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

Getting some massive speed improvements in the latest Gaia!

 

Am bringing some of the erosion work I did in Gaia 2 forward into Gaia 1 -- so you will get erosion as well!!

Gaia 1.7 is going to be a pretty massive update!

 

Dont forget to get Gaia while you can!

Gaia will be going up in price with the 1.7 release within the next week and its shaping up to be pretty epic!

Here is a mountain range thermally and hydraulically eroded, and then shaded with CTS. When you add vegetation, post fx and proper lighting this will be stunning!

I will also be making CTS compatible flow and sedimentation maps and that will take this to another level again.

 

Some key features in the next release are:

• Support for Erosion - still a WIP but already looking Epic!
• Massive speedups – bringing a bunch of GeNa & Gaia 2 tech into Gaia 1!
• Support for Heavy Desktop, Desktop, Mobile & VR, & Ultra lightweight modes
• Support for Built In, LW SRP and when it comes online HD SRP pipelines in 2018.x
• Support for different game setups – first person, third person, rollerball (more if i can find in std assets)
• Much deeper integration with community and tutorial content – all in context and a click away
• Additional sample content from Synty, NatureManufacture & some of my own stuff
• Overall a lot of polish from a usability perspective

ETA to launch is 4-5 days!

 

Hey, have you tried assigning bullet impact effects based on textures or shaders? That way, you could have all metal objects use one shader, all wood use one shader, etc. Or you could create a call list of all textures using each effect and run them at impact.

 

@AdamGoodrich ,

Any plans to integrate R.A.M. with an Extension?

 

hello I build my project. the server runing perfect but the client show this error:
https://gyazo.com/17b2c24e6f08afc2d1cd8f7e4c3891e9
can you help me?

 

Can you describe a bit more when this error appears for you? If you are trying to use one of your own graphics / textures for the Gaia stamper, you can try to convert it into a Gaia stamp first with the Scanner. You can open the Scanner component via the Gaia Manager window.

 

I just want made the terrain with gaia, but i get this error, I dont try to add nothing. I just follow the directions how to create a terrain and thats all

 

Can you please describe more precisely what you are doing when this error appears? ("I click on X, then I select Y, and when I press button Z the error appears, etc.)
I looked up the error message in the Gaia source, this error should appear if you are using a texture in the stamper that is not a .jpg file or does not have an additional .bytes data file in the corresponding data folder. So somehow there seems to be an issue with the image / stamp used for stamping the terrain.
You mentioned a client / server architecture ("server is running perfect"), is this for gameplay as well, or do you mean "it builds correctly on the cloud build server"?

 

Yes... but probably with Origami rather than Gaia.

Means there is something wrong with your setup. The image you use for a stamp is just a preview. The actual data for the stamp is in the data subdirectory under it.

Gaia is a big and complex piece of software. You need to provide some actual information if you want some help.

Its like saying to the mechanic, hey my car doesn't work.... and that's it. The answer could be as simple as - um did you put any petrol in it? But the mechanic will not be able to help as you gave them no information to make a judgement on

As a general comment - i read these forums relatively rarely now as I now have a discord server for direct questions, and a ticketed support system for support. People who leave messages on the support system will ALWAYS get an answer - and i aim to get responses to questions within 48 hours on week days.

You can access both of these from the links in my signature.

 

Another cool new feature for the next release is the ability to use Gaia to generate meshes to use in the distance.



The image on the left is the original terrain (ignore the way it looks - its just a hack while experimenting with the tech), and the image on the right is a low poly mesh export of the terrain mesh, base map and normals.

Its a sort of small feature compared to the rest of the release - but is incredibly useful for creating high performance set dressing for placement in the distance.

 

Is there a way to spawn onto multiple terrain?

 

Not easily no. This will be introduced as a free upgrade in Gaia 2.



Absolutely loving the new terracing system in Gaia 1.7. Aim is to launch this later today. With the launch the price will go up by $20!

 

sweet. with world streamer it would be useful

 

Patiently waiting for the drop

 

End of today - configuring content now!

Here is a sneak peek at some of the new content from Synty Studios, NatureManufacture & the Unity Blacksmith Environments pack!

 

Hey there,
I have just installed Unity 2018. and Imported Gaia, Enviro, and Aquas, The integration for Enviro and Aquas on the GX panel has vanished and it appears that Aquas is Having problems with the Post Processing name space in particular, I feel I have maybe missed a step but Ive imported and re-imported everything.
heres the console.

 

Not much I can do about Aquas as it is not my product - you will need to contact the author.

I will be putting a release out later today that will enable Gaia to use the LW SRP in u2018.

 

Cheers for that sounds great, does it already work correctly in the High Pipeline?

 

HD Pipeline really isnt ready for terrain yet - eg no terrain shader, and given some new terrain stuff on the Unity roadmap for 2018 it seems plausible that Unity might wait and support the new improved terrain in HD rather than the old.

