Relief Terrain Pack (RTP) v3 on AssetStore

RTP itself sets it. If we're using materials, near distance is rendered using full quality (parallax effects, and so on) whil far distance (which is influenced by settings/main distances) is rendered using "Far-Only" shader version.If we're not using materials RTP should set basemap distance to very high value so we don't see simplistic diffuse shading there (everything is rendered using HQ shading). The reason might be something interferes here. Maybe recompiling shaders in LOD manager and then refreshing all in RTP/settings/ main will fix it.

Tom

 

Im mainly a programmer and dont know how too use 3dmodel programs like Mudbox, Blender or 3DSMAX.
But i know how too use world machine, and the standard Version is a option if its Worth it. (Since the standard Version allows high resolution worlds, compared too free Version Limited too 513.
What kind of resolution did you use on Your demo scene you showed in Your previous post, it looks really Nice.

 

Thanks for the feedback tom. I've noticed, that in addition to the resetting problem (could be something interfering) toggling the base map distance can give some serious performance increases, and as a result i have added it to my ingame quality control sliders.

I have put in the Update() for my quality control script to overwrite the basemap dist value with a user specified one. It solves the problem of some other script resetting it and gives me very granular control over quality, but is there any reason you can think of that I shouldnt do this?

 

Hi all.
I have a problem with RTP and asset bundle. I load scene with terrain from bundle. Bump and height map disappeared from terrain

How i can resolve it?

 

Greetings Tom,

I've recently discovered a small yet noticeable weird thing about my terrain. Please check the attachment.

What have i done in the options to cause these bright outlines on my terrain?

Thanks.

 

rtp must remain in the root project directory

 

Thank you Tom!

The first one worked. Try asking Microsoft a question like that and see how long it takes to get a response.

I'll buy your shader pack this week.

 

@fredr92 - island has been made by Becoming. I can't remember if he used mudbox or zbrush to model roughly the sahpa eof island. Then he added erosion using world machine. The island is 2 terrain tiles of 512x512 resolution (heightmap). Then he used TerrainComposer to to apply vegetation and manage distribution of coverage (sand vs. rocks, driven by slope, etc.) One of the most important parts was generating global colormap which acts as color, ambient light, AO map.

@bmccall1 - basemap distance is only important when RTP uses materials for terrain rendering. W/o materials it should be set high so we don't see simple diffuse shading at farther distance. Close distance (basemap distance is set to this when we use materials) is more expensive. Setting this even lower you could experience visible transition artifacts near the camera. Setting this higher than needed might affect performance negatively. But how does it work for you ? Anyway - materials can be real performance killer when we've got more terrain objects in the scene (CPU). On the other hand w/o materials we can't benefit from this "basemap distance" optimization. The more advanced shading level you use the more performane is needed at close distance. To check the difference - use POM/soft self-shadows on scene with one terrain tile. Let's say 25m close distance. Then check it with and w/o materials and compare performance in profiler.

@A.V.Medvedskiy - sorry I can't see your attachment, but try to save all your textures (combined textures tab, glboal maps, etc.) before building bundle. When you attach normalmaps, actually they're not used by shader but combined in pairs as separatetextures. These textures are scene objects that are not present as regular assets. When making bundle references to these textures are lost.

@Yokogeri - it looks like this outline appear only when terrain is displayed on the underlying transparent ocean. Can't tell exactly but looks like kind of rendering order bug. Do you use antialiasing ? As RTP itself is pure opaque shader I see no reason we could see such artifacts. Sometimes similar effect could be seen when overusing diffuse scattering, but from your screenshot I assume it's not the case - we don't see any outlines on hills close to the camera.

Tom

 

I've been doing some testing and it seems that it has to do with anti-aliasing and the water as you said. When i turn off anti-aliasing or disable water4's "Edge Blending" the outline disappears. My guess is that the outline actually is the sand layer under the water that messes up with water 4's edge blending feature.

Unfortunately i would like to keep both the edge blending and the anti-aliasing... is there any way to fix this without compromising anything?

