[RELEASED] Dynamic Decals

probably a too easy question but where can I change the shader?

apparently for mobile on some devices the blood is pink (not supported shader) so I would like to use standard

 

Hi,

I am actually having some problems with performance now for some reason. I used Dynamic Decals in one of my RTS game projects and had little to no performance loss. But I'm using it in a different project and experiencing a huge jump in the number of batches created/sent to the gpu. And I'm only using one decal. For example, without using Dynamic Decals I have 7000 batches being created. Simply enabling it in-game causes me to have 9000 batches or more -- with just one decal being used.

I read earlier comments on this topic where you said it was simply not able to be fixed (it's a shader issue that breaks batching or instancing), unless you actually add code to every single shader in your game that is affected. I hope this may not be the case for me, or that you might be able to fix this issue with a different technique?

Just wanted to see if you had any ideas on why the performance is affected so much? Thank you.

 

How in the world do you use this asset. There is absolutely no tutorials and the pdf getting started manuals are useless. All I wanted it for is the blood splatters for a fps zombie game. But it's no good to me if there isn't any tutorials. I know there is examples but can't learn assets via examples.

 

@Llockham-Industries I can't get the Dynamic Decals plugin working on Android. I'm using Unity 2017.3.0f3 and building for Gear VR. It's working fine in the editor, but not the build. I've tried all the shader methods (Standard, VR, and Mobile) and none of them have worked for me. I see a frame rate drop when the decals are spawned, but the decals are not visible and there are no logs or errors. I initially had a shader error (from StereoDepthBlitRight.shader and StereoDepthBlitLeft.shader) when I tried to build for Android (which I fixed by changing this Line 31: "sampler2D_float _DepthTex;" to this "UNITY_DECLARE_DEPTH_TEXTURE(_DepthTex);"), but even once I got the build working I still did not see the decals on the phone. If anyone has had a problem like this and knows how to fix it, please let me know. Thanks!

 

How to fix a decal on a corner wall and floor.

See in the picture these blood splatters from a blood particle. Is there a way to fix this. The projection renderer is forward unlit if that helps. Maybe there is a setting I missed.

Edit: It works now I don't even know how I did it though. We do need tutorials for this asset but I did work everything out.

 

@Llockham-Industries Hi, I just tried this decal tool and looks amazing, but I'm having some issues with decals being rendered in front of some other geometry. This actually only happens with trees and foliage using FORST Advanced Foliage Shader v.5 (a foliage shader asset from the store).
This is what happens:



I recreated the issue on a fresh project, only importing the Dynamic Decals and AFS assets, and i used the demo scene "4 Classic". Also, i'm using the deferred rendering path for this project.
As you can see, the decals are being drawn over the tree and foliage as if they were ignoring their depth buffer. The minion instead is drawn behind the tree, as it should.
Do you have any idea or lead, on what may be causing the issue?

 

Any tutorials for getting this working with bullets? I (like I suspect many others) bought this asset so I could shoot enemies and have their gibs paint the walls, just like the minions but less cute.

I've tried bringing the minions into one of my scenes and adding 'bullets' to their trigger layers, but I can't trigger the ragdolls to form. My bullets have meshes and box colliders, and when I bring the cannon into the scene it still works. Any ideas or guides?

 

is this compatible with playmaker? there doesnt seem to be much info on how to even get started with this, but i got a basic projector decal working and im trying to use the bullets shot from my gun (using playmaker) to print bullet holes on collision with anything but it doesnt seem to work out at all. when i hit play the bullet hole decal and the bullet prefab are removed. i get some kinda folder called "dont destroy on load" and inside is something called "blood pool" (i guess its my pool i setup, but the default pool isnt showing in itso im not sure about that either)

 

i kinda got it working now? i think the problem here is that the decals simply stop projecting about .2 seconds after the bullet is fired. i made the bullet very slow to see if slow collision detection was causing the issue, and the bullets were going to fast to register any collisions consistently, but that doesnt seem to be the case. with the speed turned all the way down, the bullets project the decal RIGHT at the barrel of the gun after they were fired. as in, as soon as i shoot and move my mouse the bullet collides with the gun barrel and projects + parents the decal correctly. however, if i wait as much as a split second after firing and it collides with the barrel it no longer projects the decal. that seems to be the issue with it not projecting against the environment and people - after just a split second it doesnt attach anymore. how do i fix this issue? its the only thing holding me back from fully using and enjoying this.

