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

Hope so when is it online?

 

Trying to get it out asap, so far all thats left is finishing compression, a small bug and polishings and that should be it

 

Remastered verision? Release date?

 

Not as of now, there will be a beta soon but still working on it

 

So, an update - Added the new map management, optimized some systems, fixed some stuff, next is adding compression and then will submit and send it out! (should be tomorrow finally!)

 

OK when this patch gets live? Well I will rewrite some new features on different way like 2 prototypes per pixel max... I will rewrite it to 1 texture per 8 prototypes. And probably a wind map. If nevermind I would ask you for guidance assistance later where I can find things related to prototype density textures.

 

Very soon, as promised I hope to finish and submit it today. And yep you can do a lot with it, didn't want to change too much because remastered already has it all working

 

I understand, unfortunately we have Early access game and cannot wait months (or players would not wait). So I will take whatever is and have to make it fit

 

Absolutely, I understand That's why I am releasing this patch

 

Ok all done, I will go ahead and send the versions out today. Changes log:

1) You can now disable certain chunks so streamed terrains won't render grass.
2) Fixed lots of errors with the threading. (The "disappearing" grass for 1 frame issue, if you see any more of this let me know and I will push an hotfix!)
3) Added an option on the manager to disable "Color Maps". If you aren't using it it will remove all the color maps from the memory. On default its disabled and so if you want to use color maps make sure to enable it first.
4) Moved noise from individual density maps into the global height map
5) Removed per-prototype density map and switched to 1 map instead (HUGE memory difference)
6) Added the new map magic integration (I know it might still be broken but that's the best I can do with the current asset store version, the remastered has it working perfectly, but the way grass is rendered on the asset store version is wayy too different from the terrain grass and so all of those convertions sometimes look wrong)
7) Fixed issue with noise and optimized shaders

Next patch will come during this month (Seperated those two patches so the second one will also include fixes from this one) and it will include:

1) Presets support
2) More maps compressions (if this update won't help memory)
3) Asset bundle maps


and then the remastered will come in 2018, the beta will start soon, no exact date though.


Note that the new update still stores maps on the scene as its the best approach (other than asset bundles that will come in the next patch) and the memory usage has been changed drastically. For example, before lets say you have a 2km terrain with 10 prototypes.

Old approach:
2k x 2k = 4 manager instances. (3 maps, 1 color, 1 normal and 1 height map) = 3mb * 4 = 12mb
then 10 prototypes for each manager instance = 10mb * 4 = 40 mb
total = 52mb

New approach:
2k x 2k = 4 manager instances. (2maps, 1 color and 1 height map [On default, color mask is disabled so I will not include it as its mostly not needed and so its only 1 map]) = 1mb * 4 = 4mb

10 prototypes for each manager instance = 1mb (only 1 map) * 4 = 4mb

total= 8mb

So that means a 650% memory improvement!
That should have been implemented long ago and so I am really sorry that you had to wait for it!

Send me your invoice in a pm and I will send it over during today!
Elroy

 

Send my invoice via email.

 

Cool, going to send the version out in ~30 mins

 

Ok updates have been sent out and the asset has been submitted

 

2017.2, new project, only updated uNature installed. Empty scene, created Foilage Manager, but now when opening the Foliage Main Manager in the Hierarchy to manage chunks, Unity hangs for a good 5-10s, and will repeat these hangs so long as the Sector child gameobject is active.

Right when each hang ends, the console is spammed 999+ with this error:

Code (csharp):

1. Optimized GUI Block text buffer too large. Not appending further text.
2. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:processEvent(Int32, IntPtr)

 

Uhmmm haven't seen that before, will check it out today and come back with a fix!

 

Duplicated the above with the current version of uNature, step by step, and no issues.

 

So just tested the exact same steps and it works well for me... could you record a video by any chance?

 

A video isn't needed. Are you using the package you linked to me via email, or your internal code? And not that it likely matters, but are you on Windows or Mac OS? Unity 2017.2.0f3?

 

Using the same exact package on a new project, unity 2017.2.0f3 on Windows

 

Figured it out. I was trying to change chunk count in Sector child object from 1600 to only 4, which got rid of the hangs, but introduced a ton of other errors, so guess I'll have to leave 1596 chunks unused. How much memory do they take up, and if there's overhead to this wasted space, is there a way to make it work with less chunks?

 

There isnt really an overhead and the memory they take all together is literally just 1 mb so its not too bad

 

Hi ElroyUnity,

We are reproducing errors when grass disappear during a frame, makes it blinking effect. The build is 2.3 version from 28November.

 

Hey!
Could you please contact me privately with error logs? will have a new patch submitted this week with some more fixes, I want to include that too!

 

I'm testing the new 2.3 version and it looks like when importing from the Unity terrain uNature is only using one prototype. I've started a new project (2017.1.1f1) with just uNature to reproduce the issue.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the ForestDemoScene_Terrain scene
   
2. Apply the vegetation backup to the Unity terrain so we can add to it
   
3. Add a new prototype to the Unity terrain
4. Paint an area
5. Delete and Create a new vegetation backup
6. Copy Foliage
7. Only one of the two prototypes will appear on the terrain

However, you can paint on the terrain with the new prototype in the Foliage Manager. I use Gaia to create my foliage so this of course doesn't help me.

