Environment Gator

Hi,
this depends on which assets you decide to use with the EG.
The EG contains his own assets ( Textures, Audio, etc..) but you might want to use yours and let the EG work with them. Anyway, an average, with a full configuration and a medium-large scene, could be around 250/300 mb for the desktop build and 50/60Mb for the webplayer.

Important: Known Issues
Please use this board to check for known issues and dev state.

 

Thanks for this info.
Do you know the web and desktop size for an empty scene, just the EG assets?
tx.

 

Hi to all,
just to announce that there will be soon an update of the EG v5 version.

The update will contain a fix for the WebPlayer references issue and other minors fixes.
Probably the first implementation of the new weather and clouds system will be inside the update.

The entire clouds system has been reworked. Involving GSpheres ( very lowres meshes this time ) into the process, the clouds will blend better with any type of skybox and also the interaction with the directional light will result improved.

The weather/cloud system will be much easier to create/edit/setup and there will be also a reduction in terms of drawcalls ( aKa even fewer resources required by the EG ).

Here´s some ChangeLog:
Fixed: Web Player fail to build due to some references errors.
Added: HDR Exposure attenuation in Overcast/Precipitation wex.
Added: New Cloud system, 1st implementation.Check updated Documentation.
Added: New Wex system, 1st implementation.Check updated Documentation.
Removed: TheGDome sphere collider.
Edit: Replaced ACF panel with Weather Simulation panel.
Edit: TheGDome gameobject role has changed. Check updated Documentation.
Edit: ACF. This feature is still available but it´s declared as a legacy feature.

The video tutorials section will be available on the websites as soon as the new update will be released.
The 1.0.3.1 build will be a big step towards the final goal.

See you all soon.

@shwa
I´ll make some tests soon and let you know the results. The new wex&clouds system will change the amount of objects/textures needed by the EG even in a "full" configuration.

Best Regards,

 

I have had lot of fun tweaking my project with EnvironmentGator ^^
Here is little screenie spam Update-features sounds cool, keep up the good work

 

Hi to all,

just the usual quick look at the dev status:
Things are going on pretty well!! A first implementation of the new weather and clouds system is rolling into the future update ( 1.0.3.1 ) and it´s looking good. A lot of things are going to change and some features are going to be legacy or will be replaced by a new version. The GDome has been removed, the ACF system stills available but it has been downgraded to an additional features for the clouds system since we can achieve the same or even better results using the enhanced version of the GSphere system .
With the new system we are able to have our clouds system with just 2/3xGSpheres . This means that, for example, the GDome can be reproduced with just 1/2 DrawCalls and the same happen for the entire cloud system. This will reduce the amount of settings needed to have a nice and fully implemented clouds system and a better final results. In order to be used with the new system, the GSphere.cs script has been reworked a lot. New low-poly meshes are available as well as a bunch of new features and shaders.

Here a brief change-log so far:

Fixed: Web Player fail to build due to some references errors.
Added: HDR Exposure attenuation in Overcast/Precipitation wex.
Added: New Cloud system, 1st implementation.Check Doc.
Added: New Wex system, 1st implementation.Check Documentation.
Added: Moon Shader switch render mode by Time of Day and Weather.
Added: Satellites.cs| Toggle SwitchRenderMode by Tod & Wex ( Moon only ).
Added: FlareIntensityMin, FlareIntensityMid parameters.
Removed: TheGDome component. See Doc.
Edit: GSphere system. Enhanced GSphere System. Check Doc.
Edit: New Flares assets(Textures and settings).
Edit: New Starfield (Textures and settings).
Edit: Reworked Snow Particles ( Texture and settings ).
Edit: Replaced ACF panel with Weather Simulation panel.
Edit: Replaced Add Settings panel with EG Settings panel.
.....

Bye, bye GDome. The new GSpheres system allows animated ( perlin noise in shader ) surrounding clouds in 1 draw call.

Clouds now blend better at horizon and the interaction with the directional lights has been enhanced.



I´ll be back soon, since the new update is not so far.

Have a nice weekend.

