Volumetric clouds for Three.js & React Three Fiber

3DRise clouds are true volumetric clouds: three-dimensional masses of cloud that the camera can look through, around and under, not a painted sky texture. Light travels through them, so a cumulus has a bright sunlit flank, a darker base, a silver rim when the sun is behind it and a glow when you look toward the sun through its thinner parts. They drift, boil upward and slowly form and fade, so the sky is never frozen.

Cloud types

A sky is built from two layers that work together:

• A main deck of one of three types. Cumulus are the fair-weather puffs with flat bases and cauliflower tops. Stratocumulus is a low deck of rolls and lumpy undersides, from broken cloud to full overcast. Cumulonimbus is the storm cloud: a tall, leaning tower with a flat anvil spreading at its top and a dark, rain-heavy base.
• An optional high cirrus layer of thin, streaky ice cloud far above any deck. With no deck beneath it, a clear sky with cirrus costs very little to draw.

A Thunder tab adds lightning inside the deck: each flash stutters a few times, lights the cloud from within and briefly lights the rest of the scene.

Presets cover each type and are named like the real cloud species: Humilis, Mediocris and Congestus cumulus; Overcast, Undulatus and Marine layer stratocumulus; Supercell, Squall line and Under the anvil storms; and cirrus such as Fibratus, Uncinus and Cirrostratus halo, which shows the ring of light that ice crystals draw around the sun.

How they are lit

The clouds are lit by the same sun and sky as the rest of the scene, so their light follows the sun when time of day is running. Distant clouds fade into the haze of the sky behind them, which gives the sky its depth.

Main settings

• Coverage: from scattered puffs to solid overcast.
• Profile: from flat sheets through classic puffy clouds to towering storm clouds.
• Density: how thick and solid the cloud looks.
• Base Altitude and Top Altitude: where the clouds sit and how tall they are.
• Feature Size: a busy sky of many small clouds or a few huge ones.
• Detail Strength and Curl Strength: smooth blobs or ragged, wispy, swirling edges.
• Wind Bearing, Wind Speed, Rise and Evolution: how the clouds drift, boil upward and form and fade over time.
• Powder, Silver Lining and Forward Lobe: the darkened edges that give clouds their bulk, the bright rim, and the glow toward the sun.
• Anvil and Precipitation: for storm clouds only.

A Quality tab balances sharpness against speed, so the same sky can stay smooth on a laptop and look its best on a stronger machine.

When to use them

Use volumetric clouds for landscapes, flyovers, aviation and travel scenes, and whenever the sky is part of the story. For a storm you can place and move as an object, try the Thunderstorm; to soften the far distance, add fog.