[RELEASED] Lux Water

Been watching this asset for some time now. But still unsure whether it will meet my requirements. Is there an easy way to dynamically control the scale of the waves and its choppiness for a Water Volume set up like that?

 

i guess i am too biased to answer this question
but theoretically i would say: yes. if scale means height, frequency and amplitude you should be fine to tweak these params at runtime.

 

Thanks for the reply! hmm... But for now I think I will wait and see how this asset develops further. I need something proven and really easy to use because of time constraints. Will check this again in the future.

 

Hi.

I have a question regarding camera's behavior when it's cutting water surface.

Basically I need an event when camera is submerging or resurfacing so that i can hook up some sounds to it.

Is anything like that available?

Edit: Collision-based solution simply won't cut it because water mesh is moving dynamically. The best thing would be like a percentage of the view which is currently underwater.

 

you can simply use a trigger. in case you use gerstner waves this would not 100% accurate tho. so i am working on a script that lets you sample the water height at a given position.

 

Hi, I've been using stochastic SSR with a custom water shader based off the unity standard standard shader but it does not have refractions which I'm sorely missing. Does Lux water support refraction along with SSR?

 

lux water uses forward rendering in order to be able to offer refractions. so no ssr, sorry.

 

version 1.05 is now available.

change log
# Metal: Normals fixed when using "Culling" = "Back" or "Front".
# Metal: Deferred rendering support added.
# Scripts added to sample the displacement/current water height as produced by Gerstner Waves.
# Shader compilation warnings fixed.

 

I wonder if there will be a separate shader made with this for translucency/refraction mixed with the other lux shaders

 

Do you happen to have any code that gets the y position of a pixel at a x,z point with the Gerstner wave code? Asking as I need to get the y position for buoyancy calculations, I tried importing GerstnerOffset4 from LuxWater_GerstnerWaves.cginc to c# but the position I get doesnt seem to match up with what the shader is calculating.

Here is my attempt

Code (CSharp):

1. Vector3 GerstnerOffset4(Vector2 xzVtx, Vector4 steepness, Vector4 amp, Vector4 freq, Vector4 speed, Vector4 dirAB, Vector4 dirCD)
2.     {
3.  
4.         Vector3 offsets;
5.  
6.         Vector4 AB = Vector4.Scale(Vector4.Scale(new Vector4(steepness.x, steepness.x, steepness.y, steepness.y) , new Vector4(amp.x, amp.x, amp.y, amp.y)), new Vector4(dirAB.x, dirAB.y, dirAB.z, dirAB.w));
7.         Vector4 CD = Vector4.Scale(Vector4.Scale(new Vector4(steepness.z, steepness.z, steepness.w, steepness.w), new Vector4(amp.z, amp.z, amp.w, amp.w)), new Vector4(dirCD.x, dirCD.y, dirCD.z, dirCD.w));
8.  
9.         Vector4 dotABCD = Vector4.Scale(freq, new Vector4(Vector2.Dot(new Vector2(dirAB.x, dirAB.y), xzVtx), Vector2.Dot(new Vector2(dirAB.z, dirAB.w), xzVtx), Vector2.Dot(new Vector2(dirCD.x, dirCD.y), xzVtx), Vector2.Dot(new Vector2(dirCD.z, dirCD.w), xzVtx)));
10.         Vector4 TIME = new Vector4();
11.         if (true)
12.             TIME = Time.time * speed;
13.         /*  TIME = _Lux_Time.xxxx * speed;
14.       else*/
15.  
16.         Vector4 abcdTime = dotABCD + TIME;
17.         Vector4 COS = new Vector4(Mathf.Cos(abcdTime.x), Mathf.Cos(abcdTime.y), Mathf.Cos(abcdTime.z), Mathf.Cos(abcdTime.w));
18.         Vector4 SIN = new Vector4(Mathf.Sin(abcdTime.x), Mathf.Sin(abcdTime.y), Mathf.Sin(abcdTime.z), Mathf.Sin(abcdTime.w));
19.  
20.         offsets.x = Vector3.Dot(COS,new Vector4(AB.x, AB.z, CD.x, CD.z));
21.         offsets.z = Vector3.Dot(COS, new Vector4(AB.y, AB.w, CD.y, CD.w));
22.         offsets.y = Vector3.Dot(SIN, amp);
23.  
24.         //offsets  = Vector3.Scale(offsets, new Vector4;
25.  
26.         return offsets;
27.     }

 

mixed in which way?

