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[FREE] Introducing Amplify Occlusion 2 – Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion, up to 2X faster!

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Amplify_Ricardo, Apr 21, 2016.

  1. Elfinnik159

    Elfinnik159

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    Yes, I was able to solve the problem with the help of the second camera (don't clear)

    Thx.
     
  2. Amplify_Borba

    Amplify_Borba

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    Thank you for sharing that you've managed to solve the problem.

    Don't hesitate to get back in touch if you have any further questions, we'll be happy to assist!
     
  3. RichGarcia

    RichGarcia

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    We are also seeing the same problem on multiple platforms when "Downsample" is selected. Do you have any status updates on this bug?

    BTW, this issue was first reported in September of last year. If you cannot fix this issue, please let us know so that we can try to find a work around.
     
  4. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Hello,

    Thank you for reaching out to us.

    Can you provide some additional information regarding your Unity version, Occlusion parameters, and AO version?

    There's not just 1 issue with the downscale, so to speak, we've actually fixed a couple since. The problem is reoccurring, particularly with Cache Aware and Mobile configurations, some are actually inherit to the technique used.

    In any case, we've moved on to a more flexible technique that will be available as FREE major update in a couple of weeks.

    Apologies for the inconvenience.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2018
  5. eobet

    eobet

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    Does this asset have LWRP support? If not, any ETA on it? (I see there's no ETA on single pass stereo support, which is a bit worrisome...)
     
  6. Amplify_Borba

    Amplify_Borba

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    Our Post-Effects plugins do not yet officially support SRP, apologies for the inconvenience.
    Although I have no official ETA for this, we'll be sure to keep you posted, thank you for understanding!

    In any case, as previously mentioned, we've moved on to a more flexible Occlusion technique that will be available as a FREE major update in a couple of weeks.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2018
    eobet likes this.
  7. zmaxz

    zmaxz

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    Just updated to 2.0
    But Something strange ,my skin and hair shader can see through the AO .
    How do i fix it ?
    "it's not a problem with Amplify Occlusion1.23"
    Amplify Occlusion2.0 Rendering Path_Defferred Unity2017.3.1p3
    GTAOerror02.jpg GTAOerror01.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2018
  8. Amplify_Borba

    Amplify_Borba

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    Hello! That does seem like an issue, could you please send us the AO shader used in that scenario to support@amplify.pt so that we may debug it on our side?

    Apologies for the inconvenience!
     
  9. ekergraphics

    ekergraphics

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    2.0 seems like a great improvement, crazy performant, but I think I've discovered some issues:

    Capture.PNG

    * First off, the vertical lines in the scene view is an optimization artifact, I'm guessing?
    * The red circled area is a surface behind a rather thin fence. It gets greatly occluded and the occlusion is very, very noisy. I tried to tweak settings, but none that I found fixed the issue.

    Untitled-1.png

    * The new version is indeed better at darkening floor areas, but at the same time I've noticed an unshaded "gap" in some vertical areas.
    * Also in general, I don't remember your old version fading out that much at the edge of the display, but that could just be my memory. Either way, it's noticable in VR in some cases.
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2018
  10. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Hello,

    Glad to know you liked it, performance and fidelity has been drastically improved in this update!

    Would it be possible to test that specific model on our side? Just the model would suffice, no need for additional data.

    We'll also need your camera parameters in order to replicate the same condition, a screenshot would be great. (near clip, far clip, fov, )

    Thanks!
     
  11. ekergraphics

    ekergraphics

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  12. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thanks!

    This might seem like an odd question but did you press Play?

    As the technique relies on temporal filtering(not yet available in the scene view), it wont look "good" without enough frames.

    We'll test the model on our side, thank you for sending it over!
     
  13. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Once more, thank you for the model. It's an interesting corner case, the artifacts, so to speak, are indeed inherit of the technique used. We're going to use it for further testing on our side as we might still be able to improve overall sampling.

    In the meantime, you can mitigate similar issues by using the Downscale toggle, or by tweaking the Blur and Sample Count. You should definitely take advantage of the new technique, the Downscale is far superior to what was available in Amplify Occlusion 1.0,



    Looking forward to your feedback, thanks!
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2018
    ekergraphics likes this.
  14. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    One of the best SSAO Tools on the Asset Store just got a whole lot better!

    Hello everyone,

    We're extremely happy to announce that the long awaited Amplify Occlusion update is finally here. We've moved away from HBAO-based techniques in favor of the much superior Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion (GTAO), bringing quality and accuracy closer to traditional raytracing.

    This update is FREE for all existing users!

