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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. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    And just because I can - hot off the press - a new and completely customisable terracing system.

    Grab 20170329135341 w1920h1029 x-1008y171z721r65.jpg

    Grab 20170328202148 w1920h1029 x-291y122z1413r165.jpg
     
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  2. sarum

    sarum

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    hey turbo :)

    i don't mind .. in fact, all my little tweaks^^ are about to be exposed :)

    i am working with someone on a joint asset for the store, which will allow you with a one click button to obtain the same results than the pictures i just posted above. Actually these pictures are a realtime demo of the asset in question :)

    i can't say too much now, because i need to talk to my partner first :) but more infos coming soon

    your beautiful grasses are such an important part of my sceneries .. and they have given me much joy .. so a free copy of the asset to be released will await for you day one :)
    with the asset, you will have access to all the setup and postFX
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
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  3. sarum

    sarum

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    awesome !!
     
  4. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Because you can't use huge terrain, but small terrain tiles and display only the neightbour terrain tiles and their big to medium size objects LOD only. It doesn't make sense to use huge terrain tiles as you will loose fast streaming benefit.
     
  5. turboscalpeur

    turboscalpeur

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    Sounds very Awesome, will wait for it ! :)
     
  6. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Don't do this to me man :'( Just release already! haha xD
     
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  7. docsavage

    docsavage

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    that
    Weekends off!!!!! Who gave you permission Mr Goodrich. Holidays are for whimps! :)).

    Seriously though. Get some rest if needed as burnout is no fun and just ends up with you being unproductive. Especially when all the gaia v2 support that will probably be needed after release.

    Plus there's updates for the very nice Pegasus and the scandalously great Gena! (IMHO the best and most versatile product you've made).:)
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
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  8. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Hehe. And yep I agree on Gena - its way undersold. Need to fix that :)
     
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  9. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Btw... today I implemented an extension system for Gaia 2.0 today, and @jbooth has been running with it.

    There will be support for MegaSplat, our new shader, and Distingo, as full support for Unity terrain shader!
     
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  10. docsavage

    docsavage

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    Totally agree.
     
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  11. docsavage

    docsavage

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    From when testing Gena the thing to overcome was thinking of different ways to use it. It's so easy to use it gives the impression of not being as capable as it is. Great to use in simple ways but when users start thinking outside of the box it really shines. Like if you want damaged settlements just have the prefabs set up and then let the physics drop a load of stone debris around it. Saves tons of time painting it all out. Don't even need to think about if it's placed in the right spot. It's the physics that's decided.

    Actually if you could add an explosive force option to that then scattering debris etc all over the area would be excellent. Instant war zones!
     
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  12. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Too true. I've done way more with Gena than I ever hoped to achieve. At first my impression was another prefab painter with a few flashy features. but that impression completely changed when you explained the possibilities once over a facebook conversation. I even ended up making a superb runtime spawning system for monsters pretty much dropping the need to buy something like Crux.

    Truthfully I don't get why people aren't as excited about Gena as they are about Gaia. It's not like Gena doesn't have enough tutorials either. The tutorials helped me greatly. Specially the masked spawning and all.
     
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  13. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Hey @AdamGoodrich , Do you mind sharing a few pointers about getting cliff edges like the ones on the first screenshot ? I've always tried and failed. I either end up with completely flat and pointy edges or my height maps make them too spiky.
     
  14. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    I don't feel mislead at all Adam. When I first saw your video showing what Gaia could do, I was amazed. When I purchased it, I was sad I didn't get all the assets I saw you utilize in your tutorial video. Now that I have purchased more and more from the asset store, I've realized I need to research before purchasing. I have been more than happy with Gaia. Yesterday was a bad day at the office. So my apologies if it bled through on the forum.
     
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  15. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    upload_2017-3-29_19-12-4.png

    The above is a direct screenshot of the Gaia product description. I don't know what more you expected. Would be interesting to know which video exactly misled you . Because Adam has almost always mentioned where the rocks or the grasses or the trees come from in the videos. I am not trying to go on about how you should do your research before buying something because others have already done it, but I think like you I also have made mistakes of over expecting certain things just by going through a video or two of certain 'other' assets which I could honestly classify under false advertising to a certain degree *cough*TC2*cough*.

