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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. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    Gaia includes a number of mask exporters, including texture splatmaps, normals, and heightmaps. Between them, you should be able to create your own global color and normal maps if needed, as well as several other useful items. :)

    Gaia Utilities.JPG
     
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  2. midian808

    midian808

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    Yeah - That's why I asked. It has everything EXCEPT Global Colour Map and global Normals.

    Ok, not to worry. I can make the normal map by exporting the heightmap and reimporting its as a normal (from grayscale) - and I can probably make the colour map by taking a chainsaw to the Gaia source code. It already creates a screenshot of the terrain for the "Session playback" - THAT is the map I need, I just need it in a high enough resolution.

    Edit: - Doh. No it isn't. I was looking at the preview images from the Backwoods stamps that show a nice top down view of the Terrain. Regular sessions (ones you make yourself) are just any old texture.

    I'm sure I'll think of something.

    Cheers fore the reply :)
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2016
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  3. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    You can export the normals. Just check out the Utilities menu "Show Normal Mask Exporter". I could possibly rename this :) I have a solution under development for the colour map.
     
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  4. shotoutgames

    shotoutgames

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    New user here.
    When I use the game object spawner rather than the built in spawner rules I just get a long string of numbers :( ???
    5.4 beta
     
  5. AlexScott

    AlexScott

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    Hi, I'm having trouble getting an extension picked up by Gaia. I have installed the HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol 1. in my project but I'm unable to see it listed in the installed extensions section in the Gaia Manager. And I'm not sure if this is supposed to be there or not but 'turboscalpeur' isn't listed in the compatible sections either. Any ideas?

    I'm on Gaia 1.5.3 and HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol 1. 1.5.
     
  6. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    heheh.. I was wondering how you were getting automatic ones.. The ones I put in the stamp packs are top down captures using SnagIt... heheh
     
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  7. turboscalpeur

    turboscalpeur

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    Hello, i still don't have updated the HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol 1 v.1.7 which is coming with the GX eXtension for Gaia;
    I can share it now if you pm me the eXtension which is ready but you will have to fix before using it, each grass curves in it, then after using it.

    We may correct this, the most sooner possible to get it updated.
     
  8. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I haven't even looked at the 5.4 beta personally. I know earlier on when working with 5.x I had issues with Suimono presets and some other things turning up all numbers, maybe even early Gaia betas. I found somewhere that if you change your serialization mode it can correct this, sometimes... I currently have mine set to Mixed and not having any issues like that with any of the assets I currently use. You can get to those settings by going to Edit -> Project Settings -> Editor and then look at Asset Serialization. If you change it, I think that was one of the ones I had to exit Unity and come back in before I saw a difference. Or may have taken reimporting the asset. It has been so long, I can't remember.

    Again, it is also possible that it could be an issue with the beta. That is a big chance you take using the beta versions. Only reason I'm using 5.3.4 is because of a couple of the assets I use forced me to update. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably still be working comfortably in 5.2.x and feeling less on the bleeding edge! rofl
     
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  9. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    I was thinking you could use the texture splat masks that Gaia exports as blend layers in Photoshop, to create your own global color map. It isn't quite automatic, but I'm sure you could come up with something fairly decent that way. The other thing you could try is just maximize the scene view window in top view mode and take a screen shot. It might not be as high res as you ultimately want, but you could always scale it up in Photoshop, and add noise or smoothing to make it look better. The global color map is only supposed to provide better overall color matching when viewing distant terrain (outside your base map viewing distance), so it doesn't need to be that highly detailed anyway. That's what the detail textures are for. ;)
     
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  10. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    As commented by Shawn - this is due to some sort of serialisation setting. We have seen this issue before - its unity not gaia - and i can not for the life of me remember how to get it to happen or what we did to fix it or even if we were able to.

    From memory it has something to do with meta files and source control.
     
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  11. smada-luap

    smada-luap

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    Would removing the .meta files from inside Explorer, thus forcing Unity to recreate them resolve this?
     
  12. hopeful

    hopeful

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    Is this the sort of thing you fix by setting Edit > Project Settings > Editor > Asset Serialization > Mixed?
     
  13. midian808

    midian808

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    The Photoshop method is what I was doing before - the results aren't great, but they are better than without, and as the distant terrain will eventually be masked by post processing and some fog/mist I think I'll get away with it :)

    I was hoping there was an "automagic" way of doing it from within Unity - Gaia has made me extremely lazy: I push a button and BOOM instant game world! I suppose it was inevitable that eventually I would have to get my hands dirty :)
     
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  14. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Nope - removing meta files will have unity kill the asset i think. I would be tempted to start a new project and see if you can replicate it.

    It could even just be a bug with the latest unity beta.
     
