Graphics Azure[Sky] - Dynamic Skybox

Hi!
Ok, i see. How far away is the next release?
I would really need a way to change the ground color in the reflection, since i dont have the budget to use reflection probes. It looks really weird.

Otherwise its a really great asset !

If the next big release is far away is there any chance of getting a small update with a setting for ground color?

 

ohh!

Another thing that would be super handy, a setting to just use an image as a moon. The extra camera does not always work with the VR setup, the moon disappears and you cant get it back. And maybe it would improve performance a little bit.

 

The big update will be the version 4.0! The release of this version has not set date and will possibly take a bit to get out, because for me it is not possible to live only with the Asset Store sales, so I have to work on other jobs and projects to avoid bankruptcy, and at the moment is impossible to me to work with Azure at full-time! But you do not have to worry about because the version will come out and I'll need it in my game too.

I was ready to release an update fixing bugs, but then I'll take and make those modifications to the ground color of the daytime sky and soon send the update.

The moon will only appear in the sky in gameplay. This is because the Render Texture of the moon is not set for the property "Target Texture" of the camera aimed at the moon and this setting will occur in the start event of the scene.

You can drag the Render Texture of the moon for the property "Target Texture" of the camera, so the moon will be visible when not in gameplay. I made it through script to avoid a Unity's bug that seems to destroy the Render Textures setted to the cameras when you export the project. You can learn more about it here.

 

Wow, this asset is smashing it now. Great work buddy, you dropped all the features I dreamt of ages ago and its great to see them grow into this.

I've hit a problem.

I'm using some terrain tessellation on my terrain which allows me too crank the pixel error right down and save lots of cpu via terrain settings. This then causes problems with the fog scattering along the horizon on the terrain as the low pixel error setting will reduce the geometry of the terrain and make the Fog Shader outline that reduced terrain geometry. Have you any suggestions on how I could possibly get round this issue?

I've also noticed my frame drastically change in the profiler when using Color setting on Ambient Light. The profiler task is Particle Update(), it literally will add 30fps spikes when not using the Skybox setting. Do you know why this might happen?

 

Thank you, some features were your idea. The next version will come with many more features!

Try disabling anti aliasing in project quality settings. In previous versions of Unity, the anti aliasing interfere in many image effects, particularly in that they are based on the depth buffer and sometimes an outline effect appear on the horizon. In the version of Unity 5.3.4 that I'm using it seems that does not happen anymore.

It can also be the order that the image effects are set in your camera. For example if you add a blur effect to distort the image and then add the fog effect, the fog will not take the blur into account and will apply the effect only on the pixels that draw to the depth buffer and the depth buffer does not it is affected by the blur effect.

Or it may be that your terrain is not drawing correctly to the depth buffer. I tested here with a standard Unity terrain and it seems that everything is working normally as you can see in the screen shots.

The color setting only sends the color information from the Inspector to the properties of the "Lighting" window and nothing else, so you do not need switching the windows all the time. Perhaps the Unity internally do some extra calculations when this option is selected, but I do not believe it.

Disable the use of "Reflection Probes" on the "Options" tab can increase performance considerably if you do not need this feature. Or you can increase the update interval of reflections on the "Ambient" tab setting the "Refresh Mode" to Via Scripting.

 

Hi, when new version will be release?

 

Hi 7stars,

Is it possible to create or have Sun Shafts/God Rays "volumetric lighting" with Azure?

 

Has no date set for the release, the chances are that it will take because I started from scratch and has many new features that I want to add that are too complex to do!

You can use the Unity's sun shafts, adding a source for each directional light of the sun and moon. I have plans to add volumetric effect in later updates of version 4x, but I do not know much about how to do and I can not promise it right now.

 

Great news that there will be a small release with aground color settings.

Looking forward to that!

 

Btw. It would be supernice if the mini update also made the fog support "single pass stereo rendering".

