[RELEASED] Imposter System OPTIMIZATION

Looks amazing, do you have an updated link to the trial version? Id love to try this before I buy.

Also "You cant use image effects on 'imposterCamera' otherwise you will have incorrect atlas rendering. " - does that mean unity's own postprocessing effects wont work?

 

I bought this on the sale and must say it works pretty good. I also bought Amplify Impostors and was much happier with this asset. Hope publisher keeps up Updates

 

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using UnityEditor;
5. using ImposterSystem;
6.  
7. [ExecuteInEditMode]
8. //Notes: this will build out a scene while in edit mode as soon as you click on the "setupImposters" or "removeImposters" boxes.
9. //Notes: MultiSelect all prefabs and add your "tagToUpdate", tag to them all.
10. //Notes: only the parent Gameobject with a Mesh renderer should have the tagtoUpdate, Child objects that are LODs should not.
11. //Notes: this can permanently destroy aspects of your scene, always copy your project before testing.  This is ment for simple Setups so complex parenting of objects will like cause unwanted destruction in the scene
12. //Notes: Create an Empty Gameobject and add the ImposterController to it, Save as a prefab and link that to prefabImposter here. this should have any setups that you perfer already set.
13. //Notes: Add this to ImpostersHandler in the Scene.
14. //Notes: Remove or disable this after scene is setup.
15.  
16.  
17. public class JBR_ImposterSetup : MonoBehaviour {
18.     [Tooltip("Check this button to Setup all imposters in the scene")]
19.     public bool setupImposters = false;
20.     [Tooltip("Check this button to Remove all imposters in the scene")]
21.     public bool removeImposters = false;
22.  
23.  
24.     [Tooltip("The Tag that an object needs, if we add imposters")]
25.     public string tagtoUpdate = "Building";
26.     [Tooltip("Array of all Imposter Gameobjects created, reference only")]
27.     public GameObject[] objectsToAddImposters;
28.     [Tooltip("A prefab with ImposterController already added, this should already have the individual specs setup")]
29.     public GameObject prefabImposter;
30.  
31.     //The New Imposter Gameobject that is being setup
32.     private GameObject imposterSetup;
33.     //ref to ImposterController script
34.     private ImposterController imposterControl;
35.     //not currently used, will be for more complex Lods
36.     private GameObject[] childObjects;
37.  
38.  
39.  
40.     private void Update()
41.     {
42.         if (setupImposters)
43.         {
44.             objectsToAddImposters = new GameObject[0];
45.             setupImposters = false;
46.             SetupImposters();
47.         }
48.  
49.         if (removeImposters)
50.         {
51.             objectsToAddImposters = new GameObject[0];
52.             removeImposters = false;
53.             RemoveImposters();
54.         }
55.     }
56.     // Use this for initialization
57.     void Start()
58.     {
59.    
60.     }
61.     public void SetupImposters()
62.     {
63.         //FInd all objects with tag
64.         objectsToAddImposters = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(tagtoUpdate);
65.         //loop through all objects found
66.         for (int i = 0; i < objectsToAddImposters.Length; i++)
67.         {
68.             Debug.Log("CHecking " + objectsToAddImposters[i] + "For ImposterController");
69.             //dont do anything is this gameobject has Imposter scripts on them already
70.             if (!objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<OriginalGOController>() && !objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<ImposterController>())
71.             {
72.                 //make sure object has a mesh renderer
73.                 if (objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<MeshRenderer>())
74.                 {
75.                     //TO DO : add child objects with a mesh renderer
76.  
77.                     //add prefab to scene, in same position and rotation as object to imposter
78.                     imposterSetup = Instantiate(prefabImposter, objectsToAddImposters[i].transform.position, objectsToAddImposters[i].transform.rotation) as GameObject;
79.                     //parent object to ImposterController
80.                     objectsToAddImposters[i].transform.parent = imposterSetup.transform;
81.                     //rename imposter parent
82.                     imposterSetup.name = (objectsToAddImposters[i].name + "_ImposterLOD");
83.                     //reference imposter Controller
84.                     imposterControl = imposterSetup.GetComponent<ImposterController>();
85.                     //add originalGOController to object
86.                     objectsToAddImposters[i].AddComponent<OriginalGOController>();
87.  
88.                     //add object to LOD0, Note this only works for one LOD object currently
89.                     imposterControl.m_LODs[0].renderers = new OriginalGOController[1];
90.                     imposterControl.m_LODs[0].renderers[0] = objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<OriginalGOController>();
91.                     //add object to LOD1, Note this only works for one LOD object currently
92.                     imposterControl.m_LODs[1].renderers = new OriginalGOController[1];
93.                     imposterControl.m_LODs[1].renderers[0] = objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<OriginalGOController>();
94.                     //make this second LOD the imposter
95.                     imposterControl.m_LODs[1].isImposter = true;
96.                     Debug.Log("Imposter Setup Finished on -" + objectsToAddImposters[i]);
97.                 }
98.                 else
99.                 {
100.                     Debug.Log(objectsToAddImposters[i] + " Did not have a mesh renderer so it was skipped");
101.                 }
102.             }
103.             else
104.             {
105.                 Debug.Log(objectsToAddImposters[i] + "-has Imposter Controller");
106.             }
107.         }
108.     }
109.  
110.     public void RemoveImposters()
111.     {
112.         //FInd all objects with tag
113.         objectsToAddImposters = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(tagtoUpdate);
114.         //loop through all objects found
115.         for (int i = 0; i < objectsToAddImposters.Length; i++)
116.         {
117.  
118.             if (objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<OriginalGOController>())
119.             {
120.                 //remove OriginalGOController
121.                 DestroyImmediate(objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<OriginalGOController>(),true);
122.  
123.                 Transform main = objectsToAddImposters[i].transform.parent;
124.                 objectsToAddImposters[i].transform.parent = null;
125.                 if (main != null)
126.                 {
127.                     if (!main.GetComponent<MeshRenderer>())
128.                     {
129.                         DestroyImmediate(main.gameObject, true);
130.                     }
131.                
132.                 }
133.            
134.             }
135.  
136.             if (objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<ImposterController>())
137.             {
138.                 if (objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<MeshRenderer>())
139.                 {
140.                     //remove ImposterController
141.                     DestroyImmediate(objectsToAddImposters[i].GetComponent<ImposterController>(), true);
142.                 }
143.                 else
144.                 {
145.                     //loop through all childern
146.                     foreach(Transform child in objectsToAddImposters[i].transform)
147.                     {
148.                         //un-child all childern before destroying
149.                         child.transform.parent = null;
150.                     }
151.                     DestroyImmediate(objectsToAddImposters[i], true);
152.                 }
153.             }
154.  
155.  
156.         }
157.     }
158. }
159.  

