Physical Sky - the Dawn of a new Era

...an appointment with the sun is waiting for you!

finalRender Stage-2 offers a physical sky simulation method that accurately represents the colors and illumination model of a real world sky environment. The light intensities created by the physical sky model are calculated in a true High Dynamic Range format.  Colors and light intensities are calculated as they would appear in reality, at a certain place and time on earth.
 

How does it work?

Like in the real world, finalRender Stage-2 considers many aspects that form the illumination and color of a sky hemisphere. Aspects like the time of the day, the year and month, along with the exact place on earth are considered when rendering the skylight effect. Furthermore, parameters like dust particles, Ozone gas in the sky and vapor of water, play an important role in coloring the sky hemisphere.

The color of a light source is defined by its collection of wavelengths.  Each of those wavelength cocktails shows a very specific absorption curve that is unique to each element in the atmosphere. Vaporized water in the atmosphere, for example, shows a strong absorption between a wavelength of 690nm-730nm.

Nano what?

The physical sky model uses a true wavelength based rendering scheme.  International standard suggests that wavelengths are measured in nano-meters (a billionth of a meter) or in other words, a very (very-very) small distance.  In the real world all the beautiful colors that we see are made out of a combination of different wavelengths radiating all around us. A Red color would show a wavelength ranging from 633-690nm, Green would show a wavelength of 500-555nm, and a Blue color would be between 440-500nm.  As usual, the user need not care about all those physical sky aspects or parameters; they may play around with the controls and receive instant feedback on the look of the sky.