Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

[BEST ARTISTIC TOOL - UNITY AWARDS 2019] Aura 2 - Volumetric Lighting & Fog

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by raphick, Feb 27, 2019.

  1. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    Thanks! I checked the documentation, but is there any descriptions of what reprojection does? I'm guess occlusion culling tries to figure out what not to render?

    Also, is there any description of of the grid settings, etc and what they do to performance vs visuals?
     
  2. cubrman

    cubrman

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2016
    Posts:
    409
    Hey,

    AURA 2 allows to use it's lighting inside particle shaders, what if I need only the light probe light? Any way to get it inside my custom shaders?

    I want to use it with particle systems that spawn opaque meshes over the entire level in order to introduce global illumination into them, as the Standard Particle shader allows for dynamic lighting with the deferred rendering path by default.
     
  3. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    I understand. Tutorials and setup videos are coming.

    He was suffering a blocking bug, it has been fixed in an update

    Yes I am pumping the doc up

    I am not sur to perfectly get what you want to achieve but here's how I understand it : just use light probes lighting injection in Aura2 (don't forget to enable it in the quality settings as it is currently still heavy) and in your shader you can call Aura2_ApplyLighting like it the doc page 7 (be careful that a there is a typo).
     
  4. cubrman

    cubrman

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2016
    Posts:
    409
    Standard Particle shader does not have Global Illumination or Image Based Lighting as far as I am aware in it, in deferred rendering these features require per-object reflection probes, if my particle system renders a tone of stuff all around the map in 1 pass (bullet shells) 1 interpolated light probe won't be enough. I need ONLY the light probe lighting, I will be trying out ApplyLighting like you said but I am afraid it has ALL the lighting in it. Anyway we will see.
     
  5. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2013
    Posts:
    1,869
    Volumetric Fog and Mist in the asset store does exactly that.
     
  6. angel_m

    angel_m

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2005
    Posts:
    1,160
    Is possible to set the fog height in Aura 2?
     
  7. Waterlane

    Waterlane

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2015
    Posts:
    188
    Am just starting to use Aura 2 and really liking what it's doing... but, my post processing effects don't seem to be having much effect on my scene. Any suggestions to why this may be?
    [Unity 2018.3 - Standard Render pipeline]
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2019
  8. PhoenixAdvanced

    PhoenixAdvanced

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2016
    Posts:
    316
    Hi,

    Aura 2 looks fantastic, and I am really excited to upgrade from Aura1!

    There is just one question that I have.

    I am building a large world, and I have assets (rooms, etc) streaming in and out dynamically. With Aura 1, I had some issues with this. I found that in some cases if I loaded an object in dynamically, the aura lights on that object wouldn't work properly.

    I haven't tried with the latest version of Aura1 yet, but does Aura 2 support dynamic creation/deletion of lights in real time?

    Could I, for example, load in a room from a prefab (using loadsceneasync) that contains aura lights, and have those lights interact correctly with the scene?

    Thanks!
     
    PeterB likes this.
  9. ViewportAU

    ViewportAU

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2014
    Posts:
    26
    I cant move anymore gameobjects in the scene, only from editor. Tried multiple things like closing scenes restarting Unity... etc... I can't use this in its current state.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2019
  10. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2013
    Posts:
    1,869
    Are the objects set to STATIC?
    If the objects are set to STATIC Unity will lock them at runtime.
     
  11. ViewportAU

    ViewportAU

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2014
    Posts:
    26
    Static and non static, run time and not runtime, I can only move objects from inspector XYZ position
     
  12. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    Hi,

    A couple of questions:

    1) Is there any way to colour the fog without making it lighter? By default it's a dirty grey. How could I simulate stuff like desert dust?

    2) When I have the editor set to maximize the game view and pause the game, everything is ok, when I unpause the game and the screen maximizes, Aura 2 seems disabled, all the fog is gone. If I pause and it switches to the little window, Aura 2 looks ok again. Not sure what's happening.

    3) Aura 2 doesn't seem to be interacting properly with the Unity Fog (or the unity fog is overwriting Aura 2?) See screenshot below, in the upper right is a sphere volume around the near mountain peak. Skybox looks fine, but the fogged terrain meshes are not.

