[FREE]MicroSplat, a modular terrain shading system for Unity Terrains

Seems like you have an older version of MicroSplat, this was fixed maybe 2 months ago?

 

That's strange as I was setting up a new machine and I downloaded today from the assetstore the plugins. I'll try to clear the cache and download it again.
I'll update you asap.
Thanks

 

So I checked and the version I have in the project is 2.1, both of MicroSplat and Tessellation.
But in the header of the shader I have:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// MicroSplat
// Copyright (c) Jason Booth
//
// Auto-generated shader code, don't hand edit!
// Compiled with MicroSplat 1.7
// Unity : 5.6.1p2
// Platform : OSXEditor
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I also tried to enable and disable the Tessellation to force the recompilation of the shader but nothing changed.

 

Where did you check the version number? Look in the GetVersion function and see what it returns. It looks like you have 1.7, because the GetVersion function is what gets written into that code.

 

The GetVersion implementations of the various add-ons are all 2.1, as the MicroSplatShaderGUI.MicroSplatVersion constant.

 

Hi, I just bought 3 modules for Microsplat today, but maybe I did a mistake.
I have read the "brief differences comparison" but still not sure I did the right thing.
Here is why.

First of all, I wonder what's the difference in performance is between the two. I need performance more than texture variety and procedural textures, so Microsplat seems the right choice. Also, Microsplat now supports 32 textures if I'm not mistaken (the page is still set on 16) so I really don't need more than that.

I don't need procedural texturing, and I prefer to avoid terrains "conversions" etc. because I am working with Landscape Builder. Landscape Builder supports directly Megasplat, but again, I don't know the performance results, nor if it converts the terrains into meshes or other stuff like that. Stuff that I don't need.

So Microsplat looks the right choice, and that's why I proceeded to buy the modules... but I still miss the textures and the expense is getting near to Megasplat: if I buy another module or two, which will probably happen, I'll have spent more on Microsplat than on Megasplat.

So the final real question: is Megasplat performing similarly to Microsplat?
Because if so, and if the "conversion" is not mandatory, I'll give back the modules and buy Megasplat instead.

 

There's no easy answer, because it depends on the settings and such, but generally speaking for Unity Terrain work MicroSplat is usually faster than MegaSplat, and has more features than MegaSplat with the module system. MegaSplat uses a completely different splat mapping system than Unity's built in one, which also makes it look pretty different than MicroSplat and the other options out there. Some people like this difference, some don't.

 

Also another thing that is so weird...
I created a new empty project and imported MicroSplat base.
I got this:

 

That is actually a bug- those pragma's are the new instancing options for 2018.3, but they seemed to have no effect on older versions so I left them in - but they seem to be causing these warnings..

 

The issue is that they are on the same line of the main #pragma. Once fixed it's not a problem to have them in 2018.2.

 

Yes, but they throw other warnings in 5.6, so I'm just going to only emit them in 2018.3+

 

OK, thank you, I'll hold on to Microsplat then.
Is there a way I can get the textures? Could you put them in a separate package maybe?

 

Hi I just purchased the anti-tiling module everything works great but distance resampling doesn't work well. More spesifically I use 4 textures distance resampling works only for grass but not the other 3 textures. Also the resampled UV scale doesn't work as I zoom out textures are always scaled down by the same factor no matter the scale I set. Other than that it works great and with excelent performance! But I really need to fix that issue.

 

Can you post a shot of your material settings (the top section)? I just tested scale in all 3 modes and it seems to be working..

[Edit] Ah, found it. It's when using the Gradient/LOD samplers instead of default. I'll submit a patch for this soon.

 

Good to hear, thanks for the quick reply and great asset!

 

Well i can now add the texture to the array with no problems , nothing turns dark , for some reason lol , but the texture doesn't appear in the texture list on the terrain to paint it

 

Can I assign different microsplat materials in my terrains in runtime? I have 4 settings grass/dry/snow/sand and I want when my level loads to randomly pick a setting. Do I use sync or anything else?

 

Set the template material field on the MicroSplatTerrain component and call MicroSplatTerrain.SyncAll().

