[RELEASED] UniStorm 5.2 - AAA Volumetric Clouds, URP Support, Weather, Sky, Atmospheric Fog, & More!

I am wondering what the best way of changing cameras is?

There is a slot that you drag the camera into, but for cut scenes, I need to be able to cut between different cameras. How can I do this?

Im not a programmer, but using PlayMaker to code, so a generic concept would be nice, that I can apply in PM.

Thanks

Mark

 

Does anyone have an example of how lightning flashes look in this?

 

Is this thread (product) dead? no answered posts for a while?

Quick question, I know that fog is enabled by UniStorm, and adjusted based on the weather and time of day (?) But how can I tweak this, generaly Id like it MORE foggy!!

And in regards fog, Im using ALOT of trees and because I want to keep the CPU cool, I need to use fog to mask the trees that IM culling... BUT UniSTorm needs me to have the camera cull set to 10,000... anyway to fiddle with this so that ONLY Unistorm gets 10,000, everything else is culled? Is this a Tagging or Layer thing?

 

I'm having the same issue as a user a few post before, I'm getting 15 errors all about an unknown identifier CustomTerrainScriptAtsV3snow I have purchased Unistorm and I'm not "sharing" it. I'm sure my account history could somehow show you that. Please any help would be great thanks much!

 

dude.. I posted all the fixes for this on the previous page of comments

 

Thanks much! Don't know how I missed that! I'll give it a go although I'm more of a graphical guy. It'd be great if the dude I just forked 60 bucks over to could, maybe sort issues like that out.

 

Agreed.. I don't know why those changes weren't integrated and immediately released as an update. I think others might want to hold off until the C# version is out.. and even then, maybe wait a few updates after that.

 

Thanks much MrScary that seems to have fixed all but 3 of my errors,

Assets/Standard Assets/Image Effects (Pro Only)/Bloom.js(8,21): BCE0018: The name 'PostEffectsBase' does not denote a valid type ('not found').

and the same for CameraMotionBlur.js and ColorCorrectionLut.js

have i simply missed something again?

*edit I should also note that my terrain has gone completely black all my textures seem to have gone now.

 

In my little sample project I may have already had the pro only Image Effects imported. It's possible you need to import them. I was using 3.5.x at the time.. Not sure what might be wrong in a 4.x project.

 

You would probably have to switch between cameras programmatically. This could be done in the update function added to UniStorm. This example will switch between cameras 1 and 2 when you press the space button:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. //Camera Switch UniStorm Example
4.  
5. var camera1 : GameObject;  //Apply camera 1 here
6. var camera2 : GameObject;  //Apply camera 2 here
7.  
8. var cameraObject : GameObject;  //Leave this blank
9.  
10. var cameraToggle : boolean;
11.  
12. function Update () {
13.  
14. if (Input.GetKeyDown ("space"))
15. {
16.    cameraToggle = !cameraToggle;
17. }
18.  
19.    if (cameraToggle == true)
20.    {
21.        cameraObject = camera1;  //If cameraToggle is true use camera 1
22.    }
23.  
24.    if (cameraToggle == false)
25.    {
26.        cameraObject = camera2;  //If cameraToggle is false use camera 2
27.    }
28. }
29.  
30.  

There are exmples in the new, and old, UniStorm example videos at the start of the thread.

This thread/product is not dead. We have just been a little busy. Now that summer is almost here we will have a lot more time to work on UniStorm. We will have the problems fixed and a new version of UniStorm released soon.

As for your question, this can be done using 2 cameras. Camera 1 will render all of your objects, trees, terrain, ect and camera 2 will just render UniStorm. Instructions to do so can be found a few threads back and has been done before. If you'd like to know how we can help you get 2 cameras working with UniStorm.

You seem to be missing the main image effect scipt. Try reimporting the image effects by going to Assets>Import Package>Image Effects (Pro Only).

