I've been working on a few features for the next release.
Flowmaps
One thing I wanted to do was to bring Jool to life, I wanted it to be dynamic looking, and to do the storms and swirls justice. In order to do that I've added support for flowmaps, which allow for localized movement/flow within the clouds. The flowmaps can be used to create vortices, moving bands, tornadoes and have a very dynamic look. An in-game painter allows for easily painting movement by dragging or creating clockwise or counter-clockwise vortices via a vortex creation tool.
Example on Eve's pillars clouds:
The flowmaps can also be applied to the 2d clouds to easily make moving bands:
Images of Jool storms:
Short video showcase using Eve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYfgmJFmWXw
Higher quality loop of Jool storm: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/717082994657067090/1090364389946826782/Kerbal_Space_Program_2023.03.28_-_13.24.59.03-1.m4v
Particles, lightning and thunder
I made a GPU particle system, with the goal of adding custom particles, it can be used to make rain, snow, or dust particles, it also has a function for adding splashes on contact with surfaces
Flying through rain gives a feeling of speed
Lightning strikes can now be added to clouds, they cast lights on the clouds and on objects in the scene, and lightning bolts are visible
Both rain and lightning come with sound effects. Watch my youtube video to see how the sounds work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bkpT-iX1tI
Wispy high-altitude clouds
I'm currently experimeting with a feature to emulate the look of cirrus and high-altitude clouds, which are sorely missing from the current release. This is probably the most experimental feature right now, and while it can look very right it also still looks off in many ways, so it might come in a separate update
Other
There have been a number of bug fixes, eclipses applying correctly to clouds and atmosphere will probably be very appreciated
Thank you so much for the support, and stay tuned for the next update!