Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

[RELEASED] Vegetation Studio

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by LennartJohansen, Jun 23, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Hexaedre

    Hexaedre

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2015
    Posts:
    110
    Hi,

    Could you add a 2nd texture to your grass and foliage shader with normal map, translucency and smoothness, please ?

    Something packed, maybe like in advanced foliage shader : Normal (GA) Trans (R) Smoothness (B).
    Ambient Occlusion and Emissive would be nice too.
     
    OfficialHermie and turboscalpeur like this.
  2. nbac

    nbac

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Posts:
    267
    wow does this work in conjunction with
    Advanced Terrain Grass asset
     
    OfficialHermie and turboscalpeur like this.
  3. OfficialHermie

    OfficialHermie

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Posts:
    585
    I just googled this forum for "Replace shader", and your requests were shown at the very end.
    Does this mean it's not possible yet??? :-(
    I want to use Lars Bertram's Foliage and terrain shaders, they are soooooooooo amazing.
    Is this already possible?
     
  4. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I would have thought Lars stuff would work already. I used the Tropical Forest Pack by @Baldinoboy in VS beta and it worked fine. Those trees use CTI and the shaders were created in collaboration with Lars. Here is a video of those trees in action with VS:

     
    Malbers, zenGarden and OfficialHermie like this.
  5. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Hi. I have been doing testing with the Avanced Foliage Shader from Lars. It should be no problem using them. You can also use any terrain shader with Vegetation Studio.

    I sent you a PM now. I can help you set up.
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  6. Lecht

    Lecht

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2014
    Posts:
    24
    Is it possible to get get plant interaction to work with AFS and VS?
     
  7. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    @hermie I saw your one star review on the asset store and I have to say that it's brutally unfair. First, you should seek all avenues of support before giving up. Second, a product review should be based on the entirety of the product and not just a specialized area that you personally might need, but can't get working or is currently unsupported. You have been incredibly unfair to Lennart and should reconsider such a scathing review.
     
  8. LittleMike

    LittleMike

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2014
    Posts:
    101
    I saw it. Basically the same complaint as in this thread, but didn't even bother to wait for Lennart to respond. I flagged the review as misleading. Bad reviews because you have a support issue are wrong. Never mind the fact that other shaders *are* supported, so the review was completely false. These developers work hard. I recommend flagging reviews that contain outright wrong information like that.
     
  9. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Update

    Hi.

    First I would like to thank everyone for the congratulation messages when Vegetation Studio released. I would also like to thank everyone that has been beta testing. It has really helped me having that many different use cases when developing.

    When we continue development it will be possible to download new versions direct from my website. This will allow me to update new versions faster and you can download updates there while asset store approves new version.

    Right now you need to register a user there and send me a message with the invoice number for me to upgrade the account. In the near future you will be able to do this upgrade yourself.

    If you have any issue, or good idea for changes or future features feel free to contact me. I will try to be on both the chat channels most of the day.

    The next couple of weeks will probably be used to fix smaller issues as they get reported and writing guides for areas that are hard to understand. Please tell me where the documentation should be better.

    I got a couple of reports of problems with the atlas generation for billboards. It looks like some graphics cards have an issue with the billboard atlas render process and the alpha goes missing. I am trying to reproduce the issue to make a fix/workaround for that. If you do get the problem let me know what hardware/unity version you are running on.

    Lennart
     
  10. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    I will contact Lars and see what we can do. It could be possible to spawn the colliders needed with the Runtime Prefab spawner. The challenge is to see if we can find a good way of passing the per instance data to the render loop. I will keep you updated on any progress.
     
    OfficialHermie likes this.
  11. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Vegetation Studio and Advanced Terrain Grass have some similar functionality. Both systems has a rendering system for grass. You should choose one of the systems to render your grass. You could combine and do ATS grass and trees and objects with Vegetation Studio.

    I do not think the grass shaders of ATS will work direct with VS but Lars posted on his forum yesterday that he was considering making a version compatible with Vegetation Studio.
     
  12. tryptic

    tryptic

    Joined:
    Nov 13, 2012
    Posts:
    55
    Seeing black backgrounds on billboards here.
    Unity 2017.2.0p2
    Nvidia GTX 970 - driver version 382.05
    i7-4930K cpu
     
  13. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Thanks. I will prepare a new version of the BillboardAtlasRenderer class for tomorrow.

    Lennart
     
    blitzvb likes this.
  14. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Billboard Atlas patch.

    Hi. Thanks to Kura we have identified the problem with the alpha on the billboards. It happened on some computers in a compute shader function updating the alpha after the alpha bleeding/padding is applied.

