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

Give the review a thumbs down, I mean why do leave a review like that.. It is amazing that someone gives an asset away for free, how can you thumps down that?!

 

PS KarlGG, is that a Kubel Wagon in your avatar pic? Very Cool! Do you own one in real life?

 

HEH, well at least he didn't give it 1 star or something. But really, he even admits it's not even targeted to his machine or mobile, and yet tries it like that anyway.

 

Yeah I saw that review. Looks like the guy can't read.

 

unfortunately, all we can do is down vote it. people are inconsiderate assholes.

 

Yes, that's my back yard.

 

Maybe he can't read
Write but not read...

Thanks! I happened to learn that some people are pissed that I gave Aura for free... I don't really know why tho...

"Hey let's try to dig a hole in this 5-meters-wide titanium wall with my plastic spoon!"

Whether he can or not, at this point, I don't know which frightens me the most...

I replied and asked the Asset Store for moderation advice. I mean, it's maybe ok to leave reviews like that... be a baaad person but ok... idk...

 

Not to actually say something, but yeah, could be people that don't like it being free..

Some people get nervous when good developers come to Unity, but i just went and looked.
Loved your reply to him and

Good idea but...
(2 of 60 found this review helpful) ... So yeah no worries

 

It's pretty normal that he's getting downvoted as this is not constructive at all...

 

You can report reviews for abuse of the system and that's the option I went with. After all if someone knows it won't support a platform and then gives it a bad review because of it that's basically a troll review.

 

I'm getting a whole bunch of compile errors in several scripts saying: "The type or namespace name `Vector3Int' could not be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?"

Is this because I'm trying to run it in Unity 5.6 instead of 2017? Edit: Yes it is. Vector3Int and Vector2Int have been added in 2017

 

yup, in 2017.2 actually

 

How does one go about scripting values for the aura component? Like, how would I change the distance attenuation and threshold via script?

 

I am not really sure what you mean by distance attenuation and threshold but you can access the Aura main settings via :

Code (CSharp):

1. camera.GetComponent<Aura>().frustum.settings

And there are exposed :

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.         #region Public members
3.         /// <summary>
4.         /// Enables the computation of volumes
5.         /// </summary>
6.         public bool enableVolumes = true;
7.         /// <summary>
8.         /// Enables the computation of volumes' texture mask
9.         /// </summary>
10.         public bool enableVolumesTextureMask = true;
11.         /// <summary>
12.         /// Enables the computation of volumes' noise mask
13.         /// </summary>
14.         public bool enableVolumesNoiseMask = true;
15.         /// <summary>
16.         /// Enables the computation of directional lights
17.         /// </summary>
18.         public bool enableDirectionalLights = true;
19.         /// <summary>
20.         /// Enables the computation of directional lights' shadow
21.         /// </summary>
22.         public bool enableDirectionalLightsShadows = true;
23.         /// <summary>
24.         /// Enables the computation of spot lights
25.         /// </summary>
26.         public bool enableSpotLights = true;
27.         /// <summary>
28.         /// Enables the computation of spot lights' shadow
29.         /// </summary>
30.         public bool enableSpotLightsShadows = true;
31.         /// <summary>
32.         /// Enables the computation of point lights
33.         /// </summary>
34.         public bool enablePointLights = true;
35.         /// <summary>
36.         /// Enables the computation of point lights' shadow
37.         /// </summary>
38.         public bool enablePointLightsShadows = true;
39.         /// <summary>
40.         /// Enables the computation of lights' cookie
41.         /// </summary>
42.         public bool enableLightsCookies = true;
43.         /// <summary>
44.         /// Enables depth occlusion culling
45.         /// </summary>
46.         public bool enableOcclusionCulling = true;
47.         /// <summary>
48.         /// Accuracy of the occlusion computation (highest means more sampling)
49.         /// </summary>
50.         public OcclusionCullingAccuracyEnum occlusionCullingAccuracy = OcclusionCullingAccuracyEnum.Medium;
51.         /// <summary>
52.         /// Enables temporal reprojection
53.         /// </summary>
54.         public bool enableTemporalReprojection = true;
55.         /// <summary>
56.         /// Amount of reprojection with the previous frame
57.         /// </summary>
58.         [Range(0, 1)]
59.         public float temporalReprojectionFactor = 0.9f;
60.         /// <summary>
61.         /// The resolution of the volumetric grid
62.         /// </summary>
63.         public Vector3Int resolution = new Vector3Int(160, 90, 128);
64.         /// <summary>
65.         /// The furthest distance where the data will be computed
66.         /// </summary>
67.         public float farClipPlaneDistance = 50.0f;
68.         /// <summary>
69.         /// The base density of the volume
70.         /// </summary>
71.         public float density = 0.25f;
72.         /// <summary>
73.         /// The base anisotropy of the volume
74.         /// </summary>
75.         [Range(0, 1)]
76.         public float anisotropy = 0.5f;
77.         /// <summary>
78.         /// The base color of the volume
79.         /// </summary>
80.         [ColorCircularPicker]
81.         public Color color = Color.grey * 0.5f;
82.         /// <summary>
83.         /// The base color factor of the volume
84.         /// </summary>
85.         public float colorStrength = 0.25f;
86.         #endregion

 

distance attenuation and threshold are settings for the aura light component, in the settings side.

