UniStorm - Volumetric Clouds, Sky, Modular Weather, and Cloud Shadows

Unity 2019, Unity 2020, Unity 2021, Unity 2022, Unity 2023*, and Unity 6+ are all supported!

UniStorm is the ultimate solution for AAA dynamic skies, weather, cloud shadows, and procedural volumetric clouds. UniStorm features over 100 customizable options to help bring environments to life. Listening to user feedback has helped make UniStorm user friendly and easy to use. UniStorm is incredibly powerful and gives you options to adjust every component in the sky. You are only limited to your imagination!

Demo (v5.0) | Documentation | UniStorm API | Forums

URP Supported (including Render Graph Support)

UniStorm supports URP for versions of Unity 2019.4.9 and higher. Render Graph is now supported for Unity 2023 and Unity 6+. 

UniStorm HDRP is finished and can be found here (UniStorm users get a 50% discount): UniStorm HDRP

AAA Volumetric Clouds

UniStorm 4.0 brings the addition of a completely redesigned cloud system capable of creating AAA procedural, self-shadowing, PBR, volumetric clouds at a great frame rate and only using just one draw call! UniStorm’s clouds use the latest shading and performance techniques such as Temporal Reprojection and LODs. UniStorm’s clouds feature 4 quality settings and a volumetric and 2D option all capable of being changed at runtime or within the UniStorm Editor. This makes it possible to support many devices and computers. Easy to use API makes adding in-game quality control simple and painless. An example to do this is also included.

Built-In Photon PUN 2 Network Support

UniStorm includes everything you need to get UniStorm working with PUN 2 that syncs UniStorm's weather, time, and date with multiple players. An example scene is included.

Atmospheric Fog

Atmospheric fog which takes into account the sun and moon's light direction and color which is applied to the scene, UniStorm clouds, and the skybox.

Cloud Shadows

Efficient real-time screen space cloud shadows that match the current cloud cover and cloud formations for added realism and visual quality.

4k Stars with Accurate Constellations

UniStorm's night skies include 4k stars with accurate constellations. Options are available within the editor to control the intensities of the constellations.

Procedural Auroras

UniStorm allow users to customize auroras per weather type to adjust the intensities, colors, conditions, and more!

Performance

UniStorm's volumetric clouds feature Temporal Reprojection and LODs with 4 quality settings (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra) each properly calculated to be far more efficient than the previous setting. This allows UniStorm to be able to run smoothly on nearly any computer. No max Camera Far Clipping Plane distance is required thanks to UniStorm's shaders so any distance can be used.

Built-in Lightweight Option

UniStorm has a built-in lightweight 2D cloud options perfect for low end mobile devices or computers. Users can select the Mobile option from within the editor that will automatically apply all optimal settings without overwriting custom settings such as colors.

Dynamic Modular Weather

Modular Weather allows users to create custom weather types. Sand storms, auroras, hail storms, thunderstorms, etc are all possible. There are no limits to how many weather types UniStorm can use, and best of all, they allow users to use their own custom particle effects, settings, and sounds for each weather type. UniStorm comes with 31 weather types! These include, Auroras, Blowing Leaves, Blowing Snow, Blowing Grass, Lightning Bugs, Clear, Mostly Clear, Partly Cloudy, Mostly Cloudy, Cloudy, Overcast, Foggy, Drizzle, Light Rain, Rain, Heavy Rain, Hail, Thunderstorm, Light Snow, Snow, Heavy Snow, Thunder Snow, Fire Rain, Firestorm, Dust Storm, and more!

Cloud Profiles

UniStorm features customizable cloud profiles that each weather type can use. This allows you to customize the clouds' appearance to give tons of variety to every weather type. With UniStorm’s cloud profiles, users are sure to find the perfect cloud style to suit their project.

VR & Mobile Ready

UniStorm's all in one system also supports mobile and VR (Both Multi and Single Pass). There's even an easy to use option that will automatically apply all of the optimal settings for the targeted platform while keeping users' custom settings. VR Single Pass does not currently work with URP.

Advanced Weather Generation

UniStorm generates weather based on the precipitation odds set from within the UniStorm Editor. The easy to use line graph allows users to set the odds for precipitation weather types for each month and UniStorm will generate weather accordingly. Summer can have less precipitation than Winter and vise versa. UniStorm has options to generate daily weather with a randomly generated start hour and hourly weather that's generated every in-game hour all based off the precipitation odds. If users don't want generated weather, there's an option to have static weather too.

Global Weather Shaders & Shading (Built-in Render Pipeline Only)

UniStorm's Global Weather Shader allows objects to receive rain and snow shading during rainy and snowy weather types. Rain shading allows surfaces to get shinier, but only on surfaces no greater than 90 degrees. The inside of most surfaces will appear dry, such as inside buildings and roofs. Snow, will function the same, but with accumulative snow shading. The snow texture, snow bump texture, and snow specular level can all be customized. When the weather is not raining or snowing, UniStorm will fade out the weather shading.

