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[DEPRECATED] PIDI - XFur Studio. Please follow the link inside to XFur Studio 2, our new version

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by IrrSoft, Apr 11, 2018.

  1. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Some changes have been made to the approval and publishing process on the Asset store, so the release of patch 1.25 has been delayed while everything gets back on track.

    The patch has important fixes for XFur Painter, improvements to XFur System and important bug fixes for the FX module with models with more than 2 materials.

    Improvements to version control have also been put in place, as well as improvements to grooming. 2 new XFur noise maps have been added and smoother control over fur length is also in place. Documentation has been improved and expanded.

    This patch will be sent to the store as soon as the approval process is back on track and should be available before July 20 :)
     
  2. gecko

    gecko

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    Just gotta say that v1.2 is fan-freaking-tastic! I really never allowed myself to hope that I could get such amazing fur in Unity, with such amazing effects. The multi-directional grooming works great to create a tremendously more accurate appearance, and the new FX...well, they take this toolkit to the next level indeed. And Jorge has been incredibly helpful with some odd issues I've had with my model. This absolutely is THE fur solution for Unity now.
     
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  3. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Thank you so much for your kind words and the support you have given to this asset. It is really appreciated and it means a lot to see that the work done for this new version is being useful for you and other developers :)

    I am glad to been able to help you solve those issues and to hear that this solution has been helping your project. I look forward to seeing your results once XFur is integrated into your project! :D
     
  4. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    XFur 1.25 (patch build) has been sent to the store for approval. It contains :

    • Brand new grooming algorithm that respects character movements and has improved methods to prevent intersections with the base mesh
    • Softer transitions between fur and skin
    • Improved occlusion to avoid "black spots"
    • 2 new Fur textures with softer looks
    • 200% performance boost in XFur Painter when grooming
    • Fur profiles can now be exported when reading data from the original material
    • Database and XFur System now support versioning to inform you when there has been a major update
    • Mesh data can be rebuilt manually
    • Better per-instance management
    • Improved behavior of Xfur Painter when working with multiple materials
    • Several bug fixes in XFur Painter, the FX Module and XFur System. Important fixes, please update
    • Removed all legacy code, shaders, tutorials and demos
    It will be available very soon, as soon as Unity approves it :)
     
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  5. IrrSoft

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    I know some of you have asked to see the fur shader with a different model, other than the Lucy head included in the package and the bison I've been using for most tests, so here is a real application of XFur 1.2 in one of the amazing models by @Malbers, who has some of the best animal models and animations in the store :


    With this model you can see XFur 1.2 multi-color fur in action as well as the definition you can get even in extremely short fur....while keeping the feet quite fluffy :)

    I will share a few other pics soon enough, though due to some technical issues (my monitor just died on me yesterday) it will be slightly delayed.

    Thanks again to @Malbers for sharing his model for this demonstration!
     
  6. coverpage

    coverpage

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    Wow that looks great. Would love to see with animation.
     
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  7. IrrSoft

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    The video is slowed down so the fur is more visible (since rabbits move quite fast, the fur was not visible enough in the recording at a normal speed ) :)

    Again, thanks to @Malbers for letting me use his model for this small demonstration of XFur 1.2 !
     
  8. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Just to give you an update that grooming has now been improved with the new algorithm and it is reacting much better with animated models after the newest patch to be approved at some point this week (depends on the Asset Store) and that, if you decide to add XFur to your project, you can always contact me either here or through email in case of any issues or quirks when integrating it to meet your specific project :)

    Hope it helps! :)
     
  9. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Well, that was fast ! :D

    Version 1.25 of XFur with a good bunch of bug fixes and improvements has just been approved !
    • Brand new grooming algorithm that respects character movements and has improved methods to prevent intersections with the base mesh
    • Softer transitions between fur and skin
    • Improved occlusion to avoid "black spots"
    • 2 new Fur textures with softer looks
    • 200% performance boost in XFur Painter when grooming
    • Fur profiles can now be exported when reading data from the original material
    • Database and XFur System now support versioning to inform you when there has been a major update
    • Mesh data can be rebuilt manually
    • Better per-instance management
    • Improved behavior of Xfur Painter when working with multiple materials
    • Several bug fixes in XFur Painter, the FX Module and XFur System. Important fixes, please update
    • Removed all legacy code, shaders, tutorials and demos
     
