Feedback Wanted: Lightweight Render Pipeline

https://blogs.unity3d.com/es/2018/07/10/2018-2-is-now-available/
They said that "Please note the HDRP is not currently supported on any AR or VR platforms. Support for these platforms is scheduled for 2019" if you can wait until some unknown time in 2019...

 

Anyone has tried photorealistic assets like megascans in lightweight? would like to know if quality becomes much worse than standard built in.
Also when will end preview state for lightweight? as right now it is not adviced for commercial projects

 

Assets look the same, LWRP isn't made to have bad rendering it's made to be lightweight/performant and multiplatform.

 

Getting weird error on iOS:
WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'LightweightPipeline/Standard (Physically Based)' - Pass 'Meta' has no vertex shader

 

Actually i made the test and lightweight looks much worse but pools, but has much higher fps than builtin

With lightweight linear rendering



Built-in linear rendering

 

Doesn't seem like you have shadows enabled on LWRP, and sun intensity is different too.

 

I didnt have linear enabled for lw, you can see the new picture, it had shadows enabled before anyways, i didnt change anything in project, its the same, just added a lightweight profile with all options enabled

 

Hmm... weird. Is it something related to shadow distance or vertex lighting?

 

There is no option to update go LWRP 3.0.0 only 2.0.5

Where I can get 3.0.0?

 

I was confused when version 3 was mentioned too.

Because, based on what versions of pipelines the Package manager offers me in 2018.1, compared to what is available in 2018.2, I was under the impression that pipeline version numbers correlate with Unity version numbers.

Which means I think that version 3.x of pipelines are only available in Unity 2018.3, and even the beta of 2018.3 is not available to most people yet.

 

Fantastic! My customers aren't pushing for SRP compatibility quite yet; I'm just trying to get ahead of the curve on this because I know it will take some work.

Is there value in our further corresponding on this as a test case, or would that just clutter your already-full plate? Should I attempt to work this on my own based on the 3.0.0 package (from Github, I presume?), or is the API obscure enough that it's not feasible for someone to just work out the usage details by examining the source?

In any case, thanks for the reply. If the answer is, "Just wait for a while," I can live with that, but if I can be of help in testing I'd certainly like to offer that. Your call.

 

Looking at the code, I can see where you're doing the pass setup. The part that I think is confusing (and I'm not asking you to explain here, just putting this into the thought process for the documentation and/or API design) is how to make C# code that can "hook" any arbitrary SRP pipeline for these kind of immediate draws. Asset developers who aren't specifically marketing a complete pipeline need a way to interact with not only the LWRP and HDRP but also with project-local custom pipelines.

I absolutely understand that's a tall order, especially with complex rendering because conceptually this contradicts the whole reason scriptable pipelines exist. In my use-case, the need is for basically a gizmo-type draw call (but also in game mode for debugging purposes by gamedevs) using a customized unlit shader. So I would hope the baseline functionality of drawing colored pixels would be common enough between the various SRP pipelines.

Admittedly, my comments above may be off base because I hadn't really started experimenting with SRP until about a week ago, so please forgive me if I've not expressed the problem in the correct terms. Also, I'm a tool developer and not a rendering pipeline expert -- I only got involved with the rendering because of the need to migrate my custom shader and inline procedural draw calls from built-in to SRP model.

 

The problem is not the result of the shader. It's just that it's missing elements.

What it's look like now (2018.2.0f2):



And how it suppose to be (these pictures was taken in the previous version - 2018.1.5f1)



As I said, the preview of the material is not working. And It missing workflow, surface, blend and two sided.

 

Hello,

I am using the LWRP version 2.0.5 in 2018.2 on a Mac and for all pretty much all my materials I am getting a warning message on the console stating:

Metal: Fragment shader missing buffer binding at index 3 (_LightIndexBuffer / LightweightPipeline/Standard (Simple Lighting))

Metal: Fragment shader missing buffer binding at index 3 (_LightIndexBuffer / LightweightPipeline/Standard (Physically Based))

and also I don't get any material preview in the material viewport,

Anyone know why/what I can do to fix this?

I also am having issues with the normal map turning black when scaling up meshes when using the shader graph as well.

 

I have also been interested in extending the SRP, and been experimenting a bit.

