[RELEASED] Enviro - Sky and Weather (Dynamic Sky and Weather System)

Those clouds look SO GOOD!!! I need to learn how to use the sky system a bit more so I don't have to rely on custom skyboxes rendered in Vue. The one advantage my custom skyboxes has is that the cubemaps are full HDR...

 

Hello, thanks! Currently there is no dynamicly change of wind direction out of the box. But this is planned for update 2.1! For now you can enable the "Use Wind Zone Direction" in "Clouds" category and animate the included wind zone your self. Maybe also contact me for latest beta version. Update 2.0.2 includes a bugfix for reverted cloud direction and fixed particle effects to use the "External forces". So clouds, trees and weather effects will be in sync with the wind zone.

 

It would be great, The thing is that this is a little bit annoying to modify every shader only because of enviro fog, Isnt there any other way to create fog with enviro to just work with transparent shaders autoamtically?

 

@Vondox It seems in 2.0.1 fog is at full density at start. If start weather is clear sky i get full fog which fades out slowly (according to my transition settings).

 

Are you using "Linear Fog Mode"? Exponential fog will be set to 0 on start. Maybe check the unity fog settings for you scene and also check the sample scene. If it only happens in your scene there maybe is a another script setting the fog density on start to higher values.

 

Yea it is a bit annoying. But I don't know any other solution to properly show fog and volume lighting on transparent materials in unity right now. There are also a few other assets using same approach.

Do you mean the glass shader that is included in Standard Assets? Here is the modified version:

 

I am not sure I am looking in the right place, but I cannot find this integration component at all. Im using Enviro, Gaia, CTS, and FogVolume 3, everything is working fine except I cannot find any way to integrate FV3 with Enviro.

 

Please check the enviro scripts folder and extract the archive. Or download latest integration component from this post.

 

I checked various settings and it seems "Height fog" is the issue. It is set to 1 by default and fades to the setting in the active profile. Due to my fog transition setting of 0.05 it is really slow and therefore Height fog is noticable active at the beginning.

Yep, solved it. My fault. Initialization steps were initialized to early and SetWeatherOverwrite was not called when weather really starts. Thanks!

 

So in my further experiments with Enviro, if you want to emulate an HDR cubemap from a program like Vue or Terragen, you will have to play with the sun a bit. If you crank your sun disk intensity is something like 8,000, the Sun Intensity to 225, and the Sun Disk Scale to counter the Sun Disk Intensity, you will get a sky that can light a scene with no directional lights. Like this:



Before I light any exterior scene, I always disable the sun light while I tweak the sky until the sky can light the level by itself. Not only will the lighting look natural, but the sunlight will add to the scene.

 

Hello Everyone,

was wondering if anyone could help me with a (maybe simple) problem I can't seem to figure out.

1. The first problem I have is that the moon is not visible in play mode. I have 2 layers (moon/satallites) and the moon render camera is culling only the moon and the main camera is culling everything except the moon. However with this setup the moon doesn't show. If I change the culling of the main camera to "Everything" the moon is visible. This will switch back once I enter play mode the next time as it is controlled via scripting. I hope anyone has an idea what could be the cause.

2. There is a small time frame when the moon goes beneath the horizon and when the sun is not up yet. In that small time frame my Scene turns almost complete black as the Direct Light from the sun is not over the horizon yet but the light from the moon is already underneath the horizon.

Before moon is almost gone:


When moon is gone and sun is not up yet:


Any idea how I can tackle this problem? I tried to adjust the light intensity but that doesn't work as it is still beneath the horizon. I could increase the ambient light but that seems like a "hack" and doesn't look natural at all.

Edit: I am using Unity 2017.3.0f3

At last I would like to thank you for this wonderful asset. Enviro is really taking our game to the next level.

Regards,
Wurlox

 

Hello Wurlox,

1.) The setup sounds right(moon render camera is culling only the moon and the main camera is culling everything except the moon). Not sure why the moon won't show up, It should render the moon to a texture and sample in skybox. Maybe check back in 2.0.2 I will send to asset store later.

