Assets [Unity Awards 2018 - BEST ARTISTIC TOOL Winner] Aura - Volumetric Lighting

Oh, you guys are right. Thanks! Sorry, and thank you for your time.

 

I need Aura now.

 

Hi, VR build? IOS build? Android build? It's to difficult to port?
Maybe an Ipad Air 2 can handle this?

 

Metal DOES support compute shaders
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/191992-GL-compute-Shaders-for-Horizons-let-s-bug-Apple!

 

To answer my own question: just comment the last part of the main Aura script.

 

Hi, just wondering if anybody else is having the same issues with aura ui

example:

 

I'm also getting this error non-stop

"Graphics.CopyTexture can only copy between same texture format groups (d3d11 base formats: src=27 dst=1)"

 

Yes, everybody - this is somehow related to the free ( light ) UI scheme !

 

What platform you are using AURA with. It requires DX11 and up ( SM 5.0 if not mistaken ) !

 

Windows, DX11 what do you mean by sm 5.0 if you don't mind me asking

 

It's the compute capability level of your GPU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA#GPUs_supported

you need a GPU in the Compute Capability level 5.0 or higher to use it.

 

Thanks although it was nothing to do with my error, but I fixed it my modifying and turning off serialization for shadowDataRenderTexture, by adding [System.NonSerialized]

 

Hi, i just imported the last AURA and got the same error in 2018.2.f1. Fortunately i got the error fixed simply by changing any line in a script and compile and than revert it to the original code ! Seems to fix the error and now i get effect visible !
So try to revert the changes you made just in case !

EDIT: Actually after re-opening the scene, it throws the error again !

 

Great asset, any plans for SRP (HD/LW Render Pipelines)?

 

Is it possible to have both Aura and regular lights in the same area?

It seems when I put down an Aura light and then a regular light beside it, the regular light doesn't output light.

I can only see the regular light if I disable the Aura light.

Is this normal?

Thanks!

 

Hi @raphick I've just imported Aura into my project 2018.2 windows build and I am getting these two errors.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
AuraAPI.Aura.OnRenderImage (UnityEngine.RenderTexture src, UnityEngine.RenderTexture dest) (at Assets/Aura/Classes/Aura.cs:185)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
AuraAPI.Frustum.Dispose () (at Assets/Aura/Classes/Frustum.cs:330)
AuraAPI.Aura.DisposeFrustrum () (at Assets/Aura/Classes/Aura.cs:359)
AuraAPI.Aura.OnDisable () (at Assets/Aura/Classes/Aura.cs:149)

Adding aura to the camera cause issues with the display. Changing the settings on light strength, density, anisotropy have no effect.

If anyone has come across this and can help it would be most appreciated.

Andy

 

@raphick Loving the effect so far. Thanks so much for sharing it!

I wasn't able to find it in the Starting guide, but do you have some other documentation on how to optimize Aura? It seems to be taking up a significant part of the GPU usage for me.

 

Guys, I am not forgetting about you! I am just very busy (including) with next update.

gameObject.GetComponent<AuraVolume>().color.color = UnityEngine.Random.ColorHSV(0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1);

It's working right now for me with the upcoming update. Please wait for it.

Just use a Planar AuraVolume (with noise mask).

I'll try to think about having it hidden easily on next update

This is indeed a problem with Unity's internal GuiStyles skin for free version, I will use my own in the next update

It's working right now for me with the upcoming update. Please wait for it.

Only plans to have a look ;-)

I am not sure to understand. AuraLights are regular lights, just with the component to have them used with the Aura system.

It depends on your GPU. Try first using some low settings and occlusion.

 

Join me on @TheMessyCoder's Twitch channel on Saturday August 25th at 9PM CET.
I'll be messing around with the next update of Aura!
Share, come a lot and let's take this opportunity to live-chat about Aura.

​

 

@raphick Sorry my bad, I think ti had to do with the pixel count of my quality settings. It was shutting off the lights that were exceeding that limit.

I'll try out the optimization settings you mentioned. Thanks for the help!

 

Hey Raphick! Thanks for such an amazing asset; it enhances every scene I use it in. I really appreciate you taking the time to develop something so valuable for the Unity dev community.

I have an odd scenario in which I'm using Aura. I have a very large scene; the camera view frustrum is set to 30000 in order to render incredibly far away land. The scene view is also incredibly wide, as it is being stretched across four 4k TVs.

Aura looks great in general, it adds a nice haze across the scene. I'm having trouble getting it to render sun shafts via the sun directional light in the scene. My clouds meshes (via True Clouds, which renders the clouds opaque but adds some very clever blurring and noise effects to achieve the cloud look) and other building objects don't really occlude the light as seen in the demo scenes. The aura light kinds vaguely shines through everything.

I've tried extending the Range for Aura, but this just makes the air density pretty much opaque after a certain distance. I've tried attenuating the ambient density to compensate, which restores the transparency of the air, but I still don't get the hard sun shaft look that I'm going for.

I can't seem to get the global volume to perform under these conditions, either. The noise appears too large or not at all.

I understand I'm using Aura in a unique setup, so I understand if these are the limitations of the system. But, if you could help me in any way, that would be great! Thanks!

 

ledbetterman, you've got a whole series of things to consider in that kind of scene!

Firstly the view frustum. With a 30km far plane you're going to have to push the near plane out as far as comfortably possible to get any sort of depth precision. Unity made some big changes in 2017.2(?) to how it calculates depth values but it's still something you want to keep in mind. Also remember to change the values in the aura main component in terms of depth to be as low as possible.

Resolution is another thing - with an 8k resolution (even if it's set up widescreen) you're paying for a lot of pixels.

