[RELEASED] Landscape Auto Material terrain&foliage toolset

Hi,

I saw someone asked about RTS map building, so I grabbed my own Tower Defense RTS Human Towers package and LAM some elves to show what it looks like with them all in and a more Top Down perspective.






Cheers
Cobus

 

I opened up the project in 5.4 b19 and all LAM/Foliage/Tree Leaves shaders are all pink. Any way to get the leaves shader work in the latest 5.4 beta?

 

That's a known problem, we'll be fixing it in the first update (which is coming soon). For now, you can open Shaders/Trees/Lam_TreeLeaves.shader and uncomment the two commented #include lines - this should fix the problem.

 

After some brief testing I can confirm SpeedTree works great with LAM. Placing SpeedTree grass as batched foliage along with some tweaking of the cull/lod settings on the grass yielded some great results. The culling may have been a bit high but this was running at around 55 fps on a 980m. Batched foliage showed a marked improvement over placing trees using the built in terrain tools. (I also switched it over to def. linear lighting for a more natural look)

For the grass I used our Desktop Backyard Grass Cluster with our Desktop Rough Grass Cluster and adjusted the scale in the LAM foliage type so that they would be around the same size. the Rough grass is typically much taller than the backyard grass. Weighting the rough grass lower created a nice variation when using the multi foliage placement tool.

I used the Desktop Ground Cover and Desktop Tree Package assets to put this together. Looking forward to using this with Gaia!

Cool Stuff!

 

This is looking stunning and very valuable feedback
Thanks for sharing

 

One more just because it's pretty.

 

Pic isn't showing

 

Weird. Should be fixed.

 

the SpeedTree Desktop Ground Cover Package looking good in LAM man

 

Please more Screenshots an reviews about LAM please i need more input of them

 

It's coming in now

 

Hi, this looks great.

My players can create their own levels using Multiplatform Runtime Editor I'm wondering if I can use the auto placement features as they build their terrains at runtime?

Thanks

 

The texture painting happens in the shader, so it would work at runtime just as good as in Unity editor. Foliage placement, though, is being updated in background by our editor script, that won't work at runtime. You can add you own updating script though, it's not hard. Basically find what terrain part needs updating and call the same code as our script (EditorTerrainUpdater.cs) does.

 

ok thanks

 

Hey there, In the documentation it says you can use 3 Layers + Any additional layers using Unity's standard terrain.
When I add a new layer it gets deleted when I refresh the materials.

How do I add additional layers properly?
Cheers

 

Additional layers are only available with Additive shader. Choose "Additive with 3 layers" in the shader dropdown and add more layers in terrain inspector. These layers will be destroyed if you switch back to non-additive ("Dispalcement") shader.

 

Hello couldn't you tell me have your foliage billboard-generate-system, or will be scene with 5x5 km with ~35r (camera farClip = 1km) trees wth wind and your foliage shader playable?

 

If I may ask one general question about the tool; how come, at least in videos, in Unity version of LAM during paintings there are no disappearing (and popping out and in) of the grass and foliage around? During using of brush of the road for example? In Unreal videos it is very noticeable, in Unity's not...
Is that because of internal architecture of different engines or..?

 

Our foliage system does not support billboards at the moment. Billboard grass is planned in a future update.
5x5km terrain should be possible, though you might want to reconfigure AutoPainter to use terrain engine trees instead of prefabs like we do.

The engines are indeed very different. In UE4, foliage is controlled by shader output - this is why repainting happens basically instantaneously, but the actual grass patches are spawned by the engine and pop in and out.
In Unity, however, foliage is controlled by C# script and must be spawned by our system - it works a lot slower, and when painting you don't see immediate popping. The grass WOULD "pop in" a bit later, when the background update process gets to it.

If you're painting with small strokes, it looks even better than UE4 - the grass just appears where you want it. If you paint like half a terrain in one stroke, you'd have to wait for background updates to catch up (you can still paint, it's just that the grass isn't there yet).

 

Thank you very much for explanation... (Iam film director, not game makers, one of that kind who know basics of those two engines and still trying to decide which one is better for animated movies making purposes.
Dealing with your wonderful asset is one of deciding points...)

 

What platforms are supported??? Desktop, I know any others?


Also, I wonder how this would work with TC2, Magic Map, which have some form of streaming/Chunk, system in place. Which is used for large Worlds with Multi tile terrains etc...Also with tools like UNature.. for grass and trees,

 

I have some questions about LAM.