  15. docsavage

    docsavage

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    Agree it may be latest beta. I updated for the speedtree fix but overall it feels more sluggish. Have also noticed more lock ups.
     
  16. CaptCanada

    CaptCanada

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    Can Gaia be used to generate terrain for other planets, say if I wanted to create a Mars or Venus like terrain? Would it be just a matter of using certain detail and coverage spawners?

    Thanks!
     
  17. shotoutgames

    shotoutgames

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    Thanks for the help.
    Clean reinstall new project did the trick but might not have been necessary :)
    Strange.

    Quick question change:
    Anyway to create a terrain that is not square and have GAIA only generate in the defined area?
    I want to try and create a 3d background for a 2.5D game with the terrain (See trine 2 for similar setup) so I only need a long strip to work on?
     
  18. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    Textures would have a lot to do with it too. I've been making mostly alien terrains with my copy of Gaia.
     
  19. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    @CaptCanada - Yup.. The main thing you would do for other planets is probably pick different textures such as @closetgeekshow indicated. I have a lunar stamp pack that I have planned but haven't worked out the details yet.. It may be one of the new multi-tile stamp packs that I work on soon. But I have planned areas with mountains, craters, and flat planar type areas all mixed to be similar to the moon or pictures we have seen of other planets from NASA.

    But pretty much if it is a terrain, Gaia can stamp it. You are only limited by your imagination and how you can combine stamps/find stamps that match what you envision. :)
     
  20. Hans

    Hans

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    well its slowly coming together

    Sceen.jpg
     
  21. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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  22. shotoutgames

    shotoutgames

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    Sorry in case
    Quick question change:
    Anyway to create a terrain that is not square and have GAIA only generate in the defined area?
    I want to try and create a 3d background for a 2.5D game with the terrain (See trine 2 for similar setup) so I only need a long strip to work on?
     
  23. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia only supports square terrains - if you want non square make two squares side by side.
     
  24. NeuroToxin-Studios

    NeuroToxin-Studios

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    Ok I guess I need to start following instructions... Thought I would create my own resource file so that I could spawn my own textures, trees and prefabs and so I created a scene, spawned what I wanted in the file and then clicked get assets from scene (I think the button is called that), that worked and off I went.
    Created a new scene and made a terrain I was happy with, chose my custom file and opened the visualizer to make sure my textures would spawn where I wanted them, while doing this I noticed errors in the console stating something about the resource file height and the terrain height being different that could cause issues with the stamper which I ignored.
    Hit spawn on the texture spawner and it worked although the tiling was horrific and the edges of the textures were sharp and not blended and so I reopen the resource file and start messing with the height check values, finally give up and decide to drag the default resource file back into the spawner so that the normal Gaia textures would spawn... well everything went bang, the texture names that usually show had turned into random number strings with only the first texture applied,
    So I thought "Ok, I will delete the Data folder and then re-import it so I have the working default resource file again", this had the same issue with the random strings so I decided to just run a test to see if the textures would actually spawn correctly, hit spawn and the only texture applied was the first dirt texture.
    The Gaia Manager window froze and refused to close and on top of this my console was spammed with errors saying that Unity was trying to reference something that had been destroyed, and now my project is extremely laggy.

    TL;DR
    Created a resource file with my own assets without following instructions, faced the laggy and apparently Gaia breaking consequences...:(

    Follow instructions when creating a custom resource folder or face laggy consequences ;)

    [Edit]
    Just reimported Gaia completely from scratch into the project and the issue is ever present... Guess I am not working with Gaia on this project much more :(
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2016
  25. shotoutgames

    shotoutgames

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    Thanks and sorry for the noobness but how??
    Thought only 1 terrain
     
  26. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Yep - work on one at a time. Disable one, do stuff, renable and disable the other and do stuff.

    Yep this is just a warning.

    This works as you configure it - suggest you watch the videos on how i set up textures. If you are getting sharp edges its because you are not taking advantage of curves.

    No guarantees that Gaia will work if you start deleting and re-adding stuff. References get broken. Unity gets into a mess.

    Sorry to hear this. Did you do as I suggested and create a new project from scratch? There is clearly something very wrong with your existing project.

    Hate to see anyone not get what they paid for - happy to run through things in a Skype session if you can't get it sorted.

    Btw there is a fairly catastrophic issue with the latest versions of Unity. Here is a quote from a message in the asset publisher forums:

    Okay, so that "reloading assemblies after script compile error" bug in Unity was introduced in Unity 5.3.4p4 released more than two months ago, and so far it has also made its way to 5.3.4p5, 5.3.4p6, 5.3.5f1, 5.3.5p1, 5.3.5p2, 5.3.5p3, 5.3.5p4, and 5.3.5p5. That's 9 broken releases! What's the point of releasing broken versions of Unity? They cannot be used, code doesn't work in them, and without the code Unity is useless. It runs even partially compiled code, and even high-school kids know how dangerous is that - you end up with project data corruption.
     
