3D Rocky Hills Environment Pack - Development Thread

Thank you for adding the colliders.

 

I'll stop being lazy lol!

Haha, I used to make thee mistake of adding mesh colliders to the trees, then I noticed the wind makes the mesh move away while the collider stands still. The things you discover every day...
I see that makes sense, tow I'm thinking of it in terms of realism, I want some collision in case something hits the top part or falls from thee top maybe, on the other hand there might be no point in having it there lol. Some of the smaller stuff doesn't have collision.

 

Hey guys, I just bought Amplify shader yesterday and spend some time going through that learning curve.
The editor is amazing, I'm currently working on new and improved snow and moss shaders. I might make a few more new shaders after I get more accustomed to it. I started by making my own version of the standard shader to which I added the snow on top.
On another note, I fixed and improved the quality and optimization of all trees and plants, yes, now the terrain trees all have capsule colliders



----------------------------------------
• Roadmap Update 8/09/2020
(This will probably be the last update!)
*The price may or may not increase to 50$ or higher!

• Performance and features fixes

1. Vegetation Studio Pro vegetation packages/biomes (probably not)
2. HDRP - URP package ready content
3. Work on improving performance - In Progress (99.9%)
4. Batch atlas all 2k rocks into 4k atlases (Improve performance of the rocks) DONE!
5. Attempt making more optimized grass DONE!
6. Add Upload to Unity 2019/2020
7. As an addition, convert all trees to terrain trees
8. Write PDF
9. Remove real-time reflection probes (70%)
10. Make tree grass DONE!
11. Optimized Billboards (stuck)
12. Remake some scenes - In Progress
13. Fix wind on old bushes DONE!
14. Fix wind on new flowers
15. Fix wind and lod on old bushes and trees DONE!

• Art aesthetic improvements

1. Fix PBR textures v3 (99%)
2. Fix Prefabs (99%)
3. Remake bigger cliff textures into 4k DONE!
4. Make more realistic and optimized flat rocks and cliffs using detail maps DONE!
5. Remake dead stump models DONE!
6. Add additional stumps DONE!
7. Add more splats - In Progress (98%)
8. Make more merged rocks and props - In Progress (97%)
9. Add CTI bottom detail bark material on the generic beech trees (found workaround) DONE!
10. Buy Amplify Shader Editor
11. Make new snow shader - In Progress (40%)
12. Add new shaders, water, moss, snow.
13. Finish new flowers and plants
14. Make new biomes
15. Make cliff strips DONE!

​

 

As I was managing my files of the pack I quickly make another tile material by adding peals and lichens on top of my old one. I'll add this one to the pack two, maybe switching different bark textures is preferred.

 

Got to almost manage my entire Rocky Hills nature Pack! It was really hard to manage because it was big, 3.20G. Now I can figure out the last things to fix and to add. HDRP and URP coming soon!

 

Just to clarify a few things for people that might be confused about the current version of my pack! I stated that URP and HDRP are supported but I did not specify that there were no examples and converted assets for it, does not mean SRP ready, but that SRP works and that you have the packs to get it working. I made a tutorial example on how to convert the materials for the trees to CTI/URP!

First, you should install the LW/URP pack in the "CTI" folder then you'll get the assets underlined in green.



Afterward, you can manually convert the materials.



I'll make the proper texture for both URP and HDRP and upload them through Github really soon and yes I will make support and scene examples for all pipelines on my upcoming update!

 

I uploaded the missing CTI-URP textures on Github! I added one of the new foliage textures in just in case you're interested to take a peak. If you're using URP and manually converting the materials for CTI, download these and replace them in the material accordingly! You should now have proper translucency.

https://github.com/Tobyfredson/RHEPro_Updates

 

Extensively testing URP and HDRP now. They work but because of the way they are different to standard, visually there will be some differences, like HDRP for example, the translucency doesn't work as intended because of the way diffusion profile works so the branches will be translucent. Not sure if everyone is bothered by this but on the good side, both URP and HDRP CTI should work starting from Out of preview version up to 2020 moving forward.

 

Made another tree, I want this pack to one of the best nature packs on the store.

 

Excellent! Looks great!

