InstantOC - dynamic occlusion culling + LOD

Hello ruswizz,
thank you for your interest in InstantOC!
Yes, InstantOC works fine with dynamic objects and rigidbodies.
Actually it's the only fully dynamic occlusion culling system available for Unity.
Please take a look at the InstantOC faq, the Manual and the Video tutorials, to gain a deeper insight about how it works, and to see if it suits your needs.

 

Hi Frenchfaso,

I'm using InstantOC with terrain. The terrain is not a unity terrain, but many cells (meshes) with a side length of about 200 units each. InstantOC is perfect to cull those cells that are not visible from the cam view. I'm struggling a bit with LOD though. As I understand it, LOD is most often used for smaller objects, but not things sized much bigger than the actual character walking/approaching the LODed object. Long story short. My character is 1 unit big, the cell is 200x200 unity big. Please correct me if i'm wrong, but when a raycast hits the object, it can hit in a very large area. It can hit and return a distance of 150 units and another one shot a frame later may hit the same object at the very end of the cell which could be as far as 350 units away. This leads to many glitches like the cell i'm currently walking on beeing rendered at LOD1.

Do you have any idea how to fix this? The threshold var does not seem to fix the problem. Maybe you could sort the hits per distinct object by distance and only return the nearest hit on them? Because the cells are so big, very few raycasts are enough to identify everythin in the viewport. I use just 10 raycasts. If you can't/wan't to implement this, could you give me a pointer as to where to look in the code?

Many thanks.

 

Hello dixitalgorismi,
thank you for your purchase!
This is an interesting case. I will do some tests and report back soon.
How many LODs do the cells have? 2 or 3 ?
Are the cells rather planar or with big displacements?
Have you tried using more rays? For instance 100-200 samples?
Would you mind sending me a sample scene that I can inspect?

 

The cells have 3 LODs, but I also tested with only 2 LODs. The result is the same.
The cells have a rather big displacement. I also tried to increase rays to up to >1000 rays, with the same result.
I'll prepare a sample scene with the terrain for you. Should be ready soon.

EDIT: Sent you a sample scene via PM.

 

Hello Daniel,
I've done some tests with your scene,
The terrain cells, are bigger than 200x200 (Unity units) and they aren't all equal in size.
Some are 390x600 others 390x360 etc..
So to setup correctly the LOD you should ovverride global settings and set LOD parameters (distances and margin) for every cell in the IOClod component. You have to add it manually to the cells objects/prefabs.
Use the diagonal size as the LOD margin value and then use something like margin + 50 or margin + 100 as the LOD_1 distance and margin + 150 or margin + 250 for the LOD_2 distance.
This should work fine.
Let me know if this helps!

 

It's live!
InstantOC 1.6 has finally landed on the Asset Store
Here is the post with all the details.

 

Also using this for Oculus and there's slight pop-in from the right camera. Probably because it's calculating from the left eye and there's a blind spot from the right side... Any way around this?

edit: okay, just got the latest update with FOV option.

 

Another issue. I have a flashlight with a light cookie that is partially clipped when IOC script is attached to the camera. Disabling the script component doesn't stop the clipping, only removing the script component does. Alternatively, disabling the right camera also stops the clipping, but I need that camera for the right eye so there seems to be some conflict there.



edit: okay, found another workaround. I just made a child camera object on the left camera, set it all 1:1 (zeroed out) Transform values, added IOCcam to that, set it as MainCamera, and set the Culling Mask to nothing. No idea how that will affect performance, but for now it works and IOC is still in effect.

 

Hello DFP,
glad to hear that!
You could place this camera exactly between the 2 cameras of the oculus, so that the rays are equally distributed between both screens.
There shouldn't be any performance issue as long as you set the culling mask to nothing.

 

@DFP
btw, another Oculus Rift + InstantOC project... that makes me proud!

 

Just got the updated version and loving the changes

- Curious if you can give some insight into the FOV option - as you increase FOV, should you be increasing the number of rays cast as well? I'm playing with this and wondering if I might be seeing 'blind spots' within the FOV range I've set.

