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

Wow, thanks for the tip.

 

I have a problem with the SpeedTree's and I'm really confused what could be causing this, I've been having it for a while.

 

This is probably the infamous need to regenerate your SpeedTree materials as mentioned before. Scroll up as there was just a post on how to re-gen materials.

 

I decided to try out the issue your were seeing for nighttime imposter rendering. I don't see imposters as full-bright at night at all. They render with the correct lighting. However, I do see an issue where there is a bright white outline on them at nighttime. That's definitely an issue. I wrote the author to see if there is a fix. You had mentioned you were writing him as well. Did you get any response yet?

 

No answer yet.. no, i did send a lengthy email or two though, which often takes some people a few days to digest or ignore altogether (well i hope not). Star rating is a week away as a general rule i guess. What lighting are you using? I think the issue may be that he has a single light field, and i use Tenkoku that has multiple lights... so he needs to address that.

 

I first tried with Time of Day and then I just used a single directional light and turned it way down for darkness. Both worked fine aside from the white outline.

 

EDIT: Never mind, it seems to be an issue with the camera asset I've been using the past few days.

 

I wonder if you could just set the Imposters to not render at night. Could be a simple script set to work with your time of day system. Since they are far away, they won't be seen anyway at night.

 

No, you can still see them at night. I don't have it completely dark at night or the game would be unplayable.

 

I have re-written how this works so that its less clunky ie no open multiple times etc. Will release a patch later today.

 

Just having some fun with Gaia. The odd thing about it is, that how fast you create a scene doesn't really depend on how good you are at creating them, but how fast your machine is with Gaia.

Here's a scene that I prototyped with Gaia yesterday. It took me about 10 minutes to create the terrain with vegetation and about 3 minutes to add sky and water:

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I'll try again,.. Is there away to export a 16Bit Heightmap? That *bit is of no use at all I want to make colour maps and flow maps etc generated in world machine but the blocky lego/mindcraft export is just going to distort anything I do

 

Click on the terrain, select terrain settings cog. Go to bottom and export terrain as raw.

 

I'll get in on this too. 8bit heightmaps aren't much use, and Unity's RAW format is even worse. It doesn't import into photoshop. I seem to remember World Machine not liking them either (don't have it in front of me now, I could be wrong). I've never had much luck doing anything with these RAW's besides importing them back into Unity again. So being able to export 16bit heightmaps or even 32bit ones in a tif format would be great

Also your normal map exporter includes a black alpha channel which means it imports into photoshop transparent. I have to use XNView to remove the alpha channel and re-save it.

 

Did you use both AQUAS Water Set :::: AQUAS Water Lite? The images look great, so does the water.

 

I used the full version, since v1.2 is integrated into Gaia (but is yet to be released). AQUAS lite is better for lakes, rather than for big waters.

 

Thank you

 

I am limited to what unity supports in terms of image export types - I can export as JPG or PNG. Will check the alpha channel - it may have defaulted to black.

 

Ok so just purchased World Streamer to stream all of my wonderful Gaia Terrains how will I ever get the game mechanics done..... I'm just wondering around in awe....

 

I still haven't gotten my copy of World Streamer so I'm very curious as to how it works out for you. I'd be very interested in knowing what size your terrain is and what size chunks you are slicing it up into. I was thinking of going to 512x512 chunks, but maybe smaller would be even better.

 

lol... welcome to my world! I lose so much time wandering around my scenes.. Pretty much been like this since I started beta testing for Adam last summer.. lol I don't need to spend money on games.. All I have to do is create a Gaia tile and get lost in exploring these days... rofl

 

It is at least 10 times as bad when there is a DK2 hooked up...

 

Euros just getting stronger so everything is getting more expensive. It looks like I will have to take the plunge and buy a grasses pack asap. Currently between turboscalpuers with Marcurios a strong second but just came across this one -

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/36720.

The video isn't much to shout about but the pictures show some really nice work. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of these as I can only afford one pack at the moment.

 

I thought it might be something like that. Can the PNG format you use let you go up to 16bit? I get the feeling I've seen 16bit PNG's before.

It's ok, with all the things Gaia does, exporting these images is just a bonus. It's just frustrating Unity uses that bloody RAW format. If anyone knows how to make use of that outside unity...

 

I don't have experience with the other two publishers. I was very happy with @turboscalpeur's first pack for a long time. When he released the second grasses pack, I held off buying it because pack 1 pretty much had everything I needed. The only reason I finally got pack 2 was because he added water-based plants to it. If you are low on funds and what a great quality pack with a lot of variety, I would highly recommend his volume 1 pack. If you need marsh type plants as well, you could probably also get by with just purchasing his volume 2 pack. Not 100% sure though as I still to this day am mostly using his grasses from pack 1 unless I have a wetlands area and then I'm adding the pack 2 waterplants to it but still using pack 1 as my base.

Maybe some others with experience with the other packs can provide feedback on those. But in my opinion, you can't go wrong with turboscalpeur's stuff.

 

Yup.. The Unity restrictions are super frustrating. Hopefully they take a lot of this stuff in consideration when they update the terrain system, if they ever do.. I keep hearing it is coming.. lol

 

Thanks @Shawn67.

