FREE Asset Constant Updates 5.3 Ultra Dynamic Sky v8.0A Hotfix

For UE 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3

• Fixed flickering visuals on client when calling Change Weather in multiplayer
• Fixed visual bug with shadows in snow trails
• Changed warning displayed for manual weather overrides from UDS to be a warning message window instead of a screen message
• Changes to weather particle logic to preemptively correct for some niagara changes in 5.4

Version 8.0
For UE 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3
General
UDS and UDW now have the capability to run much of their active updates in the level editor. For example, properties and features affected by the player camera location will now be previewed dynamically in the level editor, using the editor viewport camera. Previously runtime-only features which now work in the editor include Interior Adjustments, Sound Occlusion, changes based on camera height within the cloud layer, Weather Override Volumes, Post Process Wind Fog, Screen Droplets, Lightning Flashes, and more.
Added buttons to UDS and UDW categories, with shortcuts to relevant documentation entries in the readme.
Created blueprint function libraries for UDS and UDW. These have self contained functions for globally sampling and controlling the sky and weather.
Added an option to the Occlusion Settings class to change how occlusion is affected below the water level
Water Level is now just controlled by the variable on UDS. The equivalent variable has been removed from UDW, and its Use Water Level setting has been renamed to Use UDS Water Level.
Several public utility functions for getting values on UDS and UDW have been changed to pure functions.
Some improvements to the interface in the Configuration Manager
Sky
Created a modifier system for UDS. Modifier assets can be made which affect a wide selection of float and color properties on UDS. These modifiers can be applied/removed at runtime with smooth transitions, and layered on top of each other. See the new readme section on Sky Modifiers for info.
The Sky Mode Scalability Map on UDS will now apply automatically if effects quality is changed at runtime
Added an option to make auto exposure update faster on begin play, to avoid long adjustment times to starting conditions
Added a new dispatcher to UDS called Current Hour Changed, which behaves similarly to Hourly, but without being called for hours which are skipped over when time is changed instantly.
Added an "Every Minute" event dispatcher to UDS
Redesigned "Use System Time" option on UDS, so that it controls the Time of Day and date values using the system clock, combined with the time zone. This allows time to be sampled the same, and time based events to work. Use System Time can now also be used to affect the non-simulation features.
Added a Date Changed event dispatcher to UDS. This is called whenever the Year/Month/Day values change for any reason.
Added a Feature Level setting to Basic Controls on UDS. This allows specifying the project's rendering feature level (Desktop/Console, Mobile Forward or Mobile Deferred) and the system will adapt to the limitations of the selected feature level. This replaces the existing Mobile Overrides options, but the selected Feature Level can still be determined on a platform basis by using the Platform Feature Levels map in the Mobile category.
Added a setting to adjust daytime intensity of aurora
Simplified control of the base cloud textures for the Volumetric Clouds and 2D Dynamic Clouds. There's now just an exposed texture variable for both, replacing the setup with the enum. The settings have also been renamed to Cloud Formation Texture to better communicate what they are.
Changed behavior of Overall Intensity on UDS so that it affects fog as well. Fog color intensity can still be controlled independently using Fog Color Intensity Scale
Improvements to how UDS handles world origin location being moved
Reworked some of UDS' logic to allow the actor to be rotated on the Z axis in a way that rotates the whole sky and lights, dynamic clouds excluded.
Added an option to move the sky light component with camera location, to allow real time capture to remain accurate to the clouds above the camera when moving around large levels.
Added a setting to control the cubemap source angle on the UDS sky light.
Added an option to the Volumetric Cloud Painter to rotate the painting brush.
Renamed Sun Radius to Sun Scale, and changed both it and Moon Scale so they are entered as a direct angular diameter in degrees.
Replaced the sky atmosphere fog influence curve with separate values for adjusting influence from sun, moon, or when neither is up.
Changed Cloud Direction on UDS so that it uses the same value range as Wind Direction on UDW
