[RELEASED] Landscape Auto Material terrain&foliage toolset

I've found another issue with using non-square terrains, mainly due to the height. If I set the terrain to 500W x 500L x 500H any painting (colour painting or foliage) works correctly, the painting is circular and matches the brush size as pictured below


Now if I change the height to 2000 I get the following, stretched stroke.


To further exaggerate the issue if I use a value lower than the width/height it stretches in the opposite direction, here's one using 1 height



This also occurs when using the LAM painting foliage too, groups of foliage are painted down as stretched strokes.

 

I fixed it locally, CustomTerrainBrushBase.cs line 69

var radiusX = Size/terrain.terrainData.size.x;
var radiusY = Size/terrain.terrainData.size.z; <<<<<< was size.y
rect = new Rect(uv.x - radiusX, uv.y - radiusY, 2*radiusX, 2*radiusY);

 

Whoops! I could've sworn I'd fixed this, but somehow it's still in the released version... sorry, the fix @dizzy2003 suggested is correct, use it.

 

Hello. Congratulations for the asset. I am interested in buying it for my project, but i have many scripts and other assets in my project. If I have compatibility problems, I can return/refund the product. Thank you

 

Hello, is this asset still being supported? I am thinking about buying it but I don't want to throw $150 on a dead package. I see the last question here went a month without being answered, not really a good sign!

Does anyone who has purchased this have any experience with larger (~3x3k units) terrains?

 

While we're not as active on the forums as we'd like, the asset is in fact supported. A larger terrain should work with LAM, but memory requirements would be pretty high.

 

At this point, I don't recommend it. I feel like I wasted money it. If it improves, I will be the first to tell everyone to buy it.

 

That's sad to hear, the concept is really amazing. I guess I'll check back later to see if the problems were ironed out

 

Quick question about the mask texture LAM Details Auto Painter component, is this imaged used at run-time at all? I'm curious to know how big we can go with the resolution of this image but I'm cautious of the performance impact and memory usage it may have if it's used at run-time

 

Hi,VEAGamesTeam,it's a problem when I create a terrain 5km*5km. When the terrain is farther than 2km, it's disapper by tiles rather than show in a lower resolution image.When I remove the LAM terrain Tool ,it get right.
Is that normal? Can LAM supports big scenes.

reported error
TerrainData is missing splat texture 0.
UnityEngine.TerrainData:set_splatPrototypes(SplatPrototype[])
VEAGames.LAM.LAMTerrainTool:EnsureLayerCount() (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Scripts/LAMTerrainTool.cs:149)
VEAGames.LAM.LAMTerrainTool:ApplyMaterialProperties() (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Scripts/LAMTerrainTool.cs:181)
VEAGames.LAM.LAMTerrainTool:Start() (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Scripts/LAMTerrainTool.cs:93)

 

Which parts of this do you think are useful for mobile projects, such as high-end Android devices like the Google Pixel and above? And which parts can you already emphatically say would be a waste of time to even bother trying on mobile?

 

Im buy and install LAM to clear Unity 5.5 project and have erros

 

I have to sadly agree with @Teila
The project started of good and then had a patch but now things seem to just be left alone and not looked after with the developer just not interested and very seldom care to communicate with the users.

I paid $149 myself, that is a very high price for an asset that has the appearance now of having been dropped by the developer.

It really has the feeling of "took my money and ran" right at this moment in time.

 

same things here

 

Author's response would not be? I would like to get my money back for not working asset and buy anything else. Is that possible?

 

I wish it were but the developer has to approve any returned items. They are completely silent. This is one of those slick packages that end up on the asset store and are not worth even a fraction of the cost. I ignored a bad review but won't do that again.

Sad thing is he was on today according to his profile but ignoring people.

 

Just for sanity check, is your camera far clip plane large enough to see that far?

 

Hey I'm running into a problem and I cant seem to figure out how to fix it. This asset works perfect for me if it wasn't for this problem.

I am using this mostly for the auto painting and less for the foliage stuff. When I set up my terrain I set it up with the same layer settings and curves that the forest prefab has. But when play my game I get black lines along the edges of cliffs in my unity terrain.

