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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. chrisabranch

    chrisabranch

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    I want to buy Gaia but don't want to waste money if Gaia 2 is coming soon. Will Gaia upgrade to Gaia 2 free? or should I wait? Also, do you have an ETA of Gaia2?
     
    Ziplock9000 likes this.
  2. keepout

    keepout

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    Guys, spawning objects just ignore other prefabs on terrain with Mech Colliders and just spawin inside of them. But when I add Sphere collision into objects, then spawner detects it.
    Is it expected behavior?
    Please see my screenshot. Any ideas on how can I solve the problem with roads? They only can have mesh colliders. Spawning with area mask is bad solution in my case;(
     

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  3. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    While @Shawn67 is correct about my personal opinion on infinite terrain generation - it is very much our intention to support runtime terrain generation in Gaia 2. There are a lot of use cases in which this makes a lot of sense.... and we have already solved the hard problems related to doing this.

    He also commented that we are in a bit of a holding pattern with Unity 2018.3. The terrain system is in a massive state of flux, and our approach has always been to work with it instead of against it, so we want to see how 2018.3 stabilises before we decide how Gaia 2 will land.
     
  4. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia needs colliders while spawning to avoid collisions. Make sure you layers are set correctly in order for collisions to work correctly.
     
  5. Zoraph

    Zoraph

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    Hey Adam,

    I intend to be using unity 2018.3 in HD SRP. I saw in the update that it is already working with LW SRP. How can I set it up to use HD and if it is not yet possible because of unity will it be complicated to update it to HD once it works even if the terrain was already created without the proper config?
     
  6. Coder333

    Coder333

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    I see. You obviously can't hand-craft infinite terrain (not even AAA studios have figured out how to do that yet). I understand your want to create a tool for designers out of gaia, but gaia already has plenty of pseudo-random functionality, indeed, you can create terrains entirely from script with gaia. However, if you think that gaia won't support run-time capability, all that random functionality won't help to create infinite terrain...
    If run-time generation just won't be possible, will it at least be possible to split up an extremely large terrain into tiles, and disable them when they're far enough away from the player?
     
    StevenPicard likes this.
  7. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

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    That works, yes. That is basically how the World Streamer asset works (and I assume Sectr as well). Larger scenes are split up into smaller scenes which then are loaded / unloaded around the player as they move around.
    Since you mentioned one extremely large terrains, note that there are some limits on how big a single terrain in Unity can be. There is no limit in theory afaik, but in practice you will run into issues most likely: The splatmap resolution is limited to 4096 x 4096 and heightmap to 2048 if I remember correctly, so really huge terrains will be lacking in texture / heightmap resolution. Also if you fully populate the terrain with trees, gameObjects, enemies and whatnot your editor will probably be very slow or you will have to find measures to hide portions of the terrain you are currently not working on.
    What would be an alternative is having one landscape that consists of multiple bigger work terrains which are then split up even further for streaming. In this way you would have higher resolution per square unit on each of these work terrains, and also only load that terrain in the editor that you are currently working on.
     
  8. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I already commented on this. Gaia 2 WILL support runtime generation.

    We also have a release going out shortly which Sectr has transparent support for Gaia created terrains. Its in test at moment with @Shawn67 :)
     
    Coder333 likes this.
  9. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Yep.. I stand corrected. I misunderstood how some of our future work would integrate and thought all of the runtime generation was part of a different product. Sorry for the misinformation. :(
     
    Coder333 likes this.
  10. Coder333

    Coder333

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    No prob.
     
  11. chrisabranch

    chrisabranch

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    I still would like to buy Gaia. but, on an indie budget and don't want to buy Gaia and have Gaia 2 come out right after. Can i get an ETA on Gaia 2 release (how long after 2018.3 until release). I will buy it now if it will upgrade for free. please let me know. I know this question must be annoying, but, I'm sure a lot of people have the same question.
     