But please note I have no special insight into this and there is always a chance one of my facts or expectations is out of whack with reality.

 

Google says: https://forum.unity.com/threads/using-unityengine-postprocessing-not-found.507651/

 

There is no terrain support for HD yet, but I added and tested support for LW, and also put in what i think is a good guess for HD support when it eventually drops. Can't see why they wouldnt stick to their naming standards for HD, so it should just work.

The new release has been submitted - so you should have it pretty soon. I will be re-vamping the tutorials to show off all the new features.

New Features

• Better automated setup
• New multi environment configuration setup
• New third person setup plus camera controller
• New rollerball setup plus camera controller
• New flying camera setup plus controller
• Accessible renderer selection
• Accessible terrain size selection
• Ultra light, Mobile & VR, Desktop and Power Desktop configurations
• Built in and Unity 2018 LW SRP renderer setup
• New terrain utilities module:

• Add to terrain
• Apply mask to splatmap
• Contrast filter
• Grow features filter
• De Noise filter
• Hydraulic Erosion filter
• Multiply Terrain
• Power of Filter
• Quantize Filter
• Quantize Curves Filter (Terracing)
• Set Terrain To Height
• Shrink Features Filter
• Subtract From Terrain
• Thermal Erosion Filter
• Noise Generation Module
• Many Export Types
• EXR (high fidelity) mask import and export
• New news system

​

New content!

• Synty Studios Models & Textures
• NatureManufacture Textures

Enhancements

• Various bug fixes
• Different settings for terrain assets vs game object assets
• Usability review with contextual links to tutorials
• Ability to treat game objects like trees when spawning

 

Hi Adam,
Can't wait to play with 2.0. Looks amazing.

I'm having an issue with GAIA 1.7.
I can not get the GAIA Manager to open.
I have tried 2017.2 and 2018.1. I have no errors.
I click on window/GAIA/Show GAIA Manager and nothing happens.
I have tried a fresh project on both versions but still nothing.

Any Ideas?

 

Nope. Works 100% all the time for me up to 2018 release.

Usually you will see errors in console. What .net version / project target you are running?

 

Hi,
Just tried it at home and same thing. No Gaia manager.
Only warnings in the Console. No Errors.
I have multiple screens. Would that affect anything?

Do you mean .net version in the Player settings?
It was 3.5 but changed it to 4.X. no change.
Or installed? 4.6.1 in windows.

The work machine is a fresh install of windows 10 on a HP machine.

Rod

 

At first I thought it might be some weird compile issue - but the fact that you get the Gaia menu means that Gaia compiled just fine (as it does - no compile errors in it!!).

Actually - I just worked it out - for some reason Unity is showing your Gaia manager window off the screen somewhere - so you can not see it.

I don't actually know how to solve this. I just tried reverting layouts to factory settings on my machine and when i re-opened the Gaia Manager window it was still in the same location on my other screen (i develop with 3 screens).

My suggestion is to google it and let us know what you did to resolve it. I had the issue happen to me once years ago but can't remember what I did to fix it.

 

Definitely a multi-monitor issue.

Had this same issue with other apps also even deleting the program and installing again didn't work.

Resetting layouts only seem to reset the unity standard windows(animator, inspector etc..) as I had a few of them hidden also.

This hiding of windows happens to me when I try too maximize a window, using the max window icon, on a different monitor then what unity is using.

Also it just happened when I loaded in gaia to write this article. My primary is 6480x3840 so I think that caused the issue along with the multi monitors.

It seems once you open a window (probably need to save ) it writes the location size etc to your registry and it stays there even if you delete the asset. So if you open another project reimport gaia , and then show manager it uses the registry data last used which is still in your case a hidden window.

Final solution for me which worked:regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Unity Technologies\Unity Editor 5.x then find gaia.managereditorh_h and w_h and x_h and x_y.

You can go in change the numbers of the x_h and y-h to something like 0 0, which I read somewhere, so it appears in top left corner.

I didn't do that, instead I deleted all 4 files opened my project on a different monitor where the resolution is 1920x1080 and then opened the manager and it worked . I immediately docked it and then dragged unity back to my primary monitor saved the project and I am good to go.

 

Thanks for this!

I will experiment with forcing a position in the next update. Hopefully this will stop others from having the same issue.

 

NOTE : This is not required for most people. Its a change to fix an issue that a specific person had with their Gaia window dissapearing off screen - due no doubt to some weird unity glitch or windows screens being moved to different locations. Do not make this change unless your window has also dissapeared.

