Map Lab - PBR Texture Laboratory

Soooo, did you guys get this buttoned down yet? Looks like a good asset, but i'm skeptical do to lack of reviews. Will this only work with a fresh project? What should I expect to run into error wise, out of the gate? Please advise.

 

New assets often suffer from this.

No, Map Lab is a pure Editor Extension and should not influence your project. All UI textures and scripts will not be included in your build as the are placed in the Editor Default Resources folder and scripts are editor-only. But what you have probably already experienced is that there could be always interactions with other plugins and/or assets. The developers (unfortunately ) never know what the user have installed.

That's difficult to say. We had 50+ beta participators in the public beta so the most important issues should be fixed. But as in every piece of software there might still be hidden issues, which have not yet been discovered.

Hope that helped.

 

Hi @nu-assets,

I really like the look of this asset but a couple of questions.

You mention the cost may change when it goes from beta. Any ideas on when this is as any funds I currently have are put aside for the assets that will be definitely added to my current game so cannot spend outside of this.

Still learning the graphics side of game dev so this is a real newbie question but how does this compare in functionality to Uber.

Thanks

doc

 

Hi,

I bought this earlier today and have a couple of questions:
1) How do you display additional preview windows (eg: height)
2) Is there any example anywhere on how you do shadow reduction of the lion's head as explained early in this forum, I've played with the colour mask and with blended layers but am unable to get anything close to the desired result. Some more detailed information (or even just a screenshot of a rough setup) would be great!
3) The manual says you can alter the layer input (per-layer inputs) via the right-click menu but the popup window, no matter what I've tried only shows "Layer Name" heading + input and below that "Layer Input" heading with no settings that can actually be changed here, just the heading text "Layer Input".

Thanks

 

It's difficult to say when Map Lab will be out of beta. The price will be incremented by 5$ with every major update until it's reached the final price. But for the next 2 - 4 weeks it will remain the same.

Uber is a advanced shader framework and Map Lab produces texture that e.g.Uber can consume.
Even though Map Lab comes with some advanced shaders, its main focus is the texture generation. The shaders are just "bonus material" to instantly preview your maps in either parallax or tessellation mode without the need to buy additional third party shaders.

 

Thank you for using Map Lab.

Just click on the respective preview.

I have attached a sample project performing some basic shadow removal. In a future update there will be a specialized filter for that. When opening the project Map Lab will inform you that some images are missing, just ignore that message.
I'll post a short tutorial about the details of this technique.

Currently the single layer input only works when the source is set to an other map's output.

Let's assume that you have two layers in your albedo map named Shadow Mask and Original.
In your normal map you then select your albedo map as input.



When right-clicking to the Fine layer you can then select either the Combined Output of your albedo map or select a single layer.



When assigning a single layer input to an other layer, the global setting gets overridden for that layer. The global input settings (for the current map) are located on the right of the Source button.

Hope that helped.

 

Basic Shadow Removal

1. In your Albedo map create two layers named Shadow Mask and Original (the names can be freely chosen)
2. In the Shadow Mask layer add a Color Mask and a Gaussian Blur filter.
3. Disable the Shadow Mask layer so that the original image is displayed on the right preview.
4. Click to the Mask Color property in masking filter.
5. With the color picker select an average pixel located in the shadow parts of the texture.
6. Enable the Shadow Mask layer again and set the layer blend mode to Multiply
7. Set the Compare Mode of the Color Mask filter to Euclidian Distance as the shadows have no hue shift.
8. Adjust the Threshold property so that the shadow parts are roughly masked.
9. Decrease the Opacity of the Shadow Mask layer until the shadows and highlights are on the same brightness level.
10. Increase the Radius of the gaussian blur until the sharp mask edges are sufficient smoothed out.
11. In the bottom layer named Original just add a Brightness filter to compensate any luminance shifts from the steps above.