    2019-03-08_09-51-44.png
     
    Unplug likes this.
  13. Ardinius

    Ardinius

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2015
    Posts:
    57
    Unity 2018.2.0f2 fresh project, import Aura2, run any example scene and i get 999 of these errors Graphics.CopyTexture can only copy between same texture format groups (d3d11 base formats: src=27 dst=1)
     
  14. lorddesu

    lorddesu

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2014
    Posts:
    31
  15. Jesus

    Jesus

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2010
    Posts:
    501
    This idea is so ghetto it came Straight Outta Crompton, but can you use a light probe proxy volume on a particle system? Would it even allow you to select that as an option (over Blend Probes)? That way you can select the probe sample density (custom grid). I'm genuinely curious about this, please let me know how it works.

    The way I'd do it, at least In Aura1, is to use a planar fog volume, at a fairly large scale suitable for the level. Then you can choose the softness / fade / etc. Move it up a little so it isn't just fogging things under the ground (below Y0)
     
    raphick likes this.
  16. SeanC88

    SeanC88

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2012
    Posts:
    19
    Has anyone else run into this? Absolutely nothing in the scene but a fog preset and a cube and when i move the cube around I get these trails. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

    https://imgur.com/VlRSUgn
     
    carlotta89 likes this.
  17. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2013
    Posts:
    1,869
    It's not ghetto, it's officially stated in the manual to use it for that precise purpose! :p
    The Light Probe Proxy Volume (LPPV) component allows you to use more lighting information for large dynamic GameObjects that cannot use baked lightmaps (for example, large Particle Systems or skinned Meshes).

    https://docs.unity3d.com/2017.4/Documentation/Manual/class-LightProbeProxyVolume.html
     
    Adam-Bailey likes this.
  18. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    Yeah that happens with me by default. You can reduce the temporal reprojection or disable occlusion culling I think.
     
    raphick likes this.
  19. SeanC88

    SeanC88

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2012
    Posts:
    19
    Thanks! Turning off occlusion culling did it for me! For others who have the same problem, select your Aura Camera, and look under Quality Settings to turn off Occlusion Culling.
     
    raphick likes this.
  20. julianr

    julianr

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2014
    Posts:
    1,212
    So this doesn't work with Occlusion Culling on? What if you need it.
     
  21. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    Hey guys! Sorry for the late reply, I've been sick as hell for the last week with the flu... :eek:

    You'll indeed get the whole Aura 2 volumetric illumination so it will only work if you have only probes lighting enabled.

    Yes just use a layer volume ;-)

    Will normally be fixed in the next update :)

    Absolutely. Aura 2 has been deeply refactored ;-)

    Sorry about that, this will be fixed in the next update

    Hey ;-)
    1. There is currently no way to modify the base albedo of the transport medium. You can set a global color with a low intensity though, it does the job very well.
    2. This is a misbehaviour related to the sceneview preview.
    3. I don't know about it I must confess since I always disabled it. However unity fog is poorly supported on non pc platforms and is erratically applied in shaders so it could happen that it weirdly overrides aura.
    Will need to follow this up.

    I am looking at this. Got a repro project.

    Use injection volumes with a cylinder shape or box+texture3D mask :)

    This is not the occlusion culling from Unity we're talking about, you can keep this one. It's the custom occlusion culling from Aura 2 that prevents unseen spaces to be computed to save performances. This is a WIP feature that is seen in no other solution and that works well most of the time.
     
    GordGames, julianr and lorddesu like this.
  22. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50
    Hi I am having some issues when I build for SteamVR. here is a screenshot. Everything looks good inside unity but when i build it does not seem to work outside of unity. any suggestions? Aura VR Help.jpg
     
  23. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    no message in the console of your build?
     
  24. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    Regarding the upcoming update 2.0.3
    Here's the changelog :
    There has been a bug with the submission process but the update is re-submitted and should be live anytime soon!
     
    Waterlane likes this.
  25. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50

    Just This.....

    Assets/Aura 2/Examples/Sources/Scripts/AutoMoveAndRotate.cs(13,23): warning CS0414: The private field `Aura2API.AutoMoveAndRotate._timestamp' is assigned but its value is never used
     
  26. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    this is nothing. Can you try a normal player build?
     
  27. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50

    Yeah Ill setup a non SteamVR project and run another test.

