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Getting started

Physical Atmosphere² (PA2) is a Blender add-on that puts a complete, realistic sky into your scene: atmosphere, sunlight, volumetric clouds, sun, moon, planets and stars. Pick a real place, date and time on Earth, or simply drag the sun where you want it, and the add-on lights your scene to match. Everything updates live in the viewport.

Requirements

  • Blender 5.2.0+
  • The Vulkan backend is recommended (Preferences > System > Display Graphics > Backend). The add-on works on OpenGL but shows a warning, since it is developed and tested against Vulkan.
Atmosphere only Clouds*
Specs Any GPU (even integrated) that runs Blender 5.2 comfortably, laptops included. Desktop-class GPU: RTX 3060 / RX 6600 or better.
What to expect Runs almost anywhere. Sky, sun, moon, planets and stars update in real time even on modest laptops. Drag the sun, scrub time, it keeps up. Working with clouds in the viewport will be slow. Volumetric clouds are the heaviest part of the add-on, even for high-end GPUs at higher quality settings. Navigate on Low quality: the image refines to full quality the moment the camera rests. Higher presets are for final frames, not for flying around.

*We're currently working on cloud optimisation to make clouds faster in the viewport on lower performing devices.

Installation

Info

"Physical Atmosphere²" is only available for purchase on Superhive (formerly Blender Market). Get your latest version there.

Physical Atmosphere² ships as a Blender extension:

  • Download the physical_atmosphere2_v[version].zip file.
  • Open Blender.
  • Drag and drop the .zip file into the Blender window and confirm. That's it.
  • Alternatively: go to Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions, click the dropdown arrow in the top-right corner, choose Install from Disk... and locate the .zip file.

Permissions

During installation Blender will list two permissions the extension asks for:

  • Network — used only to download live GFS weather data for cloud maps, optional extra NASA maps of the Earth and the Milky Way, and to auto-detect your location. Everything else works fully offline, including the Earth maps that ship with the add-on.
  • Files — used to save generated cloud maps and downloaded maps into a folder you choose.

First Run

  • In the 3D Viewport, open the Sidebar (also called the N Panel) and click the Atmosphere² tab.
  • Click the + Add Atmosphere button.
  • The sky appears and the panel fills with settings. The same panel is also available in Properties > World.

What happens when the atmosphere is added?

The add-on sets up its own World for the active scene. The sky, the sun light and everything you see is rendered and kept up to date by the add-on from then on. Your exposure, white balance and viewport are left exactly as they were. Remove Atmosphere (at the bottom of the panel) takes it all out again.

Choose your interface layout

At the top of the panel you can pick how much of the add-on you want to see:

  • Simple — the everyday controls: location, time, exposure, air, clouds, moon, ground, stars and a quality preset. No science required. This is the default.
  • Scientific — every knob there is: the physics of the air, the full cloud layers, water, the sun and planets, and all rendering settings.

The documentation covers both, and marks what is Scientific-only.

A quick tour (Simple layout)

  • Sky & Observer — choose Artistic to drag the sun and moon wherever you like, or Earth to use a real location, date and time. In Earth mode you can search for your city or auto-detect your location.
  • Post Processing — exposure and white balance. Exposure is a plain slider that starts at your scene's own value; switch the mode to Auto and the add-on meters the scene like a camera.
  • Atmosphere — how clean or polluted the air is, how much haze it carries, and whether the air bends light near the horizon (Atmospheric Refraction).
  • Clouds — cloud coverage, and three cloud layers you can switch on, move and thicken.
  • Moon — the moon's rotation in Artistic mode, and how bright its sunlit side and its earthshine are.
  • Ground / Earth — the ground's colour, city lights, terrain height and roughness. Pick Image and an Earth map that ships with the add-on fills the slot; the download button next to it fetches more from NASA.
  • Stars — star brightness at night, and the Milky Way.
  • Quality — one preset dropdown that balances quality against speed.

When you want more control (the physics of the air, full cloud layers, weather maps, water, the sun and planets), switch to Scientific and head to the documentation.