2.) The moon position will change based on day of year. So there can be times where the moon and sun both not show and scene can get quite dark. I have added a new offset setting to the directional lighting in 2.0.2 that can help with that issue. Or you use the simple sun and moon calculation mode. (Edit Profile -> Sky category).

Feel free to contact me with private message and send me your invoice number to get 2.0.2 earlier.

Kind Regards,
Hendrik

 

Hi.. I haven't purchased this asset yet and I'd like to confirm something - Are you able to define terrain textures to swap out with changing seasons? If so, can you point me to documentation on this or briefly describe in general how this is accomplished? I'm using CTS btw and I'm also curious about what kind of integration this asset has with CTS. Thank you!

 

Enviro has a component to do this for a standard unity terrain. Unfortunaly that won't work with other terrain shaders. I am not sure if you can switch cts profiles with different texture set in runtime, but it might work! Maybe ask in CTS thread.

The CTS Integration will synchronize wetness, snow and seasonal color tint out of the box.

 

I was going to ask about the moon disappearing, but I will have to investigate further.

 

Hi Vondox,

thanks for the fast reply. I just sent you a private message with my invoice number so it would be nice if you can provide me with the new Enviro version. Hopefully the issues are just fixed with them.

I am already using the simple mode for sun and moon calculations and still have these problems. I will try the new offset parameters if I get your new Enviro version. Maybe this will help solving this issue.

As for the moon that is not rendering in playmode I am still not sure whats the cause. Hopefully this also will be just fixed with the new version. If not I have to take a deeper look on what's going on. A workaround would be to just remove the scripting part where the culling layers get set for the cameras and just set the main camera culling to include the moon. However with this approach the moon is in front of the clouds which doesn't look so good.

Thanks for your fast reply and provided help.
Once I tested your new version I will report here.

Regards,
Wurlox

 

I'm trying to get the day length (sunrise/sunset) times to match the actual times (or fairly close) at a realworld location (Yellowstone Nat'l Park), so I've set the Location values to:
UTC offset: -7
Long: 45
Lat: -110

But the days are always too short, and sunrise is about an hour too late.
(The Enviro times are approximate, when the sun is half visible above the horizon.)

June 30
Should be: 5:42 - 21:13 (Day length is 15:31)
Enviro: 6:33 - 21:24 (Day length is about 40 minutes too short)

Oct 1
Sunrise/sunset should be: 7:22 - 19:04 (Daytime is 11h 42m)
Enviro sunrise/sunset: 8:15-19:30 (Daytime is about 30 minutes too short)

Dec 31:
Should be: 8:01 - 16:53 (Daytime is 8h 52m)
Enviro: 9:54 - 18:05 (Daytime is about an hour too short)

So then I switched to Greenwich location (51 lat, 0 long):
June 30
Should be: 4:45-21:20
Enviro: 6:03-21:27
So daytime is a bit more than an hour too short.

So then I tried 0/0 lat/long:
On June 30, should be 6:00 - 18:07
Enviro: 7:50 - 19:30
So again, daytime is roughly an hour too short.

That's all with v2.0.0, but then I did a quick test with your 2.0.2 beta (so a clean profile), same times for 0/0 lat/long.

Any idea what's going on here, or how to get the times closer to realworld times?

 

I have send you download link for latest version.

 

Funny I just tested same thing and came to some off results too. I am currently investigating. Two things that need to be accounted is that enviro does not support "Daylight Saving Time" and Refraction.

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/refraction.html

Anyway I will check the calculations and take a close look into that for 2.1.

 

I understand about Daylight Savings Time, and that's totally fine (we can change the UTC offset if we care about that, which we don't). And I think we can tolerate lack of refraction -- I don't mind if the sunrise/sunset times aren't precise accurate -- it's the significantly shorter daytimes that are the problem.

thanks!
Dave

 

Yeah, that's right the difference is too big. I will try to fix that.

