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[RELEASED] Vegetation Studio

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

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  1. DrInternet

    DrInternet

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    Hello Lennart,

    I have question about VS Pro. Documentation states that
    Does it mean I would have to set it up completely from zero? Drag and drop, then configure every one of my ~80 plants? Or is it some better way?
    Also how long the "discounted launch price" will last?
     
  2. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi.

    Let me explain a bit. When creating the vegetation package format in VS Pro i did not want to be locked by the structure used in the VegetationPackage files in standard Vegetation Studio.

    This allowed for some bigger changes.
    • Texture Masks are now TextureMaskGroup that again can have multiple textures. Since there can be multiple terrains in a single system the TextureMasks now have a worldspace position and size.
    • There is several new biome spesific rules
    • New noise based rules
    • 3rd party shaders can now have shader controller classes that expose UI and serialize in the package.
    • Run-time prefab spawer rules are now stored in the package
    • and some other stuff.
    What I am working on now is a "export format" It will allow you to export all prefabs in a vegetation package in VS. It will store the common rules and also a worldspace copy of each instance in the persistent storage.

    This way you can get all manual painted vegetation out of a storage/package and import this in a Pro setup.
    I am working on this now. It should be ready soon.

    The discounted launch price will stay for a few weeks before pro is increased to 149 USD. Upgrade will still be the price difference. 74 USD then.

    Lennart
     
    DrInternet likes this.
  3. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Yes. Plan is to make a series and over time cover the common biomes.

    In a few weeks VS Pro will increase to 149 USD. The upgrade price will still be the price difference. Then 74 USD.

    Lennart
     
  4. SickaGames1

    SickaGames1

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    When will you have a biome preview?
     
  5. tredpro

    tredpro

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    I was using pro. Went back to the old version. Now anytime I add a package it crashes. Even the demo or default ones that come with VS
     
  6. iunami

    iunami

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    Thanks Lennart. I may be forgetting a step, but I added some trees and a large object using VS Pro. I have mesh colliders added in the edit biome tab, but the large object and a tree is colliding in multiple places.
     
  7. tredpro

    tredpro

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    It's just the terrain that the pro system was set up with previously that has the issue. New terrains work fine
     
  8. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. I answered you on the other thread. If you join the discord server and send me a message there I can help you debug. Easier on a text chat than messages.

    Link to the discord server in my signaure.
     
  9. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. I am working on a bit more advanced collision system job for pro now. It will be in an update soon. Colliders does not exist at spawning time and can not be used for that. They are created around the camera for run-time use.

    Lennart
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  10. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    I still need a few days. A bit of a backlog to finish after the Vegetation Studio Pro release. Has been some busy weeks.

    Lennart
     
    SickaGames1 likes this.
  11. cloverme

    cloverme

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    Awesome asset, I find it very easy to use and works very well. Thank you.

    From a performance perspective for a large terrain (2048x2048), would you recommend persistent vegetation with baked occlusion culling? Or what do you think the best performance settings would be for baked culling with the vegetation system?

    Thanks :)
     
  12. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Vegetation Studio has an internal cell system. This is culled by the CullingGroup system in Unity that supports baked occlusion. If you bake the terrain occlusion entire cells that is invisible will be skipped. It does not matter of the vegetation is from the persistent storage or run-time spawned.

    With a size of 2k on the terrain I would bake the final result. This will reduce loading time when moving around the terrain.

    Lennart
     
  13. fleurbenschnent

    fleurbenschnent

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    Hello Lennart,

    I am having an issue with Vegetation Studio. I have a scene that has Vegetation Studio trees planted and when that it the first scene it all works perfectly. However, when I load the scene as a second scene the trees are not showing up, as if the Vegetation Studio system is in sleep mode or is not starting up with scene load.

    I could not find any documentation regarding this is there something I am doing wrong or is there some reason you have to manually start up Vegetation Studio on scene load?

    Thanks
     
  14. bok

    bok

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    Hey Lennart, do you already know when you are going to release the 2018.3 Beta update for VS? No rush, just want to schedule my week and see if it will be already available this week. Thanks!
     
  15. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. I submitted it last Friday. I guess it should be updated any time now. Send me a pm if you need it before that.

    Lennart
     
  16. SickaGames1

    SickaGames1

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    What kind of Biomes are you going to have?
     
  17. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Is this is edtor or playmode? In playmode everythingh should load automatic.
    There is a setting on the advanced tab to enable automatic start/awake Image 795.png

    The start button was added for 2 reasons. 1. people does now always work with vegetation, no need to use editor resources. The 2nd was that is some rare cases unity did not behave well when initalizing all at scene load. This was not a problem in the editor.

