Planetary Rings

Planetary Rings gives an object a ring system like Saturn's: broad bright bands of icy particles, dark gaps cut by moons, fine ringlets, faint spokes and the shadow of the planet falling across the rings.

How it works

The inner parts of the rings orbit faster than the outer ones, so any clump is drawn out into a trailing streak. The layout follows Saturn: a thin inner ring, the dense bright middle ring, a dark division with faint ringlets, and an outer ring with a narrow gap and a thin dusty edge. Moons placed at resonances clear gaps and start tight spiral waves in the ring, and tiny moonlets ride inside the gaps they keep open. The lighting treats the rings as a slab of particles: large icy grains scatter light back toward the sun and fine dust scatters it forward, which is why dusty parts light up when the sun is behind them.

Settings

• Inner Radius and Outer Radius: where the rings start and end.
• Tilt: the angle of the ring plane.
• Moons: up to three resonant moons that open gaps and waves.
• Forward Scatter: how dusty the rings are.
• Sun Angle and Sun Elevation: where the light comes from.
• Color, Gap Color and Dust Color.

Use it for

Planets, sci-fi worlds, science visuals. Put it around a sphere or Earth, next to a Galaxy.