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

Can you please tell me what Assets you are using in your Project?

 

Someone knows how to make a terrain with gaia in unity. I already made the export of the exr file. But it shows up that there is no scanner so I can't do the terrain without a tool for it, I have tried with the stamp tool, but I can't even see the environment running in the game section. Someone who have familiarity...if you can answer me why the scanning tool is appearing as tool that is comming soon, as I have the gaia pro 2 version. Thanks.

 

This has to do with the Spawner. To remove the grass you can go to the terrain- then in the inspector- click on the terrain details- select the grass that you are wanting to remove- then CTRL and left click to remove the grass.

 

Can you please tell me what Unity Version you are using? You also mentioned that you are using Gaia Pro 2 version?
I am needing to know if you are using Gaia 2 or Gaia Pro. As far as making a terrain you can go to Window-Procedural Worlds- Gaia- Show Gaia Manager. In the Standard Tab under -World Creation Settings- You can choose your world size, Target Quality, Biome Settings, and Scene Settings. When that is done you would need to choose between the step 1;
Create Terrains & Tools- is the standard way of your terrain building. Where you hand place stamps, use the biome/ spawners, etc.
Create World Designer- You can think of this as a highly advanced random terrain generator, and much more! This allows you to create the base of your world, and then add parameters to spawn randomly!

I recommend playing with both!
After step 1 is chosen, it will create the Unity terrain for you. If you chose to go with Create Terrains & Tools then it would send you into the stamper. At this point please make sure that "Gizmos" is enabled. Then please choose the stamp that you would like to use and hit Apply.

After you applied your stamp then you can; raise and lower the sea level, play with the mask settings. The image mask comes standard, you may mess with these settings for a unique look, then you can add something like a Distance mask, and play with the settings as well for a more unique look. After all, this is done at the bottom you will want to click stamp.

Then it will stamp the terrains and if spawners are selected or present then the spawners will spawn across the terrain.

You may continue stamping or move on.

 

I will have to look into this and see what I can find!

 

When I try to create a terrain in first step this error messages shows up:
ArgumentException: An empty file name is not valid.
System.IO.DirectoryInfo.CheckPath(System.String path) (at <437ba245d8404784b9fbab9fbab9b439ac908>:0)

and

baseMapResolution is clamped to the range of [16,4096].
UnityEngine.TerrainData:set_baseMapResolution(Int32)

Also:

ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: Name cannot be null

And one more thing it freezes in the loading box in "creating biome". I can only create terrain in standart mode and stamps. And still is nothing to do with the terrain I picked up from. The city that I was trying to convert into terrain in unity.

 

Y'all, maybe I'm missing it, but can someone point me to any tutorials, explanations, documentation of the new World Designer? I can't find a single sentence.

 

How big can a terrain be with Gaia Pro? Is it necessary to use other tools like Word Streamer to have a very big world?

 

You'd think that purchasing this Gaia Pro out of the box would allow you to use it straight away and yet instead it is full of bugs.



Using 2019.1.0 as requested from the purchase page.

 

I do not think that is the problem. That will take away all grass. At a closer look at GAIA 1 and GAIA 2 it looks like it is something how the ground texture is placed. In GAIA 1 it looks like it have another texture in and around villages, but in GAIA 2 it looks like villages have no effect on placing ground textures.

 

Is it the CTS folder in the Naturemanufacture that I have to delete ?
Have try to delete the downloaded asset at the hidden folder so it download again from asset store, and the CTS in the project, but still got this message.

 

An introduction to the world designer workflow can be found in the quickstart guide in the documentation folder in the Gaia 2 / Pro installation.

 

In theory unlimited, in practice you will run into issues with long generation times at some point as the world grows exponentially when increasing the side lengths. I would say something between 20 km x 20 km to 50 km x 50 km is reasonable, however this also depends on how complex your biome spawn rules are.
20 x 20 does not sound much at first, but you need to compare this value to the square kilometer count of other games, 20 x 20 = 400 square kilometers
Skyrim has 37 square kilometers
The Witcher 3 has 136 square kilometers
etc. so 20 x 20 should be plenty of space for your game already.

