Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

GAIA - AAA terrain generator, procedural texturing, planting and scene creation

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by AdamGoodrich, May 21, 2015.

  1. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020

    Exactly as you described even with the almost completely shadowed sides to models etc. I am using the standard lighting.

    Nearly picked up Tenkoku in the sale a while back but need dosh. Usky looks nice but the latest version is in beta and it's hard to know if that will go well. Been stung too many times with too many assets. I looked at TOD and it looks smart but the developer is not as active on the forum as some others and it hasn't had an update in a while so that worries me especially when it's an expensive bit of software. It's not a dead product but need reassurance if about to spend a days wages on something. That's what I like about Adam and others here, they do support their products.
     
    S4G4N likes this.
  2. montyfi

    montyfi

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2012
    Posts:
    548
    You can turn lights on and off in editor by clicking on sun button on top of editor window.
     
  3. Arganth

    Arganth

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2015
    Posts:
    277
    you could try
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/13625
    but i am not sure if it would help
     
  4. montyfi

    montyfi

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2012
    Posts:
    548
    Yes, Beholdr works pretty good if you need an accurate representation of camera fx too. Just disable depth of view effects, otherwise it is quite a mess :)
     
    docsavage likes this.
  5. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    #tip #resource I have been exploring performance optimisation and lighting and came across this course the other day:

    https://www.udemy.com/unity-5-lighting-fundamentals/

    I just sat through it and learned heaps. It's not a particularly expensive or long course and I now have a much better understanding of lighting in Unity 5.

    80.lv also has a bunch of articles as well - and some pretty amazing people write blog posts there:

    http://80.lv/?s=lighting

    A cool talk by Iestyn Lloyd on how to make Unity 5 look pretty:

     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2016
    TeagansDad, Tinjaw, Pequisto and 7 others like this.
  6. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020
    Thanks montyfi. I should have been clearer. It's even in play mode I have had problems but you are right that button does make a massive difference. :)
     
  7. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020

    Thanks for the link Arganth. I did get that in a sale ages back. I will need to try it more. It is a nice bit of kit. The problems I am experiencing are a general lack of good lighting in any scene.
     
  8. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020

    Thanks for the link Adam. I will have a look at that 80.lv site today.

    I found this -
    -

    last night and have been trying it. It seems like a good base for a day/night cycle at least. I have not tried performance in depth but in a standard gaia generated scene I noticed no frame rate drops. If Mr Glen Rhodes who made the vid watches this thread then thanks for posting that youtube vid it is a good one.

    doc
     
  9. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Awesome :) This sort of content makes this forum genuinely useful IMHO - over and above cool Gaia stuff of course :)
     
    BackwoodsGaming likes this.
  10. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2015
    Posts:
    250
    Great, thank you for letting us know, I'll try the course.
     
    AdamGoodrich likes this.
  11. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020
    Thanks Adam

    This is a top thread and is really educational. 110 pages in a year! That video is a good one that I thought needed sharing on here. The guy who did it did a good job. I will be checking out the other Unity vids he has uploaded as well.

    On my lighting journey I have discovered a new personal number 1 lighting rule. Before trying to set up the lighting turn the shadows settings to 0. Then add when everything else done. Makes life much easier.
     
    TeagansDad, AdamGoodrich and montyfi like this.
  12. GambitMonkey

    GambitMonkey

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2016
    Posts:
    65
    Adam,
    I have been using Gaia for about a month now and it does as it describes. Really quick way to get some decent looking terrain. Lots of fun to use actually. However all the examples I can find along with your tutorials, including the one about a Minecraft type terrain, deal with realistic textures and objects.

    I have been killing myself for the last few days to try and get a decent looking world using hand painted textures. I recently bought BrainBoxes Fantasy Environment pack, which anything by BrainBox is just awesome by the way, and nothing I do or try generates a good looking hand painted environment. I also have Red Panda's hand painted packs and same thing. I just can't get anything decent out of Gaia when using non realistic packs.

    Is there any guidance you can offer or even better yet a tutorial you could do that shows how to generate a good looking world when not using realistic textures/objects please?

    P.S. I would also love for you to get your own forums on your website instead of using the Asset store forums as it is a pain to find anything here as the threads just keep growing on the same post and I don't seem to be able to just search for posts regarding your product.

    Thanks in advanced,
    Garry
     
    Goodgulf likes this.
  13. Goodgulf

    Goodgulf

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2016
    Posts:
    59
    Hi Garry, you can try this link to search through this thread only. It's mentioned a few times on previous pages but you probably have to read all to know :)
     
    S4G4N likes this.
  14. Blank blank

    Blank blank

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    22
    Does anyone know if the spawners run on a different thread, or the main thread?
     