You can see it around the 18 second mark in this video

What would be causing this?
When I add normal textures to my terrain and paint those over the lines they go away so I figure it has something to do with the auto material but after fiddling with settings for the last few days I'm completely at a loss

 

Sorry for the delay. I've tried to reproduce your problem, but everything works fine for me, no black lines. Could you maybe send us a version of your project that is exhibiting the problem?

 

Im Using Unity 5.6 and have this error to ....

 

Hello Aress28,

Thank you for feedback, we are investigating this problem and will made hotfix asap.

Best regards
Dmitry Smirnov
VEA Games

 

Hey everyone,
there have been angry voices about not being heard by the developer while reaching out because of problems. People were complaining about this project being abandoned and not worth the money:

and

There was no sign of life for almost half a year (October 16 - March 17) and I have some questions:

1. Is this packages still being continued (I've seen some announcement on your Website (News) but only for Unreal.) and if yes:
2. Will there be releases and fixes continuously?
3. What does continously mean for the VEAGamesTeam?
4. Is it possible to import terrains from TerrainComposer 2 or WorldComposer and use them as basis for further editing them in LAM?
5. Is LAM working with the latest version of Unity without errors?

Would be great to get some answers since you are on a 30% Discount at the moment and I bet there are people out there who are not so sure if it is a good idea to buy this after they read the complaints here. Maybe you want to convince potential buyers that you are still alive?

Best wishes

 

Hello Phantomy,

1. Yes, we will continue support LAM Unity and will made new improvement updates.

In current situation after first very aggressive comments on the store we have really drop in our budged and less money to work further, although we have made operative released updates and improvements (linear lighting as well as gamma support, fixes on user comments etc). Now we are rebooting LAM Team and will get another try to get lead position on terrain works on the market.

Thank you, roadmap updated:
https://www.veagames.com/roadmap

UNITY LAM v2.0.
- Terrain generation tools
- Custom shaders support (compatible to RTP, etc)
- Global performance optimization

2. Yes, we have increased the size of our team specialy for supporting and improving LAM Unity.

3. No less than one year. Our strategy is to restore confidence in the product.
Also we plan to release a new LAM 2.0 version with lots of improvements and new features in this year.
After year, it will depends on users review and scores.

4. We have no tests with TerrainComposer 2 and WorldComposer, but you can import any heightmaps or layermaps in LAM.

5. In 5.6 version there are exist some errors in log, currently we have fixed it and preparing hotfix update.
Previous latest 5.5 version is works fine.


Kind regards,
Dmitry Smirnov
VEA Games

 

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to see some results throughout the year.

 

Concerning LAM v2.0
1. Is this included for owners of the current Asset Store version or is there going to be an upgrade cost ?
2. Can you please elaborate on "Terrain generation tools" ?
3. "Also we plan to release a new LAM 2.0 version with lots of improvements and new features in this year ...."
Is there a feature list / roadmap available ?
4. The Winter, Desert and Tropical packs that you speak of on your website
Will we bee seeing that on the Unity Asset Store ?
If so, what kind of price ?

Cheers
Cobus

 

Hi Cobus,

1. LAM 2.0. Will be available for LAM 1.x owners with no upgrade cost.

2. Sure:
- Terrain generation tools
1. Parametric full landscape generation (sands, cliffs, fields, and other)
2. Parametric erosion generation - ability generate specific erosion on selected spaces -
It's very helpful for iteration in pipeline (1. Make rough-brush terrain topology; 2. Place game objects and test gameplay; 3. Modify rough-brush topology and other objects placement depends on playtest results (repeat 1-2); 4. Final stage - smooth topology and add local erosion)
3. Parametric map generation depends on cluster system (topology and object placement).

3. Main features of v2.0:
- Terrain generation tools
- Custom shaders support (compatible to RTP, etc)
- Global performance optimization. In 2.0 we want rework some core features to significantly improve performance.

Edit (answer for 4.):
4. Yes we plan to migrate all the content packs to Unity. Currently there is no price yet, but it will be definitely cheapest than LAM because of this is only visual content with no plugins inside.

Kind regards,
Dmitry Smirnov
VEA Games

 

Thanks for the reply, I think you missed #4

4. The Winter, Desert and Tropical packs that you speak of on your website
Will we bee seeing that on the Unity Asset Store ?
If so, what kind of price ?

