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[70% OFF!] UniStorm 5.2 - AAA Volumetric Clouds, URP Support, Weather, Sky, Atmospheric Fog, & More!

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by BHS, Jan 27, 2012.

  1. BHS

    BHS

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    @Prodigious Studios We're not sure on the exact date, but no more than a week or so, we want to make sure it's perfect so we're taking our time. As for the global fog, yes, it's identical, but doesn't require pro. It doesn't use render to texture like the pro effect does.


    Here's the first glimpse of UniStorm v1.4, hope you guys like it. Some feedback would be great.

    New UniStorm v1.4 demo screenshot, (2 of the lightning bolts and the windy leaves particle system)

    $UniStorm1.4Screen1.png
    $UniStorm1.4Screen2.png
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2012
  2. RoyS

    RoyS

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    That rules!
     
  3. siflandolly

    siflandolly

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    Very nice!
     
  4. BHS

    BHS

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    Thanks guys.

    Here's an updated screenshot with the slanted, which is also denser, and the fog effect. We're try to do similar to how Skyrim does their rain and storm effects. You won't be able to fully see everything until we release the demo, which will be in a day or so.

    $UniStorm1.4Screen3New.png
     
  5. imump

    imump

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    Have a few questions...

    Is there a 24 hour day cycle? will it transition from day to night with Sun, Moon, Stars etc etc


    Thank you
     
  6. BHS

    BHS

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    @iMump As of right now there is no night and day cycle, UniStorm is a storm system simulator, but you can easily adjust the time of day with UniStorm's time of day controller manually.

    We could possibly have the time of day controller scroll on an adjustable timeline based on the user's input, but we wouldn't be able to clear the storm up as the clouds and rain are built differently than something like UniSky.

    If you're just interested in a 24 hour night to day cycle, I think we can make that happen. Please let us know if this interests you.
     
  7. mrx000

    mrx000

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    make an 24 hour night to day cycle like UniSky (clouds sun moon / stars) ?
    that will work in flash export (there is nothing else with day night cycle that works with flash.)

    + all this nice storm stuff

    it's instant purchase for me.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2012
  8. UnleadedGames

    UnleadedGames

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    I would most definitely be interested in a 24 hour day/night system featuring your awesome weather effects.
     
  9. parkour game maker

    parkour game maker

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    srry but on 3.5 you already have storms...its just that yours has better everthing
     
  10. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

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    I would second this.
     
  11. BHS

    BHS

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    @Everyone we are glad you guys are all interested in the day and night system, we are working on it now. The release for the new update will be a little bit longer due to the extra programming and work that needs to be done.

    Thanks for the suggestions guys they help, if you have any more let us know and we'll see what we can do.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2012
  12. BHS

    BHS

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    The UniStom v1.4 demo should be up in less than a day.

    Here's a list of some new features that we've added, featuring a 24 hour day and night system with some extras to make it more customizable:

    If you guys would like us to add anything just post a comment.

    • A full 24 hour day and night system.

    • Day length is based off user's input.

    • Day length is calculated in seconds for easy calculating, example: if you set the day length to 60 it will take 1 minute for each day or if you set the day length to 1440 it would be a 24 minute day similar to Skyrim.

    • The game world is all in sync with the day length, like cloud speed, minutes, hours, days, and months.

    • Minute, hour, day, month and year tracker in editor.

    • 24 hour system features dawn, day, dusk, and night all with adaptable colors that change to each time of day. The user can change the colors of each if desired.

    • Cloud system scrolls equivalent to the day speed, but is kept at a realistic speed when the day length controller is at a certain height.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2012
  13. siflandolly

    siflandolly

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    This is really sounding great. One question is that if there's a 24 hour system is there a way to have the heavy stormy clouds only when it's raining? Can we tone down the thickness of the clouds at certain times of the day since it wouldn't look stormy 24 hours a day every day.
     
  14. MaliceA4Thought

    MaliceA4Thought

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    This will certainly get bought and tried.;

    Since I am using this from a server cascaded to clients, I am assuming that I can just make settings identical on server and client and then when a client joins, the server sends a time synch message to get things in step.

    Oh and since you're asking for features, let me throw a real curve ball out there.... multiple suns, multiple moons for the "variable" hour cycle, and lightning without the rain or storm. :) (don't worry, it will be bought even if its one of each and 24 hours:) :)

    Regards

    Moria
     
  15. BHS

    BHS

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    @siflandolly Yes, we've been wanting to do a full weather system and we are working on it, but i's a lot more complicated than just toning the clouds down. We're working on a perlin noise algorithm that will hopefully randomize the rain, fog, clouds ect so that the storm will be randomized, but keep in mind that it's complicated and will take some time to figure everything out. So, I'm not entirely sure of the release date, but each suggestion is only making UniStorm better so it's worth the time and work.


