[RELEASED] Polaris V2 - Ultimate Low Poly Terrain Engine

Hi ppounder,
I've worked on the smooth operations issue and it has been fixed. Now Paint Tools smooth operations, including elevation, albedo, metallic, smoothness work perfectly. Please download the patch in the attachment and import it into your project (overwrite files), then retry.
Note that this feature requires adjacent terrains to be connected. You can go to Inspector>Neighboring>CONTEXT>Connect to do it.

 

Hi everyone,
I want to remind you that there will be no official release until the sale event ends.
During this time, we have spotted some issues with Polaris and they have been fixed.
Below are the patch files, you can download them and import to your project (overwrite files).
- Billboard Creator fail to render alpha channel to the atlas.
- Paint Tools perform smooth operation incorrectly between adjacent terrain tiles.
- Texture Stamper renders duplicated live preview.
- Unity Terrain Data Importer yields NULL exception.

 

Thank you

 

#devlog
The UI of Polaris V2 looks crappy in Unity 2019.3, so I've redesigned it.
Below is an example of Texture Painter UI, left is the old UI, right is the new one.
Please tell me what you think.
Light skin


Dark skin


@ppounder @DiscoFever @noobynobody @Pandiculate @peanutgallery @HXCMAN @somosky
@Playtra @gautamnaik1994 @maydragon @DevelopedReality @Battlepad @PyroStudios @Jay-Pavlina
@luidinkim @happyrobotstudio @dotfortun3 @RamonDevs

 

Hello,
When I create a terrain (v2), it is completely black. I tried with 2018LTS and 2019.3.0f1.
Do you know why?

 

Hi yzaroui,
It turn black because its texture (albedo, splat controls, etc.) has no data yet, they contain only clear (0,0,0,0) color.
To fix this, you can use the Geometry Texture painter to paint on it, and start sculpting.
In the next update (after Cyber Week), the default color for Splats mode will be change to fill with the first splat texture (like the way Unity Terrain does).
Regards,
Tam

 

Thanks for your reply.
Why isn't it black in the video tutorial? Did you do something special?

 

No, it just recorded using the old version and old shader.
The new shader is better with support for Amplify Shader Editor.

 

Is there a way to avoid trees intersection when painting?

 

Hi yzaroui,
There's no direct solution for that yet, but you can work around by thin them out using Erase Ratio, Opacity properties when erasing them.

 

[WIP]
A sky full of stars. New product coming soon!

 

hi, i just brought this and it's awesome! I'm wondering is it possible to add a feature: similar to the geometry stamper but instead of using texture, use a 3D mesh instead? If not planning adding it, would it be possible to give me an idea of how to implement it? Thanks!

 

Hi JasDeVon1995,
Actually you there's a way to stamp geometry using custom mesh, using the Texture Creator.
Please follow these step:
- Prepare you mesh.
- Go to Window>Griffin>Tools>Texture Creator
- Check on High Precision toggle.
- Select Height Map From Mesh in the Mode dropdown.
- Drop your mesh into the Mesh slot, adjust other settings until you satisfy with the result mask.
- You can add some filter to process the mask.
- Hit save, a new texture will be created.
- Use the new mask with the Geometry Stamper and begin stamping.
Hope it helps,
Tam

 

Hi @Tran-Ngoc-Tam ,

I would like to know if Polaris 2 can convert terrain to lowpoly at runtime ? For example, Use Gaia then convert the result to lowpoly.

Thanks

 

Hi Sylmerria,
Yes you can do that at runtime.
It will create new game objects contain converted terrain group, and may take some time to do the job (mesh generation, texture copying, etc)
To ensure that it would fit for your game, please try the Evaluation package, provided on the store, before purchasing.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hi, when I click the cell gameobject under Griffin Environment/Stylized Terrain/~Geometry, there is always a warning message "Could not create a custom UI for the shader 'Griffin/BuiltinRP/Terrain/Lambert_GradientLookup'. The shader has the following: 'CustomEditor = ASEMaterialInspector'. Does the custom editor specified include its namespace? And does the class either derive from ShaderGUI or MaterialEditor?". What does this message means? Does it matter?

 

Hi ArcherSS,
The shaders are created using Amplify Shader Editor, which let you modify it using a graph view for special needs.
The warning appeared because you don't have ASE in your project, and it just a editor only thing.
You can ignore the warning, it doesn't affect your game.
Regards,
Tam

 

Where can we reach out to you?

 

Hello Tam,
is there a way to set the terrain to smooth shaded instead of low poly flat shaded? Also, apparently my smoothness tool stopped working. It wouldn't show up a gizmo in the scene editor, and dragging the mouse does nothing. The other tools like elevation etc are still working. Console is empty.
Cheers!