Cheers
Cobus

 

I am sure you will get answers but then you will hear nothing after you buy it. I posted a review on this asset and was informed in the review that the asset had been updated since I used it. But that was not true. If you look at the date of my review, which was in January, the last update was December. Oddly enough, this developer seems to be unable to tell the truth. If you look at the last update, it was just to fix some coding exceptions, nothing really is better.

Even at 30% off, this asset is not worth the cost imho. Beware. I would hold off to see if they keep promises and actually improve the Unity version in the future. I would say at the moment this is worth $30 at most, not $104. I own almost all the terrain assets on the store so feel free to ask me about others. There are many that are much better. You could buy Gaia or TC 2, a shader pack like Distingo or RTP and be much better off for the money and with really useful tools.

I tried importing a terrain I made in World Machine (height map so exactly what you would use out of TC2) and it looked horrible. The only thing that works with the shaders in LAM is their own small demo. Everything else looked very bad. Performance is even worse.

It has potential but the time has not been put into the Unity version. I worry when someone with only 11 posts comes here and is bamboozled by a nice slick asset. It happened to me.

 

You do realize that the "aggressive reviews" were due to the state of the asset. They were not personal. A company that stops supporting a product because of bad reviews rather than fixing the problems is very concerning. To be fair, plenty of folks came here and told you the issues and nothing was done. The reviews were a reaction to your lack of support. Early on, you made it clear that you did not have time for the Unity version of this asset. I think pushing blame on us is very unprofessional.

 

Added answer to the post:
Yes we plan to migrate all the content packs to Unity. Currently there is no price yet, but it will be definitely cheapest than LAM because of this is only visual content with no plugins inside.

Hello Teila,

> I posted a review on this asset and was informed in the review that the asset had been updated since I used it.

We don't know when you have used it last time and the reply to your comment has been written based on your version of LAM (v1.0) written on review

"This review was submitted for a previous version of the package. Version: 1.0"
It version has been a little bit raw, and we made fixes and improvements very fast. v1.01 and v1.02.


> I tried importing a terrain I made in World Machine (height map so exactly what you would use out of TC2) and it looked horrible. The only thing that works with the shaders in LAM is their own small demo. Everything else looked very bad. Performance is even worse.

LAM is the tool you can make different things in different ways with it. It's like a Photoshop - you can draw something ugly and say - damn this soft is bad. Performance does not depend on what kind heightmap you are using.

And more about your comments:

> The video we were shown is nothing like what you see in your game.

Sorry, but it seems that you are don't tell truth.
All the content from demo video was captured from the working copy of LAM, and we have included all post-process and other eye-candy settings to the project to get user what is looking for in the demo scene.

> Questions are still being asked on the forums and the developer's profile shows he was here today, but he did not respond.
It's not correct. We have answered all questions we have.

> While the terrain textures does update in real time, which is nice, the shaders are worthless. You are limited to the number of textures you can use

Yes, we have some textures limitation and we plan to improve it to able use different shaders with LAM.

> The included trees are not very good. Grasses are just as bad.

About assets - I do not want to argue with you, but our grass is one of the most beautiful grasses on Unity in my opinion. Trees also fine, they have lods, wind and other features you see. Especially taking into account that LAM is primarily a terrain painting and distribution system and in the second visual assetpack.

> the performance is very bad compared to other tools out there....at a fraction of the price.

The performance in the package can be adjusted in a wide range depending on the quality / speed combination you need. Of course, when you use the maximum density of grass and the ultra-high detail of tessellation, you get a smaller FPS in any package.

In addition, in the base scene, it is possible to switch global performance presets.

The above-mentioned comments most often sound unfounded and without specificity.
If there are exist specific wishes for improving the LAM, we are ready to listen and implement.


edit:
> You do realize that the "aggressive reviews" were due to the state of the asset. They were not personal. A company that stops supporting a product because of bad reviews rather than fixing the problems is very concerning. To be fair, plenty of folks came here and told you the issues and nothing was done. The reviews were a reaction to your lack of support. Early on, you made it clear that you did not have time for the Unity version of this asset. I think pushing blame on us is very unprofessional.

Yes, feedback is very useful for product evolution and we are always welcome it. A lot of work has been done on user reviews and other feedback. We've never stopped support and will improve the asset in future.