    @Moria Yes, if you have a global object the time should stay constant for everyone. As for the sun and moon, we're working on it, I'm sure adding a few extra planetary bodies wouldn't be hard. Right now the hard part is getting the randomized weather figured out which is pretty complicated, but we'll figure it out.

    Just to let everyone know the price will probably go up to $50 because we we're planning on doing a weather/day and night system separately, but since we're including an advanced system with UniStorm it should be understandable. Now's you're change to get it at $40.
     
  16. BHS

    BHS

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    Hey everyone,

    Just thought we'd give you an update on what we've accomplished:

    • Weather! UniStorm now has randomly generated forecasts. (Suggestions for forecasts would help)

    • Rain (and other effects), clouds, and sound all fade in as the storm approaches and fade out as the storm ends.

    • The weather forecaster randomly picks the days forecast, so it can rain one day, then be clear for the next 4 days, or rain the day after. It's all randomized, but can be adjusted by your input.

    • We've added a star system that fades in at night and fades out in the morning; sun and moon systems are being worked on.

    • Background color changes based on the time of day, this is adjustable based on the user's color choices.


    We'd also like to accomplish the below:

    • Storm system; lightning and thunder, happen more often as the storm approaches. This would mean it couldn't use your inputs, so it depends on if you guys want that feature. Though, we could just include a separate one for inputs.

    • We're looking into seeing if we can make the wind stronger as the storm gets stronger. There's nothing in the docs, but we're going to try anyways.
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2012
  17. sleglik

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    If I can give you suggestion forecast should be every hour different. It is more realistic and for you almost no change. You have just 24 forecasts per day. Important will be that rain and other effects can change intensity during the day.
     
  18. BHS

    BHS

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    @sleglik Yes, weather is now randomly generated and not generated daily. This setting is based off the day length so the weather is consistently, randomly generated based on the game speed, the day length number has nothing to do with how often the storms are generated though, which is a good thing. This means that the randomly generated weather system can run perfectly on whatever speed you set the day length to.
     
  19. MaliceA4Thought

    MaliceA4Thought

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    As a thought...

    will it be possible to be able to manually controll wind, rain storms etc...

    In my case, I will want to run the master on the server and build my own routines to generate weather which will then transmit to the clients so that all stay in synch.

    Building a randomizer in the main day control module and then sending events to the clients saying start rain or start thunder would be the preferable way to go for me.

    If it's random, then the clients could wind up with rain etc starting at different times.

    Regards
     
  20. aspide

    aspide

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    Probably all you have to do is RPC from the server the correct parameters to the client but since I don't own this system I really don't know if this approach is possible. I'm extremely interested too since I'm doing a multiplayer and, if this thing is doable (passing parameters via scripts) I will surely buy the new version. I will be glad if the developers clarify this questions.
     
  21. RoyS

    RoyS

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    +1
     
  22. BHS

    BHS

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    @RoyS Yes, the weather system is almost complete. You can look at the features above if you haven't yet seen them

    @Aspide Moria Technically you are able to control the rain storm systems because it's based off a randomized system that generates the forecats. These generations are all number based so that it should be possible, so if the forecast number is 1 it's foggy.

    I'm not too familiar with servers and RPCs though, so I'm not exactly what you're asking. If you can explain a little more maybe I can see what we can do. As for sending forecast variables this should be easy since it's based off numbers.
     
  23. aspide

    aspide

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    The main goal would be to run the storm simulation on the server then feed the necessary forecast variable to the clients. The RPC approach is simply the server telling the clients to execute a local procedure. In a predictive environment the results will probably be the same but if your approach is to randomize the forecast variables it will be necessary to sync them over the net. So, long story short, in a multiplayer env all that will be needed is to have a function on the server that will generate the forecast variables and some other function (both on the server and the clients) that will diplay the effects based on the forementioned variables. The server will the sync the variables or call a remote procedure on the clients feeding them with the correct forecast variables. I suppose that your system can be easily tweaked to become network aware.
     
  24. BHS

    BHS

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    @Aspide I don't think this would be a problem using our system. We don't have a way to test it out as you have explained though, so if you end up using it please let us know if it works.

    Our goal is to implement a weather system similar to Skyrim's into Unity, and we've done just that.