    On The SteamVr Test I created a new project > imported in this order Aura 2, Gaia, SteamVR. > Created a empty scene with a plane and a cube > Applied Aura Dawn Preset. Then did the build test.

    Unity Version 2017.4.20f2
     
  28. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50

    Do I need to roll back and build with Unity version 2017.2 i just noticed that in the documents.
     
  29. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2018
    Posts:
    103
    This is not the occlusion culling from Unity we're talking about, you can keep this one. It's the custom occlusion culling from Aura 2 that prevents unseen spaces to be computed to save performances. This is a WIP feature that is seen in no other solution and that works well most of the time.

    This is awesome, so you mean that if its a foggy environment with Aura 2, all the buildings behind that you don't see because the fog got occluded?
     
    julianr likes this.
  30. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50

    sorry i Just did a development build and i get this error in that console .....

    Graphics.CopyTexture could not find source D3D11 texture object. Maybe it is a RenderTexture that is not created yet?
    (Filename: C:\buildslave\unity\build\Runtime/GfxDevice/d3d11/GfxDeviceD3D11.cpp Line: 1643)
     
  31. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50

    also get this when import into a new project..


    Shader warning in 'Aura 2/Particles/Blend Add': Output value 'vert' is not completely initialized at AuraParticlesBase.cginc(33) (on d3d11)

    Compiling Vertex program with _USAGESTAGE_VERTEX _USAGETYPE_LIGHT
    Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_COLORSPACE_GAMMA UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR
     
  32. generalknow

    generalknow

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2013
    Posts:
    50
    I did a normal player build and everything worked fine.
    just having the issue when i build for SteamVR. I am testing on windows mixed reality platform.
     
  33. MartinOrtiz

    MartinOrtiz

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2018
    Posts:
    122
    ok, thanks for info
     
  34. MartinOrtiz

    MartinOrtiz

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2018
    Posts:
    122
    I can still use Aura 2....

    Can you explain what are "injection volumes"?
     
  35. KennyGuillaume

    KennyGuillaume

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2014
    Posts:
    11
    Just bought the asset, and I'm really liking it!
    Running into an issue though. When using the noise mask, I get this noise on my skybox as well.

    Is there a way around it? I'm using the Azure[Sky] Dynamic Skybox asset by the way.

    And related question to this. Is it possible to exclude the skybox from this effect entirely? So that, when choosing a color for the Aura effect, the skybox doesn't change color.

    Great work so far!
     
    ftejada and diekeure like this.
  36. MartinOrtiz

    MartinOrtiz

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2018
    Posts:
    122
    What is the difference and/or advantages between
    1) Global Volume?

    2) Layer Volume?

    3) Shape Volume (box, sphere, cone)?
     
  37. RPowers

    RPowers

    Joined:
    May 14, 2015
    Posts:
    122
    Thanks! Setting depth bias at 0 looks much better in VR.
     
  38. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    Hope you're feeling better soon! Fog is pretty much the last of my issues. Since my game has a huge map and you can be flying pretty high, I do need a way to hide the camera clipping. Unity fog has worked ok (it goes through the post processing stack, so maybe that's why it interacts weirdly?).

    Any suggestions? I could look for a 3rd party fog replacement I suppose.

    I an planning on porting to the Nintendo Switch (some day... a year?) so hopefully you've gotten Aura2 working with that by then! ;)
     
  39. AndyNeoman

    AndyNeoman

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2014
    Posts:
    938
    Anyone manage to get Aura 2 to work with Post process V2? If just updated to latest store Aura 2 but still if I put Post process on the camera it goes completely black.
     
  40. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    Fog Update: Upgrading from the old post processing stack to post processing v2 has made a big improvement.
     
  41. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    I did just that, actually.
     