What this setup basically does is implementing the following formula:


(Opacity * (M * O)) + ((1 - Opacity) * O)

Where M is a pixel in the Shadow Mask layer and O the corresponding pixel in the Original layer.

Find attached the sample project. You'll see a warning that an image can not be found. Just ignore that.

Edit:
Since version 0.6.4 use the Luminance Shift filter

 

Thank you for all the information!

There is no preview for half the ouputs.There is nothing I'm able to click on for height map. That is what I'd like to activate.

 

@DarkArts Studios Could you please post a screenshot showing the current state of your Map Lab window?

When assigning an input texture in the default template, Map Lab should look like the following:



You can either click on the active layer preview or on one of smaller in the overview bar at the bottom to open the big preview window.

 

Thanks for the reply.

So basically it will work in conjunction with Uber and is not a substitute. Good to know.

Thanks again

doc

 

Brilliant work

 

Here is what I see, when I load any input:


I only ever get the first four previews, that is why I asked how to activate others.

[EDIT]: I'm using Unity 5.3.2f1 on Windows 10

Thank you.

 

Now I see what's actually the problem. We were able to reproduce this.
This sometimes happens when in CPU mode and the wrong default settings were loaded (the defaults should actually change when changing the Acceleration mode get changed).

Try set the Acceleration mode to OpenCL in System settings.

 

I tried this and I get the following two exceptions:

It still shows only the first four, it also shows only the first four if I set it back to CPU mode but then no errors happen.

 

@DarkArts Studios Seems like the OpenCL drivers are missing. What GPU have you installed?
We highly recommend working in the OpenCL mode as this will speed up the map generation by factor 2 -16 depending on the device.

If you are using an Intel CPU you can also install OpenCL drivers for you CPU.

The drivers can be found here: Intel OpenCL Drivers

 

I have 6x dual core i7 CPUs I highly doubt that my one nvidia GTX 970 would add much to that in the way of processing performance.

CPU:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

GPU:
nVidia GeForce GTX 970

Thanks though, I'm downloading the OpenCL for Intel CPUs driver as I type this.

 

OK, that's a lot of horsepower...

Let me know if that solves the issue.

The defaults loading issue will be fixed in the next update. This way the standard software renderer (CPU) can work with the defaults.

 

Unfortunately nothing I've tried gets rid of those error messages. I've installed the OpenCL drivers and I've run OpenCL benchmarking (luxmark) successfully, but within map lab I still get those same error messages. I guess I'll just wait for the next update so that I can use CPU mode & be able to see the heightmap preview.

Thanks for your time.

 

@DarkArts Studios To manually change to the CPU defaults delete the first layer (named Height Fine) in the Height map tab.

One last question concerning OpenCL: Does the Intel OpenCL device occure in the device dropdown menu after restarting Map Lab?



We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

Having some issues with the latest MapLab and Unity 5.3.4f1. Using fx8300 at 4GHz, 8GB DDR3 and gtx660 2gb (CUDA, OpenCL used).
The exporter randomly hangs on any of the textures and does not create any output. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I cannot see any logical pattern. Plus there is always a yellow warning. Screen below:


CPU setting more or less works, but it's really slow and creates a blueish heightmap...

 

@Xenonus
The asynchronous texture passing has a known issue in version 0.6.3. This was fixed in version 0.6.4.
The yellow warning was also fixed in 0.6.4.

Version 0.6.4 will come with tons of improvements and new features.

Anyway, thank you for reporting this issue. We appreciate any issue that gets reported!

 

Thank you for rechecking this. Any info on the 0.6.4 ETA?

 

Actually, version 0.6.4 should have been released a few days ago.
Middle of next week everything should be ready get released. The implementation of the new filter type, the procedural texture generator, took longer than originally planned.

 

Version 0.6.4 available for download.

