Sundog's SliverLining 2.0 Weather Middleware Released

Sundog Software on Monday released SilverLining 2.0, the latest version of its weather-simulating middleware, which introduces new features for free to existing customers. Sundog owner Frank Kane said that the update "really takes advantage of what modern consumer-grade computer video cards can do." He explained that, with SilverLining 2.0, "We introduce a technique called GPU ray-casting for 3D volumetric clouds that makes really dense cloud layers possible. With SilverLining, software developers can add the widest variety of cloud types and weather conditions to their simulators and games easily and with full physical reality." SilverLining, which is used in flight simulators and TV weather reports as well as video games, can create skies for different times of day, location and weather conditions using real-time physical simulations. The company recently partnered with game engine provider Emergent Game Technologies, integrating SilverLining into the Gamebryo LightSpeed engine. Kane said that partnership "opened a lot of doors for us in the video game world. We're really proud of the impact our small company is having in the world of computer graphics." The SilverLining middleware also has code and support for game and simulation engines including OpenSceneGraph, Ogre3D, Gamebryo Lightspeed, SceniX and Carmenta, and can be integrated into custom systems.