 

latest version ships with a utility function for this .

well, the shader is limited in resolution (resolution of the mesh). the script is not. this already may cause a huge difference.

 

Perfect! Script works great. Doing a quick test, it set a test cube around 1.5 units below the surface instead of at it, but thats easily fixed. Thanks!

 

Mixed in how it can be the refractive/color absorb part of a standard shader

 

absorption is special to water tho...

 

you are welcome!
and if it is a bug (that 1.5 m mismatch) just let me know please.

 

Still, a non waves/foam version of this shader mixed with other Lux Materials would be nice

 

what do you want to achieve?

 

I guess making an alternate version of this shader to be used as an overall translucency solution instead of just water. It's really nice

 

thanks, but lux plus offers deferred translucency – which makes it really fast. lux water is forward...

 

Hi , will this work on spherical planetary terrain / spherical mesh, or a flat plane that is not orientated to y+ being up - eg orientated to meshes local up, or even uses vertex normal to define up?

Thanks

Paul uk

 

world axis y is up...

 

In case it helps, I've tried Aquas, Playway, Ultimate Water, Hydroform, and pretty much every other high-quality ocean shader. I bought them all but Lux is the only one I'm still using. It is a killer physically correctly water shader, has tons of nuance and detail, and keeps it simple so it interacts well with other systems (Enviro and Microsplat in my case.) Can't recommend it more highly.

 

It looks very promising and also so incredibly cheap. I will definitely buy today! I would be very happy if there would soon be an HDRP support.

 

hi @larsbertram1 .

You water asset looks really amazing. Great job! Especially for this price.

I do have 1 small question tho. Say i have a sailing boat. Will the interior be underwater if it is floating? Or does Lux Water actually take into account whether an object should be 'filled with water' or be completely empty?

 

it does not – but you could simply use a depth write shader like this one:
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/DepthMask

 

Dont have any shader knowledge myself so wasnt sure whether it is an easy thing to implement. Glad its not! Il search some more info about it and will see how it goes.

In thea meantime i bought your asset and cant wait to see it in action

 

what can i say... wow. how beautiful this water shader reacts to light is fantastic. And with Enviro the day night rhythm is simply breathtaking. i'm really looking forward to the new versions.

i would be happy about a HDRP support in a new update like i said before. also there are some problems with the water volume. it would be great if you could see the volume outside of it. then the volume water would even be suitable for a sidescroller. also a better inspector integration would be nice, it's a little bit more broken down into single components. nice would also be the possibility to set the water to infinity. Tesselation would also be very useful.

 

Hi, I just bought this.

I'm using Azure Sky, and wondered if you could include the alternate version of the shader that the developer (Denis Lemos) has sent you, that supports his fog system?

Thanks! All the best.

 

I'm pulling my hair out.

I find that I get my Water Volume working nicely, with nice caustics, etc.

Then I save the scene, save the project, close Unity, then open it again, and Caustics are not working.

It's a complete mystery to me.

I somehow spent about 2 hours getting them working again, then saved, closed, opened again, and the Caustics are gone again!

I am at my wits end.

Can you please offer some insight?

[If I load the Water Volume demo scene, then load my scene, it seems to jiggle something into place, and it starts working again. I have no idea why.]

 

I still have not sent the modified shader to @larsbertram1 for him to test. For those who want Lux Water and Azure[Sky] to work 100% together, just follow the instructions from post #890 of the Azure[Sky] official forum.


[Edited]
I think it will not be a good idea for @larsbertram1 to include the alternate version of the water shader with support to work with the Azure's fog scattering because every time there is a change in Azure[Sky], he will need to update his package too.

