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ProFlares - Ultimate Lens Flares for Unity3D [RELEASED]

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by ProFlares, Nov 3, 2013.

  1. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    ProFlares is the ultimate lens flare plug-in for Unity3D. A complete set of editor tools for creating and animating realistic lens flares. ProFlares gives you the ability to create a vast array of different styles of lens flares with ease.

    Download on the AssetStore - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/12845

    ProFlares News -


    Any questions email me, proflaresunity ( at ) gmail.com and I will pick them up as soon as I get back. Please included your invoice number as this allows me to prioritise support.

    Latest Update v1.081 - Hot Fix - Fixed a bug causing problems with Flares using occlusion not working outside of the editor.

    v1.08
    - This update is focused on making ProFlares more flexible and even more stable. It's now safe to save your ProFlares Setups as a prefab and instantiate them when necessary.
    • Official Unity5 Support
    • Refactored on how the ProFlares data is stored, making the package much more flexible.
    • Import and export flares as Json data.
    • Updated Oculus support
    • Scale flares based on their transform
    • Number of bug fixes
    v1.05 - Major performance improvements, massively reduced CPU load
    • Flare Culling System
    • Improves performance for scenes with lots of flares
    • Minor Bug Fixes. - Fixed 4.5 deprecated code warnings.
    v1.04 -
    • Added Oculus Rift Support
    • Unzip the OculusRift.zip to access.
    • Added single camera mode.
    • Minor bug fixes



    Full Details Here - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/pr...r-unity3d-released.208695/page-5#post-1677589

    ProFlares Product Details -

    Here is a short trailer, showing ProFlares in action.


    Artist Friendly -
    Designed from the ground up to be used by artists, no code or scripting required. Just use the intuitive interface to create a flare from scratch or modify one of the many example flares included with ProFlares.​

    High Performance -
    ProFlare is powered by a custom high performance automatic batching system that allows you to create multiple complex flares with only one draw call. ProFlares does this with no runtime allocations.

    Multi platform -
    ProFlares of course supports all platforms, and has been designed to scale from AAA desktop and console games all the way to mobile platforms.




    Indie Friendly -
    ProFlares doesn't use any render to texture or image processing, so doesn't require Unity3D Pro.

    Professional Examples -
    Included with ProFlares is a large collection of preset flares to get you started right away. Also included are a large selection of lens flare elements.

    Easy Atlas Management -
    Define your own texture atlas in Unity3D or even simpler import one from Texture Packer.​

    Web Player Demo -
    See ProFlares demo in the Unity3D web player.





    Recreate natural photoraphics lens flares, or stylised effects with ease.






    I'm going to be posting more on updates and development, and tutorial videos here, so remember to check back or follow me on twitter - @ProFlares

    Feel free to leave any thoughts or questions.

    www.ProFlares.com
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2015
    Gozdek likes this.
  2. blueivy

    blueivy

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    Wow this is exactly something I wanted in unity! Good job :D
     
  3. sipon

    sipon

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    1 draw call for all flares, and off screen flares, this will be a must have :)
    any chance you test this with Oculus SDK prefab and verify compatibility ?
     
  4. jerotas

    jerotas

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    Subscribing to get updates about this. Sounds cool!
     
  5. Reanimate_L

    Reanimate_L

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    Wow...Finally, this is what missing in unity all this time since the native lens flare is kinda outdated :/.
    Btw can you make a demo with objects as occluder?, something like some primitive mesh and trees maybe i'm curious how the flare occlusion behaves.
    Does it have a glint feature (some flare reflection that happen/visible when the light source almost perfectly occluded by objects or offscreen)
    and can it be occluded by tree leaves?
     
  6. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Yeah I will definitely check it out, I haven't used the SDK but I cannot imagine it wouldn't work. I've worked on a few 3D films and 'In Camera' effects are always tricky. As where do you place them in stereo 3D depth. I may need to add some extra controls so you can adjust this.

    ProFlares has a system for adjusting the scale and brightness of lens flares when they get close to either the edge or centre of the screen( with adjustable ranges). Also this can be applied to individual lens elements, so gives some really fine grain control over a flare's behaviour.

    Flare occlusion currently works via rotation to camera, distance to camera, and a ray cast based
    system. Currently I don't have any support for testing against transparent geometry, but if it's possible it's something that I would really really like to add. I have a number occlusion improvements on the roadmap. I will setup a demo for this shortly.


    Thanks for all the positive feedback!
     
  7. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

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    Awesome. Definitely top of my shopping list.
    Would you also give us a hint as to the pricing?
     
  8. Reanimate_L

    Reanimate_L

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    Btw can you show some screenshot for per lens flare element setting, really curious what feature do you have for this product.
    It's really looks like video copilot lens flare, if we can achieve the same result it would be awesome
     
  9. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    That's great thank you, I've still to determine price but it should be very reasonable.

    Here is a screen shot of the current ProFlares Inspector,

    Link - Working progress inspector

    It's all very much subject to change as I'm making it as nice to use as possible so things might get moved around and renamed so its really only a preview.
     