Thank you,
Dmitry.

 

Dmitry, my review says it was posted 4 months ago. That tells you when it was posted. The fact that you replied to my review months later is not my fault.

The video was NOTHING like what I saw in my game, especially when I used my own terrain. lol And others have said the same thing. I am not the only bad review on your asset.

Your grass is not the most beautiful grass on Unity according to all the people who have bought others. I would say that Damien from @turboscalpeur has the most beautiful grass. It is all a matter of opinion I suppose and you are entitled to think yours is the best. However, I want others to see options, mostly because of the bad support here.

Our feedback has been ignored for over a year. So I won't hold my breath. But...if you do improve the asset, I will be happy to edit my review. I am using other assets now, but will make the time to go in and look at the changes and post an honest assessment.

 

> The video was NOTHING like what I saw in my game, especially when I used my own terrain.
You can contact us and we could help you to achieve demo-scene visual quality.

Also, I would repeat, if there are specific suggestions for improvements - we are welcome it.

Dmitry.

 

Thanks for the offer, but the lack of support here, delayed responses, and comments about not having time to support the project early on....forced me to find other solutions that work very well, even better for performance and aesthetics. I am really no longer interested in using this for my game. I was hypnotized by some slick advertising videos. I have learned my lesson. I should have listened to Lane Fox in the review section. lol

 

Hi @VEAGamesTeam ,
We are currently on unity 5.6. is this issue been fixed by you guys in the current update ??

 

Hi @elixir-bash
Issue on first screenshot is fixed on 5.5.

Spam in Debug log in 5.6 on second screen is currently fixed more than half. Today \ tomorrow we plan to fix it all and release hotfix.

Kind regards,
Dmitry Smirnov
VEA Games

 

Well, that escalated quickly ...
But it's nice to have you back Dmitry. Hope you stay and don't disappear again ;-)

I own all of the above mentioned packs and I can say: They do what they promise and make everything more shiny and easy! But this thread should not be flooded with others company's products (not so fair, right?). But indeed I got hypnotized by the advert video too and almost had my mouse hovering over the buy-button. I'm glad I stopped by here. I'll wait until I see results following the promising words. Maybe I'm willing to buy LAM 2 then. We will see. Actions will define how it all turns out now.

 

is there any info when LAM 2.0 release?

 

I would wait for Gaia 2 and a new shader coming out. It will do similar stuff, and will texture as you change heights automatically. The developer is very involved in the community and takes great pride in his work. Might be a bit yet, but certainly a very good chance it will be before LAM 2 and it will work....and the developer will go above and beyond to help you and stay up to date.

 

Hey!Thanks for update i already own Gaia but never heard about Gaia 2.. thanks for info

 

Currently we are working on it, ETA - 3 months.

Kind regards,
Dmitry

 

Nice.Waiting for it.

 

work bought this the other day and I'm having a few issues.
1. I'm having the same material issue that elixir-bash. we are using 5.6.1p2. can this please be fixed.
2. When adding the script to an existing terrain I get a "could not find method" error with the following lines

Could not find method
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)
VEAGames.LAM.Editor.DecoratorEditor:CallInspectorMethod(String) (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Editor/DecoratorEditor.cs:131)
VEAGames.LAM.Editor.DecoratorEditor:OnSceneGUI() (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Editor/DecoratorEditor.cs:249)
VEAGames.LAM.Editor.TerrainEditorDecorator:OnSceneGUI() (at Assets/Plugins/LandscapeAutoMaterial/Editor/TerrainEditorDecorator.cs:183)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

I see other people had the same error in earlier versions of unity.

We need to be able to easily attach this plugin to existing terrain or it is essentially useless. We cant always use your example scene for our projects.

Hoping for a speedy fix. hopefully fixing this current version is not put on hold while developing 2.0

 

I created a 6000x6000 terrain and used gaia to generate a random heightmap. I can't get LAM to place dense grass everywhere like in the forest demo. I copy pasted the components and played around with almost every setting regarding details or resolutions. It's always just a few patches of grass here and there, but not covering the whole ground as in the demo. What settings do I need to change?
The documentation not detailed enough for my understanding.

I really like the looks of the asset and all, but right now it's just frustrating. Would be nice if I could get some advice on that topic.

