About the project

As my Final Year Project during my BSc (Honours) Computer Science for Games course, I’ve worked on a Skybox System within Unity that mostly focused on dynamic generation of clouds. The scope of the project encompassed a functioning prototype of a Skybox System, a User Interface through which the system can be adjusted, gaining knowledge about new features such as Shader Graph and Scriptable Render Pipelines, specifically the High Definition Render Pipeline. The generation of clouds was handled by a custom shader created in Shader Graph and linked to an on-screen interface using C# scripts.

The clouds are generated using various types of overlapping noise and blended together with different modes to create the wispy look. The shader is projected onto a slightly flattened spherical shape surrounding the scene. The project also incorporated a simple day and night cycle using the the Procedural Sky shader available with HDRP. I have modified the shader to to add a moon light which integrated with the implementation of Rayleigh & Mei Scattering within the shader.

Knowledge Gained

• Familiarity of working with shader languages and graphical shader designers.

• Understanding the importance of planning and management of an ambitious project.

• Importance of assessing the stability and validity of the tools used for a project.

• Ability to achieve a desired goal and understanding tools with lacking documentation through trial and error and/or reading the source code.