I am interested in running a compute shader prepass that runs before a mesh is rendered so my understanding would be that you would rely on OnBecameVisible/OnBecameInvisible to add/remove your custom component to the LightweightPipeline's beginFrameRendering callback. When you get a callback, you request the CommandBuffer from your custom pass class (which will get one from the CommandBufferPool each frame) and add all your custom drawing commands to that.

Then, in your custom LW pipeline class, you simply enqueue your custom pass and your Execute() function would call context.ExecuteCommandBuffer() on your command buffer and release it. I think the idea with the custom mini-passes is that everyone who wants to customize the rendering will write their own custom pipe and have an easy way to control which passes they are running and in what order. If someone wanted to use your custom gizmos, they would just queue up your custom gizmo pass in their pipeline wherever they wanted them to be drawn.

I am interested specifically in running some compute shaders before the opaque/transparent passes, but I think one would take the same approach adding any draw commands you wanted to the command buffer.

One stumbling block I have come across is accessing the per-object shader constants. These seem to be setup automatically by the engine in ScriptableRenderContext.DrawRenderers() based on the flags set in the RendererConfiguration parameter. If I want to access these in my own draw commands or compute shaders, it seems I have to calculate and set them myself. For the simple Object->World transform that is not too bad, but sorting and setting lights is slightly more complex. I would have to turn off the flags, and do all the light sorting manually to get consistent light behaviour.

Anyway, still experimenting and learning, but this is all looking pretty promising to me

 

Tried adding Tonemapping but it didnt change anything. Actually no post effect does anything, tried the different post effects in the post effects script using a post effect profile and none changed anything. How can i make post effects have any effect with lw?

 

I get this error when i start a new project with lw template, if i create a normal 3D template i get no errors :

"An error occurred while resolving packages:
Package com.unity.render-pipelines.lightweight@2.0.3-preview has invalid dependencies:
com.unity.render-pipelines.core: Version [2.0.3-preview] is incompatible with the selected version [2.0.0-preview]
One or more packages could not be added to the local file system:
com.unity.render-pipelines.core: Package [com.unity.render-pipelines.core@2.0.0-preview] cannot be found

A re-import of the project may be required to fix the issue or a manual modification of C:/Users//Documents/Posteffects/Packages/manifest.json file."

If i press continue i have the error show before and another one :

"Assembly has reference to non-existent assembly 'com.unity.render-pipelines.core.Runtime' (Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.lightweight/LWRP/com.unity.render-pipelines.lightweight.Runtime.asmdef)"

Reinstalled unity 2018.2.0f2 but didnt solve anything. In the project there is no Package manager in Window menu

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to more examples and documentation. The specific part I am having trouble with is how one would set all the per-object shader constants in a compute shader pre-pass so that they are perfectly consistent with the constants set in the vertex/frag shaders. So an example of that would be awesome

 

Ouch. Thanks very much for the detail, but...ouch. You've confirmed something I was beginning to suspect to be the case.

I have been considering another approach to my asset requirement, which is to actually instantiate a real MeshRenderer component into the scene, with a procedurally-generated mesh, and let the user take responsibility for rendering. This is a lot less clean and tidy than what I'm doing now, but it may be the right way to handle SRP situations. I'd just have to clearly document to users that those MeshRenderer components are going to get procedurally updated if they change the parameters of my mesh generation (because I then procedurally replace the mesh). Potentially, this could improve performance in those situations where they're allowing my gizmos to be runtime-visible.

You've given me a lot to think about. Probably my next step will be a PoC prototype that I can test under the LWRP and HDRP reference implementations.

Again, thanks for the detailed comments. I'd rather have solid info that I need to rethink my approach, than missing info that leads me to think I'm headed down the right path and just need to wait for the code to mature.

 

I am testing the LWRP for Daydream and found that the single 'Realtime' spotlight light in the demo scene does not show up in the Daydream output, but it does if I turn off Daydream and only project it as standard mobile ES3.1 image. If I turn on 'Mixed' and bake it (with a 'Lightmap Resolution' of 128 & 'Lightmap Size' of 1024) I now have the shadows but of course not as sharp and non from dynamic characters). Is this something known and will be changed in future updates? (Note: I have tried the v.3.0 but only project a blurry light grey screen in one eye). Also, I cannot seem to find the parameters window you are showing in your example.

With spotlight in 'Realtime' mode

With spotlight in 'Mixed' mode

 

First off, I'll just come clean and say I'm really happy the whole SRP thing is about game devs first and asset developers second, because this means performance and that should always matter more.