Does LAM equate to using Unity's painting feature on the terrain, but fancier? Will it work with procedural systems like Gaia and Terrain Composer 2? Can one put in values and have the entire terrain painted or do we have to paint it all by hand?

I suspect the latter, but wondering how it works. Thanks.

 

Okay, read the manual and auto, yes! So happy about that.

My other question, which may come to late since I really want this...is Unity going to be fully supported? The road map is very strong for UE, but nothing really for Unity other than another demo. I would love to see a multi-tile demo, with full support, etc.

 

Hi @VEAGamesTeam

I am sure that I speak for many people here.

When are we going to see some tutorial material to be able to start our own terrain from scratch and do our own project with the scripts and such that come with the purchase.
I have tested and played with the included DEMO scene, it is awesome, but the novelty has worn of and one need to be able to do this to to use it as an actual game tool.

Show us how to load own other grasses, trees and rocks please ?

$149 is a lot of money that I spent on something that seems to just have been abandoned or DE-prioretized.

Cheers
Cobus

 

If you check out the "Manual" link at the top, you'll notice that we've added a section explaning exactly that. It's a bit dry right now, but the basics are there. We're preparing the first update that is almost ready and should go to Unity approval on the next week.

 

Thanks for updating the manual. I haven't read through it yet but hopefully it helps.

Next time, could you please post that the manual has been updated? I had no idea and had given up on the asset.

It is good to know that the project has not been abandoned.

BTW...thanks, Cobus!

 

We've actually hoped to announce update submission today, along with the additions to the manual. But then we noticed that our latest version has lost a little bit of performance and decided to delay the update to investigate... so we did not announce anything and the manual update kinda fell through the cracks, sorry (-8

 

Thanks @VEAGamesTeam for the reply,

I am happy for I love the autopaint and many other features
Thanks for the work on the documentation and improvements of the product itself
I want to use it and getting more development is great.

Cheers
Cobus

 

Any ETA on when you'll have a video tutorial starting from a scratch terrain to a fully working LAM setup terrain?
Talking about how to get other vegetation models and textures in so we can easily see how to use our own stuff as well.

 

This is the main thing that's stopping me from getting this asset so the sooner you can have a comprehensive set of tutorials up then great

 

They've added "Setting up LAM from scratch" to the Manual

 

It might be wishful thinking, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that you were planning to release the foliage system alone, but now I can't seem to find it.

I'm very interested in the foliage system, but the price is a bit to steep, and I wont need the terrain shaders anyways. - Are there any plans to release the foliage system alone at a lower price? - Unity's current terrain vegetation system is pretty terrible.

 

Well you're not wrong, but... it's complicated.
Officially as part of VEA team I can say that part of the deal with the Unity programmer who developed LAM Unity was the he has the right to release foliage system as a standalone package - as it's not really part of LAM porting job.
Personally, as the programmer in question, I can assure you I did plan to release it, but since then some other projects intervened. As it is, I only have time to support LAM proper (not even enough for that, sadly), and the standalone foliage system has basically fallen off the radar. I would still like to release it someday, but right now it's not really useable, buggy and completely undocumented.

 

Does this mean you are not going to support LAM properly? I get that life is busy but really, if you release assets, they need to be supported.

 

Nope, we're not dropping support, obviously. It's just that we wish we could do even more.

 

I've been using this the past few days and I've run into a couple of issue which are causing me frustration and contemplating not using this tool. Hopefully you can provide some guidance as to what I'm doing wrong.

I'm using Unity 5.3.5f1

Firstly if I load the default scene and click "repaint layers" I immediately lose 99% of my grass and other details. I haven't found any way to revert other than revert my file changes completely via perforce

Secondly I've been unable to follow the "Setting up LAM from scratch" guide at all.

I can create a terrain and add the "LAMTerrainTool" component but it refuses to expand the details for the inspector for it so I can't select the shader I want to use. My console gives me the following nullreference exception

Now if I add any single texture to the terrain under the paint texture tab and then readd the "LAMTerrainTool" I now have the expanded inspector settings and can select my desired shader but as soon as I go to my layers setting and hit + to add a new one the layers window minimizes and with no ability to input anything and I get the following console errors.

 

Is it possible to export generated vegetation masks?

 

I am running LAM in unity 5.4, and there seems to be something off about the grass. the colour is all washed out / grey and not bright like in all of the screenshots I have seen. This screenshot is taken from a new terrain, however it also looks like this in the demo scene.

I am running this on quite a powerful system with dual GTX980's, latest drivers/ directx etc. Not sure why its displaying like this.

here is a screenshot



I am not getting any errors in the console either.

