Nature Renderer: Better terrain detail rendering ✅ PBR ✅ Custom Shaders ✅ Shadows ✅ Wind ✅ SRP

Are trees supposed to be handled by NatureRenderer as well? It seems unclear. The asset store description mentions it but it's not really in the docs.

If I disable trees on my Terrain, they do disappear, so I assume NR doesn't handle them. Is it planned to do so? That would be another great performance increase.

With the latest update, I have stopped receiving the "ArgumentOutOfRange" exception, but the missing grass patches still occur. It seemed to be fine when I used the built-in package manager to update, but when the asset store released it seems to have reverted.

 

Yep. Procedural instancing is enabled. Perhaps it's issues with my URP settings - because the default Unity terrain grass is substantially faster as well. At least according to the asset description:

Nature Renderer replaces Unity's default Terrain Detail Rendering system and works with your existing data. Use the same grass, vegetation, and trees and keep your existing terrains. We just render it better and faster.​

 

The main cause of the framerate drop here is most likely the impact of the shaders. The amount of grass in the scene is not very large, so the performance improvement of instancing vs default Unity is not very large. (Unity will take about 1 ms or so and Nature Renderer about 0.4 ms. The difference is not very noticeable in the framerate).

However, Nature Renderer uses much more complex shading compared to Unity's default grass. Unity renders the grass with a vertex-lit shader with only a diffuse texture. While Nature Renderer uses full PBR rendering with more complex wind and translucency. I have some changes planned for a future update to make it possible to disable some of these additional shading features if you don't need them.

Furthermore, since the perspective of you game is from the top, a very large part of your screen is covered with grass. Shading performance is directly impacted by the amount of pixels drawn to the screen, so covering a large part of the screen has quite a large impact on performance. This is even more noticeable because of the shadows, which requires every object to be drawn multiple times.

You can use a different shader for your grass to get better performance if you don't need the shading features (or wait a bit until I have added the possibility to disable shading features).

 

At the moment, trees are not rendered using Nature Renderer and only benefit with the better shaders and wind that come with Nature Renderer. I am working on an update to add full Procedural Instancing support for trees. So it will be added soon (later this month or next month).

I looked more into the error and found some issues with the internal index calculations. They didn't throw an exception anymore but could still end up with wrong values, causing the grass to not render. It should be fixed in the latest build which will be available in a few days. I'll send you a download link to the latest preview build so that you can check if it fixes the issue for you.

 

Is it possible to modify the shaders to support GPU instanced indirect? I am trying to use your grass and trees with Vegetation Studio Pro. GPU instanced works but not instanced indirect.

 

Yes, that is possible. You can follow the documentation from Vegetation Studio regarding custom shaders for that.

 

Nature Renderer version 1.3.2 is now available through the built-in updater and will be on the Asset Store within the next few days. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download the new version.

This version is a small patch that fixes a few errors that were reported.

Fixed:

• Fixed IndexOutOfRangeException on non-square terrains. This could cause terrain details to not render. Either on the entire terrain or on some parts.
• Fixed IndexOutOfRangeException when resizing terrain.
• Fixed issue where terrain details would not render when changing the shader of the detail’s material.
• Fixed placement of terrain details on the edge of the terrain.

 

Is it possible to use Indirect instancing with VR Single Pass Instanced mode? Just tried new update, but unfortunately with Procedural mode vegetation often blinks or displays only on one eye.

 

I'm having some trouble with the point light, it doesn't affect the grass at all.

This is an example in the demo scene with the errors I get, I also have similar problem if I convert the vegetation to TVE's shader. In play mode all the vegetation appear in purple right on my camera, I'm not looking to solve this TVE here but maybe the additional information can help.

Note that this is on standard RP, with Unity 2019.4.0f1

 

Thank you for reporting this. I just published a new version of Nature Shaders that should fix this issue (version 0.6.1). You can go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

 

Nature Shaders version 0.6.1 is now available through the built-in package manager. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it. Nature Shaders is a sub-package that contains all the shaders used by Nature Renderer and Open World Nature Kit.

This update fixes the following two errors:

• Fixed shader error undeclared identifier “UNITY_TRANSFER_LIGHTING”
• Point and Spot lights now work correctly when using Procedural Instancing with Nature Renderer.

The shader error undeclared identifier “UNITY_TRANSFER_LIGHTING” has been an issue for quite some time. We have received confirmation from Unity that this is a bug. Luckily, I was able to find a workaround and it is now fixed.

 

I'll look into it to see if it can be fully supported and get back to you (it should be possible).

 

Thank you !

 

A question, perhaps absurd.

Can this asset be used to replace Vegetation Studio Pro?

