Procedural Planet Generation Lite Samples Pack
Procedural Planet Generation - Lite Sample Pack is a free asset that contains simplified versions of the shaders and effects included in the full paid system.
The Lite version includes:
- Procedural moons with customizable surface colors and gradient-based patterns
- Earth-like planets with land, oceans, ice caps, and atmospheric glow effects
- Gas giants with animated cloud bands and atmospheric effects
- Asteroid rings with procedural banding and rotation
- Stars with flowing molten surfaces and glow effects
- Runtime and in-Editor randomization tools for procedural planet generation
The full paid version adds heightmap-based normals, dynamic clouds, city lights, storm systems, VFX corona particles, static texture baking tools, custom omnidirectional lighting, and additional shader variants.
Celestial Bodies (Lite)
Moons
Procedural surface coloration with randomizable gradient.
Available Features
| Feature | Options |
|---|---|
| Surface Color | Randomizabe procedural pattern, scale, color gradient, saturation |
Upgrade Benefits
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Procedural Heightmaps | Realistic surface elevation with depth |
| Normal Generation | Crater and ridge details visible at close range |
Earth-like Planets
Simplified terrestrial planets with procedural lands and oceans and ice caps at the poles. Gradient-based surface coloring. Ocean vs land smoothness contrast. Captures the overall look of Earth-like bodies without complex terrain detail.
Atmospheric glow post-processing effect. Shader fresnel glow at planet edges.
Available Features
| Feature | Options |
|---|---|
| Continents | Continent scale and overall land–ocean coverage ratio |
| Ice Caps | Maximum ice cap extent based on elevation and ice edge falloff shaping |
| Surface Color | Noise pattern scale, land color gradient, saturation, ocean deep/shallow coloration |
| Atmospheric Effects | Fresnel edge tint and atmospheric glow color, size, and falloff |
Upgrade Benefits
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Heightmap-Driven Normals | Realistic terrain detail with procedural surface topology |
| Dynamic Clouds | Procedurally animated cloud layers with proper lighting |
| City Lights | Illuminated cities visible on the dark side of the planet |
Gas Giants and Asteroid Rings
Gas Giant
Procedurally generated gas giants feature dynamic, swirling cloud bands.
Atmospheric effects with Fresnel edge glow and post-processing glow.
Available Features
| Feature | Options |
|---|---|
| Gas Giant Bands | Color gradient, band scale, flow speed |
| Atmospheric Effects | Basic Fresnel edge glow |
Upgrade Benefits
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Storm Systems | Animated swirling storms |
| Static Baking and Flowmap mode | Capture unique procedural patterns in textures and perturb them to simulate dynamic movement with high performance |
Gas Giant (Simplified)
A new simplified version of the Gas Giant has been added that has reduced visual fidelity but much improved performance. Find it under the new menu item Parallel Cascades/Procedural Planet Generation Lite/Gas Giant (Simplified). This is benchmarked to have double the performance of the default Gas Giant shader.
Asteroid rings are procedurally generated spherically banded discs that rotate around a planet. Lighting overrides allow you to control visibility at acute viewing angles.
Available Features
| Feature | Options |
|---|---|
| Ring Shape | Inner and outer radius, edge fade strength, banding pattern defined by noise texture |
| Color | Gradient sampled along the ring pattern, overall saturation |
| Animation / Flow | Rotation speed of the ring pattern |
| Lighting Overrides | Two-sided lighting for transparency, minimum brightness level to avoid overly dark areas, light falloff sharpness to smooth shading at glancing angles |
Upgrade Benefits
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Advanced Ring Transparency | Improved alpha variations among asteroid ring bands |
Stars
Stars are always lit with a flowing, molten surface with HDR color variation and corona glow.
Available Features
| Feature | Options |
|---|---|
| Molten Pattern | Domain warp scale and intensity, pattern scale, and flow speed driving the animated molten surface |
| Color Sampling | Primary color gradient plus Q/R domain-warp modulation channels blended with HDR colors for complex multi-band color variation |
| Corona Effects | Fresnel edge glow (color and power), unlit spherical glow density and falloff |
Upgrade Benefits
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| VFX-Based Corona Particles | Stunning volumetric particle effects around the star |
| Static Baking and Flowmap mode | Capture unique procedural patterns in textures and perturb them to simulate dynamic movement with high performance |
When to Upgrade
The full Procedural Planet Generation asset significantly expands on everything shown in the Lite version:
| Feature Category | What's Added |
|---|---|
| Moons & Earth-like planets | Heightmap-based surface definition with procedural normals ajd additional features for realistic terrain detail |
| Earth-like planets | Dynamic clouds and city lights with procedural animation and lighting |
| Gas Giants | Storm systems |
| Asteroid Rings | Advanced transparency bands |
| Filtering and anti-aliasing | Improved and dynamic distance-based procedural anti-aliasing for high-detail procedural noise and normals |
| VFX Graph Skybox | Very performant VFX Graph skybox system from the Procedural Space Skybox asset |
| Texture baking tools | Static texture baking for cubemaps and optimized runtime rendering with flowmap support |
| Lighting System | Custom omnidirectional shader lighting and runtime systems |