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

How do you guys change/set preset settings when the scene loads? My camera is loaded in during runtime.

 

I just realized aura 2 is causing me massive lag in 2019.1.8
I didn't have this problem in 2018.
what version are you on generalknow

 

I am staying with Unity 2018.3.8f1 until I finish my project. Everything is stable for me with that version... Assets I use that all work good for me(Gaia, CTS terrain shader, Amplify Shader, Ambient Sounds, Aura2 and GPU particle systems) then I was going to migrate and test my Assets with 2019 sometime in August.

The thing that kills my framerate is having lots of realtime lights in a small area.... I made some custom lights that turn off and on only when my player is nearby... that way I am only lighting the area closest to my player.

 

I load my scenes as Additive scenes like this.... First my player and camera in its own scene with don't destroy on load. Then my terrain has its own scene. Then my Environment has its own scene it has my Directional Light for Sun/Moon, and I create a really large Aura2 volume that fills my entire playable world. I use this volume as my global volume and I disable the global volume settings on the Aura2 camera script. Doing this allows me to unload and load different environments ie more fog less for night or day with different scenes i have for those settings.. I can also target the global volume i made at run-time using the API and change settings there after it loads..Then I load the scene that contains the buildings and walkways and playable game assets for the area my player navigates towards.

 

I don't use any of the Aura2 presets I find that it is better to create your own environment.

 

Ahh ok. I bet you thats whats going on then. I'm pretty sure I had no lag issues when I was using 2018 with aura 2.
I have hardly any real time lighting atm.
I was forced to upgrade to 2019 due to a massive editor bug I could not wipe out using Vegetation Studio. It froze my terrain tools. Was super bad no online fixes worked for me. I simply could not wait for a fix. Course now i have other new issues with 2019 lol. Aura 2 and i had a huge lag issue with vegetation studio but I think that is fixed now i the latest version of Unity. I still don't think it runs like it used to on 2018 though.

Over all 2019 is running pretty good now on 2019.1.8. For working anyways. Probably not for production use yet.

I appreciated your reply to my question man. Thanks

 

Umm your design is something i never heard of before. How the heck can you have different scenes and then combine them into one? lol. I don't understand how you have terrain in one scene and buildings in another.
Can you get me a link to read about this? I'm sure its related to the new scene manager that I barely even use atm. Didn't realize you can do stuff like that though.

But ya I do my camera like you do yours. Don't destroy on load and among a ton of other things. Thanks for the volume tip to replace global volume. I'll probablly do that then. The developer of aura2 replied to my email though I haven't read it yet. The settings thing seems like a good option for me so idk. Except I notice that if you don't have a camera aura 2 component in your scene while you are working then if you activate aura2 lighting in scene view it will use default settings. So maybe thats why you use that global volume thing cause you don't have your camera in your scene while you are working?

 

Here is a link to for multi-scene editing
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/MultiSceneEditing.html

I use this to load scenes. Single mode loads a standard Unity Scene which then appears on its own in the Hierarchy window. Additive loads a Scene which appears in the Hierarchy window while another is active.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/SceneManagement.SceneManager.LoadSceneAsync.html

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/SceneManagement.LoadSceneMode.html

 

Hi all. Has anyone had any success adding aura to cinemachine cameras? I am trying to the visuals the same between cutscenes and gameplay. If I add aura camera to my camera with cinemachine brain it appears fine in the editor but when i enter play mode the effects are clearly not there.

 

Check the Project Settings Graphics settings... make sure the player is not default to a low setting on play.

 

Hi,

I am currently using Unity version 2019.2.0b4 and the toolbox will not appear. Is there a way around this?

Cheers

 

Thanks, what settings would effect cinemachines usage with Aura2? Aura2 works fine on my character controler camera and all effects are visable but when I switch to my cutscene cameras (which have cinemachine on them) the effects disappear.

 

Try using a bit of code to disable then re-enable the Aura2 component attached to the cutscene camera after you turn off the controller camera... I think with Multi-cameras it needs a little jiggle to make the magic stuff transfer.

 

Unless you really need 2019's new features I would go with a 2018.x.x version for anything for production... I would only use 2019 as a beta .... Over time most assets will be updated to work with 2019. But don't expect all 3rd-party tools to be ready yet. If you need to get work done work with a 2018.x.x version.