Weather and Weather Transitions

UniStorm allows users to create an endless amount of weather types that UniStorm will use. Each time the weather is changed, UniStorm will seamlessly transition it according to the global transition speed. Each weather type can be customized with its own cloud cover, cloud style, cloud height, particle effects, sun intensity, moon intensity, cloud shadow intensity, sound effects, wind amount, and various other settings allowing for truly unique and customizable weather.

Procedural Lightning & Lightning Strikes

UniStorm’s Procedural Lightning system allows objects to be struck by lightning. Users can define the odds lightning has to strike the ground and objects. When a lightning strike happens, users are able to customize what effect is created. A fire effect can even happen with the appropriate tag.

Day/Night Cycle & Colors Control

UniStorm allows you to adjust all colors of the environment and sky for each time of day such as the sun and moon colors, ambient light colors, shadow and cloud shadow intensities, fog colors, sky colors, environment reflection intensities, and more! Each color also has its own individual color options for precipitation weather types.

Time, Date, & Built-in Calendar

UniStorm has a built-in time and date system that can help keep track of a player's in-game time. UniStorm's calendar is accurate and even the current time and date can be used.

Customizable Moon Phase System

UniStorm's customizable moon phase system allows users to build their own moon phases. There are no caps to the amount of moon phases UniStorm can use. Users can preview their moon phases, and set the starting moon phase, right from within the UniStorm editor. UniStorm automatically assigns all needed textures and updates the moon phase daily. Each moon phase also has their own moonlight intensity. This allows the new moon and crescent moon phases to give off less light than that of a full moon, if desired.

Weather Type Conditions

Optional Weather Type Conditions make weather types have to reach certain conditions for them to be generated from UniStorm's weather generator. These include conditions such as particular seasons and temperatures as well as the ability to only have certain weather types be called from custom events or programmatically.

UniStorm Profiles

Import and export your UniStorm settings to and from a UniStorm Profile. This allows users save their settings and transfer them between other UniStorm systems without having to manually apply colors and settings.

Time of Day Sounds and Music

UniStorm allows users to customize the sound effects and/or music that will play for each time of day. The amount of delay in between each sound effect and song can be customized. There's no limits to the amount that can be used.

Sound Manager

UniStorm's Sound Manager handles all of your UniStorm created sounds using a generated Unity Audio Mixer. This gives you precise control over the Master, Ambience, Weather, and Music volumes which can be usable with user built UI or can be controlled within the UniStorm Editor.

Built-in Events

UniStorm's built-in events can get called every in-game hour, day, month, year, and even during a weather change allowing users to easily create added functionality for their games.

Included Examples

UniStorm includes 6 example scenes all demonstrating different functionality you can do with UniStorm. A save example system is also included that allows users to save their in-game time, date, weather, temperature, and more with both a manual and auto-save option. This data can then be loaded so users can pick up right where they left off.

The Editor

UniStorm’s editor's design has been heavy influenced by the feedback from its many users to be intuitive, powerful, and offer a low learning curve. UniStorm’s editor is self-documented so every component is explained right from within the editor via Tool Tips.

API & Documentation

UniStorm's API can help with additional game mechanics and features such as accessing the temperature, time, date, current weather, forecasted weather, season, and more.

Additional assets shown are not included. The clouds cannot be flown through.

Release Notes

*It is recommended that you backup your project before updating

5.4.0

• Added full support for Unity 6 using Render Graph. This means Compatibility Mode will no longer need to be enabled. Users will need to import the UniStorm URP Support (Render Graph Support) UnityPackage to have these changes applied.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes didn't allow Weather Type particle effects to initialize their position correctly leading to incorrect particle positions.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused particle effects not to render correctly in URP.

Note: Users who need Compatibility Mode support can still use the UniStorm URP Support (Compatibility Mode Support) UnityPackage if needed (although, it is recommended to use the new Render Graph version if possible).

5.3.4.1

• Fixed a bug that caused the clouds not to render after reloading a scene with UniStorm present when using URP.

- Important - URP Users -

• To just have the above bug fix, you can reimport the UniStorm URP Support Package and only import the UniStormCloudsRendererFeature script.

5.3.4.0

• Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause errors when not using the new Input System. This was through the UniStormCharacterController script.
• Fixed a bug that cased an error if the Weather Type List only contained non-precipitation weather or only contained precipitation weather types.

- Important - URP Users -

• Only import the UniStormCharacterController script and the UniStorm URP Support Package from the update.
• Reimport the UniStorm URP Support Package, but only import the UniStormSystem script. All other assets can be unchecked.

5.3.3

Important - URP users need to reimport the URP support package to get the URP bug fixes. URP users also need to go to Window>UniStorm>Add URP Renderer Features. This will add the new UniStorm Clouds Renderer Feature to your Pipeline Asset.

URP Fixes

• Fixed bug that caused the clouds to not render in some versions of Unity when using URP.
• Fixed warning message from Camera.AddCommandBuffer, when using URP. Clouds are now rendered through a Renderer Feature. This is automatically added with Window>UniStorm>Add URP Renderer Features.

