range. The sample count resolution is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.VolumetricCloud.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount’. |
Shadow View Sample Count Scale | Scale the shadow tracing sample count in primary views, only used with Advanced Output ray marched shadows. Quality level scalability CVARs affect the maximum range. The sample count resolution is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ViewRaySampleMaxCount’. |
Shadow Reflection Sample Count Scale | Scale the shadow tracing sample count in reflection views, only used with Advanced Output ray marched shadows. Quality level scalability CVARs affect the maximum range. The sample count resolution is still clamped according to scalability setting to ‘r.VolumetricCloud.Shadow.ReflectionRaySampleMaxCount’. |
Shadow Tracing Distance | The shadow tracing distance in kilometers, only used with Advanced Output ray marched shadows. |
Low Cloud Map | |
Low Cloud Map Scale | Low Cloud Map tileable texture scale in kilometers. |
Low Cloud Map Offset | Low Cloud Map tileable texture UV offset. |
High Cloud Map | |
High Cloud Map Scale | High Cloud Map tileable texture scale in kilometers. |
High Cloud Map Offset | High Cloud Map tileable texture UV offset. |
High Cloud Horizon Fade Hardness | Hardness of fading High Cloud Map at horizon. |
Cloud Noise | |
Auto Scale | Automatic Cloud 3D Noise Scaling relative to “Low Cloud Map Scale”. |
Shape Noise Scale | Tileable 3D Shape Noise Scale (kilometers). |
Detail Noise Scale | Tileable 3D Detail Noise Scale (kilometers). |
Sky Light
Sky Light Mobility | Sky Light Mobility. |
Real Time Capture | When enabled, the sky will be captured and convolved to achieve dynamic diffuse and specular environment lighting. SkyAtmosphere, VolumetricCloud Components as well as sky domes with Sky materials are taken into account. Should be enabled if using dynamic time of day. |
Lower Hemisphere Is Solid Color | Whether all distant lighting from the lower hemisphere should be set to “LowerHemisphereColor. Enabling this is accurate when lighting a scene on a planet where the ground blocks the sky, however disabling it can be useful to approximate skylight bounce lighting (eg Movable light). |
Sun Light
Sun Light Mobility | Sun Light Mobility. |
Control Sun Direction | Whether to control Sun direction by Sky Creator. |
Use Temperature | Whether to use Color temperature for sun. |
Angular Diameter | Angle subtended by light source in degrees (also known as angular diameter). Defaults to 0.5357 which is the angle for our sun. |
Constant Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | Whether to use constant Atmosphere Disk Color Scale for Sun. |
Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | A color multiplied with the sun disk luminance. |
Sun Positioning | |
Sun Orbit Type | Sun Orbit Type |
Sunrise Time | User-defined Sunrise Time |
Sunset Time | User-defined Sunset Time |
Sun Dawn Offset Time | Sets “Sun Dawn Time” depending on “Sunrise Time”. |
Sun Dusk Offset Time | Sets “Sun Dusk Time” depending on “Sunset Time”. |
Sun Dawn Time | Sun Dawn Time. |
Sun Dusk Time | Sun Dusk Time. |
Sun Elevation | Sun Elevation angle in degrees. |
Sun Azimuth | Sun Azimuth angle in degrees. |
Sun Min Angle At Dawn & Dusk | Minimum angle of Sun below horizon at Dawn or Dusk. |
Sun Fade In/Out Time | Fade in/out time for Sun at Dawn or Dusk. |
Moon Light
Moon Light Mobility | Moon Light Mobility. |
Control Moon Direction | Whether to control Moon direction by Sky Creator. |
Use Temperature | Whether to use Color temperature for Moon. |
Angular Diameter | Angle subtended by light source in degrees (also known as angular diameter). Defaults to 0.5357 which is the angle for our sun. |
Constant Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | Whether to use constant Atmosphere Disk Color Scale. |
Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | A color multiplied with the sun disk luminance. |
Moon Phase | Moon Disk Phase. |
Moon Rotation | Moon Disk Rotation. |
Moon Positioning | |
Moon Orbit Type | Moon Orbit Type. |
Moonrise Time | User-defined Moonrise Time. |
Moonset Time | User-defined Moonset Time. |
Moon Elevation | Moon Elevation angle in degrees. |
Moon Azimuth | Moon Azimuth angle in degrees. |
Moon Fade In/Out Time | Fade in/out time for Moon at Dawn or Dusk. |
Exponential Height Fog
Exponential Height Fog Mobility | Exponential Height Fog Mobility. |
Enable Exponential Height Fog | Whether to enable Exponential Height Fog. |
