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

Hey hey, Just pulled the trigger and bought Aura 2 on the sale. It works nicely in the built in pipeline. Wonderful work.

However, I am having a little intermittent issue that I can't replicate: MOST times, the lightshafts will not display at all. To fix this I need to disable and re-enable ANY Aura light component at runtime, when I load each scene to get them to display properly. There's nothing in the console related to that (at least nothing I can see).
Currently I have a script that does it on load with a delay, but it's hardly ideal.

Aside, a small question, I currently have a global volume in a large scene, simply because setting unique volumes would be extremely time consuming, how bad is the performance impact?

 

Hi!
Your issue might need some deep inquiring as that is not a known issue.

For the global volume, there is hardly no performance impact at all as it is a global one. If it suits you, it is even better than using more smaller volumes

 

Thank you for the followup! That is indeed exactly what's needed to make it work.

 

Update 2.1.16 submitted with the following changes :

Notes
- Denoising is no longer experimental
- Blurring is no longer experimental
- Fixed black screen on Mac and Linux for Unity 2020.1 or newer.
Please note that Mac and Linux are not officially supported

Changes
- [Core] Changed floating point precision to “float” for Metal and Vulkan for Unity 2020.1+
- [Core]&[Editor] Fixed several minor bugs and issues
- [Editor] Disabled custom Texture3D preview in Inspector for Unity 2020.1+ as it is now integrated natively in the editor
- [Shaders] Fixed an include path leading to an error when importing the package
- [Examples] Removed remaining deprecated “GUI Layer” component in examples
- [Support] Added support button to be able to directly get in touch for support

Many thanks to David Reynolds for his help with Mac.

 

Hi! Thank´s for this update!
Any news on Aura3? I would love to see it on URP.

 

Aura 3 is progressing very well. It runs smoothly with better performances (up to 65% gains) and great new features!

 

Super awesome on URP, will this be an upgrade or a separate asset, and if it's a separate asset, how much will it be?

 

It will be a separate asset. The sales of Aura 2 still haven't covered its development costs.
The price is still being evaluated, but I will never target the 100$ like many have told me I should.

 

@raph10richard When will aura 3 going to be available?
If I buy aura 2 now will I get a discount on the aura 3 update?

 

I never give ETA until I am sure I can keep it. Let's not "cyberpunk" it.
Aura 3 will not be an update so Idk yet.

 

Hi, I'm currently getting three of these warning messages when using Aura 2 and wondered if anyone else has had these and how to fix them ?

GarbageCollector disposing of ComputeBuffer allocated in C:\Users\mattg\Unity Projects\A Cats Home V1.00.002alpha\Assets\Aura 2\Core\Code\Classes\PointLightsManager.cs at line 95. Please use ComputeBuffer.Release() or .Dispose() to manually release the buffer.
UnityEngine.ComputeBuffer:Finalize ()

 

Well, you need to make money as a developer.... period.. So, you don't work for free... So, charge what you think its fair, and that covers costs... as a developer myself, for years, I won't work for free or sell my stuff cheap, so I would never ask anyone else too.. hobbist need to understand that this stuff takes skill, time and money to make.. So, 100$ would still be cheaper than if they hired a contractor like myself.. I charge 150-250$ an hour.... So for a tool like Aura 2, was worth well over 100$/....


You need to get paid for your hard work, and people who support you will pay....to many people are trying to get work from developers for cheap and free....They need to realize, that this work takes time... and skill to do, so you should get paid for such..


But what ever you decide, most supporters will be fine with...regardless. Some will complain even if its 25$.. .We see this with games on Steam, gamers complain if a game is 20$...even when its a great game..So, set the price when your ready to. I wouldn't listen to anyone, market fair value for your skill and work, and set the price.

Just my 2 cents.

 

hehe, CP was in development well over 9+ years nearly a decade.., the release date was not the problem, poor management was the issue and is the problem for many companies I see this alot over the nearly 30 years of being in this industry from AAA, AA and smaller companies.... They tend to have horrible management, many will have great developers, but the upper management, is typically bad.. Most can't draw a stick figure, or write "hello world" or design wireframes, or block outs... Let alone, plan for a game to be made..