 

This asset seems to be getting great reviews. Just wondering if anybody has used it for adding decals and blob shadows to a terrain for an RTS style game? The performance is my biggest concern really. Thanks.

 

Hi, i also have issue with decal over trees & trees bilboard (Mountain Trees - Dynamic Nature, vegetation studio shader, instanced), changing render queue of shader not solve it

 

Hey @Llockham-Industries,

I dont expect your asset will work in the 2018.1 LW SRP yet but are you working on an update? Any ETA?

Cheers,
Colton

 

Hi @Llockham-Industries !

I'm having issues with my decals, they're not appearing in my game view? Though are able to be seen in the scene view. I've reimported the package, as well as created new cameras but am kind of stumped... have you seen this behavior before?

https://imgur.com/a/OF6dd5z

-craigz

 

Hi @Llockham-Industries ...

Just picked up your asset at the end of the madness sale

Still playing with it, but an initial couple of queries I'm struggling with...

1) I can't seem to get the layer masking working.
It doesn't seem to matter which unity layers I assign to 1 of the 4 masking sets, but I can't get that to work.
If I say "Only render to" "Layer 1", it still renders decals even though Layer 1 has no unity layers assigned?

2) Deferred screen space rendering order
I have some other screen space assets attached to the MainCamera which are manipulating the deferred buffers
Is there any way to influence whether decals are rendered before my other screen space assets, or afterwards ?
Ideally I would like some decals rendered after my other assets.

Maybe I didn't understand things fully yet... any pointers on these issues would be most appreciated.

 

I've got the same problem. In Unity editor it works fine but on Android device its seems that projection renders only on flat horizontal surface. Tried to adjust angle limit, different shaders. No effect.

 

Having issues with LW SRP in 2018.1. The box that is supposed to project the decal is purple and doesn't project anything.

 

Hey there, just got the asset.
I was wondering, in the minion example, there is a way to make the blood to drip from the walls after the decal is created?

 

Almost 2 months since the last reply from the author...hopefully nothing serious has occurred and it’s just life being life...

 

Sometimes the forum stops sending thread owners notifications of activity in the thread. If anyone *really* needs to get ahold of @Llockham-Industries, best to use the support email (and if you do, let him know there's been activity in the thread).

 

I emailed him almost 3 weeks ago. Support for this isn't looking good right now...

 

I also made a support request on the main website... still no answer

Although there could be some exceptional circumstances we are not aware of, I did purchase the asset on the basis that it looked well supported. I guess a refund is out of the question too if he is not contactable, unless it can be done via Unity?

 

Hello, I recently purchased this from the asset store and I'm having some trouble. I'm setting up a system with a lot of decals, I had thought that I could use a single Projection type and change the texture, but I cannot get it to work. To be clear, I can change the texture ( another user posted here how he managed ) but the texture change applies to all instances of the Projection that I use. I've tried many variations of the code, but had not luck.. is this something that should work? Do I have to do what the "create" button does in the editor, but get it to do something similar at runtime?

Heres a snip of what I've tried

            //rayPositioner.projection = decalPrefab.GetComponent<ProjectionRenderer>();

            //rayPositioner.projection = Instantiate(decalPrefab.GetComponent<ProjectionRenderer>());

            rayPositioner.projection = DynamicDecals.System.DefaultPool.Request(decalPrefab);



            Forward forward = rayPositioner.projection.Projection as Forward;

            if(forward != null)

            {

                forward.albedo.Texture = decalTexture;

                forward.Mark(true);

            }

 

@Llockham-Industries Having issues with the decal system and Vegetation Studio asset (https://forum.unity.com/threads/released-vegetation-studio.479244/). When Vegetation Studio is set up, my FPS drops down significantly whenever I create a decal on the terrain. This is more noticeable when Compute Shaders are on in the Vegetation Studio.

