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[NEW PATCH] uNature - GPU, Interactable Grass. Interactable Trees, MultiThreading and more!

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by ElroyUnity, Apr 29, 2016.

?

Pre-release Integrations

Poll closed Nov 29, 2016.
  1. TerrainComposer2

    43.1%
  2. GAIA

    54.9%
  3. GENA

    49.0%
  4. World Creator

    13.7%
  5. World Streamer

    37.3%
  6. Map Magic

    27.5%
  7. Landscape Builder

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. SkyMaster ( Weather )

    7.8%
  9. InfiniGrass, AFS, DX11 (Integration will provide built-in shader support)

    33.3%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Flurgle

    Flurgle

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    Looking forward to this!
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  2. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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    Take your time. All you're doing is getting us more and more excited :D Keep up the good work
     
    Tinjaw and ElroyUnity like this.
  3. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thank you guys for your support and patience!!
    I will do my best to provide you guys the best tool that i can produce ;).
     
  4. docsavage

    docsavage

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    The industry is using buyers as beta testers. Help break the rot Elroy:)
     
  5. D3m0nProwl3r

    D3m0nProwl3r

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    Hi, i am eagerly awaiting the release of uNature(TMS2). I purchased uConstruct and TMS. i have had issues implementing TMS with MapMagic (a dynamic terrain system) where the trees generated by the AOI script are placed at an odd position (0 -999 0). I am hoping whatever may be causing this is possibly fixed in the newer versions.

    Is it possible to still get beta access? Or does the above post mean that in its current state it is not usable?
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  6. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Yes, the current TMS version (1.x) isnt very compatible with streaming terrains, uNature on the other hand is super compatible out of the box without any special programming.

    Currently the system is going over big changes in order to include that grass mechanic, when i finish with it i will have the asset published and in about ~2 days it will be out, i will keep in touch if i will need some testers that use Map Magic.


    Thanks!
    Elroi.
     
    D3m0nProwl3r, montyfi and docsavage like this.
  7. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Looking forward to it Elroy - and good call on delaying - i delayed the release of Gaia for months in order to deliver quality when it launched.
     
  8. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thanks Adam!

    Doing my best to not rush things and release the best asset i can :).


    i will also post some pics of the new grass system today, you guys are going to be super suprised!
     
  9. docsavage

    docsavage

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    :)
     
  10. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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    Just brought it Elroy, gonna jump right in! Keep it up!
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  11. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thanks!
    Doing some great progress every day!

    Almost done with the first beta on which i will get you guys many pics :).
     
  12. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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    @ElroyUnity Can we have the option to manually initialise the TreeManagerSystem (or it's replacement)? Also, sometimes (rarely) colliders are not placed: this is usually rectified a second later.
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  13. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Hey!
    This system is a replacement for TMS, you will also probably prefer to not use TMS as its kind of outdated :).

    Yes this is because of the old trees management mechanics, it is now fixed on uNature :).
     
    Stormy102 likes this.
  14. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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    Saw instant loading increase from not generating 200k+ tree colliders and using TMS on our 64 sqkm map :) Great job! Instant 5*. You seriously have a perfect niche here Elroy, loving this so far
     
    BackwoodsGaming and ElroyUnity like this.
  15. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thanks!
    Just wait and see what i got for you guys in uNature ;)

    Almost done with the first beta of the grass system, cant wait to send you guys some pics!
     
  16. Twoonebe

    Twoonebe

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    something news ElroyUnity :)
     
  17. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Still working on it, I am very busy lately with school so i am trying to put as much as time as i can on it :/

    I am trying to take it slow so i wont rush things and release something that is not ready :).
    I will try my best to keep you updated once i get it working well!
     
    Tinjaw and BackwoodsGaming like this.
  18. Twoonebe

    Twoonebe

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    okay i understand but have you more input screenshot or videos ? :) i look every day here in the forum :D
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  19. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    What i can show for now, which is from the VERY early version of the new grass system is this :

    Without uNature :
    https://i.gyazo.com/5ceefb687bcf3d89bb23ce155dda93fe.jpg

    With uNature :
    https://i.gyazo.com/cfe4c4582faf5d64699e5cabce21f9f4.jpg

    (From 241.3 to 1575.6 FPS)

    Please note that this is from an early version of the new grass system, there is no custom shaders support on that picture and also no density calculations so it looks very simple but as you can see the fps is very smooth and that is only a tiny chunk.