 

Glad to hear that
If you have a camera fov of 60 and a rays fov of 70 for instance, there should not be a noticeable difference,
but if you need a higher rays fov (which shouldn't be normally needed), then it's probably a good idea to raise the rays samples a little bit, in the 10-20% range.

 

Hy everyone,
just updated the InstantOC faq with one new Q/A, just to make it clear ;-)

 

Hy everybody,
just a quick tip about the InstantOC LOD:
if you have some objects in your scene that are not suitable for occlusion culling (sparse, distant, small) you can achieve some performance gain setting them as LOD only, even if you don't have low-res variants of these objects; just copy them and assign them a simpler material.

PS: see the LOD video tutorial or read the Manual for details about setting up the LOD in InstantOC.

 

Hello everybody,
just submitted InstantOC 1.6.2 to the Asset Store, it's a bug-fix release, here is the detail post.
Follow the instructions on the post if you encountered the "raycaster clipping-planes bug" for a quick solution, or just wait for this update to come up on the Asset Store (usually 3-4 days).

 

Sorry if this has been asked already, but, does this support Beast Lightmap baking?

 

Hello bpears,
thank you for your interest in InstantOC!
If you don't use LOD, it works straightaway, if you use LOD you will have to do some tweaking with a Lightmap utility (like Lightmap Manager 2) to get the lover res LODs lightmapped (for the high-res LODs it also works straightaway).

 

How would I go about doing this? Any chance it will be in an option in updated version?

 

@bpears
the way to do this, for instance with Lightmap Manager 2, is to first do the baking as usual, with the Lod_0 renderers active, then do a per-object baking (thanks to lightmap manager 2) for the Lod_1 objects only, and if you also have Lod_2 repeat this per-object baking for Lod_2.
Actually, it seems to be non trivial also with the integrated Unity Pro LOD groups, in this thread WarpZone suggested a solution that should work without any additional utility.
So basically there are already different ways to achieve LODs lightmapping; automating this process is currently not on the InstantOC to-do list.

 

Hello
After a long time of silens from my side, I have found something I want to report.
For some reason, your lod system seems to break the dynamic batching system.

When I have a scene where I property setup everythin (with instant lod), there is no dynamic batching.
But when I remove the IOClod from an object, it starts to batch.

Think this is something important though your system is meant to improve the performance.
Hope you can fix that soon, wish you all luck with further developement.

Greetings
Chillersanim

 

Hello Chillersanim,
thanks for reporting, sounds pretty strange to me, I will do some tests and report back.
Btw, how does it affect performance in your case? Is it faster with dynamic batching (without InstantOC), or is it faster with InstantOC (without dynamic batching).
Do your models have LODs?
Thanks again for your help.

 

Well in my case it has a heavy impact, because I have many objects of with the same material, which aren't batched now...
In fact I did only test it on a high end pc so I can't tell you about framerate drops, but the dynamic batching normaly batches over 2000 object, with lod on, 0. That will have a heavy impact I think.

My models have three lodlevels (lod_0, lod_1, lod_2), and it works properly. Only other point I saw (but not realy tested), when using the shadows from the free version, those don't get disabled when using your lod script... Is that suposed to be?

Greetings
Chillersanim

 

@Chillersanim
Yep, the "Realtime Shadows" option simply tells InstantOC if there are lights with realtime shadows enabled in the scene, so that InstantOC can handle shadows properly. It does not enable/disable realtime shadows.

I'm doing some tests about dynamic batching, it probably has to do with realtime shadows support in InstantOC (no dynamic batching if realtime shadows option is enabled), but will report back soon with more info.

PS: do you have the "Realtime Shadows" IOCcam option enabled in your scene?

 

Hello everybody,
InstantOC 1.6.2 is finally live on the Asset Store
The review process took a while, I suppose because of the Unite 2013.

 

Hey, been playing around with the pack and it works well.

I do have one big problem, though: I'm working on game with some simple voxel-styled buildings that are destructible. Blocks often flicker in and out of visibility, there's a significant bit of lag before the blocks become visible.

