CTS - Complete Terrain Shader - Deprecated

Quick fix is to just disable strip textures in your profile - its in optimization settings. Alternatively you can do this yourself after CTS has been updated the first time.

This only happens once when you bake - and from then on if you re-bake should happen in the new location - if not - then we put new bug in latest release.

 

Is there any way to have Strip textures enabled while at the same time be able to use terrainData.splatPrototypes ? I'm doing checks at runtime and spawn stuff based on the textures, or change textures to their 'burnt' version. To do that, I have to have Strip Textures disabled but I'm wondering if there's any way to have the performance boost AND be able to use terrainData.splatPrototypes.

 

Any update on this?

 

Nope - I assume you are using unity methods to sample textures. If the textures aren't there then you can't use them. We will add a sampling method to our dev roadmap. In mean time - you would need to grab the textures from the terrain directly before we nuke them to get the benefit of this. It would also be possible to make an API available so you can access our copy of them.

Beyond whats already been communicated and the work around you (I think it was you - if not then my apologies) created to choose a different compression mechanism the other day. No. I was under impression that you had this under control ?

If that wasn't you then the quick fix to get you going is to uncheck the compress albedo's and compress normals option under Optimization settings on your profile. We will modify CTS in next release to allow you to choose the compression algorithm and when that's done you can re-compress them again.

BTW. We changed the locations of the shaders in the latest release. This will mean that Unity will no longer compile them all automatically.

 

Wasn't me, but I'll give it a try.

 

Hello, Adam.

CTS seems like a great product, I bought it the other day. Can't seem to open the component menu for creating a custom profile though. I only have the option to "Add cts to the terrain" and nothing besides that. Even after I've added it.

Is this a common issue or something more unique? Also, any tips on how to fix it?

Otherwise everything seems to work. I can apply the pre-made profiles and they seem to work.
Just that I'd like to create one of my own.

Cheers

 

Try going under Window -> CTS. There are more options there including Create and apply profile. The Component simply adds the CTS component to your current terrain. Hopefully that will get you to building your own profile!

 

Cheers! I thought it was odd since everything else seemed to work... Forgot to take my "human factor" in to account I suppose. Time to get crackin'!

 

Don't feel bad.. We all have those moments at times! At least I know I do! heheh

 

Hello guys and thank you so much for your amazing assets. I have a question that I can't resolve even by applying the previous answers you made in this topic. I'm trying to create holes in my terrain using the "Cutout" tool in CTS. I have Gaia and CTS in my project and I made my terrain like Adam's tutorials. However, nothing seems to work with the cutout tool. Even changing the value of "Cutout Below" doesn't seem to work. I'm using Unity 2018.2.10f1 and the GD Mobile Settings when I created the terrain with Gaia.

Cutout can't work with this settings ? It seems weird to me because the Cutout tool is part of CTS and not Gaia.

 

I just followed Adam's video (

) and it works without any problems at all. I used CTS 1.8 with Unity 2018.2.4. I'm on a slow internet connection so I didn't have time to download 2018.2.10 but it should still work the same.



One thing I noticed in Photoshop was when I created the alpha channel, it defaulted to creating one with the color indicating masked areas which gave me a totally red alpha channel. Once I switched it to Selected Areas, it only set the red area (or black if rgb turned off) to the area I am painting.

Also, I didn't see changes when I updated Cutout Below until after I ran the scene. I'm not sure what actually triggers that but the changes were present in the scene when I ran it and afterwards, I saw the changes as I changed the number.

As far as why the cutout isn't in Gaia... Gaia uses 100% Unity terrain and works 100% without any changes to that default Unity terrain. Unity terrain does not support holes. To create holes you need to work magic with shaders and to do that, you have to move away from the default Unity shaders. Since Gaia ships to be compatible 100% with default Unity terrain and shaders, we don't put that support within Gaia. Since the magic that allows for holes is terrain shader magic, it is included in CTS since that is exactly what CTS is. I know it is confusing because by all accounts you are right and it should be a terrain creation thing but unfortunately in Unity that isn't the case. You'll find that other tools that allow for this type of support are also like CTS and a terrain shader tool or a terrain shader tool may be bundled together with a terrain tool. But in doing so, they are no longer 100% unity terrain compatible.

 

Maybe it would be an idea to include a cutout scene demo with the next update in CTS since this is a question asked more then once. Would a demo scene help with those questions ?

 

I really doubt a demo scene would be much help to be honest. Having it done in a scene doesn't teach you how to do it. You just need to follow the video I linked above closely and it just works. The only way it wouldn't work is if you don't have CTS as the custom shader for the terrain or there was something else in the scene that is screwing up CTS from working. If that were the case though, your regular CTS terrain shading probably wouldn't be working either, though.

 

I agree, just a static scene by itself would not help. I was thinking more of a Photoshop files that shows
what/ which alpha channels are the correct ones to use.

How ever I do need to do the tutorial myself as well.. so I guess a lot of these questions were before the
tutorial on this subject. It is the R/G/B and alpha channels of what goes where that confuses me..
but i get confused pretty easy these days.. It has been awhile since I have looked through any tutorials..
that is because it is so easy with the tools, push a button and it works ..

