[Released] Advanced Terrain Grass

I mean is there an asset that you know of that uses screen space rendering for grass, similar as there are assets that do screenspace shadows, I thought maybe there is something for grass with this technique, to allow further draw distances

 

very special question: leading you to another asset...
but volumegrass by tom used to offer something like screen space grass.

 

Yea sorry, I just was curious about this technique, Just bought your grass pack by the way!

most of the grass shaders I found were using geometry shaders and this does not work on mac or ios with metal, so therefore was interested to find out there are other ways.

 

When using deferred on metal I get pink colors on the grass.
Any idea what the reason can be?


EDIT:

I had to read the manual: Now it's all good

1. Deferred Rendering
   
   In order to implement deferred translucent lighting and physically inspired specular reflections ATG ships with its own deferred light and deferred reflection shaders.
   
   Edit -> Project Settings -> Graphics:
   
   
   • ● Under the Built-in shader settings change Deferred to c ustom, then assign the ATG_Internal-DeferredShading shader.
     
     
   • ● Also change Deferred Reflections to C ustom and assign the ATG_Internal-DeferredReflections shader.
     

 

Everything looks really nice

 

Version 1.21 is available:
# Single Pass Instanced rendering fixed (URP).
# Grass shader (URP): Shadow caster threshold added.

 

hi, is it possible to paint grass over a mesh?

 

atg only handles grass painted using a unity terrain.
you may however assign the atg shaders to manually placed objects which then would be rendered using the regular rendering pipeline und GPU instancing: ok if you only have a "few" instances here and there you need full control over, but you can not add 100.000 manually placed instances: just imagine the amount of data and the size of your scene.

if you have a mesh based terrain you can render a height map from it and assign this height map to a unity terrain. you can disable the rendering of the terrain itself so only the grass gets rendered.

 

Hey, after importing asset into a clear project a get those.


I am working on 2019.2.17f1 Personal. Is this something to be worried about?
#pragma shader_feature _SPECULARHIGHLIGHTS_OFF is uncommented in Grass_InstanceIndirect_Base.shader

 

just ignore it.

 

after tweaking the custom random function the urp version runs smoothly on a google pixel (1).
grass casts shadows and is tinted red to increase visibility...

 

ATG for URP and touchbending or grass displacement - finally
although it is just a first wip.

 

I thought it was already working on URP?

 

yes, but not with the atg grass shader. only the LWRP/UP Essential grass shader have been supported so far.

 

version 1.22 is available.

# Grass Manager Script: Android bug in custom random function fixed.
# URP Grass Shader: Touch bending added, culling option exposed, ambient reflection strength added.
# URP Grass Shader: Support for main bending in alpha or blue added. This lets you use grass models authored for Lux LWRP Essentials, Vegetation Studio (Pro) and grass models from Naturemanufacturer.
# Saved Terrain Data: [PreferBinarySerialization] added.

 

I use your shader here

 

nice! although i do not see much of the shader but vs all over the place

 

What’s the recommended approach for URP and the grass bending feature? Do I put my ATG prefabs on their own layer named “vegetation”, then create a “grass renderer data” forward tenderer asset and set the layer mask on that to the “vegetation” layer and add the grass displacement render feature to it?
Or is there no advantage to that? In which case do I simply add all of my game’s features to the one forward renderer asset?

 

Actually I’m seeing that grass manager can push the details to a layer so could skip setting prefabs individually I suppose?

 

All those grass&foliage are ATG shader. Although I use Unity standard pipeline

 

no, you do not need an extra layer.
the grass displacement render feature only renders objects using the provided shaders (used by the particle systems and displacement quads in the demo). enable debug to see the created render texture (which needs the debug script on the camera like in the demo).
then this render texture get send to the grass shader which will displace the grass accordingly.
so the grass displacement render feature renders the displacers only – not the grass.

 

Cool. Makes sense. Cheers Lars.

 

I’ve just split my 8192x8192 terrain into 1024x1024 terrains. What would the recommended terrain settings be for terrain density, etc.

I’ve got those terrains set up identically but for about half a dozen of the 64 terrains, the grass manager component’s GUI appears corrupted. Any ideas what could be causing that?

 

unless you actually stream in the terrain data – i would keep the 8k terrain...

no, sorry. how do the inspectors look like?

 

Looks like this



But that won't be an issue anymore if i revert back to the 8k terrain. Was thinking of trying a streaming solution or putting them each in their own DOTS sub-scene but I suppose I should tackle that down the track if necessary. Working with so many terrains is a pain.

 

hmm, you should get an error message from the inspector, do you?

 

Will this work in HDRP?

 

Just an update on my UI glitch. Not sure what I did but it’s fixed and hasn’t reoccurred.

 

it does not right now. but i will probably port it. no eta tho.

 

Is this URP 7.2.x friendly? I’m on 2020.1.0a23 and recent changes have messed up the shadowing (black borders on cascades). ATG seems fine but just checkin’. Something about shadows having to be per-pixel now and not per vertex?