Combined the separate categories for sky light modes into the one Sky Light category. The cube map texture for Custom Cubemap and Dynamic Tinting modes are now just exposed as one texture (Sky Light Cubemap) shared by both modes.
Moved settings which affect both directional lights together (Directional Balance, Dim Directional Lights, Lights Update settings) into a new Directional Light category.
Moved Adjust for Path Tracer into a new Cinematics / Offline Rendering category. This category also has new settings for how rendering is adjusted at runtime by Cinematic/Offline Project Mode.
Moved various general settings for scalability, like the Sky Mode Scalability Map and the Max Property Cache Period, into a new Scalability / Performance category.
Moved the settings in the Component Selection category into the respective categories for Sun, Moon, Sky Light, and Fog Color. Changed out the feature toggle enum variables with a boolean for Render Sky Light, Render Sun Directional Light, etc. The custom actor will be used if it has a valid actor reference (It doesn't need another variable configured to tell the blueprint to use the custom actor)
Some improvements to visuals and performance when volumetric cloud scale is decreased below default
Renamed Angle and Inclination settings for the sun and moon to Yaw and Pitch settings, to better label what they do.
Adjusted behavior of Sun Softness so that overall luminosity of the sun disk will be preserved as it's changed.
Added a setting for Moon Phase Contrast, to adjust the softness/hardness of the moon's solar terminator
Exposed volumetric fog albedo to settings for control with time of day
Cloud Coverage, Fog, and Dust Amount variables on UDS are now handled somewhat differently. If adjusted on UDS with UDW in the level, they will apply a manual override to the specific weather state value adjusted from UDS. There are new Set public functions for each of these to adjust for this in the same way automatically when setting the variables at runtime.
Reworked moon texture settings on UDS. The moon color and alpha is a separate texture from the moon phase normal texture, allowing a custom RGB moon texture while retaining moon phase rendering.
Weather
Added a framework to allow individual Weather Settings assets to have their own custom blueprint logic, for applying custom effects/behavior. See the readme entry Custom Weather Behavior for info.
Added a new actor class, Puddle Fluid Volume. This actor renders a puddle as a translucent water surface that moves up and down with rain/wetness, making it suitable for situations where water should fill an actual concave space in the ground geometry. It can also be affected by the DLWE Interaction component, creating much more lifelike fluid ripples than is possible with the material effect based puddles.
Added a Heat Distortion post process effect to UDW. Configurable from a new Heat Distortion category.
Added Enable Volume and Disable Volume functions to the UDS Occlusion Volume class
Replaced snow textures used by Surface Weather Effects and Dynamic Landscape Weather Effects with new higher res textures.
Exposed the texture objects used for snow/dust textures on Surface Weather Effects to inputs
Replaced animated puddle ripple texture with new higher res texture
Added a toggle to Dynamic Landscape Weather Effects and Surface Weather Effects to mask coverage below the water level from UDS
Made the dripping mesh niagara systems kill their particles that go below water level, if enabled.
Added a material based depth of field into the rain and snow particle materials (on high and epic material quality), for much better appearance in shots with heavy depth of field.
UDW has new event dispatchers called State Change, which can be used to monitor specific weather state values for when they change.
Exposed control of the thresholds for when event dispatchers on UDW (Starting Raining, Finished Snowing, etc) are called, in a new Event Dispatchers category.
"Enable Dynamic Landscape Weather Effects" toggle removed from UDW. The logic for the effects will start automatically if called for.
Reworked some elements of Lightning Flash niagara effect to work better for lightning strikes at closer range to the camera.
Added an input to the Flash Lightning function to specify a manual seed for the lightning bolt shape
Season on UDW has a new Set Season function. The Set function will apply the change to the Season variable and also run the additional logic for updating weather and material parameters.