 

I can totally understand. I know we have talked about having some similar issues before, so I can definitely relate to getting confused pretty easily. This is pretty simple though with that video. This was the first time that I'd actually done it and was kind of anxious going into it. Pausing and rewinding the video a few times was my friend. But I made it through successfully on my first attempt. I'm hoping to do some cave making video examples using the Mountain and Volcano stamps pack once I get all the stamp packs transitioned over to Procedural Worlds and get the new Sectr tested and released. Maybe having Adam's tutorials and my usage videos together will help some folks that still struggle with just the tutorials alone. The only problem is finding the time. I honestly have no idea how Adam was doing all of this development/support/creating new products on his own before!

 

I have just installed CTS on Unity 2018.3.0b5 (latest beta version) and as you can see my terrain is completely white/pale grey.


Nothing seems to solve this so can only presume that CTS isnt compatible with latest version of unity (beta)... Is there anything I can do to solve the issue? Many thanks.

 

If you can't get it resolved, open a ticket in our ticketing system indicating you are having the issue with x version of beta and we will make sure the issue gets logged for when we start working on updates for the official release of that version. The problem with "fixing" things in beta is by the time an official release is done, Unity may have fixed the issue some other way. Or even broken it again several times before the official release. It is good for us to be aware of these issues, but with so many different assets (and more being worked on behind the scenes) our time is much better spent developing new stuff than fighting fires caused by beta releases.

I hope that makes sense. By the time Unity is ready for an official release, we should be ready to support it with an update resolving any issues we are aware of.

Please when you do report, give as much information as possible on replicating the problem. Also provide information on your target build and any other assets installed in your project. Another thing to check is if you have the same issue with just CTS in your project. Same types of things that should be pretty standard troubleshooting for problems with any asset.

I do know Adam had it working with a test he did with an earlier 2018.3 beta version but that might have been before Unity released all the latest terrain packages.

 

Hey! Does anyone know why there are these shiny bright borders between two textures (see image) and how I can get rid of them?

Thanks!

 

Awesome, thanks and I completely understand and expected the same in your response but a quick fix may have been possible. I will go to your site tomorrow and create a more indepth description of the issue. And have a mess around with a more basic project than the one I am using as all the other assets seem fine. So far.. Many thanks any way Shawn. And thanks for the quick response. Much appreciated.

 

Ok I figured this out when I switch the CTS profile from "basic" to "advanced". Cutout doesn't work using the default parameters.
Thanks for your replies guys =)

 

This looks like either the smoothness setting on the CTS profile to me, or it could also be that you have a normal map assigned for this texture that is not defined as normal map in the unity import settings.

 

Thanks OneManBandGames! You were right, it was the smoothness setting.

 

Hi.

I have a major problem

As you can see in the first image, I have some textures applied to my terrain.

I add CTS to the terrain, I create and apply a profile and the result is that of the second image.

I have done several tests, including removing CTS and re-adding it, but there is no way.

Work with UNITY 2018.1.7f and CTS 1.8

Could you help me?

Thank you.

 

That looks really strange, almost as if the textures would be a single color only + normal map. Did you click "Bake Textures" in the CTS profile after you applied the profile? Does it make any difference if you select a different shader type in the CTS profile (+ bake the textures again) ? If you open the CTS profile, do the textures react to the different settings like tile size, tint, etc.?

 

Hi, when I apply a CTS profile to my terrain, the framerate have HUGE drop but only when I look down to the ground.
Have you any tips for improving performance ?
(I use it in VR with a big terrain)
thanks by advance

 

First thing to do would be to record the frame drop in the unity profiler: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ProfilerWindow.html
You should be able to see there what exactly is responsible for the drop and then you can start optimizing / removing that issue.

 

K, guys. I know ya don't like hearing this, but:

I cannot import CTS. when I do, I get the following error:

Failed to import package with error: Couldn't decompress package
UnityEditor.Web.JSProxyMgroTasks()

Now, I know ya don't like hearing that, because you have created the following page that ostensibly addresses the issue:

https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk....ackage-with-error-couldn-t-decompress-package

Unfortunately, while I appreciate the effort put into this solution, it's a big swing & a miss, on this end. None of the fixes seem to work.

So, How do you propose we solve this issue?

Thanks in advance for your assistance in finding a solution.

 

As I explained in response to your trouble ticket, this is a common Unity issue. If the solutions on the FAQ don't solve your issue, simply try to redownload the package from the asset store and reimport it. This isn't a CTS specific problem. I've personally had this issue with several other packages, mostly in my case due to my slow internet connection. One of the only cons to living out in farm/rural country like I do.

Like I also said in my ticket response, if you search the unity forums you will find LOTS of posts all across the forum with this issue. ( https://forum.unity.com/search/27008026/?q=Couldn't+decompress+package&t=post&o=date )

 

Other possibility might be disk error ... so delete the down load too, don't just re-download over top
of it. It is not CTS, because it would be happening to every one.

