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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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    It's something I don't officially support because there are a number of issues to do with resource management.. but its all there if you are happy to script it.

    There is also a run time stamper script that you can take a look at.
     
  2. Khestral_01

    Khestral_01

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    Gonna ask a silly question, is it possible to add in our own artwork and then use that to generate the procedural POI's?
     
  3. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Not a silly question at all!!

    Gaia will happily use whatever you throw at it - and other games like Crowfall use it extensively.

    Here is a video tutorial on setting them up - you can use any asset not just the ones provided with Gaia.

    http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/tutorials/spawners-gameobject-poi/
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  4. Stefan86

    Stefan86

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    Hello..
    when I created trees in gaia and these cases ..
    then, by any chance, which ones emerge again or do I no longer have any trees at the end ??
     
  5. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia and CTS are 50% off for Black Friday sale!

    And check this video tutorial from Unity on how to make a 3rd person game with among other things Gaia!!

     
    Olander, Mark_01, S4G4N and 6 others like this.
  6. totallylegitunicorn

    totallylegitunicorn

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    Was there ever a "post 2" to this by any chance?
     
  7. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I can't remember if I did a second post or if I just migrated it to my website. I had some health issues and wasn't able to finish it but there should be enough there to give you a good start to get things stamped and ready for streaming. Once you have the streaming setup, you can start setting up your biomes and all your spawners.

    Here is the link to it on the Backwoods Gaming website: https://assets.backwoodsgaming.com/tutorials/32k-world-creation-using-gaia-sectr/

    At this point, I'm not sure that I'll be able to finish it but I'm happy to answer any questions. Just send me a PM. :)
     
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  8. xercool

    xercool

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    Hi. I've downloaded Advanced foliage package (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/advanced-foliage-pack-1-103151) from Unity Store and got some errors when I use coverage spawner for mesh-based grass.

    So I guess the problem related with grass density. How can I fix such kind of errors for my mesh-based grass (Unity prefabs). I prefer to use volumetric grass instead texture.

    I've also attached screenshot of current grass configuration for grass prefabs.

    Thanks in advance.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. StevanJay

    StevanJay

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    I'm having some issues using Speed Tree for grass placement. The problem is that it needs to be spawned as a tree, rather than as grass, and consequently generates a huge number of grass colliders. The only way I've managed to handle it is to spawn only on small sections of my world at a time, deleting all the grass colliders each time before moving on. If I try to do the whole map in one go my machine just grinds to a halt and crashes... :(

    Is there any way to turn off the automatic generation of those grass colliders?

    Just to say that this is the first issue I've had, and other than that the whole package has been absolutely fantastic... :) Keep up the great work...!
     
    AdamGoodrich likes this.
  10. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I have a support system here - https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/support/home

    Please submit request there - as there is both knowledge base with responses to common questions and a ticketed and tracked system - so your questions are less likely to be lost in the noise of 180 pages of forum!

    Me too. A 2k terrain can spawn upwards of 1 million + grass patches... and if you spawn as game objects / meshes.. then you will get very poor performance from unity. My suggestion is to work with a 3rd party system like vegetation studio or critias. I support VS in GeNa, and will add this support to Gaia, and also other instancing systems.

    Errors - no idea - looks like somethings not right ... gaia just instantiates stuff - its up to you to make sure its valid - there's something about what you are spawning.

    Hmmm... a little trick - click out of unity wait a few seconds and then back in - its to do with parenting objects in Unity - which is incredibly slow and is solved by GeNa. I will optimize this in Gaia 2.
     
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  11. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Hey everyone -

    This sale has been a stellar success for Gaia - and as a thanks to the community I would like to share some cool links you might be interested in:

    180+ high quality free assets - a lot of which you can use with Gaia:
    http://www.procedural-worlds.com/blog/best-free-unity-assets-categorised-mega-list/

    A whole truckload of tutorials to help you get the best out of Gaia:
    http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/?section=tutorials

    A bunch of other QUALITY assets that have been tested with Gaia - and which in general have 1 click integration:
    http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/?section=gaia-extensions

    An article on scene optimization - can lead to some massive frame rate increases:
    http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/tutorials/mobile-unity-scene-optimisation-with-gaia/

    Enjoy!!
     