  10. Reanimate_L

    Reanimate_L

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    very cool. i notice that there's no axis lock, like to lock per element so it's only move on screen X or Y only. is it possible to add it?

    Edit : after seeing your demo it's looks like you already have it in the blue light, but it's still following the light source Y axis, is it possible to add an option to specifies Y offset or static Y pos for it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2013
  11. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    I think what your referencing is the anamorphic settings, I've got both vertical and horizontal modes. This can be used to either lock an element to only move in either X or Y axis, or even a mix of the two.

    Also you can do a direct position offset in ether X or Y relative to the lens flare position.
     
  12. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Hi,

    Just wanted to give you guys a quick update, I've now completed all the v1.0 features, so next I will be working on documentation/tutorials and plenty of examples to get you started.


    Quick screenshot showing off 3 complex flares being all drawn with only one draw call.​

    Shouldn't be much longer :D
     
  13. sipon

    sipon

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    Great news !
    Any word about oculus rift compatibility ? ;)
     
  14. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    I had a little play with the oculus sdk, Unfortunately it's not going to be something that will work out of the box. :( But it is something that really interests me so even though its probably not going to be used much I want to spend more time figuring out how it could work. If sales go well I will order a dev kit right away. :)
     
  15. blueivy

    blueivy

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    with this can you set it where flares fade and appear depending on the distance?
     
  16. V0odo0

    V0odo0

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    One draw call? Great :D
     
  17. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Yep, you can scale or fade flares based on distance to camera :)
     
  18. Braddas

    Braddas

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    Ouch, that's a shame. The flares look amazing but no Oculus support would probably be a deal-breaker for me, unfortunately.
     
  19. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Never say never, something I want to support.
    I've got a big list of new features planned for after launch. I really want the users to help decide what goes in first... So it might be oclulus support or it might be dirt on the lens for only one extra draw call, who knows... ;)
     
  20. lazygunn

    lazygunn

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    I've been fiddling with quite a few things that assume a single camera often assumed to be the only camera with the tag 'MainCamera' and that does mean some extra grind to get Oculus working but i've not failed thus far to manage it so i don't think anyone should worry, they should sit down with your flares and figure it out for themselves if need be! Anyways this looks good, if I end up getting it i'll see if I can make it work with my Rift if there's no answer before then
     
  21. Frostbite23

    Frostbite23

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    ITS AMAZING I WANT IT, is it going to be free or not?
     
  22. Mauri

    Mauri

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  23. Play_Edu

    Play_Edu

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    Awesome stuff man. look like after effects optical flare. make more presets like optical flare.:D
     
  24. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Hi Guys,

    Just wanted to keep you all updated, I've been hard working on polishing up ProFlares and creating some great demos and extra content to be included in the package.

    Also I've been doing some fairly major refactoring of the code to help with my future plans, and also accommodate some of the more edge case setups, Eg Split screen. So I apologise for the delay.

    Here are a couple of screen shots from one of the new interactive demos.



    Also Mike Bithell creator of 'Tomas Was Alone' has been playing around with a preview build of ProFlares. Which is a perfect fit for his new game 'Volume'. Here is a quick snapshot he kindly sent me. :)


    Check out More info on Volume on Mike's site! http://www.mikebithellgames.com/volume/

    If everything goes to plan I should have the new demo live shortly. Then I should be ready to submit to the asset store. :D

    Comments and feedback welcome.
     
  25. Jeppe-k

    Jeppe-k

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    Looking forward to this! When is ETA?
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2013
  26. sipon

    sipon

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    Split screen... this seems to be for futur Oculus support ? :)
    Will buy this anyway !
    +1 for a dirty lens/glint effect ( like glareFX)
     
  27. SomerenV

    SomerenV

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    Finally someone has created a decent lensflare-asset! I always wondered why no one was really doing anything with lensflares, especially since the standard lensflares are really plain and boring (and lack a lot of features and settings).

    Btw, on the topic of pricing. Maybe it's an idea to do a giveaway for 12 hours when the asset is being released? With a few guidelines ofcourse to still encourage people to buy it afterwards:

    - Not allowed to use it commercially
    - No updates, just the initial version
    - No (or less) support

    This way it'll create a whole lot of buzz, people will create some showcases with it and since this is pretty new people get to see how it works while playing with it. Sort of like a demo :) And because of the limited use, people will buy it if they like it.
     
  28. Steve-Tack

    Steve-Tack

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    Wow, this looks great.

    For what it's worth, Oculus Rift support is very important to me too.
     
  29. sipon

    sipon

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    sent you a PM !
     
  30. BigB

    BigB

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    Any news on this ?
     
  31. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    If everything goes to plan, should be submitting to the asset store today :)

    More details and demos to follow shortly.
     
  32. lazygunn

    lazygunn

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    I didnt hear back from you regarding the OR stuff, i dont even know if i was very helpful or a waste of time! aha. Hope you got it sorted anyways
     
  33. Play_Edu

    Play_Edu

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    submitted on assets store?
     