Volumetric Fog | Whether to enable Volumetric fog. Scalability settings control the resolution of the fog simulation. |
Fog Height Offset | Fog height offset, relative to the actor position Z. |
Second Fog Height Offset | Second Fog height offset, relative to the actor position Z. |
Star Map
Star Map Texture | Star Map Texture |
Rotation Type | Star Map Rotation Type |
Additional Rotation | Star Map Additional Rotation |
Occlusion
Occlusion Capture | Whether to enable realtime Occlusion Capture. |
Occlusion Render Target | Occlusion Render Target. |
Occlusion Capture Width | Occlusion Capture width. Half of this value is a radius. |
Occlusion Capture Height | Occlusion Capture camera height. |
Occlusion Capture Realtime Update | Occlusion Capture realtime update. Expensive, so use with caution. |
Occlusion Capture Step Distance | Fixed distance step to update Occlusion Capture. |
Occlusion Bias | Occlusion Bias works similarly as known ‘Shadow Bias’ technique in shadow mapping. Low values can cause occlusion artifacts. |
Occlusion Blur Samples | Sample count of the Occlusion Blur. |
Occlusion Blur Distance | Blurring distance of the Occlusion Blur. |
Occlusion Mask Fade Hardness | Hardness of fading Occlusion radial mask. |
Weather FX
Precipitation General | |
Precipitation Spawn Radius | Precipitation spawn radius around the camera. |
Enable Distant Precipitation | Whether to enable Distant Precipitation particles layer. Increases overall amount of particles so can be turned off as an optimization step. |
Distant Precipitation Spawn Radius | Distant Precipitation spawn radius around the camera. |
Precipitation Max View Distance | Max distance at where precipitation particles will be alive. |
Precipitation Vertical Check Distance | Distance of vertical linetrace from particle spawn point to check against occlusion. |
Precipitation Collision Channel | Collision Channel for precipitation particles to check against. |
Precipitation Depth Fade Distance | Depth Fade distance for precipitation particles. |
Precipitation Camera Fade Distance | Camera Fade distance for precipitation particles. |
Precipitation Camera Fade Offset | Camera Fade Offset distance for precipitation particles. |
Rain | |
Rain Spawn Rate Max | Max number of rain particles to spawn per second. Value is multiplied by “Rain Amount” value in weather preset. |
Rain Distant Spawn Rate Max | Max number of distant rain particles to spawn per second. Value is multiplied by “Rain Amount” value in weather preset. |
Rain Distance Scale Factor | Scale Factor by distance for rain particles (for better visibility). |
Rain Index Of Refraction | Index of Refraction for rain particles. Set 1.0 for no refraction. |
Rain Splash | |
Rain Splash Spawn Rate Max | Max number of rain splash particles to spawn per second. Value is multiplied by “Rain Amount” value in weather preset. |
Snow | |
Snow Spawn Rate Max | Max number of snow particles to spawn per second. Value is multiplied by “Snow Amount” value in weather preset. |
Snow Distant Spawn Rate Max | Max number of distant snow particles to spawn per second. Value is multiplied by “Snow Amount” value in weather preset. |
Snow Distance Scale Factor | Scale Factor by distance for snow particles (for better visibility). |
Snow Mask Hardness | Mask Hardness for snow particles. Controls how ‘soft’ they look. |
Weather Material FX
Wetness | |
Wetness Slope Angle | Slope Angle for the Wetness effect. |
Wetness Slope Smoothness | Slope Smoothness for the Wetness effect. |
Puddles | |
Puddles Mask Scale | Scale of the Puddles Mask in world units. |
Puddles Roughness | Roughness of the Puddles effect. |
Puddles Slope Angle | Slope Angle for the Puddles effect. |
Puddles Slope Smoothness | Slope Smoothness for the Puddles effect. |
Ripples | |
Rain Ripples Update Rate | Update Rate of the Rain Ripples Solver. Higher values increases simulation speed. |
Rain Ripples Scale | Scale of the Rain Ripples in world units. |
Rain Ripples Max Density | Max density of Rain Ripples when the amount equals “1”. |
Wind Ripples Scale | Scale of the Wind Ripples in world units. |
Snow | |
Snow Mask Scale | Scale of the Snow Mask in world units. |
Snow Scale | Scale of the Snow Material in world units. |
Snow Roughness | Roughness of the Snow Material. |
Snow Sparkles Scale | Scale of the Snow Sparkles effect in world units. |
Snow Sparkles Roughness | Roughness of the Snow Sparkles effect. |
Snow Slope Angle | Slope Angle for the Snow effect. |
Snow Slope Smoothness | Slope Smoothness for the Snow effect. |
Wind