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  10. IrrSoft

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    Another use case, this time from a project of my own :)

    upload_2018-7-10_22-23-58.png

    This is a very very low poly model for a monster-based game showcasing extra-long fur :

    upload_2018-7-10_22-25-25.png

    And the outline of the underlying mesh so you can see how long the fur is :

    upload_2018-7-10_22-26-43.png

    All the fur settings, grooming and styling was done entirely in XFur Painter 2.0 to test how flexible the tool is, using the 8 samples version of the shader (the equivalent to low quality) :)
     
  11. neoshaman

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    Random idea, possibly stupid:
    I was wondering how would the shader look with an additional parallax sampling per shell, or with no shell at all but a vertex displacement. Might be useful for LOD at distance yet keep some visual hint.

    Basically shells are displacement at regular interval using transparency, the volume they form create the parallax effect. But what if we compute the parallax like in interior design, where each sample is at a given fixed parallax depth? Would the shader be more efficient as you have less geometry (it would be fragment based), how it would looks like?
     
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  12. IrrSoft

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    HI there!

    That's not a stupid idea, don't worry, it is actually a quite ingenious solution to the fur problem though it would have far more constraints than a fully shell based system like the one XFur uses right now. The trade off basically is that XFur adds more geometry on the shader side but thanks to that it can also handle complex physics, effects and grooming that goes far outside of the boundaries of the original mesh :)

    The main performance hit comes from the passes rather than from the generated geometry and the amount of passes in a parallax depth/occlusion shader is quite similar to the amount of passes in a shell shader, so their performance is pretty much the same

    While parallax occlusion can give similar results, you are limited by the mesh boundaries and the moment you start using real displacement to go beyond those constraints, the moment your shader gets a bigger performance hit than the shells system :)

    Right now the technique with the best balance between performance and features is the shell system, and to get even better quality and a more flexible result the only alternative would be to switch to a geometry shader based system (like NVidia's Hairworks or TressFX) which, even if right now seems quite far in the future, may arrive to XFur Studio as an alternative workflow at some point :)

    However, I'm working on a quite similar approach to parallax depth and multi-sampling for the mobile ready version of XFur Studio, so there is that :)

    Thanks for commenting and sharing your ideas, it is very appreciated and it does help to have these discussions to keep XFur in constant improvement!
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2018
  13. neoshaman

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    Thank you for answering :)
    Just a nuance:
    I purposefully avoid to mention parallax occlusion shader and mentioned interior shader, because it's a simpler shader. Parallax occlusion need a full search in "depth" space to recreate the implied surface (by sorting the "occlusion"). I'm just pointing to a shader with a fix number of sample (just like each cell pass) at different flat parallax depth, basically you redraw the sample every time with a different offset at different depth delta, in a back to front order. It would have a fixed cost (number of sample iteration) but no idea if that cost is lesser than a occlusion version. Unless you use "parallax occlusion" as a catch all term for all these techniques (which I have seen some people use).

    However your points and observations still stand. The truth is that I was ideally picturing the paralax as supplemental, ie, a cell pass would also have shallow parallax of a few hair to increase effect.

    If you are open to discussion, well why not present more of ideas I have :)

    I'm really invested in fur and hair shader, mostly because I have a case with no existing and satisfying implementation, tightly curl hair! These type of hair have their own challenge and I spend a lot of time categorizing their shapes. Imagine a quadrant between diffuse/pack distribution, that is how much curl clump together in a single bigger curl, and another axis for stress/natural, curly physics have their own quirks, like the "tendril perversion" phenomenon, which affect the visual greatly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendril_perversion On top of that hair curl because their cross section is elliptic instead of round, which mean different light behavior, and that elliptic profile is impacted by stress.