 

I tested almost all sky on the asset store, the last one was Tenkoku, I'm going to be honest I couldn't create a proper day cycle with any of them! none of them had enough options to create a realistic cycle. but Azure is different for me. it's the only sky solution that I can achieve a correct day and night cycle.
Thanks for this asset.

 

(WIP)
Real System of Time and Date for the Solar and Lunar Position.
​

After much time trying to implement the date and time system to calculate the actual position of the sun and the moon, the system is now almost complete.

In the current version to change the phases of the moon it is necessary to change the rotation of the moon's directional light manually or by its own code. Now is need just choose a date, time and location that everything will be done automatically and accurately.

I stayed awake many nights testing and checking the position of the moon according to the (latitude, longitude and time zone) from where I live. The accuracy was amazing, the moon in the sky disappeared on the horizon at the same time as in Azure, also the phases of the moon in Azure will be the same that in real world.​

 

Hi, clouds doesn't looks good when I'm using default space color (not Gamma).
Also what happened to cloud system of first azure version? I was like that clouds a lot more.

 

This version of Azure was made using the Gamma color space as the default, so if you are using the Gamma color space in the project settings, leave the color space option in Azure as default.

When you change the color space to linear in the project settings, you need to convert Azure back into the Gamma color space so that the sky looks the same, so you have to leave the Azure color space option as "Linear to Gamma ".

If your project settings uses the color space:
Gamma: In Azure select the "default" option.
Linear: In Azure select the "Linear to Gamma" option.

The cloud system of the current version is far superior to the old system, now the clouds are dynamic and you have a lot more control, you can even control the cloud cover, which is impossible in the old system because the clouds was several pre-rendered textures in an animation sequence. Now only one texture is used, in the old system was used 120 to 320 textures.

In the current version still has the old cloud system in one of the demonstration scenes, and in the next version this old system will no longer be part of the package because practically nobody uses it and only makes the size of the package too large to be downloaded.

If all goes well, the next version of Azure will come with a new cloud system that uses a technique called "ray tracing" or "ray marching".

 

hi

By when the next version is expected.

What would include new?

regards

 

Hi!
I'd like to release it before the end of the year, but that's almost impossible because I still have a lot of work to do. For now, there is no release forecast.

Azure 4 will be a completely new tool and is being redone from scratch. The major changes will be:

• Current position of the sun and moon based on time and date: 99% complete.

• Hoffman & Preetham sky model redone: 99% complete.

• Hoffman & Preetham fog redone: 0% complete.
  The code is almost the same as the sky, so it's simple to do. The most time consuming is to adjust the Inspector GUI.

• Proland sky model included: 0% complete.
  It is already working on another test project, still have to make the night sky and fix some errors, of course integrating it in Azure which consumes a lot of time adjusting the Inspector GUI. I'd say it's 60% complete. See more here.

• Proland fog included: 0% complete.
  The same as the sky model above. See more here and here.

• Proland preprocess: 100% complete. See more here.

• Climate control: 0% complete.

• New cloud system: 0% complete.

• New Inspector GUI: 45% complete.

• Light rays (Bonus): This I can not promise because I'm not sure if I can do it, but I'll try to add light rays effect of the sun and moon to simulate volumetric fog.

• Not to mention that I also have to do the documentation, demo scenes, videos and advertising material.

You will have an option in the Inspector to choose the sky model you want to use. Depending on the sky model you choose, will change the properties available for customization.
​

 

• Light rays (Bonus): This I can not promise because I'm not sure if I can do it, but I'll try to add light rays effect of the sun and moon to simulate volumetric fog."

This!! ;D would be amazing!!

 

Would it be possible to have 2 "Suns" and 5 "Moons"?

 

Azure only supports one sun and one moon. Maybe multiple moons and planets will be supported in the future if I ever create real volumetric clouds. Currently the Azure clouds are drawn in the skybox, and to show the moon behind the clouds it is necessary to use a RenderTexture of the moon sphere and send it to the skybox shader to be drawn before the clouds.