Instead, I'll create step-by-step tutorials showing how to modify the transparent shaders so they work properly with the Azure's fog scattering and I'll add these tutorials on the first page of the Azure[Sky] official forum so that everyone will have access to them.

@larsbertram1 Let me know if you want an Azure[Sky] voucher in case you need some sky system to test with your assets.

 

Thanks Denis, trying that now.

 

hmm, strange. but unity's material serialization may sometimes fail...
so try simply uncheck/check caustics in material inspector.

 

You are a Crack Denis !!!
regards

 

Any consideration for light dispersion?

 

what do you mean with that?

 

You know, how light splits into colors?
Though I guess that can only work for still ponds..

 

oh,i guess it is already expensive enough – so i focused on the most important features.

 

When using Gerstner Waves (Vertex animation), the highlight look wrong, Did I missing something?


Gerstner waves off, everything fine.


Gerstner waves on, the highlight gone every where.

 

gerstner waves use a quite simple normal animation (based on unity's water 4) which does not give you accurate per vertex normals.
but of course also the amount of subdivision of your mesh is important. your screen shoot doesn't show it...

 

OK! the subdivision is very low.
So the question is Can lux water use for ocean? since I need a large mesh for the ocean, even low subdivision will need 10K polygon.

 

it is not a dedicated ocean shader and does not support techniques like e.g. a projected grid.
but you could create e.g. a plane divided into 9 sections where only the middle one has a high subdivision.
mask gerstner waves by adding vertex color red (see docs: water volumes).
then you would have to move the plane according to the camera position and the grid size you have chosen on the inner section.

 

Do the caustic lights use their own material/shader?

 

Hey, that is gorgeous! Would you mind sharing a screenshot of your material inspector? I just finally got Lux Water and have been experimenting with the river demo, but can't get close to what you've got there....

 

caustics are calculated within the regular water shader (and need deferred rendering to look best): no projector, no extra material or additional shader.

 

hi,lars,great work agian!
i tried lux water with TimeOfDay sky system,and found it dosent work with the height fog effect in TOD.
As most sky system have a height fog effect and i know it is hard to make water like shaders working with the image effect needs depth channel.
Could you please add rendering a height fog layer on the top water shader like how you support unity native fog effect?
and expose these parameters for us let us adjust the water fog to blend with the height fog in sky system : fog color, fog height falloff, fog density, fog start distance, height start zero level.
Thank you.

 

Hi gecko,
it's been a while since that test ... i will looking for this project and i'll post here my settings.

 

lux water already renders to the depth buffer. but as it uses the transparent queue this will most likely be ignored by tod.
and actually it is quite difficult if not impossible for me to support all time of day solutions out there. but a few athors added support for lux water like enviro and azure.
maybe you should ask the author of tod to do the same.

 

Hmm, seems like the water shader isn't working properly for me. I get this error:

ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: shader
UnityEngine.Material..ctor (UnityEngine.Shader shader) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/Export/Shader.bindings.cs:104)
LuxWater.LuxWater_CameraDepthMode.OnEnable () (at Assets/LuxWater/Scripts/LuxWater_CameraDepthMode.cs:36)


in both Metal / Deferred (with ZWrite off), and Metal / Forward (with Zwrite on). Water is just kinda flat and murky, little or no effect when I change most of the sliders. Tried in several demo scenes, and my own scene. Any ideas what's not working? 2018.2.14 on Mac High Sierra.

thanks
Dave

 

yes,that's why i suggest you rendering a height fog layer on the top and let the users adjust it to fade into other sky system.
it should be simple and easy but useful because you could support a lot more sky systems in the future by doing this.

your water is limited usefull because no height fog support.so it could only be used for near water rendering.
professional artist wont use native unity fog for large scene,they will use height fog for it.
if someone want do AAA game,height fog is the one must have thing and your water cant do the job for large scene rendering without height fog support.

btw,i found some water systems work with TOD' height fog effect out of box(ex :suimono water ),but i really want stick with your shader,Lux plus and ATG and AFS.they are all great.

i can drop TOD just for your shaders but i dont know the next one sky system will work with your shader or not.