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  12. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    We are just now working on releasing Gaia 1.9. While we want to get Gaia 2 out as quickly as possible, it is impossible to give a date as we have no idea how much work is going to be required without knowing with 100% certainty what is going to actually be changing in the Unity terrain system. I know everyone would like to know. We would like to know too. And it isn't that the question is annoying, it's just impossible to answer at the moment without being able to look at the final terrain changes and know what exactly we have to do, how much of the existing code which was created for Gaia 2 under the old terrain system will still be usable, how much of the existing stuff will need to be scrapped and rewritten, and how much wont even be necessary anymore. It would be irresponsible of us to give any type of date estimate when we don't even know what is going to be required of us to get 2.0 released after the Unity changes.

    Sorry I don't have an answer better than that. I will let you know that we hope to get it out as soon as humanly possible. We want to do a lot of new stuff with Gaia 2.0 but first we need to wrap up and get 1.9 out, get some other asset updates out, and hopefully by then Unity will be close to a 2018.3 release and we can see what changes actually stuck.
     
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  13. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Our general approach is to give anyone who purchases within the last 90 days a free upgrade, and as you can see from the top of the thread, our upgrade price will be cheap anyway @ $15.

    As @Shawn67 says, we don't have a date for Gaia 2 yet. Unity is doing a lot of work here at the moment and our approach with Gaia has always been to add value in a 'compatible' way, rather than to re-invent the wheel - so we are observing what they are doing and improving Gaia while we are waiting.

    In the mean time we are in the final stages of testing Gaia 1.9, which will be a free upgrade to Gaia 1.8. It's actually a massive upgrade when you look at the time we have invested and the visual impact it brings.

    Here are a few of the standout features:
    • New simple water system - twice as fast as Unity water means almost double the frame rate!
    • New skyboxes - much much prettier than the default Unity skybox (and note how the horizon just works!!)
    • New Unity Post Processing V2 Post FX - Better and faster than Post Processing V1
    • New localization and general UX system - the beginning of a new and common approach to all our assets
    • A lot more guidance and smart config for scene set up and lighting - particularly useful for newcomers
    • A fix the u2018 session issue - sessions now work across all unity versions
    • Better u2018.3 support with the various pipelines support as well (still WIP as 2018.3 still changing)
    We also have three new products that are very close to completion that will launch in the coming weeks - each one adds another nuance to the generation of rich and beautiful environments. We will be targeting skies & post fx, audio and AI.

    Grab 20181105100958 w1920h1039 x-167y54z-233r124.jpg

    Grab 20181104123705 w1920h1039 x-49y91z-2r300.jpg
     
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  14. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    AI? As in an AI system like Ice Creature Controller?
     
  15. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Yes - a simple background AI. It will control things like birds, deer etc. We won't be trying to implement every feature under the sun - just the core things needed to do background AI.

    We will be taking some of the work we did on character control in Pegasus and extending it substantially so that adding life to your scene will become largely a drag n drop exercise. The AI will also do local avoidance - so you wont need to worry about nav meshes.

    The value of this system is that it will take minutes to add life to your scene instead of days as you try and work out how other more complex systems work.

     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2018
  16. vampir26

    vampir26

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    I was wondering, because the tree scale was always the same and it ignored the minScale/maxScale value in dna settings.

    I used minScale=0.1 and maxScale=1.1.

    Now, I figured out: The minScale/maxScale is working correct, but it varies just very less.

    I think Gaia is not using the minScale/maxScale as raw value. It's manipulating with the fitness or something else.

    Is this true? Can I use min/Scale/maxScale as absolute values? I'm planting palms just on the beach, there is not fitness, just sand and I wish to varie the scale.

    Thanks in advance
     
  17. vampir26

    vampir26

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    Oh I figured out! Just deactivated the "Rnd Scale Influence" in dna settings.
     
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  18. Quique-Martinez

    Quique-Martinez

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    Is there any good tutorial or online course about nature/landscape illumination in Unity?
     
