best post processing assets?

Hey ladies and gentlemen, what post processing assets would you recommend? I did my homework but I ran into a certain issue, most threads about this are very much out of date. A lot of the old stuff that required custom shaders and such is now written into Unity's own free PP stack.

I'm still on 2017 (the newest LTS version) because nearly all the projects I'm working on have 3D outdoors environments which means terrain and until HDRP gets reliable terrain I guess I won't be making the next Book of the Dead.

So, what should I get taking into account I mostly have outdoor scenes, terrains with vegetation and buildings, and often there is a weather solution with a dynamic sky working in the scene. But not always, there are also scenes lit by local volumetrics alone. Thanks in advance!

 

What do you need that's not already in Unity's Post Processing?

 

That's the question! Advanced color grading, for example, advanced tone mapping. But at the same time I'm reading old discussions of Beautify, Scion, Amplify Color and such, and it seems like the new PP stack should be able to do much of the same.

 

Beautify is one of the few impulse buys that I made as far as post-processing. I loved the premise- just install this product and your game will just magically look better with little or no configuration. Does it actually work like that, though? Well, so far- yes! I'm pretty well pleased with the results.

On the other hand, I'm not sure it does anything that you couldn't do with Unity's free tone-mapping solution, and it looks like other solutions have a lot more configuration options. I haven't tried the other commercial packages, though.

 

pps2 is a standard set of effects. You just need to find a proper settings.
All tonemappers have the same technical code. The most nextgen tonemapping algorithm is the ACES .pps2 has been used ACES for color grading
Other important effect is HDR based bloom. Pps2 has been used the best bloom effect too
AO,Vignette,AA and other effects are industry standard

Don't wait for HDRP for better visual quality. HDRP is just better in technical coding and not too much important for artist s. Because all effects (translucency,glass,pbr,multi layer,volumetric light or fog s,ssr) are possible in default pipeline.

Forget about which game engine or effect will help you to can create great vistual effects
You need the following items to have the best result on every engine or pipeline :
0. First and the most important thing is the textures (substance painter or designer)
1.Lightmapping or Realtime GI solution
2. Color grading (ACES is the best one)
3. Volumetric effects (Fog,light shafts,lens flares,particle )
4. Reflections (Cubemaps,pbr,ssr)


for example you can watch adobe after effects or phootshop tutorials about color grading technique or visual effects and repeat on unity using pps2
get ideas from frostbite games about volumetric effects
get ideas from Unreal Engine tutorials about lightmapping
get reflection ideas from Vray or offline renderers tutorials

Technical tips for next gen graphics :
- Linear color space
- DirectX11 + (or Vulkan,GL4.5+,Metal) fro better linear and HDR support
- Deferred rendering path
- HDR support enabled

 

There isn't anything better than the built in Post Effect stack V2. Especially when it's running on HDRP. Please don't waste money on 3rd party solutions when Disney and company use Post Effect stack V2 and nothing else (see https://unity.com/madewith/baymax-dreams & https://oatsstudios.com/ etc)

It's good enough for FILM and is used in film right now. So if you have problems, you're the problem! But it's not a bad problem... just discuss with forum how to improve and properly get the best from each element in the stack.

Usually it's people going in thinking they have to actually touch everything. Don't do that. Just enable ACES in the stack, TAA on the camera, and work slowly out from there to begin.

All the davinci and other grading applications use the same formulas and techniques, even the same UI controls. The post stack is really, really strong, but it needs a calm and steady hand, not a wild horse

 

We use Yebis on work.
Compare it against PP V1 and V2.

Especially the DOF is singnificant better.
Quality from Bloom and Glares much better.
Tonemapping has slightly more quality.

Single Pass Stereo is not working right now. Here we use PP V2.

Hope the PP V3 for HDRP gets some more love in these details.
Bloom and DOF are only base implementations in PPV2.

Check Subtance Designer. It has perfect Yebis integration.
Unity one gives you 1to1.
Assetto Corsa too.
Perfect test Scene is the Meadow environment.
With 5min of work you can integrate PP V2 and Yebis.
Run CTAA too and compare against TAA from PP V2. Gives you another boost but you must avoid ultra fast camera movements under CTAA.

 

Keijiro's Streak effect is good - https://github.com/keijiro/Kino

Why are the TAA and some fog settings on the camera? That's really annoying.

 

There are no fog or TAA settings on my camera. I guess you are still using the legacy builtin pipeline. For HDRP, it's all asset driven instead. I do put the Post Process Layer script on my camera's shared GameObject for convenience though.