    I will try to post more pictures once i finish the core features but i want to keep most of the features a suprise ;)
     
  20. recon0303

    recon0303

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    I been testing frame rates for Unature on mobile Android, and its been running great... I normally can not have that much grass , and I was able to have the same amount that I do for Desktop.. and I was amused how well it ran,,,
     
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  21. malkere

    malkere

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    Heyo, I've been recommend to your earlier asset before, never got around to trying it yet though. Waiting for some kinks in TerrainComposer2 to be worked out I found here thanks to @recon0303 . Very interested in an ETA, it sounds like you're right on the edge of publishing? days? weeks? months? I know estimating is painful, please don't ask me to estimate the release date of my game XD but thought I'd ask =]
     
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  22. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thanks!
    Happy it works well for you ;)

    Haha,
    So far i can't give an accurate estimation, i am trying to give you guys the best product that i can, i hope to release it in 2 weeks as i am almost done with the finals and therefor i will have more time to work on uNature.

    But overall its progressing really well,
    so it wont take more than a month, i hope lol.
     
  23. recon0303

    recon0303

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    Its worth the wait:) Trust me.... I'm still so glad we got more grass and trees on our mobile game....It is so hard to do this now a days for mobile... Plus more features that Elroy can talk about or not, not sure what I can or can't say, but it will be worth it for mobile for sure..Desktop was great to. as I said.!

    So if I where you I WOULD buy Tree Manager, and wait it out for UNature... since I believe you get Unature if you own Tree Manager unless that changed??
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2016
    BackwoodsGaming and ElroyUnity like this.
  24. recon0303

    recon0303

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    Apr 20, 2014
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    I may be picking up Magic Map, for Slopes, and a few other things that I like better than other tools, but waiting to see what else TC2 adds before I do, but if I buy it which will be in the coming weeks, I would be happy to test... I know a few people that do own it though.
     
  25. riquid

    riquid

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    I am so excited for this asset that I'll be holding off on doing the terrain portion of my game until this comes out.
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  26. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Haha, i am happy you are excited for this man :).
    I am currently trying my best to get you all the best product possible while also getting it out rather fast :).

    I am almost at the stage where i can post lots of pictures of the asset, so cant wait to show it to you :)
     
    BackwoodsGaming and John-G like this.
  27. psistalk

    psistalk

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    Cant wait to see it :)
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  28. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thanks!

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

    Just want to let you guys know i am not dead :p, i know you are all waiting for a long time, its taking more than i expected as i am so busy lately, but its definitely coming out, i will not abandon it so its just a matter of time till its released, i am so close to giving out the first pre-release version to the testers and from there its a short time until i release on the asset store :).
     
    radimoto likes this.
  29. Hazor

    Hazor

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    Feb 5, 2013
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    Hey

    It's the price going to increase over current Trees Manager System ? :D
     
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  30. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Yes, the price of uNature will be raised to $40,
    Although there will be a discount for 1 week after the release, not sure how much though :).
     
  31. wood333

    wood333

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    I couldn't take the pressure of the impending price increase, so I purchased TMS today! ;)
     
  32. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thank you for your support!
    Appreciate it :).
     
    wood333 likes this.
  33. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    So guys a bit more teasing :).

    In this example i've put uNature up agaisnt Unity and i've had some really awesome results.

    [PLEASE NOTE : in this example i disabled ALL of uNature's optimizations methods as they arent ready yet, but, if i were to enable them it would have been A LOT faster:)].

    Unity's grass :
    https://gyazo.com/6ff7b2e9a39d0013bd6ce3ddfac7c6ca

    uNature's grass:
    https://gyazo.com/8f047eedceb1b6047a7605b81f0ce088


    Also gyazo increased the ms for some reason by 0.4 to the uNature pic, i will try to get some new pics later on with a different program



    But either way i am very happy with the results,
    I am going to try it out with some different shaders soon, like LAM's shaders, InfiniGrass's shader etc, to see how well it works.