  19. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

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    Tested Gaia in 2018.3 and works fine. One thing: Does it render faster (terrain + trees) now with the new terrain's features? I mean Unity says now most of the work load goes to the GPU, did you test it? I was wondering if now it's worth buy another GPU assets as Vegetation Studio Pro or not. Thanks!
     
  20. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    There are a lot of lighting tutorials out there. I would go through any of the ones written for the version of Unity you are developing on. Also, we have added some new lighting features as a sampler of another asset we are developing to Gaia 1.9 to replace all of the standard Unity default lighting. That in itself might be a big help to you. Then you can look at what we added and have some specific things to dig deeper into with your lighting research. :)

    It is difficult to say at the moment because it is hard to say what the end result from Unity will be. I'm sure those asset authors are like us, watching and waiting to see how it all plays out to then decide how to update products to work alongside or improve on what Unity releases. It could be some code may still improve on the GPU stuff Unity does, but until we have a final product from Unity all we can do is speculate.

    As for testing, I know Josh has been doing a bunch of testing with our Gaia 1.9 beta to get rid of warnings and errors based on 1.9 changes as well as take advantage of some of the environmental changes with regards to lighting and post processing, but I don't think we will have many features to take advantage of the new terrain features in our 1.9 release. Those will probably come either in a 1.9x or even the 2.0 release of Gaia depending on timing of the actual 2018.3 official release.

    Out of curiosity, did you play around with the multi-terrain support in Unity 2018.3 yet? I haven't had a chance to load it yet myself since I've been swamped with Sectr testing and working on Gaia Stamps packs. Curious to hear what kind of experiences people are having with the new Unity multi-terrain support and the current Gaia.
     
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  21. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

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    Yes I've been playing around with the new multi-terrain support in Unity 2018.3 and its great because you can keep working on whatever tile and 1). There are no joints, I mean you can brush or stamp on the middle of a join 2) the tiles keep showing the same terrain and you don't lose info.
    The problem with Gaia (now) is that you only can stamp on 1 tile (one single terrain) and therefore you can't divide later the tiles. The good thing would be that you can stamp Gaia in for instance 5 * 5 tiles instead of just one.
     
  22. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Cool! And good to know about the Gaia stamping. I'm not sure what Adam's plans are for the stamping system moving forward (ie if the Gaia one will continue to be developed moving forward or the Unity one integrated in for Gaia to be built around it instead moving forward). We have talked about creating versions of the stamps in the stamp packs for both Gaia and Unity 2018.3+ moving forward though. It would definitely be nice to stamp a huge terrain across multiple tiles or use the randomizer to create a continent randomizing stamps across multiple tiles. I'm sure the team will be talking more about this once we get 1.9 released. Unity 2018.3 terrain compatibility should be the next step in Gaia dev after 1.9 goes live.
     
  23. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

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    Yes this would be great:
    I"t would definitely be nice to stamp a huge terrain across multiple tiles or use the randomizer to create a continent randomizing stamps across multiple tiles."
     
  24. vampir26

    vampir26

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    I wish to create a swamp. I created a cube to prevent spawning grass in the water (the water itselfs have a collider, but I created a big cube to show you). Terrain have layer "Ground" and cube have layer "Default" and water have layer "Water". I added layer "Ground" and "Default" to collision layer in detail spawner. The visualizer is detecting the cube correctly, but it spawns every time grass in the water.

    I can't understand this, because either it should spawn grass ON the cube or spawn NOTHING. But it seems Gaia is ignoring the layers.

    Thanks in advance

     
  25. digiross

    digiross

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    @AdamGoodrich ya'll are fast becoming the go to asset developer for all things Unity. Loving every new asset and update released. Keep up the great work! :)
     
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  26. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Yes! Buy Ice Creature Controller and develop it further!
     
  27. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I have looked at it - its an incredibly complex piece of software. I guess so is Gaia :) The more i do this, the more I am gravitating to doing simple things that work well :)

    I just tested this and it works fine for me.

    cube.jpg

    The cube above has its mesh renderer turned off, and the layer it is on is default layer. The detail spawner is set to check for collisions on the default layer.

