[Released] Vegetation Studio Pro

Would love to see some Playmaker actions for runtime usage, like the instancing of the prefabs

 

I have never used Playmaker but if someone wants to make some I can help with the API changes needed on Vegetation Studio side.

Lennart

 

Yes I can have a look at it when I know what function to call in vegetation studio.

https://hutonggames.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W351

Custom actions for playmaker are pretty simple to setup.

 

+1 for playmaker actions

 

Playmaker actions

What kind of actions would be usefull? Just adding a few ideas below.

• AddCamera
• RemoveCamera
• Adjust Global LOD distance factor(for quality level based on user settings)
• SetVegetationDistances (for quality level based on user settings)
• SetVegetationDensity (for quality level based on user settings)
• CreateVegetationItemMask (for harvesting a collider and removing a tree)
• ChangeRandomSeed
• AddVegetationItem to persistent storage. (for manual planting in game)
• Enable/disable shadows on each category
• Set snow amount (for shaders supporting dynamic snow)

Any other?

Lennart

 

• SetVegetationItemScale (to animate VegetationItem scale over time for example .. simulating plants or trees growing)

 

Beta 0.9.0.1

Hi. A new beta update is now on the website. All the major features for the release version is now working and I am moving on to a list of smaller changes and things to complete. Next update should contain a demo scene and initial documentation.

Lennart

Vegetation Studio Pro beta 0.9.0.1 - 11th of October 2018
The run-time prefab spawner is now working. Next up is a list of smaller changes, demo scene and documentation.
If you are upgrading a project from an earlier beta and want to use the Run-time Prefab Spawner just add the component to the same GameObject as the VegetationSystemPro component.

Improvements

• Added Runtime prefab spawner component with all the functionality of the original in Vegetation Studio.
  In addition to this
  • Pooling system
  • Individual distances per item
  • Rules saved in biome/vegetation packages
  • All culling and selection done in jobs/burst
• Enabled Collider system in editor mode
• Added Normal render mode using DrawMesh.
• Added VegetationMeshCombiner component that can help merging trees with multiple meshes

Changes

• ColliderSystem only sees distance band 0 vegetation cells as intended

Fixes

• Fix for object colliders not spawning correct.
• Visibility toggle for colliders not adjusting colliders in pooling system
• Cleanup in VisibleVegetationCellSelector class
• Fix for Allocator.Temp Error on 2018.3 in RaycastTerrain when TempJob should have been used.
• Fix for Allocator.Temp Error on 2018.3 in MeshTerrain when TempJob should have been used.

 

Works so fast. I blink and you update!

 

While we do updates.

I added some additional terrain splatmap generation rules today. You can now use concave and convex areas as part of the splatmap rules.

Updated the version on the server. 0.9.0.4 is live now.

 

Interesting!

 

cavity .. awesome !

 

That's really great – I can now ditch MapMagic splatmap generation as convex and concave support was the only thing missing. Thanks!

 

Bugs

Hi. If anyone found any bugs or errors with the last few betas send me a message.
Trying to finish the list and prepare the 1.0 version for asset store.

Lennart

 

Will give it a proper go tomorrow and feed back. Sorry for delay, was very busy recently
I'll just use built in renderer for this purpose.

 

thanks.

Worst case we post a update and fix it.

I want to thank everyone for helping out beta testing. !!

Plan is to release 1st of November

 

Splatmap generation

Hi.

I am adding some new features to the splatmap generation.
You can now "lock" textures. These will be kept when generation the splatmap. This can help you to keep a manual painted road or village area while moving biomes and changing splatmap rules.

Doing good progress on smaller changes and fixes. I will try to release a new beta in a couple of days.

Lennart

 

Beta update

Hi. I am preparing a new beta update. I have a couple of small things on the list but I think I will get it ready tonight.

Lennart

Improvements

• Added new concave/convex splatmap generation rules.
• New splatmap generation system where you can lock textures to not be changes when generating the splatmap. For manually painted paths etc.
  
• Added River and Seaside as biome types in the predefined list.
• Added LODGroupVegetationMeshCombiner Component.
• Added setting for disabling rendering of Unity trees and details on the UnityTerrain Component
• Added label on RuntimePrefabSpawner component to show what VegetationItem is selected.
• Biomes can be replaced on the biome tab with drag/drop on the old biome
• Added 3rd party licene overview in asset package

Changes

• The TerrainSystem component will now keep references to the TerrainLayer component and update this when updating terrain textures on the Unity Terrain.
• Changed default vegetation cell size to 150 meter

Fixes

• Fix for RuntimePrefabPool using wrong Quaternion.Euler class
• Fix for UI error on RuntimePrefabSpawner if there is no vegetation package on the vegetation system
• Fix for Materials using "_CullFarStart" not showing grass in the distance.
• Removed error in editor mode that could happen with maximized gameview
• Removed collider pool compile warnings on 2018.3 beta
• Fix for Tree Creator shader not rendering leaves in builds

 

(offtopic) you're young aren't you? I just don't know where you get the energy to work so hard and fast!