    Featuring
    • Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion
    • PS4, Xbox One and Switch compatible
    • Single and Multi-pass VR support
    • Up to 2X faster than Amplify Occlusion 1.0
    • Revamped Spatial and Temporal Filters
    • Dramatically Higher-Quality
    • Higher Flexibility
    • Under 1 ms on a mid-range GPU at Full HD
    • Accurate and fast-performing
    • Deferred and Forward Rendering
    • PBR compatible injection mode
    • Superior occlusion approximation
    • Extensive blur and intensity controls
    • Amplify Occlusion - Asset Store Page
    • Thank you for all your support!

    Amplify Occlusion - Asset Store Page
     
    Akshara and Cactus_on_Fire like this.
  15. Cactus_on_Fire

    Cactus_on_Fire

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    That sounds awesome. Does ground truth AO use lots of raytraced samples to calculate AO and de-noise the result ?
     
  16. Akshara

    Akshara

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    Just want to highlight this and say thank you for your team's persistence and continued support; and to recognize your company's generosity in offering these new features and enhancements as a free update. Thank you!
     
    Amplify_Ricardo likes this.
  17. MechaWolf99

    MechaWolf99

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    I keep thinking of getting it. But I am curious. How does it compare to the Post-processing stack AO? Both in performance and in visuals.
     
  18. castor76

    castor76

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    I want to do some comparisons between version 1 and 2, is there any way I can import newer version on top of the old one as separate product so I can do the comparison without uninstalling / overwriting the version 1?
     
  19. Meceka

    Meceka

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    I am planning to take a build before the update, so I can compare v1 and v2. I recommend doing the same, it's easier :)
     
  20. Cactus_on_Fire

    Cactus_on_Fire

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    I don't know if this is new but there are visible artifacts and issues with the new version. The cube on the left is floating but the shadows begin right at the bottom of the cube which makes it look like it's sitting back there rather than floating. Also there's a blocky visible pattern in the occlusion shadows that doesn't go away with max quality settings.

     
  21. ekergraphics

    ekergraphics

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    I tried the Downscale, and your settings and the results are different... but still not great...

    custom.gif
    downscale.gif

    This flickering effect is present in VR as well. Any ideas how to reduce it?

    (This is the game view, not the scene view, btw, and it can still be seen while moving.)
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2018
  22. castor76

    castor76

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    I "think" it has got to do with temporal filter... try disabling it but I am not sure what the consequences will be...
     
  23. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Sort of ;)

    Thank you, that means a lot to us!

    We'll have to prepare some comparisons as we currently don't offer a trial for version 2.0 but GTAO provides superior results when compared to current state of the art (HBAO), performance and quality.

    You can still download Amplify Occlusion 1.X using Unity 5.3 but you can't use both on the same project.

    You'll have to reduce the radius value in order to avoid those types of issues but it really depends on your project. Being a screen-based effect, you'll need to tweak the effect specifically for your requirements, the fade toggle might also be handy in some situations.

    I don't get as much flickering as you do on our side, are you zoomed in on that gif? Do you see any improvements by adjusting the temporal filtering parameters? As I mentioned earlier, you camera parameters might also influence it, can you share a screenshot of your current config?



    Regardless, we might be able to improve it in future updates.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2018
  24. ekergraphics

    ekergraphics

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    Thank you for the quick responses.

    The game view in my screenshots should actually be a scaled down view, but when zooming in in Photoshop it certainly doesn't look that way. My camera parameters were that of the SteamVR InteractionSystem camera rig prefab (I did have Prism post processing, including sharpening before the AO, which I now moved after, but it didn't make that much difference). I'll keep experimenting too, because unlike previous versions of this asset, it seems that even very high numbers don't affect performance very much (for me), which is impressive!
     
  25. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thank you for the additional information, we'll try to replicate the same conditions on our side.

    EDIT 1

    We are working on a possible improvement, additional information soon.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2018
  26. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Quick note for anyone with similar issues, we found a possible cause for the problem when using Forward Rendering with HDR disabled.



    We're working on a fix.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2018
    TooManySugar and ekergraphics like this.
  27. Meceka

    Meceka

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    I turn on/off amplify occlusion based on the platform or graphics setting. By default in my scene it's disabled and gets enabled in play mode by a script.
    Every time I turn amplify occlusion off via graphics setting, I used to set camera's depthtexturemode to none, as depth has a huge render overhead.

    But with the new version, it turns on depth for cameras automatically in the editor scene, even if amplify occlusion is disabled. After entering play mode depth keeps enabled even if amplify occlusion component isn't enabled.
    I also couldn't find a way to add amplify occlusion component without turning on depth for the cameras. And I don't know any easy way of turning depth of in the editor other than creating an editor script for that, or removing camera component and re-adding it.
    depth.PNG
     
  28. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thank you for reporting it, we'll include a fix in the next update.
     