    More updates to UniStorm:

    • Added a sun (includes sunsets) and moon system.

    • Sun shines behind clouds making them brighter, but fades away if it's cloudy or rainy, similar to Skyrim's (pro only)

    • Weather forecaster allows you to pick your own weather system if desired, this will still be randomly generated after you make you choice.

    • Starting hour option to choose you starting hour.

    • Stars system has been enhanced, stars now "twinkle" at night (Similar to Skyrim's)

    • Cloud textures have been improved.

    We are getting close to finishing version 1.4, if you have any more suggestions let us know before we're done.
     
  25. aspide

    aspide

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    Ok, actually I'm busy integrating HeadLook Controller (done) and Locomotion in a multiplayer environment so I'll wait until you will upload 1.4. Then I'll surely buy it and try to port it to network. If I'll succed I'll surely let you know.

    Let me say that your system fits perfectly in my game and the overall quality is probably the best I've seen here. You have done such a good work with it !!

    BTW, is there an ETA for 1.4 ?
     
  26. Greg-Bassett

    Greg-Bassett

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    Does this system support snow and sleet? Or just rain.

    Thanks in advance!
     
  27. BHS

    BHS

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    Hey,

    Here's a video showing off the atmospheric scattering of the clouds, all at 100+ fps. The light scattering changes based on the time of day making for amazing sunsets and a unique look for every hour.



    @Greg Bassett as of now it just supports rain, but we're thinking about possibly adding a random temperature generator based on certain months. So, if the temperature is 27 degrees in January and it's supposed to rain, since it's 27 degrees, it will snow instead. The temperatures will be kept higher for other seasons. We would like to do the above maybe after we release 1.4 we'll start working on it. Does this sound like something you'd be interested in?

    @Aspide Ok, sounds good. And thank you, we hope that everyone will enjoy version 1.4. There has been a lot of work put into UniStorm it's nice that it's appreciated.
     
  28. siflandolly

    siflandolly

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    Looks great!
     
  29. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

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    The yahoo weather service can be used to get the real time weather for any place in the world.
    They have a set of codes that tells you what the weather conditions are. Windy, mildly windy, party cloudy, etc.
    If you don't already have something better, might want to look into matching their codes. Or whoevers :)
     
  30. RoyS

    RoyS

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    +1
     
  31. BHS

    BHS

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    @siflandolly Thanks.

    @jc_lvngstn That's a nice idea, but our system already randomly generates forecasts.

    @RoyS Glad you're interested.

    We have a couple new features:
    • Moon now has light scattering at night (shown in video below)
    • The new sunsets now change color at morning and evening, glaring over the horizon. (shown in video below)
    • Wind now fades in and gets stronger as storms approach, then lessen as they leave. (Video of storm system coming soon)

    New video showing off the day/night transitions. (For some reason the quality of the light scattering at night was degraded when recorded, but it's very clear in real time when playing)

     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2012
  32. aspide

    aspide

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    Wow, it' really as good as Skyrim weather (maybe even better !!). I'll be surely a satisfied customer when you will release it on the asset store ! Any ETA for that ?
     
  33. BHS

    BHS

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    @Aspide That's exactly what we're going for, thanks. As for the release date, we want to make sure the system is flawless before it's released. The weather system code is 1,000 lines so it needs to be well tested and commented. I'd say no more than a week, maybe sooner.
     
  34. RoyS

    RoyS

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    Great job, Black Horizon. Looks fantastic!
     
  35. aspide

    aspide

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    These are really GOOD news !:D
     
  36. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

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    Very, very nice! I am excited about what you are doing with this.

    In order to produce realistic weather patterns, my server will sample weather conditions at different places around the world. For a dry reason...I'll sample from a dry part of the world. Same for rainy, etc. I don't know how to get a more realistic weather pattern than THAT! :)

    Does your weather system allow mixing weather conditions, like light wind and heavy rain, or heavy wind and light rain, etc?
     
  37. BHS

    BHS

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    @Everyone We have a few more features we'd like to add before the release because it's more difficult to add things after the project has been updated.

    First off, the way UniStorm is built you should be able to use any custom assets you want for the weather system, simply change the game object and material if required and you're done. This means you can use your own particle systems, materials, or effects from another effects pack you may have bought if desired.

    Second, which will be an awesome addition, we're adding a moon phase system that is updated every "day" (not in sight), changing just like a real moon.
     
  38. aspide

    aspide

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    The moon phases are a great idea !! I'm quicly becoming an Unistorm fanboy ! Can't wait to see the new version on the asset store !
     
