Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

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

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    HD SRP Progress.

    We thought we would update you on our progress with HD SRP. This is an early version of it using the latest preview from Unity on 2018.3.b10.

    Gaia will happily work with all the pipelines, and will switch in the relevant terrain shader, but thats where things go off the rails.

    Old versions of SpeedTree do not work, and neither does the new version of SpeedTree 8, so you should explore trees like @NatureManufacture amazing Meadow Pack which has support for HD SRP.

    The trees here are preview SpeedTree 8 with manual shader setup as the Unity one does not work. The terrain is using their HD Terrain shader, and we did additional manual work to set the masks up to do height blending. The water is a first cut attempt to port ours to shader graph as we had problems using the current Amplify support for HD SRP. The challenge is that it is less substantially less developed than Amplify so we will improve this over time.

    Even when doing the setup manually this is full of holes and not visually pleasing, so our advice is to stay away from it until it is more mature. However - we do love their lighting and volumetric fog and its nice to see this progressing.

    Grab_20181122221255_w1770h825_x296y80z54r37.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2018
    elbows and BrandStone like this.
  2. BrandStone

    BrandStone

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    Posts:
    79
    Thanks for the update, it’s highly appreciated. I’m genuinely curious what Gaia can do with the HDRP. Can’t wait to see more.
     
  3. FullMe7alJacke7

    FullMe7alJacke7

    Joined:
    Dec 17, 2013
    Posts:
    55
    Hey just updated to the newest version today, no issues prior. I think I would of noticed sooner if it wasn't due to the update.

    I am getting terrain spikes. (See pic) when I stamp. This was the result of an elevated plain using an inverted stamp.
    Anyone know the cause of this? It's making it nearly impossible to use layered stamping for sculpting my terrain.

    upload_2018-11-23_21-47-36.png

    Note: It seems to happen when there are large hieght differences between what youre stamping and what part of the current terrain is. In this case, the edges of the mountain higher up just adjacent to the stamped area
     
  4. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Nothing has changed in stamping algorithms.

    Some stamps were always a little rough - you might either avoid them - or smooth the result.

    There are some filters in 1.A Enhance Terrain that might help with smoothing etc.

    Take a look at the DeNoise filter - it will remove small annoying glitches in your terrain.

    Other cool ones to explore are grow and shrink features, and you can always run a single iteration hydraulic filter.

    The cool thing about these is that you can step back and forwards through them.

    I had a lot of fun making these - in an ideal world would love to spend more time on them.
     
    FullMe7alJacke7 likes this.
  5. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2018
    Posts:
    1,267
    Pegasus would be a great cyber Monday deal!
     
    FullMe7alJacke7 and AdamGoodrich like this.
  6. sfoust

    sfoust

    Joined:
    May 18, 2011
    Posts:
    26
    I'm hoping for runtime terrain in Gaia 2 as well. In the mean time, I found that MapMagic creates some pretty good stuff in realtime. Give it a look.
     
  7. cybersoft

    cybersoft

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2014
    Posts:
    107
    Hi,

    I have four assets from you: CTS, Gaia. GeNa 2 and Pegasus and they are great but I wanted to combine terrains in Unity (not meshes) and I can not find a right tool for that.
    There is one not expensive seems to be a good tool: Terrain Stitcher from NatureManufacture but I do not want to buy hundreds of asset if some options could be found in other bigger packages. Can I find similar tool in one of your assets?
     
  8. NightmarexGR

    NightmarexGR

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Posts:
    217
    I have a voucher key for GAIA but i already own it, is it ok if i sell it ?
    If anyone is interested contact me, i sell it for half the price through paypal secure only.
     
  9. Rallix

    Rallix

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2016
    Posts:
    139
    @NightmarexGR – I don't think you can really do that (see here but possibly here).
    Moreover, I think it would be somewhat unfair to the buyer – I got my additional voucher a month ago in Humble Bundle for like €10 (with a bunch of other stuff); if you got yours the same way, you're no longer "getting rid of something you don't need for a reasonable compensation" but reselling it for at least twenty bucks profit. Does that sound okay?
     