 

Yeah, it is something to do with it not enabling properly even though it is active and enabled. I added a diasable/enable script to the gameobject and even though it works (Adds and enables) the effects do not. If I manually click in the inspector it does work so this is a bit weird. We are definitely on the right path though. Im just going through the docs now I am going to try and add a auracamera at runtime to the cinemachine camera and see if that works. Thanks for the help.

 

One last thing - has anyone got a link to the api for adding a auracam at runtime I cant see it in the docs.

 

Very frustrating. Using Aura.AddAuraToCameras(1); i can add aura cam but again the effects don't show. It only works by manually disabling and enabling in the inspector. Any idea why it is not working via code?

 

I know others have the same issue you are having . I think the developer is aware and will have a fix for you in his next updates. Multi-camera support was only added a few updates ago and may still need some fine tunning.

 

It's led me to fix a longstanding issue I had on getting a cinemamachine brain component working on my ufps character any way so all's well that ends well lol. Ive just got one camera now and several Vcams so it's ok for the moment. Thanks for the heads up.

 

why is it that when I add a volume and set it to the size of my entire map. Then I enable Aura 2 in scene view. why is scene view still having its own global settings while not being in runtime?

 

@generalknow
How do you disable global settings on the AuraCamera?
I disabled them on the prefab of my camera but when I enter runtime they magically get enabled.
So I tried this and it seem to of worked once but now it no longer works which is odd. It just ignores it.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.         auraCamera.frustumSettings.baseSettings.useDensity = false;
3.         auraCamera.frustumSettings.baseSettings.useScattering = false;
4.         auraCamera.frustumSettings.baseSettings.useColor = false;
5.         auraCamera.frustumSettings.baseSettings.useAmbientLighting = false;
6.         auraCamera.frustumSettings.baseSettings.useExtinction = false;
7.  

 

My camera is in a player prefab... I have noticed the global settings turn them self back on all the time... Inside a prefab object seems to preserve the settings.

 

I figured it out.
its BaseSettings not baseSettings. so the developer has a cache going on and he has both accessible

 

Hi @generalknow , I noticed your particle work in the video, very impressive. I don't suppose you have managed to add aura to your shaders? I'm trying to add to the weather asset I use (Unistorm) but i'm not sure how to slot in the example code in the docs. I added as described but must have missed something as it is not working. Any tips if you have any would be appreciated .

 

I am using a GPU particle System that plays nice with Aura2.....

I still have not created a shader for Aura2 transparency surfaces. I am having some problems getting it to work still.
The Particle shaders that come with Aura2 work with the Standard particle system I think.

I use the Amplify Shader Editor in my project.

 

@generalknow I think you are getting to crazy with bloom on a few things man. Like on the console. Also some of the scifi effects doesn't fit with the environment probably with overly bloom settings.
Looks like you are trying to create a effect using bloom instead of using bloom to bring an effect out. Use mesh,shader and particle system to get the effect exactly like you want then use bloom to make it shiny/bloomy

 

Unfortunately that's not an option. 2019 is the version I need to use, and this asset stated it works with the latest versions of Unity. There either needs to be a solution to this issue or a refund.

 

I have assets I purchase that end up not being compatible with my project. Unfortunately there are no refunds from purchases at the Unity3d asset store.

The developer Package for Aura2 has been submitted using Unity 2017.2.4.

The documents for Aura2 clearly says.

"Aura 2 release was targeted for Unity 2017.2 : - older version will not be supported - newer version will be supported with updates if necessary "

I don't see anywhere on his store page that says it is compatible with 2019 yet. I suggest before you purchase a store asset that you read the entire documentation for it. Definitely read the document before demanding a refund.

 

So then that fits into the category of it needing to be fixed.

 

Thats a really cool trailer man. I really love the scifi environment you made.
The bloom issues exist in that trailer to though. Over doing bloom is a common though. I see it a lot.

Look at your computer monitor in your room and see how much bloom is coming off of it. or go look at you tube videos of someone welding metal together. You will see what I'm talking about.

Check this link out from the Neon Challenge.
This is a good example of bloom being done correctly.