  27. NeuroToxin-Studios

    NeuroToxin-Studios

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    Within a new project Gaia runs absolutely fine.
    The project had had assets imported, deleted and then re-imported and so the project was probably extremely unstable to begin with, me not following the tutorial and corrupting the project was my own fault and definitely not Gaia's.

    I was not aware of this, do you know if this issue is/will be fixed in 5.4? Seems like a pretty high priority issue so for it to have persisted through 9 releases is mind blowing.
     
  28. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I believe the fix is due shortly in 5.3.5p6, 5.3.6 and 5.4.
     
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  29. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    I'm still puttering along on Unity 5.3.1 with no (serious) problems, so I've missed most of the drama surrounding the latest releases. I'd like to try some of the new features, but think I'll wait for a stable 5.4 release before taking the plunge. Could someone please let me know when that happens? :rolleyes:
     
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  30. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

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    Ooops, I'm on 5.3.5f1, guess that is not good? Just got Aquos and not seeing it work yet in my demo project...
     
  31. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    AQUAS has a modified version of standard assets that can cause issues with different versions of standard assets (unity can change them from release to release). Check your console - any errors / conflicts will appear in red. The author will be modifying this in his next release. @dogmachris might be able to comment.
     
  32. kerrmedia

    kerrmedia

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    Yeah, did see some red. OK.
     
  33. govnik

    govnik

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    I have the same error as was mentioned on page 122. No console errors though. I deleted the duplicate script in Distingo, but it didn't add to the Gaia installed. However! Tenkoku Dynamic Sky did add. I had Gaia, Distingo, Dynamic Sky and the Village Exteriors packs (full pay from unity store) and none of them after importing showed up in Gaia Manager -> GX -> Installed. After deleting the script from Distingo (in the Distingo folder) the Dynamic Sky appeared in install for Gaia Manager.

    I'm going to play around a look for more additional scripts, but I'm confused on why that happened.
     
  34. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    When you have errors in Unity, the scripts that were set to compile after the script that threw the errors sometimes will not load. This could explain why you didn't see Tenkoku before.

    I think Cobus is still waiting on his scripts getting made, so at this point it isn't that they are missing as much as they just aren't there yet at all. I know he has plans for them and in addition, I have talked with him about making POIs based on his kits to offer in the new spawn packs that I am working on. So those may be an option for down the road as well to get some ready made exterior kit based villages, outposts, etc added via the Gaia spawn system. (Of course you'd already need to own the exteriors kit for the spawners to work though)..
     
  35. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Experimenting... ;)

    A set of rock formations that naturally follows the terrain... took 5 mins to make ... lovely!

    Grab 20160630205758 w1900h1200 x514y47z-735r251.jpg Grab 20160630205639 w1900h1200 x485y46z-760r279.jpg
     
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  36. docsavage

    docsavage

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    Hi Adam,

    From that image it looks similar to the ones you posted with Azure lighting. Do you find it comparable to TOD and tenkoku?
     
  37. SIP-Servo

    SIP-Servo

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    just bought Gaia from the assets store but trying to download I am constantly stuck at 3% is there anyplace since I bought it that I can directly download the package from the developer?
     
  38. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    The usual reason that unity fails to download is that the target drive is full. You will need to locate that and clear some space out.
     
  39. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    All of them are awesome packages. Azure sky is well behaved, and the clouds are lovely. Tenkoku is also lovely, and has sound and weather as well. Both authors are actively developing theirs products. I have not seen an update to TOD in ages... wondering if it is dead.

    Just checked out the TOD forum - not dead - looks like an update is in the works.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2016
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  40. docsavage

    docsavage

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    Everryone seems to recommend TOD but their forum activity seems a bit hit and miss. It's obviously a good product. From scanning the Azure thread is seems it was around $25 at one point. I would have bought it straightaway. Tenkoku is nice. The latest Skymaster beta videos look very nice as well. Lots of good products on the store now. The clouds in the above image look very nice. Among some of the most realistic.

    Anyway, any news on the new product you have been working on?
     
  41. hopeful

    hopeful

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    The dev for TOD has been away working on a commercial project for some time - maybe a year now - and TOD is a relatively old, stable plugin. It would be great to see new development on TOD, but it pretty much is what it is, I think.
     
  42. docsavage

    docsavage

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    I remember Olander saying it was stable as well. Since then the others have appeared to be updated nicely. Don't need it yet but for next project (if this one actually makes me a wage) will be looking for something lightweight and nice.
     