For anyone that wants a quick way to setup a prebuilt scene. Note it does have a few limitations like only 1 lod level,& only 1 MeshRenderer per group. This could potentially break a scene so always test on a backup first.

 

Just curious:

Without asking why I would do that , would this work on 2D sprites (quads) and particle systems (shuriken) as well?
What about VR single pass and custom shaders?
Does it support custom rendering pipelines or dynamic rendering resolution change?

I do own the asset, but I'm just asking if they're officially supported. I haven't delved into the details of its implementation.

 

Just been looking at the amplify one, what was wrong with it ? I wish these people did free trial versions.

 

Hi

I don't have any standalone VR helmet like Oculus, so can't test and proof that Imposter System works for VR.
I had customers that wanted to use my asset with VR, but with no luck. We faced bugs with rendering to RenderTextures in VR-mode. Maybe in future, when I will have more time, I will buy VR helmet and test Imposter System with it.

 

Imposter system would work with 2D sprites (quads).
With particles it's a bit complicated. First of all particles have dynamic bounds, that's why they may be outside of imposter texture. Also, particle's shaders don't write to z buffer, so ImposterSystem's shader can't draw them.
Here is color channel of imposter texture with particle system:

Alpha channel of the same texture:

Final result:

But if you have experience in writing shader, you can change ImposterSystem's shader to the way you want.