General improvements and other fixes

• Rewrote the UniStorm Sun shader to no longer fade based on the player’s or the UniStorm System’s height. This caused inconsistencies with how the sun was faded (sometimes allowing the sun to fade much higher in the sky before sunset or sunrise). These improvements allow the sun to consistently fade near the horizon line, regardless of player or UniStorm System height.
• Greatly improved lighting during sunsets and sunrises (for both render pipelines). The sun attenuation will now last until the sun is slightly below horizon line.
• To see the full changes of the improved sun attenuation, users wil need to adjust the Sun Attenuation Curve. You can see the URP Guide on the UniStorm Wiki for more details regarding this here: Adjusting the Sun Attenuation Curve
• Improved how the demo player pauses so the mouse visibility properly syncs with when the UniStorm Menu is open.

5.3.2

• Added support for Unity 2023 and Unity 6 (currently requires Render Graph to be disabled to use UniStorm Fog and Sun Shafts - Only when using URP).
• Added support for the new Input System (the old Input System is still supported).
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the sceen to be black while in the editor Scene view and using URP.

5.3.1

An important update that fixes an issue (with URP) that would sometimes cause Unity to crash on built as well as a few other fixes.

• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause Unity to crash on build, when using URP.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a black screen during runtime, when using URP.
• Lightning Bolts will now work properly when using URP.

5.3.0

This update should resolve the issues related to Unity 2021 and 2022. This update also improves the way the UniStorm Render Features are added. Users will need to reimport the UnityPackage file (located at UniStorm Weather System>URP Support>UniStorm URP Support) to see these changes.

• Fixed errors related to Unity version 2021 and 2022.
• Reworked the way Render Features were added so they are no longer automatically. This is now done manually by going to Window>UniStorm>Add URP Renderer Features to Add Renderer Features to the assigned Render Pipeline Asset. This should only need to be done once when initially setting up or switching Render Pipeline Assets.
• Updated the UniStorm URP Tutorial on the UniStorm Wiki with new steps for setting up.

5.2.0

This is an important update that addresses the issues with UniStorm and URP. Anyone who wants this update should backup their projects, import the 5.2.0 version UniStorm, and then reimport the UniStorm URP Support UnityPackage. Please refer to the UniStorm URP Tutorial for a full guide on setting up UniStorm with URP.

• Fixed an issue that sometimes didn't allow clouds and celestial objects to work after updating to the URP version of UniStorm.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes didn't allow auroras to work properly after updating to the URP version of UniStorm.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed duplicated Render Features to be added after updating to the URP version of UniStorm.
• Fixed a bug that didn't properly calculate Celsius temperatures.
• Added a menu item Window>UniStorm>Add URP Renderer Features to Add Renderer Features to the assigned Render Pipeline Asset.
• Added a UniStorm URP prefab that can be spawned into scenes through Window>UniStorm>Create UniStorm (URP)

5.1.0

URP Support has been added for versions of Unity 2019.4.9 and higher. Please see the UniStorm URP Tutorial for details on setting up.

Important

UniStorm version 5 is large update with various improvements to cloud lighting, shading, and formations as well as performance. As always, it is recommended to backup your projects before updating. It is also recommended that users use the new UniStorm Prefab (Window>UniStorm>Create UniStorm) to be able to best utilize the new features and improvements. The new prefab is based on the same settings from the new v5.0 screenshots.

For a detailed breakdown of all the 5.0 update has to offer, see the post here: UniStorm v5.0 Details

5.0.1

New Features/Improvements

• Added a setting within the UniStorm Editor to adjust the color of UniStorm's lightning light color.

• Made some adjustments to how UniStorm's lightning color is applied to the clouds.

• Added a reset button to the Cutomize Quality section so users can reset the Ultra settings back to their defaults.

• Added a message within the UniStorm editor that asks if users wants to switch to Linear Color Space. There is a button to allow UniStorm to switch the Color Space to Linear (since it's highly recommended) and a button to dismiss the message so it will no longer be displayed. This is to help some users, who may not be familar with the process of switching the Color Space, have an easy way to apply the recommended settings right from within the UniStorm Editor.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with UniStorm's clouds not being properly displayed with URP.

5.0.0

New Features/Improvements

• Improved general performance with all volumetric quality types, excluding Low.

• Improved all of UniStorm's noise generation to improve cloud formations to better resemble clouds.

• Improved how clouds are scaled near the horizon which gives the sky much more depth.

• Improved how shading is handled with sunrises and sunsets.

• Improved the shading of the upper clouds.

• Improved the shading of the bottom portions of the clouds.

• Improved how forwards and backwards scattering work improving overall shading and lighting.

• Added an option to the UniStorm Editor to allow users to finetune the internal samples of the clouds and convergence speed for added control and customization.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the dithering on clouds so it's no longer applied to alpha portions of clouds.

• Fixed an issue with the 2D cloud settings when switching from volumetric clouds.

• Fixed an issue where the Gamma Color Space define was not being detected properly which applied the Linear Color Space settings.

• Fixed an issue with UniStorm's VRPreprocessBuild that could incorrectly detect if VR was enabled during builds.