Procedural Textures / Self-Shining Objects

[Ahiru]

2 Questions for this one: http://playground.babylonjs.com/#1QT5RS

 

1. It seems the procedural Textures take a lot of FPS, even they are not shown in Frustum or even if they are not attached to any Mesh? Is there a possibility to switch them off manually if they are not needed (not shown by any camera?)

2. How would I let a sun shine from inside? Do I always need external lights to let them shine? I tried material.emmisiveTexture and color, but that does not work if I don't use some external light to shine at the sun from outside.

[GameMonetize]

Hello you can control the refreshrate: (http://doc.babylonjs.com/tutorials/How_to_use_Procedural_Textures) 

• texture.refreshRate = 0 (render just once)
• texture.refreshRate = 2 (render every two frames), 
• etc...

 

You can use VLS to simulate sun shining: http://playground.babylonjs.com/?25

[Ahiru]

Yes, but VLS have the same issue like the procedural Textures - even the element is not in Frustum it still costs a lot of FPS - your example here goes down to 20 FPS on my computer, even lower on an android phone. 
 

If that would be only the case when FACING the sun it might be acceptable - but it does not matter if the sun is in view. 

So with the procedural problem I tried it like this: 

scene.registerBeforeRender(function () {    if (sun.isCompletelyInFrustum(camera)) {        fireTexture.refreshRate = 1;    } else {	fireTexture.refreshRate = 0;    }});

http://playground.babylonjs.com/#1QT5RS#1

But that did not work. And how would I stop the rays when out of Frustum?

[GameMonetize]

VLS is a post process which means a completely 2D process. To stop it when sun is out of the screen the best idea is to disable the postprocess

 

For the procedural textures, I added a fireTexture.isEnabled to turn them off on demand (See next commit)