  10. nobluff67

    nobluff67

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2016
    Posts:
    338
    A few questions:

    1. What is approximate build size in app store (just terrain, low poly, eg 2km x 2km)?
      1. Do you have recommend or max terrain size for mobile?
    2. What happens when you get to the edge of the terrain? e.g. nothing there? or fake terrain that you cant navigate into?
    Thanks.
     
  11. NightmarexGR

    NightmarexGR

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Posts:
    217
    Yes i got it bundled, link is not valid since i have not licensed anything yet. I just have an extra voucher as for this it leaves things in a grey zone, this is why i am asking here if i can do this.
     
  12. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2011
    Posts:
    772
    If you got it as part of the Humble Bundle, let's be honest - you paid hardly anything for all the other assets you got with it. Not being able to use this one voucher doesn't significantly change that. Selling unused vouchers for even half of their Asset Store price could potentially pay for the whole bundle, and make you a tidy profit on top. It reminds me of people selling freely given celebrity autographs on eBay - it's legal, but it goes against the spirit in which they were originally given.

    Here's a thought: Christmas is less than a month away - why not gift it to someone you know on Santa's "nice" list? Alternatively, if you talk nice to Adam, and give him your original invoice number + the new voucher number, maybe he can cut you a deal on the Gaia 2 upgrade when it comes out. o_O
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2018
    SanchoP likes this.
  13. NightmarexGR

    NightmarexGR

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Posts:
    217
    I don't really care if it's moral or not, i care if it's legal. I don't like to waste what i paid for even if it is 0.10$
    I would be interested in Gaia 2 but what more can it offer ? i mean gaia is already perfect for me.
    Gifting it for free would be an option but i don't know if the key will expire or something.
     
  14. Acissathar

    Acissathar

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2011
    Posts:
    677
    According to Humble ToS (assuming that's where you got it), you can't without the product owner's permission:

    However, some your countries' law supersedes this. I've read, but not verified, that EU consumer protection laws do allow you to resell.
     
  15. Rallix

    Rallix

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2016
    Posts:
    139
    Yeah, in the EU, I think you legally can (see here or here) – “provided that the software license was perpetual, that it had originally been sold at an economic price, and the seller’s copy was made unusable at the time of transfer”.
    More specifically:
    So, in the EU, it's probably legal, even if not exactly in the spirit of Humble Bundle.
     
    NightmarexGR likes this.
  16. NightmarexGR

    NightmarexGR

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Posts:
    217
    I don't want to get off-topic so i will ask the owner in private.
    Thnx for the info guys.
     
  17. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Just for the record, if someone has any Humble Bundle keys, I would rather see them go to someone who can use them than have them remain unused. As @FargleBargle commented, perhaps they would make someone a nice Christmas present.

    In hindsight I am not sure that we would participate in a Humble Bundle again if it was ever offered. We have put man years of effort into Gaia and ended up getting a bunch of bad reviews from people who got Gaia for next to nothing, valued it as such, and then put more effort into writing a bad review than they put into making an attempt to read the QuickStart guide.
     
  18. danreid70

    danreid70

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2010
    Posts:
    225
    Adam, just for the record -- I thank you for all the hours put into this asset. I've always tried to save $ on assets and get them when on sale (fortunately, I haven't built anything to make money yet, but "one day"...). I was one of those who saw this was part of that Bundle package, and jumped at the chance to grab it!

    And I have to say: Gaia has been one of the GREATEST assets I've ever used! SOOO easy to use, so powerful, and the results are breath-taking! The AAA-quality terrains you can simply and quickly generate are beyond belief, and the power really shows when you can take that same process to build LowPoly terrains that are just as beautiful!

    So, don't let a few bad reviews by "script-kiddies" (is that what everyone still calls them?) detract from those of us who really love this asset! To get the same results as Gaia can produce in just a couple hours (from Scratch!), would take... who knows how long to do manually... And if this tool is being used for a money making project, then Return On Investment can be proven quite easily...

    Anyway. Just my $.02. Thank you for this amazing asset! I find it soothing to just generate fun terrains and just walk around in them with a character controller to explore... and then tweak... and explore some more... :)
     
  19. WMorais

    WMorais

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2018
    Posts:
    4
    What are the minimum hardware requirements I need so that I do not get lagging in the scene? I have a DELL Notebook with Core i7 8th generation, GeForce 4GB, 16GB RAM and with SSD, but simply following the tutorial the scene always gets caught in a nearly unusable Lag. Again, I followed the tutorial to the letter.
     