Regarding streaming, Gaia Pro lets you create multiple terrains directly and those will be loaded in and out according to the distance to the player, there is also a floating point fix solution with world shifting included. You could additionally still use a tool such as World Streamer or Sectr if you need more control (e.g. streaming objects on a different layer than terrains).

 

These are compilation errors, not bugs. When errors like these happen those are usually created by factors outside of our control, e.g. other scripts and assets in the project, or the project configuration itself. In your case it looks like for some reason the default definiton for the method GUILayout.Space() seems to be overridden in your project.

2019.1 is listed as minimum supported version, the recommendation would be to go for Unity 2019.3 as this would allow you to install the newer Gaia Pro versions of 2.1.0 and higher.

 

This message is a false positive, CTS looks for an older version of CTS being installed in your project and falsely indientifies the CTS folder in the Nature Manufacture asset. You can just click the "Don't show this again" button and it should not bother you anymore.

 

New support article:

Spawning POIs and large Objects in Gaia 2 / Pro https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk....ing-pois-and-large-objects-in-gaia-2-gaia-pro

 

Gaia water added to scene looks nice blue in scene view but gray in game window???
Also have aquas and doesn't show up in extensions?
Thanks!

URP

 

I am new to Gaia - have Gaia 2 - my player breaks through the ground - how do I fix that please?

 

Sorry for the delayed reply, it looks like we did not get a notification. Normally the scene view and the game view should be identical how the water is displayed (as long as post-processing and animated materials are activated in the scene view) Could you please post a comparison screenshot of the two states of the water? Which URP version are you using?

The extensions were originally written for Gaia 1 and can create issues in Gaia 2 / Pro, which is why we have deactivated them until they are reviewed by the respective publishers, please see here: https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk..../33000252260-gx-gaia-extensions-in-gaia-2-pro

 

What player are you using? In general the Gaia Terrain is unity standard terrain, your custom player should interact with it the same way as if you had created this terrain manually in the unity editor. The default first person and third person players that gaia sets up should not fall through the terrain, you could refer to those for comparison. I could imagine that this is a physics issue where the player is on a physics layer that does not recognize the collisions from the physics layer the terrain is on.

 

So I have a default HDRP project with only Gaia2 installed, just downloaded the latest version a few hours ago.

I've created a scene with default options. I have found the switch for Gaia to use HDRP, all appear to look somehow correctly (not sure about the lighting doesn't look as in the scrrenshots but I will deal with that later)

except the grass is white as in photo? Anyone had this issue? how to fix it?

 

This is unfortunately the default state of grass in HDRP: Unity currently does not support the terrain detail system in HDRP. You would need to write a HDRP compatible grass shader or replace it with a different grass rendering system that works in HDRP.

 

well if unity team didn't figured out how to do it I'm sure it will take me like two days top to come up with something that works.

 

Getting a few errors with the GaiaLWRPPipelineUtils.cs script. Please let me know how I can fix these. Thanks!

Error 1:
Assets\Procedural Worlds\Gaia\Scripts\Editor\GaiaLWRPPipelineUtils.cs(464,33): error CS0311: The type 'MotionBlur' cannot be used as type parameter 'T' in the generic type or method 'PostProcessProfile.TryGetSettings<T>(out T)'. There is no implicit reference conversion from 'MotionBlur' to 'UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing.PostProcessEffectSettings'.

Error 2:
Assets\Procedural Worlds\Gaia\Scripts\Editor\GaiaLWRPPipelineUtils.cs(469,36): error CS1061: 'MotionBlur' does not contain a definition for 'active' and no accessible extension method 'active' accepting a first argument of type 'MotionBlur' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Error 3:
Assets\Procedural Worlds\Gaia\Scripts\Editor\GaiaLWRPPipelineUtils.cs(470,44): error CS1061: 'bool' does not contain a definition for 'value' and no accessible extension method 'value' accepting a first argument of type 'bool' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

 

Hi, I had a look at those errors and from first sight it looks like those seem to be related to post processing. Can you please tell me which post processing version you have installed? If possible, you could try to update to post processing Package version 2.3.0, this error should not occur with this version.