This should reimport everything and fix the errors. This also should fix your terrain problem. If not let us know and we will figure out what's causing it.

We have tested UniStorm with Unity 4 and it works so we know it's not a Unity 4 problem.

 

i am in need of an accurate weather and sun system.
does your system support Latitude, Longitude, Meridian and Julian-date?
and how about the sun position compared to the seasons? (in summer the sun is higher than in winter)

 

THANKS so muck Mr BHS (what IS you name by the way, do we have to be so formal?)

I am no coder, but manage to do most things in PlayMAker. The theory to you code, if I understand it correctly is an empty game object called Camera, that gets dragged into the UniStorm slot, and then the code is making the cut scene cameras childs of that GO? Is that right, if so.. I can build it in PlayMaker no probs...

And thanks for the fix on fog... 2 cameras eh... OK tricky... Off to look for the thread in question!

Mark

 

HEY x70x Did you ever get a solution to the fog disappearing thing? I have the same problem! After about 15 seconds all fog dissappears... I posted a video in an earlier thread... I was happy to see someone else had the same issue, cos I still havent solved it...

 

Are these issues going to be fixed soon? It looks like you've given up on your software.

 

He answered that 4 posts ago... keep up!

 

6 months without an update? He should answer twice.

 

ha ha Maybe!

 

Hello there, I am quite interested in the features that unistorm provides, however I have a question to pose. I am creating a game that has dynamically generated infinite terrain, is there a way to implement Unistorm so that it will work with this sort of setup? It will use TerrainEngine, so I need to be able to control where certain weather is possible... please reply at your convenience.

 

It doesn't at the moment. It is a feature likely to come in the future though.

My name is Will, I'm usually the one that posts on the forums.

I'm not familiar with PlayMaker so I can't help you there.

The camera slot is left empty; you don't even assign a game object to it. The script will do it whenever it switches cameras.

This is most likely due to the fog setting in UniStorm editor. You might have it set to a low number or even 0. This is why it fades out after you start the scene. I would double check that there is a normal value set to it.

No we have not given up, we're just busy, but we have a lot more time to work on updates now that it is almost summer. I know it has been awhile since our last update and we do apologize. An update will be available soon.

People in previous posts have done things similar. You would simply apply the sky objects such as clouds, moon, sun, ect..to your player. You could then make them the children of a parented game object whose rotations have been locked. You could then attach this to your player. This would allow your player to move and the sky objects will follow, but only the movement and not the rotations. The objects are so distant that it won't be noticeable and they will seem like they are infinite like the terrain.

 

UniStorm Version 1.6.3 should be released soon.

We would like to make sure we have taken care of all problems so if you know of any known issues please post them here on the forums so we can make a list and make sure they have been taken care of and fixed. This will greatly speed the release date up.

 

Hi Will!

OK you dont need to know about PlayMaker, the question is how to unravel the concept of the code you supplied to switch camera. I can pretty much do anything I need to in PlayMaker that you can do in code, so what you are saying is that I dont need to apply a camera beforehand, just at run-time, because I can use a PlayMaker action to get to any Unity component and its variables... SO Thanks.. I think you answered it

So then regarding fog...

Im pretty sure I have done this, note it DOESNT fade out it cuts immediately... I posted this film a while back.. no really anwsers...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgy3jpl6cll4u7e/fog_gone_away.mov

Looking forward to the update...

Mark

 

OK I just spent another hour or two trying to get this asset to work. I created a new project, included UniStorm, re-imported the image effects, and NOW I'm getting this ERROR message:

UnassignedReferenceException: The variable moon of 'UniStormWeatherSystem' has not been assigned.
You probably need to assign the moon variable of the UniStormWeatherSystem script in the inspector.
UniStormWeatherSystem.Update () (at Assets/UniStorm/Scripts/UniStormWeatherSystem.js:725)

Also the little time slider is missing on play.

Funny thing is, I did the same thing on my Laptop and I don't get this message there.