 

Hard to tell for sure, but this will probably need some tweaking Water4 shader. Its edge blending feature relies on depth buffer state which is somehow badly interpreted or rendered when antialiasing is turned on. Maybe solution might be using antialiasing as postFX not native MSAA ?

Tom

 

Tom, awesome as always. I'm still really adoring the terrain editor. Great work man.

Another question for anyone who's interested. whats the best way to put water surrounding your terrain. I've built an island on this terrain with three main parts that should be above water. Whats the best way to have water around your island without getting that tearing effect you get when two meshes intersect?


Also, is there any way to create a terrain tunnel without using the global color map?

 

@bmccall1 - what we did on demo island was 2 terrain tiles surrounded by water. It was simply Unity's water4 that used custom mesh (more tessellated upclose and w/o triangles inside island). Then I tweaked its shader to get good underwater specularity and reflections, sun shafts, added refraction effect. All these will be part of separatewater system I intend to release in next months.

As for holes in terrain - yes this moment global colormap is the only way. Simply we need to define where to discard terrain pixels, so kind of global map for this purpose is necessary (although it doesn't need to be colormap - I used this because it was the most logical solution in RTP).

Tom

 

Oh, you used a custom mesh? like, you built a mesh that was pre cut out for the island? that way you didn't get any tearing?

Also, I suppose I will need to learn how to do the global color map then

 

@bmccall1 - I'm not sure what kind of tearing you're refering to. Water around island used single mesh. It can't have too large/steep waves though because of transparent sorting (triangle draw order) problems.

Global colormap - you don't need to use it if you find it more difficult. You can use simply Alpha8 encoded texture in the end w/o color info. Then turn down all global colormap mixing values the way coloring feature is not actually used, but only its alpha channel for holes.

Tom

 

Hi Tom, great pack! I'm having an issue where the terrain shader will randomly break and go black though, and it always seems to take like 2 hours of fiddling with values to get it to work again. For instance, I had it working and setup how I want earlier today, and as soon as I built an EXE and played it, not only was the terrain in the build black but the terrain went black in the editor--and rebuilding the shaders, changing shader values, and even resetting values to default did not fix it. I have not yet determined what is causing the shader to go black, it seems to do it at random for no discernible reason (it'll sometimes break even when I'm not touching the shader). It is also not outputting any errors.

Any ideas why this is, or know a quick way to figure out what the problem is?

My general setup is DX11, Unity4 mats on, First pass only. Everything else was default. Turning dynamic snow on fixed it one time, but now it's gone black again and turning snow off or on is not changing anything. I've checked all the texture slots and they look like they should. It is very strange. Is there maybe a way to force a full rebuild of the shaders? I've noticed rebuilding sometimes doesn't seem to do much unless I turn certain things off and then on again.

Edit: It seems to work reliably when I set LOD manager to target DX9 only and disable U4 Materials. Using DX11 with or without U4 materials will result in a black terrain most of the time, and using U4 materials with DX9 will also cause the issue.

 

Thank you very much for your time spent on testing. I'll go and check things again tomorrow on my DX11 laptop and get back to you ASAP. I understand that it breaks the most often when we're in DX11 mode regardless of material usage.

Tom

P.S. Actually you could check one thing. Open the code of RTP first pass shader and comment out all material properties block. I've added this in 3.1c to fix "alt+tab refreshing" issue. Indeed it fixed definitely that issue, but I'm afraid it has also its own (little mysterious) side effects, too... (like considerably higher CPU usage when using materials - quite apparent in presence of more terrain tiles).

 

Forgot to ask, which Unity version of Unity do you use ?

Tom

 

4.3.4f1 (Pro)

I tried alternating between commenting the materials properties block out and leaving it in, both with U4 materials on and off. Nothing has helped. I did however also try importing the terrain and RTP assets into a new project and I managed to get it working in DX11 with U4 materials on.

Then I noticed the new project was using Forward rendering while my main project was using Deferred. Switching the new project to Deferred broke the terrain shading and it is now also permanently black. So it appears to be an issue with deferred rendering on DX11. My settings are as follows:

Use U4 Materials On
First Pass On
Far Distance On
Mesh Blending On
DX11 Targeted

Water/Wetness On
Animated Droplets On

Everything else default

EDIT: Further testing has revealed PBL fresnel term as the most likely culprit. I only had one directional light in my scene so I assumed that would be fine if left on, but this is not the case. Unchecking PBL fresnel term fixed the terrain issue.

