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

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

  1. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    A couple actually fit that. If you want more flat than hills, the Desert Stamps Pack would be perfect - just make sure to uncheck Ground Base and raise the stamp on the Y axis by about 10-15 to ensure it is high enough above sea level to show mostly as grass.

    The opposite is true of the new Highlands Stamps Pack where it has more rolling hills than flat. There are some higher hills in these stamps but for the most part they are rolling areas modeled after the glens and highlands in Scotland. I'm still working on images and video in preparation to submit it to the Unity asset store, but it is available in my web store already.

    Coastal Area and Village Area packs also have some stamps that would fall into this type of terrain, but with coasts or a mix of mountainous stamps as well.

    The next pack may be a good one as well. The Wetlands Pack will be more bayou type stamps and similar to the Desert Pack, raising it on the Y axis to pull it further above sea level could change it from being wetlands to farmlands type of a deal.
     
  2. chingwa

    chingwa

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    Of Course! :D Yes I agree. Doing realistic clouds is a weak point in dynamic systems... I certainly have plans to do improvements for Tenkoku... definitely interested in your ideas!
     
  3. Dramamine0001

    Dramamine0001

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    Last edited: Apr 25, 2016
  4. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    Thanks for the info, Adam.

    One more question...

    What is the best way to handle trees? I have a set of trees I use from another asset pack that I would like to populate my world with. These trees have to be actual meshes since billboarding doesn't look right with the angle my game is in. What is the best way to add these trees so that I can populate the worlds with them? Same with rocks. Are they added as actual objects in the scene or are they attached to the terrain directly?
     
  5. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I think at this point, the only SpeedTree packs that have Gaia extensions are the two that Adam made. Correct me if I am wrong @AdamGoodrich or @Dannyoakes. I'm not sure if those two are even included with the packs yet or not.

    Spawners and Resources are pretty easily added. Just follow Adam's videos on resources.

    If you need to add trees as meshes, just add them via a Game Object spawner. You would add the tree meshes to the Game Objects section in your GaiaResources file. Then either add them to your existing Game Objects spawners or create a new Game Objects spawner specifically for your trees. I break out the default game objects spawners like this because I want to ensure some game objects are spawned completely before others. You can do the same if you want to categorize your Game Objects.

    I have never added rocks as anything but game objects. To be honest, I've never seen anything other than trees, grasses, and bushes attached directly to the terrain.

    As mentioned above in response to @Dramamine0001, the resources and spawning videos Adam put together would be an awesome reference point for what you are trying to do. :)

    Can't wait to see screenies from both of you!
     
  6. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    C........




    .....louds, and more of them would be awesome! I bet you thought I was gonna say something about a certain programming language or something, wasn't ya? :p

    Speaking of which, I need to dig into the docs. I know early on in development, I think you were working on Borealis type night skies. Did these ever get put in? Don't tell me how if they are there, just tell me to RTFM... heheh

    Btw, I've been having a lot of fun with Tenkoku for skies. I need to add some weather toggles and cloud toggles to my little cheat script that I run when trying to get my screenshots for my packs. Definitely expect to see it showcased more in the next couple of packs! Love the Gaia extension you did for it and the options it has.. Hmmm.. May need to take a look at it to enable some of those toggles while I'm in play mode.. heheh
     
  7. chingwa

    chingwa

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    @Shawn67 Yes they are in. I'll give you a hint... aurora only occur at certain places on earth... :)
     
  8. Kiwi-Hawk

    Kiwi-Hawk

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    I export them from WM as r16 and change the extension to raw which seem to be a lo more common for a lot of software but yep works like a charm, I did see a video where importing to Unity the guys said Unity by default looks for .raw but you can select ALL files select your r16 and it works no problems, I believe you can (from memory thats not good) drag r16 in to the scanner in Gaia now worries and it works
     
  9. Kiwi-Hawk

    Kiwi-Hawk

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    Did you install Unity in the default windoz install path c:\Program File (x86) or c:\Program File. This is the biggest pain in a user butt to be sure. Games that you mod like Elder Scrolls and software the writes to it's folders should NEVER be installed in those default folder windoz will ALWAYS cause you permission issues
     
  10. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    What is this earth that you speak of? :p

    Thanks for the hint.. I'll dig into the docs.. :) Looking for some cool night shots of the stamps packs.. :)
     
  11. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Windows defaults Unity in the program files but defaults the projects folder into the user path. Which in hindsight is probably backing up what you are saying.