I ask this because VS has not been updating for a long time and I have noticed a great loss of performance. So I am thinking of changing it for any other. I have seen that NATURE RENDERER is more updated.

Will it help me increase the performance that VS offers or are they two products with different objectives?

Thank you.

 

I would say of its only for the rendering you can use nr instead of vs

 

Yes and no. VS does both rendering and placement of detail objects/vegetation. Nature Renderer can replace the rendering and you will probably get a performance boost, but it is not a placement tool. You can export the placement data of VS (if this is possible in VS) and then use Nature Renderer for the rendering. Or you can redo the placement of your vegetation with either Unity's tools, or a tool like Gaia.

 

The tool of placement vegetation is not important to me. But performance and, above all, updates of products to new technologies are very important.
Thank you very much. I will buy your product.

 

Hi, I have noticed the LODs do not transition very nicely. I am using your prefabs with Vegetation Studio Pro, is this an issue of compatibility or just how the shaders are set to work? I tried to enable Cross Fading on the LOD Group component but it doesn't do anything.

 

[QUOTE="The shader error undeclared identifier “UNITY_TRANSFER_LIGHTING” has been an issue for quite some time. We have received confirmation from Unity that this is a bug. Luckily, I was able to find a workaround and it is now fixed.[/QUOTE]

FYI see
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...347.1111395441.1594228350-79166560.1593710572

 

Which prefab(s) in specific are you using? The trees should all support LOD fading. For the grass, LOD Fading is disabled by default. You can add support for it to the shader if you need it.

 

FYI see
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...347.1111395441.1594228350-79166560.1593710572[/QUOTE]
Thanks for linking this. It is the bug report that we sent to Unity
They said that they will back-port the fix for the latest Unity 2019.4 version.

 

Hmm, I'd guess it's an issue with VSP, probably due to the fact that instancing is being used rather than the trees actually being instantiated as game objects (with LODGroup component).

 

Most likely. I am not sure if Vegetation Studio supports full LOD Fading. LOD Fading has to be calculated by the rendering system, and is not handled by the shaders. VS most likely does not compute full LOD Fading values and only does a simple swap of the active LOD. You can contact the developer of VS to ask about LOD Fading support in VS.

 

Am not sure what I am doing differently here, but I'm getting different results with the same settings. Am using Gaia and created a clean environment, applied textures etc and finally a 2d texture for grass. Then added NR component. A few tweaks of colour settings and I got the grass I was after. Result:



I then went into the game project and did the same things but am ending up with a transparent grass:



If I turn off NR it just turns the texture into the normal applied grass on the terrain - as though I painted it on. As soon as I turn NR on, it becomes this transparent type texture. From a distance it looks better, but still noticeably transparent. Any thoughts on what I might be missing here?

 

It looks like the shader has a compile error. Can you check the shaders/shader graphs if there are any errors? The shaders are located in Assets/Visual Design Cafe/Nature Shaders/Standard (Or Universal/HD if you are using a render pipeline). You can see the errors by selecting a shader and checking the inspector.
If there is an error regarding missing files/file could not be found then going to Assets/Reimport All should usually fix it.

 

Thanks! I'll check that out when I get a chance.

*UPDATE - Yep - looks like it was some sort of compile error. I just reimported Nature Renderer and everything is working. Thanks!

 

Version 1.3.3 of Nature Renderer is now available through the built-in updater.
You can go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

This update contains a few shader fixes and changes:

New:

• Added Double-Sided Normal Mode field to HDRP material inspector.

Fixed:

• Fixed incorrect fade calculation for vegetation in the distance, causing incorrect size or invisible objects.
• Fixed MissingMethodException in translucency section of material editor for HDRP 7.4.1.
• Fixed implicit truncations in shaders.
• Fixed incorrect ambient wind calculation.
• Fixed shader compile errors for PS4.

Changed:

• Reduce Density in Distance properties are now public in the Nature Renderer class and can be changed at runtime.
• Translucency calculations are now completely disabled if the strength is set to 0. (Standard and Universal Render Pipeline)

 

Is Procedural instancing supported on Mac? It does not show the grass when I turn it on in the Unity editor

 

Hey
enjoying the trial (thanks for making one for evaluation!)
Unfortunately, I have the same issue when Procedural Instancing on mac and build
(Trial v1.3.3.48)
URP

 

It is but Unity's implementation of instancing on a Mac is not very good, so it tends to have performance issues. It should render though. I'll look into it to verify that it works with the latest version and get back to you.

(@dead_pixel_society ↑)

 

I have found the cause and fixed the issue on Mac. The fix will be included in the next update around the end of this week. The cause was a limitation on some devices (GPU) on the amount of compute buffers that can be used simultaneously. Nature Renderer was using too many compute buffers at the same time and Unity silently ignored the rendering altogether without showing any errors.