 

Just wanted to say thanks to @VEAGamesTeam for the latest patch release and the bug fixes

 

Finally, the LAM 1.01 update is approved by Unity and available on Asset Store. The fixes include:

• Fixed console log spam
• Changed demo to use default project render path. This may cause a bit of performance drop if your project is using forward rendering pass
• Fixed up prefabs, removed unused assets
• Fixed incorrect wind animation on last tree LOD
• Fixed terrain shader displaying incorrect normals
• Fixed texture layers not updating when changing in LAMTerrainTool
• Fixed leaves shader compilation on 5.4 beta
• Added guard against simultaneous foliage updates
• Added settings prefab for easier setup
• Changed settings to support linear lighting
• Added some stuff to manual

@5LS-Brent this update should fix the errors you were getting.
@MrScrumbles001 and your problem looks like an incorrect linear-color setup, also fixed by this update.

I know the wait was long, but the update is finally here and we're working on the next one. Thanks for your patience and feedback everyone!

 

Thanks for the linear updates! That might have been part of my issue too.

 

It doesn't work I'm afraid, running 5.4.0.f3

I even started a brand new project and imported nothing but LAM to test it.

After creating a terrain and adding the LAM Terrain Tool Component I get the following console error

If I continue following the tutorial anyway and a new layer I get the following Null Reference Exception again

At this point I don't know if it's an inherent error with the LAM plugin or you've missed a step in the tutorial that needs to be performed beforehand

 

Whoops, you're right, there's a bug that only happens with completely new terrains on new projects when LAM package is imported. We've fixed it and submitted version 1.02, it should arrive in a few days.

 

I've been giving this a good test for the past week or so, another issue I've encountered. When loading Unity and then opening up a scene using LAM the grass is slightly darker than normal. If I click "repaint layers" it still occurs and isn't fixed until I go to the disp & colouring tab and click "paint colouring" I don't even need to paint any info it just suddenly is fixed.

Now this is a workaround for in the editor but it also occurs when I create and run build when obviously I can't fix the issue.

I'm using a linear with deferred.

I thought it could be my version control (Perforce) not checking out (and making writable) the colour paint texture but forcing the file to check out makes no difference.

Below is some screenshots of the issue

 

The tool looks absolutely amazing. There are some problems though. Before I buy the tool i want to know some things, because the $150 price-tag catches my eye. The tool looks beautiful but people are saying its terribly optimized (i don't just mean using it but frames wise) i also get that being a game developer id have to do much of that myself,but people are also saying the tool is super clunky feeling, and that it has problems importing there own assets and things. There also seem to be no tutorials out for the tool, though there are videos the only videos for unity are the demo, and the getting started, which really isn't really a tutorial, just showing off the tool more.which is another problem, because there is no way of testing the tool before buying it for $150 and having no way to refund it. so the only videos for unity are the demo, and the getting started, which really isn't a tutorial. Other then those things the tool looks amazing and i still am thinking about buying it, its just some things need to happen for the price to be justified. You guys seem to be really good at replying and i think that you guys are working on some stuff i mentioned, i just wanted to post this because i wanted to be sure. Super great looking tool though(cant stress that enough.

 

We haven't noticed this problem before, but will definitely look into it. Meanwhile, check if "Apply Material Properties" button in Terrain Tool inspector fixes the issue. If it does, then you can call it from code (LAMTerrainTool.ApplyMaterialProperties()) and this would work in the builds too.
Update
I've found the issue, and the method you want to call is LAMTerrainTool.SetGrassShaderPropertiesGlobal(). You can do this once right at scene load, like in a Start method somewhere, and it should fix the grass coloring.
We're not calling it automatically since this may break multi-terrain setups, but we probably should anyway (and add a way to disable it for multiple terrains)

 

That seems to fix it, not ideal though long term as we do want to use multi-terrain setups eventually

 

So if it is disabled for multi-terrains then will the coloring be broken again? I plan to use multi-terrains too.

 

Multi-terrain setups are totally possible but require a bit more setting up. The thing is, a terrain has to provide some values to the grass shader so that grass color follows your painted texture. The simple way to do that is to just stick them into globals and be done with it - but this only works if there's only one terrain with grass.
For a multi-terrain setup, we provide a component called LAMCopyTerrainMaterialProps that is added to the grass prefab. It finds the terrain that the grass is part of and sends correct values to the shader in Start(). We really should add this stuff to the manual someday...

 

LOL Yes, you should!