 

Should have heeded the warnings.

 

Everything is OK in version 1.04 on 5.6.1.
Don't forget that all nature envirounments needs Post Processing effects to be complete.

Asset review :
- Maximum quality, 10x looks better than other unity tools
- AAA displacement/Tessellation shader with a lot better quality and performance compare to other shaders (tested CTS)
- Bug free (Forget everything about bad reviews. Developer has more experience than customers. So if any problem existed, he solved it). current version 1.04 is bug free
- Very easy to use
- Compatible with all scene types (sand,jungle,snow ...)
- Fully compatible with unity terrain system
- Advanced features all are available: Triplaner,Tessellation LOD,texture LOD, texture tile changes by distance, PBR material and ...)
-up to 6 layer texture shader
- Easy custom item painting

Forget everything about bad reviews and support developer to continue this amazing terrain solution

I will upload some tutorial and tips here :

* Slowing down editor in the inspector :

1. Open TerrainToolInspector.cs

2. find terrainTool.EnsureLayerCount(); and delete it

3. add below code into end of the OnInspectorGUI() function :

Code (CSharp):

1. if(GUILayout.Button("Update Layers"))
2.                 terrainTool.EnsureLayerCount();

4. Unchecked auto update in Edit->Preferences->LAM

* Very bad quality in Linear color space

1. Download post processing stack

2. Create a proper post effects setup or simply use my Lighting Box

 

@aliyeredon2 , you can make many things look good. The problem is that at this price a person can buy:

RTP/Megasplat (50/60usd) + Terrain Composer2 / Gaia (45usd) + Enviro (weather)/Aquas(water)/Sky Ultimate(weather, sky) / uNature(instancing) (35-60usd)



Terrain composer can do automatic placement based on angle, height, density as well. And far more shaping features. All the above author are very very active.

1. I'm not trying to bring down this asset, just that if we purchase but nobody else does, will they disappear again and become less active?
2. And how is this solution better than the combinations above. These shaders look good with tesselation, mixing very convincing snow, water and nice blending. As far as I know RTP uses unity terrain, megasplat doesn't but both are very efficient.

If the author of this asset can answer this convincingly, it's very possible that I'll purchase

 

Re: Bad review

On the review page the version I reviewed is clearly noted, and the Publisher has posted a retort that a newer update has corrected the issues I noted. Very, very regrettably I have not been available to update my review because I am busy, but prospective buyers are perfectly capable of looking at asset history, the community interaction, etc in order to make their own personal determination on the current state of the asset and it's publisher.

My review at the time it was made was accurate and I appreciate that it was helpful but apparently the author has made significant changes to the asset and thus my review no longer accurately reflects the current state of the product. Do the problems still exist? Maybe, maybe not, but don't use my review to determine that - it is not up to date. Consider it 'historical'.

I really regret not having time to properly update my review because it is not fair to have a stagnant bad review on top when you have corrected the complaints. Please be fair when looking at reviews and consider recent updates and community interaction.

 

In terms of quality, no one can compete with this.
This asset is not similar to other ones. This is just a replacement for unity terrain system with next-gen quality and some more tools.
Lots of guy said that UE terrain system is awesome and unity must update its default old terrain system. But that guys don't know that most beautiful UE demos has been made with this terrain shader and tools.

I know TerrainComposser is a great automatic terrain maker, but its not very use to make your terrain by your hand similar to unity terrain system.

CTS is just a simple med-level quality shader

MapMagic is an automatic terrain height map generator (and object placer)

RTP workflow is not clear and quality is not comparable to LAM shader

Megasplat: I think this is just a shader. I didn't tested this one yet

Gaia : Didn't tested this one yet

All assets are good enough but from quality and ease of use, LAM is the best choice. Don't forget the work flow is same as unity terrain system. Just with more features and awesome quality.

I suggest you to watch some videos from UE tutorials

About support : Asset already was completed and is bug free. If you like the current tools and quality, you can buy it. I think it's used in some AAA UE games as terrain system

 

Note : Replace all tree and grass textures with unity standard shader or (Nature->SpeedTree) to fix compatibility issues with unity lighting and post effects
I will add wave mode as soon as possible

 

hand painted in few minutes
Lighting using LightingBox