So if you fed it something like this....

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. public gameobject auralightobject;
3.  
4. auralightobject.GetComponent<Aura>().???.settings.lightattenuation = 0.5f;
5.  

I'm assuming it wouldn't be called frustrum?

 

Ho sorry I didn't understand you wanted to modify an Aura Light.
In that case :

Code (CSharp):

1. gameObjectWithTheLight.GetComponent<AuraLight>()

and you'll have the settings of the AuraLight publicly exposed :

Code (CSharp):

1.  /// <summary>
2.         /// Custom distance falloff start (Spot/Point Lights only)
3.         /// </summary>
4.         public float customDistanceFalloffThreshold = 0.5f;
5.         /// <summary>
6.         /// Custom distance falloff power (Spot/Point Lights only)
7.         /// </summary>
8.         public float customDistanceFalloffPower = 2.0f;

The distance itself is the range of the light.

 

Is this supposed to work on Unity 2017.3?

 

It does... It is my current development version, as 2018.1 is still in beta

 

Hi there,

I'm starting to include this awesome system in my project, and it looks very nice. The only problem i'm facing is that i have several cameras in the scene due to the cinematics, and i can't use Timeline at the moment(it doesn't alow me to do some stuff yet) so the cinematics system i use needs at least two cameras. The problem is that it looks like we can't have two Aura Main components at the same time, or even alternate them. Any clue or turnaround?


Thanks a lot!

 

For the moment, the best workaround is to teleport the Camera

 

Ok, thanks.

 

Has anyone else had issues with Collaboration and Cloud Building since adding Aura? After adding Aura I now get failed builds (only in Cloud Building) and I am getting this error:

Code (csharp):

1. Unloading 129 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
2. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/ScreenSpaceReflections' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
3. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/ScreenSpaceReflections' - Setting to default shader.
4. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Histogram' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
5. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Histogram' - Setting to default shader.
6. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Vectorscope' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
7. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Vectorscope' - Setting to default shader.
8. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/AutoExposure' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
9. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/AutoExposure' - Setting to default shader.
10. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/FinalPass' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
11. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/LightMeter' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
12. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/LightMeter' - Setting to default shader.
13. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/DepthOfField' - Pass 'COC TEMPORAL FILTER' has no vertex shader
14. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Waveform' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
15. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/PostProcessing/Debug/Waveform' - Setting to default shader.
16. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/Aura/PostProcessShader' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
17. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/Aura/PostProcessShader' - Setting to default shader.
18. EXCEPTION: NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
19. UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:Internal_Log(LogType, String, Object)
20. UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogFormat(LogType, Object, String, Object[])
21. UnityEngine.Logger:Log(LogType, Object)
22. UnityEngine.Debug:Log(Object)
23. UnityEditor.CloudBuild.BuildLogger:Log(String)
24. UnityEditor.CloudBuild.BuildLogger:HighlightUnityErrors(String, String, LogType

 

I don't know what this is. Verify that your build settings are compatible with Aura requirements.

 

Hello.
Outstanding! The quality is so amazing and it is for free! Thank you very much for this asset!

Also I am wandering, is VR supported? If no, do you plan to add VR support in nearest time?

 

Thank you for the compliments!
VR multi-pass is supported, hopefully single pass will come out easier with the refactor I'm doing. No ETA.

 

Just started playing with this amazing system, loving the results I can get with it. One question I have though is is the speckly pattern over everything the way the asset works or is it something that can be removed or dialled out with a post process, it is kinda ruining the clean look we want. Attached two grabs showing the difference.
With Aura

Without Aura

 

Also if I turn off the Use Post Process Option I get no effects, is that what is supposed to happen?

 

It only happens when using the Cloud Build in the team Collaboration feature built into Unity. If I make a local build, the project will build perfectly fine. I just wasn't sure if you were aware of the issue or not.

 

The pattern is obviously present in your image without Aura. Aura makes your image brighter and make it more visible.

Yes it's what is supposed to happen. Aura is still compute but not applied as a post-effect (but still accessible via shader or aura particles)

I think there is some parameters that are not compatible with aura in your cloud build.

 

Well is there a way to stop that happening, on anything remotely dark I get this ugly multicolored speckle which makes it unusable, I am not sure how a slight variation in blackness in a texture leads to multi colored dots everywhere.

 

Tried again with a scene with no textures in and I am still getting the same speckly noisy colors in dark areas, attached a couple of grab one without any image effects and one with and also a short video that shows the problem. The effect is everywhere but shows up most in the darker areas, am I doing something wrong or is this what I will get when trying use Aura with a simple flat shaded scene?