    But before going to the point where I can make these hair, I' taking small step to find intermediate solution to problem.

    The REAL idea behind parallax wasn't to sample the texture but to sample a function, ie can we define an intersection between the incident rays and a cylinder in UV space (ie circle intersection in U and range intersection in V) such as we have multiple layer of intersection. This would give us infinite normal precision and infinite hair precision, we can even use the fact we can compute a sign distance field to approximate "anti aliasing" alpha value. This is idea would have been a stop gap before trying to compute intersection with helicoid, ie a curl.

    The intersection being super simple to compute, a circle just being a point in space, if we assume all hair are centered at integer interval of the UV, we can just find the proper distance with a frac after parallax offset, then decide if we hit it or not.

    Another experiment I have actually done and lead to the though above is an attempt to bring the classic car hair workflow to curl, problem is that card is flat and curl are 3d... turns that being stubborn help, even though my instinct told me it was impossible. I have image (dropbox)

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqobnq5xp20q6tz/Capture d'écran 2016-12-08 19.48.50.png?dl=0

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypw3x6ondg1axq4/Capture d'écran 2016-12-08 19.42.35.png?dl=0

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/658n3mnxy8g5sgw/Capture d'écran 2016-12-08 19.53.54.png?dl=0

    It's a VERY crude proof of concept, I plan to revisit it later when I come back to character modeling. But at least I can emulate a 3d forms with a flat card and keep the workflow that exist with current hair method. Curl can be contiguous on the U axis of the card. Styling technique has to be investigated more

    I'm basically alternating half circle on a folded square, which makes the technique compatible with cell rendering, as the next folded square can be generated as a cell offset. Another method would be to have jagged surface, where half square rectangle vertices get alternately raised and make contact with the next cells with a half offset so that a raised match a lowered vertices and the UV match the next half circle to reproduce the helicoid segment.
     
  14. IrrSoft

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    Yes, I was indeed talking of parallax occlusion as a general term for the technique (since some form of occlusion would be needed to give the fur strands enough definition at pronounced angles) :)

    And I see, that technique you are using for curls is quite interesting indeed, and it seems like a good approach that could be worked on and extended for not only hair but also for other types of fibers. Accurate curl-like physics and rendering are probably still a good years ahead from being easily implemented unless we are using some kind of per-strand approximation (again, like Hairworks) though the visual appearance of it all and some type of high performance simulation should be doable with some amount of pre-calculated movements (I am thinking about pre-established limits and physical parameters).

    I was working not too long ago on an approach not so different from yours but for a different asset unrelated to Xfur, an upcoming package designed around human specific hair though in my case I was basing it around cylinders and similar shapes besides the quads and simpler geometry. I will make sure to share here some results as soon as it is in a more mature state and once I can get the volume and procedural curl generation down to the level I want it :)

    The technique you are using is really interesting and I believe it will be a great starting point for curls and other string-like materials....I hope you can keep making good progress as well, and to see how your work keeps going! :D

    And thank you again for sharing, it is always good to hear from other solutions to these problems to learn from each other! :)
     
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  15. neoshaman

    neoshaman

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    I was considering it too, but with folded quad you can have the stretching effect on curl (they become like wavy hair) and you can have tendril perversion by just adding a half fold "event". So in some case, regarding the car hair techniques, it become a kind of generalization of all hair type and allow you to blend one type to other seamlessly. It also play better with limited physics (no stretching of teh curl like cylinder). The thing I need to expend is going from one or a few strand to dense volume that mimic the different styling. That's also why I'm looking at sdf style strand with parallax.

    I'm glad my technique inspired you :)
     
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  16. gecko

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    I'm on Mac but my programmer is on Windows, and we're finding that we each have to reimport the xfur shaders after we pull each other's changes -- but there's no reason for them to be marked as changed. Any idea why? Is there something that cross-platform usage could be mis-flagged as a change to each shader file? If so, anything we can do about it?

    thanks
    Dave
     
  17. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Hi there,


    I'd need to know what software you are using to sync your projects between platforms since the shaders shouldn't be getting recompiled unless you were making changes to them directly and it could be related to the software rathy than the shaders.

