Question Rendering objects behind the clouds

Hello! I have a question related to hdrp, clouds and rendering objects behind the clouds.

I would like to render a 3d planet behind the volumetric cloud system (global, not local). I am using a physically based sky and changing to a skybox solution is not an option.

I have a shader to blend the planet with the sky (the planet is set far far away). This works for the planet and the sky but not for the clouds (clouds should be rendered over the whole planet, not just the non visible part of the planet).

This image illustrates the effect that I want to achieve (just the clouds over the planet, forget about the other clouds).



Is this possible with the current cloud system? Can I access from the shader graph to any buffer with cloud data?

Would I need a custom pass? (if needed, which injection point would be better for this?)

Would be easier to achieve this effect using the cloud layer system instead of the volumetric clouds?

Thank you for your time.

 

Would also like to know this.... Did you find any solution?

 

2023 has the ability to add celestials on with lighting phases, check out the directional lights there.