 

Thank you, understand, maybe in unity 2018 something will change, unity have a lot of strange coded things that are hard to avoid, understand that ;(

 

Hi,

Maybe i'm missing something, but i think the night texture with stars and galaxy has a low res?
I didn't notice it with the old texture...
thanks in advance
cheers

 

Hello,

the currently included galaxy cubemap is quite low res and will be replaced with a better one in 2.0.2. For now you can disable or swap out for other cubemap in sky category of your profile.



Just set to "none" if you don't need it.

 

I have fixed the issues with incorrect sunrise/set and moonrise/set times in 2.0.2. Here is a changelog of 2.0.2, I upload to store later.

Spoiler: Changelog 2.0.2

* Fixed a few more shader errors on ps4.
* Fixed clouds wind direction was off from windzone direction.
* Fixed issue with transparent fog support when volume lighting is deactivated.
* Fixed issue with interior zones when walking into multiple zones in short time.
* Fixed issues with non working interior zone features.
* Fixed ambient lighting modification in interior zones.
* Fixed an issue with unity post processing bloom + enviro. Maybe need some more testing!
* Fixed volume lighting not showing up in builds.
* Fixed ambient audio replay issue on weather changes.
* Fixed metal issue with volume clouds. (Pink Sky)
* Fixed issue that messed up sun and moon set/rise times.
* Improved particle effects to use external forces to simulate wind and improved effect performance.
* Improved cloud shadows using light cookie. Early work in progress version!
* Improved volume clouds performance. Added temporal remprojetion, lod option and slider to configure sample count behind objects.
* Improved volume cloud blending with sky at dawn and dusk.
* Improved performance by not re-rendering moon on every frame.
* Added height fog noise for non simple fog modes.
* Added multiple new features and new trigger type for interior zones.
* Added black ground color option in skybox.
* Added new snow particle effect.
* Added new sample scene.
* Removed old enviro surface shaders. I will provide download link in new documentation, but better use overall better free LUX shaderframework!

VR Improvments:
* Note: Singlepass VR for enviro is only working in Unity 2017+ versions for now!
* Fixed an issue that will output image in desktop resolution in VR mode.
* Fixed Lightshafts in singlepass VR.
* Fixed volume lighting singlepass mode at half/quarter resolution in Unity 2017.2/3.
* Added volume clouds VR quality presets.
* Added weather presets and particle effect more suitable for VR.
* Added demo scene and envirosky prefab for VR to quickstart.

 

Hello,

First off i'd like to thank you for the wonderful product, its been a blast to work with.

I've been having a problem with particle systems in VR using enviro ever since the 2.0 update (I updated to 2.01). No particles show up in game mode if Enviro Sky Rendering (Script) is activated on my camera. An example shown below with a falling leafs particle system colored red for visibility.



Then when Enviro Sky Rendering (Script) is activated the leafs(red) disappear in game mode but are still seen in play mode



This is happening to all my particle systems like another one that makes butterflies or custom light shafts or magic spells. Also note that it only happens in VR, when tested on my non-VR player on the desktop everything shows up fine. When I played around in the VR settings I saw that if I set the camera to display right only i would actually see the particles (though the image gets cut up and destroyed) but if display is left they don't show so it seems they don't carry over when set back to the default display Both. Any idea what could be causing this serious problem? The same happens to some line renderers I have too.

 

Hello, what Unity version you are currently using? I will send you latest version, with all the VR improvements. Check your private messages.

 

Is the beta compatible with latest Unity? (2017.3.1p1)

I am getting warnings on importing the store version.

 

Errors or warnings? What do they say?
I believe enviro should be compatible with with all 2017 versions.

 

I've got a player running on a system below the suggested system requirements getting FPS problems he says largely based on weather and time of day. ie, clear skies in the day is around 15 fps, night in the rain is down to like 4 fps. He's already playing with shadows off, QualitySettings set at Fast, low res compressed textures, etc. Just wonder if there was more I could tweak with Enviro to decrease the performance impact for users running on Fast. Changing the cloud quality is an option in the game's settings interface, but it doesn't seem to increase/decrease FPS. I'm not running volumetric lighting, advanced fog, nor light/moon shafts.