  15. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    The spawners are coroutine's so they run on main thread. In the editor you can't run coroutine's, so I have simulated them via the editor update method. The downside of that however is that editor update doesn't like too many spawners at once. I am looking at improving this.

    I haven't tried actually. I will approach the author and see what I can do.
     
    BackwoodsGaming likes this.
  16. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    Hey Garry.. I just downloaded a few free painted texture packs (including one by one of the publishers you mentioned).. I'm going to try to play around with them this weekend and see if I can get decent results. I'm wondering if it might be something with texture sizes or something that may be able to be adjusted in the defaults Gaia uses for textures maybe?

    Not sure, but I'll give it a play. :)
     
  17. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Hey - just noticed - SpeedTree has an Earth Day discount - 40%!!

    If you purchase a one month subscription to their modeller then you get an additional discount as well... so if you have been looking enviously at the speedtree packages then now is the time to jump in!!

    For example - Desktop Tree pack - normally $159 - discounted to $95 - with modeller - $81!

    Gaia has integrations with Desktop Tree Pack and Desktop Ground Cover pack which make adding these to your scenes simple and quick with a few clicks because they are pre-configured for you!

    I will be adding more of the SpeedTree range over time. If your doing vegetation in Unity then this is the only way to go IMHO.

    Another tidbit for the interested environmental punter - in Unity 5.4 they are introducing a technique called GPU instancing - and I have had reports that this speeds up SpeedTree performance significantly - which means you can create lusher environments with less of a fps hit!!

    speedtree.jpg

    Wooo... just noticed - the backdrop to this image was created with Gaia :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2016
  18. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    Coastal Area - Terrain Stamps Pack for Gaia is now available on the AS!

    Grab-Vol5CoastalArea004-x304y89z-285r25.png

    Working on finalizing a video overview of the new sessions support which will be included starting with the Highlands - Terrain Stamps Pack for Gaia Vol 6 which is due to be released by the end of the weekend. I just need to clean up the sessions and remake a few where I renamed the pack since I started with testing. So hopefully my first video for the stamps packs, the next lesson of the 32k terrain tutorial series, and the Highlands stamps pack will be done by the end of the weekend. :)
     
    S4G4N, AdamGoodrich and docsavage like this.
  19. brunno159

    brunno159

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2014
    Posts:
    23
  20. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2011
    Posts:
    773
    Damn, this thread can be expensive! Even when I'm getting a good deal, it just means I buy MORE! :eek:
    Yeah, it's the pretty ads that always do me in... :rolleyes:
     
  21. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    :)

    :)
     
  22. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2015
    Posts:
    557
    Just bought the Gaia Speedtree pack for just 20$. Nice sale!

    Where do you mean exactly? In the GX Settings? I just see a Speedtree Link to the Assetstore. How does Gaia integrate the Pack if you have them by itself?
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2016
  23. jimmikaelkael

    jimmikaelkael

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2015
    Posts:
    791
  24. S4G4N

    S4G4N

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2013
    Posts:
    3,213
    TeagansDad and AdamGoodrich like this.
  25. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020
    And with performance gains in hardware those Hero packs will be similar to the current Desktop packs in no time. I mean they will be running sweet on more common hardware.
     
    S4G4N and AdamGoodrich like this.
  26. GambitMonkey

    GambitMonkey

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2016
    Posts:
    65
    Shawn,
    That is awesome. Thanks for taking a look. I am really hopeful I am just doing something bone headed.

    Also there is a super cheap package with some great textures I have been playing with as well in case other forum readers are also interested in hand painted looks.

    Thanks again,
    Garry
     
    BackwoodsGaming likes this.
  27. GambitMonkey

    GambitMonkey

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2016
    Posts:
    65
    Thank you Adam as well for taking a look. I think realistic terrains are beautiful, but the stuff I a working on all use hand painted stuff and doing the terrain generation by hand has been tedious so far. Be super great if Gaia cpould just do its magic using these types of textures.

    Appreciate the help,
    Garry
     
    AdamGoodrich and BackwoodsGaming like this.
  28. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    I've kind of fallen behind with my stamps pack. Trying to get it wrapped up with a new feature. But still planning on trying to play with these (somewhere in the mix) heheh Pulled that link up into a tab to look at when I am able to dig into it :)
     
  29. 99thmonkey

    99thmonkey

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2012
    Posts:
    525
    How do your stamps work? Do the stamps allow you to create a full, complete area, and have spawners (to spawn the big rocks and such)? Just curious.
     
