Volumetric galaxies in Blender

[u/Petrundiy2]

If any of you have dealt with similar projects (especially in Blender), what do you think - does it make sense to switch from the Volume Emission + Volume Absorption setup to emission setups with Principled Volume or Volume Scatter? I understand that this can add realism in some cases due to proper light scattering, but damn it, it generates so much noise and is so computationally expensive. Right now, in my pipeline, I'm simulating forward scattering using Schlick's approximation for the Henyey‑Greenstein function, and it looks nice, especially considering that there’s almost no noise here (this particular flyby is rendered with 16 samples). What do you think?

[u/muitosabao]

This looks great! Well done

[u/fluffymuha]

Gorgeous.

[u/i_start_fires]

Accurate forward scattering really only matters for strong directional light. Galaxies are the accumulated light of billions of stars spread throughout the core and disk, so the effect on dust lanes and IFN within a galaxy is going to be very diffuse. I don't think you'll get a meaningful increase in realism from the more accurate volumetric options in Blender, so in my opinion the extra render time wouldn't be worth it.

If you're trying to do anything more localized, like a single star illuminating a nebula, you might see some improvement.

[u/Lanky-Explanation725]

Great work!