 

I'm not the creator and I didn't start using this asset yet, but what you describe is an issue I have too with Instanced indirect shaders and point lights or Post Processing

It happens only in 2018.1. In 2017.4 or 2018.2 beta it's not happening. Are you in 2018.1? VS dev told me there is a bug in 2018.1

 

is there any footstep example?! forward rendering is supported right?

 

Yes, I'm using 2018.1. I'll try switching to 2018.2 beta to see if anything changes.
Thanks!

 

Can we have a tutorial on how to do dynamic blood spilling?

 

So by all accounts this asset is abandoned, with critical bugs that make it faulty for use with 2018.1 onwards.

If you are, or are lucky enough to have the services of, a Unity programmer, they should still be able to figure it out for themselves if you are using 2017.4 or earlier.

As an aside this is the part of Unity I really dislike compared to Unreal. You have to buy so many assets to get Unity up to a high standard, and then hope that the asset developer sticks around for long enough to support it. Whereas with Unreal you get so much more out of the box.

Its also why I would never even conceive of an indie game that takes longer than 2 years to develop from start to finish. Ideally 1 year. You will run out of support on your LTS version and probably on your assets as well.

 

You mix up everything in your message, especially the part about UE.

Anyway, the asset works fine in 2018.2. There is a bug in 2018.1 that doesn't only affect this asset. No clue what the bug is but I have no issue in .2

 

@Llockham-Industries, I saw way back, you were helping someone having a big drop in performance due to the fixed overhead of the shader replacement stuff. I don't have a massive overhead - you can see below it's sitting at about 6ms. However, since I'm going from a total of 16ms down to 10ms when disabling the decals, it's still a big overhead relatively speaking - the difference between getting 100fps and 60fps.

I've got a deep profile shot here - it shows 3 calls to CameraData.RenderToTexture().

I'm trying to work out how to get these down to 1 call.

Is it related to using layers? I use one layer for "terrain only", and another form "everything except", having several Unity layers in there.

I have multiple cameras, but switching off any of these additional cameras don't appear to be affecting frame rate. One is just rending UI for example, and another renders a single layer for special purposes.

If I knew where the 3 calls came from and how to deal with that, that would be great

 

I must say, it's really shady to put the asset in -50% sale and then deprecate the asset one month later.

 

ya not sure by this behavior, we see this the last few years, get worse. Well atleast there is source code, the ones that don't anger me and I do not buy them anymore due to NOT being able to fix them .. SAD to see this go. . as we are using in our current Steam game, but atleast I can update myself, I use a few other assets that are gone as well. Due still having the code to fix myself. So its not the end of the world, but if I just bought it I would be pissed, kinda like UWS......we get NO support, and it cost a lot. This one I bought when it first released, so I'm not upset.....but if you just bought during the sale, I would be..... So I agree about the Shady part, I just learned this asset is gone now.

Another reason to NOT buy assets from first time developers...as they may not keep going... and leave in a short time, this one was a good asset but it lasted 1 year and a half. So its good to buy assets from developers who keep making new ones, and are around as part of there business, so I would keep this in mind when buying future assets I know I do. I'm picky now.....


About the Unreal 4 comment, I was using for years and still do.....I OWN ZERO assets as you don't need them...Unity I have about 13 of my own, and own, many others from the store...it can be a good thing but for more simple stuff , it sucks....when yes they are not longer supported as it can cause a game, and developers more work....sometimes.

 

eh? I understood what he meant. So not sure what you mean. Anyways I see what he means and have said this a million times as I used Unreal for many, many years....way before Unity and still do. So I see his point and can be annoying with Unity and some assets......but I get why some assets disappear as they aren't making money but they should sell some updates so its kinda there own fault, if they can't keep going...Unless something else personal came up or a new job or something.....Maybe some of these devs should try and sell there assets I know some have such as UFPS...and Bolt did.. to Photon.

