cloud

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Cloud textures are used to create effects such as clouds, smoke, and steam. It can be applied as a transparency map to another shader to make it cloud-like, or can be used as a color map to make a cloudy surface on an object.

Tips for creating a good cloud effect:

• Create an ellipsoidal object (say, a sphere).
• Create a lambert shader. Make it the color you want your cloud to be. Make sure its Refractive Index is 1.0, and assign it to your object.
• Apply a Cloud texture as a Transparency map to the shader.
• In the Cloud attribute editor, set both colors to white, and turn on Invert under the Effects tab.
• The object will look like a wispy cloud.
• If you turn off Invert, the sphere will look like a round glass with a cloudy center.

Aside from the attributes listed here, Cloud textures inherit many other attributes from the parent class Texture3d.

In the table below, important attributes have their names shown in bold in the Description column.

This node is MP safe

Related nodes

layeredTexture, envCube, envSphere, envSky, envBall, envChrome, bump3d, uvChooser, bump2d, texture2d, ramp, file, cloth, water, stencil, checker, fractal, bulge, grid, mountain, texture3d, projection, granite, crater, leather, stucco, brownian, solidFractal, marble, wood, rock, snow, defaultTextureList, place2dTexture, place3dTexture

Attributes (36)

amplitude, centerThresh, color1, color1B, color1G, color1R, color2, color2B, color2G, color2R, contrast, depth, depthMax, depthMin, edgeThresh, eyeToTextureMatrix, normalCamera, normalCameraX, normalCameraY, normalCameraZ, ratio, refPointCamera, refPointCameraX, refPointCameraY, refPointCameraZ, refPointObj, refPointObjX, refPointObjY, refPointObjZ, ripples, ripplesX, ripplesY, ripplesZ, softEdges, transpRange, xPixelAngle

Long name (short name)	Type	Default	Flags
amplitude (a)	float	1.0
Amplitude scales the effect of the fractal noise. Increase Amplitude to make the texture more contrasty, with the light areas lighter and the dark areas darker.
centerThresh (ct)	float	0.0
Center Thresh, along with Edge Thresh, determines how diffuse or concentrated the Edge Rolloff is. For a dense cotton-ball effect, use a low Center Thresh with a high Edge Thresh. For a wispy, broken-up cloud effect use a high Center Thresh and a low Edge Thresh.
color1 (c1)	float3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
Color 1 is one of the two colors that comprise the cloud.
color1R (c1r) float 0.0 The red value of Color 1
color1G (c1g) float 0.0 The green value of Color 1
color1B (c1b) float 0.0 The blue value of Color 1
color2 (c2)	float3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
Color 2 is one of the two colors that comprise the cloud.
color2R (c2r) float 0.0 The red value of Color 2
color2G (c2g) float 0.0 The green of the Color 2
color2B (c2b) float 0.0 The blue of the Color 2
contrast (c)	float	0.5
Contrast controls how much the two colors that comprise the cloud mix together. If Contrast is set to 0, the two colors are averaged across the entire texture. If contrast is set to 1.0, the colors do not affect each other at all. If the Cloud texture is being used as a transparency map, this attribute will not have an appreciable effect.
depth (d)	float2	0.0, 8.0
Depth controls how much calculation is done by the Cloud texture. Fractal textures (such as Cloud) are created by an iterative mathematical process; as the process goes over more levels, it produces a more detailed fractal, but takes longer to do so. Normally, the texture will choose a level it thinks is appropriate for the volume being rendered. You can use Depth Min and Depth Max to control the minimum and maximum amount of calculation that the texure will do.
depthMin (dmn) float 0.0 The minimum value for recursion depth
depthMax (dmx) float 0.0 The maximum value for recursion depth
edgeThresh (et)	float	1.0
Edge Thresh. See the description for Center Thresh, above.
eyeToTextureMatrix (e2t)	fltMatrix	identity
The transform to go from eye to texture space (pTx = pEye * matrix). It must come from the 3D placement node.
normalCamera (n)	float3	0.0, 0.0, 1.0
The input normal to perturbate
normalCameraX (nx) float 0.0 The X component of the input normal
normalCameraY (ny) float 0.0 The Y component of the input normal
normalCameraZ (nz) float 0.0 The Z component of the input normal
ratio (ra)	float	0.707
Ratio controls the ratio for the fractal noise. Increase Ratio to make the detail in the texture smaller and more fine-grained. Decrease Ratio to make the detail larger, giving the cloud a more homogeneous appearance.
refPointCamera (rpc)	float3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
The current reference sample point that has to be shaded
refPointCameraX (rcx) float 0.0 The x component of the current sample position
refPointCameraY (rcy) float 0.0 The y component of the current sample position
refPointCameraZ (rcz) float 0.0 The z component of the current sample position
refPointObj (rpo)	float3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
The current reference sample point that has to be shaded
refPointObjX (rox) float 0.0 The x component of the current reference sample position
refPointObjY (roy) float 0.0 The y component of the current reference sample position
refPointObjZ (roz) float 0.0 The z component of the current reference sample position
ripples (r)	float3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
Ripples determines how wavy the texture will be by controlling the scale of the fundamental frequence of the fractals.
ripplesX (rx) float 0.0 Ripple X value
ripplesY (ry) float 0.0 Ripple Y value
ripplesZ (rz) float 0.0 Ripple Z value
softEdges (se)	bool	true
Soft Edges creates a roll-off effect so that the clouds look more transparent at the edges than in the center. When Soft Edges is turned off, there is no such effect. See also Center Thresh and Edge Thresh.
transpRange (tr)	float	0.5
Transparency Range controls the range over which the cloud texture goes from being opaque to being transparent. If you increase this value, the transition between opaque and transparent areas becomes more gentle and diffuse.
xPixelAngle (xpa)	float	0.002053
The pixel angle