  42. GordGames

    GordGames

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Posts:
    32
    This is with post processing v2 using a stylistic fog and a few effects: 2019-03-15_14-57-04.png
     
    AndyNeoman likes this.
  43. CloverBite

    CloverBite

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2016
    Posts:
    2
    Hi,

    Thank you for your awesome work! We used AURA 1 in our project and are now transitioning to AURA 2.
    After importing the package, I have the following error in my console:
    I'm using Unity 2018.3.8f1. I have completely removed AURA 1 before importing AURA 2.
    Thank you again :)
     
  44. khos

    khos

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    Posts:
    1,476
    Hi Raphick, All,

    I recently purchased Aura 2 to get it implemented in my game, like it so far but have a noticed a couple possible issues, I would appreciate feedback/recommendations on these please:

    Light through particle systems, not sure if you are aware of this, does it support working with particle systems? See sample below.Before particle system:
    2-particle system.PNG
    During particle system:
    3-particle system.PNG
    The light still seems be showing on the ground/trees in this view. It could just be my scene setup. Not sure if this looks normal or expected, would appreciate your feedback.

    Multi cameras in use issue, I waited patiently for Aura 2 as multi camera is supported. You will see with this video that when switching between horse/player (and car) the lighting is sometimes very different, even though all the Aura components are enabled the at some point the Aura effect is not seen anymore in the game. Why is that?
    Video sample:


    Ghosting issue. You will see in this video how I move around/zoom and there is a ghosting image, as if Aura is "catching up" to render the volumetric effect. Note, I did not see this when using Aura1. Any recommendations on this? Is this a performance issue, how can I improve?
    Video sample:


    Thanks in advance.
     
    Gametyme likes this.
  45. ZAXIS

    ZAXIS

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2016
    Posts:
    23
    Concerning building to Nintendo switch:

    the platform does not support 'RGBAFloat' Texture format, and therefore works only where they are not used.
    Otherwise it is running alright :)

    ps: I checked SystemInfo, and it claims it can support RGBAHalf
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2019
  46. jdclark3d

    jdclark3d

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2017
    Posts:
    4
    Hello, I am having an issue related to particles as well. I have a dark smoke particle system and when I use any of the Aura particle shaders it will turn it white. Then when I use the standard alpha blended I get the color correct but then the transparency gets messed up and you can see the edges of the texture map where it should be invisible.
     
  47. cygnusprojects

    cygnusprojects

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2011
    Posts:
    766
    Hi @raphick,

    Trying to make R.A.M compatible with Aura 2 so I'm following along with the manual:
    1. Include “Aura.cginc” located in the “/Aura 2/System/Code/Shaders/” folder.
    Code (CSharp):
    1. #include "Assets/Aura 2/System/Code/Shaders/Aura.cginc"
    However this does already result in an error:
    Code (CSharp):
    1. Shader error in 'NatureManufacture Shaders/Water/Aura/Water River Tesseled Vertex Color Flow': Unexpected token '('. Expected one of: ',' ';' at Structs.cginc(27)
    Is there an actual example available that can be used as a blueprint for shader adjustments that needs to be done for Aura 2 compatibility?
     
  48. raphick

    raphick

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2016
    Posts:
    365
    hi! it's actually because it is a volumetric effect... it happens before the sky. removing aura from the skybox would really be a killer and cause big artifacts as the fog would only apply on objects but would be cut by sky.

    Those a just different shapes but can inject the same data inside. Have a look at the doc for more information ;)

    This message is harmless and is about some changes made by Unity in 2018.x it only happens at import

    Yes use the particle shaders that are provided with Aura 2 or modify yours to add Aura 2 system in it
    Are the same bas/quality presets applied to all the cameras?
    Disable occlusion culling in aura quality or reduce/disable reprojection or get more fps :p

    Great Info! Thanks :)

    Have you tried reducing Light Factor? Are the materials in the transparent queue?

    The doc was update and I indeed intend to have a tutorial about it. RAM shaders are surface shaders so you'll need to have a look at the provided example:
    - open "Assets\Aura 2\System\Code\Shaders\Shaders\SurfaceShaders\AuraStandardAlphaBlended.shader"
    - copy the pragmas at lines 35 36 37
    - add "finalcolor:Aura2_Fog" in the surface pragma line
    - and copy lines 43->66 and 75->88 in your shader
     
    Subliminum likes this.
  49. cygnusprojects

    cygnusprojects

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2011
    Posts:
    766
    Works like a charm, thanks!
     
  50. khos

    khos

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    Posts:
    1,476
    Multi camera issue:
    Yes, I have three cameras that use the same presets file! I still see the issue, have you tested with multi cameras? Like 3 of them?

    Disable occlusion culling has helped, thanks.