I tried increasing increasing the number of passes, view distance, etc. but nothing even seems to affect it never mind fix it. It's a shame because the addon is doing exactly what I want it to do just not quite adequately

Screen shot is after standing still for several seconds, each building should be a nice prism but as you can see some blocks are missing, they flicker in and out:

 

Hello BrandonCimino,
thank you for your purchase!
In your particular case, i would try the following:
Group all the blocks of each building under one parent game object, "Building_01, Building_02, etc.." for instance, attach a collider to this parent game object that resembles the shape of the building, and put it on a layer managed by InstantOC. Then add the IOClod component to this parent object and put all the child game objects (the cubes/blocks) on a different layer (not managed by InstantOC).
Let me know if this helps.

 

That worked great, thanks. It's not as efficient as I'd like (It's registering all of the blocks inside of the buildings) so I'm going to make it slice up the building into pieces and then give each of those the IOClod. Thanks again for the help!

 

Does this(Culling+LOD) work with Unity Pro built-in Static Batching? Let's say more specifically, even if static batch root is moved? I thought I asked this before but I don't see it in here..

 

Glad to hear this!
You are welcome

 

Hello bpears,
thank you for your interest in InstantOC,
I'm currently investigating Unity's dynamic batching behavior in InstantOC, there seems to be some issues (as noticed by chillersanim) with the current version of InstantOC, which will be addressed and probably solved in the next update; I suppose all of this is also valid for static batching, but I will report back on static batching as soon as dynamic batching issues will be solved.

 

(bookmarked)

 

The tool is just a script right? Because I would like to change a few things to suit my game better. Nothing wrong with it, just want to customize it a bit for my situation.

 

It would be cool if you could provide a stripped out version with only occlusion culling if possible. Not entirely necessary but would be nice to get rid of any unneeded code.

 

HI THERE FRENCHFASO STUDIO.

I am a soon to buy this extension and become a New CUstomer for INSTANTOC,
I am completly decided to buy it Already / EVen just to try it / ANd that Expecialy Thanks so much for the cool 15$ Price !

Your Extension Got Almost EVerything One could dream In terms of ( Dynamic Oclusion lod ) !

Still there is a Feature or two that Lacks for my Particular Production needs ... ​

That is :

- Instanciate Prefabs with Load From DIsc On Runtime / Destroy From Scene On DIstance Feature.

- - So allowing a Gigantic massive Number of prefabs Be instanciated and loaded on demand from runtime
- - - Instead of Be present within the scene ..​

Imagine a Scene were The number of Prefabs Instanciated go way over the Unity Editor 32bits 3gb Ram Limit.​

- We need to Setup Instanciated Objects as zones That load from disck so to say like 10gb or more data instanciated - that with your plugin Actual STate they Would have to be present in the scene ...
- But we need to Load Geometry from DIsck on Runtime As well remove it from scene All Based on User distance Visibility...​

I have severall needs on Lod For ENtire Levels on a 360 Degrees Massive Characters Flying Game.

And as far as i have availed i will try to Join This Tree extensions

- INSTANTOC / Oclusion culling : http://goo.gl/AMlx91
- SMartLod : http://goo.gl/9OBEQk
- Dynamic-Map-System : http://goo.gl/9JA34K
​

Of cours ei would prefer to Have more functionalities in one More Featured / SUpported Extension ...

Iv talked more about my project needs with The Smart Lod Developer ...
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/148432-Smart-LOD-RELEASED?p=1359646&viewfull=1#post1359646

SMart Lod Got the Load the LOD Levels from DIsck / and destroy them from scene when not needed ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2JhpMTn1T4g
​

But still not the Oclusion Culling Method YouR Extension have ..
​

SO im thinking In Join That Feature to INSTANTOC / To SMart Lod... Using botH Extensions Toguether...
Gladly Both Cust just 15$ and Toguether Will alow to Affortly do Already All that ...
​

So my QUestion / Before Buying This Asset ...

I actualy need to join up - INSTANTOC / SMartLod / Dynamic-Map-System / In One WOrking WOrkflow ... ​

- Do you Have any Defined ROADMAP with new Features for INSTANTOC ?
- - HAve you ever Tought on ( Saving Loading to and from Disck ) of ENtire Instances Groups ?
- - - In Order to Allow Levels with More than Unity 32 bits Editor Capabilities in Runtime loaded content ...