    For your spawner to detect and avoid water you also need to add your water layer to your spawner, and make sure that it also has a mesh collider so that collisions can be detected on it.

    You can always switch that collider off after you have finished the spawning process.
     
  28. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Understandable... There is nothing as unique as it and it would be a masterpiece if you and your team put your magic touch on it! Really good AI systems are hard to come by and it would another gem in your growing portfolio ;)
     
  29. DerDicke

    DerDicke

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    Two questions:
    1.) Gaia takes three directories (Gaia, GaiaExports, GaiaSessions) in Asset folder. Is it possible to move GaiaExports and GaiaSessions into Gaia folder without breaking stuff?

    2.) Ticket system for support. I got Gaia in Humble Bundle deal and do not have an Invoice# from it. But I can see an 'Order #' for every package from the deal. How to get support?

    Thanks.
     
  30. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    GaiaExports and GaiaSessions can be moved or even deleted. They are actually created by Gaia when you run a session or do an export within Gaia. Chances are they will be recreated again. We can look at the possibility of moving where we create them in a future release. I think the purpose for creating them in the root was to make them easier to find.

    Order number should be fine. Just click the Support link in my signature below if you need to open a ticket.
     
  31. DerDicke

    DerDicke

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    Thanks!
     
  32. DerDicke

    DerDicke

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    Probably this can be found elsewhere, but I couldn't.
    How compatible is Gaia with Unity's new HD Renderpipe?
    How compatible are your other tools with it, especially CTS?
    What are the Caveeats, if any?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  33. sheffieldlad

    sheffieldlad

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    Hi. Sorry if this has been asked before. I have a 4K x 4K terrain and a 1k x 1k terrain.
    I want to make a stamp out of the 1k terrain to use on the 4K terrain.
    What’s the best way to go about this?
     
  34. BrandStone

    BrandStone

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    Hi, I’m working on a next-gen game and I have some questions related to upcoming Gaia 2:

    1. Will I be able to spawn custom grass and skip the unity grass alltogether? I have a quixel package with grass clump objects as the ones in the book of the dead.

    2. Will I be able to spawn custom photogrammetry trees? Same reason as above.

    What I mean is to spawn them based on rules and using only Gaia without any additional packages.

    Thanks
     
  35. RandyHJ

    RandyHJ

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    I bought version 1.6 of Gaia at the beginning of 2018. Is there a free upgrade available to any other version (like 1.8, for example)? I am assuming the video tutorials have been upgraded as well since I don't see the options on my Manager that I do in the videos.
     
  36. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    You should be able to update as long as you are on a high enough Unity version. I believe with 1.8 the minimum Unity requirement changed to 5.6. You should have the option to update in your download manager within Unity unless you are below 5.6. Of course you should still have an update option even on one of the older Gaia-supported Unity versions as I think 1.7 was 5.1+.
     
  37. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    While it is too early to say what you will and wont be able to do with Gaia 2, I'm pretty sure both of these are currently possible with Gaia 1. I haven't personally played around with the game object grass but I know @turboscalpeur was working on making these for his grass packs. And as long as the trees are created and recognized as game objects, you can spawn those with current version of Gaia as well.
     
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  38. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Create a scanner object in your scene and drag the 1k terrain onto the scanner. The only issue you might face is you may lose some detail stretching it over 4k. You will probably have to play around with the height values a bit to get the same height on the 4k as the 1k.
     
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  39. sheffieldlad

    sheffieldlad

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    Thanks for that. I don't want to stretch it over the 4k, I just want to use it as if I were stamping an individual feature if that makes sense....
     
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  40. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Perfect sense! That should work fine then. :)
     
  41. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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  42. pbrowne

    pbrowne

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    Hi

    Just bought Gaia and Gena. I have looked through the included stamps, but I need one for Monument Valley in Arizona:

    arizona.jpg

    arizona2.jpg

    arizona3.jpg

    Any idea where I can get a procedural map for this?

