Post Liner Pro (and Post Liner Free)

https://reachablegames.com/unity-assets-postliner/

Now Available: Post Liner Pro/Free is a Post Effects Stack v2 extension outline effect that works on any kind of renderer. Lots of features, great performance, and most of all... inexpensively set to the minimum price on the store.

I'm still writing documentation for it, but in the meantime, here's a teaser image:

 

Docs are done, packages are uploaded. Depending on how long it takes for the Store admins to get through evaluating the package, it shouldn't be long now. It's the first time I've offered a free version of something, so I hope it encourages folks to check it out... kind of try before you buy, if buying is something that makes sense.

Out of curiosity, do any of you try Free versions of things, or do you just assume they're junk?

 

Good question - personally I think they can be a great way of figuring out whether an asset fits into a project/workflow/whatever. If I like the free version, chances are I'll get the one with a price tag too, even if it's just for the sake of encouraing further development/support.

By the way: I can't find any info on the free version that a pro version exists (and vice versa) - or what the differences between the two are.

 

I (and the other asset developers) definitely appreciate that attitude. Post Liner Free and Post Liner Pro just went live this morning. Still some kinks to work out, like cross-promoting them. Thanks for pointing that out!

If you pull down the Free version, there's a PDF with details on what is different between it and Pro. Or, if you check out the website https://reachablegames.com/unity-assets-postliner/ there's a PDF linked there, in case you don't want to download the asset to check it out.

There've been a couple of requests already, so likely a slightly updated version will come out in a couple of weeks with more features, after I've had a chance to implement and run it through the store team.

 

Beyond basic decency, it's also the logical choice from a business perspective. Good assets can be incredible time savers. Most are seriously underpriced, judging by the time they can save you - especially if they are well supported. If buying the pro version means that the asset devs are more likely to keep on doing what they do, it seems like money well spent.

Realistically, I doubt people download assets to check out a PDF, I frankly wouldn't even have considered that as a possibility I'd personally look for a sentence or so, along with a link to a more detailed description, but that's just me.

I also saw that you plan to support HDRP: Looking forward to that, but currently it appears that PP v3 (which is built into HDRP, v2 doesn't work) does not yet support extensions.

 

Thanks for the responses. Yes, most assets are underpriced given the time and talent it takes to make them. And, pricing software is hard, given Unity can be used without paying it kinda sets the expectations low since the value per dollar is high.

I'll take a pass over the text and add some useful links and images in the Free version so it's more clear what you can upgrade to without having to download the free version. Great suggestion. I was focused on just getting them out there without bugs initially.

My projects are still stuck in native renderer, so I haven't played with HDRP or SRP in general. Integrating with the PPS is pretty easy with v2. I expect it will be for v3 as well, once it's ready.

 

Today v1.1 of both the Free and Pro versions of Post Liner went up on the asset store!

In this version, you'll find some small fixes for objects that were actively in the outline list but the object gets destroyed (shot/killed/etc). It used to throw errors, so I pull null transforms out of the list automatically now. Oops!

While I was in there, I cleaned up the docs a little and changed the primary folder name to be PostLinerPro and PostLinerFree instead of just PostLiner for both packages. This obviously would cause problems for people upgrading, and that's not a very good experience right off the bat. So, if you do grab the new version, be aware of that folder change and make sure you don't end up with two copies of the project. I honestly don't know how well the asset store package manager handles this... but I wanted to get my end of it fixed before it affects too many more folks. Apologies in advance for any trouble.

Have a great day!

 

Hello, does this works in VR?

 

I don't have a VR rig to test it, and have never set up a VR project so I can't say how well it works first-hand. I would expect it probably only has the depth values from one camera. But if the post fx stack renders twice, it will outline the same pixels on both cameras, most likely, as it's a 2d screenspace effect. If you sent me a sample scene setup the way you need it, I could see how something like that might work.

Alternatively, you could try the free version in the meantime and see for yourself?

Thanks for asking!