 

not yet.
because shadows have totally changed.

 

Ok cool. Hopefully it will be a change for the best. Any ETA on how long it might take you? Happy to beta test if needed.

 

i just submitted the updated package.

 

Version 1.23 for URP 7.2. is available.

 

What would cause the Vegetation Studio shaders to render invisible? I followed all setup instructions and can't get it to work. Regular shaders work fine. All shaders are set in the Graphics settings and instanced indirect is set. Standard pipeline. Just testing out demo assets so no changes have been made on my side.


Left is ATG VS shader, right is regular ATG grass.

Spoiler: Also

Take note, the background terrain is filled with the ATG VS grass, but you can't see it. If I change the shader of course it appears.

Any ideas?

 

try and check "Ignore Fading (VS Pro)".

 

Man I'd love to have this working in HDRP

 

stay calm...

 

Has anyone experienced "wandering" grass? Wind works as expected when playing in the editor and bends, but it actually translates back-and-forth a short distance along x-z in the build.

 

I'm using this in a VR game, and I've had to tweak some of the shaders over the months, but even when I was able to get it to build, it would still show errors like these once and the build would fail. I would then start the build over and the second time it worked (if Unity didn't get shut down after the first attempt). But now, after installing Unity on a new PC, I get this every time. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

 

hmm, i know this problem: build fails at the first attempt, second one works.
as you tweaked the shaders all i can say: go ever the errors one by one.
regarding the deferredshading shader: get the built deferredshading shader that ships with the version of unity you use and look how it is done there. should be in the second pass.

 

I'm getting the same errors as Regulus343 I havent changed any shaders, it was working now its stopping my program being built because of the invalid subscript 'texcoord1' errors

using unity 2019.3.6

 

i will look what happens in 2019.3.6.
thanks for reporting!

 

Thanks mate, I'll post the exact error messages as that will prolly help.

(later)
Well what do you know, I downloaded the new version of Advanced Terrain Grass from feb 25, and now it builds good. I was running a previous version

here were the error messages FWIW

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. Compressed shader 'ProBuilder/Standard Vertex Color' on d3d11 from 1.36MB to 0.10MB
3. Compiled shader 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/Grass Array Shader' in 1.46s
4.     d3d11 (total internal programs: 190, unique: 190)
5. Shader error in 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/Grass Array Shader': invalid subscript 'texcoord1' at line 276 (on d3d11)
6.  
7. Compiling Vertex program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDBASE DIRECTIONAL SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTPROBE_SH _MIXMODE_RANDOM
8. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR
9. Compiled shader 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/VertexLit Shader' in 2.58s
10.     d3d11 (total internal programs: 318, unique: 318)
11. Shader error in 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/VertexLit Shader': invalid subscript 'texcoord1' at line 159 (on d3d11)
12.  
13. Compiling Vertex program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDADD POINT SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK
14. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR
15. Shader error in 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/VertexLit Shader': invalid subscript 'texcoord1' at line 246 (on d3d11)
16.  
17. Compiling Vertex program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDBASE DIRECTIONAL SHADOWS_SCREEN LIGHTMAP_SHADOW_MIXING SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTPROBE_SH
18. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR
19. Compressed shader 'AdvancedTerrainGrass/VertexLit Shader' on d3d11 from 1.15MB to 0.10MB
20.  

 

i just tested latest atg in 2019.3.7. and did not come across any error either

 

Someone can help me? i do this passage ATG :
ATG offers advanced lighting features such as translucency and physically inspired specular reflections on grass. So in case your camera uses deferred rendering you have to assign the ATG deferred shaders in Edit -> Project Settings -> Graphics: ● Under the Built-in shader settings change Deferred to custom, then assign the ATG_Internal-DeferredShading shader. ● Also change Deferred Reflections to Custom and assign the ATG_Internal-DeferredReflections shader. In case your camera uses forward rendering and you have any depth based image effects applied (like ssao) you have to assign the ATG_Camera-DepthNormalTexture shader in Edit -> Project Settings -> Graphics: ● Switch to Debug (using the dropdown icon in the upper right corner of the inspector) in order to bring up the all inputs. ● Change Depth Normals to Custom Shader, then assign the ATG_Internal-DepthNormalsTexture shader.
BUT when i go in play mode grass disappear ( sorry for english im italian ) someone can help me? and how can use it with gaia pro? with same passage?

 

grass disappearing has nothing to do with deferred or forward and overwriting the built in shaders.
so first you have to make sure that grass renders regardless of the deferred shaders. make sure that your camera is tagged as maincamera and that you do not get any errors.

 

i'm using the ATG grass and foliage shaders for vegetation studio pro but having alot of problems. The grass goes invisible at times in the editor (sometimes it appears). And in the build it never shows up at all.

I have assigned the two deferred shaders to graphics settings as in the documentation.

FYI, 'ignore fading' (VS Pro) is checked.

 

have you added the atg wind prefab to your scene? if it is missing grass may go crazy.

 

any chance to make it work in WebGL 2.0 ?