Farland Skies - Low Poly skybox with custom shader

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[Customization Demo] [Day-Night Cycle Demo] ​

Farland Skies - Low Poly is minimalistic, low-poly style skybox with a custom single-pass shader that works as a regular skybox material, avoiding the use of any sphere or mesh.

Features:

• Dynamic three-color gradient sky with adjustable exponents.
• Three types of stars, with adjustable twinkling speed and horizon extinction.
• Five types of sun and moon, with customizable size, tint, and position.
• Three types of nifty low-poly clouds with dynamic height and tint.
• Fully customizable day-night cycle.
• Easy to control either from scripts or directly in the editor.
• High Performance. Optimized for mobile devices and VR platforms.
• Supports both SRP and LWRP.

Demos:

• Customization Demo
• Day-Night Cycle Demo

Screenshots:

Spoiler: Screenshots

Changelog

Spoiler: Changelog

2.5

• Added support for LWRP
• Better compatibility with Unity 2019.1
  
• Replaced obsolete PreferenceItem with new SettingProvider
  
• Fixed bug with performance degradation when continuously rotating clouds on iOS
  
• Minor bugfixes

2.4.3

• Better compatibility with Unity 2018.2
• A number of small optimizations and fixes

2.4.2

• Fixed bug with SkyboxController initialization for large scenes
• Better compatibility with Unity 2017.2

2.4.1

• Added option to specify frames interval between skybox day-night cycle updates
• Better compatibility with Unity 2017.1
• Minor bugfixes

2.4

• Added option to move the asset wherever you want in your project
• Got rid of the "Editor Default Resources" folder
  
• A number of small optimizations and fixes

2.3

• Implemented possibility to enable/disable clouds, stars, sun or moon as shader feature
• Added three different types of clouds
• Added three different types of stars
• Added five different types of sun
• Added five different types of moon
• Various optimizations and fixes

2.1

• Custom editor for skybox controller
• Custom editor for skybox day-night cycle script
• A number of small optimizations and fixes

2.0

• New single-pass shader, optimized for mobile
• Sun and moon with customizable size, tint, and positioning
• Stars with adjustable twinkling speed and horizon extinction
• Configurable clouds height
• A number of small optimizations and fixes

Please, feel free to send any feedback, suggestion or critic. It'll always be well received and pondered. Don't hesitate to comment. Thanks!

 

Gifts for early birds:

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̶A̶S̶V̶-̶M̶N̶9̶U̶-̶R̶T̶3̶L̶-̶K̶G̶T̶H̶-̶E̶V̶H̶G̶-̶6̶9̶7̶F̶
̶A̶S̶V̶-̶K̶R̶K̶M̶-̶4̶L̶H̶9̶-̶9̶4̶K̶6̶-̶L̶U̶7̶3̶-̶M̶4̶N̶7̶

Would appreciate if you'll rate it and leave feedback.

 

Thank you! I took ASV-ML7P-9DGA-RLXQ-Q4TL-UAXF. Awesome asset!!!!

 

Got the last one. It works fine with other Low Poly assets from the store. Nice Work

 

Few more keys for lazy birds

̶A̶S̶V̶-̶D̶G̶Q̶T̶-̶X̶T̶P̶Q̶-̶G̶C̶M̶A̶-̶E̶4̶N̶X̶-̶V̶K̶9̶U̶
A̶S̶V̶-̶7̶J̶C̶J̶-̶Q̶T̶6̶T̶-̶V̶U̶H̶J̶-̶P̶G̶T̶J̶-̶Q̶F̶4̶6̶
A̶S̶V̶-̶R̶H̶6̶P̶-̶6̶P̶W̶E̶-̶M̶9̶Y̶E̶-̶K̶6̶X̶W̶-̶D̶E̶6̶Y̶

Would appreciate if you'll rate it and leave feedback.

 

Hi, fellow developers! Version 2.0 is now available on the asset store:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/64604

What's new:

• Shader completely reimplemented and optimized
• Added stars with adjustable tint, twinkling speed and horizon extinction
• Added sun and moon with customizable size, tint, and positioning
• Added optional sun/moon flares

Please, feel free to send any feedback, suggestion or critic. Don't hesitate to comment. Thanks!

 

Gift for early bird:

A̶S̶V̶-̶N̶E̶Q̶Q̶-̶V̶R̶4̶G̶-̶7̶G̶F̶G̶-̶F̶T̶A̶P̶-̶T̶N̶P̶C̶

Would appreciate if you'll rate it and leave feedback

 

Thank you for the code, I grabbed one on Jul 2. The asset is awesome I like the day/night circle. Thank you

 

Hey PhannGor,

With the asset is it possible to take the sun/moon/clouds out of the skybox and into the world as 3d objects? The asset is perfect for what I need otherwise.

 

@davidchaseling, there is a simple version of the skybox, without sun/moon, in the asset package. You can also disable clouds just by setting clouds texture to "none". Regarding 3d objects, you will need to create your own ones I guess.