@TADWA try modifying your GaiaManagerEditor.cs file and do the following

just before OnGUI() add

Code (CSharp):

1. private bool m_positionChecked = false;

then straight after the left curly bracket add the following

OnGUI()
{

Code (CSharp):

1.             if (!m_positionChecked)
2.             {
3.                 m_positionChecked = true;
4.                 if (!maximized)
5.                 {
6.                     //Get scene position
7.                     Rect scenePosition = new Rect(0f, 0f, 800f, 600f);
8.                     if (SceneView.lastActiveSceneView != null)
9.                     {
10.                         scenePosition = SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.position;
11.                     }
12.                     //Check our position
13.                     Rect p = position;
14.                     if (position.x < scenePosition.xMin || position.x > scenePosition.xMax)
15.                     {
16.                         p.x = scenePosition.xMin + (((scenePosition.xMax - scenePosition.xMin) / 2f) - (p.width / 2f));
17.                     }
18.                     if (p.y < scenePosition.yMin || position.y > scenePosition.yMax)
19.                     {
20.                         p.y = scenePosition.yMin + 50f;
21.                     }
22.                     position = p;
23.                 }
24.             }
25.  

this modification will go into the next gaia release within a week.

 

@AdamGoodrich @sanuvin
Cheers Guys,
I got it. I used Sanuvin's method.
I tried changing adding the code Adam but got an error message.

I got two errors the same.
error CS1612: Cannot modify a value type return of 'UnityEditor.EditorWindow.position'. Consider storing the value in a temporary variable
I must of missed something.

But all up and running now.

The problems with having a 40" 4k and 2 x 24" vertical and horizontal.
3 screens are great Adam. So much easier and quicker to view stuff.
I have my other 40" 4k at work as they won't buy me one. :-(

Thanks again guys. You saved my bacon. Spending the day making terrains!

Cheers
Rodney

 

after the last update my gaia window option is gone

 

Yeap - i messed it up - i have it tested and working in my dev environment - just updated the code above for the next person.

 

Sooo, is the new version compatible with MegaSplat and R.A.M? (only see CTS support)

 

Yes. Gaia is 100% standard Unity terrain compatible... so if the product supports standard terrain then it will work with environments generated by Gaia.

 

In the spirit of being responsive - the v1.7.1 update is live!

Has a fix for the screen issue, a fix with mask 2 in terrain utilities, and some more usability work, particularly on terrain utilities.

 

Can you do a tutorial on the new Erosion features? I can't seem to get any good results out of it... Using hydraulic filter either I get a smoothing effect rather than a erosion/wrinkling effect, or giant spikes that reach to the top of the terrain, or small pock marks if I lower the iterations amount. And with the Thermal Filter it just seems to smooth/depress the entire terrain. It also appears that these filters are not in the documentation either.

I'm not entirely sure what a "Hardness Map" is or if it would improve the features, and or how to generate one or make one as I can't seem to find a utility in the terrain utilities to make one either.

 

Yep. Plan is to make a bunch of new tutorials and they will come online in the next week. One of the reasons I pushed G171 early was to get a little more documentation into that section.

 

A tutorial with snow

 

Upgraded to 2018.1 and had some issues removing Gaia from my project after terrain was generated. Seemed to remove ok, but when I shut down Unity, it appeared to try to reimport Gaia, and then crashed. What are the cleanest steps for removing Gaia once terrain generated?

 

Okay seems cool! Do you mean a lownpoly mesh takes less performance than just having the terrain?

Btw, when I update in my existing project (cant delete anything (or?) , can I just update and import?

 

Just delete - however - you need to make sure that nothing in your scene is referencing Gaia or the 3rd Party Samplers.

You can remove stamps, scripts, and the gaia objects from your hierarchy (may sure you re-parent game objects first).

Yes.

Backup first (ALWAYS BACKUP!!! ), then just update and import.

 

I'm having problems with finishing spawners and stamps. It'll do single stamps but if I try a session it freezes and same thing with using spawners

 

I never get this - so something is up either in your environment or in way you are using Gaia.

Please log support request at : https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/support/home

You will need to supply me with information about your environment and what you did to set it up. 'Its not working" is not enough information for me to be able to help you. Perhaps make an end to end video on a fresh new project and show me what you did.

 

Well I use to use Gaia every day till this last update. Now I'm getting the errors and the only thing that changed was me updating. Before 1.7 everything worked great. I'm currently on the rush to release an update so I'm going to have to just avoid Gaia and do everything manually until I get ahead or it fixes itself with a future update

 

Sorry that you are having issues, however my point still stands.

I am not seeing the issue and you have given me nothing to work from... so even if there was an introduced bug I don’t have anything to look at in order to fix it.

My experience is the opposite. Gaia generates environments on average 2 to 3 times faster.

If you PM me with your invoice number I can send you an older release to get you going again.

 

I noted some software that claimed to help with that, Adam...


hehehe

 

Btw... there are a bunch of new Gaia tutorials coming online here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLckEMv5tz0E71DDPQZTWxYVPvhqSGrAOQ

We will update the web site as soon as the majority of these are up.

 

Nice tutorials. Adam

 

Here are some of the new tutorials :

Terrain utilities introduction:

Mask generation:

Noisemap / noisemask generation:

Advanced mask generation and usage:

Terrain terracing:

Erosion coming soon