    I will also be making integrations with many of the current terrain assets like LB, TC2, GAIA and more :).


    More teasers soon! :D
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016
    wood333, Marked, John-G and 1 other person like this.
  34. Quen

    Quen

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    Hi Elroy,
    great work so far, I am really looking forward to your release!
    Are you planning any support for RTP, or are there any compatibility issues known?

    Greetings and happy coding!
    Quen
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  35. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    uNature uses unity's terrain, so it should work out of the box :)
     
    Quen likes this.
  36. tanoshimi

    tanoshimi

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    What's the current ETA on the first public build of uNature? Currently exploring options for improving performance of dense grass on procedurally-generated terrain built with MapMagic, and was keen to investigate whether uNature would help....
     
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  37. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    At the moment i cant estimate tbh,
    I am getting an release candidate soon for my testers, but as of now i cant really tell as i am making sure that the system is super solid and fast, because thats what the system is all about haha :D.

    About Map magic, there's an hack that should get it to work but please don't count on that as its not an official integration.

    i will look at integrations before i release :).
     
    tanoshimi likes this.
  38. tanoshimi

    tanoshimi

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    Ah great, thanks for the response - we'll carry on working on our own system for now then.
     
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  39. JBT27

    JBT27

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    This looks pretty good. Just called in from the TerrainComposer2 forum where Nathaniel Doldersum mentioned it.
     
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  40. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Hey,
    Thank you for your kind words! :)
     
    JBT27 likes this.
  41. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    First beta for the new grass system is 90% done!

    The official release is very close! :)
     
    zeb33, Seneral, Fenris2 and 10 others like this.
  42. riquid

    riquid

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    *throws money at the screen*
     
  43. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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  44. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Hey Stormy,

    At the moment i have over 30 testers, and unfortunately i do not need more at the moment :/

    But the beta is supposed to start today/ tomorrow so hopefully the testers can get you guys some news and reviews on the system :)
     
  45. Stormy102

    Stormy102

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    :( My grass performance atm is sh!t and I need a workaround desperately, plus I'm getting some really weird and obscure NREs from TMS which I'm sure uNature will fix
     
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  46. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Sent you a private message regarding that, maybe, just maybe, i can get you in, but i doubt it :/
     
    Stormy102 likes this.
  47. Vikings2015

    Vikings2015

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    Just purchased TMS in anticipation of this too - good luck on the beta :)
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.
  48. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Thank you for your support!


    Also guys, while working on the grass system, i've been asked in the beta group whether the asset works well with other kind of grass-solutions and therefor i checked if it works well with LAM's grass shaders, which were quite heavy for me in my own projects, and here are the results with uNature :

    http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cDiuFGiEX2

    As you can see the performance arent so bad considering the shaders are quite heavy, also, wind-support is coming soon so dont worry about that (i have some cool stuff planned for it, so keep your eyes peeled) :).
     
  49. ElroyUnity

    ElroyUnity

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    Hey guys so, some more updates!


    Unity grass:


    uNature grass:



    As you can see, it looks exactly the same and there is an 4 ms increase!

    That is only the beginning, i am currently working on some more optimizations based on culling and more cool and awesome stuff, few days before the official release i will be posting the trello page which me and the testers are using so you guys can see the roadmap, but i can tell you now, amazing stuff are coming up!! (Especially exciting for you TC2 users [it can also be done without TC2 but TC2 has some really good tools for it] some AAA features are coming ;) ;))

    (also please note that this is a very huge chunk of grass, but thats just a demonstration of the current performance :))

    Elroi.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2016
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  50. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Would be nice if there weren't asset dependent features built in instead of building things that only work with certain tools. I doubt I'll ever be upgrading to TC2, but would be nice to still be able to get full support of uNature. I totally support uNature supporting all of the terrain generation systems but making features that are dependent on specific terrain systems is kind of rough to your long time supporters who aren't planning to use TC2... :(
     
    ElroyUnity likes this.