 

The issue is in fact related to PBL fresnel term, but the real culprit is that in deferred RTP shaders need information about light direction which is not provided by default. It's accessible more or less randomly - that's why it behaves so unpredictible...

To resolve this apply ReliefShaders_applyLightForDeferred.cs script to you directional light. It's also necessary when you'd like to achieve POM self-shadowing in deferred, too.

Kindest Reagrds, Tom

P.S. As a hint for anyone - still - removing material properties from first pass shader can improve considerably CPU consumtion in presence of materials and multiple terrains. Saving scene or control tabbing might be sometimes annoying (you'll need then to use Settings/Main/Refresh All button often), be one can live with it (or preferably - remove these properties when you make a build)

 

Maybe there's something about LOD manager settings (which would probably mean an issue in certain configuration) or your normalmap is not marked as normalmap maybe ? Could you check this. Also - I added global normal map for example scene. It's not used by default but you could try it (turning on in LOD manager and opening exampkle scene, then applying global normalmap) and compare results.

Tom

 

I'm just wondering what could cause this, because on my side it works just fine. We can either make global normalmap "stronger" or completely neglect this (strength turned down to zero). Could you specify exact configuration it happens to you ? How your light is placed relative to the scene (such global normal exagerration can happen when light points exactly down - "zenith")?

Tom

 

I'll check such configuration tomorrow. Do you use forward or deferred ? Could you eventually post me in PM your normalmap and heightmap for tests ? Global normalmap is computed different way in POM/PM and SIMPLE shading mode.

ATB, Tom

 

I absolutely love the way RTP makes my terrain look. However, I keep having issues where parts stop working. I use Terrain Composer and 16 terrains.

Most recently, I was fine tuning some of the textures, trying new ones to see how they looked. I accidentally clicked on the terrain and one of the multi-terrains lost it's colormap. I clicked an another and the same thing happened. I recompiled the shaders, no difference. I finally reset all the parameters and still nothing. I found that I had to go through every single terrain separately to reset the color map and all the colormaps appeared.

Then I tried to modify the brightness of the terrain and found that only the terrain I had highlighted would change. All the others stayed too bright. Now I have to go through each individual terrain and tweak the brightness, specularity and everything else. This is difficult since if my settings are not exactly the same, my terrain will not look good...some terrains will look different.

So..my question. How do I get back? I did save presets but while restoring those gives me back my original settings, it still does not allow me to modify the terrain as a whole rather than each individual block. I don't know what to do.

To be clear, I simply want to be able to modify the entire terrain again by changing the settings on one multi-terrain block rather than having to do it block by block.

Thank you!

 

If you're using materials (which is acceptable for 16 terrains, but you'll get better performance when you comment out or remove material properties from first pass shader) this tends be annoying, I know, but terrains uses different materials. When you adjust one tile, go to RTP/Settings/Main and use RefreshAll button. Doesn't it work for you ? It should as far as your tiles has the same game object parent (you don't use grouping).

As for global colormap issue I'm wondering what happened. Did textures just vanished in global colormap slot in RTP inspector ?

Tom

 

They did not vanish in the slots, they just disappeared on the terrain. Oddly, I was able to get all but two of the terrains back to normal. I restarted a new project and am going to see if I can avoid the same problems.

Is the commented code mentioned elsewhere in these forums? I find searching them difficult at times. I am not a coder so while I know how to comment out code, I don't know where to look for "material properties."

I think I reset rather than refresh. I tried it later but I think it was messed up by then. I will remember that this time if I have problems.

Thank you.

 

In regards to property block. It's in RTP3.1c. Find ReliefTerrain-FirstPass.shader and remove all between lines 16 and 415.

Tom

 

Thank you, Tom!

 

Edited: My other problem went away when I exited and returned. I really hate it when it does that.

I did get the refresh to work but I have to refresh now every time I save. I save, terrain changes on all the other terrains and I have to refresh to change them all. This is after I deleted the material references in the shader.