 

I believe this was do to a bug in one of the weather types. This has been fixed as of 1.6.3. Could you let us know which weather type/types are causing it?

I think the moon object is missing for some reason. Is there a moon object assigned to the moon slot in the editor? Make sure the UniStorm moon is there and see if the problem persists.

The slider missing is either due to the error you're having, when there is 1 error the system won't fully function and once fixed will work, or that you have the slider enabled unchecked in the editor.

 

Right now IM getting VERY funky things happening, but I know I AM on an earlier version... Is 1.6.3 the latest on Asset Store? Ill probably just wait with fixing anything and just rip the whole package out and start again with new version.

But IM still a little worried about HOW to delete it exactly? I just delete the whole UniStorm folder from project and hierarchy, delete player (I was using yours temporarily, and manually copying elements over to all my cameras, then theres the snow script stuff thats in 0000 terrain snow folder in the project, and in plugins...

So is the new version going to replace all of this? Or is it a new more self contained system?

One person mentioned using the demo project as the starting point for re-building a version, just copying everything from the heirarchy over and removing demo graphics? Is this a good idea?

My game is really far advanced, with lots of assets all over a huge terrain, lots of scripts all doing stuff, AIs wandering about... Im very nervous of breaking S***...



But Itll be worth it!!

M

 

Hey I'm considering UniStorm for my game, what I've seen looks great.
The thing is what I really need is very heavy rain, like tropical storm/hurricane/monsoon level. The video examples don't really show off the 'Storm' in UniStorm too much. Is there a way you (or someone following this) could demonstrate just how intense of a rainstorm this can make? Not sure why, but the webplayer stopped working for me so video would be preferred.
Thanks.

 

It sounds like you have version 1.6. The newest version on the Asset Store is version 1.6.2 which fixed the issues you're having right now.

I'm not sure how updating the asset works from the Asset Store. We have tried contacting Unity and they never told us how it works. If you're having issues and want to update I would completely remove Unity, including the 000TerrainSnow shader, and get the newest version from the Asset Store. Version 1.6.3 will be available soon if you wanted to wait.

What you should do is always keep a backup of your project just in case.

The rain is heavy looking, but due to the video capturing it's hard for all the rain particles to be captured efficiently. You can also increase the amount of rain particles to your liking within the UniStorm editor.

We don't do full demos though. The one we have on the start of the thread is heavy modified and only has 1 weather type.

I can assure you that the rain is heavy and completely adjustable. If you have anymore questions just ask.

 

UniStorm version 1.6.3 should be submitted within the next 5 days.

There are a few changes:.

Dynamic snow has been disabled until it can be more stable. This is only for a short amount of time. As many of you know we're not the developers of the snow shader. We are talking with the developer and getting the issues worked out. We know a lot of you need a flawless system and that's what UniStorm will be. As of 1.6.3 there shouldn't be anymore errors or issues.

UniStorm Version 1.6.3 Fixes, Changes, and Updates:
* C# Version of UniStorm with C# editor
* Various bug fixes and improvements both to the UniStorm system and weather types
* Documentation has been improved with various important info including adding 2 cameras
* Documentation should now import properly from Asset Store update
* Snow shader has been disabled but will return shortly

 

Great news!
Question though, I am using the snow shader in my game, but maybe dont need it to be dynamic (as in gather on the surfaces when Unistorm snows)
So would it be better for me to simply add the snow shader using Larsbertran1 (name close enough?) and add snow particles to those areas?

My game is set in Norway and in the valley should be normal weather (ok rainy maybe) and only snowy when you get high up... I do like the snow effect Unistorm provides however, but would like to have it on all the time, but only in the areas of high altutude, Is that better done myself, and USe Unistorm for the more difficult day night cycles and general weather?

Or... are the upcoming updates with the Snow Shader going to be exactly what Im talking about (Always snow at hight alltitude?) Or at least configered as such?

