I was thinking about the most realistic way to implement lighting coming from the engines exhausts of a rocket. The way I understand it, that light comes from ionized gases generated by the extreme heat coming out of the nozzles. Then there is the diffusion thing, meaning than in atmosphere light will bounce from molecule to molecule and create some kind of halo. This is magnified by weather conditions such as fog (when there is a lot of water in the air). So the model of "a big ball of light" (pointlight) below the nozzles is reasonably accurate.
Now while the rocket climbs to space, atmosphere gets thinner and thinner (we see in rocket launches videos that the exhausts shape changes completely, as gases are much less "contained" by the surrounding atmosphere they tend to expand in all directions, creating large and ghostly plumes.
What should be the effect on lighting ? It seems to me that with a lower "ionized gases density" below the rocket, the light coming from it should dim, right ? And once in vacuum, some engines leave almost no visible exhaust plume at all (unlike what you have in say Kerbal Space Program and a lot of 3D animations...). So in those conditions, I mean without any exhaust plume visible, no light should come "from below the rocket", right ?
Now, in vacuum, the long nozzles typically used do that "containement" job, which means the volume of gases inside those nozzles is still compressed and ionized. So, instead of a "pointlight" behind the rocket, we should have "spotlights" where each nozzle acts as a projector, right ?
I'd like to have your inputs on this, discuss it, maybe links from launch videos, etc...
Now while the rocket climbs to space, atmosphere gets thinner and thinner (we see in rocket launches videos that the exhausts shape changes completely, as gases are much less "contained" by the surrounding atmosphere they tend to expand in all directions, creating large and ghostly plumes.
What should be the effect on lighting ? It seems to me that with a lower "ionized gases density" below the rocket, the light coming from it should dim, right ? And once in vacuum, some engines leave almost no visible exhaust plume at all (unlike what you have in say Kerbal Space Program and a lot of 3D animations...). So in those conditions, I mean without any exhaust plume visible, no light should come "from below the rocket", right ?
Now, in vacuum, the long nozzles typically used do that "containement" job, which means the volume of gases inside those nozzles is still compressed and ionized. So, instead of a "pointlight" behind the rocket, we should have "spotlights" where each nozzle acts as a projector, right ?
I'd like to have your inputs on this, discuss it, maybe links from launch videos, etc...