Some tips - the aura volume won't be homogenous. It'll be more dense towards the ground. There's not much you can do about the shadowmap resolution as the clouds go off into the distance though, what you need is some sort of manual shadow cascade settings.

 

Not Working in 2018.2.5f1
Getting the following errors in both 3D and LRP Pipeline

A PreviewRenderUtility was not clean up properly before assembly reloading which lead to leaking this scene in the Editor. This can be caused by not calling Cleanup() during the OnDisable of an Editor or an EditorWindow.
UnityEditor.PreviewRenderUtility:Finalize()

 

Aura is awesome, been messing around with it a ton!

Quick question incase anyone can help (still doing some research):

I have a world space canvas in my scene and it is seems to be ignoring the volumetric fog / lighting. Any idea how to fix this?

 

Hi Raphick, would it be ok if I add some screenshots of how aura looks in my game (I think very nice )?

 

Next update will fix the density change occuring when changing the range. Jesus is right (sic), you'll need to consider that the shadows are not computed at 30km distance, I rely on the builtin shadows so you'll have to tweak them...

Yup they switched to reversed Z.

Works fine for me on 2018.2.6. Maybe you'll want to wait for the update.

I am not sure about the position of this canvas in the render queue, make sure you're not using (tagged as) transparent materials.

Suuuuuuuuuuure! Bring it on ;-)

 

Cool, thanks. Here goes:
View attachment 296554

 

And just one more if I may: :

 

Awesome! Glad you got nice results with Aura! Thanks for sharing

 

Very far distance volumetrics with the upcoming update :

​

 

For those asking, multi-camera won't be a problem anymore...

 

Cool, would it be ok to ask when this planned to be available, or already via github maybe?
I have multiple cameras so I think this update could be useful. Or is this for multiple cameras rendering at once?

 

I'm using Aura in my game and I wondered if you could help me with an issue? When in editor Aura works fine, no errors or anything. When I build, I also get no errors however the Aura effects seem to vanish. My game moves from scene to scene, perhaps this is affecting it? (my character/camera however is never destroyed, only scenes are removed and added)

I have multiple cameras on the character too, would that affect anything? Again this all works in Unity Editor, not in the build?

 

Can't wait to test the multi camera support, looks like I need that

 

I just tried building with only one camera in the scene, the rays worked fine. When I build with 2 cameras (A UI camera and a firstperson camera) the rays did not show. I'm assuming it seems to die if more than one camera is in the scene.

Can I get your updated version?

 

It's always ok to ask There is no ETA. I won't release it before everything works.

Camera will now on work independently and will only share common data. So multiple camera at once or switching makes no difference.

I'm gessing this is the famous one-camera before all restriction.

There is a lot of expectation, from my side as well, so I won't rush things up

Nope simply because you won't want to cope with wip

[Edit : the update should be ready soonish though]

 

Is there any fix?

 

I assume this is because of the common issue where something other than the main component of aura on the camera is initialised first, which kills something, usually the volume or one of the lights. This also happens sometimes when I open a new Unity project in the editor.

To fix, I use a script that references all Aura components in the scene including the camera, and OnStart enables all the components in order of: camera, volume, lights.

 

Of course no worries! I (I'm sure all) appreciate this most awesome asset and any work you do for it!

 

Hi @raphick thanks for putting the billboard tree into the asset! One small edit though, because of it's location within the Aura folder structure, the include in the shader is incorrect:

Code (CSharp):

1. #include "../Aura/Shaders/Aura.cginc"

should be

Code (CSharp):

1. #include "../../Aura.cginc"

I really want to see the far view volumetric lighting. My project is a very wide open flying game, would benefit greatly from it!

Cheers,
Gord

 

Hi! Thanks for pointing this, I'll have a look. I uploaded it in a rush as a quick fix on request and it worked for me though

 

Weird I pulled the latest from github and it wouldn't compile that shader. *shrug*

Now, when's that 1.1 coming?

 

One day

I work on it as often as possible but I also have plenty of things aside.
But I really think the wait is gonna be worth...

 

Waiting for it more than Game of Thrones

 

I consider myself as sexy as Emilia Clarke...

 

Hi Raphick, could I ask you a question regarding Aura Volume, I am able to use these fine but when I try changing the colour it does not seen to move to where I click on the colour palette. It only stays on the centre/white. Can I ask if you have come across this? Maybe I'm just being a bit stupid.

Sample of where I mean:


Thanks for any help/input.

 

Hi! Sorry about that.
this is a bug, intended to be fixed in the next version, happening when adding the volume component from the inpector menu. In short, the custom drawer's hue is blocked because the color is pure white by default (so no given clue about the hue) and then F***s the rest of the maths behind.
You can workaround this bug by copy/pasting (did you know you can do this ? ) a (non-pure-white) color in the hexadecimal format in the picker, eg. copy the following (without the quotes) "#5FADFE", rick-click in the color picker and paste it.

 

Hi, I am trying out Aura in a test scene (created with Gaia) and I am getting some mixed results. I don't have a great deal of experience when it comes to lighting a 3D project, so I apologize if my questions are quite simple.

I have a day/night cycle in my scene and the Aura component of my Sun and Moon (directional lights) appears to effect the scene at all times regardless of the intensity or angle of the lights (which change over the course of the cycle). My scene also appears very washed out from a distance, although close up things improve somewhat.

I'm not quite getting the results I think I should be, and I'm sure I'm doing this wrong, but any advice on how to achieve better results for this kind of scene would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Wow, cool, did not know about the copy paste! I'll try that. Also please do not apologise! this is such a cool asset/plugin

 

Even if the light is coming from the bottom, the volumetric lighting will still be computed. Try fading the strength or make sure your ground is two-sided shadow caster

Have a loog at the getting started section of the starting guide.