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

You should be able to set this up by opening the Instance settings for that GameObject in the resource file. There you can find min-max allowed rotations for all axes:



If you are unsure how to find the settings for that GameObject, you can just click the "Visualise" button next to the desired GameObject in the spawner, that will open the Visualiser and the resource file settings for that GameObject as well.

 

Sorry, I don't know if this has been asked before but a search didn't turn up results for me. Is there a way to convert Gaia spawners to Gena's? I'm afraid it may be an incredibly stupid question because I probably overlooked something obvious but I figured, what the heck, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, anyways.

 

There is currently nothing like that built in, you would need to copy the spawner values over between the two tools as far as applicable. I will add this as a feature to investigate in our backlog though, I think this could be useful for many users who own both tools.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I found this on Unity LTS around February and apologize for not posting sooner. I fully expected it was something I'd done so I moved AQUAS_CameraSwitcher.cs to Editor to get on with development - no underwater audio/fog in the exe.

To rule out my code I tested on a new project today.
Vanilla terrain and standard asset FPSController, AQUAS quick setup and builds/runs fine.
Note that AQUAS_CameraSwitcher.cs required #if UNITY_EDITOR for 'using UnityEditor;' but the error lines below built fine - there is, of course underwater audio/fog in the exe.

Import Gaia, try to start Gaia Manager but get Missing Gaia Dependencies so select OK.
NOTE: This is where the problem starts.

Try build again but get...
Assets/AQUAS/Scripts/AQUAS_CameraSwitcher.cs(31,125): error CS0103: The name `AssetDatabase' does not exist in the current context
...and same for line 32.
Note, I hadn't actually run Gaia Manager, just imported the Dependencies at this stage.

Line 31
camerappv2.GetComponentInChildren<AQUAS_LensEffects>().underWaterParameters.underwaterProfile = (PostProcessProfile)AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath("Assets/AQUAS/Post Processing/AQUAS_Underwater_v2.asset", typeof(PostProcessProfile));
...and line 32 much the same.

Redoing this with Gaia terrain or Enviro integration does not fix it.

In short.
* Last 3 versions of Unity LTS that I'm aware of.
* AQUAS builds and runs fine on it's own.
* Import Gaia, get the Dependencies and now get the Build errors.

 

Thanks for the detailed description! I'm not 100% sure what causes this yet, but I think we should be able to resolve this somehow: In general classes like "AssetDatabase" are part of the Editor namespace and can't be included / executed in a build, that is where those "does not exist in the current content" errors are coming from. Normally calls like these are sitting inside #if UNITY_EDITOR blocks as well to prevent those errors.
So it looks like that installing the Gaia dependencies somehow activate those portions of the code which is not a problem in the editor but becomes one when building. What I could imagine is that the Post Processing stack that Gaia installs "unlocks" other portions of the Aquas code that are normally disabled because installing PP sets the "POST_PROCESSING_V2" define, and the code portions you posted look like they are touching PP as well. I'm just wondering why this is only happening to you, because this would be something that every user that installs PP would run in to. If you are familiar with scripting you could check if the code lines that throw the error are surrounded by something like
#if POST_PROCESSING_V2
#endif

Since this is a bit of a cross-asset issue I'm going to call the Aquas developer @dogmachris for help as well, I'm going to create a post in the Aquas thread to ask for advice there regarding this.

 

@krahvaal I got a reply already, see over here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/upd...le-vr-web-desktop.378519/page-47#post-4408675

So the takeaway is: The script apparently should be in an editor folder, not in Assets/AQUAS/Scripts/
You could either try to move it there, or if you don't intend to build the demo scene you could delete / comment out the script as it should not be required for building your own scene.

 

Thanks PWPeter but please go over what I have stated.

Moving AQUAS_CameraSwitcher.cs to Editor breaks AQUAS runtime - no underwater audio or fog let alone whatever else.

These lines have no Build error with AQUAS alone.
It is only the installation of Gaia that breaks the build.

Looking at the lines it would seem that Gaia has changed file paths which leaves me asking whether Gaia release was even tested on Unity LTS with AQUAS.

Having been burned, I will only develop on LTS and need a solution that works for it.