Another idea ( doubtful ) but try a different version of Unity, as well

 

As the others have mentioned before, it is most likely an error with the download. I know it sounds silly but on the Procedural Worlds discord we had about 3 different cases in the last week where people would get this error and it was caused by a faulty download / some bug in the unity download manager.
You can check if the file is corrupt by looking for the file in the following directory:

C:\Users\<Your User Name>\AppData\Roaming\Unity\Asset Store\Procedural Worlds\Editor ExtensionsTerrain\

and then open "CTS - Complete Terrain Shader.unitypackage" with 7-zip since it is just a compressed file. If 7-zip can't open it and gives you an error like "data error" or "CRC fail" then it is a faulty download. Unfortunately I don't know any better fix than deleting the file and re-downloading it and hoping it will go through this time.

 

It also quits working In advanced for me but will in basic

 

Well it sorta works the cutout below affects the whole terrain no matter the mask. And mask determines if the whole terrain is visible or not. I did get it to cut out all but one section but the cut out below affected that section and so the terrain not visible didnt show up even at a negative value

 

Hi @AdamGoodrich,

With the brilliant team at Amplify having pushed their HDRP support in recent weeks, is there any hope on the horizon for CTS SRP support?

I take it UTs 2018.3 terrain solution has now got all but it's shading solution for this cycle, but I have no doubt CTS will keep their efforts in the shade.

I'm after a decent shading solution in the HDRP and if I were to start using CTS, would my saved profiles be useable in the (hopefully imminent) CTS SRP update?

Appreciate any help,

Cheers

 

Last time we look at Amplify SRP support it did not contain support for terrain. We plan to have LW and HD SRP support by the time 2018.3 comes out of beta.

 

That's promising news! Any idea at this stage if current CTS presets/profiles will be useable in later (SRP) versions?

 

Hi, I get heavy framedrop when I look down to the ground, This does not happens without CTS.
I use it in a VR project, any tips ?
Thank you.

 

Our hope is to always have 100% compatibility with past presets/profiles. Unfortunately that is not always the case though. As we have yet to get working support for terrain (at least last time we checked), we really can't say with 100% certainty but that is certainly our hopes.

Looking into this. I don't have VR gear so it isn't something I can test. I'll check with Adam and the rest of the team to see if they have seen or heard of this before though. In the meantime, maybe someone here in the forums may have seen it. You might also check our Discord server to see if any of the users there have seen the problem. Just click the Chat link in my signature!

 

Thanks for your response.

 

Hi, I've got a workflow question, that I can't seem to grok from the docs. If I bake everything, and use the "Package for build" would it be possible to delete CTS (except for the shaders, images etc obviously) to reduce my overall project size and still have the benefit of the CTS terrain as it was baked? Then presumably nothing would be changeable anymore, but my size on disk could be reduced?

This is assuming I'm finished tweaking the CTS Params etc and am sure I don't need to edit it anymore.

 

You don't need to do this. While CTS has a large texture library, Unity will only package those assets that are used in your scene into your final project.

But - to answer your question yes - you can remove unused stuff to reduce size in your project.

 

Thanks but that's not the issue, I'm trying to reduce my project size to get under our bitbucket commit size limitation, not to reduce the size of the final executable. I think i've managed to get rid of the texture library (by duplicating the few files in use) so I'm hopefully gtg now. Thanks.

 

Could it be possible for someone to share a mask

Could someone share a mask that works for them so I could test it and see if it's my system or not? Or a working scene

 

Does it support Parallax/POM now?

 

I just installed CTS. Can you please tell me why there is no texture in my terrain and how I can fix it please? Thanks: http://www.3d-art.co.uk/www.3d-art.co.uk/CTS-Issues.html

 

https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/solution/articles/33000166630-black-spots-on-terrain

 

No. And no plans to in short term. Its a very expensive feature from a rendering perspective.

 

I just delete line 1160 (the line it's complaining about) and it works great!

 

So I just got CTS, and after seeing it hyped so much I have to say I'm pretty bothered by what I'm seeing in the demos, particularly with the 'snow'. It just pops in and out in random patches as you move around and looks completely unrealistic. From a distance there's nearly no snow:



Then as you start moving closer, random patches start popping into view randomly (with ugly sharp square edges no less):



And Finally it's suddenly completely covered wall to wall with snow:



is there a way to fix this? That's some of the worst pop-in I've ever seen, it should look consistent from any distance.

I also made a video so you can see it in action.

 

Another scene within the same project ... and again the same.
After 2 hours of attempts, there is no way for the texture to come out right.
And it is a texture of the CTS package itself.

It is very exasperating to dedicate hours to something that does not make sense.

My version of Unity 2018.2.5f1

 

I had to waste a day finding the answer to my own question, since the publisher can't be bothered to answer. And in doing so I see why they refuse to answer. It's an unrepairable bug in Unity's terrain system itself. The problem arises from their profile setting globalBasemapDistance, which in turn sets Terrain.basemapDistance. This 'optimization' so radically alters the terrain that maintaining a consistent look is impossible. A damn shame.

So there is nothing that can be done to fix the issue. That is all I wanted to know.