The sun itself?

[mattdm]

Aas far I can see, the models don't actually depict the disk of the sun itself — just, as the name suggests, its effect on the atmosphere.

What's the best way to do this? I can calculate the proper position in the sky (there are several rust crates that have the real-world algorithms already done) — should I put a literal sphere there, or... is there a better way?

[mattdm]

I know this is more a discussion question rather than an issue. Is there a better place for this kind of thing?

[mattdm]

One idea might be to extend the Nishita shader to draw the sun's disk (and a diffuse atmospheric "halo") at the proper position, color-shifted appropriately. I'm imagining something looking kind of like this, from a Minute Physics video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NafbGOQBlQs&t=87s