PlayWay Water - high quality water system

I'm helping everybody by e-mail, including many people having complaints above and I was active on this forum too earlier. You can't judge me just by this transitional period, that simply took longer than I expected.

Regarding the docs and samples for new features, I'm not sure, if I will manage to get there in a reasonable time. You will have a better chance to get this right with Moonlit as they have more resources than just me on my own.

 

I'm sorry, but that's all I can do. I can't actively support this asset anymore and I could either deprecate it and disappear like many other Asset Store devs in the past or pass it on to somebody else.

 

Zuzzu, you're awesome. Period, end of paragraph, end of story. Awesome!

This is hands down the best water asset out there. It's human nature to adopt a taken-for-granted attitude. You have been tremendously helpful to the Unity PlayWay Water community with your frequent (all things considered) updates and betas, including your numerous emails and communications. I'm sure most of us LOVE you bro', and we really appreciate all the hard work that's gone into this package.

So yeah, all of that to say this: screw the "pissed off" trolls and be comforted by the fact that you're very appreciated and completely understood by the mature among us.

Take care.

 

Zuzzu, your water asset is excellent, and you are certainly greatly appreciated.

In the immortal words of Taylor Swift, "Haters gonna hate... Shake it off."

 

I would like to share my find that I should have figured out way earlier, but a lot of the build errors can be solved by removing dx9 support. Context is unity 2017.1.1

 

Exploited? You dare use the word "exploited" towards your users, when you for years have promised a working Mac version? Shoreline foam has never worked on Mac, neither has water shadowing, shoreline wave damping, water volume removal, and lots of other features.

You simply abandoned the product after cashing in on promises which you never delivered. That we as paying customers should have to pay twice for features we've been promised at purchase time and then have waited for – for years – is simply a bit too rich. The fact that you are calling this "exploitation" speaks volumes.

 

You haven't reported that those features don't work on Mac in the latest versions. It's probably easy to fix and you would have this fixed even now, if you would have a different attitude.

I've stated many times that I own just a 2008 Macbook and I will do my best, but I will need reports from the users to make some features functional on Mac.

I had like 14 hour work day on average, including weekends, for 2 years. I'm sorry, I simply can't do that anymore and especially not your way.

Edit: Also, you have bought this asset and started posting requests without ever asking, if it works on Mac and you could get a refund at any point. Your claims that I've "cashed" on Mac support is ridiculous, especially considering that it's a pretty small market for gaming.

I did my best efforts - latest version has less than 10% of the first version code and you can check that for yourself. I consider this case closed.

 

It seems that it does not work with Single Pass Rendering enabled (used for VR)

Great asset by the way!

 

Contact me by e-mail, latest beta versions were rewritten with SPSR in mind.

 

Hey is there a way to get a different edge blend based on layers or something? Specifically I want it different for ships and land.

 

PlayWay Water 2.0b12 changelog:

• .NET Framework 4.6 compatibility.

It's not possible at this moment as layers aren't separable in the render buffers. I have something that would allow this (among other things) in production, but no ETA for now.

You can try to set some custom solution, edge blend is implemented in WaterLib.cginc in method BlendEdges and you can set custom textures (like a mask) on the water material by accessing Water.Materials.SurfaceMaterial.

 

Thank you @zuzzu for your continued work on supporting this asset and handling the transition to a maintainer who will be able to give time to it. It is greatly appreciated!

 

PlayWay Water 2.0b13 changelog:
- Fix: Errors that were appearing for unused shader variations in CollectLight shader.
- Fix: Script and shader warnings.
- Fix: SPSR wasn't detected properly in some circumstances. It should be always fine from now on.

It may take an hour for the new version to upload. Always be sure to manually reimport "PlayWay Water/Shaders" folder after update.

There are major issues with the water in Unity 2017.3 beta releases, so take that into consideration before updating. I'm investigating what's causing this - it's possibly a bug in Unity API method (DrawMesh) and everything may be sorted out by UT in the end.