    The only other reason I can think of right now is that, since the shaders are based on surface shaders, unity is making some changes internally depending on if they are getting compiled on opengl or directx and your syncing software is detecting them as different files.

    I'd ask you to give me a chance to check this so I can give you a small tweak that hopefully will ensure that the shader compiles for opengl in both windows and mac so Unity doesn't change it when syncing your project with your programmer :)

    But if I remember well, you were using Metal so there may be no easy workaround other than marking the shaders as an exception when syncing the project since more complex shaders in Unity generate different code for different platforms and might keep being picked up as a modified file when jumping between windows and mac.

    I'll make sure to check more in depth however, don't worry. Hopefully there's a fix I can provide through the shader itself
    and it's not something that unity handles internally without access to us.
     
  18. gecko

    gecko

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    We're using git. Nobody is touching the shaders (we have to make some tweaks to the wolf model before getting back into xfur).

    We had a similar problem with MicroSplat and Jason made a fix to ensure that the texture compression formats were the same cross-platform, but I don't know see how that applies here.

    thx
    Dave
     
  19. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Hi there,

    As a first tip to try to solve this issue, I would suggest that both you and your programmer check which option you have in the compile shader code settings :

    upload_2018-7-15_16-11-57.png

    You should make sure that you both have exactly the same settings (not current graphics device nor Current build platform but either All platforms or exactly the same platforms) since if you have different settings, the shader files on his/her PC will differ from those in yours since each one of you will be compiling them for different platforms and they will be indeed different in a metadata level. If you make sure that they have the same settings in yours and his/her PC then both shaders should contain the same settings and internal metadata and shouldn't be picked as changed anymore.

    Select each one of the XFur shaders and make sure they are set for either All platforms or the platforms you will use ( the same in both PCs)

    upload_2018-7-15_16-16-34.png

    Then make sure both of you reimport all shaders so they generate the relevant code (and this time hopefully the same code) in both machines.

    Hopefully this helps, but in the meantime I will try to get a fix, dont worry! :)
     
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  20. IrrSoft

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    I see. I will need to check this as well since we as developers have very little control over how Unity handles shader compilation so if you are using Git to sync your projects and opening the shaders in two different platforms that use different rendering systems, Unity most likely is compiling different versions of the shader for each of you and, when you upload your changes to Git, you are uploading the shader version for your specific platform. Windows doesnt support Metal and Mac doesnt support DirectX and in shaders, unlike with textures, there is no middle nor cross-platform ground (the only middle ground was OpenGLCore which runs in both Mac and Windows but with the new changes to Metal there is no longer a middle ground between platforms) but I will try to find what to do to help you solve this or at least to make it a less troublesome process.
     
  21. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    When working with complex shaders the recommended thing to do is to use the same OS and renderer to avoid this type of issues...but since you are using Git may I suggest that you create a gitignore rule or an exclusion for the whole XFur folder?

    This may help, since it is not very likely that there is an easy solution to ensure Unity compiles exactly the same shader in both Windows' DirectX / OpenGL and Mac's Metal.I'll investigate if I can find a way to make a fix for this specific situation, but it will not be easy to get a full fix with the limited access that Unity gives us to shader compilation.

    I hope it helps!
     
  22. gecko

    gecko

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    Ah, that's set to Current Build Platform, so that makes sense. We can change those no problem....oh, or are you saying we *can't* have it set to multiple platforms simultaneously?
     
  23. IrrSoft

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    You can have it set to multiple platforms don't worry :)

    I mean that you should make the platforms in both your PCs match, as that might help solve the issue. Either set the settings to Custom Platforms and select exactly the same ones, or select "All Platforms" to be more sure. After this, re compile the shaders. Hopefully this helps, but since Unity handles a lot of the compiling internally this is a quite complex issue.

    Hope it helps! :)
     
  24. gecko

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    okay, thanks, we'll try that and I'll let you know.

    thanks as always for the quick help!