 

This is something you would need to discuss with the Aquas developer as he just suggested this (or deleting the script) as a solution earlier. Can you please make a follow-up post in the Aquas forum to continue this discussion there?

 

I do apologize as I overlooked your mention of creating the AQUAS thread post. Having gone there, I'm a little confused.

Dogmachris mentions the script only part of AQUAS demo scene. I'm using the Quick Setup as advertised in Procedural Worlds tutorials, AQUAS Documentation and the Asset Store AQUAS page.

As I have mentioned, moving the script to Editor results in the runtime not having certain effects. These include 'hit water sound', underwater audio and fog. This is the same for Gaia setup of AQUAS.

I will post there as I really don't want to have to do manual setups of AQUAS.

 

I have a question about Gaia, I would only need the dependencies it needs to work as I'll make all the assets myself from scratch so I was wondering how well that works. Also how big in size is the Gaya system without the assets in mb? Thanks in advance!

 

I would recommend then to uncheck everything in the "3rd Party Samplers" folder during installation EXCEPT Ambient Samples as those are required for Sky / Water / Lighting / PostProcessing Setup:



You can then start building your own resource files with your own assets from scratch without having the example assets bloating your project. The Quickstart Guide and the video tutorials etc. assume that you have the Assets installed, so if you want to follow along with these it might be good to have a full install of Gaia in a play project, or to have alternative assets ready that you can then use instead.
The size of the Gaia folder when installed this way is 1.04 GB, but note that this size will not go 1:1 into your final build. The terrains that you create with Gaia are standard Unity terrains so Gaia is not required during runtime and does not need to be included in the build of your project, you could even delete it again after you are done creating your terrain.
(If you want to keep the default water or skyboxes that come with Gaia, those need to stay then obviously )

 

Are there any plans to allow fbx import to generate terrains based on that fbx?

 

Currently that is not requested very frequently, since usually the users want it the other way around, create an unity terrain and then export it into a mesh, there is a script included in Gaia for that. I will note it for our development backlog though. In the meantime there are free scripts on the net that you can use to convert a mesh to a terrain, for example:
https://lmhpoly.com/convert-mesh-to-unity-terrain/
After the conversion you should be able to continue to work on this terrain with Gaia.

 

Oh great, so, once it is converted to the unity terrain with that tool you quoated I can proceed as shown in Gaia tutorials and documentation to add trees and details and other stuff just as usual?

 

Yes exactly, you can basically skip the terrain creation with Gaia and use an already existing terrain that you created from a .fbx with the tool.

 

Great news!!!
Thanks for the Help!!

 

I posted on AQUAS but I really do not believe this is an AQUAS problem and will simply be sent back here.

I thought about Discourse but I could easily go there with 'too much information' and even more confusion.

I apologize for my confusion over AQUAS script but it is called CameraSwitcher and was throwing errors that I do not understand.

AQUAS alone builds fine but once Gaia is installed the Camera no longer Switches Above to Under water properly in the Built Runtime Executable...

• No Hit Water sound
• No Underwater Audio
• No Underwater Fog

I've made sure to add...

• AQUAS_Underwater_v2 and DefaultPostProcessing_v2 to UnderwaterEffects.
• PostProcessLayer and PostProcessVolume to player camera.

...the current version of Unity 2018 did this automatically.

As well as...

• The PostProcessing directory straight under Assets.

What else is there?

The interface isn't telling me, it's not in the Procedural Worlds AQUAS video tutorials and there is nothing about integration in the Gaia Documentation.

The Gaia Manager GX takes me to the version of AQUAS that I am using, the current release on the Asset Store.

I've built fresh projects for Unity versions...

• LTS 2017.4.20f1 through LTS 2017.4.25f1 (the version I am using)
  
• Several versions of 2018 (Dogmachris warns no underwater fog and will fix it)

In short, covered what Gaia was tested for release on Mar 16 2019.
It simply has to be something I am doing wrong but despite going over and over Inspector I am completely and utterly lost.

I again apologize for my prior confusion and have tried covered all details in a much more presentable manner.

Could somebody please help me.