I would like to fix the Mac issues that were mentioned by @PeterB among insults and speculations I've declared earlier that I'm going to release fixes for existing functionality and that includes Mac too.

I will appreciate, if somebody having Mac would send me the descriptions of the problems that are faced here in the latest beta versions and I will do my best to make fixes for them. I probably won't be able introduce Metal support, but I can fix whatever issues are there for OpenGL builds, if there are any.

 

I've got a new MPB with GPU; I'll give the latest build a "shakedown cruise"

 

I want to confirm if it is only me or this problem exists for everyone. The Unity Scene view will be affected by Game view under single pass.

I am using PlayWay Water 2.0b13 and Unity 2017.1.2f1

 

Additive volumes hasn't worked on this (2017 15" MBP with GPU) for a while - the waves animate in front, but there is a big pink plane hiding the rest of the scene. No errors in the console. Color is linear, sample scene is unmodified.

 

Thanks. Are you getting any errors in the console after reimporting the "PlayWay Water/Shaders" folder?

Scene view is a bit buggy in general right now. It was being reworked with each major Unity release - Unity 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 breaking my code all the time. It seems to be at its final state right now, so you can expect some fixes soon.

 

Again on 2017 MBP 15",

In the Galleon Scene:
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 0"
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 1"
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 2"
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 0"
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 1"
"TerrainData is missing splat texture 2"

 

I was notified that Ultimate Water System is now online on the Asset Store. Customers of PlayWay Water can upgrade for just 50 USD for the next 14 days.

All existing customers can count on my support, bug fixing and compatibility with new Unity versions, but all further development of new features is going to be made by Moonlit Games Studio with their Ultimate Water System. I strongly recommend to upgrade to everybody.

Links:

Ultimate Water System - Asset Store
Forum thread

 

We're wanting to try 'Single Pass Instanced' , with an existing project, in 2017.2. I'm unable to get Playway to work with this project updated to 2017.2, the water just doesn't show up (no matter which Stereo Rendering Method is used).

In a new empty 2017.2 project the sample scene "Particles Demo" works without problem, however in our updated project the water doesn't get rendered. I just can't figure out why.

I'm using the latest beta of playway.

 

That's possibly the same issue that I've seen in 2017.3 and mentioned above.

I will test 2017.2 very soon and get back to you.

 

It's caused by a bug in Unity 2017.2+ with enabled single pass stereo rendering.

I've submitted a bug report to UT with simple reproduction project. Let's hope that they will fix this soon as there is no workaround for this.

 

Thanks for the update!

 

Hi zuzzu.

The latest version has [RequireComponent(typeof(Rigidbody))] attached to waterphysics script. It broke my own solution where rigidbody was on the parent gameobject and waterphysics was attached to child object. I commented out the requrement so it would not add another rigidbody where i do not need it.

Is it ok to comment this out or have you changed something in the system where you absolutely need to have rigidbody and waterphysics on the same object? I mean could commenting out the requirement brake anything else in the system?

 

There wasn't any change in the asset of that kind and commenting this out won't have any negative consequences. I will remove that line too.

 

No, I did "right click on Shaders Folder > Reimport" and still no console errors.

 

Anyone find a solution to this?

 

That may be a culling bug.

Would you be able to send me a reproduction project?

 

@zuzzu I've been playing with and having some difficulty setting up water effects in a constrained area. When looking at the Additive Volumes demo with the latest PlayWay beta (2.0b13), it still renders the entire scene with water. It seems like the intent is that the water should only render within the "Volume" object in this scene. You can see the divider kind of working in the first screenshot.



There is an option to update the script on this demo scene to 2.0b13, but pressing the button doesn't appear to perform any results (second screenshot).

 

I've fixed that scene already and will upload an update next week.

I would like to take a look at that culling bug mentioned above, if somebody can reproduce it in a simple scene. My guess is that it must be some internal Unity bug as everything that is visible shouldn't be culled, but I have some ideas that are worth a try.