  30. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    Up until now they were only the stamps. Similar to the stamps Adam included with Gaia in that they stamp an entire area. The release that I'm preparing now, I'm adding the session playback functionality to the packs. What this means is the sessions that are recorded as I am testing the stamps and spawning assets which are included with Gaia, it will end up creating ready-made scenes if you choose to use them that way. Volume 6 of the stamps packs with release with this feature included. Then within the next couple of weeks, I will back track through the previous volumes and update them with the session playback feature as well.

    All future stamps pack volumes will come with both the stamps and the sessions when they are released. :)
     
    elbows and 99thmonkey like this.
  31. GambitMonkey

    GambitMonkey

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2016
    Posts:
    65
    Shawn,
    I just bought your coastal stamp pack and have to say it is a great addition. Nice job!

    Garry
     
    AdamGoodrich and BackwoodsGaming like this.
  32. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    Thanks for the support! Just finished up the build and testing of the Highlands pack. I know with you going for the hand painted textures look, the session support probably isn't of much use to you since the sessions use all the samples that come with Gaia, but if you end up doing something with that look down the road, the coastlines pack will also be getting that update at some point over next couple of weeks (along with all the other previously released packs)..

    At any rate, glad you are enjoying the pack! :)
     
  33. brunno159

    brunno159

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2014
    Posts:
    23
  34. docsavage

    docsavage

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Posts:
    1,020
    In my current lighting quest I need to give a big thanks and shout out to @larsbertram1 for the info in his AFS docs.

    It does relate to speedtrees and as @AdamGoodrich linked to speedtrees recently I thought this may be of use to many.

    Was going through the Advanced foliage shader docs and came across this - (hope AFS author @larsbertram1 doesn't mind me quoting him)

    "Linear lighting is like a key to physically based rendering.
    But using linear lighting comes with some special and very important demands of which may be the most important is:
    All textures which are not diffuse albedo textures have to bypass the sRGB sampling!
    I really can not overemphasize how important this point is—as i stepped into this trap myself several times ;-)
    The foliage shaders commonly use some combined „normal, translucency, roughness/smoothness“ textures. Those textures have to bypass the sRGB sampling under any circumstance: Just select the texture in the „Project“ tab, set „Texture Type“ to „Advanced“ and check „Bypass sRGB Sampling“ in the inspector.
    The tree shaders use even 2 of those combined textures: Normal map(GA) Spec(R) and Trans(RGB) Gloss(A): Both should bypass sRGB sampling as well.
    So in case you get some strange bump mapping or lighting (especially noticeable if the transitions between billboards and mesh trees do not look smooth) this is probably caused by the fact that the combined textures do not bypass sRGB sampling."

    Seems applicable to anyone doing scenes in general not just gaia. I have noticed a difference in the speedtrees included with gaia by just changing the texture type to Advanced and ticking the Bypass RGBM box. Makes a big difference and needs consideration. Recommend everyone have a play with those settings and see the difference. I found them generally lighter but not washed out. The lighting and shadowing can then used more effectively in my opinion as you can keep the light intensity lower for a start.

    Also recommend AFS. Had it ages and just now finding out how quality it is.
     
  35. EDarkness

    EDarkness

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2013
    Posts:
    506
    What is the best way to change the default size of Gaia terrains? The terrains in my game aren't 2048x2048 and I'd like to shrink the Gaia sizes down to something fitting for my game.
     
    S4G4N likes this.
  36. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    Change the settings in the GaiaDefaults file. Pages 16 through 20 of the Gaia documentation goes over all the different settings options available in GaiaDefaults and also explains how to create a new one. I would recommend creating a new one that way when you update Gaia, you don't take a chance in Unity reverting back to the original default settings. :)
     
    AdamGoodrich, EDarkness and S4G4N like this.
  37. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2015
    Posts:
    557
    Change the Gaia Default File to your specific terrain size before creating the terrain. Or just create an own File with your Size Options etc.
     
    AdamGoodrich, EDarkness and S4G4N like this.
  38. EDarkness

    EDarkness

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2013
    Posts:
    506
    Thanks, guys. I'm finally messing with Gaia to use in my game and it's pretty neat so far. Kind of a bummer that my game is 3/4 view as a lot of the more interesting look of the terrain gets lost. Still, it looks pretty good so far. Just trying to figure out how to change trees and stuff so that it conforms to the overall look of my game and keeps things unified.