 

Good catch! got another report like that actually.
Will work on a fix tomorrow along with some other fixes and submit an hot fix!

 

After I copy foliage .. None of the grass will show.. it disappeaes... using Gaia too..

 

Yep! On it

 

I send the project in 30 min

 

Quick question about using the package with custom shaders. What exactly are the requirements? Only Instancing support?

I understand the touch bending and color map features would require more modifications to the custom shaders, but I'm mainly asking about getting the performance benefits

 

Hey -
There aren't really any requirements, there are a few steps you need to follow as the shaders run a lot/ most of the logic behind the grass. You don't need to have instancing support, its an option but not a must.

Its documented on the documentation and its a bit hard if the shader is super complicated but I am here to help if it gets to that.

 

Thanks for the reply, is there any chance I can view the documentation online?

 

Yes send me a pm will send it when home

 

Been away from uNature for a while, and I decided to try the new release. I use Unity 5.6.3f1.

It almost works, but as you can see, it will place grass on a flat surface at the edge of my terrain, even off the terrain, but it refuses to plant grass on the flat main portion of the test terrain? uNature will place grass "beneath" the main portion of the test terrain.

 

Yep bug was reported, seems like there are issues with the placement, being worked on and should be fixed and submitted this week!

 

Hey, I was evaluating unature and I have some questions.

The actual grass geometry seems to be massively heavy compared to native. I sampled similar grass densities and found that unature requires around 6x more tri than native. With dense grass in my use case, I'm pushing about a million tris worth of grass with unature, compared to around 200k with native.

The main advantage is that it doesn't rebuild the grass meshes in the same way, so those massive performance spikes are gone. But I don't know what to make of the package overall.

My scenes show lower FPS using unature compared to native, although it's seemingly more consistent (fewer spikes).

Any advice on how to streamline unature? Should I skip lod0 or something?

 

Hey!
This is mostly because in order to not have spikes uNature pre-creates the patches as large squares, thats why it has a bigger impact on the tris and verts count but they don't actually get rendered. It's still heavy to send that much information to the gpu though and thats already fixed in the Remastered version but its still away from being beta-material atm. I will see if I can implement that into a close release. But can't guarantee will keep you updated

 

Good morning,
I have jumped back into uNature after focussing on some other pieces for quite a while. I have a very large scene and use gaia. I have also noticed the same issue when bringing in existing foliage, is there any update on when the fix may be submitted or available?

Regards

 

What issue are you talking about?

 

Is this just for mesh grass (e.g., SpeedTree), or billboard grass as well?

 

The one back on 29/30 november about copy grass and only one prefab appears.

(Copy of the post/response below.)
↑
I'm testing the new 2.3 version and it looks like when importing from the Unity terrain uNature is only using one prototype. I've started a new project (2017.1.1f1) with just uNature to reproduce the issue.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the ForestDemoScene_Terrain scene
   
2. Apply the vegetation backup to the Unity terrain so we can add to it
   
3. Add a new prototype to the Unity terrain
4. Paint an area
5. Delete and Create a new vegetation backup
6. Copy Foliage
7. Only one of the two prototypes will appear on the terrain

However, you can paint on the terrain with the new prototype in the Foliage Manager. I use Gaia to create my foliage so this of course doesn't help me.
Click to expand...
Good catch! got another report like that actually.
Will work on a fix tomorrow along with some other fixes and submit an hot fix!

 

It's quite possible I am just getting confused with the process -Please point me in the right direction if I am wrong:

1. I have terrain etc with GAIA generated grass details
2. I setup uNature (using the quicksetup)
3. Check that the terrain has the uTerrain etc.
4. I hit copy Foliage

At this time it spins about doing it's thing and then the scene refreshes and has only the first detail asset visible and it is also in a rather uniform grid pattern (though guessing the second part might just be a setting I haven;t looked at yet)

 

Both

Uhmm interesting, will check! planning to release a version this weekend so I will include this fix

 

magnificent answer ;--) and have to say loving your fast responses considering the time differences (One reason i grabbed unature and uconstruct )

 

My pleasure Will keep you updated!

 

Does this work with low poly trees that are game objects?

 

No, only terrain trees as of now

 

Hello I have been working on a procedural planet and I'm looking for a system of grass and trees, Can this system generate grass in runtime fast? And can I remove grass that's far away instead of hiding it?

 

Yes and yes

 

Awesome thanks! One other thing, feature request. Would be very helpful for me and to anyone else working on procedural games. An auto placement of grass.
For example:

unature.Autoplace(Mesh, frequency, Scale, and other settings);

Then have it automatically place grass on the mesh according to the provided settings.

Not a big feature but would be that little bit more helpful to some people, such as myself
ps: Very fast support! Love it!

 

Hey,
Yea! thats a feature in Remastered, will keep you updated when the beta is starting