    I have a fix ready. 2kbyte download. Send me a PM if you need this. I will start preparing an update for asset store.
     
  15. Harekelas

    Harekelas

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2015
    Posts:
    864
    I mean in runtime, the save and load functions for players to keep their world persistent.
    I'll run some tests to see if it's possible to integrate VS PersistentVegetationStorage package with my own saving system.
     
  16. Dorian-Dowse

    Dorian-Dowse

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2016
    Posts:
    95
    Is it possible to convert a terrain with preexisting grass and trees to Vegetation Studio and maintain the original positioning?
     
  17. rasto61

    rasto61

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2015
    Posts:
    352
  18. Dorian-Dowse

    Dorian-Dowse

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2016
    Posts:
    95
    Thanks. I just figured it out. Works brilliantly.
     
  19. ACarrozzini

    ACarrozzini

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Posts:
    16
    Hi @LennartJohansen ,

    First of all, thank you for you great tool, it was an instant buy and a 5 stars for me ! It really boosts the productivity for the game I'm making, and the graphics !!!

    I have a question, I have a wind zone assigned to the grass and plants and it works beautifully. But, I have an area in my game where the wind is really strong. Is it possible to specifically assign antoher wind zone (the strong one) to a group of grass, trees, ...

    I saw something interesting with the localized vegetation placement, but you can't assing a wind zone.

    I hope what I wrote is clear for you. Any help would appreciated !

    As a workaround I thought about a trigger that modify the wind zone power when the player enter into... What do you think ?

    Cheers.
     
    MarkusGod likes this.
  20. nbac

    nbac

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Posts:
    267
    all your rule based scattering billboards etc are completely different than atg asset. it is just just the shading i would prefer in the moment. cause your grass still looks flat even if the distribution is pefect ... shading is still very close to unity standard grass.

    and dont get me wrong .. i think VS is awesome.
     
  21. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    I will have a talk to @larsbertram1 His vegetation shader work is great. I have made all the include files needed to support Vegetation Studios instanced indirect implementation available on git with a MIT licence for anyone to include in their shaders. You can find it here

    Lennart
     
    one_one, Rowlan and turboscalpeur like this.
  22. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Hi.

    Right now only a directional wind zone is supported for the grass.

    When using the compute shader render loop I can do per instance calculations on the GPU. This is where I want to try to inject per instance wind direction and strength. If this works as planned we will be able to send an array of local wind zones to the compute shader. select the correct and set that wind on the instance. It would even be possible to add custom wind zone types. Wind from a center and out to simulate a helicopter etc.

    I do not know when I will get around to this. There is a few features on the list that I think is more important to add.
    If anyone would like to do a test I can help out on where to add the code.

    Your workaround would probably work, just try it.

    Lennart
     
  23. ACarrozzini

    ACarrozzini

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Posts:
    16
    Thank you for your answer !

    Don't worry, I understand and a few features on my todo list are also more important :D

    Cheers
     
  24. Hexaedre

    Hexaedre

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2015
    Posts:
    110
    Hi,

    First, thanks for this very good and features rich asset. I am still learning it but I allready have nice results.

    Concerning Microsplat integration, the "background" option in the color mask generator is missing. So apparently we can't use microsplat as a background and there is a black background instead.

    What about Microsplat terrain blending integration ? I can't make it work on my rocks with Vegetation Studio. Work fine when the rocks are placed by MapMagic.

    Features request :

    - Texture atlasing. In order to reduce draw calls, and hopefully increase the performances.

    - A height slider in the position section. Something similar to the scale but for height positionning. This way rocks and plants could have variations on how much they are underground.

    - Being able to toggle on/off the rendering by element, at least in the editor. So we could tweek the grass and plants in a forest ground without having the trees obstructing the view.

    Did you skip my previous question on purpose or did you missed it ?
    With only a normal map it allready would look much better.

    This is important for me to know if you plan, in the near futur, to have support for those textures in your shader. Because if the answer is no, I will change my planned workflow to make my grass and plants prefabs manually and use afs. But I think that it would be more convenient to manage all vegetation collision and wind in Vegetation Studio.
     
    x4000 likes this.
  25. OfficialHermie

    OfficialHermie

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Posts:
    585
    "Brutally harsh" is correct, but I've sent several mails to the developer during the beta, asking for support for AFS and CMU which weren't answered. Then people start posting 5-star-ratings seemingly right after their purchase. Then I google for my question, and the last 2 posts on this forum here were about the same question, one was even liked by the fern designer who was seemingly in contact with the publisher if I remember correctly. I spent some time trying to find where to assign different shaders, I didn't find any. So together with the 2 other posts, I thought "Not implemented". I'm happy if that isn't the case.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
    Jerome-P and x4000 like this.
  26. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    @hermie, the trees work just fine. Just drag and drop them like any other tree. Here's a tip. Try rating and reviewing a product after you actually test it instead of before. If everyone did what you did we'd just instantly rate a product one star, bash it, and put a note that we'll upgrade our rating after we test the asset.