Anyways.

I never set dates either, people will be like you promised though!!

... Best date to set, is its done when its done..... People will always find a reason to complain... if you set a date or not. Less stress when you don't I found over decades in this industry. So when your done, i'm sure it will be great, as the first two versions and well worth the cost of what ever you set.


Aura 1 and 2 been fantastic over the years.

 

Same warnings here...Does anyone know why this ?

 

Hello!
Those warning are editor only and harmless and unfortunately can't get rid of...

It's just Unity's way to say "hey you're doing something very fancy here, the editor works in a different way so I am gonna make sure the computer doesn't explode"

 

hi!
I'm building my project but something wrong with my shader

 

That's very weird. Can you give more technical information about your project?

 

When I moved my project to another PC , I built it succeeded.
I don't know why, but everything is good now.

 

Hello! Is there an URP version ready for my body? - happy to test!

 

Is there a way to use this asset in VR? When my camera has the camera script enabled everything is black...

 

Hey!
Is it possible to use Aura in a split screen type of situation?
Can aura work on two camera sources without fog of one camera showing in another camera?

 

Hi! Can you give more specific technical details of your setup ?

Yes absolutely!

 

Hi @raphick
Of late I been getting this error on my Project. Its Unity 2021.3.8
The game continues running ... with the error, but the complete Editor freezes when I open any game UI like main menu or Inventory. I havent changed anything recently

Resolve of invalid GC handle. The handle is from a previous domain. The resolve operation is skipped.

UnityEngine.GUILayout:Window (int,UnityEngine.Rect,UnityEngine.GUI/WindowFunction,string,UnityEngine.GUIStyle,UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[])

Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawActivationToggleButton () (at Assets/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:1006)

Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:505)

UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)

 

Looks like an error triggered by the garbage collector that's very weird, could you send me an email ?

 

I have these same errors. Even on a new/fresh project I get them. I'm using the same unity version as well 2021.3.8. I can clear them with no issues, but they reappear shortly after. Any ideas?

 

Thank you! I have mailed you.

 

Got it, gonna have a look asap!

 

Is it possible to move Aura 2 out of the root of the Asset directory? I got a bunch of shader errors when I opened up the project after.

 

Hii... did you get a chance to look into this error? My console is filled with the error!

 

These are the errors I got after moving Auro into a 3rd party folder. Hopefully there's just something simple I missed and Aura 2 doesn't *have* to be in the root of the Assets folder.

 

You can't move around shaders if they reference other shaders or includes because the path to those other files must be hard coded inside the shader and moving folders makes unity unable to find the path.
So just put Aura were it was or just delete the whole folder and reimport the asset.

 

...or edit all the shaders and change the include paths.

 

Is it possible to use relative paths in shaders? I tried to look this up but didn't get good google hits.

 

yes, just use "." for the same folder where the shader is and ".." for the parent folder.

 

Yes several times with different unity version. Couldn't trigger it again. It won't be forgotten though.

About Shaders, yes you can absolutely use relative paths. That's what I use to do until I replaced the shaders with ones made with Amplify (for the sake of their users). Unfortunately, Amplify uses absolute paths.
As there are a minor part of the users moving Aura2 folder, compared to the amount of the users using Amplify, the choice was to leave it as it. Sorry about that.
Looking for a better solution for Aura3.

 

For what is worth, plenty of assets don't support moving their folders around. I know it triggers OCD in some people, but it's just the way it is.
Instead of moving asset store plugin folders around, what I personally do is leave them were they are and create a new folder inside the assets folder that I use as the new root folder for my own stuff.
So if the project is named "SampleProject" I just create a new folder inside the Assets folder named "_SampleProject" and put my own stuff in there, correctly organized in its own sub-folders. This way I don't mess with other assetstore assets folders (that live in the "Assets" root folder) and my own stuff is correctly organized without clutter inside the new folder as its root.

 

Hey! Just wondering if anyone can help me with this issue as I'm trying to solve it for several days and I'm completely lost. When I build my project for Linux, my volumetric lighting disappears. It works ok on Win and Mac. I've seen several people here with this issue but no one shared a solution.