Enable Wind | Whether to enable Wind. Affects Volumetric Clouds and Weather FX particles. |
Independent Wind Control | If set to true, Cloud & Weather FX Wind is controlled by either static values or by separate controller. If set to false, Cloud & Weather FX Wind will read values from Weather Presets. |
Editor Independent Wind Settings | Editor Independent Wind Settings. |
Volumetric Cloud | |
Low Cloud Wind Direction | Wind direction for Low Cloud Layer in angles |
Low Cloud Wind Speed | Wind speed for Low Cloud Layer in m/s |
High Cloud Wind Direction | Wind direction for High Cloud Layer in angles |
High Cloud Wind Speed | Wind speed for High Cloud Layer in m/s |
Cloud Noise Wind Direction | Wind direction for Cloud Noise in angles |
Cloud Noise Wind Speed Horizontal | Horizontal wind speed for Cloud Noise in m/s |
Cloud Noise Wind Speed Vertical | Vertical wind speed for Cloud Noise in m/s |
Cloud Wind Skew Amount | Skew clouds towards Low Cloud Wind Direction. Affected by Low Cloud Wind Speed. |
Weather FX | |
Precipitation Wind Direction | Wind direction for Precipitation in angles |
Precipitation Wind Speed | Wind speed for Precipitation |
Exposure
Use Built-in Exposure Settings | Whether to use built-in Exposure Settings. |
Exposure Method | Luminance computation method. |
Exposure Compensation Curve | Exposure compensation based on the scene EV100. Used to calibrate the final exposure differently depending on the average scene luminance. 0: no adjustment, -1:2x darker, -2:4x darker, 1:2x brighter, 2:4x brighter, … |
Exposure Metering Mask | Exposure metering mask. Bright spots on the mask will have high influence on auto-exposure metering and dark spots will have low influence. |
Min Brightness | Auto-Exposure minimum adaptation. Eye Adaptation is disabled if Min = Max. Auto-exposure is implemented by choosing an exposure value for which the average luminance generates a pixel brightness equal to the Constant Calibration value. The Min/Max are expressed in pixel luminance (cd/m2). |
Max Brightness | Auto-Exposure maximum adaptation. Eye Adaptation is disabled if Min = Max. Auto-exposure is implemented by choosing an exposure value for which the average luminance generates a pixel brightness equal to the Constant Calibration value. The Min/Max are expressed in pixel luminance (cd/m2). |
Min EV100 | Auto-Exposure minimum adaptation. Eye Adaptation is disabled if Min = Max. Auto-exposure is implemented by choosing an exposure value for which the average luminance generates a pixel brightness equal to the Constant Calibration value. The Min/Max are expressed in EV100 when using ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange (see project settings). |
Max EV100 | Auto-Exposure maximum adaptation. Eye Adaptation is disabled if Min = Max. Auto-exposure is implemented by choosing an exposure value for which the average luminance generates a pixel brightness equal to the Constant Calibration value. The Min/Max are expressed in EV100 when using ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange (see project settings). |
Speed Up | In F-stops per second, should be >0. |
Speed Down | In F-stops per second, should be >0. |
Low Percent | The eye adaptation will adapt to a value extracted from the luminance histogram of the scene color. The value is defined as having x percent below this brightness. Higher values give bright spots on the screen more priority but can lead to less stable results. Lower values give the medium and darker values more priority but might cause burn out of bright spots. >0, <100, good values are in the range 70 .. 80 |
High Percent | The eye adaptation will adapt to a value extracted from the luminance histogram of the scene color. The value is defined as having x percent below this brightness. Higher values give bright spots on the screen more priority but can lead to less stable results. Lower values give the medium and darker values more priority but might cause burn out of bright spots. >0, <100, good values are in the range 80 .. 95 |
Histogram Log Min | Histogram Min value. Expressed in Log2 (Luminance). |
Histogram Log Max | Histogram Max value. Expressed in Log2 (Luminance). |
Histogram Min EV100 | Histogram Min value. Expressed in EV100 when using ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange (see project settings). |
Histogram Max EV100 | Histogram Max value. Expressed in EV100 when using ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange (see project settings). |
Sky Creator Weather Settings
Here’s all settings list which is meant to be used by weather presets in runtime.