 

Hi trinistry,
Terrain meshes are hard edged natively, so you have to use a custom shader to get smoothed vertex. There is no built in shader for that yet.
For the Smoothness painter, it will paint on the Metallic Map alpha channel, make sure you're using a PBR shader variant which take the metallic map into account.
Cheers,
Tam

 

Where do I set that? Is it the shader in the generated terrain material (TerrainMaterial_xxxx)? I've set it to PBR_4Splats4Normals and it doesn't seem to have an effect.

Edit: another thing, I just tried to export a terrain as raw and re import it into another scene, and I got "ArgumentException: The specified path is not of a legal form (empty).
System.IO.Path.InsecureGetFullPath (System.String path)"

 

Splats shaders don't use metallic map, they use metallic smoothness value from each splat prototype, like the way Unity terrain does. You can try PBR Gradient Lookup or Color Map for this, just to explore the painter, since they don't use splat textures.
If you still want to utilize metalic map instead of per prototype, contact me via email then I can make a custom solution for you.
For the raw importing, make sure you choose a correct path to the file, it's better to be inside Assets folder.
Cheers,
Tam

 

Hello there,

after I was pretty satisfied with Jupiter I wanted to test your other low poly assets so I downloaded the demos for them.
I have found two things I would like to ask about Polaris V2, which might have been fixed / added in the non demo version already:

How do I make the grass render from both sides? As you see, when viewed from the other side only a shadow renders.



Is it possible to achieve height terrain layer blending, like the Unity default terrain recently added? I think I have read it in the documentation / the asset store, but didn't find an option for it. In the right example image you can see the grass actually peeking through the rocks with the rocks being almost fully opaque.



Other than that it's a really cool asset which is easy to pick up and gives great results really fast.

Best regards

 

Hi Devsagi,
Thanks for using my assets.
The grass should render both side by default, I think the full version should work fine.
Currently I have not provide any height based blending solution yet, you have to create a custom shader for your terrain at the moment. The provided shader are made with Amplify Shader Editor, you can use that tool to tailor them to fit your needs. Or you can use the Unity shader with some modify, it should work.
Regards,
Tam

 

Thank you for your very fast reply!
I will check the grass issue again in case once I have decided for a terrain solution.
Is it possible to have an officially supported height based blending solution some time, or perhaps as a supported add on? I don't own Amplify Shader Editor yet.

Best regards

 

Hi,
I don't think I can add height based blending for now since there are many other aspects to invest time in.
There are great solutions for terrain shading on the store such as CTS and Micro Splats, but you need to contact them directly to ensure that their asset will work with custom mesh terrain.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hello Tam,
thanks for the statement and the pointers, I will check them out. =)
Keep up the great work!
Best regards

 

Hello there Tam,

I found another two issues in the demo I would like to ask about.

The MeshToFile extension produces a broken result as you can see in the screenshot. That happens for both fbx and obj export. I have also tried the seperate asset "MeshToFile" that is linked at the bottom of the Polaris V2 documentation, but that produces a similar, broken result. It looks like it was intended for the Polaris V1, but it was linked in the docs so I gave it a try..



I wanted to use the created objects to create additional terrain-like layers on top of the actual Polaris terrain (since it's based on a 2d heightmap) like overhangs or floating islands - inside Unity and with matching style. Can the extension be used for that or is there a better workflow for this?

Also, with a larger brush (size > 70) the editing performance gets really low, especially the smoothing tool. The preview is very smooth, but it stutters a lot when actually painting. Is there a way to optimize this?

Thank you again and kind regards

 

Hi,
Let me take a look at the Mesh To File extension to see what is broke. The extension and the separate asset is the same thing.
For overhang, I think it's better to use modeling software to make 3d models. Polaris is a height based terrain system.
For the brush, yes it is slower when editing a large area with geometry painter (all painter that work on the height map), because it not only edit the height map, but also do mesh generation and collider cooking. However, Live Preview is always smooth, because it only draw the mesh with edited height value on the GPU side, no actual mesh generation are done. Other painter should work fast regardless of brush size.
A simple way to get around this is to lower mesh resolution, which mean you will paint on a low detail terrain, then re-generate with the desired resolution after done painting to get more detail. It's not so convenient I know.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hello Tam,

thanks for looking into the issue.
And yes, I am aware that I need a 3d model for it, but I thought I could use the mesh generator plugin to create some meshes from separate terrain to get objects that look more consistent than a custom made model would.
I will try the workaround for the brush, thank you again.

Best regards

 

Hello again Tam,

I have purchased and upgraded to the full version of Polaris, but the grass still only renders from one side.
I can't find any errors in the console or any settings regarding the double sided rendering.

 

Hi,
Please contact me via email pinwheel.customer@gmail.com, I will send you a newer package.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hi Tran-Ngoc-Tam,
i realy like your tool but it's not working as seen in your videos .

