   Sun distortion?
  Hiya.I'm trying to find a way to distort my sun, which is created entirely in the pixel shader.  Essentially it is a ball of white that alpha blends with the sky color on the edges.What I'm trying to do is to create beams/distortion when the camera looks directly at the sun, like a lens distortion. Would anybody know of any techniques for this or be able to point me towards any resources/tutorials etc.??Thanks   
  I don't think these are "distortion" (at least, when I think of distortion I think of refraction), but you're probably looking for volumetric lighting (crepuscular rays, god rays) or lens flare.You might want to try using additive lighting and a non-perfectly round and non-white sun to help make your sun look less boring. You can also add a giant soft white gradient non-depth tested billboard around the sun, that when the camera looks towards the sun is rendered. This is used in some source games and is a cheap way to fake the over-brightness effect of the sun.   ;  I think what I'm already doing is better looking and cheaper than a billboard.  The effect is actually fairly realistic, but just a little bit too perfect.  When you look straight at the sun (don't try this at home), you see beams and imperfections and chromatic aberrations that don't exist.  This is distortion, and I *think* that this is actually happening inside the lens of your eye.  So, again, I know what I want....don't know what you guru's refer to it as...but it is, literally, lens distortion.  Like when a camera lets in too much light.  And I'm looking for a shader technique that will create this distortion.I've looked at crepuscular rays and it seems they are created by taking into account how light reacts with objects.  I've got a sun and a blue sky....no objects, no bouncing.  ;  It was this morning that I wanted to refresh my knowledge about some photographic errors: clicky. also. and. dito.Maybe there is the terminology you are looking for?   ;Temporal glare, perhaps? That's a super-comprehensive approach, but you might be able to adapt it for your specific use case.   ;Quote:Original post by InvalidPointerTemporal glare, perhaps? That's a super-comprehensive approach, but you might be able to adapt it for your specific use case.That made me bookmark this topic, rate+ :)   