    Dave
     
  25. IrrSoft

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    No problem, I really hope it helps!
     
  26. gecko

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    So I'm finally starting to work seriously on the fur painting, but also need to do some fine tuning in photoshop. Two questions:

    1) In the Painter, I'm finding it tricky to groom the fur so it's got that nice thick plush look. Sometimes I can get that just right, but sometimes the fur gets too frizzy...which I know is generally because it's simply too long for this method of creating the fur look, but what puzzles me is that it can look good (not frizzy) until I groom it -- it's almost like the grooming is lengthening the fur so it becomes frizzy. It's tricky to know exactly what's going on, though. Any suggestions?

    2) In photoshop, I see the painted work on the RGB channels, but there is no alpha channel, which stores the length data, right? Any idea why? No alpha channel on either Fur or Grooming textures.

    thx
    Dave

    frizzy.png
     
  27. IrrSoft

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    Hi there,

    The grooming is working as intended as it adds a bit of length to allow for more versatility. However, I will contact you through PM to send you a small alternative method (in the shader itself ) that doesn't add any length which may help you :)

    This alternative method is being implemented for v1.3 but it is mostly ready to use now. No need to redo any maps. About the alpha channels :

    The textures do have alpha channels but the alpha channel of the Fur Data controls the thickness and it is defaulted to 1. In the Grooming map, alpha is used to control how strong will the physics and wind effects be over the fur. It is also defaulted to 1 :)

    Since both are defaulted to 1, Photoshop might be interpreting this as "No alpha channel". In GIMP, even while fully opaque, these textures are treated as having alpha channels.

    I contact you in a moment through PM with the new alternative grooming methods for the upcoming v1.3. Again, just to be clear, this is not a fix on the grooming side but merely an alternative grooming algorithm.

    For v1.3 there is a very simple way to switch between both algorithms with no performance impact by setting the last float of the Fur Direction Vector (since it is a Vector4) to either 0 for the current algorithm or 1 for the alternative one. I send them in a moment :)

    Hope this helps!

    EDIT : I just sent the new preview version with the alternative algorithm. It will be sent to the main public branch this week so hopefully it will be available for everyone before the weekend! :)

    And, since I forgot to say it more clearly, in the Fur Data Map red controls the fur covered regions, green the length, blue the occlusion/shadowing and alpha the thickness/thinness of the fur
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2018
  28. gecko

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    This new grooming algorithm is just perfect for my needs, thanks!

    And aha -- I haven't done any edits to thickness, so that explains why there is no alpha channel. Sorry, I misread the manual :/
     
  29. IrrSoft

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    Glad to help and to hear it is working well! :)
     
  30. IrrSoft

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    XFur v 1.3 is on its way, currently under heavy development. Along several fixes and internal improvements there are new features coming :

    • Improved versioning support so your models can warn you when their mesh data is not up to date with the latest XFur version
    • Grooming has been improved with a new, alternative algorithm. You can easily switch between algorithms without damaging your previous work.
    • Improvements on the FX rendering for water under deferred paths as well as to blood rendering.
    • Ability to add weather and blood effects over the fur through collisions and volumes
    • Added new function to XFur Painter to remove grooming.
    • Several bug fixes across a few Unity versions

    This version is still under development and will most likely be ready for the public in ~2 weeks :)
    Some of the smaller fixes and improvements will be ready and available next week.

    I hope it helps! :)
     
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  31. neoshaman

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    So to pad length we could just offset the original mesh too?
     
  32. IrrSoft

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    Hi there,

    The mesh data from the update above refers to the already patched mesh. When you use XFur it patches your original mesh according to a set of guidelines. However, if at some point a new feature of XFur is incompatible with the currently patched mesh you are using XFur will tell you and allow you to rebuild the data in a better way.