  29. reggie_sgs

    reggie_sgs

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    I needed to report a few issues on the PS4 platform. We're working on a PSVR game and VR testing indicated we're getting an "Inappropriate Parallax" in the shadows of objects. As best I can can tell this is from the AO effect. The main issue I need to report though is since the last update, having AO on the main camera when the PSVR unit is started will cause a crash at the OS level in the graphics system. I'm not sure if I can report the exact error message here as it may contain sensitive function level names and such. If the PSVR unit is started without AO on the camera, we can then load a scene with it on a camera and there are no issues. We're using forward rendering and I will say this has greatly improved the performance. Previously we would drop from 60 down to around 30 when using AO in VR mode but now it doesn't seem to have any impact but I have it set to the lowest quality. There are some serious artifacts which make it unusable at this point but I'm assuming these are related to some of the other bug reports listed above.
     
  30. castor76

    castor76

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    I have tried this upgrade 2.0 and found that it makes no performance if any for my case, where the setting is absolute lowest possible. But I think it will give some benefit if you are using it with medium or high setting. So unfortunately, it was not worth the upgrade for me. This is true especially for Switch platform, setting it to be medium can really bring down fps. Having said that, I think it will work nicely with PC or other console platform where you can give more power to AO or have ability to choose the quality from the options menu. So basically not the performance upgrade I was hoping for but still thumbs up. Looking forward to use it on the next project.
     
  31. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thank you for reporting it, we really appreciate it.

    We could really use a crash log for further examination on our side, we can do it privately, and under NDA, at support@amplify.pt.

    Apologies for the inconvenience.

    That's odd, there's a difference between both even in low. You should definitely upgrade if not for the increased quality of the Low Mode.

    • Can you share the settings used for further testing on our side?
    • Did you use the new Downscale option?
    • What resolution were you running at?
    • Dock or undocked?

    Thanks!
     
  32. castor76

    castor76

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    upload_2018-7-13_0-21-18.png

    This is my setting for the old AO for Switch.

    I don't have the setting shot for the newer version because I have rolled back now, but I think the "Downsample" option was also used in the new version along with disabled temporal filter. I have disabled temporal filter because it was making the flickering dotty noise all around and it looked better without it. ( also were hoping to gain some fps by disabling it? ) Adjusting the parameter for temporal filter didn't really help unfortunately. I hardly noticed any differences while dragging the sliders around for testing.

    I am not sure what this Downscale option you are talking about. If it is not the Downsample option then I have no idea where that option is. Downsample option was always there even for older version of AO.

    As for Switch, I have tested it undocked, 720p.

    If you need more info, I can try to use version 2.0 again...
     
  33. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thank you for the additional information, really appreciate it.

    Sample count and Method used do affect performance, however you should see a difference with 2.0. As mentioned above, we're working on flickering improvements, we're almost done.

    I meant the Downsample toggle, my apologies. You should see a considerable improvement when enabled.

    If possible, we would love to examine some profiler information or a sample project.

    Thanks!
     
  34. Cactus_on_Fire

    Cactus_on_Fire

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    Is there a way to mask ambient occlusion for certain objects via layers or some other way?
     
  35. Amplify_Borba

    Amplify_Borba

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    Hello! Unfortunately, there's no built-in masking feature in Amplify Occlusion, however, it does offer a distance based fade option. Have you considered using a multi-camera setup?
     
  36. castor76

    castor76

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    Ok, I would try again once the improvements to flickering has been implemented, but I am using deferred rendering pipeline... so I am not sure if that will help me.
     
  37. spaceemotion

    spaceemotion

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    Hey, thanks for this great update, been enjoying it so far… up to the moment where it does not want to work with certain shaders created with your shader editor. Somehow, the "Custom lighting" messes up the raytracing and marks the floor all black. You can test this against the Toon Shader example.

    Here's a scene with the toon shader set to "Standard" lighting:
    Screen Shot 2018-07-14 at 22.39.02.png

    And here it is, originally, with the "Custom lighting":
    Screen Shot 2018-07-14 at 22.38.48.png
     
  38. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Interesting, thank you for reporting it!

    Can you forward the shader to us at support@amplify.pt, or via the forum, for further examination? Additionally, we could really use a screenshot of your camera and AO parameters.

    Thanks!
     
  39. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Greetings,

    Happy to announce that we made a few critical improvements to Amplify Occlusion, be sure to udpate your project.

    Amplify Occlusion 2.0.1 - Asset Store Page
    • Fixed flipped/broken occlusion when disabling camera HDR
    • Fixed radius at different world scales
    • Fixed darkening on some planar surfaces
    • Fixed small but recurrent GC allocation
    • Fixed camera depth mode being forced on even w/ effect disabled
    • Fixed motion vectors being activated even if not used
    • Improved attenuation function to reduce "floating cube" problem
    • Improved occlusion gradients by reducing banding
    Stay tuned for additional updates, we're currently working on improved temporal filtering.

