[RELEASED] UniStorm 5.2 - AAA Volumetric Clouds, URP Support, Weather, Sky, Atmospheric Fog, & More!

I have issues with Unistorm fog and Crest ocean in URP.
The distant objects are properly shaded but the water isn't:


This is what it should look like:

 

I have another bug with URP, when I enable MSAA in the Universal Render Pipeline Asset settings, I get an outline around meshes against fog in the background:

 

I tried switching back to Unity fog in the Unistorm fog setting but it didn't help. Note that these two bugs weren't happening before installing Unistorm, Unity fog was working fine with MSAA as well as Crest ocean.

 

Are you by chance using Metal?

 

I was able to get UniStorm's fog and cloud shadows working with transparent shaders by doing the following. Perhaps it will work with Crest. Set both the UniStorm fog and clouds to After Rendering Transparents to see if it'll allow it to render properly.



However, this will make the fog render over the clouds more. You can fix this by setting the Skybox Fog Height to something like 0.55.



I could not get the artifacts as seen in your other screenshot. Perhaps the above will also help resolve this.

 

This solution did work at fixing the fog with crest.


For the other issue, I will go in more details.

The problem happens when there's something bright behind geometry and there's fog of a different color covering that thing. For example, daytime sky. This sky is bright, but the fog makes it look dark:





I have found that the problem stops when I turn off Distance fog






It looks like the anti-aliasing is being shaded into the the sky rather than into the fog, giving the anti-aliased border of the geometry the color of the sky, which, when rendered on top of the dark fog, gives it a bright outline.

(Unity 2020.3.33 URP, forward renderer)

 

Great to hear that solution worked.

Strange, are you using a custom shader for your objects or any other image effects other than UniStorm's?

 

No custom shaders nor post processing were used. I have setup a project to reproduce the issue. The repo is private, I have sent you an invite. https://github.com/aganm/unistorm-artifact

 

I just tried to reproduce the artifact in Unity 2021 LTS and the behavior has changed.

In 2020 LTS, the MSAA being rendered against the bright sky on a dark fog added white artifacts around the geometry.



In 2021 LTS, at first sight, looks like the artifact has been fixed because there is no more white outline. But when looking up close, the MSAA smoothing has been cropped entirely.

You can see on this image, on the left is the cropped MSAA, the edges of the geometry are solid pixels and the pixels that would have been smooth lines are gone. On the right side, you have the exact same thing but with the fog turned off, where the MSAA smoothing is not cropped off and is rendered correctly.



I can tell even from a distance that the pixels were cropped because it doesn't look smooth like MSAA does, but... that's still much MUCH better than the old thing and short of having a perfect solution, this will do just fine.

 

When switching to 2021 we started using Vulkan. Maybe that is the issue? But I thought changin the Graphics API would not change how it renders on desktop.

 

Hej @BHS ,


I am having a few problems with setting up UniStorm for the Oculus Quest 2 and for VR in general. I'm on the 5.2.0 version, and on Unity 2019.4.34 LTS (but the same issues are present in 2021.2! Went back to test with a stabler version). I've started testing with Built-in, later with URP.


My workflow is this:
1) Load UniStorm into the project.
2) Load Oculus Integration and enable XR Plugin-Management and check the Oculus box.
3) Load the OVRPlayerController into a sample scene of UniStorm.

Now the first problem is that Single Pass (Instanced) and Multiview (for Android) are broken across all Platforms. It's broken for PC where the right eye just doesn’t show the clouds and the sky, and it’s broken for android – where it stays just black. In URP it displays only gray and black on PC and is just black on Android (on Multiview).


(Single Pass on PC, Unity 2019.4.30 with Built-In render pipeline)


(Single Pass on PC, Unity 2019.4.30 with Built-In render pipeline with Atmospheric Fog on I think. Honestly I don't remember)


(Single Pass on PC, Unity 2021.2.10 with URP)

I just couldn’t get it to work. And Single Pass is performance-wise pretty important for VR.
When switching to Multi Pass everything works for PC VR, but for Android (Oculus Quest 2) a lot is broken, too.

First of all I do get those error messages when building for the Quest. If I build and run, it fails. If I just build, it succeeds. I managed to fix most of this errors with the trick you posted before – but the stereoTargetEyesIndex Error persists.

(Built-In)
(Built-In)

The Unistorm Fog solution is *very* heavy on the Quest 2, I get at most 30 fps. But when I disable it and use the Unity Fog, weird things happen. The sun is visible behind objects and the terrain.