Sky Atmosphere
Rayleigh | |
Rayleigh Scattering Scale | Rayleigh scattering coefficient scale. |
Rayleigh Scattering | The Rayleigh scattering coefficients resulting from molecules in the air at an altitude of 0 kilometer. |
Rayleigh Exponential Distribution | The altitude in kilometer at which Rayleigh scattering effect is reduced to 40%. |
Mie | |
Mie Scattering Scale | Mie scattering coefficient scale. |
Mie Scattering | The Mie scattering coefficients resulting from particles in the air at an altitude of 0 kilometer. As it becomes higher, light will be scattered more. |
Mie Absorption Scale | Mie absorption coefficient scale. |
Mie Absorption | The Mie absorption coefficients resulting from particles in the air at an altitude of 0 kilometer. As it becomes higher, light will be absorbed more. |
Mie Anisotropy | A value of 0 mean light is uniformly scattered. A value closer to 1 means lights will scatter more forward, resulting in halos around light sources. |
Mie Exponential Distribution | The altitude in kilometer at which Mie effects are reduced to 40%. |
Absorption | |
Absorption Scale | Absorption coefficients for another atmosphere layer. Density increase from 0 to 1 between 10 to 25km and decreases from 1 to 0 between 25 to 40km. The default values represents ozone molecules absorption in the Earth atmosphere. |
Absorption | Absorption coefficients for another atmosphere layer. Density increase from 0 to 1 between 10 to 25km and decreases from 1 to 0 between 25 to 40km. The default values represents ozone molecules absorption in the Earth atmosphere. |
Art Direction | |
Sky Luminance Factor | Scales the luminance of pixels representing the sky, i.e. not belonging to any surface. |
Height Fog Contribution | Scale the sky and atmosphere lights contribution to the height fog when SupportSkyAtmosphereAffectsHeightFog project setting is true. |
Volumetric Cloud
Low Cloud Layer | |
Low Cloud Coverage | Coverage level of Low Cloud layer. |
Low Cloud Density | Density level of Low Cloud layer. |
Low Cloud Altitude | Altitude of Low Cloud layer. |
Low Cloud Height | Height of Low Cloud layer. |
Low Cloud Height Variation | Height Variation of Low Cloud layer. |
Low Cloud Secondary Coverage | Coverage level of Low Cloud Secondary layer. |
Low Cloud Secondary Altitude | Altitude of Low Cloud Secondary layer. |
Low Cloud Secondary Height | Height of Low Cloud Secondary layer. |
High Cloud Layer | |
High Cloud Coverage | Coverage level of High Cloud layer. |
High Cloud Density | Density level of High Cloud layer. |
High Cloud Height | Height of High Cloud layer. |
High Cloud Amount Type A | Amount of ‘Type A’ clouds in High Cloud layer. |
High Cloud Amount Type B | Amount of ‘Type B’ clouds in High Cloud layer. |
High Cloud Amount Type C | Amount of ‘Type C’ clouds in High Cloud layer. |
Cloud Lighting | |
Albedo | Albedo color of Volumetric Clouds. |
Albedo Bottom | Albedo color of the bottom of Low Cloud layer. |
Bottom Darkening | Darkening amount of the bottom of Low Cloud layer. |
Night Emissive | Emissive color of Volumetric Clouds. Better to keep this value low. |
Phase G | Phase function describing how much forward (G < 0) of backward (G > 0) light scatter around. |
Phase G2 | Second phase function describing how much forward (G < 0) of backward (G > 0) light scatter around. |
Phase Blend | Lerp factor when blending the two phase functions. |
Multi Scattering Contribution | Multi-scattering approximation: represents how much contribution each successive octave will add. Evaluatead per pixel. |
Multi Scattering Occlusion | Multi-scattering approximation: represents how much occlussion will be reduced for each successive octave. Evaluatead per pixel. |
Multi Scattering Eccentricity | Multi-scattering approximation: represents how much the phase will become isotropic for each successive octave. Evaluatead per pixel. |