I'm using Unity 2019.03.7f1 and eg. vertex paintin is not working ... as shown in your video, i am adding the tererain, select the Terrain Group Object and set the Polygon Procesoor to "Albedo to Vertex Color", so far so good. Now, when i start painting via the "Geometry & Texture Painter". But wether the color nor a preview of the drawin pen is shown in the editor but when switch the Polygon Processor the vertices are colored. Is there an update issue or something? Same problem with the gradient coloring.

Greetings
René

 

Hi René,
When using the Group Tool, please make sure you tick on the checkbox on the left of the properties you want to override, and hit Update if using Deferred mode, otherwise nothing will change.
As vertex color painting perform on mesh buffer, so there will be no preview, and the mesh have to be re-generate to take effect. So in the painter Inspector:
- Disable Live Preview to use a default cursor.
- Enable Force Regenerate Geometry (this one is important)
- Select Albedo painter (Vertex color read from Albedo map)
- Paint.
Regards,
Tam

 

Thanks alot ... Force Update Geometry solved it (i know i checked it before but who knows ^^)

 

Hi

I've downloaded the trial version to see if I can use it in my project. I have an issue where the hand of my character has a strange appendage. It just stays there and if I move the character it elongates as I go further from my starting point.

 

Hi,
Please add the character as a independent game object (not a child of the terrain) to see if it work.
Actually the terrain does nothing to game objects in the scene, just its children.
Or check if there is any script attached to the character.
Regards,
Tam

 

hello, I have bought your asset and i have a problem.. I want to have more than 8 textures for the terain (Splat) and i cannot... Can't find something on this. How could I have more than 8 textures to paint the terrain with?

 

Hi,
It only support up to 8 textures due to texture sampler limit in shader. To have more than that, you have to use custom shader
However, I have worked with Jason Booth to bring you the integration with MicroSplat, which will support up to 32 textures, and many more artistic control. The extension is under review and will be available in a couple of days.
Regards,
Tam

 

1) The asset page talks about MicroSplat integration. I don't know how Polaris generates land (and if it's a mesh or a terrain) but will MicroSplat modules like this or this potentially work/not work?

2) Looks like Polaris has its own foliage system. It doesn't appear that Polaris can do any generation (of foliage or otherwise) especially during runtime. Does that mean I can instead purchase Vegetation Studio and then utilize it with Polaris?

Thanks.

 

Hi @MrIconic ,
1. Polaris generate regular mesh with splitted vertices for flat shading. Modules that work with MS mesh terrain will also with Polaris terrain, such as Core, anti tiling, low poly looks, etc. Some module doesn't work or doesn't make sense that I know is stream & lava (wetness still work), tessellation. For precise usage, please ask Jason Booth, he would be happy to let you know.
2. Polaris provide some tools and API for foliage, but if you want a more advanced system, consider VS Pro, note that VS standard won't work because it doesn't support mesh based terrain.
Regards,
Tam

 

Can this asset make terrains with non uniform vertices? I like to have something like delaunay triangulation. Example pictures here

 

Hi,
It can make some random displacement on XZ plane to break the uniform look, not quite Delaunay triangulation, but similar to that, however the 4 edges will stay in place because it have to stitch with neighbor terrains.
You can download the trial version to see if it fit in your project art style

 

Hi,
I just tried this and it is similar. What does the full version have that the free version does not? For example, the free version is REALLY slow and i have a powerful PC. Does the free version not have GPU acceleration? Can the full version have more displacement? Can I paint texture? What are the chances that you can implement delaunay triangulation in the future?

Thanks!

 

The only different is that you cant build with trial version. Other features is the same, including texture painting.
Currently it use GPU for texture manipulation, mesh generation still have to perform on CPU. I'm working on a new generator that utilize Job System that is way faster and more accurate, lower memory usage, will be available in the next 2020 version.
I dont think I will implement Delaunay triangulation, because it quite heavy for realtime editing. You can write a custom system that take the generated mesh and re-triangulate it to fit your need.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hi. Just checking out this asset and I saw an earlier post talking about flattening.
Is there no flattening tool to make the terrain flat at a specific height? Or did I missunderstand?
Thanks!

 

There is a flattening tool which existed from the beginning

 

Hi,
I also purchased this recently and I'm concerned about the performance.
My game runs about 200fps without and about 28fps with low poly terrain. I have Ryzen 1700 + 1080ti setup.

When running demo scenes I get these results:
Demo_00: ~85fps
Demo_01: ~300fps
Demo_02: ~38fps

Is there something obvious I'm missing to get it running faster?

Thanks!

 

Hi,
It may caused by foliage culling, you can try reduce foliage render distance and reduce their density.
A new Instanced, C# Job based renderer will be available in the next version.
Regards,
Tam

 

Hi,
I tried playing with foliage distance and set it to much smaller distance. That really helped, I was able to double the fps. Still not perfect but I think I can live with this while developing. Looking forward for the next version. Thanks for help!