  20. Salmjak

    Salmjak

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2014
    Posts:
    20
    @AdamGoodrich That makes me sad to hear. I have looked longingly at Gaia for quite some time and was very happy when I saw it at Humble Bundle. It was incredibly easy to get started and I've now purchased some of your other assets.
     
    sfoust and AdamGoodrich like this.
  21. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2011
    Posts:
    772
    Since Gaia is an Editor tool, and not generally active when you play your game, whatever is killing your frame rates is probably not Gaia itself, but something Gaia may have placed into your scene. Typically, you should look at spawned objects like trees, tree colliders, and dense grass/detail cover, as well as water reflections, and overall terrain settings. I'd seriously recommend adding a vegetation manager like Vegetation Studio if you want lots of lush vegetation and details in your scenes, or explore instanced indirect rendering options. VS plays nice with Gaia, and depending on your scene, can greatly improve run-time performance. Otherwise, optimizing a scene made with Gaia is exactly the same as optimizing any other scene with a terrain in it. Check out @AdamGoodrich's scene optimization guide here..
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2018
    AdamGoodrich likes this.
  22. LoboMontana

    LoboMontana

    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2017
    Posts:
    5
    I have a question. I wanna buy Gaia but I was wondering if it is possible to replace the trees, grass, and all that good stuff with other assets and just have Gaia spawn those instead?
     
  23. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2018
    Posts:
    1,267
    Yeah. There is a tutorial on their website that shows you how.
     
  24. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Lots of tutorials here : http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/?section=tutorials

    And you can customize like crazy. As an example Crowfall has largely made with environments created by Gaia, GeNa & CTS.

    https://crowfall.com/en/
     
  25. Ne0mega

    Ne0mega

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2018
    Posts:
    742
    On the plus side, you got some exposure, and some people might start buying your other products. I bought it at full price, and the humble bundle.

    Anyways, back to Gaia...

    Any suggestions on accessing it via script? I really would like to generate random terrains, or maybe even strategy world maps, a la civilization, without using the stamping system. I was thinking I could procedurally generate terrain, and then have Gaia handle spawning etc.

    Also..

    Any idea why my grass looks so terrible? I also tried some Nature Manufacture, and they just don't look the same. The colors are just way too bright and clash with the CTS terrain texture colors. For some reason it doesnt look good like your videos. i think it might be because of my rendering?
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
  26. imagoculturae

    imagoculturae

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2014
    Posts:
    81
    Dear Adam and all
    I have been trough various tutorials. All of them are very well explained but usally always game centered. However my work is based on simulation, let alone I may create some games at some point in the future. I was wandering if it was possible to have some help and directions on creating an environment that is purely coming from real world data (maybe when I will be more confident with Gaia, CTS and other landscape assets I will create a tutorial myself).
    So all I need is:
    Terrain(Elevation) - purely created from downloaded or personal elevation maps(no random or mixing stamps).
    Terrain (Soil) - from soil maps here is an example: https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/DeenikJ/map2014/Soils of Hawaii.jpg
    Landcover(Vegetation, undergrown and rocks) - from landcover maps, is the same as the soil but there will be also the possibility of choosing at what altitude the various type of vegetation will or will not be spawned.
    you'll like this Adam :) http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/aclump/land-cover
    Other models (houses and other objects) - from a street reference map, visually placed, not procedurally

    So my question basically is if there is a way to make Gaia recognized the colors of the different maps and make objects spawining accordingly, also with the possibility of mixing by percentages the different types of vegetation within a certain color boundary. Maybe all of this can be achieved with masks but is this meaning that I have to create a mask for each color category?

    I think that recocgnizing the color categoriers of the maps not only will give a new dimension of this fantastic tool but also will open a all new market in areas such as 3d visualization for biology, landscape reconstruction, archaeology, enviromental science etc...unless this has already been done and I am not aware of it, in this case I hope you can point me to the right direction

    So let's start to make games real, or if you prefer, lets' start to make the real world a game!