But having said that I'm very, very doubtful that most of your customers will ever deviate from LWRP or HDRP. This is because the same kind of people that go for asset store, are the same people who lack the time or knowhow to touch SRP.

This means you *only* need to make it sexy for: builtin, LW and HD. Anything else including custom stuff is not important. You can make that a bespoke thing that can be an optional package people can get dirty with. So the problem isn't as huge as it seems.

So your task is only porting to LW, and maybe HD, which is a pain I agree, but not so painful that you need to actually throw the baby out with the bathwater and worry about custom SRPs because most asset store users won't be caring about custom SRPs.

I guess it will become messy if asset store is filled with custom SRPs for sale, and frankly I think some form of a stand has to be made by asset developers.

Perhaps support LW+HD+Builtin only, and just provide a FAQ for custom, rather than support custom by default at horrific cost.

 

I think you are probably right, at least in the short term. I'm a decent C# Unity programmer, but the render pipeline is a science unto itself, in the same way that one can be a great UI programmer without being a great network programmer. One challenge I face is that I never set out to be a graphics programmer, but had to enter that realm because the SRP made it part of procedural drawing. (I am not intending that as criticism of Unity or anyone else -- I realize there are great reasons for the SRP, and seeing the demos so far I think it's a good long-term feature. For me personally it introduced an unwanted complication...but I'm not so arrogant as to think no one else matters!)

The only exception I'd make to what you say is that I think some who are graphics programmers will see an opportunity to market custom rendering pipelines on the Asset Store. I hear your point about competing with the ones Unity already provides...but that may not stop some developers from doing so. Since the tool I've made isn't intended as a "graphics tool" in itself, what I want is to be "rendering neutral" and work with as many rendering variants as I can.

All that said, maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing. I do intend to try my PoC idea to see how it behaves. I've got the time since so far I have zero customer requests for compatibility, and I'm going to use this time to do my experimentation while I'm not under time pressure from paying customers. At worst case, I advance my own skills and learn some new 'this works" and "this doesn't work" scenarios, which is never a bad thing.

 

I think the real problem won't be the people who do their own SRP, but those who buy random (and no doubt incredibly crappy) SRPs that pop up on asset store. I doubt Unity will place any real quality control on these at all.

That's the real danger for hard working asset authors, after all flexibility has to happen some way or another. It think it should be a case of asset store authors only guaranteeing compatibility with Unity, not other authors. That should take a lot of strain off.

 

Thanks, it worked for a project with that problem but it still keeps happening when i create new projects, every time , i open Unity and press New project of type lightweight Unity shows me a panel saying the error i told you and project is broken once you open it, i dont want to make that fix you showed me every time i create a new project

 

Got to make it work with layermask and post volume, i was using post effect behaviour, documentation still points to this system

EDIT : What i dont get to work is the Ambient occlusion post effect, i change all values and stays the same. I notice in the pictures i showed before the one in builtin the wooden pillar in the right has much more detailed the shadows of the texture, how could i achieve that with lw?

 

Of course that's the approach I'll have to take, absolutely. And my asset ships with full source code, so I'll just say "I support the Unity-provided pipelines and provide source so you can adapt to your custom pipeline."

 

Anyone?

 

I have confirmed that just changing out the included LWRP from 2.03 to 3.0 in the Package Manager, does not correct the realtime spotlight issue in Daydream and in fact does work at all now. I only get illumination in the left and at that only on light grey image with no content or movement when moving your head.

 

@Andre_Mcgrail does anyone know if this pipeline works with the lightmap for prefab fix mentioned by @Joachim_Ante here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/problems-with-instantiating-baked-prefabs.324514/#post-2177524 ?

 

So what is the status of the LWRP right now? I've been meaning to make a modified version of it (ripping out anything we don't use, which is a lot), but I've been waiting for it to stabilise a bit.

I've been checking it out from time to time, I have to say, it's becoming more complicated as time passes by, and it kinda worries me.

 

I have similar question like many, is 3.0.0-preview really ready for 2018.2? or 2.0.6-preview for that matter:

- The demo scene that comes with 2018.2 use 2.0.3-preview, and it's the only version of LWRP that work on Metal without immediate issue.

- Both 3.0.0-preview and 2.0.6-preview breakdown when I toggle scene view lighting off, I have opened fogbugz issue 1062911 as well as these 2 issue tickets.