Changelog

Features

• Filter: Luminance Shift filter added (Shadow Removal).
• Filter: 3x3 generic kernel filter added.
• Filter: Rotation filter added.
• Added support for texture generators.
• Included generators: Color Gradient, Cloud Noise, Procedural Bricks .
• Texture engine core has been overhauled (~25% faster).
• Normalmap/Gaussian Blur rendering is now ~20% faster on the CPU.
• New layer blend mode added: Tangent Normal blending.
• Map Tiler: Toolbar added.
• Map Tiler: Region recalculation support added.
• Map Tiler: Workspace can now be locked/fixed.
• Map Tiler: Statusbar added.
• Map Tiler: Random Stitcher now automatically tries to replace parts that don't seem to tile well. (Experimental)
• Exporter: Output map selection added.

Changes

• UI: Colors adapted to Unity Pro/Personal skin
• UI: Changes made on the controls only generate a new engine command when the previous command has been finished.
• Map Tiler: UI has been rearranged.
• New default preset.
• When no input textures assigned a black texture is used per default.
• The visibility does no longer decide whether a map gets exported or not.

Fixes

• OpenCL: Async pipeline synchronization issue fixed.
• Export: Progress display is now more accurate.
• Export: Filters with muliple passes now get exported correctly when changed resolution.
• UI: Cropped labels issue fixed.

Known Issues

• When the Add-Filter-Dialog gets opend for the first time (per session), the new API core indexes new filters which may take 12+ seconds.

 

Just played around with the new version: Awesome! The new map tiling is super!! I also like the shadow remover filter.
Does the shadow threshold start from zero (black) and the highlight from one (white)? Do the shift values also point to the mid brightness point?

 

Glad to hear!

Yes. The thresholds define from what brightness level the shift takes effect.

 

Version 0.6.5 available for download.

Changelog

Features

• Filter: Hue Saturation Brightness filter added.

Fixes

• UI: Fixed warning when opening Input, Add Filter or Map Tiler dialog.
• Project: Fixed format exception when trying to open a project saved in 0.6.4.
• Fixed long loading time when opening the Add Filter dialog for the first time. Filters now get compiled just-in-time.
• Fixed null-ref when opening Map Tiler from an updated project.

 

Random hangs seem to be fixed, many thanks!

 

Glad to hear. Thanks for helping improve Map Lab!

 

Version 0.6.6 available for download.

Changelog

Features

• Layer and filter drag-and-drop support added.
• Alpha channel support added.
• Filter: Channel Extractor added.
• UI: 3D preview area is now resizable.

Fixes

• UI: Group progessbar overflow removed.
• Shader: Height map does now tile correctly.

Changes

• UI: Map tabs are now more compact in small windows.

 

Version 0.6.7 available for download.

Changelog

Features

• Filter: Gaussian Blur is about 8% faster on CPU

Fixes

• Filter: Fixed that the Gaussian Blur output is blacked out sometimes
• UI: Generators now get correctly loaded

 

Map Lab is now on sale: 40% off. Hurry before it's over.

 

does it work with unity 5.4?

any comparisions to b2m?
tried b2m just a few times during the trial

 

Yes. It should run in Unity 5.4, but is not extensively tested.

We didn't do any comparisons ourselves, so this question needs to be answered by other users.

 

just gave it a quick test and it imports without problems in a project in unity 5.4

 

Hey guys, just bought Map Lab and it looks cool. However i am struggling to find and video tutorials. is there any out there?

Cheers

Daniel

 

Glad to hear!

 

Basics

Map Tiler

More tutorials will follow!

 

Brill thanks

 

Hi just got an error:
MissingReferenceException: The object of type 'Material' has been destroyed but you are still trying to access it.
Your script should either check if it is null or you should not destroy the object.
UnityEngine.Material.SetFloat (System.String propertyName, Single value) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/ShaderBindings.gen.cs:312)
UnityEngine.Material.SetInt (System.String propertyName, Int32 value) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/ShaderBindings.gen.cs:326)
ch.sycoforge.MapLab.Editor.UI.MapPreview.SetRenderMode (PreviewMode mode)
ch.sycoforge.MapLab.Editor.UI.MapPreview.DrawGroupOutput (UnityEngine.Texture2D texture, ch.sycoforge.MapLab.Layering.LayerGroup group, PreviewMode mode, Int32 size)
ch.sycoforge.MapLab.Editor.MapLabEditor.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)


I edited a terrain texture and exported at low settings. i then went and changed the setting to normal and given 999+ errors.

