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

Yes, it will.

We wanted to wait to release version 2.0 for desktop because it consisted of a complete rewrite. We will now further optimize it for mobile devices.

With UniStorm Mobile 2.0, users should see greatly improved frame rate, as well as tons of new features.

 

May I ask when will it be available? And please provide more friendly interface for c# code to visit, especially those setting time and weather dynamically.

 

We are currently working on it. We wanted to do our rewrite before we did. Now that we have finished our rewrite and optimizations, we can submit a Unity 4.6 version of UniStorm 2.0.

We don't give out release dates, but we are currently working on it. I'd say no more than a month. Since we have already done a complete rewrite, it won't take nearly as long to optimize it for mobile devices.

 

Thanks for the update, BHS. I'm looking forward to finally getting my time system to mesh well with Unistorm. Let's hope it goes without a hitch.

 

No problem, it was a much needed update.

Yes, it's one of many exciting new features. We thoroughly tested the new time system to make sure it's 100% consistent and reliable. We also include a save and load example as well as a Load function that can be called to load UniStorm to the desired time.

 

For those of you who have missed the update notes and status of UniStorm 2.0.

We have submitted UniStorm version 2.0 and it currently awaiting approval.

We have changed the next UniStorm version to UniStorm Version 2.0.

We have done this because it is basically a brand new dynamic day and night weather system. It has been completely rewritten from the ground up. Everything has been reevaluated, optimized, rewritten, and made better. However, we have kept all needed variables variable names the same so custom scripts will still work.

We have also included a Survival Demo (which demonstrates accessing UniStorm variables for a player's food, warmth, and dryness, then to take cover under shelter to shield you from the elements), Player Save and Load example (which allows you to save the UniStorm time, date, weather, and temperature, and load it again when needed. This is as simple as calling 1 function), and Spawning a Player Example (which lets you spawn a player which then grabs all components automatically on start to make UniStorm function).

Huge thanks to Polygonmaker (characters) Norifx (Buildings and prop models) & Philipp (Statue) Schmidt

UniStorm Version 2.0

Features:
* Rewrote UniStorm's time system to properly allow the setting of the exact time of day.
* Added Starting Hour to the UniStorm Editor
* Added Starting Minute to the UniStorm Editor
* Added separate Atmospheric Color adjustments for Morning, Day, Evening, and Night.
* Added an Instant Weather option to the Editor. This allows you to have instant starting weather, if desired. All this is in one function so when your players load their data, you call this function so they can have instant weather so they can bypass the weather transitions.
* Added a saving and loading example script to help demonstrate how you can access UniStorm's variables, save them, then load them. (Similar to something like Skyrim). This also allows players to have instantly faded in weather so they can resume where they left off without having to wait for the weather to transition.
* Added a Instantiated player example. This script allows you to spawn a player that will then automatically apply all needed UniStorm components on Start.
* Added Clear as new weather type.
* Added Mostly Cloudy using dynamic clouds as new weather type.
* Dynamic Snow beta (dynamic snow shader with increasing snow during snow weather types)

Demo Examples:
* Survival Demo (which demonstrates accessing UniStorm variables for a player's food, warmth, and dryness),
* Player Save and Load example (which allows you to save the UniStorm time, date, weather, and temperature. You can then load it again when needed)
* Spawning a Player Example (which lets you spawn a player which then grabs all components automatically on start to make UniStorm function)
* Dynamic Snow Example (Shows dynamic building snow)

System:
* Removed all GetComponents from the updated function. Everything is now in a custom function on start that gets all needed components once. These are then stored and accessed when needed. This eliminates the need for GetComponent anywhere in the UniStorm script.
* Improved optimization and performance
* Precipitation is now delayed until a certain storm cloud density is reached. This allows rain to not fall when there isn't enough cloud cover.
* Thunder and lightning are now delayed until a certain storm cloud density is reached.
* Various minor bug fixes
* Various optimizations
* Various code cleanup (removing code and comments that are no longer needed or used)
* UniStorm will no longer error if you don't have the Global Fog script attached to your camera. Instead, it will tell you to apply the script via the console, but still run without erroring.
* UniStorm will no longer error if you don't have the Sun Shaft script attached to your camera. Instead, it will tell you to apply the script via the console, but still run without erroring.

Fixes:
* Fixed Dynamic Wind from generating during the Fog weather type
* Removed old start time calculations
* Rewrote Time Algorithm to properly allow exact starting time of day
* Moon will no longer change at night. It will now calculate the next moon phase during the day.

 

I thought UniStorm and UniStorm Mobile were going to be merged into a single Asset? Or is this no longer the case?

 

Looking forward to the update. I had a thought the other day when I was out hiking in the Sierras, What about adding Storm-cells in a future update?

 

This is a great suggestion. We'll do our best to implement it.

 

UniStorm 2.0 has been accepted and is now live!

Get it here: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/2714

UniStorm 2.0 features a complete rewrite (of course keeping needed variables the same so custom scripts will still work), tons of awesome new much needed features, dynamic snow, tons of example codes and game types (including a survival game example where UniStorm affects vitals), and more!

