Release notes

1.1.2 - released 22.01.2025

fixed:

  • Fixed the fixed layer height texture not using the correct texture property.
  • Fixed texture and detail breaking when switching to a different mode.

1.1.1 - released 13.12.2024

new:

  • Added rotation to atmosphere layers.
  • Added option to decouple star rotatation from sun.
  • Added rotation to stars.

fixed:

  • Fixed sun color not being used correctly by the shader.
  • Fixed atmosphere layers not rotating with planet.
  • Fixed stars mode "none" not linking nodes correctly.

1.1.0 - released 27.11.2024

Release 1.1.0 banner

new:

  • The addon now ships with built-in presets.
  • Introduced a new and improved atmosphere model with various phase functions.
  • Added the ability to control the atmosphere layer height using a texture.
  • Included background stars to enhance the planetary experience out-of-the-box.
  • Planets now utilize both a physical radius, used for light calculations, and a visual radius, which scales the planet using Blender’s object scale.
  • Added a performant Worley noise approximation to enhance detail in atmosphere layer textures.
  • Updated planet shaders to use a HAPKE shader model, providing realistic retroreflectivity with adjustable parameters.

improvements:

  • Improved viewport performance of rotating and adjusting sun lighting.
  • Atmosphere parameters are now provided with physical values.
  • Preset system has been improved and now supports textures.

fixed:

  • Several rendering improvements and fixes to make shadows, atmosphere, planet sorting consistent and realistic.

1.0.0 - released 04.09.2024

Release 1.0.0 banner

new:

Reworked atmosphere model:

  • Upgraded atmosphere calculations to more accurate and flexible ones.
  • Added a layer system with 6 fully customizable layer slots that can influence the scattering, absorption, and emission of the atmosphere.
  • Added ability to use density textures on atmosphere, on a per-layer basis, enabling effects such as clouds and auroras.
  • Added procedural aurora density texture option to layers.

improvements:

  • UI improvements to make it more in-line with our other addons.
  • Improvements to depth calculations in all parts of the planet shader tree.
  • Improved shadows, reducing cases where they didn't show up involving rings.

fixed:

  • Fixed multiple sorting issues, especially involving atmosphere and rings.
  • Fixed planet not showing up when added to the scene.
  • Fixed edge cases that caused errors when removing/adding planets in certain ways.

0.2.0-alpha - released 24.11.2022

We are still tackling the issue where a planet is not appearing due to uninitialized drivers. We have added the "Reinitialize drivers" button that after a parameter change will reinitialize drivers.

new:

  • Ability to add the rings to the planet.
  • User Interface for the rings.
  • Added material texture color space settings directly in the user interface for convenience.
  • Rearranged UI blocks in a more intuitive fashion and also to maintain consistency between add-ons.

improvements:

  • Optimized PSA integration.
  • Sun angular diameter now affects all lighting calculations.
  • Completely rewritten the way how nodes are generated.
  • Clean up node groups to improve general performance.
  • Nodes are now organized in a way to improve readability.

fixed:

  • Fixed wrong blending of planet depth.
  • Fixed cases when some of the drivers were not linked.

Having errors when updating add-on?

  1. Remove previous add-on version
  2. Restart blender
  3. Install new add-on version