Mark

 

Hi,

I just purchased UniStorm and all looks amazing, I am very happy with it, it's working well. Just one small thing: documentation it's a bit confusion, saying about UniStormSystem_1.6.0 prefab (and other objects) not in package (I hope I have the right version from the Asset Store).

Thanks,
Iulian

 

When built for iOS, snow particles appear as square most of the time. They pop to the correct look (ie using alpha) once they get closer to the camera.

I am trying to determine what is causing this behavior. Is this a level-of-detail setting built into Unity, or is something in UniStorm causing this behavior. The same scene running on PC results in particles looking correct all the time.

 

Alan, you probably need to find the texture compression settings for the snow particle texture and change that to something that doesn't make it a square blob

 

Still not working with lightmaps ?

 

Indeed -- changing to 16bits from compressed has removed the artifacts. Thanks!

 

The moon object is correctly assigned.

Other Issue I've encountered trying out the system is that when i enter a building or a cave, it keeps raining! Can this somehow be fixed?

thanks.

 

Im curious about, how many frames you got with the desktop unistorm version on your device? =)

 

Mementos -- running on an iPad mini, I'm seeing 30FPS for a relatively small 3D environment with UniStorm. I haven't tried to measure the cost of UniStorm yet, but it doesn't appear to be a problem. I do expect I'll need to thin out the particle counts for snow/rain though.

 

DesertRaven -- the rain particle system should be set up to collide with all geometry by default. Make sure your indoor geometry has a "roof" so to speak, so it can block the particles when they hit it.

 

I just purchased this and I'm happy with it so far. Pretty neat. However, the rain is not coming down for some reason. I can hear it, but the particles aren't on or something. Any idea why that would be?

 

Glad you're liking UniStorm. We'll get this figured out.

Make sure the rain particles are attached to your player object. Play the scene, force the rain weather type, and go the scene tab. Select your rain object and press F. This will take you right to your rain object within the scene tab. Make sure it's by your player and the the rain is evenly hitting it. It could be off or behind you which is why you wouldn't be able to see it.

Are you by chance using the Ultimate FPS Camera?

 

Thanks for the assistance.

I'm using my own custom camera since my game has a top down Diablo style view. I was able to get the rain to show up, but it looks incredibly strange with such a small area. What can I do to widen the area? It just doesn't look right.

 

This is an easy fix. We had it set to a small area because it was for a FPS camera. If you're using a 3rd Person camera you would adjust the Ellipsoid X and Z settings in the Rain particle system. This will do exactly what you want and widen the rain surface area. We supplied an example below. Just test out different values until you find something that you like.

Hope this helps.

 

Worked out great.

Though, now that I got all of that figured out, the streaks coming down during rain stops when the character moves, though the splashes are still on the ground. They start out fine, but go away after the player starts moving. In some parts of the map, the streaks are huge and wide. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks for all of the help. You guys are great.

 

Very eager for the 1.6.3 C# build, checking every day I'll be updating from 1.5 and pushing weather to my testers after that comes out.

Thanks for everything you're doing.

 

My Cave or indoor objects have a collider assigned, so they do have a roof. Maybe I will check the settings of the rain particles if they are set to react that way?

 

Make sure the rain system is attached to the camera, since you're camera will not be rotating.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

We are most likely submitting 1.6.3 tonight.

The documentation took quite some time to complete but we just finished it. We're excited to release the new update and we're sure a lot of people will be happy with it. And yes C# will come with it.

Make sure the rain is above the collider. If not, the rain will be under the colliders and the colliders won't catch the rain.

 

Still not working with lightmaps?

 

Im waiting on the 1.6.3 release as everyone in here, I hope it will be that damn good as we all hope and expect !

I need it for just one upcoming project, starting next week, this is excellent timing if everything works out as planned for us.