 

Hello, thank you for your quick reply.

I have the Post Processing Package 2.3.0 installed and I uninstalled it and reinstalled it just to be sure and the same errors are still there.

I also created a new project and downloaded the updated Gaia 2, CTS, and Post Processing 2.3.0. The same errors appeared after importing Gaia 2.

I'm using Unity 2019.3.14f1 (64-bit).

 

I had another look at this issue, if you are still getting this error when Post Processing is installed, I assume there is another script / asset overriding the "MotionBlur" class that comes with the post processing package.

Can you please double click on the first error, this should open the offending code file in your code editor (usually Visual Studio). Please go to line 460, you should see the following code there:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. MotionBlur motionBlur;
3. {

Can you please hover with your mouse over the term "MotionBlur" so it displays to which class the term "MotionBlur" resolves to in your project? Correct would be "UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing.MotionBlur" :



I'm assuming in your project there is something that overrides this and the MotionBlur term is resolved to a different class that is then incompatible with the following code.

 

Is there any information or workflow to adding Enviro to Gaia Pro. I know you can modify the scripts to allow the extension to "work", though is there nay sure way of proper integration? I have tried to contact the Gaia developers several times now for months, both email and support ticket...but nothing. Good work guys....

 

I'm trying to create a large world with Gaia (16x16 tiles, each 1024x1024m). This works but the resulting terrains height-map is very low-res and there is extreme terracing because of that. I found out that Gaia creates the terrains with a height limit of 16384 (the same as the total terrain size of all tiles combined, instead of the per-tile size).

If i make the terrain myself the resolution is fine, but now World Designer won't export to this terrain because of the height map resolution not matching. The stamps do work, but it will stamp tiny mountains because of the scale that's still based on the 16384 height limit.

Any ideas?

 

I would like to start to use Gaia, but I'm bound to Unity 2018.4 LTS. Is it still possible to get gaia 1?
Or is it possible to create a terrain in unity 2019 with Gaia 2 and import it to Unity 2018?

 

Hi.

I have purchased all PW products. I have always defended and advocated that if PW is to charge for updates, that it does.

The case is that everything is well updated and with the latest news. Other developments are making updates that result in irregular operation depending on the version of UNITY.

Now I am thinking if it is worth buying GAIA PRO. My game is car racing on open terrain. Off-road races with terrains between 24x24km to 64x64km (aprox) For this it is important that the rendering is good as well as other types of details.

A big problem that always exists in PW products is the lack of information. At least I can't find her. And there my questions go.

- Integrated weather system with rain and snow support
Is it an Enviro "style" weather system? Can it be modified in real time and with a logical transition between changes? Does it have impacts of water drops? What third parties is it compatible with?

- GPU Accelerated Stamping & Spawning
I guess this refers to the "GENA style". But ... is it compatible with Vegetation Studio? Is a Vegetation Studio "style" rendering possible?

- Massive World Streaming, Culling & Floating Point Fix Support;
Does the product itself have a streaming system or should I use the SECTR (which I don't like at all)? Isn't there some clarification somewhere on what this is and how it works?

In short ... I miss a "technical sheet" of the product to know what can be done and if it is worth it to invest money again.

I have long stopped using Gaia. I stopped using CTS for a long time and switched to MicroSplat (because it updates much and faster, has "Trax" and other tools, while CTS is "asleep" for a long time). Ambient skies doesn't work well for me either.

For all this, I have doubts about whether the purchase of GAIA PRO is a good decision. Please, I need more commercial information.

Thank you very much.