Can't say anything about VR
Imposter System using standard forward rendering, so custom shaders must work with forward rendering and write to z-buffer.

 

No, now there is no trial version. But you can buy asset, and if it doesn't work I will refund you money.

Yes, unity's own postprocessing effects won't work on 'imposterCamera'(camera, that used to render imposter textures, it's not your game camera).
Also, you don't want image effects on this camera Imposter texture must look just like original object, without any changes in color or shape, because this breaks the 'effect' of imposter.

 

Hope you happier with my asset
Yes, updates will be soon... Or later if I will decide to rewrite the whole system from scratch.

Hmmm, need to add similar fast scene setup in future updates.

 

@MUGIK
Im testing this with Cscape and the imposter has different lighting than the original. In general its alot darker. Cscape is using a cutom shader so im guessing that may be to blame. But any ideas or help would be appriciated.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/?stay#!/content/86716

 

Can you confirm, that you using forward rendering path?
Is imposter-texture dark or exactly rendered imposter?

 

The Imposter is several Shades Darker then the actual building, it still looks good but there's an obvious popping of color when it transitions.

Unfortunately I've been very busy at work getting caught up before the holidays but as soon as I get a chance I will find out if I was in the wrong rendering get back to you .
thank you

 

It seems this project is dead! What a pitty! Such system would revolutionize far-rendering scenarios!

 

Dead why so ? Publisher just replied to a question had a month ago.. It actually works really well..

 

Maybe, but did you tested the plugin with the latest Unity 2018.3.x ? Cause, the publisher had his last update on jul 9th, 2018! And a almost seven month old release is nothing I would buy! Sorry, if I have reacted in a prejudicial way. But the publisher could do a simple update, just to confirm that his plugin works on newer versions.

 

I have not tested in 2018.3, i did test in 2018.2f20. Yes hopefully @MUGIK checks and possibly updates soon..

Youve been around for a while and should know that unity's newest version always seems to have issues with either breaking assets or issues in unity itself. So I dont like being an early adopter.

 

Hi!
I 100% understand your position.
Please, don't buy this asset until I make a new version. It will not be just an update.

 

Do you have a rough eta on the new system ?

 

No.
But I can say that in new version/iteration of my project I would use ECS and multithreading techniques that will heavily reduce load on CPU.
Main functionality will stay the same.

 

Any further news on this, and whether it will work in deferred/forward, and with GI/dynamic lighting/global fog?

 

Would love to hear about as well. Any news and a little question on top: Usable for HDRP?

 

Based on the fact that the current version is not compatible with 2018.3 and that you recommend we wait until the next version I'll follow your advice. However, you did indicate you did not know when the new version would be available. Unfortunately, I can't wait too long. Is there any general estimate such as whether it would be weeks or months? If you really don't know then I'll just look for another option.

 

Who said current version is not compatible with 2018.3? It works fine if don't use HDRP and LWRP.

HDRP and LWRP will be supported only for unity 2019.x

 

Sorry for late response.
For now, I diving into HDRP. Already I can say, that HDRP will be supported only for unity 2019.x

 

Oh, I must have misunderstood. Well, I think that's good news then. Will version 2 be a free update or will there be a reasonable upgrade path? I would hate to buy it now and then have it deprecated a short time after with a new version out.

 

Hello. I have a problem on mobile. It render the imposter with a black background.

 

Hi!
Make sure that 'Use 32-bit Display Buffer' in player settings is enabled.

 

Old version will not be deprecated after update. Current system has almost all you need.
New version will be in beta until HDRP and DOTS are in the final stage.

 

Hello,even with 32-bit display I have the same problem. Also, sometimes this problem occurs on editor too.

 

Weird... Please, tell your unity version, ImpostersHandler's settings and Player's settings

 

Does this work when using baked lightmaps for mobile using the Lighting mode called Shadowmask?

 

Hi,

I had a few questions (I have not purchased the asset yet by the way).