 

Made another tree for more variety, two more to go and I'm done. I'm almost finished the snow shader but it's pretty hard for me as a beginner. I actually want to have more types of shaders, maybe even basic water but I know it will take time. I'm getting very exhausted so I'll be taking two days away from 3d.

 

i have my doubts about keeping updating the same pack over and over again with new content. i used to do that with my "fpsweapons" pack(deprecated now).
in the end u ll just keep working on the same but it wont increase your sales. mostly people will ask, can u add this/that and so on...
i like your work, u just keep growing.
maybe make "addon" packs to your existing packs? or just a new one with your new work?

 

Although I understand what you are saying I personally really appreciate him updating the pack. It definitely needed to be more performant than it was since it turned out to be something I couldn't use otherwise. I think he is giving longevity to the pack and incentive to others to buy it. I don't know how many copies he has sold but if he were simply going to go the "add-on" pack way, in the manner you suggest, I wouldn't buy them. Trying to make more and more money off the handful of people who purchased your asset is not a winning formula, IMO. I definitely will purchase more from him but not for some tree and texture improvements for a pack I already purchased from him.

 

its is just my opinion.

im not saying he shouldnt update;
updating the textures and being a more performant pack are no problem for sure.
also making the packs work with newer versions of unity is surely fine.

this thread is 4 years old. it has become an entirely new pack since then.
im trying to warn him from what ive learned.
u start with a pack and then u get better and so your perfectionism drives u to keep"upgrading" your work to your current standards.

 

I agree with you. Once he is done this update (unless bugs are found) then it is probably time to focus on a new a pack. I love the fact that he is a perfectionist but I also don't want him to get burnt out, and I want him to be highly successful on the Asset Store.

 

I have to agree with both of you on this! On one hand, I have to admit I'm not getting as many sales as I'm getting when I upload a new pack and my overall sales dropped but I'm still satisfied. I want to see the benefits here and I think they will outweigh the absence of new assets in the end. What I noticed from my Dwarven pack is that better quality sells more and that happened as I improved. With the introduction of the SRPs I'm kinda forced to update, at least, the packs that still sell on the store so I'll say I'm taking this opportunity to learn more and grow. I'm not really racing to make low-quality assets, I want to be at the front of the store tow what Mister-D said is very true. If I do this right, it will be the last update for sure and I'll have the knowledge to make shaders, snow, water, you name it, for my next packs!

Anyway, I improved my snow shader, it works with triplanar now. I don't think I'll go overboard on it, it's almost done and I also remade my snow tile and added some variations. What I was missing in this pack was proper snow stuff. I think, you guys said it right it's pretty much a new pack and I'm happy with that.

 

That looks stunning! I really love your work and you really have improved tremendously.

 

Still alive, finished all the assets, and I'm trying out new ways to make terrains. I'm making the final new biomes for this pack. WIP

 

Hello, everyone, I haven't been active much because I was working hard on shaders and going through the learning curve. Here's my final terrain, It's big enough.



I also forgot to post my water shader last time. I'm making PBR water with reflections, tow only reflection probes, and skybox works, I still didn't figure out why SSR does not and I'm getting some glitches in the refractions but overall works fine.



Improved the snow shader even more. I'm thinking of adding tessellation to the shaders.



And here's a custom detail coverage shader. It's basically the default detailed map from the standard shader with triplanar coverage on top.

 

Started to make the map, also my finished coverage shader made the cliffs look more realistic, I'm definitely using it a lot.

 

I just found out that it's possible to overwrite the Unity terrain grass shaders. It is possible to add normal maps, gloss, translucency, ao, and even your own wind to it. It's easy just name any shader "Hidden/TerrainEngine/Details/WavingDoublePass", it worked. However, the problem is it's only going to work for one texture and not if you add more grass textures to the terrain. Does anyone have any clues as to why that is? I didn't download the standard shader, I just made a shader in Amplify shader. I wish I knew more how the grass shader worked tow, I suspect I need texture array?

 

Do you mean each new grass always uses the first texture?
You can use a prefab as a detail mesh, so make prefabs with your grass model and change the textures for each prefab, then add the prefabs as detail meshes to the terrain.

 

Yes that's what I mean, I'll give that a try thanks!

 

No, it didn't work, the grass is broken but it was a nice try.