  39. BHS

    BHS

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    @Aspide Thanks, we'll be releasing a video demonstration of the moon phases shortly.
     
  40. BHS

    BHS

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    @jc_lvngstn We already have most forecast conditions like you've suggested and they are randomly generated, so in a way it does allow it. If you have more suggestions for the forecast system we can add them to the system.

    Here's a new video showing each moon phase; there are 9, all going from crescent, to half, to full phases then back. The game speed has been increased to a 10 second day and the cloud speed is sped up faster than real time for demonstration purposes.

     
  41. kenlem

    kenlem

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    Has anyone tried this on mobile yet? Are there details settings that can be turned down for mobile?
     
  42. jc_lvngstn

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    One last question, I didn't see it mentioned before: How does it work in 3.5?
     
  43. Morning

    Morning

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    Does it support multiple celestial bodies? Like say two suns or some planets during the night.
     
  44. BHS

    BHS

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    @kenlem We haven't tested it on mobile yet, but the system should. Even the pro version runs at about 80 to 90 fps, so the indie version, with out all the pro effects, should run on mobile with the change of the mobile textures. As for the emission of particles this can easily be adjusted scripting wise. The documentation we'll be providing will cover how to do so.

    @jc_lvngstn It hasn't been tested yet, but as soon as we're done with all the coding we'll import a project of UniStorm v1.4 into a 3.5 version of Unity and see how it does. We'll also test to see if it's flash compatible. We'll let everyone know when we've done this.

    @Morning Yes, our sun and moon system is based on "quaternion axis rotations", which our system's axis runs on, you should be able to add whatever you want to the world axis and it will follow it according to day and night. We have tested this and it does work. Adding a sun would also work, but if you wanted light scattering on the second sun it would be require a little tweaking to the script, as the effects have to fade when storms approach.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2012
  45. RoyS

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    Future suggestion - tornado
     
  46. virror

    virror

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    This looks very cool!
    How does this system work with "endless" in-game generated worlds? Or will it only work with a "fixed" world?
     
  47. RoyS

    RoyS

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    Good question. I'm using the stitched type terrain. I'm interested in the answer to this as well.
     
  48. BHS

    BHS

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    @Virror RoyS It really depends on what you mean by "endless". Just like UniSky our system depends on distant objects way out beyond the terrain, so if your terrain is moving or generating itself than you'd need a way for the system to follow whatever camera is rendering the game. This could be very distant so it wouldn't even be noticeable. An alternative would be to just make it bigger which I'm sure would also work, as Unity does have a limit to the terrain and scene size. There's isn't really a way to truly have a "global" weather system, as this would put too much stress on the computer making the results undesirable. I would need more information to fully answer your questions.

    As of right now there is also only one rain system, but the rain can be anywhere and animated if desired. You cam have the rain system follow your player, if there's one, or you can also make the rain system much bigger, if your game is going to be online based with multiple players. I don't believe there are very many mmo's with randomly generated weather for this exact reason. It wouldn't be possible for every player to have their own rain particle system. This would cause too many draw calls and kill performance. So you could have a very large area for the rain particles to fall on so the rain would be light, but this would work keeping the draw calls low and frame rate high. You could then have that one rain system animated to randomly move around the terrain, as well as other effects, which would act like fronts. There really isn't a way to globally have rain.

    I answered the best I could, if you guys could supply more information maybe I can answer a little better.

    Edit: We tested my "theory" and it was successful and the results worked out surprisingly well for light rain across the entire terrain. Since the particles are so far out the camera only renders what's close to it (the rest goes to the GPU I believe) so the wide spread rain added 2 less fps and a a couple draw calls. The frame rate was at 70 fps. This test was done with a standard Unity terrain size of 2000x2000, so you could increase the particle amounts and the spread size if you wish. Then animate the rain with a simple looping animation function or just manually use the animation tool. The rain will only be visible and rendered when it rains. Since it rains randomly the position would always be random when it starts raining. We'll fine tweak the "wide spread rain" and add it to the v1.4 update for people who are doing similar projects such as yours.

    Was this a concept along the lines of what you were talking about?
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2012
  49. Legacy

    Legacy

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    This looks very interesting, when is 1.4 supposed to be released? you may have a new customer.
     
  50. BHS

    BHS

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    @Efraser2007 We're not exactly sure, we want to make sure it's perfect before we release it. We keep finding ways to better 1.4 and add things to it, but it shouldn't be too long. We'll let everyone know when we're getting close to releasing it.