    Assuming you are not a game developer by profession ( I am not either, I am an SAP consultant ) and are a hobbyist trying to get into game development. The following are my list of TODOs before I purchase an asset on the Unity Asset Store.

    1. Go through the asset product description on the store word to word.
    2. If the asset publisher has a separate site, go to it. Read through the features. Check if the features depicted on video have been released or not.
    3. Contact the publisher before buying the asset to clarify the problem. Forums are the best .
    4. Analyze how active the publisher is, whether he's receptive to constructive criticism, whether he has a vision for the tool, whether he supports his customers.
    5. Really think about how this tool fits into the set of assets you have already bought and how this asset fits your vision of what you want to make, is it future proof in that sense.
    6. Talk to the communities, make friends, gather experiences and try to get at least a vague idea on how certain people use these assets. You'll be surprised to discover the tricks people have up their sleeves that even asset publishers have no clue on even though they wrote the product.

    When you make the purchase after having gone through the above to the fullest possible extent, you'll have no reason to look back on what you bought and regret.

    There will be the occasional regret for having spent that 10-20 bucks worth of cash ( the USD exchange rates are pretty tough for me :( ) on that asset that looked flashy and cool (yeah I've had those moments myself) but no one's perfect yeah :D
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
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  16. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    That is something new. It isn't currently available.. ;)
     
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  17. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    But if you do maintain the same height across the heightmap in the region you'd expect to at least get somewhere close right ? but nope :D I ended up with 90 degree cliffs or minecraft style terrains. But I've seen one or two people actually do this in Gaia, even your stamps look a bit close to these sometimes Shawn :D I suck at generating my own stamps most of the time. I should invest in your stamp packs.
     
  18. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    @evilangel89 I have NO (0) regrets buying Gaia. NONE at all. I love Gaia. It alone brought me back into the game development world. The video I saw of Gaia was through Youtube. I was watching my daily dose of Achievement Hunter and saw it in the recommended video list (I used Unity in the past when it was Unity 3 and watched some tutorial vids). So I gave it a watch and absolutely loved what I saw. So I immediately downloaded the newest version of Unity, purchased Gaia, and got to work. It was then I realized I needed to buy the extras I saw in the video. I was sad by that. I know I made the mistake by impulse purchasing Gaia without doing research. Hopefully Adam will see I have NO REGRETS with Gaia.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
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  19. TalkieTalkie

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    Does that mean in the upcoming update, we will be able to add MegaSplat with the click of a button? (like we can add Suimono)

    Please tell me that's the case..
     
  20. Vedrit

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    Personally, I have to handle the spawning of everything but grass, so Gena, being spawning tool, doesn't appeal to me much.
     
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  21. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    It wouldn't be if you want the entire terrain to be procedural. But if you do intend to be a bit more precise about where you place your prefabs, and if possible in a pattern, nested prefabs etc, I think Gena would appeal to you more.
     
  22. Steve-Tack

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    I do own that. I suppose the takeaway is that if it ends up that Gaia can do a 50 km x 50 km environment, it could be useful during the editing process, but it's not really meant to be usable during gameplay without World Streamer?
     
  23. Steve-Tack

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    I've been playing Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which is like the epitome of a massive, awesome looking terrain filled with stuff to do. I'd guess that it has a budget at least 10,000 times what the average Gaia user has to work with. :D
     
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  24. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    @evilangel89 I currently don't have Gena. Can you tell me how you utilize it? Maybe if we have similarities in our procedures, I might be more inclined to purchase it.
     
  25. Vedrit

    Vedrit

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    See, it's not just the how, the where and how many. It's keeping track of these objects so that, during run-time, they can dynamically be destroyed or created, and kept synchronized across a network. While it is nice that GeNa can do image-mask based spawning, and may even be able to keep track of the objects, it's the network environment that's the catch.
    Easier to just write my own spawning system that does only what I need.
     
  26. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    WOW Great minds do think alike. I feel the exact same way about Ghost Recon: Wildlands. When I played the beta, I saw Gaia everywhere.
     