My understanding is that at runtime (so when scene loads) your asset will "convert" the 3D objects "marked" as impostors into 2d billboards. If that is the case is this a lengthy process? I'm working in mobile so this is important information for me.

Also once the scene is loaded (assuming above is true) my camera moves at a very specific y-axis only. So I don't think I need to have camera facing option enabled. So basically I would use this to setup my 3d background at start of scene level and not touch it throughout the game. What is the performance of the asset in this scenario. I mean, does it still do any work or is it dormant.

Thanks.

 

From my tests it seems to work good on mobile.
It updates based of what you set as angle difference from last imposter drawn to current camera angle vs your object.. So an angle of say .1 degee will update rather often compared to say 5 degees, but will be a very noticable change when it happens. You can also set how many bilboards update per frame to keep performance better.
I tested this with cscape and was impressed at how many buildings could be replaced (at rather close distances) to keep a seemingly large city with only 25k tris vs oringinal 250k tris.

In general the real advantage of this asset vs editor baked imposters (like amplfy imposters )is the quality of the imposter. This asset keeps the objects looking good at impressively close distances at the expense of a bit of runtime performance.

 

Thanks for getting back and answers.

 

Yes, converting happens at runtime, but in general case only when camera sees object. If you want to create all imposters right after scene is loaded, you can do this with

ImpostersHandler.Instance.UpdateAllImpostersImmediately();

If I understand your case right, then you want to update all imposters at once. So you need to know how many objects can be converted at a short time. About 1000 imposters per second. But this value depends on computational power of target device.

You have descrived the best scenerio I can imagine. Yes, system will stop processing objects every frame and you will get only fast drawing mesh. To do so you need to populate all imposters you want and disable imposters updating.

ImpostersHandler.Instance.disableImpostersUpdating = true;

 

Thank You for the information.

 

Hi everyone!

Recently I tested and played around with new Unity's Job Systems.
From my tests, Jobs itself doesn't give much performance boost. But...
Burst compiler makes some kind of magic. In my tests, I got more than 100x performance increase!

Of course, I have tried to implement Imposter System using Jobs and Burst compiler. Unfortunately, I was not able to implement the whole system, but only a mathematical part. The way it works is to calculate all needed variables in jobs and then copy them to the old system. And here is the main problem. Copying a lot of data from the array of structs to the array of classes takes a lot of time. So, the end result is even worse than the old system.

Currently, I trying to find a way to implement the whole system using Jobs, Burst and only structs. It is a difficult task because the system needs to include all old features like multiple camera support, shadow casting, mesh combining, fading and others. This creates a lot of variations that are easy to solve in OOP paradigma, but not in data-oriented paradigma. And I start to think if all these features are needed? Does anyone use them? Can I remove some functionality to offer an insane performance boost?

That is why I asking for your feedback about Imposter System.
1. How do you use it? (I would love to see your projects)
2. How many imposters in your scene?
3. Do you use multiple cameras?
4. Do you use imposter shadow casting?
5. Do you use imposter's fading?
6. Do you use 'Mesh Renderer' render type? (ImposterHandler.impostersRenderType)
7. How many imposters('Render as imposter') do you have in LOD settings in ImposterController component?
8. Do you have performance issues when moving the camera?

I didn't make a poll in google forms just because I want to be able to identify who is answering and maybe continue the discussion.
Sorry, for wasting your time, but these questions are really important for me and for the future of Imposter System.

Thanks! Have a nice day!

P.S.
Yes, today is a day off, so I do not ask for an instant reply.

 

Ill work on getting better answers for you soon but..
1. Large city , currently testing with Cscape.
2. 1000 buildings ,although many are occcluded.
3. 1 camera (currently)
4. Maybe
5. Maybe
6. Most performance render type
7. I actually modified your code a bit to make extra lod i think. (Closer faster updated, farther slow updating). Would likely perfer 3 lod levels for just the imposters..
8. Depending on the view, how many imposters are visible, and update speed. Yes it drops FPS below 10 for a second. Mostly only when camera is moving fast and alot have to update constantly. Like a fast moving airplane over a city..

