"Medieval Environment" -- I can make it PBR & Customizable...would you buy that?

One of the highest rated assets in the store (and one of the first things I bought when I first started w/ Unity) is the "Medieval Environment Pack".

Unfortunately the author is MIA. Hasn't been updated in nearly 2 years, and is not PBR. There are a bunch of very negative reviews, since the asset doesn't really perform well in Unity 5. Without PBR, it just doesn't work the way we want it to, right?

With enough work, I could set up a system that would make all the textures PBR with AO, Height, Metallic, Roughness, Opacity & Emissive values. You'd be able to modify the roughness value per type of material on the object -- so the wood on a door could be a different roughness than the support beams, for instance.

Further, you would be able to modify the Hue, Saturation, Lightness & Contrast of the textures -- again, with most parts separated out from the rest, so the mortar on a stone wall could be a different modification than the stones themselves. There's more customization options too.

And even further, with my Material Generators, you'd be able to produce 100% brand new materials and replace some or all of the parts with them. So the dirty metal door hinges? Those could be brand new brass. Or gold. Or silver, or steel or iron or whatever you want. The wooden door? Could be metal.

The stone wall? Could be red brick or flat stucco if you'd like.

it'd take some time to get this all set up and make sure it works. I'd also try to write a script that would, with one click, update your entire scene with the new materials, so you don't have to do it manually.

QUESTIONS:

1) Have you bought this package in the past?
2) Would you be interested in buying a PBR-Upgrade package for it, so you can keep using it in the future?
3) How much would you be willing to pay?

You would have to own the original package already, of course -- my package would basically be a bunch of materials and textures, but won't include any of the original files or models.

THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!!!!

 

He's not at all MIA. He's simply not supporting his assets. His latest creation was uploaded this month.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/66711

 

Good point. I'll swoop in and support them then! Cause really, I *love* that pack, and want to use it, but can't.

 

Reach out to the dev. There may be some way you can work together on this.

 

Without his permission? No. I will not support attempting to monetize on someone else's work without their permission. Get his permission and yeah.

 

You are not allowed to make derivative works from asset store packages and sell them at asset store.

YOu would need to recreate the whole thing from scratch.

See asset store eula, part 3.8

https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms

 

Nothing in that section would be happening. everything I provide would be brand new, and quite worthless unless you have the maps from his package. If you check out the "pbr tools" asset in my signature you can get an idea of how I can accomplish it, although I'm making custom workflows for it and doing the heavy lifting already.

I'd say it's more similar to an asset that allows playmaker to do something new, but still requires playmaker. Something like that. But there is no code involved, so it's not 100% the same thing.

 

As long as you are not including anything at all from the original author's package, I don't see an issue with making brand new textures for previously created models.

In the "real world" I can buy a new exhaust system from AmericanMuscle, but without a Mustang it isn't going to do me much good.

 

Are you recreating the textures or modifying the originals for PBR shaders? I feel like doing the latter is still dicey from a legal/copyright perspective.

 

Personally, I wouldn't do anything that relies on someone else's asset without permission from original author. There are just too many possibilities for some sort of trouble.

UNity packages have no way to track dependencies, so even if you're planning to create an "addon", cooperating with original author and making a new asset together would be a much better idea, because someone will definitely buy addon without purchasing base package first, get angry and leave negative review.

Speaking of which using data from original textures in any way, even indirectly most likely would be creating derived work.

That's why I recommend to obtain permission and cooperate.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the part 3.8 of the EULA refers to cases where you're using the work IN your project. Like, you can't make a game that exports original textures and models, since that would be distributing / transferring.

With my stuff, you would need their stuff to get it to work. I'd be providing a toolset that automates a lot of the tedious parts -- dragging and dropping materials etc -- and creates maps that don't exist at all (AO/Height etc) from any Diffuse/Normal map you put in.

That's basically what my main PBR Tools asset does. The flagship material accepts inputs -- like diffuse / normal -- and spits out new maps like Metal/Rough, AO & Height, so that the material can be PBR. Using a color ID (just made in photoshop), you can separate out "parts" and choose different metal/roughness values for each part. So a metal door handle can be metal, while the wood around it can be non-metal.

Nothing I'm doing can't be done with the PBR Tools which you can buy right now. The big change would be the tools that take away all the tedious work -- for a package like this, it'll take a while to do so, since it's not just one character or one map.

If all goes as planned, you'd still have to choose the settings you want, but otherwise you'd be able to export the new maps into a new material with a single click, and then replace old materials with the new ones with another single click (given that you follow the naming convention).

I may end up just including it all as a free bonus thing with the PBR Tools.

 

In a simple sense, the most basic description, I'm providing a substance material (.sbsar) that creates an AO/Height map from a user-defined normal map input, and creates a Metallic/Roughness map from users chosen values.

Users would be required to supply the normal map. And the maps they provide are not restricted to work from this one package.

(which is basally what the PBR Tools does now)

Then a few scripts would automate the process of exporting the maps and replacing one material in a scene with another. This is something PBR Tools doesn't do yet, but it would still be package-agnostic. They'd work regardless of what normal maps you put in, so they'd work on any project.

 

@sfbaystudios Okay, I think I misinterpreted your plan. If you are going to provide a set of tools or other automation that converts Manufactura's textures to fit PBS, that seems benign to me. I was under the impression you were planning to do that conversion on your own and then sell the resulting textures.

 

If you're providing a script for generating pbs materials, that would be PROBABLY fine (one could argue it is still derived work, if, for example, the script relies on original folder structure), although once again I wouldn't do that.

If your package includes texture output of your script, then it is definitely a "no", because it is certainly a derived work.

 

Correct -- it wouldn't have any textures from his package and would require actual work on the part of the user in order to get "new" maps. (Honestly, I don't think the resulting maps would fit the download size requirements of the asset store anyway )

I think perhaps to avoid confusion -- someone pointed out that some buyers may get it and not read the plethora of warnings saying you need the original -- I'd include it in the PBR Tools. The updates would be valuable there, and Color IDs I can simply provide as a free download from my own site. Rather than making a full package dedicated to one thing, I'll use that one thing as a case study showing what's possible with the PBR Tools.

 

Color ID map will probably qualify as derived work as well. If color id matches shapes present on original texture, then there's no way to create colorid map without access to original texture. So that most likely would also be a no.

I recommend to contact author of original package. You'll save yourself a headache this way.

 

Forget upgrading a specific package. Sell this as a generic tool that can upgrade any package.

 

Yeah, I agree with you now. I'm glad I asked -- the conversation made me realize two things. First, that I need to be extra clear that I'm not including any original part of the package in my own, but second that I should use this as a case study, rather than a stand alone package.

 

There are plenty of other examples of things like Playmaker and Giai where people sell an asset that completely depends on another asset...and I do not mean ´works well with´.. I mean, the second asset is completely worthless without the first asset. I do not see anything wrong with you selling textures and materials that are designed to work with another persons models.

Obviously do not include the original models in your pack, and I would also be weary of starting with any of the original textures to create yours.

PS. On a personal aside, I avoid that persons packs like the plaque since he has in many years now shown no interest in updating them or responding to customer support emails. I never purchased anything, but his facebook page and comments are littered with unhappy customers. For the pack you mentioned, I think people are much better off with 3d Forge´s Exterior pack who is constantly updating and adding to his pack and is a stellar member of the community and very active with customer feedback.