Cloud Noise | |
Shape Noise Erosion | Erosion amount of ‘Shape’ 3D Noise. |
Detail Noise Erosion | Erosion amount of ‘Detail’ 3D Noise. |
Sky Light
Intensity | Total energy that the light emits. |
Light Color | Filter color of the light. Note that this can change the light’s effective intensity. |
Lower Hemisphere Color | Lower Hemisphere Color. |
Sun Light
Intensity | Maximum illumination from the light in lux. |
Light Color | Filter color of the light. Note that this can change the light’s effective intensity. |
Temperature | Color temperature in Kelvin of the blackbody illuminant. White (D65) is 6500K. |
Volumetric Scattering Intensity | Intensity of the volumetric scattering from sun. This scales Intensity and Light Color. |
Atmosphere And Cloud | |
Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | A color multiplied with the sun disk luminance. |
Cloud Scattered Luminance Scale | Scales the lights contribution when scattered in cloud participating media. |
Cloud Shadow Strength | The overall strength of the cloud shadow, higher value will block more light. |
Cloud Shadow on Atmosphere Strength | The strength of the shadow on atmosphere. Disabled when 0. |
Cloud Shadow on Surface Strength | The strength of the shadow on opaque and transparent meshes. Disabled when 0. |
Moon Light
Intensity | Maximum illumination from the light in lux. |
Light Color | Filter color of the light. Note that this can change the light’s effective intensity. |
Temperature | Color temperature in Kelvin of the blackbody illuminant. White (D65) is 6500K. |
Volumetric Scattering Intensity | Intensity of the volumetric scattering from moon. This scales Intensity and Light Color. |
Atmosphere And Cloud | |
Atmosphere Disk Color Scale | A color multiplied with the moon disk luminance. |
Cloud Scattered Luminance Scale | Scales the lights contribution when scattered in cloud participating media. |
Cloud Shadow Strength | The overall strength of the cloud shadow, higher value will block more light. |
Cloud Shadow on Atmosphere Strength | The strength of the shadow on atmosphere. Disabled when 0. |
Cloud Shadow on Surface Strength | The strength of the shadow on opaque and transparent meshes. Disabled when 0. |
Exponential Height Fog
Fog | |
Fog Density | Global density factor of fog. |
Fog Height Falloff | Height density factor, controls how the density increases as height decreases. Smaller values make the visible transition larger. |
Fog Inscattering Color | Fog Inscattering Color. |
Fog Start Distance | Distance from the camera that the fog will start. |
Second Fog | |
Second Fog Density | Global density factor of secondary fog. |
Second Fog Height Falloff | Height density factor, controls how the density increases as height decreases. Smaller values make the visible transition larger. |
Directional Inscattering | |
Directional Inscattering Exponent | Controls the size of the directional inscattering cone, which is used to approximate inscattering from a directional light. Note: there must be a directional light with bUsedAsAtmosphereSunLight enabled for DirectionalInscattering to be used. |
Directional Inscattering Start Distance | Controls the start distance from the viewer of the directional inscattering, which is used to approximate inscattering from a directional light. Note: there must be a directional light with bUsedAsAtmosphereSunLight enabled for DirectionalInscattering to be used. |
Directional Inscattering Color | Controls the color of the directional inscattering, which is used to approximate inscattering from a directional light. Note: there must be a directional light with bUsedAsAtmosphereSunLight enabled for DirectionalInscattering to be used. |
Volumetric Fog | |
