Cloudscapes in Video Games: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Clouds for Level Design

My Bachelor's thesis focused on developing a real-time volumetric cloud solution for level design. The goal was to create a framework for rendering clouds and smoke in real-time, allowing them to be interactively authored within Unreal Engine 5. The implementation incorporates features such as in-scattering and out-scattering, Beer's powder effect, extinction colors, and real-time shadows.

The clouds are fully interactive, with real-time editing and creation using custom sculpting tools. These tools also enable the creation of dynamic effects, such as simulating a bullet passing through clouds or smoke (see the GIFs below for examples).

Additionally, clouds can be pre-designed using voxelization tools and used later for sculpting or in-game. For instance, see the example of the voxelized Stanford bunny below.