Sorry to ask so many questions but I only post when I am really stumped.

 

You're welcome . Yes - when material property block is there you don't have refreshing issue (for example after saving project or after alt+tab). The reason I suggested to remove it is that the more properties in material the slower terrain shading behaves in terms of CPU consumption. This step is hidden from us (it's internal Unity functionality) so I can't tell what takes so long. You can check this in profiler - named terrain culling or something like this.

Tom

 

I'm encountering a problem wherein I have a terrain already created and when i create a new terrain I see the painted map from the other terrain on the new one. its flat, but clearly got the painted map applied to it.

I can't seem to figure out how to reset it and paint on it without it affecting the other terrain too.

Also, I'm still having the problem where my brushes are huge even at size 1. They paint way way bigger than they should.

 

After you add 2nd terrain. Set the number of layers the same as on first terrain. Then attach RTP (ReliefTerrain.cs) script to the second terrain and go to Settings - use RefreshAll button.

As for brushes - I can't tell because it's Unity's functionality. RTP is basicaly shader replacement system only.

Tom

 

Awesome Tom,
Thanks!

 

Hi, i just bought your plugin and none of the test scenes looks as it should i think. I am using 4.3.4f1.

Luke

 

Have you recompiled shader in LOD manager first (setting open gl as target platform) ? After recompilation go to RTP script/Settings and use RefreshAll button.

Which shading path do you used for planet screenshot ?

Tom

 

Hello!

First of all, thanks for this wonderful asset, I'm really thrilled with the possibilities it offers!

Also, I have a question concerning caustics.
The documentation stated that it cannot be used on mountain lakes.
Is there a way around this?
For example, could the caustics be disabled/enabled via script (one that limits the coordinates to the mountain lake), or is RTP too complex for this?

Thank you for your time!
- KW

 

Caustics are placed on the ground within certain world Y range. So - everything in the range will get caustics regardless of it's lake bottom or not. To resolve it we would need to tweak shader code so it also take some radius around a point on world XZ plane. If you've got 1 lake this might be a solution. Another idea - using wetmask (w/o using wetness itself) or even global color alpha channel for this. Of course you need to be a bit experienced in coding then to modify RTP_Base.cginc (RTP_AddBase.cginc for addpass). Good start is finding damp_fct_caustics (0 means no caustics) variable in code and modify it at areas where you don't want the caustics to appear. Similar trick is made for more advanced users who want to modify shader code. There is define named RTP_SNW_COVERAGE_FROM_WETNESS. When you use snow, it's coverage can be controlled by water mask (it's described in docs). Same technique could be used for caustics masking. Like this line of code

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. float water_mask=tex2Dlod(_BumpMapGlobal, float4(uv_Control(1-2*_BumpMapGlobal_TexelSize.xx)+_BumpMapGlobal_TexelSize.xx, mip_selector_tmp.xx)).b;
3.  

and water_mask variable can be used to modify damp_fct_caustics value (multiply).
This is area for modifications as RTP has source code included. As I can't predict all possible feature permutations and wishes some solutions need to be done by end user to tailor RTP shaders for specific project.

Another solution for non coders might be using caustics on geom blend path placed on the lake borders (at the very bottom of lake we won'e se cautics - it's too deep there in most cases).

ATB, Tom

 

_RTP_LODmanager is missing from my scene. When I add the Relief Terrain component to my mesh, the _RTP_LODmanager does not get created. And I don't see a way of adding it manually. I'm using RTP3.1c and Unity 4.5.0f6. I remember there was an issue when 4.5 was released, but I thought RTP 3.1c addressed that.

Also, i'm sure this has been addressed, but I haven't been getting updates since the switch to the new forum. It's listed in my subscriptions?

 

I am having a problem that may or may not be related to RTP but thought I would ask as I cannot find the answer elsewhere. My terrain looks lovely, everything is working. However, I decided to move the terrain to the terrain layer, something I should have done before but didn't think about it.

After I moved it, I went into Game mode and the terrain was clipping badly. Trees in the distance were floating ant the terrain beneath them was invisible. I checked my camera and it was set for Everything so it should have been showing me the Terrain layer. I tried changing the base map, clipping near and far, and nothing helped.