 

Hi, your tool seems really promising,
I was wondering if there's any way to tweak the outline's visuals, for example animating it or overlaying a screenspace texture to it. (Speaking from an artist perspective, no shader-coding skills)

Thanks

 

Thanks for the kind words. Depending on what you're trying to do... maybe. It already is a post processing effect that is done in screen space, based on the depth and normals found in the scene and the objects (it handles outline multiple objects in one pass). Animating it in screen space is certainly possible with some tweaking of the shader, but doing so on a per-object basis is not, because that information is already gone by the time the effect runs in screen space. Using it as a mask for another texture would be pretty straightforward too, and animating the underlying texture would be pretty straightforward.

So if you have a shader wizard engineer on your project, yeah, it'd be pretty simple to extend that way.

Cheers!

 

Thanks jhugues,
I'll ask my programmer friends for help
Cheers

 

Do you have Unity 2017.4 version?

 

It should certainly work in Unity 2017.4, but the wrinkle is you have to download the post effects stack v2 manually, as the package manager handles that in 2018.x. Due to the support requirements for less technical folks, I decided not to pursue that far back.

But if you are suitably motivated, you can download Post Liner Free in an updated install of Unity and move the folder over to your project. As I said, it should work, assuming PPSv2 is there.

 

I have the error:
.......... \PostLinerFree\PostLinerFree.cs(16,39): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'PostProcessEffectSettings' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

 

Hi @avonamal658,

Post Liner Pro (and Free) integrate with the Post Effects Stack v2, which is a free package for camera effects that Unity created. If you follow the simple directions in the PDF, it tells you how to install it.

Thanks!

 

Thank your this asset @jhughes2112 !

We have some problems with free version, and I want to clarify before moving on to pro version

1. If camera with PostLinerRenderer was destroyed and then re-created, the PostLinerOutline scripts will not re-register themselves at all. This is a problem for all die + respawn scenarios

2. We have some problems with shadows below outlined objects - they flicker on/off very rapidly, unfortunately I wasn't able to figure why or how

 

Hi!

Definitely make sure it works for you before buying the Pro version. That's why I put it out there as a Free asset.

1. How are you doing the respawning in a way that the script doesn't re-register itself? It sounds like you fully Destroy the gameObject then create a completely new one when respawning. All that PostLinerOutline.cs does is register the object when OnEnable() is called, so as long as the script is active when the object is created, it should register just fine. That's literally its only job. But if you find for some reason your spawning method doesn't work right with it, you can certainly change how it registers/unregisters. There's nothing special about how PostLinerOutline works. Just make sure you call

PostLinerRenderer.Instance.AddToOutlines(gameObject.transform)

somehow.

2. I have seen the shadow flickering when the object layers aren't set up properly. I would suggest you do the walkthrough described in the documentation on page 7. Let me know if that doesn't clear things up for you.

Good luck!

JH

 

Oh, sorry, I just realized you said if the camera is destroyed, the registration fails. Yes, the camera has the PostLinerRenderer script, and that's what holds the set of outline objects. If that is gone, it's a null pointer dereference. Once you create a camera with that script on it again, the null dereferences will go away.

It's unusual to delete cameras, in my experience at least. Usually, I just disable the root GameObject, then when I need it again, enable it again. You can obviously do what you want.

All it would take to allow your camera to be destroyed is add a null check in the PostLinerOutline.cs in a couple of places where it assumes that PostLinerRenderer.Instance is not null. The problem with that is, anything that tries to register itself as outlined while the camera is deleted will not know to register itself later if the camera is respawned. That's why I don't delete cameras.

 

Heya! Great looking asset, really interested in a purchase if it suits my needs. Say, I couldn't find this information from the documentation - can it do a fill color *only* for the parts of the object that are occluded?
Meaning, fill color wouldn't change the object's color at all when in sight? The fill color on some assets work so that it tints the color of the object at all times, which would not work for me. I guess this could be called a "Transparent visible"-color that I need

Furthermore, I'd need the outlining to happen only on mouse-over - do you feel it could be done relatively easily with OnMouseOver/Exit-calls around the code?

 

Yep, it's set up to let you control the hidden and visible colors independently (or alpha them out). And specifically is useful when doing mouse overs, which is why I wrote it in the first place. Just be aware it's for Post Processing Stack v2 on the legacy graphics pipe.