  12. xercool

    xercool

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    Where can I get Vegetation Studio? I've searched and nothing found...
    You're all about that.. but I don't know where to get / buy?

    If anyone know please send me link or just explain how to get it.

    I tried different variations for my foliage. But there are no problems with performance. Actually, shaders in Unity is more expensive than lots and lots of hd grass (!!!), I tested. It's just awful Unity bug. Your gaia is good. But my question exactly was -- what parameter means "density" and "margin" in coverage details spawner? I'd like to try find optimal settings for volumetric foliage spawning.

    Thank you, Adam!
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
  13. longroadhwy

    longroadhwy

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  14. xercool

    xercool

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  15. longroadhwy

    longroadhwy

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    It has been submitted to the Unity Asset Store for review. So that can take a long time depending on how much of a back log the Unity asset store has to process. So it just waiting on Unity to approve it.
     
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  16. xercool

    xercool

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    Thank you for clarification.. But why so much people suggest me to use this tool if that hasn't outcome! :) So much assets with 'vegetation studio support'.. What's going on? )
     
  17. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. We had a large beta test group the last months before it was submitted to the asset store.
     
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  18. xercool

    xercool

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    You're cool guys! I hope you made really useful thing...
     
  19. longroadhwy

    longroadhwy

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    Usually when Unity has a large asset store sale (e.g. this black Friday sale) asset store developers submit a large number of updates. So that creates a big backlog. Brand new assets take much longer than existing assets to be approved. In some cases even existing assets have taken over 30 days just to get updates through. So it is always an issue depending on when a asset publisher submits an asset to the store.

    Probably those suggesting vegetation studio were part of the beta team so they are already familiar with the capabilities of the tool. I expect they were not expecting asset store approval to take as long as it does.
     
  20. xercool

    xercool

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    Got it. I hope this tool will absolutely solve my vegatation problems :D (without totalVertexCount panic :D)

    Also can anyone suggest solution like World Composition in UE4? I've found SECTR asset from article https://backwoodsgaming.com/tutorials/building-a-32k-terrain-in-unity-using-sectr-and-gaia/ .. Will it working with Gaia and extremely huge terrain? Has anyone tested it with Gaia?
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
  21. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    That's what that article is about. But the way Vegetation Studio works, you may not need it. Hopefully Unity's asset store team will get it approved and on the store soon. I think between Unite and holidays here in US, they are probably running slower than usual the past couple of months. Not to mention prepping for the sale.

    Without VS, splitting the huge terrain into chunks and using World Streamer or Sectr would be my first step. Personally, even with VS I would probably still use these tools to stream. I'd just use larger tiles than I would without VS. Maybe 2-4k instead of 1k.
     
  22. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    Build your own village houses or download and use some of the 276 BLUEPRINTS for Village Exteriors Kit already pre-done and ready to use for you

    2 FOR THE PRICE OF ONE 1
    Village Interiors Kit -50% & Village Exteriors Kit -50%
    Buy both and pay what you would normally only pay for one



     
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  23. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    hi guys, I'm trying to get my head around Gaia. I want to use it mainly because terrains made with the default tools look so unnatural.

    Our game is a medium to close range combat simulator so far from open world. I want a 512x512 meter terrain closed off by mountains. It should be pretty open and with desert plains except the mountains at the sides to close off the map. A road will go through the landscape and then some roads going off from that road to different complexes used as bases or point of interest for our various multiplayer game modes. I have tried alot of settings for the random generator, but it comes out with alot of mountains in the middle what ever I do. Example

    upload_2017-11-26_13-7-35.png

    The layout will be something like this, red is roads, green buldings. the blue circle is the area that needs to be pretty open and plain for this layout to work

    upload_2017-11-26_13-15-16.png
     
  24. DragonmoN

    DragonmoN

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    You may want to use more than just the random stamp. Try to stamp the middle with a more even Stamp after you have your inital Terrain stamped. The same goes with the Mountains, use Mountain stamps on the edges to sculpt it.
     