  27. Teila

    Teila

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    Gaia does not determine whether 'it can do 50km x 50km'. Unity determines that along with your system. If you have a powerful system and Unity can do that large of a terrain/tiled terrain, then it will work. If not, then it won't. Gaia does nothing to allow you to a huge terrain...that is Unity and your system. So if it doesn't work for you, don't blame Gaia. Honestly, I would be surprised if you can do that in the editor, but who knows. Try it.

    World Streamer is what you need in-game to make a streaming world. It adds the floating origin so you won't get errors when your player character is far from the origin.

    I suggest doing a bit of research on all this and how Unity does with very large terrains, the pitfalls and some work-arounds that others have found. Really, it is not a discussion that really pertains to Gaia but to how you want to do your game. Try the help forum.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  28. Teila

    Teila

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    I want that Megasplat integration too! I tried doing it with the instructions in his videos and it didn't work at all. lol So I need the magic button. :oops:
     
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  29. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    That's a cool idea. Would be fun at runtime too. Will add to dev backlog :)

    That's the intention. Will be up to @jbooth but certainly seems feasible from what we did yesterday.
     
  30. Steve-Tack

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    I know it probably wasn't your intent, but that came across as pretty reductive.

    FYI, other terrain assets can do infinite worlds without a World Streamer type of solution. It's not the only way to go, depending on what you're doing. There are lots of different approaches, some involving real-time generation as you move through the world, some leveraging GPU acceleration. A Gaia competitor has stated that a floating origin solution will be part of their "huge world" solution.

    It's not unreasonable to interpret the statement:

    "I think that 50k x 50k should be achievable on my 16gb machine, but that's not a promise or tested."

    in the context of the upcoming GPU acceleration features of Gaia. Is it?

    I don't want to dwell on this, as my curiosity is really just about the tech side of what's possible. Personally I have no desire to create a 50k x 50k game environment. :D
     
  31. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Well I can only wait. I have the goddamn asset. Fell for the video. Bought it.
     
  32. RPKMN1

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    so, I suspect this is kind of a dumb question... but how easy is it to come back in after Gaia has done it's work and say, add a haunted forest where the ground is all textured with something completely different from what you had Gaia use?

    Also, it sounds like Gaia creates standard unity terrain under the hood. this means it should be easy for me to, for instance, go into the mountains and flatten an area for a castle nestled up in the the mountains and a river next to it, right?
     
  33. TalkieTalkie

    TalkieTalkie

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    I was able to get MegaSplat working with GAIA, but because of the painful process, messing around with settings can basically mess up everything, forcing you to recreate whole thing from scratch. That's why I am waiting for new update for GAIA to integrate MegaSplat, avoiding using MegaSplat for now (which is a shame cause I love it).

    Here, whole thing was running at like 5-10 FPS cause I didn't bother optimizing anything for my GPU (660Ti, 2GB), even the grass and trees are default ones that come with GAIA. This was a test project though, learning the tools. :p


     
  34. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    I personally have had no issues editing the terrain after Gaia has done it's magic. However with all the details, gameobjects, etc. in the scene it can be very slow to edit.
     
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  35. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Wow good screenshots!

    The second screenshot sky brightness seems to be a bit too much . Did you lower the curve as explained in the Enviro documentation ? Also switch to linear colorspace ?
     
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  36. kiknchikn

    kiknchikn

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    While on lunch break I convinced a fellow co-worker to get Gaia. I spent the lunch break creating this scene, showing were the tools were in Gaia, and setting up his unity account. Not too bad for 1 hour.
    Grab 20170328234911 w1900h1200 x24y61z43r0.jpg
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  37. TalkieTalkie

    TalkieTalkie

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    I'll be honest, my process of learning is to jump into the tools and mess around without reading tutorials and THEN read the tutorials to learn more about what I've done and how I can tweak it. :p

    Here, turned on Linear colorspace (it was Gamma before), without using any artificial enhancers:





    God the default Unity grass is awful.. err.. anyway, can't wait for the updates for all three assets so they can work together in harmony (especially for us lazy people).
     
  38. GuinUK

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    I just wish that Unity terrain could use the full PBR textures

    This would be lovely!