Volumetric Fog Scattering Distribution | Controls the scattering phase function – how much incoming light scatters in various directions. A distribution value of 0 scatters equally in all directions, while .9 scatters predominantly in the light direction. In order to have visible volumetric fog light shafts from the side, the distribution will need to be closer to 0. |
Volumetric Fog Albedo | The height fog particle reflectiveness used by volumetric fog. Water particles in air have an albedo near white, while dust has slightly darker value. |
Volumetric Fog Emissive | Light emitted by height fog. This is a density so more light is emitted the further you are looking through the fog. In most cases skylight is a better choice, however right now volumetric fog does not support precomputed lighting, so stationary skylights are unshadowed and static skylights don’t affect volumetric fog at all. |
Volumetric Fog Extinction Scale | Scales the height fog particle extinction amount used by volumetric fog. Values larger than 1 cause fog particles everywhere absorb more light. |
Star Map
Star Map Brightness | Overall brightness of the Star Map. |
Star Map Color Tint | Overall color tint of the Star Map. |
Star Map Twinkle Intensity | Intensity of twinkling stars. |
Star Map Twinkle Saturation | Saturation of twinkling stars. |
Star Map Twinkle Speed | Twinkle speed of stars. |
Star Map Horizon Threshold | Indicates how strong the star map can be faded into horizon. Lower values cause more stars appear at horizon. |
Star Map Atmosphere Threshold | Indicates how strong the star map can be faded into atmosphere. Lower values cause more stars appear at brighter points in atmosphere, e.g. at daytime. |
Night Horizon Color | Color tint of the horizon. |
Night Zenith Color | Color tint of the zenith. |
Weather FX
Rain | |
Rain Amount | Rain Amount. |
Rain Color | Rain Color. |
Rain Gravity Min | Minimum gravity of a single raindrop. |
Rain Gravity Max | Maximum gravity of a single raindrop. |
Rain Lifetime Min | Minimum lifetime of a single raindrop. Can affect the performance. |
Rain Lifetime Max | Maximum lifetime of a single raindrop. Can affect the performance. |
Rain Size Min | Minimum size of a single raindrop. |
Rain Size Max | Maximum size of a single raindrop. |
Rain Length Min | Minimum length of a single raindrop. |
Rain Length Max | Maximum length of a single raindrop. |
Rain Splash | |
Rain Splash Size Min | Minimum size of a rain splash. |
Rain Splash Size Max | Maximum size of a rain splash. |
Snow | |
Snow Amount | Snow Amount. |
Snow Color | Snow Color. |
Snow Gravity Min | Minimum gravity of a single snowflake. |
Snow Gravity Max | Maximum gravity of a single snowflake. |
Snow Turbulence | Snow turbulence. |
Snow Lifetime Min | Minimum lifetime of a single snowflake. Can affect the performance. |
Snow Lifetime Max | Maximum lifetime of a single snowflake. Can affect the performance. |
Snow Size Min | Minimum size of a single snowflake. |
Snow Size Max | Maximum size of a single snowflake. |
Weather Material FX
Wetness | |
Wetness Amount | Wetness Amount. |
Wetness Color | Wetness Color. |
Puddles | |
Puddles Amount | Puddles Amount. |
Puddles Color | Puddles Color. |
Ripples | |
Rain Ripples Amount | Rain Ripples Amount. |
Rain Ripples Intensity | Rain Ripples normap map intensity. |
Rain Ripples Force Min Radius | Min Force Radius to write by the Rain Ripples Solver. |
Rain Ripples Force Max Radius | Max Force Radius to write by the Rain Ripples Solver. |
Rain Ripples Rings Number | Number of Rain Ripples Rings to propagate by a single raindrop. |
Rain Ripples Rings Delay | Delay of Rain Ripples Rings propagation. Number represents Rain Ripples Solver frames to skip. |
Rain Ripples Damping | Damping of Rain Ripples. Higher values are fading Rain Ripples faster. |