Is that As the project im Working with is Kinda mAssive ...
I Think that Using "just your extension" here soon we will Hit the Unity 4 / 32bits 3gb ram limit ... You know ...

( I can make / Deliver you some Extreme examples scene if you want )

Is there any Way You/us could Fix mod your INSTANT OC Unity Plugin for that ?​

THANKS SO MUCH ! For your Unique Features AmazinG Extension ...



SIlva DInis / SOuls Studio

 

Thanks

 

Hello bpears,
yep, InstantOC is written in C# and comes with full source code.

 

Hello gheeler,
it surely would be handy, I'll think about it.

PS: IOClod component is already highly optimized, if you don't have LODs, it will not strain on occlusion culling.

 

@SOULSSAGA
thank you for your interest in InstantOC!
InstantOC has a to-do-list (sort of a less-strict road-map )
some of the features that are currently on the to-do-list are:
- dynamic batching support (almost done)
- static batching support (evaluate if possible)
- 4 LOD levels
- easy setting for distance culling for LOD (it's already possible with a simple "trick")
- dynamic load/unload of LOD levels from disk at runtime (like SmartLOD)
- lights culling
- terrain culling (more Unity terrains or one terrain split with other Asset Store Utilities)
- IOC Zones, to easily change IOCcam settings based on zones. For instance change the Rays Samples and Rays FOV when you go from an indoor area to an outdoor area or vice versa.

Some of these features will be in the next iterations of the 1.x release cycle
the others will be part of InstantOC 2.x.
InstantOC 2 (a free upgrade for all InstantOC 1 customers) will be hopefully released in late 2013 / early 2014.

 

Anyway you could provide a UnityScript version also? That's only one I know.

 

Rewriting InstantOC in Unity Script could potentially bring to a performance loss,
it's probably possible to make it almost as fast as the C# version, but not trivial.
Perhaps in the future, but it's currently not on the to-do-list, sorry.

 

Frenchfaso, I wanted to point out, that I don't expect the tool to be able to occlude moving objects that are statically batched, because that would itself defy the static batching. But I would expect it to be able to occlude them if only moved by static roots or unmoved entirely. Just pointing that out if you didn't already know.

Hope it works out to support static batching, or hell, even have it's own batching that works alongside the LOD. I'd be happy to pay a bit more for a complete solution like that. In this way, you might even be able to make a sort of static/dynamic hybrid batcher, that updates the imaginary batch mesh at certain intervals, so you could even move that dynamically. A update interval variable would be nice to adjust for each game need too.

 

Hey Frenchfaso,

I just dropped in to say that your dynamic OC tool is really cool and something like this should have been a no-brainer for the guys at Unity.

Also, I keep getting this error occasionally. Not always but sometimes. I don't know if it's related to the objects (I rechecked that the object containing IOCLod script had a collider) but it keeps giving the error.

NullReferenceException
UnityEngine.Component.GetComponent[IOClod] () (at C:/BuildAgent/work/cac08d8a5e25d4cb/Runtime/ExportGenerated/Editor/UnityEngineComponent.cs:206)
IOCcam.Update () (at Assets/InstantOC/IOCcam.cs:87)

Any idea what this might be related to? Or is it Editor-related error?

 

Hello lightnarcissus,
thank you for your purchase! I'm glad you like InstantOC
The error you get indicates probably that there is some game-object with a collider on one of the InstantOC managed layers, but without the IOClod component.
If this object shouldn't be managed by InstantOC simply change layer, otherwise give it an InstantOC TAG (to let InstantOC automatically add the IOClod component) or add yourself the IOClod component to the game-object.
Hope this makes sense, if you need more help, feel free to contact me.

 

Full support of Unity's dynamic batching is ready
I'll publish the InstantOC update in a day or two.
Those of you who have managed to get Unity's dynamic batching working, will be able to harness the power of InstantOC without breaking dynamic batching

@chillersanim
Thank you for finding this issue!

