Dynamic Clouds

Fully volumetric voxel clouds that follow the weather, drift on the wind, roll over the terrain, and can mirror the actual sky over any place on Earth.

• This mod replaces Minecraft's flat cloud sheet with genuine three-dimensional clouds, built on the GPU so a whole sky full of them still runs smoothly
• It is a client-side mod, so the clouds show up in singleplayer and on any server you join, with nothing needed server-side
• It runs on Fabric and therefore requires the Fabric API

A Mod Showcase, kindly provided by one of my discord server members Theo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eV3YaQsIX4

Capabilities

• Seven real cloud types build the sky, each with its own shape, altitude and behaviour
• The sky follows the weather, drifting between clear, rain and thunder skies and fading smoothly from one to the next
• Two full sky models: a stylised normal mode and a true-to-scale realistic mode, each tunable on its own
• Everything drifts on a wind that either evolves on its own or is set by hand
• Clouds flow over and around terrain instead of clipping straight through it
• Cloud shadows, in-cloud fog, lightning storms and clear skies above the deck
• Every cloud type's shape, colour and opacity is adjustable live, in-game
• The Mod does NOT work on Mac unless using Vulkan API on 26.2, as it needs OpenGL 4.6 to function, and will likely still remain laggy due to its technical buildup
• Intel Macs need the Draw Buffer Compat. Option enabled to see most cloud types (only use if you actually dont see the clouds, this can severly impact performance, and make sure you switch away from AUTO or EXTREMELY_SUNNY to test first)

Significant features

Cloud Types

• The sky is built from cumulus, stratocumulus, stratus, altocumulus, nimbostratus, cumulonimbus and cirrus, each with a distinct shape and a natural altitude.
• The weather decides which types appear. You can let it run on its own through sunny spells and building storms, or pin a single sky to study one kind on its own.
• Every type's shape, coverage, thickness and detail can be tuned, and the change happens live in the world as you drag the slider.

Realistic Mode

• Places every cloud type at its true real-world height and size, to scale, at one block to a metre.
• Low clouds sit low and soft, mid-level layers spread out flat, cirrus rides high and wispy, and cumulonimbus climbs into genuine kilometre-tall towers.
• The sky ends up much closer to the real thing, and it is required for Real Life weather.

Real Life Weather

• Mirrors the actual sky over any real place on Earth. Pick a spot on the built-in world map and the mod pulls live satellite imagery and the current weather for that region, then rebuilds those exact clouds overhead.
• As you travel the view keeps up and new real clouds come into range.
• Requires realistic mode and an internet connection, and falls back to the normal weather when offline. Still in beta, so expect the odd rough edge.

Dynamic Weather

• Lets several kinds of weather share the sky at once, a rain mass rolling in from one side, scattered clouds on another, high wisps above, drifting with the wind instead of one uniform sky everywhere.

Wind

• Drives the whole sky. Clouds drift with it, it buffets you around while you glide with an elytra, and a wind sound rises and falls with its strength.
• Wind evolves on its own by default, calm in fair weather and strong and shifting in storms, or you can set a fixed speed and direction yourself.

Storms and Atmosphere

• Rain and thunder skies darken and thicken, with lightning flashes and thunder overhead.
• Fly up through the deck and it clears above the clouds; the rain stops, the sky opens and the light turns bright.
• Inside a cloud, thick fog closes in, white in fair weather and dark in a storm.

Terrain Interaction

• Clouds flow over and around the land instead of clipping through it, lifting over flat ground and sliding around steep slopes, moving as little as possible.
• Optionally, clouds can get caught on terrain: one that meets a face too steep to cross piles up against it and waits for the wind to turn and carry it over, or slowly breaks apart in place.

Cloud Shadows

• Clouds cast soft, moving shadows on the ground beneath them, shifting as the sky drifts overhead.

Colour and Opacity

• Every cloud type's colour and opacity is set individually, with a separate set of values for normal and realistic mode, so you can darken your storm clouds or thin out a high haze exactly how you want.

Settings

(config screen, opened through Mod Menu)

• Realistic Mode every cloud type at its true real-world altitude and size
• Real Life Weather mirror the live sky over a real place on Earth (beta)
• Weather Mode follow the game's weather automatically, or pin a single sky
• Dynamic Weather let several weather types share the sky at once
• Cloud Distance how far clouds render, far beyond the vanilla limit, with automatic cuts in heavy weather to protect the frame rate
• Cloud Height raise or lower the whole sky to clear tall builds
• Colour and Opacity per cloud type, separate for normal and realistic mode
• Shape Controls footprint, coverage, thickness and detail for every cloud type
• Wind dynamic or manual speed and direction, elytra turbulence, wind sound
• Terrain Interaction flow over and around terrain, with optional sticking on steep faces
• Cloud Shadows soft moving shadows on the ground, with adjustable strength
• In-cloud Fog thick fog while inside a cloud
• Storms lightning and thunder, with adjustable frequency

Compatibility

• Iris shaderpacks clouds are drawn into the shader's lighting, so its fog, glow and colour grading apply to them
• Vulkan fully supported through the 26.2 rendering API
• Voxy and Distant Horizons clouds reach as far out as your extended terrain does
• Mod Menu and YACL for the config screen

Bugs and Further Development

Face the Skies, and you will never turn back

• For suggestions, bug reports or questions, feel free to join the discord server
• Real Life weather is still in beta and being refined
• More cloud behaviours and further performance work are on the way