 

He may have stop due to this post which was one of his last. So I was trying to find why he left, this could be why. I feel he should of waited as this...will be awhile... and like tools like UGUI, NGUI is still alive......I believe Amplify will still be around, as many of these tools can still be used and many will use the asset vs what Unity makes......Look at UNET, I WOULDN'T touch it again, we have plenty of other tools for networking that are better..... So not sure why people get scared off when Unity makes things.....it don;t always mean, they are finished..Just saying, that is my 2 cents, I could be wrong for the reason but this is one of his last posts.....Just to show anyone that may want to know why...I wish and hope he lets people know why for sure so we know. Best of Luck and thanks for a great tool.

 

I understood too but the part about UE has nothing to do with this specific asset, it's a personal complain about assets and Unity in general. If he's not happy about it he can just go dev on UE and that's fine for everyone.

Also the asset wasn't deprecated (or I didn't see it, that's completely possible) when he posted his message.

What I dislike here, is that the author @Llockham-Industries himself didn't give a F***ing sign regarding his asset, he didn't tell us anything and that's a huge middle finger to his customers.

We paid with real money here, that doesn't entitle us to lifetime support for sure, but I think it does entitle us to a minimum of respect by just showing up here and explaining what's going on and maybe telling us upfront that his asset will go out of support. Maybe we could even have motivated him by any means to continue; I'd pay for a V2.

But the radio silence has been there for months now, so I guess we can go f*** ourselves

Anyway the asset still works but it's totally impossible to forecast a project with it for the future as anything can change within Unity that'll break it.

Not everyone is lucky enough to be like you Recon and have great dev skills to update it I'm personally not a coder and I'm a bit sad because this asset is really really great.

And for your post about that he could have got scared with Unity solution: totally understand his point. But there are actually no solutions from Unity (or I missed it?) that would cover what was covered here. And you are absolutely right that many assets still live even if Unity has their own solution (Camera controllers, NavMesh, GUI and so on)

Anyway... that's sad.

 

it was just a statement, about why, he hates assets, nothing more. and I say that to why I hate Unity and can be annoying, when trying to make a living, and working on a game.......So as someone who makes games for a living, I understand his comment completely....nothing wrong with this personal opinion about assets, I say this ALOT..

I see what you meant, but I also understand and understood what he meant, so I thought you didn't understand why he said that, I did , and understand why he said it as all I'm saying. ./cheers

 

I agree with you that is what I basically said, he should of said something....NOT just disappear, its not cool and if he made another asset, some of these guys do, I wouldn't buy it, do to this . He should of said something, I don't disagree there.

 

For one, I don't appreciate it the smart ass comment..... The point is, I'm not defending him but NO one should expect a life time of free support... for any asset now...if you READ, if someone just bought it I could understand being upset...Again NOT defending him, but NO tool, Auto Desk included, DOES NOT give free support for ever, this is not everyones first asset, we all know many will come to an end sooner or LATE, so expect it...........

Far as the solution for Unity native, it supposely is coming, if you read his post and Unity's. So same thing with VTP they are thinking of leaving possible as well due to Unity adding things them selves, native. anyways. that is what is coming down the pipeline, so we are hearing....

So if you can't code that isn't my problem, nor the developers, so making your comment wasn't needed... at all, show me respect and I will to you sir. have a good day.

 

First of all, maybe you're not a native English speaker but my comment was factual. Not everyone is a as good as you to be able to update yourself a deprecated asset. Take it as it is, do not read between the lines: I didn't mean anything else.

Your Statement: You can update the asset for your projects (you said that)
My statement: I can't.
End of story, no subtle message here. So don't be offended: it wasn't intended.

Second point: You speak about Autodesk for example. Those have EULA that clearly legally cover those points and actually for most of them are very precise that they will never ever give you the middle finger by stopping support without a clear notice etc. Otherwise you're entitled to a compensation.

It's of course not the case here on the asset store; not saying anything about this. Was speaking about the respect of a dev to his customers, nothing else. I already said that we weren't entitled to a lifetime support and I wasn't expecting one. Was expecting respect, like you.

Good day too

 

Lifetime support and telling people support will continue, putting asset into sale and then running away are pretty different scenarios tho.