    Lennart
     
  18. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

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    Hi, one question regarding 2018.3 and Vegetation Studio Pro. Unity says now most of the terrain's work load goes to the GPU, did you test it? Its quite confusing now. I was just wondering if Vegetation Studio Pro makes same performance now or is totally different the GPU instancing and is much faster. Thanks!
     
  19. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    I submitted an update to support the 2018.3 last friday. That is probably on asset store today or tomorrow.
    The new terrain changes for Unity terrain accelerates the terrain mesh iteself.
    Vegetation Studio does all the vegetation rendering using the instanced API.

    These new changes will benefit users of Vegetation Studio saving drawcalls and CPU while rendering the terrain.

    Lennart
     
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  20. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. I will post more info but I need a bit of time to prepare some mateials. Been a few busy weeks with the VS Pro release and I have some backlog to finish.

    Lennart
     
  21. Aress28

    Aress28

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    how this exactly works?If for example i use map magic...there when i step on 1 terrain objects are spawned....if i gether them and go away from terrain ,that terrain block get deactivated...and when i come back to that terrain its become active again and its will have that tree what i cut down respawned?
     
  22. GorkaChampion

    GorkaChampion

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    I guess the update to support the 2018.3 it's mainly related to multi - terrain, it will be compatible also with wordstreamer so we can stream our terrain? Thanks
     
  23. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    If you use a VegetationItemMask component to remove a tree you will have to add this to the main scene that does not get unloaded with the terrain when you move away. Then it is up to your logic if you let it spawn back after a while with removing the mask component or save this with a savegame and recreate it later.

    There is also an API you can use for the masking if you want to create your own manager and skip the component.

    Lennart
     
  24. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    For most tools you do not need to change anything. The terrain mesh itself just render and load faster if you enable the instanced mode. Terrain shaders do need to be updated to support this. With the changes the vertex position and normal has to be created in the vertex shader.

    There is also an API change for assigning terrain textures. Now you need to create a TerrainLayer object that has the textures and then assign this. VS is updated to use this API in the 1.5.1 update in review now.

    Lennart
     
  25. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    @LennartJohansen: You mentioned a while back that Pro would support mesh terrains. Does this include non-traditional terrain shapes - such as non-square, non-planar projected, or terrains with caves and tunnels carved into them? I have everything from carved out mesh terrains to karst pillars, and Avatar style floating mountains that I'd like to use VS on. Are there any limitations I should know about beforehand? Here are a few examples of the kinds of mesh I mean:

    MEI_New_Island03.jpg Grab 20180823043034 w1280h720 x-124y329z-773r55.jpg Grab 20180823040640 w1280h720 x154y604z-20r139.jpg

    As you can see, the current vegetation on all of them is a bit sparse, so I'd love to add some VS goodness if possible.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2018
  26. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. There is a MeshTerrain component in Vegetation Studio Pro. To that you can add multiple meshes in any shape and generate a virtual terrain. Internally it builds a BVH tree that is used to sample height and normal.

    Here is some example images on a scene from the 3D Game kit I used as a terrain

    Have a look at this post for more info.

    Lennart



     
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  27. yonson_chappers

    yonson_chappers

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    could anyone point out where there is documentation / tutorials on removing vegetation studio spawing for a particular texture (e.g. I have a path texture, when I paint it on the terrain I want all vegetation on it removed). I know this is demo'd in the spec above but I can't get it to work. Also how do I set the rule so vegetation won't be placed under a certain heigh (e.g. if I set my water level to 50m, make sure nothing grows beneath it so no trees come out of the water). I know both of these are possible but I can't work it out from the documentation and I can't find any relevant videos. Thank you!
     
  28. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. You find documentation on all the spawning rules here.

    What you want to do is not hard.

    You find the VegetationSystem component and select the vegetation tab.
    Then choose the tree, plant or grass you want to adjust the rules for.

    To select the height (relative to sea level) where you want the item to spawn find the height/steepness rule.
    enable this and enter the min/mac height for this item



    Then find the Terrain texture rules.
    Enable the exclude texture rules. Add a new item and select the texture you want vegetation to be excluded from.
    The density id the amount of the texture that needs to be in a location for vegetation to be excluded. 0.1-1 = 10-100%



    Then do the same rules on other vegetation. You can have different rules for each item

    Lennart
     
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  29. Aress28

    Aress28

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    hi im added VS to mapmagic....ihad texures in my CTS node and now when i add VS i lost all my textures and get some textures from demo profile in VS...how i turn off texures in VS to get back my textures from CTS?
     
  30. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. Vegetation Studio has the option to manage terrain textures for you. To make it easy to apply a vegetation package to a new terrain or switch between packages, summer, winter etc..