  34. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Yep, all submitted to the store. :D

    View the new demos here -
    Island Demo
    Preset Preview Demo

    So it shouldn't be long before it is available on the store.
     
  35. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    Do want!
     
  36. cl-apps

    cl-apps

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    Can we not buy direct with Paypal? Waiting is too hard...
     
  37. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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  38. Djiel

    Djiel

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    Looks very nice. Just curious, could this be used to have good looking lights on cars? (like headlights and possibly tail lights) :)
     
  39. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Yes, funnily enough this was one of my first tests. I manage to get some really nice gta5 style head lights. You can use the angle fall off settings to fade out the head lights as the camera moves round.
     
  40. Reanimate_L

    Reanimate_L

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    After trying your new demo the tree leaf is occluded the lens flare. Did ProFlares support alpha occluder?
     
  41. Seikan1

    Seikan1

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    Very nice.
    I have a few questions.
    - is it possible to bring my own parts ( textures ) of lens flares?
    - how much freedom we have with animation. For example can i change scale of individual parts in script or is it possible to smoothly fade out color if lens flare get off screen?
     
  42. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    ProFlares doesn't test against alphas. Occlusion is done via a physics ray cast. Just using some basic colliders or geometry can achieve the same effect as alpha testing. Proflares also supports layer masks for its ray cast, making it easy to manage what causes the flares to be occluded.
     
  43. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Yes its possible to use your own textures, they just need to be places in a texture atlas. If you own texture packer its extemely easy to create atlases as proflares support Json atlas definitions.

    It is possible to animate the global settings of the flares at run time, eg brigtness, scale and tint. Animating individual elements isn't directly supported, as I feel it wouldn't be the idea workflow. If this is something you require I would love to talk more about a use case and how I could either build it into the product or open up the necessary properties.

    ProFlares does have a number of built in animation systems, for smoothly fading our flares at the edge of the screen. Or even making them get brighter as they go off screen. These settings have overrides for each element of a flare.

    Also built in are two types of rotation animation, based on a flares movement on screen and also over time. This works great if you take two of the same element and have them rotate different directions.

    Try out some of the web demos to see this in action.
    Island Demo
    Preset Preview Demo

    Hope this answers your questions.
     
  44. Seikan1

    Seikan1

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    Thank you for your quick response,

    Your demos look convincing for me, however i would love to have chromatic aberration ( i love it in Glare FX asset ). I realise it would not fit into one draw call.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2013
  45. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    It would be possible to create a chromatic aberration effect with in one drawcall.

    If you want the whole flare to be effected -
    Create your flare, then half the brightness, then duplicate it. Tint the first one slightly red and the slightly second blue. Then move them apart slightly this will cause the color separation effect.

    This isn't recommended for mobile as it will cause a large amount of overdraw, but both flares will be drawn in the same batch.

    If you don't require all elements in the flare to be affected, clone the desired element and then tint them appropriately. Then adjust the offset values slightly. This wouldnt be as costly in terms of overdraw.

    Tips for on mobile, Just add chormatic aberation effects to the orignal lens elements. This gives almost the same look but with no impact on performance.
     
  46. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    If you have bought ProFlares please get in touch. I would love to discuss your first impressions of the product. I really want your feedback, to find out what you like, dislike, and any feature requests.

    I've got plenty of awesome features planned, so help pick what goes in first. :D
     
  47. cl-apps

    cl-apps

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    To be brutally honest I'm hitting a barrier over the price. I would love to purchase but without knowing 100% what I'm getting with tax 100 dollars is a lot.

    I understand I'm probably talking out of turn and you may have an amazing product but you might be cutting your nose off too spite your face with regard to price.

    Maybe if it was twenty dollars cheaper maybe, I dunno. Just seems a tad pricey for my blood and that's an honest opinion from someone that was in the instant buy list.

    Looks an amazing product though and I enjoy playing with the demos, just need to tempt my wallet some more
     
  48. Seikan1

    Seikan1

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    It would work. To get more color separation closer to the edge of the screen i would also rotate duplicated layer.
    I would love to get my hands on it, but i did not expect to be so expensive. I know it is not just one effect but complete editor solution but €76?
    For the next features you would implement dirty lens effect. To have booth lens flares and dirty lens within one draw call would be nice.
     
  49. BuildABurgerBurg

    BuildABurgerBurg

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    Yeah I think you'll make a lot less in the long run. I would have thought 60$ would've been your price

    Nice product though. Well done
     
  50. ProFlares

    ProFlares

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    Hey guys,

    I'm really sorry guys feel that way. I feel I have priced it appropriately, I see it as a professional product but also quite niche, unlike say a menu/gui system lens flares aren't required in every game so I didn't want to attempt to go for a volume based sales strategy.

    Hopefully I can can convince you guys with my on going support, and upcoming features :) Already started work on some handy additions.

    Thank you to anyone who has purchased ProFlares so far, and a BIG thank you for your positive reviews on the asset store. They mean a lot!