    I actually use (and recommend) a totally custom folder tree for Unity. I have a Unity folder in the root of my hard drive. within it, I have four folders (Installations, Unity Assets, Unity Projects, and Unity Videos). Installations I create a Unity5.1.0f3 folder along with folders for each of the versions of Unity I run on my machine. This folder is also where I install other applications I use with my Unity development (Visual Studio Community, Photoshop, Blender, etc)

    In the Unity Assets folder, I have a Backwoods Gaming folder along with folders for all of the assets I help with testing. This folder is also where I store my downloads to install unity and any other installation executable files for my development environment. I also have folders here for the few asset publishers where I purchase from their web stores. I keep a backup of my asset store downloads folder in this folder, but only on my network storage, not my local machine.

    In the Unity Projects folder I have a folder for each Unity version I work with. In order to maintain complete backwards compatibility with all projects using Gaia, I develop all of my assets in Unity 5.1.0. This is where the stamps are scanned, edited, rescanned, scripts are developed, and initial testing is performed. Once I'm happy with the packs, I export the pack to the Asset Store and export a unitypackage file for my web store. I then open 5.3.4, import my web store unitypackage, stamp all of the stamps into new scenes in 5.3.4, test any script changes in 5.3.4, and do all my screenshots. (Oh and as of this latest pack release, run session playback for each stamp.) So currently I have 510, 534, and old. Old is where I've archived projects just in case I have a script or something that didn't get moved into a production project. Any projects in this folder generally gets dumped to my network attached storage and deleted from my local machine.

    In the Unity Videos folder is where I download any videos about Unity I need to watch. My internet connection SUCKS. So streaming isn't really an option. So I download and archive any videos that I want to watch or have watched and found useful and store them here.

    At any rate, I kind of went off on a tangent, but I've yet to have any issues copying a project from one unity installation to another and getting access to all of the contents as long as copying from same version to same version or older version to higher version. I guess another issue that could be causing issues is if the older version you was using with the project was newer than the one you are trying to copy to. From my understanding, that wont work.. heheh

    Good luck @VargaPD! Hope you get it figured out... :)
     
  12. VargaPD

    VargaPD

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    Thank you @Kiwi-Hawk , @Shawn67 and all the others. I will try your methods in the future, but this time, the problem was so much simplier. The new project started with gamma color space, and I've forgot to set it back to linear... However, these problems may cause bigger failures in the future, so I'll look after things :/
     
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  13. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

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  14. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Personally, the fact that it hasn't been updated at all in over a year would have me concerned. Surely there is something that could have been or has needed to have been updated in a year. Plus I'm always skeptical when there is no website or forum thread for an asset or at the very least a thread for the publisher linked in the asset. Would love to hear feedback if anyone has used, but short of that I'd probably not chance it. :( For me personally.
     
  15. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Don't laugh too hard... But here is my first attempt at video production on my crappy computer.. Video outlines the support of Gaia's sessioning system being added to the Backwoods Gaming Stamps Pack extension..

     
  16. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

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    small.jpg
    Yup, missed the date part, thought it was just out.
    I started work on just making something in a level with a camera and using panorama images like this asset was using. I'm really only interested in just the one sky.
     
  17. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    Is it possible to add a mask to the terrain (like a road or a coastline) that Gaia can build either inside of or around? Like, I have this coastal area with a river that passes through it and I'd like to add hills on both sides, but I don't want it to remove the river or the coastline. How would I go about this? Also, how can I keep it from putting grass or rocks on the road?
     