    Peter
     
  43. pbrowne

    pbrowne

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    OK, I took a look at Terrain Party.

    https://terrain.party/

    TP_MV.png

    The merged image

    Monument Valley 10km Height Map (Merged).png

    is fine as a stamp once scanned with the Gaia scanner. Also found the Monument Valley stamp included in Gaia...
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2018
  44. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    pbrowne and KeithBrown like this.
  45. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Your timing is good as well - the new Gaia release is almost ready - and 1.9 is an EPIC upgrade over 1.8 :)
     
  46. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    Hi,

    I saw some posts regarding Gaia/GeNa and Megascans, but how does one use Imported Megascan assets in combination with Gaia/GeNa?
    And sorry is this is also a noob question, but can you use a already created terrain with Gaia, instead of creating a new one?

    cheers!

    Rob
     
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  47. Nyphur

    Nyphur

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    Looks like the ResourceVisualiser doesn't take Spawn Extension rules or noise masks into account, only the filter criteria. It's a bit odd that it has a separate mechanism compared to the Spawner for assessing spawn fitness, I assumed both would use the same fitness code to make sure the visualiser is an accurate representation.

    It only took a few minutes to modify ResourceVisualiser to fetch the appropriate Spawner for the selected resource and use SpawnRule's GetFitness method instead, which also allowed me to make it visualise rule combinations using All rule or Fittest rule selections. Was the separate fitness code in ResourceVisualiser just a performance optimisation?
    EDIT: Performance seems about the same too, at least in my scene.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
  48. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Actually - I think its a version thing... I suspect one of those 'oh this would be cool' that never got integrated back. Your comment makes sense!
     
  49. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    OUR BIGGEST VISUAL UPDATE EVER!!!

    Gaia 1.9 has landed and it is one of our biggest visual and performance overhauls ever! Get a significant fps boost with our new FAST Water system (including underwater sounds and effects), and give your environments a face lift with our new HDRI skies, audio, and totally re-vamped Post FX - all perfectly tuned for brilliant visuals and performance in the morning, day, evening and night!

    New Features:
    • Ambient Skies Sample GX (Gaia Extension).
    • Fast water system (1.5-2x frame rate improvement).
    • Underwater effects (Fog, Post Processing, Sound FX)
    • HDRI Skyboxes (morning, day, evening, night).
    • Post Processing V2 FX matched to time of day.
    • Gaia Dependencies package
    • Step 0 in standard tab to set Linear deferred.
    • Updated Step 3 to use the new Ambient Skies setup process.
    • Step 4 in the standard tab to bake your scene lighting.
    • Gaia resources data icons to define resource files.
    • Support for localization.
    • Time of day audio.
    Enhancements:
    • Gaia character controller spawning is improved.
    • Updated and much improved new Gaia Manger window interface.
    • Gaia dependencies install upon Gaia manager start up.
    • Lightweight and HD Pipeline support (Unity HD Pipeline is still in development so you may run into issues)
    • Generation and run-time performance improvements.

    Changes & Fixes:
    • Fixed Controller spawning as it would null reference and not spawn controllers when one was present.
    • Deprecated code in the Unity Std Asset character controllers remove warning errors in Unity 2018.
    • In Unity 2018 upon step 0 on Gaia standard tab the lighting is switches the lighting from enlighten to progressive.
    • Prefab for 3rd party setup has been edited to give users better performance and quality.
    • All materials have been switched to GPU instancing.
    • Screen-shotter will always find a camera by name or by component.
    • Rollerball removed.
    • Static flag fixes on the terrain.
    • Camera distance setup now based and calculated on your terrain size.
    • Sessions fixed for Unity 2018.
    • Safety checks added to terrain explorer.
    • General null references fixes to Gaia functions and processes.
    • In 2018.3 terrain instancing is enabled on by default.
    • Shadow distances configured to give you the best experience.
    (Proper) Video coming in next few days.

    In the mean time here is a quick and dirty introduction!!

     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
  50. danreid70

    danreid70

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    Just: WOW!!! VERY COOL!!!