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  25. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    ah ok, so the general idea is to get a random world first and then use stamps to get it more to your liking? Sounds reasonable.
    I have another question. Lets say I have a pretty good world up with plains in the middle like described above, Now I will draw a road using blocks of road prefabs straight through the landscape. Some parts of the road will go below terrain som float above. Whats the best method of adjusting the level of the terrain to match the road? Classic Unity terrain painting or some fancy Gaia feature?
     
  26. AndersMalmgren

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    Basically what I'm asking is how to best create the leveling for the raod or railway, I think the term is embankment but not sure. Like this roadpiece here

    upload_2017-11-26_17-44-0.png
     
  27. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Please check the tutorials on stamping here : http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/?section=tutorials

    Essentially you just need to grab a stamp - almost anyone will do - make it about the size of the area you want to flatten - set its height to say 0.5 or 1 - set up a distance mask - 1 on left hand side, 0 on right hand side - and then add and subtract height in the area you want and just keep doing this until you have the area you want flattened.

    The purpose of the distance mask is to ensure that you get a nice blend from your flat area in the centre to the more natural terrain around the edges of your stamp.

    Stamping system is incredibly powerful and gives very fine grained control if you take the time to learn how to use it.
     
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  28. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Oh... i just re-read this - you can use the technique i described above for a more natural blend around edges... but the standard unity terrain tools are also useful approach... i always choose based on what I am trying to do...
     
  29. Gametyme

    Gametyme

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    Noob question alert. I just purchased your asset and I was wondering if it was possible to create a terrain, export it as a mesh and then texture that mesh with Gaia?
     
  30. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia has tools to export meshes and splatmaps. You would then need a shader to render them. CTS could do that for you.
     
  31. Gametyme

    Gametyme

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    So basically, I create and texture my terrain with Gaia, export the mesh and splatmap and then I can add the splatmap back to the mesh with cts?

    How does CTS perform on mobile?
     
  32. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Thanks will check those tutorials in more in depth, just one quick question. Stamps seems to be square only? How should I go about to stamp it as a very long rectangle like here (the road passing the landscape). I understand if I cant stamp it all in one stamp. But if its square only that means I cant stamp longer than the road is wide, which means alot of stamps to cover this road


    upload_2017-11-27_0-5-58.png
     
  33. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

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    How often do you plan to edit the roads / the terrain height? If it is just "create the terrain once and then I won't touch it anymore" you could use the "Paint Height" tool from the unity terrain inspector which allows to modify the terrain to the "target height" for your road. If you use a faded brush and low opacity you should be able to paint a natural looking transition from the terrain to the road.

    If you plan to change the terrain more often you probably don't want to always start over with painting the road height again if it gets compromised. You could maybe use a stamper whose size matches 1:1 to the road prefab blocks you use. You could then write a small script that automatically applies the stamper under each of the road prefabs so the road leveling can be done with a button click after you stamped out the mountains etc. on your terrain.

    If your roads will get more complex than a straight line, with curves, crossroads, leading up and down mountains in a slope etc. I would suggest looking into additional road plugins. I personally use Easy Roads and it has a function to alter the terrain height so it automatically matches your road.
     
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  34. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Just squares and there are a couple of approaches.

    1. Make a mask image - make image black - then draw long white line for road down center - then use scanner to turn the image into a stamp. The use either Stencil or raise or lower stamp modes to apply to the terrain. This give you effect with just 1 stamp.

    2. Alternatively - apply lots of square stamps.
     
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  35. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Thanks fro reply guys. Hmm, yeah I have looked into Easy roads maybe I will go that route. You think the free one will do?

    If I go with the Unity vanilla paint path. And want to revert can I soemone convert the terrain into a stamp and start a session from that?
     
  36. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

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    Hmm, I used the free version a bit as a demo to check out how it works and what it can do etc. but I don't remember anymore what the limitations of the free version were, sorry. I just remember that I wanted to use some feature that was part of Version 3, and if you buy the pro Version you could use the V3 beta right away so I bought that early on.