  18. runningbird

    runningbird

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    Fun with GAIA and AQUAS Grab 20160425225309 w1900h1200 x-58y53z-343r263.jpg Grab 20160425223639 w1900h1200 x-228y53z-205r166.jpg Grab 20160425225450 w1900h1200 x-275y51z-190r176.jpg Grab 20160425225525 w1900h1200 x-381y56z-246r131.jpg Grab 20160425232040 w1900h1200 x-14y52z-370r151.jpg
     
  19. Revelation_Jeff

    Revelation_Jeff

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    Great Job Shawn! I thought you did a really great job for your first attempt at video production =)
     
  20. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    You can use masks on your stamps to control which areas then will influence.
     
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  21. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Super cool - Gaia being used as part of the pipeline for Crowfall!!



    You can see it at 2:34 :)

    It's also being used in Shroud of the Avatar, and Pantheon MMO (by the guys that did Everquest!)
     
  22. Revelation_Jeff

    Revelation_Jeff

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    That's awesome! I'm telling you the stamper concept changed the world =)
     
  23. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    Any tutorials on how to do this?

    *Edit* Whew, after experimenting a bit, I was able to find the option. Not sure why I didn't see it there before. Gonna play with it a bit and see if I can get one of our zones looking cool.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2016
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  24. yhummel

    yhummel

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    anyone can point about the right way, best way, to generate massive landscapes using gaia?
     
  25. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    @Shawn67 is working on a tutorial on how to do that, but it is still in progress
     
  26. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    Is there a way to have more than one mask going on at a time? I need to have one for the coast (don't need trees in the river, lake, or ocean and I want to make sure that the roads stay relatively flat and also don't have trees on them. It's okay if a little grass ends up on the road, though.
     
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  27. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    You can have as many as you like - you can assign them a a spawner level - or at a rule level within the spawner.

    Cheers,
    Adam.
     
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  28. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    How do I go about adding another mask? I don't see one under "Masks" in the spawner.
     
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  29. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Yeap - sorry about that - just checked - you can only add one per spawner - the spawn rule masks are for applying noise. I was thinking at one point about adding image masks per spawn rule.

    Mask1.jpg

    To get around this either add multiple spawners and remove rules that aren't relevant - means you need to run a few more spawn passes - or combine your masks.

    Alternatively, don't forget that you can also customise your spawn criteria to select for or avoid one or more textures.

    Mask2.jpg

    So you could have your grass avoid road textures for example.
     
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  30. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    I guess I'm confused about how to go about doing that. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed. Such as not putting trees on the road or the ocean/water. This could be one mask, but it will get complicated when it comes to the terrain since water needs to be lowered and roads need to be raised. With everything being one color, that just won't work and not being able to have multiple masks just makes it complicated. I'll admit that I'm not familiar enough with the system to really do this, but I'll have to figure it out since my zones have to conform to the shape of the island so this is something that needs to be taken care of. Using the spawner for this seems strange since the road may not have been "painted" on the terrain yet.

    Also, would it be possible to "paint" the road using the road mask or is it just better to paint the road manually, then use the combined road/coast mask to make sure trees and such don't end up on it? If not, then would it be possible to overlay the map over the terrain so that the road can be easily painted on without having to do it from memory?

    Sorry to be asking so many questions, but I'm just trying to find the best way do what I'm trying to do in the simplest way possible. I finally got grass spawning, but not in the density I need, but noting a little painting can't fix. Will be messing with trees after I solve this road/coast issue.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2016
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  31. Kiwi-Hawk

    Kiwi-Hawk

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    Could you make a black and white Alpha of the roads to use as an image mask?
     
  32. BackwoodsGaming

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    Roads would be an entirely different mask from your water areas. You can use the same mask you use to texture your roads also as a stencil to raise the height. You can do the reverse with your mask for your rivers/streams and also use it as a stencil to lower the terrain for those areas.