Regards,

 

Any idea when 1.0.3.1 will be available? Going through setting things up for the first time and it looks like you have already changed the documentation with changes that aren't in 1.0.3.0.. Just realized that I wasn't able to find some things because they were added in 1.0.3.1.... lol

 

Hallo,
I think i´m going to freeze the dev today/tomorrow since there is already a lot of new stuff in 1031, new code, some significant old-code refinements and some new asset, i don´t want to change/add too much at the same time.

I will test the package in the next couple of days and then i think i will submit the 1.0.3.1.

After the 1031 i´ll rush on the video-tuts part and the website update. I had to wait for the new features to avoid having to do the videos twice.

@Shawn67
Yep, sorry !
I´m updating the doc as well. You can use the one inside the package that refers to the current version of the component.

Best Regards,

 

Doh! I should have thought of that... lol Thanks! Might have some questions regarding some issues today or tomorrow. I think it may be something I did wrong where docs didn't match up with version. Will go through docs out of the docs folder instead of online and see if I'm able to resolve before taking the easy route and asking... lol

Looking forward to new version!

 

Hi to all,

the 1.0.3.1 ( Unity 5 version ) update has been submitted for review today.
The package is a bit bigger this time since it´s a "transition" update and the package contains both, legacy as well as new assets. In future releases the package will return to a smaller size ( probably smaller than usual ).

A couple of images from the new version.



I´ll be back with more infos when the update is online .
Best Regards,

 

Hi Karlbovsky, I recently purchased your Environment Gator.. and to be honest, I love it
However I have a little issue with Ambient light. I cant seem to get good control over it. Basically I need to bump the _base_ ambient up by about 20% so I can have a "brighter" overall day and night. Because there are so many settings in Gator I cant figure out how to easily do this. Could you make any suggestions how I could do this?
Thanks again for a brilliant product.

<Note: to achieve the effect I need Im running an extra directional light with intensity set to 0.2. This looks pretty good, but obviously isnt an ideal solution.>

 

I've been fighting with the same thing and ended up throwing in an area light about the same intensity. Thinking there is probably an adjustment somewhere to do this within EG, but not finding it either... :/

 

Hi to all,

Yep, i know, Lighting in Unity 5 is a "bit" more complex than before.
As we can see in the Lighting panel, the whole setup process may vary according to how we decide to handle GI in our project.

The above config is the one used inside the demo scene.

Let´s say we want to keep it simple and set the Ambient Light to have dynamic intensity and to follow a gradient for his coloration. This is the easiest way to setup and control the behaviour of the Ambient light during the Day-Night cycle:

In the Main panel set Ambient Light Mode to Color.

Perform a Check&Set after that.
Then go to the Global Illumination Panel.

Here we can set the Sky-Intensity curve as we want. This animation curve will control the intensity during the day-night cycle. Another key-parameter is the color. We can control it using the Equator Color Gradient.
The saturation and brightness of the colors we choose inside the Gradient will also affect his Intensity in some way, so we can also play a bit with Colors to increase the final intensity.

Remember that if we want to use the SkyBox as the source for our ambient light, things are going to be a bit more complicated . I´m already working on it , trying to give to the EG all the flexibility needed to handle this little monster.

I hope this answered your question, and if it doesn't, let me know and i´ll be glad to help you guys !!

p.s.
EG version used ? ( latest is 1.0.3.1 )

Best Regards,

 

Hi again. I have tried the sky intensity curve, its defaults run from 0.3 to about 0.45 on my install. This seemed very low. I adjusted it, but it seems there are many factors I need to change to bring the whole ambient level up enough to be suitable. Here's what Im looking for:


The above is daytime with secondary directional light at 0.3 intensity. And when nighttime is set (to midnight) it looks ok. If I remove the directional light I end up with this:


The daytime one is only slightly darker, but the nighttime one is quite dark, almost pitch black.
I'll spend some more time looking at the settings and see if I can find something suitable. For the time being I will still run with the extra light (not using it for shadows, so its not too bad).
Thanks again though, the storms and such look great!

 

Thanks... Still needs a little tweaking but looks much better.. Also discovered shaders on my player model needed changed which is why my player model was always so dark that I couldn't see details. Amazing what happens when you switch to U5 shaders that actually know what to do with all the light options.. At least I'm guessing that is what that problem was.. But your suggestion helped with overall ambient light!