I had pretty much decided on turboscalpeurs pack but then came across that one. Don't think I had seen it before. The publishers others assets look well done as well so it makes me think they may be good quality. The big furniture pack look very comprehensive and professional.

I have been doing the math and turboscalpeurs packs are $25 - 26.80 euros for both but have around 67 more grasses than the other at $20 - 21.44 euros.

I may just sit on the fence a bit longer.

 

@dogmachris sorry to jump the thread but as your talking about your water may I ask for a personal demo? both the demos you have on web player are not working for me, and I really want to stop buying water packs which do not have the kind of shoreline I am after, IF yours fits the bill then I will purchase it - just I really want to see more of the shoreline and if it looks better than the rest I've got

Obviously trying the LITE version has a completely different shoreline effect?

 

Might want to post this in his thread. Sharing info on assets that work with Gaia or asking specifics about screenshots posted with the assets is great. Asking for support for them should probably be in their threads or PM in order to keep Gaia thread on topic.

 

I have a bunch of grasses (go figure ) - including that one. Since I found @turboscalpeur grasses I haven't needed or wanted anything else (except maybe a better grass system for unity). Imho turbo's are the best on the asset store. He is also constantly updating them and adding more.

 

Thanks Adam. Even if the quality is comparable I think based on cost and number of grass in each pack that turboscalpeurs for the currently financially deficient like myself will probably be a better option.

Thanks for letting me ask on your thread anyway.

 

I really enjoy the variety of information shared here - and learn things myself from the information posted - as I know other people do as well

As long as posts here are positive, generally respectful, and somehow related to creating beautiful environments then I am all for them

 

I think this may have been directed at me and my last post.. For clarification, what Dark was asking was a specific support question about AQUAS which is better asked in the AQUAS thread. What you asked was opinions of the community on the different grass packs. Really two totally different scenarios.

Granted, there are a lot of great asset publishers that post in the thread. But if they all started getting asked general support questions which aren't related to Gaia, it will get harder and harder to go through the thread and find Gaia information.

Sorry if what I said before was interpreted differently. I do like hearing what folks are using and what is working well in their development with Gaia, preferably along with screenies heheh.. Was just saying general support stuff for other assets would probably be done better is asset's thread or PM to publisher..

 

Speaking of cool and somewhat related things - have you guys seen Dungeon Architect by @AliAkbar - its just been released onto the asset store.

Here are some images of Gaia and Dungeon Architect working together. I will be collaborating with the author to make them work better together.

 

Done

A question about GAIA, are both the grasses by @turboscalpeur included in the new 1.5 version of GAIA or is it just a part/sample of it? I mean is it still worth buying both packages linked below if they are included in Gaia anyways?

HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol.1
HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol.2

Anyone seen this too - World Creator, its been submitted to the Asset Store and seems a lot like Gaia to me.

 

@turboscalpeur has generously provided a small subset of his grasses to show off what can be done in Gaia. There is so much more in his packs that can be explored and leveraged to create just the environment you want.

While Gaia does cool things - and is a nice place to start - all its really doing is showing off the quality of the assets that are fed to it

 

Just a sampling.. Nothing in Gaia is a complete pack from other publishers.. Just a sampling to get you started and introduce you to those publishers if you haven't already found and are using their stuff.

 

Right, thanks guys... will purchase right away then

 

I don't think you will be disappointed.. And at least you have an idea of what you are getting as you have already seen the quality from the Gaia samples.. One of the benefits publishers have when cross promoting stuff and providing samples to assets like Gaia.

 

Yea of course, I can see by the reviews and such his packs are the best on the Asset Store, I just bought all 3 packs including the FERNS one also. Gonna keep me busy for the next few days now, thing is though is the amount I've spent these days on Unity Assets I'm broke lol, worth it though

Same here, I'd like to know too

 

The ferns are great... They were the second pack I got from him. At that point, Adam was reworking the Resources file in a way that we could have multiple biomes within a scene using different resources files and different spawners. The ferns were a great addition for doing heavily forested areas. I would probably still be holding out on buying the second grasses pack if he hadn't put the water plants in it.. lol

His cattails are awesome for shorelines and wetlands!

 

Just importing now then will give them all a try, I think I am almost complete with the Assets I need now apart from a decent water asset with shoreline as you had seen in previous comments, just a question though while waiting for a reply from @turboscalpeur - do you know if his plants are interactable? I was hoping to get this asset: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/25597 but it's not working for Unity 5, would be great if his Turbo's packs was interactable

 

I did a few of the items under Camera and Light in the GX tab, and now whenever I click play my screen just goes black. I've tried to undo everything but haven't found the culprit yet.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I hadn't saved anything so I was able to close it and start over. I went through the scripts and did what they were doing one by one. Luckily the culprit showed up pretty quick. If I have it set to HDR the screen goes black when playing. Unchecking it fixes it. Not sure why that is...

However now I have another issue. For some reason all of the camera effects go away whenever I play. I noticed this last night with Global Fog. I'm wondering if maybe it's a UFPS thing, as I'm also using that...