Controls for Random Weather Variation on UDW and Weather Override Volumes have been reworked. RWV is enabled with an enum which allows selecting multiple timing modes, including new Daily and Hourly modes. Weather Override Volumes don't have their Mode setting anymore. They use the same Random Weather Variation mode selection that UDW does, for more consistency in how weather is configured between the two.
Added an option to Random Weather Variation settings on UDW, to forecast multiple upcoming weather types ahead of time. This forecast can be sampled using the function Get Random Weather Forecast if it's enabled.
Added an option to Random Weather Variation called Weather Specific Interval Multipliers. It allows shortening or lengthening the random weather interval for specific weather presets. For example you could use it to make storms last a shorter amount of time than other presets.
Get Current Temperature on UDW now outputs in a scale determined by an input on the function, instead of outputting both scales
Reworked settings in the Material Effects category on UDW. There are now settings for scaling the clear speed for each material state value based on context. Temperature for snow, direct sunlight for wetness, and wind for dust. Additionally, the material effects applied by Weather Override Volumes now locally apply the same dynamics to their material state. So material state can behave by the same rules in global weather and inside a WOV.
Added an option to Random Weather Variation settings to have random weather instantly clear and restart with new weather if the Season suddenly changes past a threshold.
Added toggles in the Manual Weather State category on UDW, to allow individual values from the manual state to be applied as manual overrides. So for example you could have weather state coming from presets or random weather, but take manual control of a specific value like cloud coverage or wind intensity.
Moved the physical material array for enabling DLWE interactions on non-landscapes to the DLWE Interaction Settings asset.
Added a setting to scale how fast screen droplets fade away when the camera isn't exposed to rain.
Exposed controls in the Material Effects category on UDW to globally control the default colors for material snow and dust coverage.
Changed several options in the DLWE category on UDW to instead be inputs on the DLWE material function.
Added a niagara module called UDW Wind Force, which adds a simple force to niagara particles, angled with wind direction and scaled with wind intensity.
Added settings to scale intensity of lightning flashes separately for day and night
Added a material function, Season Color Blend, which takes a color input for each season and blends them based on the current season value on UDW.
The rain falling effect in the lightning flashes now falls in a direction and speed that matches the wind intensity and direction.
Improved how the dripping effect in Surface Weather Effects responds to rain intensity.
Added an optional effect to Surface Weather Effects, called Flowing Water Turbulence, which renders a turbulent animated normal which flows from the top down the side of the mesh.
Exposed the exposure mode applied by UDS' exposure settings to be an option.
Added a Rain Light Sparkle shading effect for rain particles, controllable with a new setting.
Rain splash particles/drop decals and snow particles stuck to surfaces will now move with the surface they're on, using the velocity buffer.
Added a Local Temperature Offset variable to the Actor Weather Status, which is added to the temperature sampled from the weather, to make it easier to implement things which locally impact the actor's temperature, like a fire.
Changed how sound occlusion queries the level for portal components, to avoid a potential performance bottleneck.
Fixes
Fixed for GPU memory leak in sequence editor when UDW is bound to the sequence and has DLWE enabled
Fixed Day Length and Night Length not working as intended on a dedicated server
Fixed a bug with the Hourly event dispatcher when time is moved backwards.
Fixed a bug with the Onscreen Controls widget, which could cause a video memory crash when adjusting manual weather value sliders
Fixed issues with the Global Volumetric Material which could cause it to not render, based on the camera location
Fixed an issue with 2D auroras causing artifacts behind volumetric clouds in overcast skies, in some contexts.
Fixed custom Calendar assets with different numbers of days in a year having Season values on UDW which are offset incorrectly.
Fixed rain particle appearance settings not applying to emitters like Dripping Mesh and Rain Drip Spline, if rain particles are disabled on UDW.
Fixed mobile rendering issues with sun lens flare
Fixed a visual bug with the moon rendering too large in some contexts.
Fixed Rain Drip Spline culling incorrectly with a very long spline