 

@davidlannan
That´s really strange though. I´m pretty confident that your issue is in some way related to the Unity Lighting system setup. What happens if you let the Ambient Light out from the equation ? I mean, set the Ambient Light mode to Custom into the EG main panel and disable the Use Gradient and Dynamic intensity options into the EG Global Illumination panel. Let me know if you made any progress, we will figure out what´s going on !!

@Shawn67
Happy you solved it!! The new GI system is super powerful but can be a pain to adapt old ( Unity 4 ) projects to it.

 

Thanks Karlbovsky. I'll try that after work tonight. I think it is definitely related to the new Unity5 GI lighting system. I'm also wondering if it might be the baked lightmaps causing some problems.

 

Hi to all,

Sorry for the absence, lately I´ve had a bit of personal issues .
Anyway i´m back to work on the EG.
The new Unity version ( 5.1 ) has introduced a lot of new features and changes, i´m studying all the news but the Unity Docs and references are a bit messy at the moment and is very hard to find clear examples on how to handle the whole thing.

The EG is working inside the 5.1.0f3 but with an issue with the standard shader that uses Emission at runtime.
I´m on it.

As i promised, i´m back to work also to provide new assets and some video tutorials.

Best Regards,

 

Hi again Karlbovsky. I think I have figured out my problem with the ambient. I was using procedural clouds and the lighting was using the skybox. When I switched the lighting to use color then I had much more control. I think this is a Unity thing, so its really unrelated to your EG system (which I really love btw). Using your profile settings for the Ambient (the curve) and the lighting set to color I'm getting roughly what I have been looking for. Thanks for your suggestions, it definitely made it easier to get this looking nice at nighttime.

 

@davidlannan
Hi, i´m glad you solved.

A brief dev update.
I´m working at the EG1.0.3.2 version that will include a few fixes and refinements but no new features.
At the moment is a bit tricky to code something "final" since things are still moving in Unity 5 dev.

The new update should not take long to go online.
I´ll be back soon.

Best Regards,

 

There´s a quick fix for the standard shader Emission issue.
It´s easy to do and it consists in modifying the Satellites.cs script bit.

Go to the Trello page under the Know issue List.

The fix will be , of course, included in the next release update.

Regards,

 

The quick fix update is available!
Change Log 1.0.3.2
Asset Store @
http://u3d.as/content/six-teen-left/environment-gator-v5

Best Regards,

 

Anyone running Suimono and EG? I seem to be having an issue where EG is making my water surface clear when I get close to shore. If I disable my EG prefab, the water has a normal surface. Doesn't seem to matter what water preset I use in Suimono. It always gives same clear result when at the shore. Distance seems to look ok but close to player character is clear.

 

@Shawn67
Hi, i don´t know how Suimono water system works in details. I will try it asap though.
What do you mean with "clear water surface" ?

 

Here is what it looks like when I have EG enabled:



And this is what it looks like when EG is disabled (the way it should look):


I'm assuming there is something somewhere that is effecting the light on the water's surface or maybe something in EG somewhere that deals with water reflections or something? But I can't seem to find anything that seems to help.

 

Is there a place somewhere to change key assignments? W is conflicting with my character controller when testing.. Would love to be able to reassign keys, but I'm not finding a panel. Just wanted to check and make sure it is not there before I start digging through scripts. Hoping I'm just not finding an inputs panel somewhere...

 

Hey Shawn67! Did you ever solve your problem with Suimono and EnvironmentGator?

 

No.. Kind of gave up and ditched it for now since the dev seems non-responsive...

 

Hmm... was just looking at this asset as well.. not a good sign to see so little activity. No activity on his trello board since july.

 

Hi to all,
sorry but i didn´t received e-mail notifications from this topic so i was pretty sure that nothing new was going on, then @AdamGoodrich send me a private email and here i am, sorry again.

Suimono water issue.
I was not able to buy the package yet since i´ve had some other priorities, sorry.
I hope i will be able to grab the package and test it out during the next week.

Key-Binding. You can easily change the keys inside the main script.

• Open the EnvironmentGator.cs in your IDE.
• Search ( ctrl+f ) for Inputs. And change the assigned keys.

I´ll probably rework this part in a future release.