 

Dungeon Architect looks fantastic, and integration with Gaia would be a big selling point for me. Anyone know how it compares with DunGen?

 

Gaia 1.5 Bugs (Well they're bugging me anyway):

OK, first off I love Gaia. I've been waiting (im)patiently for this new release for a long time. Now that it's here, my first reaction is... disappointment. I've been fighting with it for the last 2 days, and still haven't got much to show for my efforts. I had no trouble getting up to speed with version 1.0, and have been going through the manuals looking for changed procedures, but 1.5 is still killing me.

1. I know this is going to be unpopular, but I'm really starting to hate the new Session Manager. It might be incredibly useful to some of you, but it's just getting in my way, and I wish I could turn it off. Here's an example of why: You already need to set the Sea Level in the GaiaDefaults and GaiaResources files. After creating spawners (which create a Session Manager whether you want it or not), you need to set the sea level again in the session settings (the file starting with "GS-" created by Session Manager for each new session). For some reason, instead of looking this number up from my Defaults or Resources files, it sets Sea Level to 30 no matter what those other files say. After correcting the Session file, I then need to go back to the GaiaResources file and set it back to the correct value, because Session Manager has overwritten what I set earlier to 30 as well. There should be ONE place where this gets set, and once you set it, Gaia has no business changing it. If there is such a place, and I'm just not doing it wrong, please let me know so I can stop going around in circles.

2. Spawning: If I create a new project, import Gaia, add a few custom trees and other objects to the Resources file, and then create a new Gaia terrain, spawning works fine. If I bring Gaia into an existing project (that had been working fine with Gaia 1.0 btw), and try to do the same, spawning doesn't always work. The extra trees and objects are there in the Resource file, but when I try to spawn GameObjects, I get nothing (0 instances spawned), while the tree spawner only gives me the 2 original tree types, leaving a bunch of empty bounds colliders where any of my new tree types should be. Textures and Details seem to work fine, although I haven't tried to add new detail objects yet. The Detail spawner often ignores the "Virgin Terrain" checkbox in the Spawn Criteria, and spawns underneath existing GameObjects though (Before you ask, these objects do have colliders. Do I need to do anything else before Gaia's spawners recognize them?).

I really hope these problems are because my procedures are wrong, but I've been at this for a while now and can't see anything wrong with my Resource file or the other settings. I even tried copying the working GaiaDefaults and GaiaResources files, and all of the new content I wanted to add from the "clean" project where they were working into my existing project with no luck. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

You already have his grasses in Gaia 1.5. They are standard grass billboards - therefore not interactive unless you have special shaders / code.

 

DunGen is targeted more at creating maps with start and end rooms, doors with keys, side branches, and so forth, with the idea that the player travels from start to end as part of normal play. So it has a structure to the flow, and is not entirely random.

UPDATE: The author of Dungeon Architect just posted that he plans to add some flow control features to DA, so if/when that comes along, DA should have some/all of the features found in DunGen.

 

I don't have it yet but am planning on replacing DunGen with it as soon as I have the funds for it. It looks a lot more intuitive. I just wish there was a really good terrain hole solution. That way we could use Gaia to spawn cave entrances for caves, or mausoleums that lead to underground crypts.. For designing those types of things and from the videos, I think it would be hard to beat it with any other dungeon type generator.

 

As with all things design decisions need to be made. One of the weakness of the first release is that you had one resources file and that was it - everything had to be in there. In this new release, you can have resources from all over the place. This is extremely powerful as it allows you to compose your scene from all sorts of assets, but only include and use the ones you need.

So the approach I took was to take the sea level from the defaults file when the terrain was created - and set this in the session - and then every resources file used by the scene then takes its sea level from the session. The great thing about this approach is that the sea level in a resources file is overridden on a case by case, scene by scene basis, and one scene is not going to mess with the rest - whereas that was not possible before.

The implication is that while you can manually modify them at a resource file level between spawns, they are reset to the sessions sea level when a spawn happens.

To stop confusion i removed the ability to change sea levels in stampers and spawners as this would get things out of sync. However if you change it in the defaults file used to create the scene then it should flow through (unless there is a bug). I did consider enabling you to change it in the session - and maybe that would be a good thing to add in.

There was such a lot of change to the original version, that you are most likely going to have to review the setup on old versions. The safest bet is to delete your game objects and add them into the resource file again.

The behaviour of the detail spawner has changed a little. Virgin works as it should - so it will not grow through things with colliders, however I have also now made a sphere bounds collider to stop collisions by larger things rather - as the object collider itself handles that (if it has one). If you want grass to avoid that as well then specify 'nograss' in the DNA of the game object. The default setup i have provided gives examples of how this has been used.

I will take a look at using it with existing scenes - I may have sneaked a bug into it in the last few days before release.

I am also working on the first patch release - there were some issues with new projects and the GX Camara and Light FX.

I am very happy to be contacted by Skype if you have other issues / would like me to see an issue. Just PM me via the forums.

 

That could be your problem, it may not be compatible with UFPS so why not try it without and then see if the problem is fixed and then walah - you have your answer and also something then Adam could mark down as it not being compatible with