V7.9 HOTFIX 2

7.9B Hotfix for 5.3

Fixed issue with Simplified Color in 5.2, causing incorrect dark coloring
Fixed issue with levels with painted volumetric cloud coverage opening in the editor in 5.2 to incorrect global coverage

Version 7.6
For UE 5.0 and 5.1
Added a new Space Layer category to UDS, where additional planets/moons can be rendered in the sky material. An unlimited number can be added, and each can have its appearance, movement and lighting behavior individually configured. Note, this rendering of additional meshes to the sky layer makes use of the Dbuffer, so dbuffer decals need to be enabled in project settings and supported by the platform. Also note, sorting of meshes in the dbuffer was only added to the engine in 5.1, so while this feature can be used in 5.0, multiple planets/moons overlapping is only going to work with consistent sorting in 5.1.
The sun lighting and sky coloring will now be affected by a solar eclipse, when the sun either goes behind the moon, or behind one of the planets/moons in the Space Layer. The settings to disable and adjust this behavior are in the Sun category.
Added a new sky mode, Space, which disables all atmospheric coloring, clouds, fog, etc, and extends tiling star rendering seamlessly below the horizon. Intended for use with scenes in outer space, where there is no planet/ground beneath the viewer.
Added a "Render Moon" setting to the Moon category, to easily toggle off both the moon light and the moon rendering in the sky material completely.
Added a new setting to UDS, called Project Mode. It has two options, "Game / Real-time" and "Cinematic / Offline". It mostly determines how the blueprint behaves at runtime. Cinematic / Offline mode will bypass many runtime optimizations which are useful in real-time contexts but aren't needed when doing offline renders. It will also automatically increase many quality settings at runtime, so that things like volumetric clouds can use maximum quality while rendering but stay at performance friendly settings while working in the editor.
Added an option to the Animate Time of Day category on UDS, "Lights Update Degree Threshold". This will limit how often the directional light rotation is updated as it moves. If the value is above 0, it will move in increments scaled by this value in degrees. This option can be used in combination with or in place of the Lights Update Period option. Lights Update Degree Threshold has a default value of 0.03, so it will have an effect by default, and can be disabled by being set to 0.
Added an option to enable water caustics for the sun and moon lights. This is to help with the common problem of wanting both the cloud shadows and a water caustics effect but being limited by the engine's max of one light function per light. So UDS will use a light function that has both cloud shadows and caustics, if both are enabled. The settings for this effect can be found in a new Water category on UDS. If UDW is in the scene and it has its Water Level setting enabled, Water Level will be controlled from UDW.
Added an option to the Rainbow settings on UDW to add strength to the rainbow effect regardless of weather state.
UDS now directly controls the lighting channels on the sun and moon directional lights, to correct for some lighting issues in 5.1. The lighting channels for each are now exposed in the advanced dropdown of the Sun and Moon categories.
Added options to show debugs for the traces used by interior adjustments on UDS and sound occlusion on UDW.
Added additional lighting settings for rain and snow particles on UDW. To scale the ambient light intensity on both, and to scale the refracted light effect on the rain particles.
Fixed weather particles not responding correctly to Minimum View Distance setting on UDW
Fixed bug with weather mask target in 5.1, which could cause mask brushes to not be visible immediately upon starting a level
Fixed DLWE Interaction components not working if project setting "Can Blueprints Tick by Default" is disabled.
Fixed some parameters on UDS dependent on camera position not always updating correctly
Fixed edges of weather mask projection boxes sometimes conflicting if overlapping
Fixed weather particles sometimes not fully updating their movement behavior with wind intensity during a very fast change of weather
Fixed a slight jitter/flicker which could happen when UDS changes out cloud materials with cloud coverage

8-2-2022
Version 7.3B - Hotfix
For UE 5.0
Fixed DLWE interactions sometimes being blocked from triggering
Fixed Lens Flare sometimes disabling based on camera direction when it shouldn't.
Fixed Transition Sky Light Intensity sometimes being interrupted/stopping mid transition.
Fixed Weather Override Volumes with Random Weather starting up with a momentary change of state
Fixed several bugs with weather when applying a saved weather state on level startup.
Fixed Lights Update Period not working correctly when set above 0.
Fixed UDW Season occasionally not updating its associated material parameter and added a setting to UDW to control the season update period

4-19-2022
Version 7.0
First Version for UE 5.0
Sky Changes:

• Added a new "Color Mode" option, beneath Sky Mode, in Basic Controls. The two options are Sky Atmosphere (still the default), and a new alternate color mode called Simplified Color. All of the Sky Modes are compatible with both color modes. Simplified Color determines sky and cloud colors by sampling a light scattering LUT texture, combined with adjustable color settings found in the Simplified Color category. Simplified Color replaces the old Legacy Color modes from previous versions.
• Added a Fog variable to Basic Controls on UDS, to control the fogginess of the level, irrespective of the cloud coverage. Made use of by the new weather system changes, outlined below.
• Added a Dust category to UDS, which adjusts fog color and density with an adjustable amount of dust/sand in the air. Made use of by the new weather system changes, outlined below.
• Fog Color and Density logic has been reworked completely, and moved to two new separate categories, called Fog Color and Fog Density.
• Fog Color is now determined by separate contributions from the sun and the moon lights, with a color variable to adjust the tint of each contribution to fog inscattering. Those tint colors are each multiplied by a scattering curve to affect their contribution with the elevation of each light. The saturation is then adjusted with fog and cloud coverage, using settings in Fog Color, and darkened with cloud coverage using separate Overcast Brightness settings for day and night, also in Fog Color. If the project setting "Support Sky Atmosphere Affecting Height Fog" is enabled, most of this logic is replaced with the sky atmosphere contribution, the influence value of which is determined with a curve in the advanced dropdown of Fog Color, and further scaled with the Overcast Brightness settings using cloud coverage.
• Fog Density is now determined by a Base Fog Density, which is then added to by the maximum of three separate contribution values for when it's cloudy, foggy, or dusty. Height Fog Falloff is handled the same basic way. Start Distance is now handled slightly differently, being determined using the fog density directly. It uses a Start Distance When Clear variable, and a Fog Density value for when the start distance should reach 0.
• The Sky Light category now has a Sky Light Color multiplier for day, dawn/dusk, and night, which apply to all three sky light modes, for simpler tweaking of ambient light with time of day.
• The logic for the Dynamic Tinted Sky Light has been simplified. It now only uses one flat cubemap, rather than a blend of three, because the function to blend cubemaps on a sky light is broken in UE5. It also makes use of the new fog color logic to determine its tint color, instead of relying on a bunch of color curves of its own.
• The Exposure post settings applied when "Use Exposure Range" is enabled now factor in the project setting "Extend Default Luminance Range for Auto Exposure Settings" when applying the range. It also now applies an auto exposure mode (Auto Exposure Histogram) when enabled, in addition to controlling min and max.
• The Cloud Shadows light function will also attenuate the directional light with the current fog and dust, using Fog Shadows and Dust Shadows settings, found in the Cloud Shadows category.
• At runtime, the Tracing Max Distance of the volumetric clouds is now determined by if the camera is inside/outside of the cloud layer. By default, a lower max trace distance is used if inside the cloud layer, to avoid artifacts caused by the samples being spread out too far.
• Added a setting to adjust the fade distance of the volumetric clouds (the distance from the camera that clouds will reach their full extinction)
• Added a setting to distort the high frequency noise layer of the volumetric clouds
• Clouds Move with Time of Day has been disabled by default
• Sun, Moon, and Sky Light Mobility settings have been moved to their respective categories.
• Added a new Hourly event dispatcher to UDS, which fires at the top of every hour, and outputs the new hour as an integer (0 to 23).

Weather Changes:

• The weather controls have been reworked some. The Weather Type enum and its uses have been removed, in favor of unifying the system around the UDS_Weather_Settings object class. In Basic Controls on UDW, you now select a starting weather preset by directly selecting one of the weather settings objects from Blueprints/Weather_Effects/Weather_Presets. This change makes it much easier to make and use your own presets, by simply duplicating one of the existing ones in that folder and using the new preset on UDW.
• The system is now more oriented around the settings objects, but it is still possible to use a manual weather state, useful for things like directly animating weather in sequencer. To use the manual weather state, just clear the Weather variable in Basic Controls, so no preset is selected. Then make your adjustments to the settings in the Manual Weather State category.
• As the Weather Type enum is gone, the probability maps used by random weather variation are now maps of the weather settings objects directly. Again, this makes it easier to add your own presets and reference them in the probability maps, without the intermediary step of also adjusting an enum.
• The weather settings themselves have been expanded and changed for added control and variation. The full list is now Cloud Coverage, Rain, Snow, Thunder/Lightning, Wind Intensity, Fog, Dust, Material Wetness, Material Snow Coverage, and Material Dust Coverage. Because of how the system is structured now, the limiters which kept things like rain or thunder from happening under a clear sky are now removed. You're now free to manipulate these settings individually to whatever combination you need, without dealing with disabling the limiters.
• The Change Weather functions have been consolidated into one, simply called Change Weather, which takes one of the weather settings objects and transitions to that over the specified transition time. The additional inputs for transitioning back to random weather have been removed, in favor of a new separate function called Change to Random Weather, which will transition from current settings to the random weather variation, if random weather variation is enabled.
• Lightning flashes now respond to the presence/absence of rain, eliminating the falling rain sheet element of the niagara effect, if no rain is present.
• The option for Use Sound Effects is replaced by individual options for each sound type (Enable Rain Sounds, Enable Wind Sounds, etc)
• The Season on UDW is now handled as a float value instead of an enum. This allows the seasons to blend from one to the next in their effect on random weather variation, instead of changing in steps. The value is formatted from 0 to 4, starting with Spring. So for example, 0 is Spring, 1 is Summer, 1.5 would be halfway between Summer and Autumn. This new float season value can be referenced in your materials as well, using a new material function called "Sample UDW Seasons". It outputs a 0 to 1 value for each season, allowing materials to change in response to each one. For example, you could use the autumn output to make a leaf material go red in autumn. In addition, the behavior of the season is now set in a new Season category on UDW. By default, it derives the season from UDS' current date (moving this option from where it previously existed on UDS).
• Dust/Sand weather effects have been added to UDW. There are two new weather presets (Sand Dust Calm and Sand Dust Storm) for the dust weather. Material Dust Coverage can be simulated with weather state just like material snow coverage and wetness.
• Rain, Snow, and Dust particles now have their own categories with individual settings and Enable toggles on UDW. There's also a Shared Particle Settings category with the settings which affect all weather particles.
• Rain particles now, in addition to splashes, can spawn small rain drop decal particles which affect roughness only. The resulting effect is like rain drops hitting dry surfaces and leaving a momentary wet drop. These decal particles are enabled by default, but can disabled from the Rain Particles category.
• Post Process Wind Fog now scales directly with the fog density. The options for scaling it with weather settings have been replaced with a single Intensity variable.
• The Dynamic Landscape Weather Effects material function has been reworked some because of UE5's removal of tessellation. The snow depth (if enabled) is now achieved using a parallax effect rather than any sort of geometry displacement. There's a new static switch parameter, to specifically toggle the parallax effect. The function's Displacement input and output have been removed. It now additionally outputs Pixel Depth Offset as part of the parallax effect. A new input, Modulate Coverage, can be used to replace how displacement was used to affect coverage. If used, the input for Modulate Coverage should still be derived from height data, but it should be a smaller value range, centered around 0. Positive values will increase coverage, negative values decrease. The DLWE function can now also handle dust coverage, reusing the same material logic that snow uses. UDW will switch the look over to dust dynamically with the material effect state.
• The Snow Weather Effects function has similarly been modified slightly to serve the dual purpose of Snow and Dust, using the same material logic for both. It's been renamed for that reason, to "Snow and Dust Weather Effects".
• Added "Dust/Sand Forming" and "Dust/Sand Clearing" event dispatchers to UDW, which work the same as the existing snow and rain dispatchers.
• Added a setting to the Ambient Sound (Time and Weather Controlled) BP to scale volume with dust/sand weather.

3-2-2022
Versions Affected: 4.26 and 4.27

• Fixed 2D Dynamic Clouds broken rendering when UDS actor is very far from origin.
• Changed behavior of "Height Fog Gets Colors from Sky Atmosphere". Now it's determined by the project setting (Support Sky Atmosphere Affecting Height Fog) directly, rather than relying on a setting on UDS. This change is to avoid issues with UDS not being configured to match the project setting. In addition, the feature has been expanded, with the sky atmosphere influence on fog being determined by a curve instead of a single value, and being affected by cloud coverage as well, for better results with weather.
• Adjusted rain and snow particle materials to behave better with different lighting settings.
• Fixed an editor crash whic

Versions Affected: 4.26 and 4.27

• Fixed cloud formations sometimes not aligning with the editor at runtime when they should.
• Fixed volumetric cloud shadows sometimes not aligning correctly with the clouds that cast them.
• Fixed Moon texture mapping being broken when Manually Position Moon Target and Simulate Real Moon are on at the same time.
• Fixed wind debris particles not showing correctly in 4.27
• Fixed Wind Whistling Sound Volume not working correctly
• Fixed warnings caused by Flash Lightning not finding a camera
• Added a button to the readme to view the update history