@bpears
Now it's time to test static batching support! Will report back soon about it.

 

Good evening Gentlemen,
it has been a long time since the last review!
It would be great if you could find the time to leave your thoughts about InstantOC on the Asset Store.
I would greatly appreciate your contribution

 

it's a great plugin!

 

Thank you Sir!

 

Good thing you remind us. I have had your app already few weeks or so, but "havent had time" to test it. I will test it today ..or tomorrow, because i really should know if it works for me or should i start thinking something else. I promise to write review ..i hope its going to be positive one

 

Great! Thanks chelnok,
Your Rguelike 3d prototype looks promising, I'm particularly interested in the procedural level/content generation, InstantOC is usually of great help in such cases.
If you need help setting up InstantOC and getting the most out of it, please feel free to contact me, I will be glad to help.
And of course, if you find some "rough edges" or some weak points in InstantOC, please let me know, I'm eager to improve it as much as possible!

 

HI FRENCH FASO STUDIO !

Thanks for you Incomparable support !

We are Eager and Hopefull to see All next Improvments You can Make of it !!

Thanks so much for this amazing development !

THE SOULS STUDIO TEAM

------------------------------------------------

ANYWAY !

Just Bought Today Your Amazing Plugin , Along all others to Mix in it :​

InstantOC Dynamic Occlusion Culling + LOD
/ https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/6391

Smart LOD
/ https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/4204

Dynamic Map System
/ https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/8015

Infinite Terrain
/ https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/9923​

Going To Try to Mix Them all ! IN one sistem With TerraiNCOmposer/WorldComposer in the middle ...

Its going to be a big 360 Degrees Fantasy Flying Adventure ! Using it ! At Souls Saga Project !​

But let me Say that From All those Your Extension is the one that Works better And Seams the most Supported ...

As a Customer im quite desapointed with SMartLOD / Tried to contact the developer twice since 4 weeks ago , and got not even a single answer and any product support - Not in PreSales Or Even After the Sale - SO there is no Product Support for SmartLod ... Its sad, I just Bought it Because of the Lod Disck Streaming Features ... ANd going to Try to Join Up SMart LOD to Instant Oc And See what Happens ...​

Im Going to Leave a Fat 5 Stars And a Good Review for you As soon im WIth Some time Off and tested All features !

Going to Give yoU Also some feedback And as customer I would like to Participate in your BETAs ... if possible. My mail is Soulssaga@gmail.com​

Im a Beta tester of TerrainCOmposer and Worldcomposer, And im Sure that i will going to Streess your Unity Plugin to The maximun as i have to do some heavy cinematics ...
​

Do you Have a SUpport EMAIL ?

--------------------------------------------------


Anyway from Those features / In your Amazing ROADMAP ! Could you please Rush up

0) - Batch Load of LODS From Naming COnventions on mesh _lod0 _lod1 up to _lod10

1) - More Lod Levels ( Up to 8 or Unlimited Please ) And a Lod By ScreenSize as well Distance Like UnityPro

2) - Dynamic load/unload of LOD levels from disk at runtime (like SmartLOD)

3) - Dynamic load/unload of entire LOD AREAS from disk at runtime (like Dynamic Map System ) For 360º Flying Distant Level Zones Streaming ... ( With Distant Swaping of ENtire Levels So make them Seamless )

4) - IOC Zones, ( That can Change Whole Plugin ATributes , as well Change Geometry Dynamicaly By Zones For Scatter proceduralism )

5) - Nested Lods ( Load FroM Disck Lod Groups / That Are Prefabs With Its own Lods Inside ) For Gigantic Areas Swapping at Distance .....


------------------------------------------------------------------------

The idea Here in the SOULS SAGA Production is Have big 360 Degrees Characters Flying Tru Gigantic Continental Masses ...

​

Were you fly Up from the Clouds up to Severall metters in The Terrain ...