Features:
* Rewrote UniStorm's time system to properly allow the setting of the exact time of day.
* Added Starting Hour to the UniStorm Editor
* Added Starting Minute to the UniStorm Editor
* Added separate Atmospheric Color adjustments for Morning, Day, Evening, and Night.
* Added an Instant Weather option to the Editor. This allows you to have instant starting weather, if desired. All this is in one function so when your players load their data, you call this function so they can have instant weather so they can bypass the weather transitions.
* Added a saving and loading example script to help demonstrate how you can access UniStorm's variables, save them, then load them. (Similar to something like Skyrim). This also allows players to have instantly faded in weather so they can resume where they left off without having to wait for the weather to transition.
* Added a Instantiated player example. This script allows you to spawn a player that will then automatically apply all needed UniStorm components on Start.
* Added Clear as new weather type.
* Added Mostly Cloudy using dynamic clouds as new weather type.
* Dynamic Snow beta (dynamic snow shader with increasing snow during snow weather types)

Demo Examples:
* Survival Demo (which demonstrates accessing UniStorm variables for a player's food, warmth, and dryness),
* Player Save and Load example (which allows you to save the UniStorm time, date, weather, and temperature. You can then load it again when needed)
* Spawning a Player Example (which lets you spawn a player which then grabs all components automatically on start to make UniStorm function)
* Dynamic Snow Example (Shows dynamic building snow)

System:
* Removed all GetComponents from the updated function. Everything is now in a custom function on start that gets all needed components once. These are then stored and accessed when needed. This eliminates the need for GetComponent anywhere in the UniStorm script.
* Improved optimization and performance
* Precipitation is now delayed until a certain storm cloud density is reached. This allows rain to not fall when there isn't enough cloud cover.
* Thunder and lightning are now delayed until a certain storm cloud density is reached.
* Various minor bug fixes
* Various optimizations
* Various code cleanup (removing code and comments that are no longer needed or used)
* UniStorm will no longer error if you don't have the Global Fog script attached to your camera. Instead, it will tell you to apply the script via the console, but still run without erroring.
* UniStorm will no longer error if you don't have the Sun Shaft script attached to your camera. Instead, it will tell you to apply the script via the console, but still run without erroring.

Fixes:
* Fixed Dynamic Wind from generating during the Fog weather type
* Removed old start time calculations
* Rewrote Time Algorithm to properly allow exact starting time of day
* Moon will no longer change at night. It will now calculate the next moon phase during the day.

 

How well does it integrate with dynamic GI in Unity 5?

 

UniStorm controls Unity 5's GI simply by adding UniStorm to your scene. It looks great and seamlessly blends between all times of day based on the colors you've set via the UniStorm Editor.

 

Good deal. I may pick this up tomorrow when I'm back in the office.

 

@BHS How far along are you with the Dynamic snow?
I've had it up and running on Unitstorm for around 6 months now. It builds up on everything except the trees.
Does your implementation include shaders for trees and grass?
I'm not ready to update yet because it will break my multiplayer code but if you have dynamic snow on trees I will probably bring updating forward.

Here's my dynamic snow..
The speed of the snow settling in the video is speeded up so the video remains short...

 

Great to hear.

There are 2 stages and we are in the first stage. It works with any model that is using the dynamic snow shader. There then is a global float that an external script controls based off of UniStorm's weather and temperature. If it's snowing, it will then start accumulating.

Our next stage will be the terrain and terrain objects. This means grass, trees, and the ground based off the terrain's steepness.

Why will the update break your multiplayer code? Is this because of an external plugin you are using?

 

Many thanks for the quick reply.

that's exactly the same way I have mine set up.
I'm not great with shaders. I don't really feel as though I can take my dynamic snow any further without learning a lot more about CG.

I suspect my net code will break because of the rewrite you've gone through.
I'm suspecting that some variable names will have changed?
It's not a problem. It shouldn't take much effort to fix my code it's just that I'm busy with other things right now.

 

@BHS another quick question about the snow, does the shader you are using take normal maps into account?

 

Would love to see storm cells.

- shwa

 

Great re 2.0 being live!

In the asset store it says, "Requires Unity 4.3.4 or higher."
BHS - Just double checking before i download, that this will work in 4.61.

thanks.

 

@BHS I've just read the release notes for 2.0 which state that you haven't changed any of the variable names so I should be good to go ahead and update with no disruption to my network scripts

 

We didn't change any variable names, as stated in our release notes, so it doesn't cause any issues with custom scripts our customers may have written. However, the only variable name we changed was the camera.

Yes it does. It also takes in steepness so that the steeper an object is, the less snow it accumulates.

 

At the moment, for UniStorm 2.0 , you need Unity 5. We are currently making a UniStorm Version 2.0 for Unity 4.6 users.

 

2.0 is awesome so far, one thing:

My clouds are not moving...
I'm not really sure if they moved at all since the 1.8.1.1 (or what version they got stuck in). I've even tried the demo scene.

EDIT: They do, however move in the demo of Unistorm 1.8.4 (the one in the OP)

 

They definitely move.