Making progress on the terrain, I extended the boundaries with meshes that use my shader. Here's some WIPs:

 

More wips:

 

This is the progress for the terrain grass override shader. I'd say it looks pretty good, will work with detail meshes to. It looks much better I'd say!

Wips 1:

 

Wips 2:

 

wip 3

 

That's looking amazing, great updates!

 

Thanks, this is all terrain grass overwritten with my own shader. I just don't understand why Unity had that horrible looking shader for so long and with bad performance. This is less than half the batches, it's running really well two. I managed to make this WavingDoublePass shader thanks to camta005 and his help with code. The shader works through one main texture that derives into specular, gloss, and translucency nodes so it should be universal for all grass textures you add. It also has it's own wind that mixes with the terrain engine wind. It's so simple but so good I'm impressed! Detail meshes also work with this shader but will break as soon as you remove the shader. Unfortunately, the tragedy here is that HDRP has no grass painting for the terrain which is a real shame and very irritating because Idk what I'll do about it

 

I am announcing that I'm making my new update available for download starting this month! I decided I'll do it in two steps since I won't be able to finish the final version to soon. This update will contain most of what you saw till now except the new terrain, water, and sky shaders which isn't finished yet but you'll get the coverage and snow shaders most likely and all the new plants and trees including the grass shader and HDRP/URP support, the reason being so I can focus on my other projects tow. Here we go...

 

I made a quick list of the stuff I need to finish before I upload The pack. These are relatively small things that shouldn't take me much time.

• Roadmap to Update Upload 10/10/2020

1. Billboards ao and texture share fix
2. Mountian and cloud backgrounds
3. Fall Prefabs to finish
4. Winter prefabs to finish
5. Finish 3rd snow texture
6. Set particle physics off
7. Revamp scene maps: Summer, Fall, Winter, Prefabs scene *wip
8. Finalize available shaders
9. HDRP/URP
10. PDF help *Optional atm
11. Custom billboard shader
12. Fix terrain shader
13. Add lod to particles
14. Winter Trees mesh snow cover.

 

Made a quick mountain mesh for backgrounds in Substance designer, about a few hours in two days. It does the job.

 

And here's a quick test in Unity, not the best lighting but it works.

 

Summer and fall biomes almost finished, just gotta make a new winter one. (Summer 99%, Fall 70%, Winter /NA)

 

Ongoing work on the maps, in the meantime I made a moss shader two.

 

Made a quick drunken video. My movement was a bit hectic because I'm rushing to go to bed lol!

 

Wanted to show that the shader works for snow accumulation too, also I improved my snow shader significantly. The bump is a little edgy because I used the wrong heightmap so don't mind that for now!

 

Ok so here we are, it's a new month but I think I didn't get to finish as predicted. I am also having some issues with my shaders which will require more work but hopefully, it will be finished till this month's sales, or this month, if not I'll just upload what I got so far before Singles Day. On the good side, I'm working on the last biome.

 

Some random wip of the fall map:

 

Amazing work! I am very anxious to use this in my current project!

 

Wow man, this stuff looks great. Nice job.

 

Thanks, we're getting there... better update and URP/HDRP, let's go!! Coming soon! Btw, I uploaded my first SRP, 2020 pack so it was a nice learning experience.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/dwarven-expedition-pack.503325/page-5#post-6523413

 

Very bad news, I messed with some terrain settings and it messed up everything I did on my fall map. I did not back up the terrain object. This is really unfortunate and frustrating like nothing before because it was looking good and was almost done. I will have to crunch to remake what I lost.

 

That's very unfortunate. Don't harm your health rushing. We can wait.

 

It's ok, good thing the map is pretty small so it shouldn't be such a big issue to repaint the grass and plants. In the meantime, I want to show a bit more progress on the snow map. In the end, I'll add the water shader although incomplete.

 

I love it! Great work!!

 

Thanks. One scene is done and the fall one making progress with it pretty good. I actually was a bit more creative. Added roots.

 

The roots are great!

 

It's great to see you continue to support this package and I like the progress.
In particular I'm happy to hear that you've been working on URP too - I remember having some issues with an older version around the time when Unity replaced LWRP with URP in 2019 but I haven't gotten around to play much with my project since then.
I'm looking forward to the new update - and hope to see more packs from you in the future