 

It depends on what you compare with. 42.

Lennart

 

Well that's close enough! tip my hat to you sir!

 

Harvesting

Hi. I got the harvesting examples running again. Added the VegetationItemInstanceInfo and RuntimeObjectInfo components to the collider objects.

A big change is that when using a VegetationItemMask component it will only clear the changed VegetationItem cache in the affected cell. Greatly speeding up refreshing. All other vegetation items will stay spawned in the cache.

Added a demo scene and the downloadable demo scene for the next beta.
It will be released tomorrow.

I also did some profiling and found 4 jobs that was not set up for Burst compiler. This is fixed now.

Lennart

 

Custom shader controllers

Together with Jonathan the developer of Fantasy Adventure Environment I added shader controller for his shaders. Those will create custom UI that serialize in the vegetation package.

These will be included in todays beta. Vegetation Studio Pro will detect the shaders and add this automatic.

Lennart

 

New beta available

Another beta ready for download. Demo scenes added, harvesting demo working. Some new splatmap generation rules and a system for locking painted textures from change when re-generating.

Lennart

Improvements

• Added new concave/convex splatmap generation rules.
• Added River and Seaside as biome types in the predefined list.
• Added LODGroupVegetationMeshCombiner Component.
• Added setting for disabling rendering of Unity trees and details on the UnityTerrain Component
• Added label on RuntimePrefabSpawner component to show what VegetationItem is selected.
• Added 3rd party licene overview in asset package
• New splatmap generation system where you can lock textures to not be changes when generating the splatmap. For manually painted paths etc.
• Added VegetationItemInstanceInfo to collider objects
• Added RuntimeObjectInfo to collider objects
• Added Demo scene
• Added Extended demo scene for download. Link in readme file.
• Added PDF Setup Guide
• Added 3 Shader controllers for the Fantasy Adventure Environment asset. Foliage, Grass, Trees
• Added detection for color space change Linear/Gamma and regeneration of tree billboard atlases

Changes

• Biomes can be replaced on the biome tab with drag/drop on the old biome
• The TerrainSystem component will now keep references to the TerrainLayer component and update this when updating terrain textures on the Unity Terrain.
• Changed default vegetation cell size to 100 meter
• Changed default billboard cell size to 500 meter
• VegetationItemMask now only refreshes the affected tree/rock type when created with VegetationItemInstanceInfo class or having VegetationItemID set
• Terrain System noise and curve rules are now colapsable in the inspector
• Adjustments to billboard wind
• Moved VegetationMask updates to earlier in the frame to happen before spawning.

Fixes

• Fix for RuntimePrefabPool using wrong Quaternion.Euler class
• Fix for UI error on RuntimePrefabSpawner if there is no vegetation package on the vegetation system
• Fix for Materials using "_CullFarStart" not showing grass in the distance.
• Removed error in editor mode that could happen with maximized gameview
• Removed collider pool compile warnings on 2018.3 beta
• Fix for Tree Creator shader not rendering leaves in builds
• Fix for 4 spawning jobs not using the burst compiler.
• Fix for offset bug when using terrain texture include and exclude rules

 

Shadow visibility

Hi. I finished the shadow visibility testing on the GPU today. This is for instanced indirect rendered trees.
It will be in the next beta update.

After a bit of testing to see that there is no issues with it I will backport this to standard Vegetation Studio also. Make sure instanced indirect trees work there also.

Lennart

 

@LennartJohansen I asked this on discord but no answer there so duplicating here.
Does VS Pro allow you to update a scene that currently uses the standard version of VS. If not currently, will it be able to at release?

 

Hi. Sorry, must have missed the question on discord.

Vegetation Studio Pro structure is a bit different because of the redesign needed to use jobs and the burst compiler.
It also supports multiple terrains and cameras per Vegetation System.

The Vegetation Package format also changed a bit. I did not want to be locked by the old format. Now it allows for 3rd party shader settings to serialize with the package. Run-time prefab spawner settings is saves in the package. New rules for biomes etc.

Because of this you will need to set up Vegetation Studio again when upgrading to Pro. Also make new Vegetation Packages.

Vegetation Masks are keeping the API and meta files. Those will upgrade with scenes from standard VS.

Texture masks now have a worldspace position since they no longer need to match a terrain. You can have high resolutions masks in a small area or a mask that covers multiple terrains. This needs new setup.