So to have multiple moons, you'd have to create a RenderTexture for each moon, and that would drop the game's performance. One of my desires is to create real volumetric clouds, so you just have to create spheres orbiting the scene to simulate planets and other moons, without the need for RenderTextures.

After the release of version 4, my focus will be on creating real volumetric clouds because this will be the only thing missing in Azure to be a complete tool for the creating of sky, atmosphere and weather.

 

I see. Azure is really beautiful and I would love to have a hack or a workaround if I want to have 2 suns, 3 moons, or a huge planet on the sky. A lot more freedom to design the environment. I understand that having all these features working in a fully 3D environment is maybe the right solution, but it's not always you want to do things physically correct because it will set limits in your design. Another thing that attracted me to your package was the option to have custom built clouds in another 3D app and bring them inside Unity. I loved that clever workaround. And I think was not very performance hungry ether. Would it be hard to have an alternative 2D solution like this included in the package as a permanent option? Even for a less dynamic environment.
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate your work.

 

Once Azure includes volumetric clouds...I will switch from TrueSky to your beautiful asset.

 

(WIP)
New Fog Scattering of Hoffman & Preetham Sky Model.​

I've redone the fog based on the Preetham sky model, and now it works realistically.

The fog scattering of the current version of Azure in the Asset Store works as a projection, ie the sky background color is projected over the objects on the scene to simulate depth. In this case, the fog in the distant mountains sometimes does not turn blue during the day because the sky ground color and the white line of the horizon is being projected over the scene.

Now this problem has been fixed and the Azure fog is much more realistic and impressive.




As the projected fog mode is also very beautiful, although it is not a hundred percent realistic, I've added an option to choose the fog mode between "Realistic" and "Projected." So, the user will be able to choose the best fog mode for your game.

​

 

It seems to me very well that you have given the option to choose either option.

Regards

 

Woow, the screenshots are so beautiful! Very impressive!
Is it possible to have less fog or the fog to start further away?
It's a bit exciting to see in the interface Azure[Sky]v4.

 

Yes! You can set the real distance that the fog will be based on start and end distance. It's the same that Unity's standard fog when selected the mode to "linear" in the Lighting window!

 

Cool, I'm really going to enjoy the new fog settings.
Would it be possible to have a color to pick or a gradient for the fog from close to the camera to far in the distance, in case we have some wild artistic urges or maybe we have a non realistic style/project. This as a third option next to the realistic and projected mode?

 

Beautiful, there is a performance issue when I set ambient light source as Skybox.

 

The sky model of "Hoffman & Preetham" has many customization options to use in stylized games. At the moment this is not yet in the plans, there are other features waiting in line for a long time to be implemented.

In the Asset Store, it has a styled fog pack that does exactly what you want and looks very good.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/43738

I think this performance problem is unrelated with Azure. In this case, Azure only changes the "Lighting" settings directly from your Inspector so you do not have to keep switching between the windows all the time. It also gives you the option to set the ambient colors at any time of day using the color gradient, which in Unity's default mode is not possible.

So when you switch the ambient light source as "Skybox" in Azure Inspector, it's the same as if you switched through the "Lighting" window.

Azure has no any feature that is dependent on the ambient light source, or turns on and off when this option is set as "Skybox" to justify loss of performance.

 

Thanks for the link! Does it work with Azure?

 

I do not have this asset, so I never tested it. But I think it's all about using that stylized fog instead of the Azure fog. I just do not know if it will be possible to change the colors of the fog according to the time of day, maybe using the "Output System" of Azure, but the "Output System" only returns Float and Color, not Gradient that in the promotional video of the asset is used to set the fog color at different distances. So I think that will have this limitation.

 

I just purchased azure sky and cant see the moon. Im currently using unity 5.5. I see the moon reflection but the moon does not appear. Please can someone help me solve this issue?