    If you do not want vegetation studio to manage texures create a package with no textures. Option in the menu.
    You will have to add replace the textures on your terrain with the original textures. Or maybe CTS has an option to apply a profile to a terrain?

    There is a setting on the vegetation packages to turn this off even if you have a package set up with textures.
    Se the documentation here

    the "Update terrain textures on init setting"

    Lennart
     
  31. Rich_A

    Rich_A

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    Great idea to get the Pro version co-released with the Meadows environment. It makes it much easier to learn a new asset when there is already some well-design artwork and scenes to go with it.

    Do you anticipate moving up to 2018.3 (and then I suppose 2018.4 LTS) as minimum version once that comes out of beta? To take advantage of the terrain improvements.
     
  32. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. Support for the 2018.3 terrain improvement is already in Vegetation Studio(1.5.1.0 version in review) and Vegetation Studio Pro. The code changes was not that big and I did them with version specific #ifdef in the code

    For Vegetation Studio Pro we might have to move up minimum version later. It depends on Unity and if they continue to support 2018.2 on newer updates on the burst and job packages.

    Lennart
     
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  33. yonson_chappers

    yonson_chappers

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    brilliant thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly, I tried those settings but couldn't make them work so I'm sure this will do perfectly
     
  34. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    If you still have any problem you can join the discord server and message me there. A text chat is easier when debuging.

    Link in my signature.

    Lennart
     
  35. fleurbenschnent

    fleurbenschnent

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    Thank you for your reply. I am seeing the problem in editor during play mode. I have not tested in a build yet. I did verify that I have the Automatic Start setting selected, but the trees only show up if the Vegetation Studio scene is the first scene. If it is the second scene then the scene loads and works properly except no Vegetation Studio trees at all. I will try it in a build and see if behaves differently.
     
  36. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    If you join the discord server and message me we can debug and see what happens. Easier with a text chat. Link to the server is in my signature

    Lennart
     
  37. tredpro

    tredpro

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    Is there a way to plant plants/trees at runtime?
     
  38. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. If you add a persistent storage you can add tree instances run-time with the static API on the VegetationStuidoManager. Easy to add, you only need the ID of the Vegetation Item and position, rotation and scale.

    Lennart
     
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  39. VictorKs

    VictorKs

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    Are there any plans for indirect instance support for trees with multiple submeshes like speedtrees?
     
  40. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. That is supported in the latest update. 1.5.1.0
    It is in the asset store now.

    Lennart
     
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  41. VictorKs

    VictorKs

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    Great I thought 1.5.1 introduced indirect for 1 material, keep up the great work!
     
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  42. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    No. Multiple submeshes was supported before. What was new in 1.5.1 was shadow visibility testing in GPU for trees and large objects. I also did some changes for cell selection when rendering instanced indirect. Before only cells in vegetation distance was evaluated. Now also for additional tree distance.

    Lennart
     
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  43. ksam2

    ksam2

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    Is there a way to place objects inside of a layer texture that was created by map magic?
    I need to do this inside Vegetation Studio not map magic node.
     
  44. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    How does this layer texture work? What is the format? Do you have an example?

    Lennart
     
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  45. ksam2

    ksam2

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    For example map magic sample scene! I need to place some rocks only on the grass texture of terrain.
     
  46. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    But is this a texture ? or splatmap data in the terrain? If it is in the splatmap you can add a terrain texture include rule on the grass in the vegetation package. Then select the grass texture from the list.

    Lennart
     
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  47. ksam2

    ksam2

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    Yes, I just figured out how it works, Thanks.

    Can I have grass/plant/object's billboard too? I have only tree billboard.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2018
  48. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. Billboards are only implemented for trees. You could in theory add somehting else as a tree, but the rotation mode will have to be rotation around the Y axis only.

    Lennart
     
  49. combatsheep

    combatsheep

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    Hi.
    I want to delete vegetation item (speed tree) form baked vegetation.
    I tried it in Persistent Vegetation Storage > Edit Vegetation.
    There is "Delete Vegetation Item: Ctrl-Shift-Click" there, but I can't do it.
    (I can do "Insert Vegetation Item" with Ctrl-Click.)
    How can I delete vegetaion item?
    Please tell me.

    Env:
    macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
    Unity 2018.2.8 f1
    VS standard v1.5.1.0
     
  50. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    Hi. Vegetation that has been baked or manually painted can be deleted. Run-time spawned procedural vegetation has to be controlled by rules or vegetation masks.

    When you pres ctrl-shift you should see a small red circle near the base of the tree. Click that and the tree should be removed. Do you see it?

    Lennart
     
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