I want to make a export/import format that saves persistent storage data in worldspace coordinates and and includes a list of VegetationItems with the basic settings but that will not be available for release. It will need some more work.

Lennart

 

Texture mask selector

Hi. Added the missing texture mask selector for include and exclude rules. It will be in the next update.

Lennart

 

Biome packages

Hi. Here is a small preview of the first of a series of pre configured biomes/vegetation packages assets we are making together with NatureManufacture.

 

Are they all HDRP ready with high perf lod/indirect stuff? I can't afford much at the moment so have to really make sure before I purchase. Also willing to endorse anything I'm using in a very positive way as well... If @NatureManufacture is interested, so am I

 

A word of warning to anyone who attempts to upgrade Unity to 2018.3 beta6 – don't do it!

The b6 has an internal conflict with the incremental compiler and is completely broken: it can't run VS Pro.

There's apparently a fix in the works, but for now, the only way to run b6 is by removing the incremental compiler.

 

All 3d assets will support hd srp, lw srp and standard from 2017.3+. We even have to provide different meshes for hd srp as light behave differently.

About biome system srp support its up to Lennart.

Whole foliage is 100% scanned and highly optimised, atlased etc. Assets will use our technology which we build in last year - so there will be no mess with shaders.

Thanks for good word and trust!

This preview video is work in progress we will finish woth something more!

 

I recommend people do it still, and it's fine - just edit the manifest.json to remove the incremental compiler before doing so and it'll be fine. Also 2013 was a bit of a buggy year, I agree.

 

I was wondering if for the beta response if it was suppose to be instant or should it take a few days. I believe I sent my request yesterday or the day before

 

I will approve it tomorrow. Not in the office today.

Lennart

 

Thank you

 

Well, let's just put it like this: so was 2014, 2015, 2016, and to a slightly less and promising extent, 2017.

 

Job system and spawning rules.

Hi. I have been using the last couple of days to profile and restructure the job based spawning code.
I have now added an early rejection of a possible spawn point based on noise based cutoff and density rules.

Before each vegetation item was running its own job chain but that could lead to some idle time on some threads if you have a system with many cores and a few grass with a lot of instances etc.

This is now restructured and all jobb go wide on all available threads.

Included image below is the job profiler view with some vegetation heavy cells spawning.
This on a 14 core CPU with 28 threads including hyperthreading. As you can see all threads are used when generating.

I also rewrote some math in a couple of jobs. They used the old Unity math library. When I made it the Quadernion part of the new mathemathics library was not made.

Lennart

 

Hi, this asset looks awesome, I do have some questions though.

Will it support the new terrain system in Unity 2018.3 beta - especially the multi terrain feature and the new srp shader?

Are there any features implemented to reduce tiling of terrain textures from a distance? (For example increase tiling amount/use detail map or something like that)

As this assets deals with a lot of vegetation, have you considered implementing the occlusion probes from the Book of the Dead asset? <- I would kill for that feature

I see that post process volumes are supported, but what about area volumes?

Also is it possible to "reroll" a vegetation area when it has been created?

Phew, sorry for all the questions, but I'm very curious

Thank you

 

Hi.

1. VS Pro works with the terrain changes in 2018.3 beta. It now creates TerrainLayers when adding textures etc.
The new instanced render mode does not really need any extra integration but you will need a terrain shader that supports it.

2. I have only been doing some small prototypes to test with the scriptable render pipelines. They are in early preview and still change and break stuff every release. I will look more at this when it gets stable.
The spawning and render framework should work with the SRPs but it will need a custom billboard shader, grass shader. heatmap preview etc.

3. Terrain texture tiling has to be done on the terrain shader. There is no terrain shading included in Vegetation Studio. It should work with any terrain shader.

4. Have not looked at it, but the new render API allows you to sample occlusion probes. Unity said they will do a job based sampling to get this out of the main thread. When this is in I will experiment a bit.

5. There is a system for creating post process mesh trigger areas from the defined biomes.
In the example below I assigned a post process profile to a biome type and Vegetation Studio Pro generated and set up the volumes automatic.

Lennart

 

Thank you for the quick reply!

 

It doesn't really tile much when set up right as it creates a lod texture of the general look of the terrain which it blends to over a set user configurable distance with mips... I don't recall if it did this in the old terrain, but I'm not seeing much tiling going on anyway.