Wind Ripples Intensity | Wind Ripples normap map intensity. |
Wind Ripples Speed | Speed of the Wind Ripples. |
Snow | |
Snow Amount | Snow Coverage Amount. |
Snow Color | Snow Coverage Color. |
Snow Intensity | Snow normap map intensity. |
Snow Sparkles Threshold | Snow Sparkles Threshold. Lower values exposes more sparkles. |
Wind
Volumetric Cloud | |
Low Cloud Wind Direction | Wind direction angle of Low Cloud layer in degrees. |
Low Cloud Wind Speed | Wind speed of Low Cloud layer in m/s. |
High Cloud Wind Direction | Wind direction angle of High Cloud layer in degrees. |
High Cloud Wind Speed | Wind speed of High Cloud layer in m/s. |
Cloud Noise Wind Direction | Wind direction angle of Cloud Noise in degrees. |
Cloud Noise Wind Speed Horizontal | Horizontal wind speed of Cloud Noise in m/s. |
Cloud Noise Wind Speed Vertical | Vertical wind speed of Cloud Noise in m/s. |
Weather FX | |
Precipitation Wind Direction | Wind direction angle of precipitation particles in degrees. |
Precipitation Wind Speed | Wind speed of precipitation particles. |
Exposure
Exposure Compensation | Logarithmic adjustment for the exposure. Only used if a tonemapper is specified. 0: no adjustment, -1:2x darker, -2:4x darker, 1:2x brighter, 2:4x brighter, … |
To be updated.
Changelog
V1.00
- Initial release
V1.01
- Deleted two legacy unused functions which were triggering an error “Explicit Category is required …” when packaging a build
- Moved Rain & Snow particle emitters from GPU to CPU, which fixes an error “Assertion failed: OnRequestDefaultDataInterface.IsBound() …”. This is probably an engine bug, deserves a further investigation. This can be just a temporary solution for now
- Default values to Rain & Snow particle count are reduced because CPU emitters are usually more expensive
- Fixed wrong material link in static mesh “SM_SC_SkySphere”
- Moved “Volumetric Cloud MID” variable in “Debug” Category
- Reverted to false default “Per Pixel Atmosphere Transmittance” boolean values to Sun and Moon (can cause “shadow zones” if surface is below Planet Top of Sky Atmosphere)
V1.02
- Fixed Moon disk direction when Sky Creator actor is rotated
- Fixed visual bug with long Cloud Wind Skew when editing clouds in editor
- Fixed Second Fog control in Exponential Height Fog
- Lowered default value for Cloud Shadow Extent from 50 to 25 in Sun & Moon (better cloud shadows with same performance)
V1.03
- Changed Volumetric Cloud material shading model to “Default Lit” instead of “Unlit” (makes no difference in UE4 4.26, but it does in UE5)
- Added engine major version verification when initializing FPlaceableItem in editor module (that struct is a bit different between UE4 and UE5)
V1.04
- Fixed Moon Disk sorting priority in sky material – stars are properly occluded now
- Fixed Moon Mask aliasing
- Fixed “Auto Scale” for Volumetric Cloud Noise
- Fixed “Cloud Wind Skew”
- Added “SkyCreator_CinematicController” blueprint specifically for Sequencer
- Added Moon Disk Rotation
- Added ability to choose between “Editor Weather Preset” and “Editor Weather Settings” – second option is for direct variable control
- Added two new quality options for Volumetric Cloud – “Ground Contribution” and “Multi Scattering Approximation Octave Count”
- Renamed “Sample Count Scale” subcategory to “Quality” in Volumetric Cloud options
- Renamed “Sync With Low Cloud Map Scale” variable to “Auto Scale” in Volumetric Cloud options
V1.05
- Fixed “Explicit Category is required …” in a Volumetric Cloud Materials struct when packaging a build
V1.10
- Enhanced Rain & Snow including many improvements
- New Rain Splashes effect
- Expanded Exposure settings supporting “Extended Luminance Range”
- Lower Hemisphere Color for Sky Light (useful for night lighting)
- Sun Light Intensity in Weather Settings is now “40.0”
- Moon Light Intensity in Weather Settings is now “0.02”
