TL;DR
Cloud shadows look exactly the same on Nauvis, Gleba and Fulgora. This doesn't make sense considering their vastly different climates. Each planet should have clouds that correspond to the climate. Fulgora in particular needs to be changed.What?
Here's a screenshot of some empty space on each of the first 4 planets, all at the same zoom level:Pay attention to the cloud shadows.
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- Screenshot (727).png (2.56 MiB) Viewed 188 times
- Screenshot (731).png (2.7 MiB) Viewed 188 times
In each of these, it's easy to see how similar the clouds are. In game you can also see that they move at the same speed on all planets. On Vulcanus it's hard to tell but I think the cloud shadows are still there. I haven't yet visited Aquilo, so I can't say for sure, but I presume the same shadows would be present there. My suggestion is that each planet's cloud shadows should correspond to the climate:
Nauvis clouds make sense unchanged - the clouds were designed for Nauvis
Fulgora clouds should definitely be much faster, and probably more dense too. The fluffy, slow moving shadows are certainly the opposite of what Fulgora should have. This is the main one
Gleba clouds would probably be ok unchanged, but I would probably make them denser, due to the frequent rain and general humid climate.
Vulcanus cloud shadows are basically invisible, so it doesn't matter much how they look. Maybe just remove them?
I haven't been to Aquilo, so I can't comment on what the clouds there should be like.
Why?
I think the cloud shadows, particularly on Fulgora, take away from the atmosphere of the DLC that's otherwise so beautifully crafted. Making them change parameters based on the planet seems like it would be simple enough to implement (not sure though), and would add a little more character to the worlds.Heres one last picture contrasting the cloud shadows with some of the other atmospheric features on Gleba - the cloud shadows aren't entirely bad, but they're a little lacklustre in comparison and do break a bit of immersion once you realise they're the same on all planets.
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