 

If I understand you correctly your issue is that certain functionalities of AQUAS are not working in a build:

• No Hit Water sound
• No Underwater Audio
• No Underwater Fog

While the Gaia installation might be the factor that creates these issues (maybe due to the shared post-processing stack), it is still mostly an AQUAS issue. We don't control the AQUAS code that plays the sound or creates the fog, and it would require us hours to reverse-engineer & debug AQUAS to learn about its inner workings to make guesses why that code that we did not write would fail in a build only when Gaia is installed.

Gaia installs a version of the unity post processing stack v2 if it is not already present in your project. In the newer versions of unity this is done via the unity package manager, in your LTS version we still have to install a fixed version of Post processing that is known to work under older unity versions in the PostProcessing folder. I only know that in newer Unity versions AQUAS also wants you to install Post Processing via the package manager, I'm not sure how this is handled in older versions of unity.

I will message the AQUAS developer to get this sorted somehow in a joint effort.

 

Peter: You said a couple of months ago that Gaia 2.0 should be out in 2-3 months. I was wondering if that is still on track.

 

Doesn't Gaia support tesselation? I've tried to make my own resource by duplicating the existing one and didn't find the option there - only normal, albedo and metallic

 

Answered on discord: The resource files are tailored towards the default unity terrain shader which does not support tessellation as well. You would need to either use a terrain shader that supports it in HDRP or make your own.

 

That was about one month ago, and yes I would say it is still on track.

 

When will Gaia be 2019.1 ready?

 

We officially don't support alpha or beta versions of unity as these might change from day to day, opening or closing new issues as we are looking at them. In general Gaia should work in 2019.1 already though. You will see some errors on import and there is the usual "XXX is obsolete warning" from the parts of the API that became obsolete and need to be addressed by us, but in general it should work and it should not take us long to make the required adjustments.
(Unlike the update from 2018.2 to 2018.3 which brought changes to the Terrain and Prefab System that affected us more.)

 

I tried it last week and it didn’t. Also, 2019.1 is in release candidate phase.

*edit
I tried it today and it works.

 

Was part 2 ever posted? I have a 50 sq km chunk of land I need to put in. I have Gaia and am looking at options for doing this.

 

Thanks for the update! To my knowledge it should work, besides the errors on install and the obsolete warnings I mentioned, and we should be able to get rid off those with an update soon.

 

I think not, but I don't know if you are aware that the Sectr products are now part of Procedural Worlds as well. There will be an update coming soon that will make it easier to split terrains that were made with Gaia, but until then you can also follow the directions in the guide in the attachments, it mentions what steps you need to perform to split up and use a Gaia terrain into smaller terrains.You can also see the process in these community-made videos:

 

Thank you so much for the fast response, sir.

 

I cannot figure out what is going on. I am using Unity 2019.1.0f2. I have tried a couple of times to start new projects and have imported assets in different orders and they end with the same results, lots of errors from scripts inside the Ambient Samples. With a fresh project and only importing Gaia, there are no errors. As soon as I add another asset, I get 36 errors from Gaia. This happens with every asset I have tried, including CTS 2019. CTS does not generate any errors. I have seen the note to use HDRP version 4.8, however, with Unity 2019 it is not possible for me to see that version in the package manager. I have tried all HDRP versions available to me. (5.7.2; 5.8.2; 5.9.0; 5.10.0, 5.13.0) Gaia works fine in all of these versions while it remains the only imported asset. The errors are generated when I add another asset. I have also tried re-importing Gaia after the errors appear.

GaiaHDPlanarReflections.cs (Located in Ambient Samples) generates the following:

(40,41): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'RequestRealtimeRender'
(107,35): error CS0266: Cannot implicitly convert type 'UnityEngine.Rendering.ReflectionProbeMode' to
'UnityEngine.Experimental.Rendering.HDPipeline.ProbeSettings.Mode'
(108,28): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'refreshMode'
(109,28): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'captureSettings'
(110,28): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'captureSettings'
(110,56): error CS0103: The name 'CaptureSettingsOverrides' does not exist in the current context
(111,28): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'captureSettings'
(112,28): error CS1061: 'PlanarReflectionProbe' does not contain a definition for 'RequestRealtimeRender'
(118,33): error CS0266: Cannot implicitly convert type 'UnityEngine.Rendering.ReflectionProbeMode' to
'UnityEngine.Experimental.Rendering.HDPipeline.ProbeSettings.Mode'
(119,26): error CS1061: 'HDAdditionalReflectionData' does not contain a definition for 'refreshMode'
(120,26): error CS1061: 'HDAdditionalReflectionData' does not contain a definition for 'captureSettings'
(121,26): error CS1061: 'HDAdditionalReflectionData' does not contain a definition for 'captureSettings'
​