 

https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/33000252471
Here is how to get Gaia 1 back. Now as far as the terrain goes it could be possible to use the terrain possible, but the issue is that you would not be able to use the assets like grass, trees, etc as most of this has changed. If you wanted to go with a main Unity version I would make a back up and go with the 2019.4 LTS and start from there as this will be supported and works well with the latest Gaia 2 / Pro!

 

1. Integration: This kinda goes into 2 of your points / questions: Gaia has extension for the ability to use other assets instead of ours. With that being said the other publishers will need to add the extensions to there scripts or you can follow https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/33000252260.
The weather system should be able to be modified while in runtime yes, but will not save until you go back to the editor and change it. It also works well with CTS.

2. GeNa is compatible with VSP

3. Gaia Pro has Sectr abilities in essence and makes it easier to make large world support and multi terrains.

We are making a ton of tutorials and we have made a lot of updates to Gaia Pro which has changed how terrain building and environments are made.

Here is a list of the recent changes:

Gaia Pro (pro features, pro pricing)
* All of Gaia 2 PLUS:
* Massive World Creation Support
* Non Destructive Massive World Edit Support
* Massive World Streaming & Culling Support:
* Additional stamping & erosion operations
* Additional masking operations
* Mask exporting system
* Spawnable VFX system and assets
* Spawnable Sound FX system and assets:
* Integrated Weather System with rain and snow
* Time of Day Lighting System
* HQ Photogrametry Enhanced Biome Assets & Presets
* Multiple pre-configured biomes


Please let me know if I can provide any more information!

 

One of the best things PW has done is to post responsive people on the forums. So thank you very much.

I see that I have not explained myself well. My English is not a good thing.

I am in favor of having "all in one" tools "Swiss Army knife" style and that's why I asked those questions.

If Gaia PRO renders greenery like VS does, I wouldn't need VS and it would save me space and libraries. Gena is NOT compatible with VS in my opinion. Trees and objects placed with GENA 2 are not rendered by VS, therefore their potential is not exploited. I use VS (which has greatly decreased its performance in 2019.4 LTS) with GENA 2 to more accurately locate some trees. But few.

If Gaia PRO has a good weather system, it would not need ENVIRO and it would save me space and libraries. Unification in a good system makes the preference in the processes consistent and everything goes more smoothly.

As for SECTR .... it has never worked for me. Despite creating 512x512 terrains, there are "micro-stops" when scenes are loaded which, for a car racing game, is really annoying. And I haven't really noticed the performance too much, honestly. With a single terrain my FPS were 85-90 and with multi-terrains of the mentioned size 90-92, so it was not worth it.

If this system has been integrated and improved in GAIA PRO, it would be great news.

I still have doubts about it. I don't know whether to bet on PW again.

In any case, a favorable point is the response in the forums that has greatly improved.

Thank you!

 

Hello,

Does Gaia 2 pro is good for VR like Oculus?

 

Hi Tom, I think it is. I've been working the past few months on creating a series of VR revisited tutorials and I've been using Gaia Pro for the terrain in the first 7 episodes.

 

Very nice. I have a problem with water on my Oculus Go. I use the Unity Boat Attack Water System. It doesn't work in VR. May I ask you what water system you are using in this project.

EDIT: I see - AQUAS.

 

Thank you for the response!

GeNa has been improved and as far as I know of people are using VSP along with GeNa: The only thing I am aware of is https://proceduralworlds.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/33000246948 This article is for using GeNa with VSP.

Gaia Pro has a weather profile that can be modified please see the attached image! Rain, Snow, etc. Added with the power of CTS it goes really well with each other.

Sectr performance won't show truly until the build is complete, the editor does not show true FPS.

Honestly Gaia Pro is amazing in some spare time I would suggest watching some of our new Youtube tutorials as well!

youtube link:

 

Thanks for your time. Very friendly.
It seems that I have not explained myself well in some things, but it does not matter.
The interest shown is enough to give PW a chance again.
My game is based on large terrains based on reality with the Real World Terrain tool.
The textures and objects will depend on the real environment, so the spawn options won't help me much.
But I hope that when everything is in an integrated environment, everything goes smoothly and the lighting is coherent.
Thank you.