    Smashing screenshots by the way guys.
     
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  39. Teila

    Teila

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    Then I suggest trying one of those. I have tried all of them and not one is as intuitive and easy to use....or creates such amazing textures for my own height maps. I am happy Adam has concentrated Gaia on what it does best.

    Quite honestly, no need for you tell me you don't like what I say. Ignore if you wish. I will keep giving my opinion regardless. ;)
     
  40. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Nice. You should always use Linear / Deferred, + HDR
     
  41. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Wow. If it's not too much to ask could you share the session file for this?
     
  42. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Actually there was a kickass way to do grass as a unity tree in a video on YouTube. At least visually it looks so much more appealing. The grass looked so much realistic and apparently it didn't tax performance that much too. I will take a look at the video this weekend, try playing around with gpu instancing to see if I can go anywhere with it.

    I think it was this.


    Haha usually it's what I do too. But what some tools lack in video they make up for in documentation. It's the case with enviro. I have tampered with the tool and it's documentation and I can tell you it's worth it.

    You'll get crazy skies if you actually try to play with the atmospheric scattering and the sky gradients. Seriously try it. So worth it.
     
  43. Steve-Tack

    Steve-Tack

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    Absolutely. Gaia is clearly an amazing passion project , especially if you want to build a custom-made environment where you want to tweak every terrain tile, etc.

    FWIW, if I ever do need to create terrain for an actual game, it would likely be using Gaia + World Streamer. I was just trying to get a handle on what the limits and potential caveats are. Sorry for the "reductive" comment - that was a poor choice of words that I did not intend as a personal comment. And I certainly would not want anyone to hold back on their opinions in any way. Truly sorry if that message came across.

    Adam's comment sparked my curiosity, in the same way that I'm interested in how No Man's Sky works, even if I don't want to personally build that type of game (or really even play it).
     
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  44. TalkieTalkie

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    That grass does not look like the type I want, I'll just have to import my custom ones or ones I used in another project.

    As for scattering and skybox, both are changed in those shots. Scattering in-fact is at max. :p

    Reading manuals for these assets at the moment.
     
  45. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Haha awesome! Let's share the best enviro settings whenever possible. I am sure the community will also be thrilled to see different configurations to get different skies. This is what I always loved about procedural skyboxes.

    By the way is the water Aquas ?
     
  46. Angelsoft

    Angelsoft

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    Hi, Will Gaia 2.0 be a free upgrade to Gaia 1.5.3 users?
     
  47. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Adam has said so yeah. If you get what's in the asset store Gaia 2.0 will be available to you as a free upgrade.

    Additional modules like GPU Compute however will have to be purchased separately when they're released and that applies to both new and old users of the product.
     
  48. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Yep. Free update with a significant re-write and new functionality.

    Multi tile was always on road map so I thought the fairest way would be to deliver it for free - and for those the want the new and super fast stuff - this will be available as separate paid plugins.

    This provides a nice upgrade path for those that want it.
     
  49. Mr-Logan

    Mr-Logan

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    Heya guys

    I'm trying to make a 16kmx16km terrain, we'll I'm not just trying, I've actually done it. ^_^
    I'm having some issues with texturing though.

    I want to use RTP with the terrain (as it looks way better than the standard terrain shader and allows for snow etc.)
    But some issues have become quite clear after I started to fiddle with it.

    upload_2017-3-30_10-44-29.png

    As you can see in the bottom of the image the textures don't mix very well (I'm using the standard textures that came with Gaia).

    As you can see on the follow image the textures are mixed way smoother (over a far longer distance than on the standard 2kmx2km terrains), which I suspect is part of why they mix so badly.

    upload_2017-3-30_10-45-45.png

    There's also horrible banding in the distance (on the first image), which I don't know why is, but I suspect it's something RTP related, but haven't seen it quite so pronounced before.

    The blending was bad dirt to grass .. but even worse on sand to grass xD
    upload_2017-3-30_10-49-0.png
    There's little neat piles of sand all the way from the beach and a few tens of meters up the grass xD

    Can anyone help me figure out what I can do about it? :)
     
  50. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    @RonnyDance is your man is suppose :)
     
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