This is how my scene looks on Win and Mac:
https://imgur.com/a/movYtwp
And this is how it looks on Linux (Tested on multiple machines)
https://imgur.com/a/Yyc6v0G

 

Okay I've managed to figure it out. I had to update to the newest version of the plugin and in Project Settings > Player I had to Uncheck "Auto Graphics API for Linux" , and only leave "Vulkan" in the list.
https://imgur.com/a/KImBNhC

 

Just starting using AUra 2 and loving what it does but I am a beginner. Is there a manual?

I'm trying to figure out how to have Volumetric lighting for my outside areas and then when I go into buildings, not have the outside volumetric lighting affect/effect interiors.

 

Hello, I just got this asset and it looks beautiful and easy to use, but I was wondering How could I make an inverted circle mask? in the image, I want the black par to be foggy while in the transparent part I want it to be the playable area and clear of fog, the player should be surrounded by thick fog. can this be done? thanks a lot for any support

 

Hello
I am trying to use Aura 2
If I have the URP profile activated I see the purple floor and I don't see the light effect. This is loading "Directional Light Example" scene If I disable the Urp profile I can see the light effect.

 

It's not compatible with URP or HDRP.

 

Aura 2 came out great with our latest video! Thanks @raphick !!! Looking forward to Aura3

 

You can try to attach an Aura Volume to your player and in this volume enable the density injection and set a negative amount to "remove" density. You can do this with any injected data.

Sorry, there was no possible way of making Aura2 compatible with the URP. I've wrapped my head around this for 2 years. Aura3 (no ETA) has been written from the ground up in that purpose.

Nice work! Congratulations!

 

Update 2.1.17 submitted with the following changes :

Changes
- [Core] Improved performances. Improved floating point’s precision selection by the compiler

 

Same issue here with 4 errors spammed each time I have the scene view displayed (either with scene view's light on/off or aura preview enable on/off), I have this in all projects using Aura2, even fresh new created from Unity 2019 to 2022 (updated to aura2 v2.1.17 and this problem is still occurring)

Code (csharp):

1. Resolve of invalid GC handle. The handle is from a previous domain. The resolve operation is skipped.
2. UnityEngine.GUILayout:Window (int,UnityEngine.Rect,UnityEngine.GUI/WindowFunction,string,UnityEngine.GUIStyle,UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[])
3. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawToolbox () (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:686)
4. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:494)
5. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)

Same error with the other 3 except for these lines:

Code (csharp):

1. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawPresetsWindow () (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:1087)
2. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:495)

Code (csharp):

1. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawDisplayToggleButton () (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:1044)
2. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:501)

Code (csharp):

1. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawActivationToggleButton () (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:1009)
2. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Plugins/3rdParty/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:505)

 

Hey! What other plugin do you have in ?
(Edit : could you tell the Unity version ?)

 

After many try to understand and workaround this bug on my side, it has been confirmed that this bug was on Unity side. The fix has been made and backported down to 2020.3.44f1, 2021.3.17f1, 2022.2.2f1, 2023.1.0a23 and all the upcoming editor versions : https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...en-exiting-play-mode-after-creating-a-tilemap

Updating your Unity Editor to the latest version will fix the issue. (Be careful that you might need to install a pre-release version in the Hub to have the latest version)

 

i want to simply remove a preset; i accidentally clicked a preset/aura ambience and try porting all my objects to a new scene but the preset follows over to the new scene...

 

Getting this error with latest version.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. Resolve of invalid GC handle. The handle is from a previous domain. The resolve operation is skipped.
3. UnityEngine.GUILayout:Window (int,UnityEngine.Rect,UnityEngine.GUI/WindowFunction,string,UnityEngine.GUIStyle,UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[])
4. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:DrawToolbox () (at Assets/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:686)
5. Aura2API.SceneViewToolbox:OnSceneViewGUI (UnityEditor.SceneView) (at Assets/Aura 2/Core/Code/Editor/Editors/SceneViewToolbox.cs:494)
6. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)
7.  
8.