So far the most thing I like is the performance of this beautiful asset on an average Gaming PC these days. It gives alot of room to use other computing extensive game assets (or any coding I do - which is not THAT optimized at all lol), thank you for Unistorm! It is the starting point for any rpg-ideas/development here.

Now get to work and release the damn thing ! Do it soon - do it now ! *g*

edit: I dont use lightmapping at all, is it a have-to feature for any mobile development or what is it good for?

regards,
Ray

 

Lightmap support will come in the update after 1.6.3.

Glad you like UniStorm.

Lightmap support will be in an update after 1.6.3. UniStorm 1.6.3 was just submitted and will be available as soon as it's accepted. You can see all the new features and improvements below.

 

UniStorm 1.6.3 has been submitted.

Here's a list of all the new features and improvements:

UniStorm 1.6.3:

* C# Version of UniStorm with C# Editor.
* JavaScript Version of UniStorm with JavaScript Editor.
* Greatly improved editor, editor is now much more organized with categories and labels .
* Added a pull down menu to pick the weather. Numbers no longer need to be entered in the UniStorm Editor. A list appears showing all weather types such as Partly Cloud, Mostly Cloud, Heavy Rain, Light Snow, ect for you to choose.
* Added Starting Time of Day pull down menu which lets you choose the time of day UniStorm will start at. These include Morning, Day, Evening, and Night.
* Added a Moon Phase pull down menu to the UniStorm Editor, this allows you to pick the starting moon phase for that day.
* Various bug fixes and improvements to the UniStorm System.
* Documentation has been greatly improved with better organization, huge Table of Contents, better formatting, very detailed instructions covering every single component, and a step by step tutorial on getting the system set up.
* Added greatly improved High Clouds.
* Moon now fades in as it gets dark making transitions much more smooth and realistic.
* 21 page PDF documentation.
* Documentation should now import properly from Asset Store update.
* High Clouds are now scroll based off the cloud speed in the editor.
* Storm Clouds now have their own scroll speed setting the editor.
* Unity's fog is now enabled automatically at start so users don't have to worry about enabling it.
* Various tweaks to weather types' fading calculations to make them more smooth, balanced, and realistic.
* Months now end on the 31st instead of the 29th.
* Months now go from 1-12 instead of 0-11.
* Snow shader has been disabled but will return shortly.

Here's a picture of part of the new UniStorm Editor, both C# and JavaScript versions are the same:

 

Sound great. I'm very happy about the C# and the docs.

If you're interested to hear about my perhaps unique use for Unistorm, here's my quick description. This is just to share, for fun, not asking for help.

I'm a professional developer with a 3-year mmo-like personal project that's in early alpha. I have a continuous world, hundreds of stitched terrains loaded dynamically, that uses re-positioning to keep things near origin (with Y heights from maybe -2000 to +2000). Typically, nothing is built for this scale, so I expect to have to fix some things or find workarounds.

Each player has their own local weather system (Unistorm), which will be manipulated from script based on events sent from my server to represent world weather. So manipulating weather state from code is important; Unistorm has been capable of doing this, even though it isn't made exactly for this.

On my server/world, there are "local" weather effects, such as rain in specific locations. I mean, weather is not a single global thing. I don't think a storm "in the distance" can be easily represented, so I'm probably just going to apply a global-appearing weather event (rain, snow, etc) to each player who is in a server-local weather event. Seems reasonable. But someday I'd like to have different weather events visible at different coordinates.

I have a server-based date and day/night cycle which I'll use to control the weather and day/night cycle of Unistorm. So it's reverse of what Unistorm is made for, which is the client determining weather events. I have dynamic shadows. 1st and 3rd person cameras. Soon I'll be adding structure building based on blocks (similar to Minecraft building), which will collide with weather.

There's a bunch of other constraints I'm forgetting, but basically, this should be interesting With 1.5 I hadn't done any server-event control of day/night and weather. 1.6.3 will make that much easier for me to do, being much newer and in C#.