Maybe the speed is too low. Try turning the Cloud Speed up to see if you can see them move.

 

I've tried that, still nothing. I will try to build it, and see if it moves then.

 

I just tested all scenes with UniStorm 2.0 in Unity and all clouds are moving fine.

Are you receiving an errors?

 

No, but I've found out that in a black project they work fine... I have no idea of what to do. I don't want to start over.

EDIT: I have also found out that Non-dynamic clouds move. Dynamic clound's texture offset won't change at all.

 

Thank you for the answer!

 

It could be a strange import issue. Have you tried reimporting UniStorm? You need to be using Dynamic Clouds Type for the dynamic clouds to move.

 

Yes, and I am. The procedure of updating:
1. Download the update
2. Create new scene
3. Delete Unistorm folder
4. Import the updated version
5. Load normal scene

I will try the "Reimport All"

UPDATE: Didn't help

 

Hello,
Can you please give us some tricks on how we can use the kit with the AIs ? like short tutorials or something like that

 

BHS wrote - "At the moment, for UniStorm 2.0 , you need Unity 5. We are currently making a UniStorm Version 2.0 for Unity 4.6 users."

Ok.
Will it be ready this week?
That would be most helpful.

*** I suggest you change the asset store description that says
"Requires Unity 4.3.4 or higher."

thanks,
shwa

 

I love unistorm, made my project looks really amazing !





By the way, how to change the clouds from black color to white one please (picture 1) ?

 

A lot of our customers, including us, use the Color light type in the Windows>Lighting tab. It makes them more white. You can then adjust them via the cloud color in the UniStorm Editor.

 

Hmm ...glad this is working in your projects ...it doesn't like my project..

I added it to an existing project and get nothing but errors ....Null Reference Exception's among other issues related to lightshafts ...

Trying a fresh project ....if it works I will be annoyed since I want it working in my project..

 

Now its alot better thank you

 

Thanks for all support. I use Unistorm along with RTP 3.2. and Unity 4.6.5. In gameplay after some seconds , terrain turns like attached screenshot. It seems like reduction colors.When I disables forward rendering, terrain it is correct. Sometimes it turns automatic to correct.
Any help ?

 

It sounds like you may need to reimport your image effects. You also need to have a Sub Shaft effect on your camera.

 

I don't think this is UniStorm related. I know that the developer of RTP offered this solution for people who use dynamic light with his system and see weird results.

Also, we have tested RTP with UniStorm and had no issue.

http://unistorm-weather-system.wiki..._have_other_issues_regarding_RTP_and_UniStorm

 

You're welcome.

That looks great. Feel free to post some screenshot of your project and UniStorm here on the thread. We'd love to see it.

 

Yeah I was doing that and it still caused errors ...its a conflict with other assets in the project ...since I tested it in a fresh project and only added UniStorm ...works like a charm ...great improvement ...I will add it to my project first ...then add the other assets ...should be fine then...probably.

 

Solved it with the most drastic solution I could think of. I created a new project and put all my assets and preferences in it. Seems to be working now.

 

Given there are 59 pages of replies here, this may very well have been discussed and I haven't found it.

I bought this asset a while ago but haven't gotten around to integrating it into my game yet. The main problem I see occurring is that I use procedural voxel terrain, which does not use mesh colliders. This means that most of my terrain has no collider. I only put box colliders around the player's location which shift with movement.

That means that, as I imagine, rain particles and others will not be able to properly collide with the terrain. I am not sure how to work around this problem, though. Am I required to use mesh colliders, or do you think there's another way to work around this?

Thanks!

 

I am wondering if unistorm support oculus rift, i have an idea about a forest map for it

 

If you have some form of collision, I think the rain particles would collide. If it's some type of custom collider system, we have no way of testing this ourselves.

Looks good.

We have numerous customers who us OR and UniStorm. You just need to have both cameras with a far clipping plane of about 18,000.

 

Thanks,
Sent you a private message please check it

 

I don't use any colliders on terrain - only around the player in close proximity or around the mobs. No computational power needs to be wasted on collisions elsewhere.

I take it, then, that without any form of colliders it won't be able to work and that I'll probably need to use mesh colliders.

This is what I figured would be true, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be as mesh colliders are far more expensive.

Although - If it's possible to write a system where I can tell the weather system the terrain height at any given location so that it knows where to collide, etc, that would work as well.

 

Its why I decided to use procedural terrain and got rid of the voxels, I plan on mixing them though ...the voxels with the procedural terrain ..like make areas that you can dig for stuff...will be less intensive..

Good luck getting it working with UniStorm.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by that. My game is entirely built upon the idea of building and terrain modification. Is there a better way to do this that doesn't involve voxels? (I realize this is a bit off topic here, but it does relate potentially to how I could get UniStorm working with my game.)

 

I mean ...make standard terrain(can be limited procedural also) ...then sections of voxel terrain where people can dig .. the trick is to make sure it looks the same(blending) as the standard terrain...

But if the whole game is going to be "entirely built upon the idea of building and terrain modification" ..then that probably wont work..
I think it would be less intensive to do it that way and the rain collisions would work also..