 

I mean how do I set it? Is there any scripting documentation I could read? I could look at the component code find it and assign it directly but I fear of breaking something.

Edit: so I guess this works terrain.GetComponent<MicroSplatTerrain>().Sync(dryMaterial);
I only use 1 level per scene


Edit2: Ok I got it MicroSplatTerrain.templateMaterial=dryMaterial; and then SyncAll();

I just realized Sync has no params

 

hey, i have a problem with ground textures.If i move the smoothness slider to the right, the textures look good but have reflections.If i move the opposite side, no reflections but they don´t look well,as there is a dust layer over them.In the middle i got a lot of reflections.Any idea how to solve this? thanks



Smoothness = 1



Smoothness = -1

 

Are you talking about the smoothness strength per texture property? If so, what this does is add the value to the current smoothness coming from the texture (that's why it goes negative, for instance). It's preferable to adjust you textures, as they have per-pixel information for smoothness..

 

Hi Jason,

I bought Microsplat two days ago, and since then I've purchased all of the additional modules. Very nice work!

Everything is really good, except when I enable the Advanced Details module, I'm seeing a shader compilation error:

Shader error in 'Hidden/MicroSplat/Terrain_Base-1742838048': invalid subscript 'xy' at line 825 (on d3d11)

Do you have any idea what might be causing that?

I tried removing Advanced Details and adding it again in case it overwrote a newer file, and I also tried reimporting the core package, but no luck unfortunately.

It only appears to happen when the Gradient sampler is enabled. The LOD sampler appears to be ok.

 

Advanced details is not actually my module; @wmpunk wrote it and has to update it if there's an issue (I cannot actually push it to the store). I will give it a test and see if I can repro it though.

 

Microsplat constantly packing textures and with our large project it's getting too much. How can we get it to only pack when we tell it to? We make a change to something that has nothing to do with microsplat and it packs, we pull from collab and it packs .. it's ruining our work progress.

 

It should only pack when the platform changes or your texture settings change. You can find the code which computes the hash in TextureArrayPreProcessor.cs and figure out why one of these values is being changed.

 

Thanks for the response, passed that over to someone who knows what they're doing Could I ask if there is a way to stop everything re-generating every commit, all microsplat assets have to get pushed (get a blue icon showing changes), even when no work been done. It's over 500mb every time someone commits. Might be the same problem, hopefully we solve this

Should be a manual override so we can click a button to do all this, rather than having to push/revert 500mb every commit.

Thanks again jbooth!

 

If you could override it, you'd end up with your textures being compressed into the wrong format when you change platforms; everything would still work, but Unity would uncompress them at load and they'd take up 6-12 times as much memory as they are supposed to without so much as a warning. So I don't particularly like that idea. So better to figure out why your project keeps compressing the textures, because for most people it doesn't do this. Also make sure your on the latest, as that hash code was simplified a few months ago to only include a minimal set of data.

 

Hello Sarudan, Thank you for purchasing AdvanceDetails. Currently I'm having a issue sending updates to the AssetStore, I am working on resolving this. I have already sent you a message with a patch to fix your problem. Any other issues you can reach me through private message or post to the AdvancedDetails thread.

 

Jason, I know you usually don't make updates for new Unity versions until they're out of beta....but do you plan to update MicroSplat for 2018.3 before then...and if so, how much before?

 

I did an initial update on beta 3, and will likely test again when it’s a bit further along.

 

Oh, great! (I didn't see it on github, but I do see it on the Asset Store, so will download it from there.) Much appreciated! (EDIT: And now I do see it on github...weird...)

 

Was interesting to read about perf improvements coming to terrain via GPU instancing. Any perspective on whether microsplat users will automatically pick up these perf boosts?

 

I somehow killed my framerate from 60->10. Suspect some setting got changed after I imported the recent microsplat, or I just did something dumb. Anyone know common gotchas when upgrading? Next step is to delete the microsplat directory and reimport. I seem to keep doing this but not writing down how I fixed it.... :/

 

I added support in the last version, but Unity broke something with Graphics.CopyTexture in beta 5, so if you want to test use Beta 3.

