[Released] Vegetation Studio Pro

I have also been unable to get the Touch React System working in Unity 2020.3.30f1 with URP 10.8.1.

Here's the boat in the example scene:

 

Can anyone confirm with Vegetation Studio Pro 1.4.9 (latest in asset store) and Unity 2020.3 using URP 10.7.0 and hybrid renderer 0.11.0-preview.44 if the billboarding system works? I currently have the regular VS, but would upgrade if the billboards work in the pro version.

I am "stuck" on 2020 for the foreseeable future because I am using entities (hence the hybrid renderer).

 

I also had a problem with this system, but later I started to do rendering with Vegetation Engine and use it's system for this.

 

Do you mean you used the TVE billboard shader, maybe as an LOD or something? Are you still using VSP for placement? It's not clear to me how to expand the range of trees in the default Unity (in VS/VSP it's simple), they always seem to be culled very close, and I'm not too familiar with setting up billboards in TVE.

Forgot to mention I'm using TVE, and on re-reviewing the docs (it's been a while so I forgot a lot of stuff) it looks like it explicitly does not support VSP billboard baking, at least if I'm understanding it correctly.

 

Our latest video highlights Vegetation Studio!

Hope you enjoy this vintage creation of ours.
Musical Composition by Teresa Silverthorn
Art work by David Silverthorn

Assets Used:
Gaia by Procedural Worlds https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/15277
Forest Vision by Bauervision https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/20500
Weather Maker by Digital Ruby (Jeff Johnson) https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/11088
Pegasus by Procedural Worlds https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/15277
Fawn by Asset4Indie https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/10644
Bird Flocks- Butterfly, Sparrow, Hummingbird by Unluck Software https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/1075
Woodland Animals- Deer by VintageSoft https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/21015
Super Combiner by LunarCats Studio https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/18135
Vegetation Studio by Awesome Technologies https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/25402
Final Camera Effects Pro by Project Wilberforce https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/22764
Inspector Gadgets Pro by Kybernetik https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/16747
Easy Scatter by Hedgehog Team https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/1351
MegaSplat by Jason Booth https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/25047
Turbo Rename by Rob Reijnen https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/29405

 

Hello. I'm using VSP 1.4.9.0 and I found a memory leak using multiple cameras with "Render Direct to Camera" active for all of them, rendering on different displays. For example, I've placed two cameras in the demo scene, rendering on display 1 and 2, and the Total memory use increases at a rate of 5MB per second ("Other" memory type). Has anyone experienced this problem? I've tried with Unity 2019, 2021 and different versions of Burst and packages but the problem seems to be present in all cases.

 

I've run into memory leaks with VSP on 2019, but have not narrowed it down, other than it only happens when VSP is active. Mine did seem to be related to burst, but at this stage of my project I've just left VSP off. I'll be monitoring the forum to see what solutions are out there.

 

Well, the leak I found is quite specific. It only happens when rendering on different displays with "Render Direct to Camera" active. I've checked with an empty project and different versions of Unity and packages, but it's always present in this situation, so it has to be an internal issue of VSP.

 

Trying to get this set up on Unity 2021.2.8f, but it continues to crash. Can anyone advise?

 

Go to the Discord site for help. While I hate using Discord, many of my assets use it exclusively.

 

I found that the hue variation of speedTree failed after buildplayer, but the editor is normal. What is the problem? Does anyone know?

 

@LennartJohansen

 

I'm getting this error after updating to unity 2021 from unity 2019. I know it's a large gap of an update, but I've updated Vegetation system with the package manager and I can't seem to get it working.

I'm also using built in render pipeline if that's relevant.

The type or namespace name 'VegetationSystem' does not exist in the namespace 'AwesomeTechnologies'

Edit

I figured it out with some finagling and help from people on the discord.

The steps I took overall were.
Updated Unity from 2019 to 2021
Update Vegetation studio pro and all dependencies
Delete all asmdef files in the awesome technologies folder
Delete the demo folder for vegetation studio pro
Turn on allow unsafe code in player settings
Run the project.
Re import Vegitation studio pro.
Now I could run the project with the demo scene and asmdef files.
Switch to Jobs 0.11
Turn off allow safe code in the player settings.
Now I have all asmdef files the demo folder and allow safe code is off and the project runs.

 

EDIT: Never mind, I did a restart of Unity and the "auto install" of the optional components worked this time. Very odd. Still would love to see the docs updated. I know maintaining docs is a pain, but it really is valued, I think (and hope!).

Hi there - really excited to use Vegetation Studio Pro, but the current setup documentation is very old - referring to Untiy 2018 and the Beta version of VSP. Is there a more recent version?

For starters:

- Am I supposed to manually download the additional packages Math, Jobs, etc? Using the popups presented after import doesn't work. I get compilation and job collision errors.
- What version am I supposed to change .NET to, I only have .NET Framework and 2.1 as options?