 

PhannGor,
I am really enjoying your skybox. I am using a linear rather than gamma colorspace though, and the highlights around the sun, and particularly the moon are not displaying the same, and there is a dark ring around the edge of the moon. What can I do to rectify this? Thanks in advance!

 

Hey, I figured it out. For those who follow: The textures must be imported using the advanced mode, with "Bypass sRGB Samp" checked, "Encode as RGBM" set to off, ( and don't forget to set "Wrap Mode" to Clamp. )

 

@ajaxlex,
Glad to hear that you've figured it out and all works fine now. Also thanks for sharing your solution with community

 

New version with custom editors for Skybox Controller and Skybox Day-Night Cycle has been submitted for review.
Now it should be far more convenient to adjust skybox parameters for your needs

 

Hi,

thanks for the asset! Love the overall style. However, I encountered a problem with some other, third party shaders. If you are using shaders that rely on the intensity of a directional light in the scene, they will disappear during the day/night switch. (at least that's the cause, I guess.)

Digging through your script, I figured out that at some point, moon and sun light intensity become zero. So I added a small fix, by making sure that at least one light's intensity will never be zero - voilá, everything works so far. Just as a hint for other users.

 

Thanks for sharing! However, there is even simpler solution - just edit sun and moon DOT params in editor in a way their light intensity is overlapping, that's it.

 

Ah, ok. Thanks! Haven't thought about this one, guess that makes more sense.

 

Great product, love the new configuration options for sun, moon, clouds. Is Unity 5.5 supported yet? Considering a migration soon. I did a quick test and saw some errors, don't want to spam them here if the problems are known/being worked on.

Thanks!

 

Hi @CharlieHorse,

Unity 5.5 is supported with the latest released version. Just double tested it now with 5.5.0f3 and all works fine for me. Feel free to describe your issue here or send an email to support@borodar.com.

 

ive never worked with red and blue cubemaps, and im trying to replace clouds with asteroids. I can do it, but i dont understand what the deal is with red and blue cube maps and how to use them. what is the term for this kind of cubemap and how does one work with them? Its like blue doesnt show but red does?

 

@Damo3000,

It's a typical 6-frames cubemap with the info for shader where to render sky and clouds. The blue color will be interpreted as sky and shades of red will be rendered as clouds.

 

I love the sky but am having some problems integrating it. If I open a new scene and drop the three prefabs for the sky controller and day night cycles it works great. I do the same with my current project and for some reason the sun and moon disappear. I can still see the lens flare where they would be but not sun or moon. I looked at the camera and it looks the same as a new scene, minus a UI and RenderCameraLayer removed, but neither of those is the layer for the sky components. I even tried creating a new camera and setting it as the main camera, still just the lens flair. Any thoughts as to what to look at next, if it helps I can send you screenshots of the camera and day night objects.

 

Hi @ryandb2,

Yes, please post screenshots here or send me them to support@borodar.com

 

Hi @PhannGor ,
Love the sky so much, It's so beautify. However, when I use this in mobile device, It slow down a lot.
More than 30fps drop even I turn off the sun light and moon light. Seem the shader update slow down the program.
Are there any work around to improve performance?
Thank you!

 

Could you please describe how exactly did you tested asset performance? And what is hardware specification of your mobile device?

I'm wondering because this skybox shader is optimized for mobile and I'm getting stable 60 FPS even on my 5-years old LG Nexus 4.



P. S. The shader is optimized for mobile, but demo scenes coming with the asset are NOT. They include complex terrain, lightmaps, reflection probes and ALL variants of the cubemaps/textures for demo purposes. These things could be heavy even for modern mobile devices

 

Thanks for reply. I use Samsung S7 edge to test, it should be powerful enough to run most of the mobile application.
I'd create an empty scene and put the skybox prefabs. It run very well and have a high performance. However when I use the day night cycle(which update the position of sun/moon/cloud etc), the frame rate drop dramatically.
Also I'd do some test, reduce the update() in SkyboxDayNightCycle.cs to run every 5 frames. The framerate back to 60fps again.
So I guess it should be the update of shader items impact the performace.
Thank you so much

 

Thanks for the info, will do additional testing regarding SkyboxDayNightCycle.cs performance. Also, I like your workaround with reducing the update() runs. Quite elegant and users should not notice the difference!

 

Is there an easy way to turn moon / stars off? I could edit the script but wanted to see if I'm missing exposed controls...

 

Yes, you can enable/disable them right from the SkyboxController editor:

 

Thanks, sorry to bother you with something so simple I overlooked it completely!

Two other questions:

- How could we control the sun's glow term?
- Is there a way to insert additional colors in the sky beyond the top/middle/bottom RGB values?

 

1. I'm not sure i understand your question. Please explain what do you mean by the sun's glow term?

2. This shader supports only three color gradient. You can change top and bottom exponents of the gradient, but cannot insert additional colors without modifying the shader manually.

