So recently I began to work as a Tech Artist Intern with a company who is making an indie game for VR. I have learned a lot while working for my wonderful company, and recently began learning how to program materials for post processing volumes. The game is underwater, so my next task is to try to figure out how to replicate god rays for underwater. The challenge is that we are using forward rendering, so we only get one transparency use per game. But even then we want to try to avoid this. My solution so far has been to use simple solid opacity masks, which are much cheaper.
What do you guys think about the subject? From what I can tell accurate godrays can be distracting to the player, so I’m wondering if it would really just be better to fake the effect. I have a theory for faking the effect using a cone, the position of the sun and then the player’s camera, but I also wonder if trying to make actual godrays/studying other people’s code would be better.
I am fairly new to tech art, but I understand art and basic programming. Unfortunately the company is small, so I’m just learning everything on my own right now.
