Amplify Impostors - Next Generation Billboards

It should be automatic
Do let me know if you have any issues

 

Hello, here from a non Amplify world.
I am stuck with Impostors shaders as my impostors looks white color when baking it, URP 12+.
Reading the documentation it seems it can only work with URP default shader, (which it looks terrible for my trees).

In my quest for a solution, I came across the AMPLIFY SHADER EDITOR as I though this is like Apple word where only shaders from the same brand are compatible. Hopeful, I invested in it, only to find that these shaders too, rendered white.

Delving even deeper, I stumbled upon a custom shader baker. The complexity of its operation, especially just to bake a simple tree, was overwhelming, leading me to reluctantly abandon the effort.

Is that really complex task to bake a tree with at least double side faces? I lost my hoppes with something more advanced like transmission or SSS or whatever so no bother to ask for that, but I am really surprised about the complexity of baking a descent tree (if possible).

 

Hello Mac users please find the latest updates.

Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.0

Highlights
* Added auto-importer for SRP compatible shaders
* Added Start Screen to help with Sample installation
* Added support for Unity 2023.2 and URP/HDRP 16x

Fixes
* Fixed crashes on Mac

 

hello
yes, your correct it is not so easy for non-amplify editor users to deal with custom bake and runtime shaders

within shaders they have property names such as _MainTex or _BaseColorMap for the textures
when a custom shader does not use this common name such as _BaseColorMap within the source shader it would return a white color. in such cases you have two options make a custom bake / runtime shader that uses the same properties to match or modify the source shader to use the same common names as unity. in most cases it's not just impostors that needs them to match as Unity GI also requires the same names to work with unity GI lighting.

feel free to reach out to me for help in discord and i be happy to check your specific case or live chat

 

Thanks for your quick reply, so if I understand correctly, in theory I should be able to create my own shaders using shadergraph URP 12, as long as my main textures are _MainTex or _BaseColorMap? that sounds like a solution!

 

yes
if you run into any issue, you can also open the Unity Lit shader to see the property names used for the version of unity your in

Note BIRP / URP / HDRP in unity may have some differences from one pipeline to other so best to check if your changing pipelines.

Main Texture:
BIRP _MainTex
URP _BaseMap
HDRP _BaseColorMap

 

Thanks for the update....now it is working in Unity 2022.3.4f1 ! Great job !

 

Hello! I was looking forward to updating the imposters, especially support for the diffusion profile. And now the update is out. I updated the package and... I thought the diffusion profile baking would be fixed, but the rotation of the imposters is broken Everything works fine in the test scene with barrels, however, in the scene of my project, all billboards do not rotate (not to mention that diffusion futures with emission and occlusion are black.) I deleted the imposter pack and reimported it. Launched HDRP Shaiders 12s. Baked the new object and it's still the same. Do you have any ideas about this? Thanks!

 

hello, thank you for the report.
we have received a similar report about rotation and activity looking into now.

 

Hi
can you send me copy of the shader the shader used to bake from
support@amplify.pt

 

Thanks for the answer! Do you mean the shader on the original object? It uses the standard hdrp lit. Send you a copy of the standard shader unity hdrp lit?

 

Thank you for verifying Unity HDRP Lit shader was used.
no need to send me copy

tracking issue in
Check diffusion and emission baking · Issue #29 · AmplifyCreations/AmplifyImpostors-Feedback (github.com)

 

Running into a issue using URP impostors. Baking it from the asset and than it just shows as pink.

 

Hi
Please verify you're in the most current release impostors.

 

New build uploaded in Unity Asset Store.

Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.1
Amplify Impostors | Utilities Tools | Unity Asset Store

Fixes
* Fixed impostors editor scripts throwing errors when building player
* Fixed HDRP impostor rotation issues when far from origin
* Fixed Motion Vector pass in HDRP Custom Baking sample runtime shader
* Fixed Motion Vector pass in HDRP impostor ASE template
* Fixed baked shadow mask artifacts, currently unsupported

Changes
* Added Motion Vector support to URP 16x

 

The name 'Preferences' does not exist in the current context
25 times, newest version using urp 2022.3.4.f1,
the only things i didnt import where the samples

 

sorry your having trouble.
I am not able to replicate and may need a bit more info

Can you please first say what pipeline you're working in Built-in / URP / HDRP ?
are you in windows or Mac OS or anything we should know more about to try and help replicate the issue?

 

I stated what pipeline already but, URP, windows 11.

 

Aswell as an apology for my incredibly late response. I have been busy.

 

The editor version is 2022.3.4.f1

 

thank you for the info.
after more testing i still cannot reproduce the error

testing was conducted with:
--- Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.1
--- New projects with Unity defaults
--- build and run test with demo scene Barrels & Boulders

URP unity versions tested
* 2020.3.48
* 2021.3.29
* 2022.3.4
* 2022.3.8
* 2023.1.0b6


if you happen to have any additional info that will help reproduce the error it would be helpful.

 

hello, sorry for wasting your time. It seems to have been resolved magicly, for some unknown reason. Thanks for your help anyways

 

Thanks for the fix; just 2 years late.

Now I can't build. Could you please fix this as well within 2 years ? Thank you.

 

Basically missing a lot of #if unity_editor conditionals in the editor part

 

hello
can you reach out to me with more detail.
if possible i like to chat in discord
i am not aware yet of any reported build issues as of the latest release and like to help solve them.

 

New build uploaded in Unity Asset Store.

Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.3
Amplify Impostors | Utilities Tools | Unity Asset Store

Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.3
* Corrected version info

Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.2
* Updated samples to ASE v1.9.2.1

 

I ran into a random issue.
Today I was working on my project and suddenly imposters stopped working.

I have not really touched any of the settings of the project, I was just testing the scene and adding occlusion and updated NavMesh.
I even made git commits after and stuff was working and on one play it just stopped.

In editor I still see imposters as expected, but in the play mode or compiled exe I dont see imposters. I did some more testing in Editor and noticed them popping up in all the wrong place in a formation. Perhaps its something that another person already experienced.
I have reset my changes with git to latest working version which is confirmed on other devices to be working.
I have restarted the computer to avoid any weird hardware issues, would not be the first time.
I have also updated the asset just in case.
But this issue is still persistent and I need to fix it..

Expected imposters



Actual imposters rendering, seen from Editor (editor obviously does not work when in Play mode)

 

Hello
we would need a bit more info
if it can be reproduced yes, please share in private thru email or discord.

also please include info for what unity version and pipeline

 

Hi! The tool looks very interesting!

I have some questions about whether these features are supported:

Does it support runtime generation?
In July 25, 2018 (5 years ago) the response was: "No official ETA at the moment, probably a couple of weeks; less than a month."

Does it support alpha-to-coverage?
In July 20, 2018 the response was: "Noted, we're going to address Alpha-To-Coverage soon."

Is it compatible with Unity's nature shaders used by Unity Tree Creator?
In July 30, 2018 the response was: "Nature shaders seem to be currently incompatible, we'll be running a few tests in the coming weeks."

Does it support tree color tint in Unity terrains so different instances of the same tree can have different colors without needing different imposters for each color?
(This I didn't see any mention of in the pages I read.)

I browsed the first 5 pages of the forum thread; I don't have time to read through all 34 pages. I had hoped the FAQ would have answers to these questions, but it seems not.

Well it does have this:

Which would indicate that Alpha-To-Coverage was never implemented despite earlier statements? Because Alpha-To-Coverage is the way to support anti-aliasing for MSAA.

I'd appreciate answers to these questions here, and it would be a good idea to add them to the FAQ too.

 

Hi.
I'm having trouble with the baking of Speedtrees models.
the baked albedo is completely white.


Unity v2022.2.12
HDRP 14
Amplify Impostors v0.9.9.3
My trees were made with Speedtree Modeler v8.4.2 and use HDRP SpeedTree8 shader in Unity.

Speedtree Export settings:


I tested a lot of different parameters, but the baked Albedo is always white.

 

i sent your questions to the dev to check and will get bake to you soon

 

yes, speed tree.
speed tree even after getting purchased by unity still has not conformed to the standards used by all other unity shaders Lit and unlit with in URP and HDRP.

the amplify default bake and runtime for impostors uses the same property names as Unity Lit
the white results are due to this not matching.

for URP Main Map
Lit uses = _BaseMap
speed tree uses = _MainTex

for URP color
Lit uses = _BaseColor
speed tree uses = _Color

Sadly, as Speed tree is so different from Unity standard best practice it is considered a custom shader
to fix this you may need a custom bake and runtime shader

 

I just bought this asset. Getting very bad full-screen flickering when an impostor is being rendered

Unity 2023.1.16, HDRP, DirectX12.

Most frames are normal like:

But then it goes black:

On some frames it flickers blue instead:

I've seen magenta and white too.

Checking the box for "use Speedtree Hue" (I'm not using a SpeedTree shader) seems to resolve it.

 

Got another severe issue:
It seems that without global illumination enabled, the impostors aren't receiving any indirect lighting (presumably from the skybox)

The shadows on the impostors are entirely black. Turning on SSGI fixes this but that's not an acceptable workaround as SSGI has an extremely high performance impact.

 

Thanks! It's now 11 days later; did you get any replies to the questions?

 

Hello sorry for the delay.

Does it support runtime generation?
No, we dropped that feature a while ago, after we the original developer changed.
the closest thing we have planned now is to expose the api to help make this easier for others who are coding it.
Reference: https://github.com/AmplifyCreations/AmplifyImpostors-Feedback/issues/24

Does it support alpha-to-coverage?
No but we can add it as a feature request for the next update.
Reference: https://github.com/AmplifyCreations/AmplifyImpostors-Feedback/issues/34

Is it compatible with Unity's nature shaders used by Unity Tree Creator?
No with no plans to support it. We provide and maintain our own shaders. Can't support 3rd party shaders. you should be able to make a custom bake and runtime shader if you own copy of the amplify editor.

Does it support tree color tint in Unity terrains so different instances of the same tree can have different colors without needing different imposters for each color?
Not but we can add it as a feature request for the next update.
Reference: https://github.com/AmplifyCreations/AmplifyImpostors-Feedback/issues/35


Please let me know if i missed any and or any more questions.

David

 

thank you for the report.
Can you please contact me thru email or directly in the discord so i can try and replicate the issue.

David

 

I am trying to bake multi objects - distant trees. But when I add Amplify Imposters to the parent the list of references is not filled. Unity 2023.1.16f

 

I have a feature request. For objects that don't use the EmissionOcclusion and DiffusionFeatures maps, Amplify produces high-res, fully black maps. The compression algorithm doesn't do a good job on this and for a single 4096 impostor we end up with over 100MB (build size) of pure black, which is a big waste.

Would it be possible to automatically detect these channels as empty and just not render those textures?