  43. MarcusWatson

    MarcusWatson

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    @AdamGoodrich While you do have specific YouTube vids for demonstrating particular features, I wonder if it might be useful for folks to see you (or others) working on random stuff using Gaia. I guess it'd be like the old Bob Ross videos :)
     
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  44. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Well funny you should ask - here is a twitch session from Crowfall, currently billed as the most anticipated MMO of 2016. I love how they are mixing genres, and was one of their kick starter supporters (they raised about 1.8m).

    There are a couple of segments in which Jon O'Neal their lead environmental artist shows of how they are making their environments. Am totally pumped that they chose Gaia to be a key part of their work flow!

    Have had the opportunity to collaborate with them - super nice bunch of people!

    https://www.twitch.tv/crowfallgame/v/74814435

    Check out 01:13:00, and then 09:20:00 - in the second segment Jon shows how to make a lake!

    And here is a post on their web site. While Gaia provides you with sample assets they are purely a starting point - check out what happens when the pro's get hold of Gaia and put their own talent and assets into the mix :)





    More here :
    http://crowfall.com/en/news/environments-what-a-wonderful-world/
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2016
  45. Raptorixx

    Raptorixx

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    Hi Adam!


    The very first steps are starting to pay off.... The images below are completely made with Gaia and it's spawner.. no handplaced objects at all sofar. Mind that some of the screenshots do not have any weather system activated and no camera effects are being applied yet. No RTP has been done either. So tons of work to finetune.

















    I will keep you updated with the final results to, but this is my very first attempt ever to create an outdoor environment, since it's basically just one year since I decided to start with game making without any prior experience at all :)


    Being the newbie I am I also have a few questions for you....


    One thing that I am very curious about is that if I use a grass texture (bought the full turbescalpeur pack and you are right there are alot better ones in the full pack). If I add those textures to the terrain tool and paint them myself then the textures will rotate to always face me at the direction I am looking at. Which gives a pretty solid look. However if I spawn them through Gaia then they are fixed in their position without any rotation which shows the shortcoming of them being basically a 2d image only :( Is there any way to keep the rotation functionality after spawning them with Gaia? (See screenshot below)








    Now a final question....


    I was thinking that I should try to see how the results would be with the speedtrees I have.... However the very first tree I added shows some weird white/saturnation on the leaves when I am standing under it and facing the lightsource... Which looks awful. I am pretty sure there are some kind of fix to that and though if someone knows then it should be you :) (Sorry for going outside Gaia, since I think that's not related to Gaia at all, but I do not have those issues with the trees as you have seen on screenshots above).






    Thanks again for a terrific asset and I am looking forward to learn more on how to use it :)
     
  46. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Absolutely - awesome work!!

    This is a setting in the grass itself - go into the terrain and find your detail settings - and then click on the billboard checkbox. This will rotate it toward the camera. Depending on the grass sometimes this works well and sometimes not.

    Yep this is a unity issue, and they have fixed it. I am not sure when the fix will be available although I believe its with their QA team.

    Here is a link to it - looks like good news!
     
  47. turboscalpeur

    turboscalpeur

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    Very Cool Results and bravery to post it!

    About Grass ticked as Billboard, if you don't want always them facing you, as said Adam you must untick it on each one you left it on the Details Settings...strangely and since long time, i noticed this option in the Edit/Project Settings/Quality/Billboards Face Camera Position to untick it but it never functioned for me i mean when Grass Texture is ticked as a Billboard..





    Other thing, you can adjust each Grass, on your Visualiser/Dna/Min-Max Scale from 0.0 to 1.0 it correspond to the same settings than the Target Strength on your Details Settings when using the Brushes:





    Like this (as you are not using Meshes with the Grasses Textures), you will be able to have some results a little better even from above, you will need to "spam" some grasses to get a good coverage so for example put 1/1 in your Min/Max Scale from the Grasses you want to be more dense.

    Take care thought about the Framerates cost..
     
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  48. Phesant33

    Phesant33

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    Hey guys, just after some advice with tree coliders. Got some ground cover/shrubs from speed tree. I don't want them to have coliders - both performance wise and game play so I deleted the game object with coliders. Shrubs spawn fine and I think they look ok (may be missing a map or something) but the issue is they no longer sway in the wind. Have I done something wrong? Cheers for any help with this :)
     
  49. TryHarder

    TryHarder

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    Hi did a fix/workaround get found for this :-

    \Gaia\Scripts\Utils\HeightMap.cs(7,36): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Formatters' does not exist in the namespace 'System.Runtime.Serialization' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

    Keen to start using Gaia but I cant delpoy to UWP.

    Any help greatly appriciated.

    Thank you.
     
  50. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    UWP - Universal Windows Platform? Really annoys me how they butcher the API's per platform!

    Can you tell me more - unity version etc ?