 

No tilling:
1) good texture
2) if texture is not perfect then use mipmap mix
3) nice terrain paint which mix a bit texture with other layer like mud etc so it will gain new colors sometimes
This 3 things will always make terrain PRO and tiling is invisible

On Lennart screen we have mix of 1-2 textures + uv mix

Small new preview:

 

When I switched to tvOS in the build setting, I get one error:

Code (CSharp):

1. Assets/AwesomeTechnologies/VegetationStudioPro/Runtime/Utility/Extentions/ListExtentions.cs(16,30): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'DynamicMethod' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Mac, unity 2018.3b5 and vegetation studio 0.9.2.3

 

Turn the .Net compability settings to 4.x on player settings. That should probably fix the reflection error you got.

Lennart

 

Yes that was it thanks!

It was happening because I put it on .Net 4.x for the Mac build and when I switched it was at default 2.0. for the other build platform
It's confusing to have to set it again, for each build platform but nothing do to about, I just have to be careful.

 

Amazing. Soon as I can afford this pack, I will get it and I think I might be sending some business your way via recommendation.

Looks really good!

 

Hi current user of Veg Studio Standard. Had a clarification question about upgrading to pro that you had commented on a while ago.

>>>I want to make a export/import format that saves persistent storage data in worldspace coordinates and and includes a list of VegetationItems with the basic settings but that will not be available for release. It will need some more work.

So the biggest issue we would face upgrading would be the manually positioned items used with persistent storage. What you saying here is that initially we would have to basically start over from scratch. However if I read this right you are may work on a way to port over the persistent data we have now into veg pro? Is that basically correct? Any updates on that and/or do you have even a rough time line on when that might be possible after release. Not trying to hold you to anything but just so I can let the guys know, would hate to redo all that work if you turn around and add in the import feature (assuming I was correct above) the next day . If you really don't know then not a problem just let me know and we can decide if we want to roll the dice or not. Thanks a ton.

Also do you have a good optimization document on how to tweak settings and how those settings will effect performance for either product? I have looked but not seen anything centralized.

Thanks again.

 

Hi.

I will try to explain a bit.

The reason a VegetationPackage from Vegetation Studio does not work with Vegetation Studio Pro is based on structure. When I had the chance I did not want to be hold back by old naming and data structure.- This allowed me to do a few important changes.

• All shader settings, including Vegetation Studio grass and Speedtree are now created with "Shader Controller" classes. This is a class that implements an interface and allows any 3rd party developer to expose settings to the GUI, add code to manage the material and shader and get access to wind and environment settings. All these setttings now serialize and save with the vegetation package.
• There is a list of new biome based rules and settings
• Mask texture rules and mask setup had to be redesigned. Mask can now be grouped and have a worldspace position.
• Runtime Prefab rules are now saved in the vegetation package for easy re-use.

But the basic info a Vegetation Package has not changed that much.
Each item you add has

• Name
• VegetationItemID (random when added)
• Sample Distance
• Seed
• RotationType, offsets, rotation, scale etc.
• steepness/height and other rules.

When a proceduaral generated or painted manually instance is saved to the persistent storage it basically stores

• VegetationItemID (only once per list)
• Position
• Scale
• Rotation
• SourceTypeID

The position is in localspace for the terrain.

What I want to make is a common export/import format in a scriptable object.

It will have a list of VegetationItems saved to a class that holds the Name,ID, sample distance etc. The common basic rules for both VS and VS Pro.

In addition to this it will hold a list of instances in worldspace saved from the persistent storage.

Done this way you can select a persistent storage. Export to file and then import in VS Pro. Or between 2 storages in VS etc.

This is not a difficult or big job to do, but it needs some work to make sure it compiles from Unity 5.6+ works with both Vegetation Studio versions etc.

You will still have to set up some of the rules again, but this helps a lot.

I promised an update for instanced indirect trees in standard Vegetation Studio and I will do that before I do the import/export tool. But it should be soon.

I am working on documentation and I added a performance guideline document to the list.

Lennart

 

Great thanks for the details that all makes sense to us.

Unrelated to that I had another question that you actually brought up with your instanced indirect tree statement.

We are trying to figure out the best way to handle trees/bushes etc using your product. Right now we just have our own meshes and shader that we are painting via the persistent storage since we want to control layout exactly. However this has obvious issues, its not using instanced indirect for anything since its not supported by the shader. We also want to have correct movement of the "leaves" etc as well based on wind or whatever. We would also want to fully support LODs eventually dropping all the way to billboards (looking at the amplify guys imposter product for generating those perhaps).

So saying all that what would you recommend as the best approach/system to use for accomplishing these goals for our trees and shrubbery? SpeedTree looks promising and appears to be something you have worked with, I am guessing it would support instanced indirect etc (version 8 is still not out grrr). Anything else, best approaches, thoughts whatever you have would be helpful since this is an area we have not delved into much yet.

So list:

Fast GPU rendering of many similar same objects.
LOD
Billboarding
Targeted Placement
Wind Movement

Thanks for any help.