Sorry again for the lack of support in the last month but was not intentional.
I´ll be back when i have some results and maybe i will add some info on the new major-update ( it´s in a design stage ).

Best Regards,

 

Great to see you on the case again

Your clouds really are outstanding !!

 

Thanks Stefano.. Good to see you back.

Another dev indicated he had the same issue with the Suimono water and EG. He said he ended up switching the camera to legacy deferred and it fixed it. Not an ideal solution since U5's deferred is probably better optimized. But he seemed to think the issue may actually be with Suimono. He is attempting to get hold of Justin to work on that. Still, if there is anything else you might be able to figure out, any help finding a better solution would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for pointing me in direction for the key binds. When you get to a point to rework that part of the code, would it be possible to set up references in an inspector window for it within all the EG panels? That would be a huge help for those of us who may have a key conflict with whatever defaults you set.

Again.. Glad to see you back!

 

Hi to all,

I would just briefly summarize the status of development. I´m thinking at a brand new version of the EG.
In a nutshell, the idea is to refine the current package, with a new Editor window and an interface that better fits to the workflow in Unity 5.

But, as always, i want to be sincere with you all, i´ve had a bad period recently ( family related ) and it was really hard to concentrate on something, anyway, at the moment i´m in a pre-production phase, designing the whole thing, and the new version will become a reality only if the end result will be like the one I had in mind, otherwise i will just put some minor refinements to the current project.

Obviously, if a brand new version will come to the light, it will be a free upgrade for existing owners of the current version .

Stay tuned.

Best Regards,

 

As for me - it's a bad decision! Any work must be paid. If you tell about new version, so change name to Environment Gator 2 - and sell it. For me there is no difference - $ 50-100 to pay or not pay. But I want to have a modern/next-gen product. If you know that will not earn money on the new version - you'll be able to work hard?
This is my opinion ofcourse.

 

Hi to all,

The development of the new version has started.
Right now i'm focusing on the new Editor that is basic to implement the type of workflow i had in mind.
Pretty happy with what i've made so far.
The idea is to embed the EG inside the Unity 5 workflow as if it is an extension of the Unity editor itself.
The first setup of the EG is now just a matter of importing the package and open the Editor.
Then we can edit/set parameters on the fly using the new EGEditor window, this can be done inside the Editor as well as in Play mode.
All the changes are stored as we made them using a new dynamic Presets system .
As always we can decide if we want to go in depth with the EG parameters settings or if we want just to set a few of them and let the EG do the rest. In both cases the philosophy will be the same, keep it easy and don't break the workflow with too much complex settings, in few words, i'm trying to build a more " intelligent " EG.

The main code will be in plan C# as before and now it has a new modular structure that makes it easier to read , helps me with maintenance and updates and let us to completely exclude features we don't want to use.

There's a lot more going on ( new features and refinements included ) but i'll be more precise and detailed later on during the dev process.

See u all after Xmas.
Happy holidays !!

@Morfeuskiev
I totally agree with your opinion, but this big update was already been planned for the EG, it was just delayed 'cause in life S***s happen! I'll try to do my best!

 

Hi,
Bought Environment Gator recently.
Using OSX Unity 5.2.

I've got this compiler error:
-----
Assets/EnvironmentGator/EGScripts/EnvironmentGator.cs(457,5): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `EGPro_Features' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?
-----

Does anyone know if this means that i'm missing a script?

possibly named: EGPro_Features

Or is there something else going on here?

thanks,

shwa

 

Hi shwa,

The EGPro_Features is a monobehaviour attached to the main gameObject ( the EnvironmentGator ). Select the EG gameobject in the Hierarchy view and go to his inspector. There you will find a grid of buttons ( Time&Date, Weather@Start, Fog, etc...). Find the one labeled Unity FX and click on it.
Let me know what happens after ýou clicked on it.

 

Hi Karlbovsky,
Thanks for this info.

When i select the EG gameobject, there is no grid of buttons.
Just : script can not be loaded messages. (due to the compiler error i posted above).

here's a screenshot attached.

 

Ok, that´s weird. What happens if you reimport the package in a brand new project, following the steps inside the documentation ?

Is the compiler error the only one that shows up in the Console ?