    This function is already implemented in the current version 1.25, it has just been improved and made slightly more efficient in the new version, detecting also changes from pre-Unity 2018 and post Unity 2018 versions (which tend to break compatibility too)

    XFur, for the way it works, does not have a way of recognizing changes to the original mesh. However, it also comes now with a handy "Rebuild Data" button that allows you to manually update the patched meshes to match any changes you did to the original one :)

    There is no way to control fur length nor any other property through changes to the original mesh (other than the UV mapping of the fur) since, for better cross compatibility with models from the store and third parties, all this information is stored either in textures or generated through XFur Painter itself. I hope this helps to make things clearer! :)
     
  33. neoshaman

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    I'm not sure what you understood lol, I was wondering if the new shader model (grooming) added offset to vertex to help fur length (helpful with thick fur). Not modifying the original data of the mesh.
     
  34. IrrSoft

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    Oh yes, I completely misunderstood. The current grooming algorithm adds vertex offset when grooming, that adds a bit of length to it and helps to achieve more creative results. This is fully customizable already through the fur direction vector. The new algorithm is more accurate in that it only "bends" the fur strands without modifying their length at all, which allows for better grooming in creatures with a tighter, slicker fur :)

    Hope this helps!
     
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  35. AlexanderElert

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    Hi there!, we can use a texture for the fur? I want to simulate feathers for birds like characters

    Something similar from Fur Factory:


    thanks
     
  36. IrrSoft

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    Hi there,

    Thanks for your interest in XFur :)

    Fur Factory actually uses a different technique through the use of "flakes" which are small pieces of geometry where you can, indeed, project a texture and are used to cover the surface of the original model. They are used for human hair but can be easily used for feathers as well. XFur uses something called a shell based shader, which works in a different way. It doesn't create any new geometry nor any pieces but rather creates layers that give the appearance of fur. They are designed to have a more uniform appearance across the surface (like strands) so I do not think that the current version of XFur would be well suited to give you the feathery look that you are looking for, unfortunately, since they are two different techniques.

    However, I keep improving the system and what you can do with it so I'll put feathers on the roadmap and try to see if I can take a shot at it, and if at some point in the future I can come up with an easy to use way to get feathers simulated in this system either by using custom textures or by using a modified set of shaders, I will make sure to let you know :)

    Again, sorry that XFur cannot currently help with feathers like those in the video, but thank you very much for your interest in XFur :)
     
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  37. wetcircuit

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  38. IrrSoft

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    Small but important patch sent to store, should go live in a few days :

    • Fixed a bug on the database system that prevented building the game in some circumstances
    • Added a new feature to XFur Painter that allows you to remove grooming effects
    • Added a new grooming algorithm that can be easily switched in the XFur system interface
    I will inform you all as soon as it goes live, but again this is an important patch so please make sure to update once it is available.
     
  39. IrrSoft

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    Version 1.27 of XFur has been approved with the following updates :

    • New grooming algorithm is now included. It can be selected from the XFur System interface as it is labelled "Accurate" when working on Instance mode or by setting the last number of the fur direction vector to 1 on the original material when working on From Material mode.
    • Please, use a high fur direction value when working with the new algorithm. It uses accurate fur bending so it needs higher values to become noticeable. Start with a Fur direction of 1,1,1,1 and go up from there as needed
    • Grooming now works with round, soft brushes for a better experience
    • Grooming can be removed by right clicking any are of the mesh in Painter
    • Bug that prevented building because of incompatible runtime and editor functions has been fixed
    • Mesh patching time has been reduced when switching databases
    • Switching XFur materials is now highly improved and doesn't produce any lag nor slowdowns


    Next steps in the roadmap for versions 1.3 to 1.4 include :

    • FX interaction based on collisions and volumes
    • More control over the XFur Weather module
    • Improvements to the water and snow effects
    • New XFur Noise maps
    • Improvements to the blood effects
    • Performance improvements
    • New 36 samples shader (for very high quality needs)
    I hope it helps! :)
     
  40. cpberi

    cpberi

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    Fantastic. This asset looks quite promising, and I'm very excited. I've been looking into any kind of hair / fur solution in unity for a while, and had been quite disappointed due to lack of mobile support. For me and my studio mates, the holy grail is Mobile, particularly, iOS metal, since all our past and current as well as near term future games are all mobile, mainly released in iOS first and then Android shortly after. And I'm glad to hear that you have a mobile plan in near future, and will be eagerly waiting for it.
     