Note: im only testing to see how large i can make a map on mobile platform .. Has already made a big difference from about 10 fps to around 30-40..

 

Hi,

now, i just began to use it with an oculus go (VR) project and it seems to works great. (but the camera is oculus go is static)
I like this asset but didn't try it a lot for now so my feedback is not very useful, but i encourage you to continue to work on it

I would like to have a "baking" option like amplify imposter, to avoid runtime calculation.

 

Just curious, this would work fine with synty nature models?

 

I don't know what is special about synty nature models, but it works fine with speed trees.

 

Hi guys, we bought your asset but we are having some issues.
This ugly effect happens when we move the camera:

Is it possible to minimize or avoid this?
Can you give us some tips to avoid it?
Thanks in advance

 

Hi again, we are trying to optimize the system by using the Imposter system whenever we detect movement by the player or not.
So far we have tested with this instructions:
OnMovementDetected() we tried the following:
impostershandler.enabled(false) ---->. works well but when we turn it on again game freezes for 1/2 sec
impostershandler.disableImpostersUpdating(true) -> whenever we move there are some trees that we just can see the shadow, not the model or the imposter
impostershandler.ignoreimpostersystem(true) -> gives this expeption:

[Exception] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
ImposterController.ShadowWillRendered() Assets/ImposterSystem/Scripts/ImposterController.cs:225
223: else // need that else
224: {
-->225: if (_currentLODIndex == -1 || !m_LODs[_currentLODIndex].isImposter || !_curImposter.isGenerated)
226: {
227: if (_shadowCaster != null)

ImpostersHandler.ProcessCamera() Assets/ImposterSystem/Scripts/ImpostersHandler.cs:698
696: }
697: if ((shadowCastingEnabled || (shadowsEnabledOnLight && !isVisible)) && _curRenderable.nowDistance < shadowDistance)
-->698: _curRenderable.ShadowWillRendered();
699: }
700: }

ImpostersHandler.OnPreCullForCamera() Assets/ImposterSystem/Scripts/ImpostersHandler.cs:623
621: {
622: if (needProcess)
-->623: ProcessCamera(camDetector);
624: }

Camera.FireOnPreCull() /Users/builduser/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/Export/Camera/Camera.bindings.cs:347

 

Hi! Thank you for purchase!
Imposter System works really bad with fast-moving cameras, which is the cost of performance.
I think there is no way to avoid such behavior because your camera changes view angle very fast.

I can suggest you try Amplify Impostors, which perfectly works when there are many identical objects.

Contact me at PM with your invoice number, if you want a refund.

 

You need to try CameraDetector.ignoreImposterSystem.
If you did so and got this error then let me know, because I do not have such error.

 

Thats the error I'm getting when using CameraDetector.ignoreImposterSystem.
Im using Unity 2019.1.8f1 on macOSX and iOS build

EDIT: I just realized if I disable the Shadow casting from the Handler the error doesn't appear

 

here is where the exeption is being thrown:

 

Hi

To prevent such ugly update effect you can try to set 'ImposterController.updateBehavior' to
'Show3DObject_WaitForUpdate'.

With this setting enabled objects will be showing as 3d objects until imposter texture is not created. This will cause performance drop when camera moving really fast(zooming effect), but when camera is not moving you will get pretty good results.

 

Hi..just purchase it yesterday.I follow the tutorial and it works as describe

But one thing i want to ask, doest it work with lightmap on LOD0?
One more thing, i have a low end device that run just fine with real meshes(with lightmap and occlusion) with outdoor scenery with lot of trees. So i replace most of trees mostly unreachable one with imposters but the performance is getting worst. Any tips on performance?

 

Hi!

Yes. it works with lightmaps. If in your case it doesn't, then share more details.

How fast your camera moves?
How many trees you have?
Did you try to decrease the 'Error camera angle' on ImposterController? So imposters will less often require update.
Also, you can try to decrease the 'Max Updates Per Frame' on ImpostersHandler.

The main performance problem is how often impostors update. The more often the more performance spikes.