(Unity Fog)

Then, clouds just don’t work on Android. Neither 2D nor volumetric clouds. It displays just a grey sky. It doesn't work with URP either.

(No Clouds)

I guess that’s it.

We’d really love to use this asset. It looks great when it works and has all the features we need. But we’d love to use it in Single Pass VR and (in some capacity at least) on the Quest 2. I hope this report helps you to fix the errors and bugs. I’d love to hear if you think these issues are solvable or if we should just forget about using Unistorm with Mobile VR with the Quest 2.

Thanks!

 

Regarding my previous post:
On Android VR (Quest2) I just see just black with URP (Unity 2021.2.10) and Unity Fog selected.
With the atmospheric unistorm fog, I see this. (Both with multi-pass)




On Android VR (Quest2) in 2019.4. and with URP, I just see this with either the Unity Fog or the Unistorm Fog. It's a quad I can see through, but the terrain is gray. No idea... I'm just in the URP Sample Scene

 

what happened to the Dynamic Plant Growth System?

 

Hey there,

I had a chance to look at your project. It's great to hear you found a solution though. One of my recommendations for a fix is to just disabling MSAA and using image effect anti-aliasing. This was able to remove the artifacts.

If you want to be able to use MSAA, I found a workaround by setting the Atmosphere Thickness within the UniStorm Editor to all 0. You can just create a new line, set the right point to 24, and then set both values to 0. This will render the skybox as black which resolves the artifact issue. Because of how thick the fog is, there isn't too much of a difference to the sky color. You could just use the fog color to control the sky color.



Before


After

 

There is a known issue with URP and VR with the newer versions of Unity. I'm not sure if this is affected by this. Have you tried disabling all image effects (including anti-aliasing) before testing?

 

Thanks for this finding! With this solution, it brings both of my Unity 2020 and Unity 2021 projects to the same level: no more white outline around edges.

I have one more issue when it comes to MSAA. This one affects both Unity 2020 and 2021 equally. The problem is that MSAA isn't working on objects that are rendered in front of Unistorm fog.

This picture is with all fog turned off: the powerline cables are perfectly smooth.



This picture is with Standard Unity Fog turned on (standard unity fog cannot fog the sky, it can fog background objects only): the powerline cables are perfectly smooth against the fog.



But if I turn Unistorm fog on, any geometry that lies in front of Unistorm fog ignores MSAA:



The problem can also be observed in the github artifact demo that I shared with you. After fixing the white outlines, there is no anti-aliasing on the mesh despite MSAA being turned on:



Do you know why MSAA doesn't work with Unistorm fog?

Also, the button to switch between Unistorm Fog and Unity fog in the Unistorm weather settings doesn't seem to work. When I click on Unity Fog, the fog doesn't change, the sky stays lit the same and the MSAA doesn't work still despite MSAA working with Unity fog when I enable it manually. To go back to Unity fog, I have to turn off the Unistorm Fog renderer feature, then go to my scene's lighting settings and enable the fog there. Naturally, it is not synchronized with Unistorm weather.

Could you fix the Fog Type button such that choosing Unity Fog does use the basic Unity fog, please? For even with the white outlines issue fixed, I would still prefer to have clouds that doesn't match the color of the horizon than not having MSAA on objects that lies in front of the fog. The jaggies are very distracting to my eye.

 

Quite sure, yes.
Additionally most errors are also present with the built-in renderer :/

 

Hi @BHS,
Im seeing a few errors in UnisStormAtmosphericFogFeatures.cs. This is in Unity 2022.1.0b.10.2818 and URP 13.1.6

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks!!

 

Hi,
I have read as much as I can before diving into to installing this in a new project. Ive been waiting for PUN2 (CHECK!) and URP (CHECK!) and VR support!
It all seems in place now so Im exited to try.
Im not a total noob to UniStorm, but still, most of the instruction seem to assume a blank new project. Mine is nothing like that. I already have a PUN2 VR game with multiple scenes and the player has to be the one Im already using. Honestly? How tricky is it going to be to get going? After following installation instructions for URP, can I then just add the required prefabs to my player and a manager in each scene? Or am I going to have to intergrate everything UniStorm with everything Ive done before. Note: Ive not got any time based systems in place, was waiting for Unistorm to help to incorporate a global clock, so that I can fire events to all users at the same time etc...(For example, the start time of a film playing in a cinema, so all users watch the same film, or the bank opening at Nine oclock... etc...)
Really Id appreciate a "map" of files, and where they go, rather than lots of demo scenes to trawl through. Anything like that?