Thanks in advance!

 

I have met a performance issue of loading level
the case is that, the level with VSP load and unload at runtime. I find big cpu spike on VSP active and destory.
Is there any suggest to optimize the performance of load and unload VSP level at runtime?

 

tldr; is there an API call, to tell all the VegeSystems (we have over 16 of them in our scenes), to chill the F*** down, and wait with it's initialization?

I have a question regarding Vegetation Studio: Is there an option to delay the execution of it's startup?

Our scene does not have a camera present on load, it's added during a setup procedure. But vegetation studio is very camera hungry, and if it does not find one, it likes to spit out errors like crazy...Is there an API function, from which you could call the vege startup at the correct time, when the player's main camera is setup that would include the the VS script and the billboarding setup, and everything else?

Changein the order of script execution yielded no results.
Is the only option do diable all VP gameobjects and enableing them at the right time?

In our case, that would be quite cumbersome, as when working in the scene, it help to have them active during lvl design.

 

@Kojote Did you end up solving the performance problems issue you were having? I am having the same issue

 

I have a Problem with VS Pro. As soon as i start the game my maincamera renders all of the trees which is fine, but there is one single tree "attached" to my camera. I never had this problem before.
Anybody knows how to fix that?

 

Last night I got grass textures working with VS Pro. This morning I wanted to get the forest biome working, but unlike the grass, trees aren't showing up on the landscape. Any suggestions for what I should check? Thanks

 

- Did you add the trees to a vegetation package?
- Did you assign the vegetation package to a biome in VS?
- How did you add the specific biome to you terrain?

 

It's working now, though I can't remember which exact thing got it working. It might have been refreshing vegetation, which someone on the discord suggested.

 

I'm experiencing the same problem since I started testing HDRP. I still haven´t updated all the trees, so maybe it's related with using old materials. But it would be nice if someone who has experienced the same problem could give us a clue.

 

Was looking for another issue fix and happened to see this one.

Possibly an issue having to due with the shader not being gpu instancing compatible (not sure if it's VS/VSP or Unity gpu instancing). It might have to do with the shader not having the correct Include reference, or if it is missing from the shader altogether. You can try out another material that is known to be GPU instancing supported (and possibly VS/VSP supported). If it doesn't occur, then it's most likely an incompatible shader that has not been set up for gpu instancing and / or VS/VSP. For Vegetation Studio and Vegetation Studio Pro, you're probably going to have to check for shader compatibility. Inside of the shader file, it should include code that reads as #include "VS_indirect.cginc" or something similar. I've had a similar issue before myself on both the Built-In and URP render pipelines. It's probably something similar in HDRP as well.

 

Hello There,
I've always been a fan of your work since the release of the original Vegetation Studio.
However, for the past two years, it looks like your fortune is falling apart.
I know it's hard to come up with a robust and stable solution, especially with all the stuff that has to do with render pipelines and whatnot.
But it's almost useless for the current HDRP, which unfortunately is the most wanted application for this awesome asset.
I think the biggest problem is the Billboard Render System.
Me and I suspect a lot of Unity people are waiting soooo long to finally get an HDRP ready version.

Are there any updates in your pipeline to finally make it a polished gem for HDRP?
It feels like there's not much left to do to be a state-of-the-art tool. Or is there?

Besides my Frustration... this Asset is an ablosute beast when it comes to procedural Vegetation placement. Plz dont drop it

 

A couple of things:

1. In the editor, not when playing, when you open two scenes, each with their own VegetationSystemPro, both of these get added to each other's Vegetation Studio Manager. Then, when you notice that VSP stops working while playing, you have to open these scenes, one at a time, and clear the missing references.

2. Is it possible to get VSP to work in Deferred rendering mode using URP? Currently all vegetation turns white in Deferred but looks correct in Forward.

 

Is it possible to export the persistent storage package from Vegetation Studio to Vegetation Studio Pro?

We are trying to upgrade to Pro while keeping the exact same vegetation layout we have in our scene.

 

I pushed my Vegetation Studio Pro Extensions to the Unity Asset Store. In case anyone who has been using them for years for free on Github would like to support me, I kept the initial release discount at the maximum discount for the maximum period:

Vegetation Studio Pro Extensions​

Thank you very much!

