Is SpeedTree grass integrated with the Terrain system?

I can't seem to get SpeedTree grass to work with Unity Terrain system. I added it as a Detail Mesh etc like usual but it won't paint any of the speedtree grass.

I've also zoomed in very close and tested it in play mode to make sure I wasn't outside of the "grass drawing distance" or whatever. So I don't think that's my issue.

How is SpeedTree grass intended to be used in Unity?

thx for the help

 

A bit unrelated, but are there any free samples of SpeedTree trees or grass?

 

There is a free tree package on their store.
Thanks to IDV

https://store.speedtree.com/product/free-speedtree-model-bundle-for-unity5/

but don't know about grass. And would like to hear an answer for grass as well as the OP does

 

Thanks for the link!

 

They sell grass, and I can't afford to buy any right now so I'm unable to test. I have a subscription to the modeller but haven't learnt how to use it properly yet.

I haven't really thought about the implications at all but have you tried to add speedtree grass to a terrain in exactly the same way that you would add trees? Last time I tried to paint speedtrees onto terrain, which admittedly was several betas ago, it worked, so I wonder if you need to treat grass the same way?

 

Terrain details are different than trees, they have settings for their rendering distance.. it shows the details close to the player and then at some point in the distance it stops drawing them (whereas trees have multiple LODs and billboard at far distance). So grass can be very dense near the player.

I still can't get it to paint speedtree grass on the terrain, and I posted on their forums and no response there either.

 

You have to add the grass .spm as a tree. You can't add it through a detail mesh. It works the same. has better lighting and in the import settings you have control over the LOD's. Not a huge performance hit either. Adding it as a tree also gives you access to light probe data. Here is what I have come up with so far using SPM

 

Ok, I was wrong. I'm so used to the old ways... Thanks for pointing that out.

and, that looks really good, haha. Time to try this out.