 

You must drag the Moon Render Texture to the "Target Texture" property of the camera(MoonCamera) that renders the moon. Otherwise the moon will only appear in gameplay and not in the editor.


This is to avoid a Unity bug that releases the Render Texture setted on the camera when build the project. You may notice that the "AzureTargetRender.cs" script is who sets the Moon Render Texture as target for the camera when the scene starts.

To avoid a possible compilation error, I recommend you leave the moon camera property(Target Texture) empty before building the game.

 

Will the promotion still come or is it cancelled?

 

Hi,

* does your package provide a transparent shader that works with your fog ?
In some cases i want to raise the fog density and transparent surfaces should correctly fade into the fog on distance.

Thanks

 

I already did the price change and sent it to the Asset Store team, it is now under pending review. Within the next few days it will be available with the promotional price.

The promotional price will be $30, after the end of the promotion the price will return to $45. And after the release of version 4.0.0 the price will be $65. When the submission is accepted I will write a new topic advising.

The promotion will last until the middle of January 2017.

Azure fog will only affect the objects in the scene that draw to the depth buffer. Unity's transparent shaders do not draw to the depth buffer, unless you use the cutout shaders.

Making the fog works with transparent shaders is one of my targets for after the release of version 4.0.0 in one of the future small updates.

 

I have this issue with azure sky. When i drop in the sky prefab none of the colors are being setup meaning i dont see the sky.

 

Make sure the gradients are not all set to white. There is a bug in Unity that resets the original color setting to white at the package importing.

I think that this is the same issue. #268

The explanation and how to solve it is here. #270

The sky material is applied to the skybox automatically when you drag the prefab to the scene, otherwise you have to do this manually through the "Lighting" window.

 

I still can't see any moon or milky way. I have made sure that the render texture is assigned to the moon camera but still no luck. No moon no milky way perplexing

 

Problem Fixed thanks

 

Hi,

Could you confirm that the various clouds shown in this post can all be achieved with the Azure[Sky] Procedural cloud feature?

I assume yes, but it's not clear. The documentation linked on the Asset Store shows the feature as "WIP" and there's only an option for a "Wispy" cloud texture. The 3 demo scenes show the same cloud type. Even going through this thread it's confusing what kind of Procedural clouds are possible with the current version as there are mentions of Pre-Rendered, v1, v2, and v3 clouds.

 

Hi!
Sorry for the delay, I did not have time to work with Unity and access the forum these past few days.

No, those clouds seen on this topic you mentioned are not procedural. They are just static common skyboxes. The images went to shows about a new feature that was added in that version. This new feature is a simple "Skybox Fog Effect" that projects the color of the skybox over the scene, making the skybox blend smoothly with the scene on the horizon. The documentation has not been updated and does not speak about this feature, the how-to-use instructions are on the same topic as mentioned.

The procedural clouds are under development, so far there is only the cloud shown in the demonstration scenes. A new procedural cloud system will be added in version 4.0.0.

 

Special Sale
(The promotion will last until mid-January 2017)

The promotion is now available for a limited time. From $45 for just $30.

After the end of the promotion, the price will return to $45 and after the release of version 4.0.0 the price will be $65. So now is a unique opportunity to save money.

Asset Store Link​

 

Hi

I already bought your asset. I've been testing it a bit but I've come across something that I do not know if it's a mistake.

I add two SunShafts, one for the sun and one for the moon. He passed to each SunShaft his respective GameObject of his prefab Azure [Sky] Controller, one the SunShaft and the other the MoonShaft.

The sun works perfect but the SunShaft of the moon, does not seem to work.

What am I doing wrong?

And another thing that I searched in the documentation but I have not found information ...

So what is the "Skybox fog" and how is it used?

regards

 

Setting up the shafts is a bit tricky, so I've already left the GameObjects of sun and moon shafts inside the prefab to be used as caster. Your problem seems to be just the moon shafts setting.