I know a lot is changing and I don't mind breaking/reworking stuffs (otherwise I won't be here), but I think a pinned thread for all known reported issues and workarounds are needed (even if you will fix them soon, it's still worth documenting! no one can guarantee the next release is going to fix issue X, so the best way is to let users know X exists.)

(side note: I also hope the fogbugz reporting tool is better.)

 

@Andre_Mcgrail @Tim-C do you know if there is any plan to implement a suitable replacement for the standard tree shader(s) which are used in the tree creator? Currently, even if you run the converter to convert your old standard shader materials into LWRP/shader graph materials, your trees will remain magenta as there is no suitable replacement. There is a bundled replacement for terrain. Might a tree/leaves shader be on the way soon? Many thanks in advance.

 

I have the same issues with Google Daydream VR. I was hoping these updates would help with real-time light issue, but it actually is far worse with only light grey screen in the left eye. This was the case with 2.06 & 3.00.

 

Sorry to hear, though my issue is slightly different, I would suggest you submit a separate fogbugz ticket if you haven't.

For me, LWRP is pretty broken at this moment on Metal and macOS (in particular: standard shader for PBS).

Since SRP github issue tracker has been closed, I am just going to re-post my issue below, so people can find it:

You can see the PBS standard material for LWRP become invisible when lighting is off (eg. when using default camera lighting)




Note that while there is an SRP issue that look very similar to mine, and marked as fixed for 2018.2, my issue is different and I suspect either an oversight due to lack of QA or a regression beyond 2.0.3-preview.

 

1) Batching On && PostProcessing off 2) Batching off && PostProcessing on.
Makes the FPS difference.

 

Sorry if I am being annoying, but I have several questions regarding LWRP before implementing it into our game.
1 - Our game is primarely 2D in a retro style, but has a lot of 3D stuff in it, including full 3D sections. Because of that, we need a functionality similar to Pixel Perfect package. Pixel Perfect package in itself doesn't work on LWRP and it got confirmed that it wouldn't in the future, since there's going to be a dedicated 2D Render Pipeline (which is pretty much unnacceptable to us). As such, where in scripts LWRP sets its resolution and camera bounds?
2 - Do I properly understand that there's no Grab Pass in LWRP, yes? Some of our effects (like color inversion, sine distortion and screen overlays) depend on it. What would be the best way to port them?

Of course we can stay on the legacy renderer, but it would honestly be a bit sad, staying there and not getting more performance and more features (especially from shadergraph)

 

@Tim-C So sorry for bothering, but again, is directional light culling mask meant to work in LWRP ? If yes, what is the status of this feature that currently isn't working ?

Answer is still pending for all those threads. For some it's been for months
https://forum.unity.com/threads/lig...8-1-after-lightweight-render-pipeline.529611/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/lwrp-directional-light-culling-mask-not-working.534441/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/feedback-wanted-scriptable-render-pipelines.470095/page-17

Furthermore I'm worrying because I see all strong issues I had on LWRP disappearing from the issue tracker for no explanation, for example:
-https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/lwrp-directional-light-culling-masks-dont-work-properly
is considered as a duplicate and redirects to
-https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/lwrp-light-layer-culling-not-working
which does not exist anymore.

But I also have those who disappeared:
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...-render-texture-causes-ugui-disappears-on-ios
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...nder-texture-gives-black-screen-only-on-build

My question is: where are they? We have no any visiblity on that anymore. And the lack of clarity is very frustrating :/

Thanks for your answer.

 

Oh... That? Old news.... But if I were, to say, make light lighting a lot more interesting.... What shader would THAT be to edit our forward lighting... I KNOW it would be in the LWRP folder, but what shader?

 

Shadows in LWRP do not work properly in large scenes.

Objects far from the origin stop casting shadows, even if the directional light and camera are near the object. Extending the LightWeightAsset's Directional Shadow distance can increase the shadow render distance, but the resulting shadows become very blurry. The Distance setting should be relative to the camera, not relative to the world origin.

 

Yeah.... To edit it... To make it more interesting... What script ACTUALLY produces the lighting we see with lightweight?

 

Thx for all your answers, but I find this part confusing:

Are you saying LWRP-2.x and 3.x are not 2 different branch? Will we need to move onto 2018.3 for a better version of LWRP?

(EDIT: "Better" = "Suitable for production", not necessarily more features)