    If you just want to revert your terrain height map to a certain state, you can backup / export the height map as .raw and import it again with the unity terrain inspector when you want to restore (cogwheel button > Import Raw / Export Raw buttons at the bottom)
    I'm a bit rusted on the Gaia stampers, but I know you can export the terrain heightmap in .raw format in the same way and then use that .raw file to turn that into a stamp for gaia. If you open the Gaia Manger from Window > Gaia there is a button "utilities" where you can find the Scanner utility for stamp creation.
     
  37. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Scanner supports world machine .r16, windows raw, terrains, images and 3d objects - it will convert them all to stamps :)

    To use, create a scanner, and then drag and drop the object onto it.
     
  38. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Hey gang. Speaking of stamps, all of my Stamp Packs for Gaia are in the current sale at 30% off. ($3.50 per pack instead of the normal $5 per pack). Keep in mind, the packs are stamps only. Most of the packs showcase the art assets that come with Gaia. Any other assets used in the screenshots are listed in the product description and on the bottom of the screenshots.

    If you are looking for more stamps, these are the perfect addition to add to your toolbox alongside Gaia!
     
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  39. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I see Adam already responded, but one thing I would like to add is that with your use case it is probably better to use the stamper manually instead of the randomizer. The randomizer is awesome when you don't have very specific needs. In your case, you do have very specific needs.

    What I would do to obtain the results you are looking for is find a stamp that is mostly flat. I would use it as my first stamp and then I would manually stamp other features in to add to my terrain leaving the areas I wanted to build in flat. Do this by using the masking to blend to the terrain and resizing the stamp down to fit into the area you want to add that feature. I think I've used up to 50 stamps in a single terrain before to get the look that I was going for. That is one of the many beauties of Gaia and its' stamping system. :)
     
  40. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Hey gang. Since the sale started I have had a couple of folks ask about whether Backwoods Gaming's stamps would be Gaia 2 compatible. I ran across this post from the last mega sale. I forgot that I had posted about that already. This is still the game plan. The only difference is I will probably release a 1.5 version of each stamp pack adding new stamps prior to Gaia 2 being ready. But all stamp packs will be brought up to date in whatever way they need to be made compatible with Gaia 2 when it comes out. :)

     
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  41. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Thanks for the pointers shawmn

    Our none gaia conpcet map looks like this

    upload_2017-11-30_14-42-10.png

    Its rectangular, how do I get that in gaia?
    I can only find a sizeproperty

    upload_2017-11-30_14-43-29.png
     
  42. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Hey again guys, more questons. I have a problem creating my stamp for my railway bank. I have 100mm margin between the end of the railway mesh and beffore the terrain will start to clip up through the railway bank. So I need a stamp thats very flat on the top and then goes down like this (in green).

    upload_2017-11-30_16-41-7.png
     
  43. MrG

    MrG

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    What you need is EasyRoads3D V3. It does exactly what you're trying to do here. Yes you can pound a screw into a board with a box wrench, but a screwdriver is easier.
     
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  44. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    It supports only stamping the terrain since this is a railway mesh and not a road
     
  45. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia supports only square terrains. If you want rectangles do two squares side by side.
     
  46. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Can I link them somehow so stamping will propagate over to the second one?


    edit: Btw, I bought Easyraods v3 pro and it works. But it does not support stamping the terrain without a road. So I had to create a dummy road, stamp the terrain and then disable the road. Bit clumpsy but works and I can easy redo the work if I replay the Gaia session. Sadly the easy road stamping is too perfect so it looks very artificial.
     
  47. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Its a manual cludge unfortunately as Gaia 1 does not support multiple terrain tiles. Do your first terrain, disable and move it, and then do your second terrain.

    Then re-enable the original, and manually match them up.
     
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  48. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Adam, whould it be possible to manually create the rectangular terrain and then just use multiple stampers/spawners? I've never tried this before since I've always been happy with square terrains but I know a lot of times when I was doing the island stuff back in the old beta I would stamp different sized stamps to create the whole terrain. Or is the actual terrain shape going to throw off Gaia's overall calcs? I guess the question is do all the calcs just look at the spawner area or the whole terrain size?
     
  49. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Ok so the stamps that intersect needs to be synced manually? Remeber the global pos and rotation and size etc, etc?
     
  50. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Nope. The underlying math is all based on squares. Made it much simpler.

    Yep.