    Many thanks for your help
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
    BrandStone likes this.
  27. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2015
    Posts:
    557
    Hmm that's bad. I want to use Speedtrees and Naturemanufacture trees together in a terrain using Gaia, CTS and VS Pro. I would assume that you can use both Speedtrees and Naturemanufacture together at least using Speedtree with Standard Shader? If not what is the best way to handle this? Is a Speedtree update coming out for Unity?

    Best regards
    Ronny
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2018
  28. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Yes there is. We will look again soon as I hear 2018.3 is coming out of beta, and I am sure they would not release it without proper SpeedTree support.
     
    RonnyDance likes this.
  29. ArtisticSliz

    ArtisticSliz

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2014
    Posts:
    40
    Hey, Adam, I just installed your latest version, and I'm really happy to have a water system to work with out of the box. But it is not working with the fog from Enviro. Is it possible to have this supported soon? Or is there something I can change in the render order that will make it snap into working properly?
     
  30. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Glad you are enjoying. I am not sure what needs to happen to support this. Will drop Hendrik, the author of Enviro a message.
     
  31. jjobby

    jjobby

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2009
    Posts:
    160
    We just bought Gaia last week. Will we still have to pay an upgrade fee for Gaia 2?
     
  32. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2015
    Posts:
    557
    Hi jjobby, hope it's ok if I answer the question but pretty sure Adam will also response:
    Yes, Gaia 2 will come with a small update fee because it will be a pretty big update. There was a poll going on where 80% of the users voted that an update fee is reasonable if the update brings big changes and the development is done faster by hiring more developers.
    So yeah pretty sure that everybody will have to pay $15 as an update fee.

    Cheers
    Ronny
     
  33. jjobby

    jjobby

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2009
    Posts:
    160
    When will Gaia 2 be released? I know that difference Asset has difference policy. But in case that there is an upgrade fee for new version. Normally, most assets I worked with, it will offer a free upgrade for those who just bought it within one or two months before the release. I just want a clarification from the developers how they handle this situation.
     
    RonnyDance likes this.
  34. elbows

    elbows

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2009
    Posts:
    2,502
    If this is in relation to HDRP SpeedTree support, then I would not make that assumption. I love HDRP very much but they've been quite prepared to release versions for various Unity versions that have 'important' things missing in the past, especially when it comes to terrain and related matters.
     
  35. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2013
    Posts:
    3,780
    Yep. It just released overnight I think, and I had confirmation yesterday that they still have not finalized SpeedTree support. I think they also dropped tree creator, so I am a little surprised given how important the terrain updates are that such key features are still incomplete. I am also really looking forward to full HD SRP support!

    Hendrik got back very quickly. The instructions you need to get Enviro fog working properly are attached.

    It will be released when ready. As mentioned many times now we are in wait and see mode with terrain at the moment. 2018.3 has introduced substantial changes, and 2019 will introduce more. When we released the GeNa 2 upgrade we made it free to any user who had purchased in the past 3 months. We will do the same at least with Gaia.
     

    Attached Files:

    Mark_01 likes this.
  36. ArtisticSliz

    ArtisticSliz

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2014
    Posts:
    40
    He often does! I love his product, although I'll be pleased to see the bug fixes he's working on for his latest.

    I'm having a different problem, as well. I don't know if there is something wrong with the placement of these volumes, but this is as Gaia spawned them, and I can't seem to get any underwater effects to activate. I have tried consuming the whole scene in the volumes, just to make sure. Nothing changes. I feel like I'm doing something simple-stupid wrong here. As you can see, it's like these volumes are too far down. Or, am I misunderstanding how they work as compared to the box on screen?
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Dec 13, 2018
  37. Ziplock9000

    Ziplock9000

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2016
    Posts:
    360
    I just want to emphasise this point. The extra fee was agreed to for expediting Gaia 2, not for Gaia 2 itself.
     