    I understand that there are some performance issues when attaching objects to the terrain. I haven't tried to add in objects (rocks and the like) yet, so I'm wondering if they're attached to the terrain, or placed underneath it's own game object?

    Also, is it possible to use Gaia with a terrain I've created already? There's this terrain I created a while back that I don't want to mess with, but I'd like to use Gaia to re-texture it and add grass and rock details. If it's not possible, that's okay, but just something my wife asked me about that I'm not sure if it's possible to do.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2016
  39. Kiwi-Hawk

    Kiwi-Hawk

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2015
    Posts:
    288

    A few pages back Adam did a video on using Gaia with already created terrain I believe
     
  40. Fatalis

    Fatalis

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Posts:
    52
    Is Gaia supposed to support 16 RAW files? I have a heightmap from WorldMachine and I get an EndOfStreamException: Failed to read past end of stream. error. I see the hieghtmap perfectly in the scanner preview but the stamp it makes is just a bunch of gray diagonal lines.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2016
  41. VargaPD

    VargaPD

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2015
    Posts:
    64
    Dear forumers,

    I've got a new HDD, and I wanted to move my project to it. I made a package with all the assets, scenes, everything. However, in the new project where I imported it, the terrain looks ... well, not so good. I have rebuilt the lightmaps, resetted the ground textures, nothing happened. What else I have to do again, which elements/properties not saved in a scene file or a package?

    Sincerely,
    VargaPD
     
  42. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2011
    Posts:
    773
    #tip Sounds like it's not being read properly somewhere. Raw files are either big or little endian, and if you choose the wrong type when importing them, you'll see weirdness. I'm pretty sure Gaia's scanner should be able to read and save them as stamps, and @AdamGoodrich might have a few tips on doing this, but I'd just import the Raw heightmap directly, using Unity's native terrain heightmap import feature. Then if you still want to make a stamp, drop the terrain itself into the scanner.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2016
    AdamGoodrich likes this.
  43. Tinjaw

    Tinjaw

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2014
    Posts:
    518
    You don't need to export/import. Just grab the project folder and move it. It's really that simple. ;-)
     
  44. VargaPD

    VargaPD

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2015
    Posts:
    64
    My system says that I can't read some subfolders, files, neither as administrator. I am using Windows 8.1
     
  45. Tinjaw

    Tinjaw

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2014
    Posts:
    518
    Is this on a fresh installation of the operating system? If so, then it is a OS permissions issue. You will need to take ownership of those files. Is it?
     
  46. VargaPD

    VargaPD

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2015
    Posts:
    64
    It is not a fresh system, and I have made it work with another project. Also, I could delete the full folder, but could not move it.
     
  47. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2015
    Posts:
    250

    Shawn, two questions, but I'd like to create a scene similar to this image, any of your packs close to something like this?
    The other question is, I'd like to create that sky, but I can't seem to find any info on how skies are typically created as far as programming at least. Do I have to backwards engineer Time of Day? I'd rather just start simply if there is any info out there.
     

    Attached Files:

  48. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2014
    Posts:
    2,229
    To be honest with you, I have no clue. The image is too small for me to see much of the landscape. From what I can see, it looks like the landscape is pretty much flat. If that is the case, probably the desert pack would be the best. Just spawn them with normal grass type textures instead of desert ones.

    No clue on the sky either. The closest thing I've seen to a nice realistic sky is Tenkoku. But not sure you will be able to get any sky that detailed in any of the sky assets. Even if you could, I doubt a sky that realistic would run well in any game environment.
     
  49. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2015
    Posts:
    250
    OK, sorry I forgot to include the image full size. Probably just as well, I'm sure someone has the copyright.

    the landscape looks like low hills, farmland.
     
  50. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    #tip Using Gaia with an Existing Terrain:

    Yes - make sure you back it up first - and check out the video here :



    Just drag and drop your .r16 file onto the scanner. FYI Gaia expects windows 16 bit raw files. If its a mac raw file, as @FargleBargle suggested, first import into a terrain, then drop that terrain onto a scanner to turn into a stamp.

    I have gone off procedural skies - they just don't look as good imho and you really only need them if you are doing a day / night cycle. If you don't need a day night cycle then a skybox is a good alternative. You want to use a HDRI skybox as this will give you the best result with ambient lighting.

    @chingwa if you are reading - tenkoku is gorgeous - but the clouds in procedural skies just kill it for me.. i have some ideas on how to approach this :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2016
    Phesant33 and BackwoodsGaming like this.