When I added the effect to my main camera and set the "Moon Shafts" as a target, it looked like it had not worked, but I just had to change the intensity and color setting of the effect in the Camera Inspector and everything worked normally.

The effect of Sun Shafts takes into account the color of the screen, as at night the screen becomes dark, you need to set a darker color in the "Threshold Color" property.

See in this screenshot the configuration of my camera. The first Sun Shafts Effect is to the sun and the second is to the moon.


In other tests I did earlier, I also discovered that the camera has to be exactly in the center of the targets used as caster, otherwise the effect can come out of synchronization with the position of the sun and the moon. So if your scene is too large, I recommend you create a simple script to position the "Azure[Sky]Controller" prefab in the same position as the main camera.





About the "Skybox Fog", this is a feature that I added after doing the documentation, and I ended up not updating the documentation.

The effect is very simple, it is a fog effect that projects the sky background over the scene using the texture of the skybox itself. This effect is for when you want to make a game simpler and do not need a dynamic sky and seek more performance. Then you use a simple static skybox to the sky and add the "Skybox Fog Effect" on your camera to make the scene much more realistic than the standard Unity fog.

How to use:

• You must add to the scene any of the available skyboxes in the "Extra" folder, or you can create your own skybox using "Vue" or "Terragem". I also made a shader to use a panoramic type texture. You find the shader in "Azure[Sky]>Custom>Panoramic Skybox". The skyboxes are available in various formats (panoramic, cubemap and 6-sided).

• Then add to your camera the image effect found in "Components>Azure[Sky]>Extra>Skybox Fog Effect".

• The configuration is all done through the "SkyboxFog" material which is inside the "Extra>SkyboxFog" folder.

• In the "SkyboxFog" material settings, you need to add the same texture as you used in the skybox. The effect accepts panoramic and cubemap type textures. You only need to change the Shader according to the type of texture you want to use.
  "Azure[Sky]>Custom>Panoramic Fog"
  or
  "Azure[Sky]>Custom>Cubemap Fog"

Here's another topic explaining the effect.

Here a screenshot using a simple static skybox and the "Skybox Fog Effect" to project the sky background over the scene.
​

 

A new ocean solution just got released. Would it be possible to check with Hidroform Ocean System developer if both assets are working properly? Thanks in advance for making this effort!

 

Thanks

 

Hi

I have some doubts.

Can you make the lunar cycle with Azure? I've been looking at how to do it but I have not found it.

Does Azure currently have this feature https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/60409? I ask you this way because I do not know very well how to call it ... (volumetric light, volumetric fog, I do not know)

regards

 

The current version of Azure(3.0.4) has a very simple cycle system. The moon is child of the sun object, then the moon will always be on the opposite side of the sun or will keep the position relative to the sun you set in the Intersector of moon directional light. Azure only controls the cycle of the sun, if you want to rotate the moon you will have to do this manually or create your own script and attach directly to the moon directional light. The phases of the moon will adapt automatically based on the direction of the sun towards the moon.


The new update I'm developing will be based on the date, time, and location to define the actual position of the sun and moon in the sky. You will only need to choose a date, time and location that Azure's time system will do everything else for you. Below is a screenshot of Azure's new Time of Day tab. [Edited] The implementation of the actual position of the sun and moon based on the date and time is based on that article. http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/comp/ppcomp.html

​

This effect of volumetric fog or volumetric light is not yet available in Azure. I have already planned to add an similar effect to use only with the directional lights of the sun and the moon in outdoor environments. But before that I still need to do the new cloud system, create the weather system and finish implementing the Proland sky model.

 

thanks

 

Hi! Great pack!

Me and my team are having a little trouble with the fog. Everything looks great until I add the fog script to the camera. When I add the script everything in the scene except the skybox becomes very dark. Not completely black, but very, very dark. I have tried messing around with the curves in the azure controller and switched the order of scripts on the camera, but nothing helps. Would be grateful for any insight

Thanks in advance!