I will try again but thought i would mention this

Cheers

Daniel

EDIT: Just tried to add another texture after exporting a texture and the same error as above so something is not quite right.


Edit: another issue once it crashes unity . when you relaunch you get this error firing off due to the editor window: rc.right == m_GfxWindow->GetWidth() && rc.bottom == m_GfxWindow->GetHeight()
Cheers

 

Oh and theres a typo on the cancel button when exporting

 

Thanks for reporting.

 

Thanks for reporting this! We'll fix it as soon as we successfully reproduced this!

 

Hi, nice product. Can't seem to get it to work properly at all.

Unity has many "Exception: OpenCL build failed: fcl build 1 succeeded." errors. I went to the system settings and changed it form using CPU to my NVidia GTX 970.

The first time I did this, I was able to modify the device drop down to explicitly select my 970. For the most part, my OpenCL errors went away. However, after some mishap that crashed Unity, my OpenCL settings broke so that I can not select anything other than the Intel card. Now I only get this:


If I try to change the OpenCL settings to Intel from "NVIDIA CUDA" to try and refresh the Device menu, the entire Unity3d Editor UI hangs indefinitely. I just can't access any window, Map Lab or otherwise, in Unity. Subsequent restarts of Unity resets its layouts and allows me to continue, but I have so far been unable to reselect my 970 device or any other device while using Map Lab and have permanent OpenCL errors. Each attempt to fix this causes the UI hang.

Halp!

 

Sounds like Maxwell problem to me. It's working like a charm on my GTX 680? As I know these devs, I bet they will have fixed this tomorrow! They are very fast in fixing!

 

@dvera2 which Unity version do you use?
MapLab 0.6.6 + 0.6.7 works great on my GTX670, AMD R9 290 and GTX980 (Unity 5.3.4p1).

It is recommend to register at nu-assets website, too. You can download the brand new builds there.
Also, as jimmy said, nu-assets will solve any issue as soon as possible!

 

I'm presently running Map Lab on Unity 5.3.4f1. I've purposely stayed away from the 5.4 beta to avoid unforseen issues.

I suspect the problem I'm seeing is with the conflict between my motherboard's built-in Intel graphics chip and my GTX970. It seems that the UI is not properly refreshing the enumeration of the devices drop-down menu, as the device in the 3rd drop-down starts off and only maintains the value of "Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600" which I presume to be associated with the Intel(R) OpenCL entry of the 2nd drop-down. Modifying this 2nd drop down value is what breaks the UI. This is seen in the screenshot provided where the device list only shows the 4600 even though NVidia's CUDA is selected in the API list. In any case, the state of the enumeration mappings appears borked.

I'll definitely register on the nu-assets site, as any updates will be welcome! Thanks!

 

We are currently working on this issue. We suppose that the Intel HD OpenCL driver messes up the Map Lab settings, making it impossible to change the device.

 

Did you try to disable your onboard GPU (in the bios settings)?

 

On first run of Map Lab on Unity 5.3 I got these errors which froze up the UI and I had to quit Unity


Whenever I create a material it adds random numbers to the tiling instead of having the X and Y at 1 upon creation- I didn't change the tiling in map lab btw


I'm also getting lots of artifacts when adjusting the normal map settings- I'll make a minor change and the normal map will have big jagged lines in it- it also seems random- I can return to the same amount on a parameter and the jaggies come and go at random-

This asset has a lot of potential but seems a little rough around the edges- hope you all can smooth some things out and also add the disabled offset tiling mode

btw I'm also a customer of Sprite Animix- you have great ideas for assets that can really speed up workflows