 

@jbooth I just updated MicroSplat and MicroSplat Tessellation from 1.9 to 2.17 and the Tessellation seems to no longer be using my height maps. It just raises/lowers the entire area painted with that texture.

Edit: Nevermind, I just fixed it by going into the MicroSplatConfig.asset and hitting the Update button at the bottom.

 

SOLVED: it was my Unity version. :/ Still on 2018.2, but didn't have latest patches.

Back to 60fps.

Microsplat integration with next gen Enviro is looking awesome. Weather driving puddles, raindrops.

Also BTW, thanks for the specular cutoff at sea level. Got a nice limited glistening shoreline above the waves:

 

I havent used microsplat in a while, decided to use it with a new project and getting this error in unity 2018.2.12. Shader error in 'MicroSplat/Example_AlphaHole': 'Setup': output parameter 'config' not completely initialized at line 277 (on d3d11)

could you point me the right way to fix it

 

Update to the latest version.

 

Has anyone tried the terrain in 2018.3? Is it true we unity terrain users will finally get some relief from the crazy draw call numbers? Sounds like it could be amazing if they're moving a lot of the rendering work to the gpu.

Also, any idea how far off the mesh terrain module is for microsplat, Jason?

 

It's done, and it's more of a mesh module, I just haven't gotten around to cleaning up the last few things and releasing it.

 

yeah, really excited about using it on arbitrary meshes (not just for pseudo-terrains) if that's possible (I think I remember seeing that that's what you had done on your youtube channel). Really exciting times

 

Hi

I am experimenting a bit with streams and i have some questions.

I am making a landscape with mostly ditches and small rivers. Occasional small lake perhaps.
I didn't think i could make this look good with MS-streams, but with the right care it can look really nice.
And off course it's very 'cheap'..
To be useful however, i have some issues with reflections.
I understand MS uses whatever i use in my scene.. so i used reflection probes.
What i can't figure out however, is how to use multiple reflection probes on a static terrain. Do i need to write a script to activate probes according to the camera position?
I must be doing something wrong.

For more accurate reflections i understand that using planar reflections is very expensive.
But wouldn't it be possible to mix both?
I have for instance waterbirds like swans in my scene. And a small boat.
It would be cool if i could only render these objects and mix this rendertexture with the probes.
I have a script for making the (reflected) rendertexture.
Perhaps this is a better suggestion for Cascades, but could work for MicroSplat as well no?

 

Well, a planar reflection system won't 'just work' with other shaders- it usually uses a second camera to render the scene from the reflected angle, then the resulting image is used in a shader. However, you might be able to get close enough with a screen space reflection system. This uses the pixels already on the screen to fake a reflection. As for the probes, only one probe is active on any given draw call in Unity's system.

 

No i guess it won't just work
But if you would add a slot where i can put a rendertexture in and add some code to the stream shader code, we could make it work right?
Anyway, it was just an idea. Would solve some things for me. I understand if this is a bit outside the scope.
Can't use deferred unfortunately.. mobile..
I'll have another look at Cascade... and my reflection probe troubles.
Thanks Jason.

 

You can write your own module for MicroSplat- it's pretty straight forward, so that's my "Hey, I want to add a feature" system.

 

@jbooth I'm testing the tessellation with Vulkan. As soon as I enabled it, the part of the terrain that should be tessellated disappears. Can you confirm that it works on your side? Maybe is an issue with my drivers. I'm on 2018.2.12f1
Thanks.

 

Pretty sure I tested vulcan a while back and things seem fine- there's no API specific code in MicroSplat, and Unity doesn't even expose anything vulcan specific.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I made a repro with a simple shader that makes use of tessellation and filled a bug report. I'll update here in case someone else may have the same problem.

 

Hi Jason, a quick question regarding microsplat, I'm using splatmaps from Worldmachine for my basic texturering, can I use microsplat to improve that, because when I run it, it seems to ignore my splatmap and just uses the general distribution of the applied textures on the terrain?

 

So Unity confirmed it's bug and will fix it soon.