 

There is clearly grain also in your first image.
Please try to deactivate any "grain" post process.

Aura add no grain. The volumetric lighting is dithered but the rest is untouched.

 

Mike: Check the reprojection settings, in the main aura component. turn it on/off, and change the intensity. Also, what are your parameters for fog distance, and resolution/slices?

 

There is no post process at all in the scene, it is the bog standard assets driving scene, all flat non textured objects being lit by a single directional light, there is nothing else happening but Aura gives the horrible effect that is just not usable for us, it is well hidden in light areas but that's not possible for us. If you try with the Standard Assets driving scene and see if you get the same results.
@Jesus - Tried changing all settings nothing removes the effect.

 

I really had to censor myself here...

Here is your screenshot "without Aura", brightened in Photoshop :

 

So if I use your asset on a simple Standard Asset scene with just flat shading I can expect to get this speckle, I am not doing anything other than flat shaded objects with directional lighting, no post processes, no image effects, the screen grabs are direct from that, what Unity does with its rendering and then Aura does is out of my control, so basically Aura will just not work with such a basic darkish scene.
I have done another test with an even more simple scene, new empty scene, added a cube, added a Unity Standard material with dark gray color to it, that's it, and here is a zoomed in grab from Unity.

Can we agree that that is just a gray cube?
Right then I add the Aura Main Component to the camera and below is the result.
Now I cant get any more basic than that but Aura overlays the speckles again, so again just asking is that what it will do in a very simple scene with dark objects? Where is the color coming from in this example? I don't see anything in the original image? Is Unity adding in this? If so why when it is just a bog simple gray material?

 

Mike, you're doing something because the speckle is pretty bad in your default scene. And there's no reason it should be like that unless you're doing some kind of postprocessing or special lighting. Default Unity doesn't have that.



I did an empty scene, same as you, (even with the 5X zoom in the view) and I don't have a single speckle. It's like you're running in 256 color mode or something and it's dithering.

 

I am doing nothing, totally empty project, one cube, one light and Aura and that is what I am getting, I am only asking for help as to what is causing it, I would like to use this Asset but can't due to this problem. I have a GeForce 1080 with latest drivers and all games etc run and look just fine, the only time I see this problem is when Aura is turned on so I am kinda assuming the issue lies there. If it were an issue with hardware, drivers or anything else I would expect to see the speckle everywhere or even in the scene view but I don't it only shows up in the Game view when Aura is turned on.

 

Some assets don't work right in 2017.3 ,,,
there is a new stable version out Unity2017.4.0f1
I don't know if that might help.

 

What device is it running on, drivers, unity version, specific rendering (deferred etc) ? Does aura use blue noise and perhaps that texture format has been changed in import settings etc - any clues or ideas?

If this can't be solved you'll have to ask for a refund of absolutely nothing and sometimes authors won't give nothing back, and sometimes they'll give you nothing. Here is hoping it will lead to nothing though.

 

@MikeUpchat , give the correct info next time please.
As I said, Aura dithers the volumetric lighting, so yes the result will be dithered. It was already explained that using temporal anti aliasing solved this counterpart.
You gave a screenshot with Aura and said that it was without so I could only say that the grain was visible in it.

So if it bothers you, you can deactivate it in the AuraUsage.cginc and reimport the Shaders folder. But banding or a visual downgrade could appear.

A few thoughts now...
- if I need help, I refrain from complaining and being negative and aggressive (especially with words like horrible, unusable, ruining...)
- if I need help, I refrain from spamming and trolling, especially when I am the one giving the wrong information.
- if I am using a free solution, I refrain from claiming and bitching because it does not what I imagine/want

Now I hope that you'll be able to work with Aura

 

Just started playing with Aura; very impressive results so far. Only niggle for me, are transparent materials - they seem totally unaffected. Is it something I'm doing incorrectly, or does the current version of Aura not handle transparent mats?

Sure others must have said it, but thanks for this amazing product.

 

My pleasure!

You must use the provided shader for transparent materials (Aura/Standard/Transparent) or modify another like explained in the doc ;-)

 

Ahh, I don't have that shader. Maybe my Aura version isn't up to date

Edit: The Aura/AlphaBlend shader? - yes, that works.

 

Sorry I wrote that out by memory between two classes

 

Seems to work out of the box in v2018.b12 - standard 3D project !
Nice work - Thank You raphick for sharing this !

 

My pleasure!

 

Yep 2018.1.0b12 working here too, out of the box. Looks incredible.

 

Hi @raphick, is there a list of assets or settings that may cause Aura to crash on import. I tried adding the github and that didn't work. I have just tried the asset store version and again unfortunately it crashes unity. Obviously it must be my project as everyone is getting great results but no idea how to track down what it could be.

Unity 2017.4 version. I know this is a long shot and very light on info but I've not got past import as of yet.

 

Well I know it works with 2017.4, I just upgraded to that a few days ago. Are you importing it into a fresh, empty project? Might be best to try that first.