 

Nature Renderer version 1.3.4 is now available through the built-in package manager and will be on the Asset Store within the next few days. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

This update is mainly bug fixes, stability improvements, and (much) better performance for shadows and shaders.

New:

• Shadow distance can now be set separately for detail objects.
• Support for VR Single Pass Instanced. (@bartek0403 )
• Validated Nature Renderer for Unity 2020.1
• Backface culling can now be enabled/disabled per material
• Translucency can now be calculated per-vertex instead of per-pixel to improve performance.
• Alpha Clipping can now be enabled/disabled per material.

Fixed:

• Fixed issue where object rotation would be incorrect on slopes.
• Fixed incorrect cast in shaders, causing compile errors on some platforms.
• Fixed issue where terrain details would not render after modifying a shader graph.
• Fixed InvalidOperationException when restarting Nature Renderer.
• Fixed issue where details would render incorrectly if there are two duplicate prefabs with a different culling distance.
• Fixed issue where Procedural Instancing would not work on Mac. (@Lars-Steenhoff , @dead_pixel_society )

Changed:

• Improved performance of shadow rendering.
• Improved material conversion when changing shaders.
• Improved shader performance.
• Normal Mapping in shader is now disabled if no normal map is set.
• Glossiness, Metallic, and Occlusion are now disabled if no texture is set.

 

Following this last update, I am getting random flickering across the grass - it's like it disappears and reappears quickly and this action flicks across the terrain randomly (consistent timing but random instances of the grass). Have re-imported the asset and it hasn't made a change.

I have noticed this stops when I turn off Procedural Instancing.

 

Can you let me know which version of Unity you are using and which render pipeline? Then I'll look into it. It sounds like there might be NaN calculation in the shader. If possible, could you record a short video of the issue and send it either here or to support@visualdesigncafe.com? It will help to quickly identify and fix the issue.

 

Built in render pipeline and 2019.4.2f1. I'll see if I can get a video going.

Update - Have emailed a link to the video.

 

Hi,

very cool asset. I'm facing one small issue with Terrain-Details, without Nature-Renderer my grass receives light from the lightprobes, with Nature-Renderer enabled, it is only receiving light from the Sky. So basically it has the same light everywhere no matter if there is a shadow or not. But with the Terrain-Trees it's working perfectly.

I also tried the Grass shader from the asset, maybe I'm using it wrong or is this not yet implemented?


Thanks

 

Hey just a quick question for anyone who can answer. I'm having an issue with the detail meshes on my terrains. I have one grass detail mesh that I use across all of my terrains and instead of just keeping the one detail mesh in the list of selections for the terrain, it keeps adding new instances of it. So I'll have 15 -20 different instances of the same detail mesh on any given terrain.

If I clear them out so I have just one, then Iose the grass that was apparently part of one of the 20 detail meshes. I believe unity is doing this when I cross over from one terrain to another and it is adding the detail mesh across terrains, even though it's still the same detail mesh that is being used on all terrains.

Does anyone know how to prevent this? Maybe a setting I need to change or something I'm doing wrong.

 

Dear @Visual-Design-Cafe,

I have two questions:

1. Using Own Tree Meshes
We want to use our own models for trees but using your shaders (mainly for the wind), do you have: - Any automatic way to calculate the required vertex colors? If yes what are the requirements for it? We understand from the documentation that it does "Assign a material with either the grass or vegetation shader to your model in the model's import settings and the vertex colors will be calculated for you (you might have to reimport the model)." But is it also intended for trees?

2. Spherical Wind Zone
Do the nature shaders support wind from a spherical wind zone? We couldn't get it to work properly. The shaders were still only taking into account the direction of the wind zone even though it was set to Spherical.

Thank you so much in advance!
Best,
Remus

 

Thanks. I am looking into it. Hopefully I'll have a fix for you soon.

 

Unity does not support sampling light probes for instanced objects, so it is not possible at the moment. I am looking into it to see if it is possible to sample the terrain's lightmap for lighting information (for a future update).

 

I recommend to submit this as a bug to Unity. It looks like this is incorrect behavior from the terrain system.

 

The trees use the same vertex data as Unity's Tree Creator. If the trees were created using tree creator then they should work. Otherwise, there is currently no method to automatically bake this data. The data is too complex to calculate and depends on the geometry of the tree, so it is not possible to do this for just any tree. I recommend to use the "Vertex" wind method if you can't bake any data for your trees. It will use a rough approximation that works for most trees.

Spherical wind zones are not supported at the moment. I am looking into the possibility to add full wind simulation to the shaders with support for non-directional wind zones, but it is still in research phase with no specific timeline.