 

Hi, I'm new, in the VSP. I need help
I created a Terrain with Gaia including texture, so I do not want to create or add/edit the textures in VSP. By the way can I import the textures somehow used by Gaia to bind/define Grass/objects/trees per texture like in Gaia?
Anyway I created a package without texture which I've added in the Biomes/Vegetation package.
I see now select biome with many options, as I'm creating a desert, I thought I select Desert instead of default,
the problem when I add for example some rocks in edit Biomes, nothing spawn on the terrain unless I change the Biomes type back to default.
Can any1 explain how to use the Biomes types??
I've just seen the VSP Extensions and I though wow that looks easy, but same I can only see Biomes type Default.
Another question, how can I set the zones where to spawn my vegetation? or let's say I want to have some trees in one line.
How to set a random position in Y Axe I mean for example I want some rocks to be on the ground other half in the ground, I hope it's clear what I want to achieve. Same for the trees, I want like -0.2 in Y to be in the ground.
How does the LOD work, I've added Prefabs which incl. already an LOD System, but somehow I can't see them culling.
And as I see there is a Colliders tab, should I remove the collider from the prefab itself?
Another question I'm targeting HDRP, can I use billboards for the Grass?
What about the wind effect/animation for my vegetation? Should I use a specific Shader which have already that effect. I mean I have the Vegetation engine from Boxophobic can I use it along with VSP? One of the reason I bought VSP is that it was mention in many forums etc.. that the performance is better with VSP, so the question is regarding the wind effect what should I do to not drop the performance, specially if I combine VSP now with the Vegetation engine.
Last question how can I select the spawned object, like I want to remove/edit a particular spawned rock?

 

Just leaving this here:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/doe...instancing-in-hdrp-12-1.1194841/#post-8372169

Hopefully this means we can soon get raytracing support in Vegetation Studio Pro

 

Hi, I upgraded for the first time in a while, and apparently there's a new grass shader, and it doesn't look good. The new shader is the one at "AwesomeTechnologies/Release/Grass/Grass", and the old shader is at "AwesomeTechnologies/Grass/Grass".

The new shader is much brighter than the old one, and looks really washed out on every type grass I use. In fact, there's no way I can even adjust the color settings to mimic the old appearance! To make it easier to see the difference, I created a prefab with the Grass Patch Generator, then turned the generated Material's "Color" and "Color B" fields to be pure black, #000000. The first picture below is what that looks like. Then I changed it to use the old shader, and it looks like the second picture. (Which is what I expected.)




Is this what the new shader is supposed to look like, or is something wrong? I'm using 2019.4.31f1. Using standard rendering pipeline, in Deferred rendering mode.

I could work around this by replacing every grass texture I use with a grass prefab (so I can change the shader manually), but that would be a lot of work. I'll probably just try to hack the code to use the old shader, for now. But I'd like to understand what's going on!

Thanks

 

Hi, I have a question about Billboards and Vegetation Masks. I have terrain with a series of Vegetation Mask Areas defined. I have added some trees to the with a 'Use with vegetation mask' type and they correctly render in their designated areas. However, when moving away from them they are culled faster than when the same tree is just added to the scene. I would like the tree to stay there for a longer distance. I also would have expected the tree Billboards to be working rather than the trees simply vanishing. I'm struggling to find any up-to-date information on this, so any help would be welcome.

 

VPS used again to great effect! great tool! I have used VS or VSP in every project since they came out.

 

I asked in Discord but I'll ask here too. Any chance we can get the Billboarding to support grass and vegetation too?
The idea is that we can switch to billboards pretty fast on grass, since we have dense grass. Only a few meters in front of the camera should be 3d objects and then just move to billboards like we do with trees.

 

I’m pretty sure VS is abandoned at this point. It’s a shame and I hope I’m wrong, but….

 

Yeah, i found out when I saw the reviews. It's a shame. It looks like Microsplat is trying to do a similar tool from what I see on the new tools available now.

 

Yeah, Microsplat looks amazing. ESP with all the enhancements by Rowlin

EDIT< yes, mistyped, sorry. Microverse is what I meant

 

Disclaimer: I'm a happy user of MicroVerse (MV) and MicroSplat (MS) and have no association with the author. MV and MS are both awesome.

To clarify some things: MS is a terrain shader. It replaces Unity's built in shader for the terrains. MV is a terrain modifier and vegetation _placer_. It uses stamps to modify the terrain height map, assign textures, and place vegetation and details on the terrain. It uses the built-in Unity trees and details features.

VS/VSP provides some placement features for trees and details, but it also provides a rendering/culling/instancing solution. MV does not provide that. You will still most likely want to use a solution to enhance Unity's trees/details features. Based on what I see in the Discord servers for MV, one popular solution is MV + Nature Renderer (NR) + The Vegetation Engine (TVE). I believe some people are using it with VS/VSP. I think GPU Instancer is also a popular option. TVE is not strictly necessary, but it allows you to convert/normalize all your vegetation shaders to a single system that provides support for GPU instancing and support for all SRPs + BiRP, and works with NR, VS/VSP and GPUI.