 

I have an issue with 2D clouds in build. When I'm in the editor, the 2D clouds seem much cleaner than in build. The build 2D clouds look very grainy or low resolution. I prefer 2D clouds to save on performance but the build quality is just too low. Any way to fix this?

 

sun and moon not work in urp (Android)

 

As much as I wanted to use that asset, I cannot do so in its current state.

My project is URP (I know, I love to make things harder for myself) and adding UniStorm breaks a lot of things that are unfixable, or just not worth my time. Most of the issues stem from switching URP Intermediate Texture render to from "Auto" to "Always" , which is a workaround, and not recommended for all platform :

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/c...iversal@13.1/manual/upgrade-guide-2021-2.html

In my project, this has resulted in messing up my main menu, making my UI canvas unreadable, and I can't even get the results I want as it seems there are conflicting Skyboxes (the UniStorm night is very bright, as I suspected it renders on top of a generic colour skybox)

I hope more effort is made in future releases to fix those issues, but for the time being I have to give up on UniStorm as my day/night/weather system.

Please take this as constructive criticism, I still strongly believe I can end up using this asset in the final version of my game !

 

For some reason as soon the UniStorm loads, everything gets this tone. I don't understand why, on PC works fine, on VR hadset, like this...

 

Hi My project is URP But the shader Global Weather Shader (Simple) Does not support the URP May I ask when you can support it? Please reply that I am in a hurry thank you

 

Investigating this a little more, the issue is due to Screen.dpi being 0 on my system.

Changing line 705 in UniStorm Weather System/Scripts/Editor/UniStormEditor.cs

From

Code (CSharp):

1. TabNumberProp.intValue = GUILayout.SelectionGrid(TabNumberProp.intValue, TabButtons, 5, SelectionGridStyle, GUILayout.Height(32), GUILayout.Width(80 * Screen.width / Screen.dpi));

To:

Code (CSharp):

1. float width = EditorGUIUtility.currentViewWidth - 45;
2. TabNumberProp.intValue = GUILayout.SelectionGrid(TabNumberProp.intValue, TabButtons, 5, SelectionGridStyle, GUILayout.Height(32), GUILayout.Width(width));

(The last parameter changed)

Works to fix the issue.

---

Also for completion, the lines in that script referencing:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. EditorGUILayout.BeginVertical("Box", GUILayout.Width(80 * Screen.width / Screen.dpi));

Were changed to:

Code (CSharp):

1. EditorGUILayout.BeginVertical("Box", GUILayout.Width(width));

 

how to block rain from interiors?

 

this is my question too.
It rains inside my buildings how can i disable it there but it rainy outside when i look out of the windows

 

The sun starts disappearing way before reaching the horizon. Rising mountains to make the sun disappear behind them is not an option for me.

How to configure the position (or angle, or daytime) where the sun starts disappearing? Or, how to prevent it to disappear?

 

I get this error
Shader error in 'Hidden/Post FX/Fog': undeclared identifier 'sampler_CameraDepthTexture' at line 63

And a few more of the same error on other shaders.

I am trying to build for VR for Oculus Quest 2, and I am on a MacBook Air 2020, unity 2021.3.3f1 (if that's matter)

Any suggestions on what the problem can be? or a solution

 

Hello, does Unistorm support multiple cameras? For example multiple cameras at the same position but rotated in different directions. Currently using Unity 2021 URP.

 

UniStorm seems to be broken in many ways on Unity 2022.1. The current version cannot be used and needs updates from the creator.

 

sun and moon not work in android PLEASE RESOLVD PROBLEM

 

the shader sun is in built in not in urp , please resolv problem

 

Hello again. Are you planning to support URP in Unity 2022.1? For example the Fog Feature is using an obsolete API:

 

Still issues with URP and VR same as the other poster.. only renders left eye. Will keep checking here hoping for a fix..

 

Since CTS has been deprecated, are there any plans to integrate with GTS (Glyph)?

 

Hey, I need to change the movement direction of the clouds for my scene, I want it to match my wind direction. You made a comment in 2019 that you have a shader like this. I'm a shader newbie and tried to do it myself but didn't have much luck. Can you send it to me?

 

Is this Asset still being updated?
Using Unity Version 2022.2.0a18. This asset doesn't seem to work in VR. Only one eye will render and even then it's all black except outlines and part of the sky.