 

Hello, I have a question. I am using Gaia 2, how can I change the'Lighting Profiles' through code? I can use the following code to update the'Lighting Profiles' at runtime, but the scene lights have not changed.

Code (CSharp):

1.         gaiaGlobal.m_lightingProfile.m_selectedLightingProfileValuesIndex = 2;
2.         gaiaGlobal.LoadSettings(gaiaGlobal.m_lightingProfile, false);
3.         gaiaGlobal.ApplySetting(gaiaGlobal.m_lightingSavedProfileValues, gaiaGlobal.m_lightingProfile);

 

I am looking into this and will reply when I figure it out!

 

This would not work as this is an old code. Also, note you can only change profiles in the editor and in the application so you need to put the profile changing code in an editor script.

 

Hello,

since adding latest Gaia to my Project wip I get errors in the Editor:

NoiseLib: Fractal Template File at "Assets/Procedural Worlds/Gaia/Shaders/Unity/Terrain Tools/NoiseLib/Templates/FractalFbm.noisehlsltemplate" could not be found! Skipping generation of: Fbm

...

NoiseLib: Noise Include File could not be found! Skipping generation of: Billow

I am not using it yet. How do I get rid of the errors?

Thanks a lot!

PS: I am using Unity 2019.4.3

 

Ok, thank you for your reply.

 

I have Gaia Std edition, Terrain Tiles - what does that give me and how can I use it. I also have SECTR complete, not used it yet. Assuming I have 1km x 1km tiles on a 4k x 4k world, if I target mobile with SECTR I can cut up my tiles to 256m x 256m (or smaller), would I set my tiles to same? By using SECTR streaming I'm effectively reducing memory usage.....and tiling the same?

Maybe for all we need granular detailed explanation of above and how Gaia Pro would build on Gaia 2 for large world building so all are informed...I'm assuming latter is easier to implement & potentially easier to edit the world etc?

 

Hello,

We bought the whole bundle with Gaia Pro. We are building a game for Oculus VR. We have a problem with the Gaia water. It doesn't look too good in VR. There are some dark shapes on the water surface. How to set up the water for VR correctly.

 

My first experiences. I do not put it in the reviews because I hope it improves.

- Too many biomes for forests and mountains. Variation missing. Deserts, for example.
- Few tutorials. Some more specific are needed. The learning curve is very high.
- I have followed the video tutorial and after following the step by step it is impossible for me to move the scene in the editor. It stays blocked. Very slow. Neither rotate, nor move, nor zoom. Rebooting Unity and rebooting the computer .... the same.
- The lighting is very good.
- The weather ... well ... better with Enviro.
And this, in general lines. I will continue working and learning until I have a more accurate assessment.

PC i7-4790
32Gb RAM
GTX1060 6Gb
1Gb SSD
Unity 2019.4.2f1

 

I continue to expose my experiences.

- The texturing is tremendous. Very very good. Fast, flexible ... a 10. The tutorials are almost non-existent. Huge power, but with a very high learning curve. Test, error ... test, error ... until you learn.

- The spawn of objects (trees, grass ...) is very, very slow. Very much. After applying the default Alpine biome on 16 x 16 km terrain, it is almost impossible to move the scene. You have to hide them, so you have no references if you have to add roads or other details.

GAIA PRO is powerful, very powerful. But uncontrolled power can be a problem.
See if they can stabilize it. Although not hearing from anyone in over a month is not the best sign.

We continue.

 

Hi All,
Using GAIA Pro I created a terrain with a lake. The biome was populated with trees etc using the spawner.
My question is how to I remove all the grass, trees etc from under the area with water?
Do you create a mask or similar but then how is this applied to the environment after the spawners have been run?
Thanks

 

Gaia really needs a hdrp tutorial. It looks and works terrible, especially when its marketed to work with hdrp.