 

Hi to all,

I updated the blog with an article that summarizes the current state of the new update.
This is the link if you want to give it a look.

Back to the Gator

Have a nice weekend.


Regards,

 

Looks like the best version of EG to date, worth the wait.

 

Sounds really interesting.

And this photo is Stunning!
https://thekarlbovskycompany.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/screenshot-75.png?w=1000

I did finally get EG to work in my OSX machine.
Looked good in authoring.
My standalone export ended up all black, so perhaps i need to tweak things more.

My EG project size is 5 gigs.
What kinds of files are making it so big?

Will the new version end up with smaller project sizes, or give us control so we can make the project sizes smaller?

Thanks.

 

@shwa
hi, sure, the new version has got a huge optimization regarding build/project sizes.
At the moment the entire package ( audio excluded ) is around 200 MB and builds size may vary based on quality settings.

I think the big " 5 Gigs" issue in current version could be a "bug" or something that forces the EG to use the freaking huge Starsfield texture. Sorry but i can´t help anymore at the moment ´cause the PC i use to debug the old version is running Linux atm..i should fix it in a few days.
In the meanwhile, check the starsfield ( first "try" could be to disable it and try a build ), i think he could be the cause.

i´ll be back soon with a dev-status report.

Best Regards,

 

Good to hear this. Looking forward to trying this out.

Just to clarify:

My unity dev folder for authoring, with the 'EG project only', is 5 gigs.
Will this version you are working on create a smaller dev folder?
I ask because i often back up my dev folders, and I'd like to keep these dev folders relatively small.

The test standalone player build in OSX was around 200 megs.

 

Hi to all, short dev-update:

Things are going on well, the new version update has reached an, what we could call, "advanced stage".
This means that most of the main features are up & working, with some exceptions.

Let´s start from them.

The new Ambience Audio Gator ( the EG component that handles ambience audio at runtime based on weather, time and player location ) will be probably delayed to another update.

The Play mode editor interface will be probably delayed too or at least will be released with the update but with few functionalities, since i´d like to discuss about the design of the interface with you guys, once the package update is released.

A preview of the interface:

Graphic and design are temporary, just testing functionalities here.
​

That said, there´s no release date yet, ´cause i have to face some health issues before that i can dig into the final stage of the project with the needed state of mind . The only thing i can say is that the update is not so far away, you want me to say close? Ok it´s close but sorry,no release date yet.

I´ve got a request. Probably a couple of devoted "beta-testers" are going to be needed soon. If you got time and are interested, send me an email to sg@sixteenleft.com with your invoice and disposability/time to test the package.

Thank you all for the support and the patience!!
I´ll be back soon with more dev-updates as the release date come closer.

Love this atmosphere
​

Testing new Fog features​

Sneak peek​

Best Regards,

 

The images look fantastic!

 

Looks great, this package has come a long way and I am very excited to see your hard work in the next update!

 

I am very close to buy this asset as next for my hobby project. One question though arises: when the completely re-factored version 6 comes out, can people upgrade and keep settings from v5? Or would it be better for me if I waited for v6? The thing is, I am not in a hurry with my game (hobby project, as aforementioned) but I'd like to avoid setting up my weather from scratch if I decide to buy v5 then convert to v6.

I kept an eye on this system for a long time, and it may sound funny, but the biggest selling point for me is that EG has realistic looking clouds on the horizon that are sharp. In other assets I only see blurry, faded clouds, but those are absolutely unrealistic for me.

Keep up the good work, either for v5 or v6, but you have one more future customer.

 

Hi to all,

@pixelR I suggest you to wait for the new update. About the clouds, in v6 we will be able to create/edit what i called clouds sets, those included in the package will be of different kinds, from blurry/soft ( let´s call them "not realistic" ) to others that are more sharp and realistic ones, but what i think is cool is that you could build up your own very easily..

p.s.
During the next couple of days, i might have a little "surgery" thing, and i hope it will not put me K.O. for too many days.
So i might be "offline" for a while or not so responsive.

Thanks again to all for the support!!

Best Regards,

 

Good luck with your surgery! Get well soon

 

@Karlbovsky Thanks for the feedback, I will wait a bit more then. Get well soon!