    Thanks!

    @ekergraphics
    @Meceka
    @castor76
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
    Meceka and hopeful like this.
  40. Gen_Scorpius

    Gen_Scorpius

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    Are you planning to integrate your Post-Effects plugins with the custom effect framework of Unity's Post-Processing stack? If I'm not mistaken this would make them automatically SRP compatible. The use of this standardized framework would also be very convenient for a mix and match approach with other effects.

    Thank you for your continued support.
     
  41. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Thanks for asking!

    Possibly some of them but not Amplify Occlusion as the effect is applied at a different stage, regardless of the stack. Unfortunately, supporting SRP requires some additional work, we're currently adding HD and Lightweight support to AO.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
    hopeful likes this.
  42. castor76

    castor76

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    So far the best Asset Store Seller ever.
     
  43. Meceka

    Meceka

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    Thanks for the update

    I believe the Random4x4.png is in the wrong folder, causing clutter (AmplifyOcclusionV1). Just noted so you notice ;)
     
  44. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Hey there, are your trying to use both in the same project?

    Looking forward to knowing more, it's correct on our side.

    Thanks!
     
  45. Meceka

    Meceka

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    Hi, this is how importing newest update to an empty project looks. I believe AmplifyOcclusionV1 folder shouldn't be included in the package. Or maybe Random4x4.png is in a wrong directory
    upload_2018-7-17_12-56-46.png
     
  46. Justin_Wingfall

    Justin_Wingfall

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    one question, hdrp support? :)
     
  47. Korindian

    Korindian

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    Hi, also seeing the extra AmplifyOcclusionV1 folder as noted by @Meceka

    Also, whenever exiting Play mode in the Unity Editor, I get a bunch console spam:

    [AmplifyOcclusion] GBuffer Normals only available in Camera Deferred Shading mode. Switched to Camera source.
    UnityEngine.Debug:LogWarning(Object)
    AmplifyOcclusionBase:Update() (at Assets/AmplifyOcclusion/Plugins/AmplifyOcclusionBase.cs:452)

    I am already using Deferred rendering path. I get the console warnings both when the Camera component is explicitly set to deferred as well as when set to "Use Graphics Settings" with all graphics tiers set to Deferred. This is with 2 cameras.
     
  48. reggie_sgs

    reggie_sgs

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    I just updated to the latest version and now the rendering issues are gone but the performance drop is back on the PS4. We're taking a pretty big frame rate loss (160 -> 130 ) when the effect is enabled even with the sample count on it's lowest setting. While we'll probably be able to get by in flat mode, this will not be useable in VR mode. I've experimented around a little bit with the settings but wanted to ask if there were specific settings we should go with to maximize performance? The previous version was so much more efficient on the PS4 than this version and I was hopeful we could use this in VR. Any ideas what might have killed the performance gains in this last version?

    Also, I'm still trying to get you some info on that crash when PS VR starts up with AO enabled on the camera. I haven't tested it with the latest version so it's possible it's no longer occurring.

    Thanks,
    Reggie
     
  49. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    That's definitely not supposed to happen, you should only see 1 Amplify Occlusion folder. Can you try a clean import of the latest version? I think we had an upload problem on our side

    Almost complete ;)

    Not supposed to happen, please delete it and import the latest Amplify Occlusion version.

    Let us know if the problem persists, if so we could really use a sample.

    Seems like there might be a deeper issue at work here, with our plugin or your project, Amplify Occlusion 2.0 is much more efficient than the old technique. We could really use precise profiler information to work with, along with additional setup details in order to determine what's causing the performance change.

    I would recommend using the down sample option and and the lowest sample count possible, other than that it's hard to recommend without further details.

    We do have some performance improvements planned, stay tuned.
     
  50. Amplify_Ricardo

    Amplify_Ricardo

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    Greetings,

    We have a new Amplify Occlusion udpate, be sure to check it out.
    Amplify Occlusion 2.0.3 - Asset Store Page
    • Fixed temporal stability issues in certain camera and Quality Settings combinations
    • Fixed allocating extra render textures when temporal filtering is disabled
    • Removed unused AmplifyOcclusionV1 folder
    • Added MRT blending fallback for platforms that don't support it
    • Fixed shader errors on some platforms; e.g. Android
    • Fixed temporal instability under MSAA
    Please keep in mind that if you deactivate HDR in your Graphics Tier, you will have to do the same in your Camera; sadly, we currently can't detect this situation on our side due to the way it's handled by Unity.

    Stay tuned for additional updates.

    Thanks!