    Since you have multiple masks where you don't want trees, I'd use Adam's suggestion and set your trees to not spawn on your road or shoreline textures.

    Yes. :)
     
  33. EDarkness

    EDarkness

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    No offense, but I have no idea what you're talking about. Just consider me a complete and total newbie to this...where things have to be explained in simple terms. I've only used Gaia for a little over two days so I don't have a grasp of what it really can and can't do. Anyway, what's a stencil? I haven't seen anything like that in the tutorials and don't see an option for it anywhere, either. Also, if the texture isn't on the terrain, there'd be no point in telling the trees/grass spawners to avoid those textures. They'd have to be there first. I don't mind painting them by hand, but that's why I asked if there was an overlay or something that could be used as a guide for the painting of the roads. If not, then I'll have to find a workaround.

    Also, do people usually use a different texture for shorelines? I haven't seen anything like that since there are generally 4 textures used per terrain (for best performance) with the primary ones being the sand/dirt in low areas, some rocks for moderate angles, and a steep angle rock texture. I only use 3 textures for the environment and reserve one for the road. I know, not a lot of options, but performance is #1 in my project considering the platforms it's coming out on. Still, seems to be getting into more complicated territory and I'd like to keep this simple as possible.
     
  34. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

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    I don't know if this would be possible,. but, if you could export the final image being used for the terrain height-map, you could import it into Photoshop, make a new level over the image and use black to draw your roads. When your done, you could select the black pixels, then select the layer with the height-map and very carefully slightly reduce or increase the Level of the image value, this to keep it consistent depth or height in line with the height or depth of the ground image.
     
  35. GambitMonkey

    GambitMonkey

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    Adam or Shawn,
    Any chance you all had time to look at the hand painted texture issue?

    Thanks,
    Garry
     
  36. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    There's good stuff to help buried in the history of this thread if you're willing to dig a little.

    Stencil Height is covered in this video from @AdamGoodrich.
    Masks are in this video, also from Mr. Goodrich

    @kurotatsu had an idea months ago on how to cut a shape into a terrain. I then adapted it to this (terrible looking, but i was just playing with the idea) road concept.

    I've been playing with Gaia on and off since its release and I'm only now feeling confident with its use, don't get discouraged, it takes some time to figure it all out. Months ago, everything I made in Gaia was terrible looking (see above), but look at what I was able to make over a lunch break yesterday.
     
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  37. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    @EDarkness: I found another post related to your question.

    @smada luap did this technique where you draw your roads on the terrain and then export the roads as a mask so you can perform special operations on the road like varying its texture strength or depressing the road.
     
  38. BackwoodsGaming

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    Yup.. This is stenciling. :)

    As @closetgeekshow has pointed out, a lot of the stuff you are asking about are covered in the tutorial videos.

    Unfortunately I haven't, Garry. One of the packs you linked to had 512k textures. This makes me wonder if some of the default texture settings are getting in the way. I believe the sampler textures that ship with Gaia are either 1024 or 2048. I'm not that great with the texture stuff but I'm wondering if maybe the sizes need adjusted.

    One thing that might also help until we get a chance to play around with some of the hand painted stuff is to show screenshots which show the issue you are having. Unfortunately I have been under the weather this week and have struggled to get anything at all done at the computer. :(
     
  39. zeb33

    zeb33

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    Hi
    I'm not seeing a GX entry for village exteriors kit or speed tree desktop packages. Have tried reopening gaia manager. Noticed the link on p1 of forum to enable speedtree extension is no longer valid. Any ideas??
    Gaia 1.5.3, unity 5.4
    Thanks
     
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  40. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    There isn't one for exteriors kit.. yet. I think it is being worked on.

    The two speedtree packages that have extensions that I know of at this point are the two Adam created to show the speedtree folks how easy it would be to tie in. You can download the extension scripts in the first post on the first page of this thread. Simple put the CS scripts somewhere within your assets folder structure and it should enable those two packages.
     