    RonnyDance likes this.
  38. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2014
    Posts:
    207
    From your screenshot it looks like you are still using your "Main Camera" and not the one that is set up when you click "3. Create Player, Post FX....." in the Gaia Manager. Using your own camera is fine, you just need to add a "Postprocessing Layer" Component to the camera so it recognizes those post processing volumes for the underwater FX correctly. Also allows you to use some fancy new anti-aliasing methods.;)
     
  39. mukki014

    mukki014

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2017
    Posts:
    164
    Hi I use your new water comes with gaia it's work great on my Android phone .
    So I can say your water is compatible with open gl es 3.0 hardware .thank you
     

    Attached Files:

    PWPeter likes this.
  40. PWPeter

    PWPeter

    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2018
    Posts:
    555
    Hi, looks great indeed! Thanks for letting us know, it is always helpful to see the first-hand experiences from the users rather than just relying on our own testing.
     
    mukki014 likes this.
  41. Jbs_GameZone

    Jbs_GameZone

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2018
    Posts:
    118
    Hello everyone, I've just started game dev and playing a bit with Gaia (& Friends).
    Noticed that there are some errors thrown from GaiaUnderWaterEffects.cs :

    NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    Gaia.GaiaUnderWaterEffects.LateUpdate () (at Assets/Gaia/3rd Party Samplers/Ambient Skies Samples/Scripts/GaiaUnderWaterEffects.cs:235)



    These are thrown from LateUpdate() function because not all if statements verify player != null before executing statement that use player.position. After adding this new check at lines 233, 238 & 300 everything was ok. Can this be rectified in the next update ?

    Mentioning that player was null in my case because I imported a prefab (vehicle) from another asset that came with it's own camera.
     
    PWPeter likes this.
  42. PWPeter

    PWPeter

    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2018
    Posts:
    555
    The scripts are tailored towards being set up via the Gaia Manager button that will add a player & a camera, once you derive from this and spawn your own players you might need to adapt these scripts for your project.
    Nevertheless it would be better to have a clean check for a player and maybe give out a warning message once instead running into null references in every LateUpdate. I will raise a ticket to forward this to our development team. Thanks for reporting this!
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  43. Jbs_GameZone

    Jbs_GameZone

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2018
    Posts:
    118
    I have another question. I've recently upgraded to 2018.3.0f2 and either is it because of some default settings that came with it or something else, but I cannot wrap my head around it.

    I created a terrain with Gaia Manager, added texture, sky and water.

    The colors in Scene window look different than in Game (especially the water)

    Screenshot 2018-12-23 at 00.59.41.png

    Tried playing with Window > Rendering > Lighting setting > Scene - AutoGenerate option, but it makes no difference.

    Any feedback is highly appreciated, thanks
     
  44. MLipscomb

    MLipscomb

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2018
    Posts:
    2
    I cannot open Gaia after importing. Procedural Worlds is not in the Window menu anymore and I do not see anywhere. Is there another way to open?
     
  45. mukki014

    mukki014

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2017
    Posts:
    164
    C
    Check your console errors . because some of their is compilation error and you have to fix the error then it procedural world's with show.
     
    MLipscomb likes this.
  46. Auticus

    Auticus

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2013
    Posts:
    99
    I just started using this asset alongside my own procedural generator that I was tinkering on. I think its a great tool and would happily give it top rank.

    However one thing that I'm hoping someone can help me on. Water that is generated has a very bad "flickering" effect after I have baked the lighting and go into play mode with the post-processing effects.

    Is this happening elsewhere and if yes - how are you resolving this issue? I am not very good with shaders or troubleshooting shaders, I am primarily a programmer / logic.

    Thanks
     
  47. Shadowing

    Shadowing

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2015
    Posts:
    1,638
    Hey Auticus I had that issue too. I had to disable something on the water component. I think it's a unity bug. Not totally sure though.
    Just disable one thing at a time to find whats causing it
     
    Auticus likes this.
  48. Andreas12345

    Andreas12345

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2013
    Posts:
    526
    Did i miss something?
    There was a day night cycle in Gaia or not?
    I find it not anymore.
    Anybody knows where it is hidden?
     
  49. P_Jong

    P_Jong

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2017
    Posts:
    58
    There is not a day night cycle in Gaia.
     
    Andreas12345 likes this.
  50. mukki014

    mukki014

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2017
    Posts:
    164
    I've not tried it with bake lighting yet .but work great with real time GI