Then I wondered if it could be the shaders. Do I have to move RTP to the Terrain layer as well? Could the shaders not be attaching to the terrain once I moved it? When I moved the terrain back to default, it worked fine.

Thank you! If this has nothing to do with RTP or the shaders, sorry for the bother!

 

I'm having a really weird issue at the moment. Whenever I come out of Unity (just minimising it or alt-tabbing out of it) and then go back into it, my terrain becomes one really dull texture. But when I click the camera and back onto the terrain in the hierarchy, it goes back to my painted version with RTP? It's annoying as it happens during gameplay as well. Is there something really obvious I'm missing?

Screenshots are below:

 

Try using Refresh All button in Settings/Main. Tested 3.1c in newest public Unity release (4.5) and it worked.

Tom

 

It's refreshing issue addressed in RTP 3.1c. You can upgrade from 3.1 directly (no need to remove RTP installation first)

Tom

 

Any idea what could be causing this issue with geom blend rock? The one on the left is built the same way and use same texture and geom blend shader. For some reason the further I get away the brighter the blend area gets.

 

This might be related to buggy fog treatment. I resolved this for RTP terrain shading itself (fog for multiple passes/lights), but maybe some geom blend shader (there are plenty of them in the package) still has this issue.

What is exactly your setup ? LOD manager features, forward/deferred, number of layers. Is it lightmapped ? How many lights influence the problematic rock ? Name of geom blend shader used. Then I can try to replicate the issue on my side and fix it.

ATB, Tom

 

-Not sure on LOD management (the object has no LOD's)
-Deferred Lighting
-8 Layers
-The object has generate lightmaps on. Lightmapping has not been passed to the scene yet though through a lightmap compile.
-GeometryBlend_BumpedSpecular.

That is what is peculiar to it though. I use the same set up on other rocks with no issue. As you may see in image, there is a rock right next to it that does not do this. It is just this one rock (and pretty much seems any new ones I bring in). The odd thing is I built them exactly the same with exact same export settings.

 

By LOD manager I mean state of _RTP_LODmanager game object and script on this. You had to use it while compiling RTP shaders for terrain usage.

It's probable that deferred might cause this and this is an effect of specular light leaking from underlying terrain. We can't control specularity in deferred for decals (and any semi transparent multiple pass shaders that draw over in deferred can not "override" specularity info from underlying opaque geometry). So maybe try to play with specular/gloss settings on your rock or simply turn down specular color to zero for the problematic rock. This way you'll know what exactly causes the issue - specular lighting or something else (fog).

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Spec does nothing. I still find it unusual the fog would be affecting this object and not the others in this way.

Anything specific you would like to know on the RTP lod manager? Is a lot of options on it.=)

 

Can't even try to follow the bug on my side as ong as I don't know your setup. This might be the best to remove everything from your scene except for terrain and a few rocks (with this problematic one). Then zip project and give it to me (link on private message together with order number and the date you bought RTP).

ATB, Tom

 

It turns out it was the complementary ambient lighting.

 

Ah, yes, this also might be an issue when you don't use it on main scene but still use it (it's to be disabled manually in shader code #define...) in geom blend shader used for rock. Anyway - good to hear you found this.

Tom

 

Hi Tom;

I've been having some difficulty with RTP in one particular scene. In a 4layer mode, using layer 2, when I try to assign a (drag and drop or through file select) a normal map to the layer it simply gives me the windows time out mouse indicator and then Unity switches over to the details for that file in the inspector. Nothing gets assigned, it just keeps prompting me back to that file as if it is formatted improperly. I've tried different file types (.tiff, .tga) and made sure to assign them as Normal Map compression within Unity. What are the common reasons that RTP might reject a normal map?

Also, are there anymore video tutorials coming? I refer to the manual alot (and its excellent) but I do find that those video tutorials help me catch on to subtle things that you are very familiar with using. I'd love to see something showing set up for 8 layer, creating holes, and mesh blending. Those are all functions that I tried and wasn't having immediate success, but I know I'm just missing something simple.

Awesome work