Keep in mind im just trying to offer you some constructive thoughts. Since you helped me out with some ideas and links.

 

I fixed my problem by moving all of my stuff to a new scene.

 

I actually fixed the lag issue I had with 2019.
Taking @generalknow advice on using a volume for global and after disabling the AuraCamera global settings by script the lag issue went away.
So the lag in 2019 seems to have something to do with using global on the AuraCamera.
I'm disabling the settings right after OnSceneLoaded gets executed.

Interesting to note. Disabling global manually in the editor did not remove the lag. Only doing it by script. Not sure what is with that.

 

I turned the bloom down from 2.5 to 1 again .... I am going for a dreamy feel with lots of darkness and brightness together. Most of my effects are being tuned for VR goggles. After setting bloom back down to 1 I feel like I want to go over some of my effects and turn the Brightness back up. I do metal welding for a living so I love overly bright electronic arcs with plasma.

 

Hi @raphick I understand you are away at the moment but if you get a chance to you go over the detail for adding the aura 2 effects to shaders in a little more detail? Specifically for weather effects. I've reached out to @BHS who makes the great unistorm asset and he said he is going to contact you to add support. Your two assets together will look amazing. It's seem like a simple process but after following you doc instructions it is not working so i wondering what type of shaders it works with. Unistorm is a weather asset with the sun and moon working already with Aura 2 (to my eyes anyway) but the particles for rain/snow/mist/fog etc do not show up well.

 

Bump for HDRP support if it makes sense.

 

Any idea how to stop this crazy flickering on the fog? seems like super fast noise all over it.

 

Hey, guys!

Any news on orthographic camera support?

 

I guess I'm still getting massive lag in 2019 using Aura 2

 

Good morning all. I'm looking at optimising my game as I get close to an alpha build has anyone had success adding aura to lights based on distance to player at runtime? Any other tips or tricks for getting the best out of aura?

 

Hi @raphick, Have you received a msg from the unistorm dev regarding integration? If you are still away could you confirm when you are back with support etc?

 

Ya I understand man. Going from 2.5 to 1 is a big difference. I didn't mean to turn it down that much.
Also I was wondering do you have awesome welding effect? I need one for my game.

 

hmmm how accurate of a welding effect is needed? its the melting and cooling metal that would be tuff to simulate easy... as far as faking it i use a GPU particle system that can throw out a crapton of particles without killing framerate. I would use the GPU particles to make some smoke and the sparks that fall... then Aura2 and a point light in the center of it with a real bright neon blue color and another with a red/orange color for the melting steel. if you are good with shaders you can do the lava pool that forms and cools on the surface with shader system. also you will get bonus points if you make a tiny little electric arc from the welder tip to the metal.

 

Please allow me to use GOOGLE translation to talk
Because my English is not good

I am using aura2 version 2018.3.13f1 in my project.
And use SteamVR
It doesn't seem to have the effect of Light Scattering
How do I change it? Thank you.

 

Hi! It seems I do not receive notifications from here.
Feel free to come on discord : https://discordapp.com/invite/9Upuey2 ! It is more reactive than here.
I am currently working hard on version 2.1, hoping to make Aura 2 better and better.

Cheers!

Compute shaders are supported on these platforms ( https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-ComputeShader.html ) :

• Windows and Windows Store, with a DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 graphics API and Shader Model 5.0 GPU
• macOS and iOS using Metal graphics API
• Android, Linux and Windows platforms with Vulkan API
• Modern OpenGL platforms (OpenGL 4.3 on Linux or Windows; OpenGL ES 3.1 on Android). Note that Mac OS X does not support OpenGL 4.3
• Modern consoles (Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox One)

Enviro's dev and I are in contact and he is doing the integration of Aura 2. Feel free to ask him about an update.

Yes it is made for this kind of setup

Users have bee working successfully with it. Can you try multipass as debug?

Can you try without the scene view displayed along the gameview? (Sceneview preview is still experimental)

Weird but it's good to know, I should track this. Can you give more info about how it does not like presets?

If the screen is flooded it's certainly because something is too bright (light, post process, ...)
It's better to set it before PPS.

...

You should conceptually separate color and density. You can have a black fog or a colored "no fog". What is a clear state?

