Just a quick project I did. I know it’s not the most original idea in the world, but I really like how it turned out. And the actual sun looks much better than I expected. 
Any thoughts or helpful critiques?
the sun is great but it is too big, isn’t it ?
Yeah, sun is too big 
unless you move the camera away and use a larger focal length… and the heat waves are a little too small and clear… and maybe the hexes could do with some kind of texture (just a bump would be good)
Otherwise I likes it very much
Actually, I like the effect of the background that it gives. A sun too big is perfect for that sort of feel, ya know?
Yes, the sun is quite big, but I meant for it to give an “otherworldly” sense. As if this were taken from another planet, one that’s much closer to the sun. Also, a larger sun invokes a sense of the heat. But if you really think it’s too overbearing, I can shrink it.
Also, could you explain what you mean by “the heat waves are too clear?” Do you think it should be more blurry?
Thanks again for the help guys 
How the heatwaves distorting the sun were done? Is it a wave surface with glass material ?
Even I would like to know. How did you do it ?
Good guess! Yes, I used a couple planes with full raytraced transparency, and added a cloud texture as a bump affector. Here’s my set up.
I have a question however. Why is it that when you set an object as transparent, it won’t show the sky properly if you have a blended sky? I had to put a textured plane behind the scene for it to work.
I think the sun is fine. It adds to the element of hot weather. Nice job.
i remember reading about that somewhere before if i recall correctly its to do with the alpha settings and having raytracing enabled in the scene though it will be good to get someone to confirm it.
very nice job, i have to agree with the suns size, i would say about 2/3rds to 1/2 the size would be perfect.
good job on the heat distortion btw got it spot on
How do you upload a high res picture?
By using a different website and linking the image. Imageshack, Pasteall.org/pic, and Dropbox if you have it are popular around here.
personaly i liked the bigger sun better it looked hotter and like you were in a desert. The smaller sun gives you a since that its a lot cooler and so all those heat waves look unnecessary. However, thats just personal prefrance.
I’d have left the bigger sun too, But what I think is missing here, more than anything, is heat distortion to the scene itself and not just the sun. Blenderguru has a tutorial on how to do that, I really think a little heat distortion would push it that extra bit.
There’s a place in Ireland that looks just like this. It’s called the giant’s causeway.