​

As you can Imagine The biggest Chalenge it will be When flying to have proper LODS Not just of Small Objects in the Distance , but also of entire Level Areas , That Need to Be Swaped by Low Resolution Diferent Ggantic Geometries at the distance, Then when getting Close become Swaped by Entire Terrain Areas That Are Loaded FroM Disc With the Dynamic Map Sistem ​

We are also going to Replace many times the Standart Unity terrain for Geometry Terrains ... For complex External Modeled Voxel Terrain things as this ...

And here we are going to make heavy use of LODS to Make Terrain Geometry Act like Common Terrain...
Here basicaly we will Build the Terrain Geometry in 3dCoat Then Export to Zbrush The low Poly version ...



Were we will Apply ZBRUSH Subdividion And detailing / Then Go back to the lowest poly and Separate each lowest poly Face as a Single object in Each SUbdivision Level ...



So imagine we got a Geometry terrain that Will Have 10.000 Polys in the lowest Subdivision, Wich will make up to 8 LODS Per face on something like 80000 LOD Objects Per Terrain - That Need to be BATCH Loaded , each with COlision, and Lods Conventions ..

That in Order to out of a Terrain Mesh - With Lods - Make The Most Similar to terrain Happening to Common Terrain tesselation / But With LODS - But for that We are going to need a BATCH LOD Sistem ...

UNITY PRO LOD can do this / http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/LevelOfDetail.html

"Simply create your meshes in your modelling tool with names ending with _LOD0, _LOD1, _LOD2, etc., and the LOD group with appropriate settings will be created for you...."​

But we actually Going to Need the same feature BATCH LOADING of LODS
On Mesh Import with naming Conventions Like Naming Meshes _IO_LOD0 up to _IO_LOD8 ...
THEN THE SCRIPT BATCH SETUP LAYERS TAGS APLY SCRIPT LODS IN INSTANTOC !

If yoU Could get a Way to Batch Lods And Batch Geometries With Instant Oclusion Script Aplied ...
- Or at least Convert UNITYPRO Auto Setuped LODs to InsTantOC lods Would be reaaly Greath !
​

Our PRoduction Will be Ending in Flying Type of Levels As Result, Were you can fly from the Sky and Actualy Land and Walk tru Massive levels of terrains Like this ..



As you can Imagine there wil be needed Lods Streaming for Details at Ground Level,
... but also Lod Streaming For 360º Degrees Distant Entire Gigantic Areas that are Far Away And are Gigantic low poly meshes, that then are Dynamicaly swaped By the REAL AREAS ...

So it will be like Changing the LOD_8 of 1 Object to the LOD_1 That is already a Group of Objects , And at LOD_0 Wich is already a Entire Level Area - Loaded FroM Disck, Wich Have inside of it Many Meshes each with its own Lods ...

So we are Talking Here on a Next Level - Area / nested LOD Sistem ...

The LOD Levels Will be used not Just for Terrains As well for Gigantic Colossus ...



Were the Character will be able to Fly And Land on them ...
Again using Nested DYnamic LOds ...

On Overall BEside the Gigantic Colossus ...
Were Characters Will be able to Walk in its skin and even enter on them ... For nested levels inside ...



This project Going to Have also lot Flying Mountains ...
Wich are actually Again Geometry Terrains were the Characters Can Fly over and land them

​

Those In wich got Gigantic levels of Vegetation Covering them ...



So there wil be needed Gigantic Levels of LODS Not Just for the Vegetation But Also For Terrains ...

Characters in SOULS SAGA Game will be also able to Fly And fight alongside this massive terrains From Ground up to The sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0HY3fmfX4

Enviromental DeGrees at SOULS SAGA will be much like Forsaken World , Like this Trailer ...

​

-------------------------------------------------------------------

HOPE YOU GET ALOT MORE CUSTOMERS AND GET RICH !
So you can Bring this to a even more Top Edge Development !

As We reaaly gona need it to Strech up the Lod Biz In unity ! TO levels never seen Before ! ​

Thank you for your Awsome Product / And Awsome Entusiastic SUpport !
Hope you get 1000x Support From the Community as much as you deserve it ! For such amazing Extension work !​

------------------------

SIlva Dinis / SOulsSaga
THE SOULS STUDIO PRODUCTION Admin