Rare case, but still. Thanks for any insight =]

 

Thank you!

 

I think the unity Version is Buggy (or at least it is for my Project). I had it installed and had many strange errors I did not have before. Not only enviro, from everywhere in my game, like also strange positioning problems etc.. I reinstalled 2017.3.1f1 and the problems are gone again. ..

 

I tested 2.0.2 on multiple Unity 2017 versions. I also quickly tested 2017.3.1p1 and looks all good. Please contact me in private message with your invoice number and I could send you 2.0.2 right now. Otherwise you may have to wait a few more days.

 

Still using volume clouds? Maybe try using flat clouds as you deactivated already most other effects.

 

Hey there, I installed this yesterday. I have player and camera set correctly, but this is happening as seen below. My player is also nowhere to be seen, he should be standing right in front of the pic below, yet I can move around, and I see those things in the air. If I keep the game going and look at scene view, I can see him just fine, but if I go back to the game, he is gone again.

 

I am just getting yellow warnings, so just wanna be sure it's all working. Anyway, will send you the invoice number.

EDIT: Are private messages disabled on forum? Email?

EDIT 2: Nevermind, sent email. Nice job with your "forum" Unity. Can't even send PM..

 

They're called conversations. You can click on someone's name to start one.

 

Hello, uff hard to tell without detailed look into your project. Maybe check your players layer, Enviro uses one layer to render the moon and disables that one on your main camera. These pink areas in air are really strange. Does they move with your camera when you rotate?

 

I created new layers for the moon and satellites and they were working just fine. The pink areas do not move with the camera, so if I were to turn left they would end up on my right side as seen below. Also, here is an image of my settings below that. I made a new layer for moon and satellites.

 

Hey there, great asset!

I'm using CTAA with Enviro, which uses a two camera setup for VR, and the one not filled into Enviro won't display the clouds.
Any assistance or insight you can provide on this?

 

Hello,

can anybody give me some hints about HDR turned on in the main camera and in Enviro? Could that be a problem on older pc / older graphic cards in standalone build? Or does it have a negative impact on performance?
Until now I always had it turned off. I am thinking about to turn it on by default or make an option in the configuration to let the user decide...

Thanks And have a nice weekend...

 

I'm guessing it doesn't impact performance too much, although https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HDR.html

Advantages of HDR

• Colors not being lost in high intensity areas
• Better bloom and glow support
• Reduction of banding in low frequency lighting areas

Disadvantages of HDR

• Uses floating point render textures (rendering is slower and requires more VRAM)
• No hardware anti-aliasing support (but you can use an Anti-Aliasing post-processing effect to smooth out the edges)
• Not supported on all hardware

 

Please try to add the "Additional Camera" component on your other camera. (Component -> Enviro -> Additional Camera). I also would advice to use 2.0.2 for VR projects, so maybe send me your invoice number to get it right now.

 

Sorry, but we may have to do an screenshare to take a look whats going wrong in your scene. Not heard of this issue yet. Please feel free to add me on skype: Hendrik Haupt (vondox@live.de).

 

Thanks for the info, that was helpful!
I'll turn it off by Default and give user an Option to turn it one. It works well on my pc.

 

How was your experience on using the mobile version to your game? Can I send you a pm?

 

I do not find it. And have Problems getting it with GetComponent...
Where can I toggle in Code EnvirorSky . RedneringSetup . HDR ?

Thanks!

 

Please try this:

EnviroSky.instance.HDR = true;

 

Hehe. That was too simple for me to find.
Thanks!

 

Been using the amazing enviro for quite a while now and it is definitely my favorite sky system.

I'm currently using the desktop version and, with a little tuning, it runs quite well on iPhone X. I am about to do some tests with Enviro mobile and wonder what the major differences are between the systems? I'll also DM your for the latest version but would love to have high-level guidance about how far I can push it on flagship mobile platforms with either desktop or mobile.