- Min Brightness for Exposure is now “0.02”
- Speed Up and Speed Down for Exposure are now “4.0”
- Fixed a typo in “Bottom Altitude” variable
V1.11
- New Cloud settings for Sun Light & Moon Light
- New Star Map Threshold settings
- New Star Map Twinkle settings
- Added “Use Editor Time of Day” & “Use Editor Weather Settings”
- Commented all visible variables
- Unclamped variables where it was unnecessary
- Added missing line “Super::GetLifetimeReplicatedProps(OutLifetimeProps)” to the replication function
V1.12
- Displaying debug variables now can be turned off by a checkbox “Show Debug Variables”
- Changed default “Fog Inscattering Color” from black to dark blue color (improves lighting at nights)
- Modified ConstructorStatics calls in SkyCreatorActor.cpp
- Added missing “Lower Hemisphere Color” parameter in the “Lerp Sky Light Settings” function
- Fixed empty reference in “MI_SC_SkySphere”
- Fixed empty reference in “MI_Demo_01”
- Fixed “ObjectProperty is not initialized properly” warnings
- Fixed casting static shadows from Compass mesh
V1.20
- Added dynamic Occlusion Capture
- Added new Weather Material FX – Wetness
- Added new Weather Material FX – Puddles
- Added new Weather Material FX – Ripples (including built-in Ripples Solver)
- Added new Weather Material FX – Snow
- Added new blueprint “SkyCreator_CaptureDistantOcclusion”
- Added new blueprint “SkyCreator_DebugOcclusion”
- Debug category is now deprecated – now all debug variables are placed at corresponding categories. They are still not visible by default, but can be turned on by “Show Debug Variables” checkbox
- Updated “SkyCreator_ControllerExample” – now it has Accumulation/Dry timers for the new Weather Material FX
- Updated Demo map
- Updated default Weather Settings to be slightly more pleasing to the eye
- Updated all Weather Presets and added a few more
- Updated Rain material to be slightly more soft looking
V1.21
- Added Real Sun & Moon Positioning
- Moved all Sun & Moon position settings into new single category “Sun & Moon Position”
- Reworked “Light Transition” hardcoded feature. Transitions between Sun & Moon are noticeably smoother now
- Direction of the North has changed from Y- to X+ to match Unreal’s yaw angle rotation
- Disabled Cloud Shadows of MoonLight component by default
- Fixed wrong color conversion with Volumetric Fog Albedo in Weather Settings
- Minor changes to code to have UE 5.0 Preview compatibility
V1.22
- Added Camera Velocity Alignment effect for Rain FX
- Added Moon Phase Light Intensity Scale
- Moon Disk color (or “Atmosphere Disk Color Scale”) is now independent of Moon Intensity and Moon Light Color
- Precipitation FX is now rendered before DOF
- Increased default Rain Splash amount x2
- Fixed crash when trying to change Sun or Moon Position Type variable of a blueprint child of Sky Creator
- Fixed Rain Splash fading
V1.23
- Added GPU Precipitation Particles feature
- Added Motion-based Alignment & Elongation for Precipitation particles
- Added Unified Gravity settings for Precipitation particles
- Added Constant Sun & Moon Intensity
- Redesigned Rain, Rain Splash and Snow materials (better blending with a scene and better visibility)
- Deleted “Distant Precipitation” feature (replaced by GPU Precipitation)
- Deleted “Index of Refraction” settings
- Deleted “Rain Length Min” and “Rain Length Max” variables are obsolete now
- Replaced “Gravity Min” and “Gravity Max” with a single “Gravity” variable
- Renamed “Camera Velocity Alignment” to “Camera Motion Alignment”
- Changed “Snow Spawn Rate Max” default value to 1000
- Changed some minor default weather preset settings
- Declared some functions as virtual
- Fixed Occlusion Capture not happening at the level load
- Fixed “Niagara Shader Module Delegate Never Set” crash in packaged builds