 

For what its worth

In the class JobCullingGroup

Convert the for loops to foreach (there are 3 of them)

Code (CSharp):

1. for (int i = 0; i <= _eventList.Length - 1; i++)
2.             {
3.                 int index = _eventList[i];
4.  

to

Code (CSharp):

1. foreach(int i in _eventList)
2.             {
3.                 int index = i;

Helps with some garbage

 

@colin_young

Thanks for the detailed response. Yeah, mistyped with Microsplat, meant Microverse.

Right, for large terrains I guess you'd need something for managing all the objects. I didn't know about Nature Renderer so thanks for pointing that out.

 

What is the current status of tree billboards with Vegetation Studio Pro, HDRP, and Unity 2021.3? I own the asset and have it in a project, but it looks like the VSP Billboard System component is completely missing.

https://www.awesometech.no/index.php/home/vegetation-studio/components/billboard-system/

The link about the VSP billboard system says the following:
"In order to use the billboard system add a BillboardSystem Component to the same GameObject as the VegetationSystem Component."

That does not work, because there is no BillboardSystem Component.

I am using Vegetation Studio Pro 1.4.9.0 with Unity 2021.3.16f1 and HDRP 12.1.8.

 

In Vegetation Studio Pro, the Billboard component is now integrated into the Vegetation System (Pro) component.

The documentation you linked relates to the older non-Pro version

 

I found the first one are the other two exactly the same?

 

Code (CSharp):

1. foreach (int i in _distanceBandEventList)
2.             {

Thats was one

the other is

Code (CSharp):

1. foreach (Plane p in FrustumPlanes)
2.             {
3.                 float dist = p.normal.x * boundingSphere.position.x + p.normal.y * boundingSphere.position.y + p.normal.z * boundingSphere.position.z + p.distance;

instead of

Code (CSharp):

1. for (int i = 0; i <= FrustumPlanes.Length - 1; i++)
2.             {
3.                 float dist = FrustumPlanes[i].normal.x * boundingSphere.position.x + FrustumPlanes[i].normal.y * boundingSphere.position.y + FrustumPlanes[i].normal.z * boundingSphere.position.z + FrustumPlanes[i].distance;
4.            

 

Ok. That makes sense. I have been re-reading everything related to Vegetation Studio Pro and billboards. So far, I could not get tree billboards to work with VSP, HDRP, and Unity 2021.3.

 

They work for me but I have converted all my materials to The Vegetation Engine asset

(I tinted them Red so you can see them)

 

I am also using The Vegetation Engine asset in my project.

I noticed you are using Unity 2021.3.7f1. I have been using Unity 2021.3.16f1 and now Unity 2021.3.21f1. There was an issue introduced in Unity 2021.3.9 that affected DrawMeshInstanced calls. As far as I know, the issue was resolved in Unity 2021.3.17f1. I heard the author of VSP made an workaround for the issue at one point, but I don't know which versions of Unity work as expected with the latest VSP.

I am going to test a VSP billboarding demo scene with a variety of Unity versions. I am curious if this billboarding issue might be related to the Unity version.

 

Thanks for that. Nice boost.

 

Are you definitely using HDRP with VSP 1.4.9.0 and getting tree billboards to work? I installed a bunch of different versions of Unity over the past several days. I tested VSP with HDRP, URP, and built-in rendering pipeline. For each test, I used a fresh Unity 3D HDRP Template, and then installed VSP. Tree billboarding worked great using the built-in rendering pipeline (BiRP), but not HDRP or URP.

I used the "DemoHighDefinition" scene that was included with VSP in folder "Assets\AwesomeTechnologies\VegetationStudioProDemo".

Since none of the assets in the VSP demo scene are HDRP (and these cannot convert using Unity's automatic material conversion tool), I also imported the "Meadow Environment Dynamic Nature" asset from "NatureManufacture Assets" into the project, and then opened the HDRP file included with that asset. Then I removed the rock, tree, and grasses from the VSP in the "DemoHighDefinition" scene. Then I added rock, tree, and grass from "Meadow Environment Dynamic Nature".

When I play the scene, VSP renders the nearby rock, tree, and grass properly, but does not render any tree billboards in the distance.

I tested Unity 2021.3.7, Unity 2021.3.16, Unity 2021.3.21, and Unity 2022.2.12. Tree billboarding in the demo scene for VSP did not work at all with HDRP in any of those versions of Unity that I tested. Tree billboarding worked great using the built-in rendering pipeline (BiRP), but not HDRP.

 

Yep, but like I said, I am using the Vegetation Engine shaders. Not sure if that is the difference

Edit:
Actually, looked at another tree prefab that doesn't use the Vegetation Engine shaders and the billboards worked.

So I don't know what to tell you.

 

I started seeing this in my project today as well. VSP with HDRP. VSP renders a tree above the camera. The tree even casts a shadow on the ground when I move the camera around in the scene.