GaiaUnderWaterEffects.cs (Located in Ambient Samples) generates the following:

(138,47): error CS0266: Cannot implicitly convert type 'UnityEngine.Rendering.ReflectionProbeMode' to
'UnityEngine.Experimental.Rendering.HDPipeline.ProbeSettings.Mode'
(158,17): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(158,50): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(161,21): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'VolumeProfile' could not be found
(168,49): error CS0266: Cannot implicitly convert type 'UnityEngine.Rendering.MinFloatParameter' to 'float'
(332,17): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(332,50): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(335,21): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'VolumeProfile' could not be found
(406,29): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(406,62): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(409,33): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'VolumeProfile' could not be found
(503,25): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(503,58): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Volume' could not be found
(506,29): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'VolumeProfile' could not be found
​

Assets\Gaia\Scripts\Utils\GaiaPipelineUtils.cs generates the following:

(400,48): error CS0266: Cannot implicitly convert type 'UnityEngine.Rendering.ReflectionProbeMode' to
'UnityEngine.Experimental.Rendering.HDPipeline.ProbeSettings.Mode'
(778,21): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'BakingSky' could not be found
(778,77): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'BakingSky' could not be found
(781,71): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'BakingSky' could not be found
(1171,25) error CS0104: 'MotionBlur' is an ambigious reference between
'UnityEngine.Experimental.Rendering.HDPipeline.MotionBlur' and
'UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing.MotionBlur'
​

The following are also generated under these conditions:

Shader properties can't be added to this global property sheet. Trying to add _GrabTexture (type 3 count 1)

UnityEditor.AssetPreviewUpdater:CreatePreviewForAsset(Object, Object[], Sting)​

Shader properties can't be added to this global property sheet. Trying to add _GrabTexture_ST (type 1 count 1)

UnityEditor.AssetPreviewUpdater:CreatePreviewForAsset(Object, Object[], Sting)​

Shader properties can't be added to this global property sheet. Trying to add _GrabTexture_TexelSize

(type 1 count 1) UnityEditor.AssetPreviewUpdater:CreatePreviewForAsset(Object, Object[], Sting)​

Shader properties can't be added to this global property sheet. Trying to add _GrabTexture_HDR (type 1 count 1)

UnityEditor.AssetPreviewUpdater:CreatePreviewForAsset(Object, Object[], Sting)
​

Thank you for your assistance.

 

The errors you posted can be attributed to the higher HDRP version. If you plan to use HDRP in your project please use Unity 2018.3 and HDRP version 4.8. HDRP is still in active development and changing with each version, so every change to HDRP can break compatibility with the scripts and shaders used in Gaia and our other tools.
I'm not sure why 4.8 is not offered in 2019.1 as well, I assume that due to the rapid development of HDRP as experimental feature it is difficult for Unity themselves to maintain compatibility for the HDRP packages across the unity versions.
We will of course update Gaia and our other tools to be compatible with higher HDRP versions over time.

 

@PWPeter thank you for the video links and the document. Those are gold in my opinion and continues to affirm to me that Procedural Worlds is one of the best when it comes to support.

 

@PWPeter - Hi, I believe to remember a forum post mentioning that now we can freely move all Procedural Worlds Assets to custom folders. Is that true for Gaia and the folders that it will generate? Do I need to set a path somewhere? Thanks in advance.

 

If I remember correctly it was slightly different, I think I posted something like "we want to get rid off all fixed paths for our products in the future". We have done so for multiple tools already, but Gaia unfortunately still needs to sit under Assets\Gaia at the moment. We want to remove this restriction as we understand that users want to be able to organize their project structure. Relying on fixed paths also tends to create issues and support effort for us as well.