 

Nature Shaders version 0.7.1 is now available through our built-in package manager. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

This update contains fixes and requests for the shaders that were reported.

New:

• It is now possible to disable specular highlights for materials in URP.
• It is now possible to disable environment reflections for materials in URP.
  (Disabling specular highlights and environment reflections is coming for the built-in render pipeline as well. There is currently an internal bug in Unity's shader compiler that is preventing this feature from being added. I will report the bug to Unity and hopefully resolve this as soon as possible.)

Fixed:

• Fixed issue where object placement, rotation, and wind movement would be incorrect and glitching when using Nature Shaders without procedural instancing.
• Fixed an issue where ambient occlusion remap values and glossiness remap values would be incorrect when changing a material’s shader from Standard or URP/Lit to Nature Shaders.
• Fixed an issue where Unity could be stuck in an infinite import loop when creating a new material or saving a material.
• Fixed an issue where wind calculations could result in NaN for vertices with downward facing normals.
• Fixed incorrect normal calculation when calculating the wind direction for a vertex.

Changed:

• Removed shader keywords for unused shader features to improve compile times.

 

Nature Renderer version 1.3.5 is now available through the built-in package manager and will be available on the Asset Store within the next few days. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

This version only contains a single (important) fix for object alignment:

Fixed:

• Fixed incorrect alignment of detail objects, causing objects to be oriented in the wrong direction.

Changed:

• Updated embedded Nature Shaders package to version 0.7.1

 

A quick notice: I have identified some culling issues (mainly when using LOD Groups with objects that do not use Nature Shaders). And also some strange import errors. They are fixed now and I'll publish a new version within the next few days.

 

Nature Renderer version 1.3.6 is now available through our built-in package manager and will be on the Asset Store within the next few days. Go to Help > Nature Renderer > Check for Updates to download it.

Fixed:

• Fixed NullReferenceException when adding Nature Renderer component to a new terrain.
• Fixed incorrect fading of objects that use Nature Shaders when Procedural Instancing is disabled.
• Fixed culling issues, mainly when using a LOD Group on objects that do not use Nature Shaders.
• Fixed build issue when building for Apple TV.
• Fixed issue where terrain details would render to preview images of prefabs.
• Fixed memory leak when changing scenes or deleting cameras.

Changed:

• It is now possible to release the unused memory in the internal memory pool by calling VisualDesignCafe.Pooling.ArrayPool.Shared.ReleaseUnused(). This can be used to optimize memory usage when switching scenes.

 

Hi there!

I'm trying to set up a very basic custom grass mesh (just cross squares). I followed the instructions in order to set up the vertex colors on the mesh (RBBA). I have some global wind on the terrain but for some reason the grass doesn't move at all.... which is kind of a bummer.

First, does the shader make the grass move when not in play mode inside the editor? some leaf material / shader do that sometimes which pretty nice to have some real time feed back on how the wind affect the model.

Second, any idea what I'm missing to make that model uses the wind from the terrain? a hint on how to solve this would be great.

Thanks for your time.

 

Yes, the grass moves in edit-mode. (Make sure that animated materials are enabled in the scene view, so that it continuously updates)

You can try the following to find out what the problem is:

1. Add our demo grass to the scene to ensure that the wind is working correctly in the scene.
2. Select your custom object and set the Wind Control method in the material editor to Vertex. This will ignore all vertex colors and baked data and just calculate an approximation based on the vertex positions. If this also does not give you wind then the wind or mesh is broken. If the wind works with the method set to Vertex then the issue is with your vertex colors.
3. Ensure that the Wind Strength and Wind Turbulence in the material are both set to 1.
4. Make sure that your mesh is correctly aligned for Unity (Y-up), with the Y position of the vertices at the bottom of the mesh at 0, and the top of your mesh somewhere above 0 (and pivot at 0,0,0).
   If you have a material with Nature Shaders set for your model in the model's import settings, then the height of the object will be baked into the vertex alpha channel automatically. With the wrong orientation this result might be incorrect.
5. Set all your vertex colors to white and check if your mesh moves with the wind. (White vertex colors should always work). If it does then you can add back your vertex colors, one channel at a time.
   The most common usage of vertex colors is: Red: 1, Green: any value from 0 to 1, Blue: 1, Alpha: gradient from bottom (0) to top (1).

 

Ok, thanks for the detailed explanation. My bottom vertices were below zero slightly to make sure the grass was well planted. That might be the issue. Will give this a go and report back when I get a chance.
Thanks again.

 

so, I tried to fix my mesh, fix the vertex color etc... no luck.
tried to set up one of your own grass, no luck...
I noticed that i didn't have any wind zone (duh!) and still... no luck... Not sure what's up on my end. gonna try a blank new scene with just terrain wind zone a your grass