Rendering Realistic Skies and Planetary Atmospheres in Real-Time with Shaders
By
Maxime Heckel
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
This article explores the technical and visual process of rendering realistic skies, sunsets, and planetary atmospheres in real-time using browser-based shaders. It covers the physics of atmospheric scattering (Rayleigh and Mie scattering, ozone absorption) and demonstrates how to implement these effects programmatically through techniques like sky domes, raymarching, and shader programming. The author uses a NASA photo of the space shuttle Endeavour at sunset as inspiration to explain both the science behind atmospheric colors and the engineering required to reproduce them digitally.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThere's this photo that's been sitting on my inspiration board for a while, of the space shuttle Endeavour, suspended in space in low Earth orbit at sunset.
It shows Earth's upper atmosphere as a backdrop, featuring beautiful, colorful layers ranging from dark orange to blue before fading away into the deep black of space.
Not only is that gradient of color aesthetically pleasing, but the phenomenon behind those colors, atmospheric scattering, is even more of an interesting topic once you start looking into how it works and how to reproduce it.
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