 

@PWPeter - Thanks for your answer. In the meantime, would it be hard to manually change that fixed path in the code somewhere (also for created Folders) ?

 

I have not looked into it myself yet, I can only tell that it should not be as simple as just exchanging a string in one or two code files.

 

I did that last year, I wouldn't advise you to try.
I think I changed roughly 16 files from "Assets/Gaia" to "Assets/…/Gaia" – it roughly worked, but not without problems. Generated files were still dumped to the root folder because some paths weren't strings but rather variants of "Application.dataPath" or "AssetDatabase.FindAssets" (if I recall correctly) which had to be adjusted whenever I ran into an accidentally introduced error.
Not to mention you have to do all that again whenever there is an update.

I'd also love to be able to move the Gaia folder around but before it's possible officially, I wouldn't really recommend messing with the file structure yourself.

 

@Rallix - Thanks everyone for the help. I will take the advice and leave it untouched for now. Hopefully there will be an update soon, to help us with that...

 

Hey everyone

I've updated from Gaia from around 1.5.x to the new 1.9.2 version off the Asset store. I'm on Unity 2019.1.0f2 but I'm getting this error on a fresh import:

Code (CSharp):

1. The type or namespace name 'GaiaReflectionProbeUpdate' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Any suggestions?

 

Can you please check if you installed the Gaia\3rd Party Samplers\Ambient Samples\ folder? This folder contains the missing type declaration and other things that are required for Gaia.
If you did not install this folder, you can just re-import the package and leave everything unchecked besides this folder to import it.

 

Ahh I didn't realise there were scripts in that folder... seems a bit weird to put them there as I naturally untick 3rd party samples/demo materials when importing. Thanks for the quick response!

 

Has anyone with a new Gaia install been receiving this error constantly

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. Graphics.CopyTexture can only copy between same texture format groups (d3d11 base formats: src=27 dst=9)
3.  

Fresh project, just imported Gaia and after generating a terrain this is a constant every 5 second error

 

Through process of elimination I determined this error is coming from "Ambient Skies Samples/Global Post Processing" game object after using the manager to generate the player/effects/etc

The game object's "Post Process Volume" script's "Screen Space Reflection" override is causing the above error. Disabling that one override stops the errors

 

Yes, generally speaking the major version number of HDRP is matched to a Unity version. So Unity 2018.3 = 4.x, 2019.1 = 5.x and 2019.2 will be 6.x HDRP.

SInce I have been a HDRP addict for ages and I realise that its somewhat hard for 3rd party tools to keep up, I havent use Gaia much for over a year. Hopefully things will settle down by the time of 2019.3 when HDRP is supposed to be out of preview.

 

Hey, I have a problem with the texture spawners. I set them ups as is in the picture provided. But certain parts of the terrain don't get textured. I made sure that the Range in the spawner settings is large enough, and the location increment is set to 1. Do you have any idea why the problem is occurring?

 

Hi, from your spawn rule settings everything looks good. Could you please try if you see the texture gets spawned if you remove the "Check height" restriction? Another thing that I could imagine is that there is still a rule in place to spawn the sand texture right after the grass texture, and thus overwrites it.

 

Anyone have any ideas on what i can do to make my mountain cliffs look better.
Idk if i should be taking 3d models of rocks and pile them on the steep slopes or I shoulde use a better texture?

 

I tried to remove all rules except the one for the grass and removed the check height restriction. Another new problem that happened that another texture spawned alongside the grass one, I pointed that out in the picture bellow.

 

Hmm, your case is getting stranger and stranger, from your spawner settings I would have expected that the texture would spawn all over the terrain....could you please try to create a new terrain in an empty scene and use the same spawner settings for the same texture resource on it? You can either make a prefab from the existing Spawner, or open the Gaia Manager in the other scene and create a spawner from the advanced tab to set up a new one. It would be interesting to see if this error is related to the scene alone or a general Gaia issue.
Another two things you could try are:

• Check the box for "Ignore Max instances" (although you have not reached that number yet.)
• Correct the console warning regarding the difference in actual terrain height and the resource file. To do so open the resource file and enter the same height there as set in the terrain settings - I would normally assume though that this should only affect you when you are use height-based rules which we ruled out before.