A screen could help... (I suspect the ambient lighting of your scene though...)

You can do it several ways.
You can create one camera per scene/usage for example.
If you have a common camera, you can do it by script with

Code (CSharp):

1. auraCameraComponent.frustumSettings.LoadQualitySettings(AuraQualitySettings qualitySettings);

Hi! Unfortunately this is normal that the output is different in linear color space than in gamma space as colors are treated differently

Hi this is an extreme example of jittering used to smooth rendering. Can you try having a higher reprojection factor or disable reprojection?

I am in the work of improving performances for version 2.1
Do you have deeper profiling info?

Awesome trailer!

Orthographic mode will be supported in Aura 2.1

That is unfortunately one of the paradigm of realtime rendering :-(
I am trying to improve performances for that kind of cases. I have solid clues.

I bump on this!

Hey they seem to have changed (again) their API. This will be managed.
However the API is not deprecated yet so it still should work.

It should just work with Aura 2 along Cinemachine Brain component. Do you have some more information about the setup?

Bump... (2019 is a mess)

Just simply use AddComponent<AuraCamera>()

... assets sold on the store don't have to comply with non-release versions (and there is no obligations of version support anyway)... so... yeah... let's breath
I am doing my best to keep Aura 2 working on newer versions (despite their bad habits of changing lots of things).
Now, I double checked and it works on 2019 without any fix ;-)

Ambient lighting of the scene...?

That is some weird stuff! Global setting on the camera are still present if they are disabled (they're just set to 0) since they are actually starting values for computation and cost nothing... This is to be tracked!

It is not a matter of being away unfortunately, I just didn't receive notifications from the forums.
We're indeed in contact with UniStorm dev and he is finishing the integration. I won't speak for him though ;-)

Omg! What's the reprojection factor?

It will come in Aura 2.1

No problem for english we'll manage.
Are your lights baked?

 

Heya. Small issue with Aura2 that has been driving us crazy! I'm hoping someone has encountered or has suggestions for please?

Try as we might all the beautiful Aura FX we create in Unity show when building locally for devices, but when we send to CloudBuild the resulting build is missing any sign of Aura vfx. There was a brief moment where we accidentally changed 'something' and it started working so we know it's not specifically cloudbuild that is the prob - but have since done a fresh install of Unity and Aura2 and back to sq one.

Unity 2019.3.1. Mac OSX. Tried reinstalling the Asset several times without any luck(

Any help much appreciated!! Thanks

 

I'd already tried all of that to no avail before posting the problem, unfortunately, and this really isn't an extreme example. The issue occurs with default settings on a clean build on any PC, and the reproduction steps are to just install the asset into a blank project and create a sphere volume. The result is what I posted in that gif.

The only solution I've found that kind of works for one project was to scale everything in my scene up in size massively, but that's not ideal and doesn't fix the problem completely. Does Aura have some kind of internal world scale setting we can tweak?

 

I found that my Editor and play screens are not the same.
Unity version. 2018.3.13f1
HTC VIVE SteamVR
inEditor

InPlay


Quity

 

@raphick I've since fixed the issue by moving all of my stuff to a new scene.

 

I just purchased Aura 2 and added it to my project. Thank you @raphick for creating this asset.

Since I added Aura 2 to a directional light in my scene the build is failing:

Texture2DArrayComposer.AddTexture

triggers the error in Texture2DArrayComposer.cs line 154. ("Pixel sizes of texture ... does not match the required size ...")

What it boils down to is that

AuraLight.shadowMapRenderTexture

has 512px and 256px but

AddTexture

requires 512px and 512px.

Edit:
In

DirectionalLightsManager

: For one cascade and four cascades

x

and

y

of the shadow map have the same size but not for two cascades. Is that intended?

In other words shouldn't

y

be multiplied by 2 as well for two cascades in DirectionalLightsManager.cs line 43?

Code (CSharp):

1. _shadowMapSizeTwoCascades = new Vector2Int(DirectionalLightsManager._shadowMapSizeOneCascade.x * 2, DirectionalLightsManager._shadowMapSizeOneCascade.y * 2);

Setup: Unity 2019.1.12f1 and Aura 2.0.7 on Windows 10 DX11.