I can understand that there will eventually come a time when asset is no longer feasible to keep on the store but you do not put the thing on sale month before removal, that's just unethical and feels like last minute cash grab to me. Fortunately, this wasn't exactly an expensive asset but is still a good example why people should be cautious when buying things from asset store, especially from sales (this wasn't first time this happened to me).

 

Couldn't agree more on that part... I bought it a longer time ago but I can't imagine how furious I would be in this case.

Is it only the author that can accept that the asset goes into sales or are there some automatic stuff? Like maybe the author checked a box long ago that says "I accept that my asset goes into sales every time" ? Otherwise that doesn't make any sense and doesn't even fit the author behaviour on this forum..

 

It actually is. I live in the US . but you made it sound like its my fault I can code and you can't..

It came off as rude,
"Not everyone is lucky enough to be like you Recon " Not sure where you live but it sounded like you wanted to be rude and smart ass where I come from when you reply that way. . anyways have a good one.

 

Ya I agree but sadly the asset developers do not control when they go on sale. But he should of told Unity, hey do not put it on sale, I believe they do control if it ever goes on sale, but I know they DO NOT control when it does. but I agree, but this is a Unity issue and a developer issue...Last, he may of NOT known for a fact he was leaving.......but I agree the timing looks bad....and do agree 1000 % . with you.

 

actually Auto Desk has gave the middle Finger to users when they stop selling it after many of us been buying it for years...Now we are stuck with older versions... So no they did something, just as bad... Adobe same thing...So anyways......I can go on and on, about what is right and wrong, bottom LINE, expect ASSETS to end sooner or later, any of them........DO I like it,NOPE, but they all will. just like Software.... But like I said this is why I also I'm picky about what I buy now, as I like to have the support, but if we don't then we don't.....A. I, or who ever continues uses it, or you don't....You have no idea, the software and Game Engines, I have seen do this very thing......Its NOT uncommon.....no idea if you work or been in the industry I have for 20 + years, software comes and goes....Again not defending the way he did it,. and I already agreed.....but I'm also stating expect it......... He should of said something is where I agree and have the problem.... anyways, I'm done with this convo. as its going no where anyways...

 

What AutoDesk software are you speaking about?

For Adobe if it's about Mixamo it never came in production stage and users didn't lose what they paid for (even though they paid for stuff that became free later on...so yeah, that was not cool either and they suffered from it in some way, but I guess they can afford it )

 

Unity picks the assets for official sales. The developer has no choice. That could even be why the developer decided to deprecate the asset ... to keep Unity from putting it in more sales.

 

Hey guys.

As you can probably tell by now, Dynamic Decals has been deprecated. First of all, I would like to make it clear that I would like to continue supporting the system where it's feasible. I'm still responding to emails and intend to keep that line of communication open. I'm available at all times at Support@LlockhamIndustries.com (Linked to my phone).

The asset is being deprecated because it's not working in Unity's new rendering pipelines and cannot without a significant overhaul. While Scriptable rendering pipelines have been introduced Unity have taken the chance to overhaul the rendering architecture for Unity. Dynamic Decals is built on and relies solely on the old Forward and Deferred rendering loops built into Unity, as well as the old CG code base used for the old shaders and a tonne of standard practices from the now legacy rendering architecture (Pre 2018.1). None of this is applicable going forward into the HD LR rendering loops and the new HLSL shader code bases. So until I rewrite the system, if I find an applicable way to rewrite the system, it definitely doesn't seem fair to continue selling it.

Sincerely,
Dan

 

I don't get this, SRPs are properly production ready next year earliest, and your asset is still very relevant for a long time because not everyone will transition to the new pipelines. You'd just need to make it clear that you will not support the new pipelines so this will not lead into any confusion. Or is there some unity asset store guideline that forces you to support the new pipelines already?

 

Couldn't agree more with this.

Many assets (famous ones #1 on the store) do not support the new render pipelines and made it clear. It's fair and it's fine for most of users.

Don't give up man.

 

Yes I think it's foolish to think everyone is immediately going to HDRP or LWRP. SRP is not going anywhere and will be available for at *least* another 4 years. (if not longer)

Speaking for myself, I've invested far too much into SRP (including this asset) to even think of just dumping it all and going to HDRP or LWRP to be 'trendy'.