  41. khos85

    khos85

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    Hi, I am trying to import gaia from the asset store, unity tries decompress it but fails.. in the console I see:
    Failed to import package with error: Couldn't decompress package
    UnityEditor.Web.JSProxyMgr:DoTasks()
    I'm on Unity 5.4
    Any advice would be appreciated.
     
  42. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I don't run any of the beta versions of Unity so I am not 100% sure. But that almost looks like the same message some of us were getting with 5.2 and 5.3 because we didn't install the Windows editor. At some point, Unity changed it and only included the web client with the core download. You have to download any other builds and install them separate. Wonder if that is the case here?
     
  43. khos85

    khos85

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    Thanks for the info, I can download/install many other assets ok, just not gaia , weird..
     
  44. kurotatsu

    kurotatsu

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    Try using your blur filter in photoshop, it will make a huge difference..

    As a matter of fact, I would make a copy of my hard edged track on another layer, then blur the one underneath real well, then drop the opacity a hair on the remaining hard edged layer(the highest layer), and you should get a smoother transition.

    hope it helps.

    Edit: Try this one.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2016
  45. zeb33

    zeb33

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    Thanks for update, I think the link to scripts on first page is dead though
     
  46. khos85

    khos85

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    Updated to latest beta, working now :)
     
  47. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    Hey,

    When the next FREE update for the Village Exteriors Kit comes, The Castles & Cathedrals that I am working on at the moment, the full integration will be implemented.

    Cheers
    Cobus
     
  48. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    #resource Hmm... not sure why that happened - some one drive thing - I have updated and here they are here as well:

    These extensions have not been placed in the relevant SpeedTree packages as this is a process that SpeedTree needs to manage themselves. First import the SpeedTree packages - then import these scripts. Wait for the compile to finish. You will see them show up under GX - INSTALLED. Click on the About button and follow the instructions.

    Desktop Tree Package Extension - For the the Desktop Trees Package
    Desktop Ground Cover Package Extension - For the Desktop Ground Cover Package
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2016
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  49. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    There generally no need to manually do anything - if you take the time to learn Gaia. I recommend watching the videos as there are lots - and look at the documentation - and also check the tool tips... unless i missed one they all have documentation attached. If you will do this you will save a lot of time.

    #tip I am starting to build up an educational / tutorial set - so here is more detail (no pun intended) on how to use Grass.

    Grass density is a FPS killer - but there is something lovely about lush grass.

    By default Gaia drops the density to make the scene perform better.

    Select your terrain and look at its settings (the little cog). The distance that grass is rendered is controlled by Detail distance - increase and decrease this setting to influence this (get close to your terrain and you will see it).

    Detail density is the other setting. This will increase the density or 'lushness' of the grass. Increase this and observe its impact on the visual richness, and also the frame rate.

    Choose something that balances your visuals with your performance.

    upload_2016-4-29_8-10-31.png

    Note: These settings are taken from their equivalent settings in your Gaia Defaults file (see below). If you change them there, then all new terrains generated by Gaia will use them.

    upload_2016-4-29_8-10-48.png

    The next setting to look at is the grass strength in the Gaia Resources file that applies to that specific grass.

    upload_2016-4-29_8-11-7.png

    This is the range of strengths that can be used to apply this grass into the terrain. You can use any value in the range of 0 .. 1, and the way this is applied when the grass is spawning is based on the fitness of that location for that grass. So in the example above a fitness of zero would apply the minimum strength, which is 0.1, and a fitness of 0.5 would apply a strength of about 0.55, and a fitness of one would apply a strength of 1. The equivalent of this when painting grass onto the terrain is the Target Strength setting.

    The reason these exist is that some grasses are more dense than others, so you can adjust these to get the outcomes you want.

    Note on mobile games you probably want to remove grass entirely from the scene.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2016
  50. Hans

    Hans

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    Sweet thanks for this, Since i brought these packs off the speedtree web site and not off the asset store