 

Looks like abandonware to me. Beware of this developer (Black Horizon Studios) when buying new assets. Previous message in this thread from the dev in April but they / he keeps still updating his newest AI asset.

EDIT: Well, this is a 10 year old asset after all...

 

I've been using UniStorm with no issues, however I have suddenly started getting the following errors and I'm not sure why:

Assets\PostProcessing\Runtime\PostProcessingBehaviour.cs(400,34): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Type' to 'Type'

Assets\PostProcessing\Runtime\PostProcessingBehaviour.cs(411,47): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Type' to 'Type'

Assets\PostProcessing\Runtime\PostProcessingBehaviour.cs(415,37): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Type' to 'Type'

Assets\PostProcessing\Runtime\PostProcessingBehaviour.cs(425,47): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'System.Type' to 'Type'

I've gone through the URP setup process but I'm still getting these error.

 

Looks like a namespace issue. If for example you created a class called Type and UniStorm also has a class called Type. It will get confused, requiring you to create & specify namespace like Unistorm.Type.

Here's just a hint at what the problem could be. Best of luck!

 

1. Hi all, I need to know WHY Unistorm asset does not start always the scene with the "Starting Weather Type", for example, if I have selected "Snow" when starting the scene sometimes I have Overcast, others Heavy Rain, others whatever....I attach photo. I asked in Discord but no one replies. I hope someone helps. Thanks.
2. 

 

Is this package still supported? If not, a warning should be added somewhere or the package should be deprecated. The author hasn't replied to this post since Apr. 14, but on their other post asset post they responded last Aug. 22

 

This asset was just included in a humble bundle (https://www.humblebundle.com/software/unity-tools-software), which would be wierd if abandonware, wouldn't it?
I bought that bundle and did everything that was said in the tutorial, but the only thing that shows up in my scene is sun and moon and a crazy amount of grey fog (which i had to completely disable in the weather preset i used). When i click on the UniStorm Volumetric Clouds gameobject, i can see the orange outlines of the clouds in the editor, but the are completely transparent.


Selecting the UniStorm Volumetric Clouds material in the UniSotrm materials folder shows awesome looking clouds in the preview:


But looking at the preview of the material UniStorm Cloud Layer, which is actually used by the UniStorm Volumetric Clouds gameobject, its completely transparent for some reason:


I am using Unity 2021.2.11f1 by the way, with URP 12.1.4

I bought the humble bundle mainly for this asset, but it is unusable for me at this point
Given the orange outlines and the flawless material preview, it seems to me that the error might be miniscule, like checking a single box and suddenly it all works. But i cant for the life of me seem to find it on my own.

 

I had a similar problem time ago. I solved it by increasing the rendering distance of the camera, as the camera distance to clouds was bigger than Clipping Planes/Far of my MainCam. Or maybe you are using a Vcam, that controls the MainCam, and the ClippingPlane/Far of this Vcam is not far enough and it is overcoming the main one.
I wish the solution to your problem would be so easy like the one that I exposed.
If not, write personally to the company email, and support them to come to this forum to say hi.

 

I have problem which only appears when I build my game.
If I have Unistorm enabled and the player camera assigned (or it gets assigned in runtime), the terrain and other lit prefabs around the scene get fully black no matter the light I put on them.


You can see that the Unistorm System works in the background and also the ocean and some particles look just fine.

On the other hand, if I disable Unistorm, unassign the camera or anything like that, everything works, but I want that unistorm dammit!



The null reference is the missing camera on unistorm.

This only happens on build, works fine in the editor. I'm using Unity 2020.3.17f.

I've made the problem go away somehow a few times, but it keeps coming back. Also doesn't seem to depend on git related changes or library files.

 

I had the same problem. I emailed the company and they said that the Lighting of Unistorm has to be set in each Weather System profile individually, so if you want a more light scene using Party Cloudy, you have to look for this Weather Type and set it. Another solution I found is to use a "support" directional light in each scene.

Try these two methods and tell me your results.

Cheers.

 

i think i have the same problem as few user above. but i use built-in system. i can't change Atmospehre thickness to 0 so i need to looking for another way to fix this problem

 

I'm getting very inconsistent visuals from UniStorm 5.2. My main complaint is the URP sun looks like a yellow disc with no soft blending. I followed the setup directions and used Linear color space but these results lead me to believe I'm missing something. Any way to get URP to look somewhat like the asset demo?

 

Hi! Any further update on HDRP support? Thanks!