 

Replace UnityShaderVariables.cginc with builtin

 

Hi all, anyone know why playway has no textures in my build? Just a bright pink plane. It's working fine in the editor.

 

Zuzu, emailed you my invoice number as requested but not heard back, really need those betas!
Many thanks.

 

PlayWay Water 2.0b14:

- Additive volumes sample fixed.
- Neural network physics now have a slider for dampening torque.

Which e-mail?

 

Yes, what is the correct email for you, Zuzzu, now that Ultimate Games is named on Unity as the publisher for both UWS and Playway?

I need to request the beta.

 

PlayWay Water 2.0b15:

- Support for Unity 2017.3.0b8+.
- Unity 5.4 compatibility fix.

It will be uploaded in 10 minutes.

UG are passing PlayWay Water related e-mails to me, but you can reach me by private messaging system on this forum or my private e-mail from the doc (3rd page).

 

Mobile test result:
- deploying iOS build to iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 11.1:

Waves run at good frame rate (subjectively, don't have a debugger on it yet.)

Specular highlights off the waves look great

BUG: ocean color is black

Any diagnostic ideas?

 

What does your Xcode output say when running? I have the same problem and it appears that not all the shaders work on IOS.

 

I abandoned my plans to support mobile platforms after AQUAS appeared on the Asset Store. It's simpler and more suitable for such usage.

I can try to make some fixes for you though, it doesn't look that bad from the description.

1. Can you post some screenshots how it looks?
2. Any errors in the log?

 

Sorry so long to reply - I still have not reverted my project back and rebuilt (so slow on the mac)

It's easy to describe, though - ocean appears all black and all that's visible is the specular highlights on the wave. Which look great! Still planning to rebuild and look at xCode output.

 

I will continue to push updates after Christmas.

My responding to messages may be delayed a bit until then.

 

@zuzzu need assetstore update!! thanks!

 

Beta is still not ready and won't be uploaded to the Asset Store for the next few months.

Current Asset Store version should work fine, but doesn't support VR and other beta features. In case of running into some specific issues please report them here.

 

Announcement

PlayWay Water System was deprecated on the Asset Store and it's no longer possible to buy it. Beta version development and support will continue normally for the time being.

All future updates will be incorporated into Ultimate Water System developed by Moonlit and discounted upgrade path is still be possible.

 

Is there going to be special upgrade pricing to Ultimate Water System?

 

@zuzzu I requested access to the beta back on August 20th via PM here on Unity message system. I would still like access to the beta if possible and would also consider upgrade to Ultimate Water System.

Thanks

 

Upgrade was already available for 2 weeks for the second half of October, that promo is over as far as I know. Scroll up and find the bolded text.

 

@Obsurveyor zuzzu said above "discounted upgrade path is still be possible." so that's why I was asking. Hard to take advantage of something you find out after the fact I left a msg in the UWS thread.

 

PlayWay Water 2.0b16 changelog:

• NeuralNetworkPhysics had many important fixes and are no longer that much experimental.
• Spray will now work again on new Unity versions. There were some undocumented changes to append compute buffers that broke it.
• Motion vectors rendering is now supported for better compatibility with TAA and motion blur effects.
• There is a new property on water profiles called "Foam Threshold (Far)" that affects foam generation at large distances. Usually there seemed to be more foam when seen from afar than from upclose. This property should help to adjust that and further mask tiling, if it's visible for a certain profile.
• Minor performance improvements for shaders.
• All water sampling methods are now able to ignore waves below a specified threshold of size. It's sometimes not worth to include very small waves in the output as they produce unwanted noise, while skipping them may also improve performance a bit. This feature is currently exposed only by inspector of NeuralNetworkPhysics.
  
• Final Unity 5.4 compatibility fixes.
• Some minor fixes not really worth to be mentioned.

This version should be online in 30 minutes. Be sure to rebuild shaders of your shader sets after importing it into a project.

 

Sounds great!

Please note that 3 links in the first post are down, and the asset store link points to the deprecated version

Can't wait to touch with hands the new version - hopefully available as an upgrade for previous customers!