    [EDIT]
    Now that I think about it, not only did I test the CTI trees in Tropical Forest Pack, but I also tested AFS 5.0 trees during VS beta and they definitely worked just fine. Just remember to follow all AFS 5 instructions as well as dragging/dropping your AFS 5 trees in the vegetation studio component.
     
    x4000 likes this.
  27. x4000

    x4000

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Posts:
    353
    That provides some good context, thanks. I haven't actually started playing with this tool yet, but am planning on doing so shortly. I don't know that I agree with your method of reviewing, but that's neither here nor there, and we're all entitled to our methods. Your intent to balance out the five star reviews makes logical sense, even if I don't agree.

    My one suggestion would be to add an addendum to your review that basically states what you just stated above, so people reading the review have that extra context that helps make it clear what you're trying to say versus it seeming like an axe to grind over third party integrations being missing that were not promised, or whatever the misconception is.

    I'm not going to take either side here, or try to fanboy out on any asset, but in the interest in informing other potential customers I think that's a good addendum to make.
     
    ForgedChaos and OfficialHermie like this.
  28. Teila

    Teila

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2013
    Posts:
    6,932
    This is such a great tool! Watching it evolve was a lot fun. Now I look forward to using it for my terrains.

    If you can, buy it. :) For Lennart:

    Stamp of approval_smallest.png
     
  29. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I've been upgrading my game to the release version of VS and it's looking and performing awesome. Here is a quick pic of a WIP scene.

    upload_2017-12-7_6-52-14.png

    Original resolution in-game is 1920x1200.

    [EDIT]
    Vegetation is from Tropical Forest Pack by @Baldinoboy
     
  30. Hikiko66

    Hikiko66

    Joined:
    May 5, 2013
    Posts:
    1,304
    Then you had no reason to assume it would be supported. If a feature is so important that without it the product is of no use to you and worth the lowest rating, definitely get confirmation before you decide to purchase that product.. preferably from the author AND other users that the feature you want works. Otherwise you're going to waste a lot of money on the asset store, gambling on assumptions. That's my experience with the asset store.

    Yeah, because they were in the beta, evaluating it for months...
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
  31. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    @NA-RA-KU The AFS feature he wants IS supported. He never actually tested it. I'm not sure what the other feature is though for CMU. I don't know what that stands for.
     
    x4000 likes this.
  32. Teila

    Teila

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2013
    Posts:
    6,932
    It seems to me that many assets wait for integrations until after release. As with most releases, there can be bug fixes that were not found during testing. I would be patient for a bit and see if your needed integrations materialize. I mean, the asset was just released! Give them time.

    Lennart deserves every 5 star review that was received. Make a terrain and just try it, without your other assets. Put tons of trees and thick vegetation in the scene. Test out the clusters, the area masks, and everything else. :)

    Then....you will see why we gave him 5 stars. And yes, almost all of those instant 5 stars were from the beta testers. We watched it evolve. We loved it and waiting with baited breathe for the release so we could post those reviews.
     
    chiapet1021 and x4000 like this.
  33. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Hi.

    1. The background option is not needed anymore. I implemented a alpha padding/bleeding post process compute shader that handles the edge alpha coloring that you would get from a single background color. If someone wants the background option back I can enable it, but I do not think you will see any difference.



    2. Adding support for the microsplat texture blending is on the list. It will not be a microsplat spesific implementation. What is needed is a change to the render loop to support multiple passes if you have more materials than submeshes. each additional material will then be drawn for all submeses again. It will be in an update soon.

    3. There is a vector 2 position offset that should do this. Have a look at the spawn rules.

    4. Sorry, missed that. was a lot of posts the last few days. I will look at some more advanced features from the grass shader, but there some features/requests I will do first. I will try to get a roadmap for the next months ready next week.
    Vegetation Studio supports 3rd party shaders, with a small change they should get all the benefits of the instanced indirect rendering also. I made a open source Git repository with the needed files and a upgrade guide. You can find it here.