  41. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Thanks! I am very glad to hear you are interested in the upcoming Mobile specific version of XFur :)

    While it is still early in development since there are plenty of considerations to make on mobile between performance and quality (as well as shader flexibility) I will make sure to keep everyone updated on it as soon as there is more to show and share :)

    Thanks again, and have a great weekend!
     
  42. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Version 1.3 of XFur will be ready as the first update for August (it will be released on the very first week of August). It will come with the first iteration of collision based weather & blood effects, some improvements to water effects, a much better profiles and randomization system as well as with some other internal, performance related improvements :)

    Besides this, work has started (though still very early) on XFur for Mobile :

    upload_2018-7-24_12-21-14.png


    This screenshot was taken on a quite old smartphone with limited OpenGLES 2.0 support using the brand new 6 samples fragment shader for mobile.

    Both simpler and more complex mobile specific fur shaders are also being developed to suit a wide selection of devices but there's not a release date nor public demos for XFur mobile yet. The first demos might come in mid-late August as well as a separate thread for XFur mobile since, being a different package with different shaders and internal workflow, it will have its very own support questions and needs not applicable to the main desktop version :)
     
    gecko likes this.
  43. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    A small tease of the new (BETA) feature for v1.3 : Collision based effects over the fur.

    With this new component you can easily add blood, snow and others over the fur during gameplay, by detecting volumes colliding with the fur covered object/character and applying it carefully in real-time. This way it is easy to simulate blood from damage and other gameplay related effects.


    While this feature is still in development, it will be available with version 1.3 of XFur Studio.
    I hope you will like it! :)
     
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  44. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Small bug fix has been sent to the store for a mismatch in textures when using Unity 2018+ with static materials instead of the per instance workflow that was producing some errors with the UI.

    It should be available in a couple of days, I will post an update as soon as it goes live so you can be informed and upgrade as needed :)
     
  45. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Version 1.28 has just been approved. It is an important bug-fix so it is heavily recommended to upgrade as soon as you can.

    Hope it helps! :)
     
  46. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    A small tease of version 1.3 and the new collision based FX, now working with an animated model :


    The next steps are the volume based FX (useful for lakes and things like that) as well as the new and more advanced randomization module and fur profiles.

    As another feature that is being researched for version 1.3 are particle collision based FX, but since this technique is quite more involved than the rest it might be pushed back in the pipeline to avoid any delays.

    Version 1.3 is being developed as August's big update, so it will arrive later this month :)

    I hope you'll like it !
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2018
    gecko likes this.
  47. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Another small update for v.1.3

    The new randomization module and extended fur profiles now allow for additional color variation by letting you define independent minimum and maximum color values for the fur of each profile. This means that on top of being able to define unique fur texture maps for each profile you can also set up unique color variations for each of them and the randomization module will generate unique variations of all those factors each time :)

    These variations can be as abstract and crazy or as subtle and realistic as your project needs :


    It is still in development and several smaller changes are being made internally to allow for more versatility, but I hope you will like it and find it useful! :)
     
    gecko likes this.
  48. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    Version 1.3 will be sent to the store during the weekend to be released next week :)

    As new features :

    - Improved Randomization module with better color and property variation controls
    - Improved fur profile generation and loading
    - New collision based, volume based and function based FX coverage. Useful to simulate damage/snow/water coverage based on impacts or upon entering volumes.
    - General improvements on performance and effect management

    Hopefully you will like these updates! :)
     
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  49. gecko

    gecko

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    Can't wait!

    Any improvements to wetness in deferred?
     
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  50. IrrSoft

    IrrSoft

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    There are a few improvements to effects in general, but wetness+deferred is still a tough one. I am working on it right now to see if I can make a breakthrough before sending it for approval on Sunday though! :)