 

Thanks; I was asking if there is an exposed parameter to tune the sun shader's glow.

We can change the halo by editing the B channel in the relevant sun map, as below:


My question is: can we dial down the amount of the halo effect rendered (shown at left)?

Back to my question about controlling the sky box's color gradients, can you point me to the shader I will need to edit manually? Thanks!

 

There is only one shader in the package: Farland Skies/Low Poly/Shaders/LowPolySkybox.shader



And here's the place where sky gradient is applied:



Regarding sun or moon halo, there is no exposed parameters to tune it in the editor. But you can also modify the shader in this case.:

 

Thanks for the fast reply, I'll give that a shot!

 

HiI just bought your skybox tool and I love it!

If I were to ask for any features, it might be to add a little more control over the horizon: an alpha ramp for each haze setting (so I can keep the horizon at 100% but fade to the sky/ground sooner), and the ability to shift the horizon up and down would be wonderful!

 

Hi @wetcircuit,

Thanks for proposals, that sounds interesting. Will take a look what can I do here, probably next week.

 

This asset is a no-brainer purchase for me. The wife's been keeping a tighter leash on my wallet lately due to my many Asset Store purchases, but as soon as the restriction is lifted, I'm buying this.

I'm immensely impressed by the documentation and obvious attention to detail you've put into sun and moon positioning. Any plans on adding moon phases?

 

Hi Schneider21,

Thanks for such a positive review!

Regarding moon phases, we definitely have this feature on the roadmap. However, I can't say anything about when it will be implemented. Meanwhile, you can easily achieve this effect by changing moon texture manually or from scripts, even at runtime.

 

I love this asset so much , and am currently using it for active development. Will absolutely recommend it. One thing tho, the sun and the moon are not showing up in the sky for me. Im using the latest build of unity. Maybe you can give me a hint how to fix it.

 

Hi, just double checked it and all works fine in Unity 5.6.1. Can you please provide more info how to reproduce your issue with the sun and the moon? Have you got a chance to run the demo scenes, does this issue appear there as well?

Also, it would be faster to contact us using our support email for similar questions: support@borodar.com

 

Hey! just installed this on Unity 5.6.2f1 and it seems not to work - even tried the demo to make sure it wasn't my scene, but i get the same errors. Can you help?
http://imgur.com/a/ct8U5

 

Let me check it with the latest build.

 

Just double checked it and all works fine in Unity 5.6.2f1.



Sometimes Unity just imports something in wrong way. At first, create a new project and try to import this package into it. If all works fine, then:

• Сlose Unity Editor
• Backup your project
• Open your project folder in Explorer/Finder
  
• Delete whole Library/ folder
• Delete the Farland Skies folder, wherever it is (in Assets/ or in Assets/Plugins)
• Reopen your project in Unity and let it reimport all the things (may take some time)
• Import Farland Skies asset again

I hope this helps, but please let me know if you need anything else or if you have any other questions.

 

That worked / thanks alot! Big fan of this. And the response time you are keeping is so nice.

 

So i have a question, can anyone help me make my clouds rotate by default when i start my game ? is there any simple way to do that ? .. i'm a noob so try to be as specific as you can . Thanks!

 

Hi @zRares,

You can easily achieve that by adding this simple script to some object in your scene:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.  
3. namespace Borodar.FarlandSkies.LowPoly
4. {
5.     public class CloudsRotator : MonoBehaviour
6.     {
7.         public float RotationPerSecond = 1;
8.  
9.         protected void Update()
10.         {
11.             SkyboxController.Instance.CloudsRotation = Time.time * RotationPerSecond;
12.         }
13.     }
14. }

 

@PhannGor Thank you for the super fast reply ! you're awesome and the asset is amazing! Keep up the good work!

 

Just bought this and dragged the prefab into the scene but I keep getting null object errors when I run the scene or try to check boxes on and off in the settings for the skybox.

eg

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Borodar.FarlandSkies.LowPoly.SkyboxController.set_StarsCubemap (UnityEngine.Cubemap value)
Borodar.FarlandSkies.LowPoly.SkyboxControllerEditor.StarsGUILayout ()
Borodar.FarlandSkies.LowPoly.SkyboxControllerEditor.CustomGUILayout ()
Borodar.FarlandSkies.LowPoly.SkyboxControllerEditor.OnInspectorGUI ()
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean rebuildOptimizedGUIBlock, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect)

I'm using Unity 5.6.1. Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

I think it was because I have my own Singleton class. Updating your class declaration to

public class SkyboxController : Borodar.FarlandSkies.Core.Helpers.Singleton<SkyboxController>
{

seemed to fix the null errors.

 

is it possible to turn off the sun and turn on the moon at runtime?

this throws an error because the property is read only.

SkyboxController.Instance.MoonEnabled = true;

Thanks