    5. Texture atlasing is not on any near plan. Texture atlas normally helps in unity since it could enable dynamic and static batching. Since all the vegetation is done instanced you will not get any large benefit from this.
    If all the grass are using the same basic mesh I could do a small optimization using texture arrays to combine some batches. But if custom meshes are added or you make grass patches with the Grass Patch Generator this is not possible.

    Lennart
     
    x4000 and Teila like this.
  34. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    AFS 5.0 working in Vegetation Studio. I had to use the Conifer (As Foliage) prefab though. The other prefabs act strange.

    upload_2017-12-7_7-25-58.png
     
    x4000 likes this.
  35. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    upload_2017-12-7_7-41-3.png

    Another WIP screenshot. VS and Tropical Forest Pack really brought the scene to life. Best $75 asset store purchase ever.

    [EDIT]
    Plus, at $35, the Tropical Forest Pack is a steal.
     
  36. OfficialHermie

    OfficialHermie

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Posts:
    585
  37. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    Yeah, I own that also. I just didn't recognize the acronym. What exactly do you expect VS to do with CMU? It's just a terrain shader and should work out of the box.
     
    x4000 likes this.
  38. x4000

    x4000

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Posts:
    353
    I'm guessing it's the issue with more materials than there are submeshes, or something along those lines. Same reason that Microsplat is evidently having some troubles? I intend to dig into this with Microsplat at the same time, so hopefully that gets fixed soon or there's a workaround. I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but the info has been slightly conflicting thus far.
     
  39. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    The issue with more materials than submeshes is not releated to terrains. That is a normal material added to rocks or other gameobjects to add an effect on top of the normal material.

    Regarding terrain shaders, Vegetation Studio uses the terrain to read the heightmap and the splatmap. Using the API on the terrainData object. It does not interact with the terrain rendering at all and should work with any terrain shader. No special setup required.
     
    x4000 and magique like this.
  40. x4000

    x4000

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Posts:
    353
    Okay, that makes sense. So... I should have no problems with Microsplat, then? Honestly your asset was a minute-one purchase for me anyway, and I already have it but just have not had time to use it yet.
     
  41. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    Definitely no problems. My game is using Microsplat and you can see my screenshots above using VS just fine.
     
    x4000 likes this.
  42. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    No, it works good with Microsplat, CTS, RTP etc.

    Lennart
     
    Teila and x4000 like this.
  43. x4000

    x4000

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Posts:
    353
    Sweeet! Thanks guys. :)

    Boy I'm itching to get to work with your tool. I just have other work I have to complete.
     
    LennartJohansen likes this.
  44. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    Be careful. Once you get started, you'll have so much fun it'll consume you. lol
     
  45. x4000

    x4000

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Posts:
    353
    Heh. Fortunately I have enough of a self-imposed death march schedule for now I could both use the fun and not be consumed by it.
     
  46. KRGraphics

    KRGraphics

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2010
    Posts:
    4,458
    Wow! Is all I can say.
     
    LennartJohansen and x4000 like this.
  47. nomax5

    nomax5

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2011
    Posts:
    365
    This is probably really simple and obvious but...
    I'm stuck how do I add Terrain Textures to the Terrain System? I can add plants and trees by drag dropping them on the Vegetation tab but when on the Terrain System I can't see a way to grab the textures off the terrain or drag drop them
    how do I turn this http://www.mogstat.com/temp_images/veg.png
    into something like this
    http://www.mogstat.com/temp_images/Image-123-1.png

    I've read the stuff on the website

    in the getting started it says "For now, select “no textures”."
    then textuers are in the image
    How did they get there

    Also I'm planning on using microsplat but I want VS to put the rock on the slopes etc.

    Cheers
    Roy
     
  48. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Hi. You do this on the terrain textures tab om the VegetationSystem component. It shows up there since it is stored in the VegetationPackage.

    For rocks etc just add the rocks as objects and set the spawn rules you want.

    Lennart
     
  49. KRGraphics

    KRGraphics

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2010
    Posts:
    4,458
    I may end up using terrains again :)... I've been using mesh terrains up to this point to place grass by hand, but that might change. Does this support custom shaders?
     
  50. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,394
    Yes, but the shader have to support instancing. Most shaders do this automatic since unity 5.6.
    Also some of them require an extra component to inject wind.

    There is also some added speed and functionality if you upgrade the custom shader to support Vegetation Studios instanced Indirect implementation. There is a guide for upgrading on the website. 3 lines of code and a include file.

    It also shows how to upgrade shaders made with Amplify Shader Editor
     
    x4000, chiapet1021 and KRGraphics like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.