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[Save $600 !! ✅]Global Illumination Proxy-Fast fully real time GI,Zero baking,Mobile optimized,IBL

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by nasos_333, Aug 9, 2014.

  1. Robert_True

    Robert_True

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    Hi! Can you explain to me, can i use it with using proxy server from this service - http://advanced.name ?
     
  2. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    The Proxy is for approximation, which corresponds to the technique i use for emulating GI and is not network related.

    The GI is approximated using Unity point lights, thus the Proxy in the name.

    Let me know for any further questions
     
  3. laergor2345

    laergor2345

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    I just bought your asset GI Proxy, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to use it from the beginning. I looked at the manuals and the tutorial videos from earlier posts, but I'm a bit confused.

    My test platform is a Note 5, and I set up a simple scene with 1 directional light on GearVR.
    After I add the LightCollisionsPDM script, I assigned the LightPool object and the Projector (using the Light source)

    Do I need to leave the actual Light component active, with Realtime/Baked/Mixed enabled, and with Shadows enabled?
    If so, I think leaving any Unity GI enabled destroys my GearVR performance...I'm not sure the script is working properly for me.

    Can anyone point me to a clearer tutorial or directions on how to setup GI Proxy in an existing scene with only 1 directional light?

    Basically, I want to:
    - avoid Unity lighting; Bake or Realtime both do not perform well (causes serious jitter issues on GearVR for my scenes)
    - add static shadows on static objects
    - if possible, allow dynamic shadows on dynamic objects.
     
  4. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi, i have sent some extra information on the above in the equivalent email, let me know for any further question. Also i attach below the tutorial videos for quick reference
     
  5. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Summary of tutorials.

    Tutorials that showcase what the various major parameters do and how they affect the outcome, also how the grid of lights can be controlled around the player.

    GI Proxy Light Grid around player density & placement


    GI Proxy Bounce light tweaking creation distances between lights & from source


    GI Proxy Bounce light controls Intensity - Fade Speeds - Offset from surfaces



    Step by step tutorials (setup for the character controller, hero follow mode, adjusting the grid, debugging the rays and adjusting the light creation and intensities)

    There is only one GI script needed for this tutorial on the Sun, the Sun system used is the default of Sky Master ULTIMATE.





    In the next tutorials i will show how to eliminate uneeded lights (by height cutoff, or tag and layer based method) to optimize for the scene specifics (e.g. cut back the bounce lights on the building roof or above a height from the player etc)

    Also how to keep lights alive longer as the player moves, so the new lights come in only as needed (than re-register in or near positions that have already been covered), by adjusting the "Max_hit_light_dist" parameter.
     
  6. John-G

    John-G

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    Any chance of a tutorial on how to best set up for large outdoor terrains.
     
  7. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi John,

    The above tutorials cover the same case, for small or large world is similar, the general idea is a dynamic creation of a grid of bounce lights around the player as the player moves, this is also the case for use in a large world, so the setup procedure is the same. The grid and follow hero options covered in the video are the main options that allow application in any size of world, as the bounce system follows the player and casts the proxy GI around the area of interest.

    With that as base, the grid can be then adjusted to be wider or denser or both and cover larger distances around the player and be adjusted based on world scaling. There is control of the light offset from ground, which can be used to give lights a wider area of influence (for example if the ground offset is set large, you may increase instensity, radius and then lower grid density to cover wider areas with fewer lights)

    Also the system can be added a second time in the same sun light for example, to add another layer of bounces in different scales, intensities and heights (that would the quivalent of the various layers of harmonics in a non proxy GI system).

    I recently came up with this harmonics emulation idea of how the system could be used for emulating GI even better using layers of bounce ligths with different properties and i also plan to evaluate an extra system to handle such harmonics automatically in later versions.

    I recommend using deffered mode for outdoors since the light count can get large to cover the wider area.
     
    John-G likes this.
  8. HermesonBF

    HermesonBF

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    This is simply amazing, thanks for creating this Asset in Unity, it's just what I was looking for, a simple and lightweight solution, and it fulfills what it promises, I think it will work very well with shadowmap in my procedural Voxel game. :)
     
    nasos_333 likes this.
  9. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    The system is based on emulating GI with point lights, so what works with the standard Unity lights should work with it as well. Also is rather versatile in that other lights can be used instead of the Unity point lights (e.g. i have a sample using Jove point lights) and i am looking now at integrating the new area light sample released lately, to enable even better light distribution for GI Proxy 2 (this version will also be included in Sky Master ULTIMATE)

    Another method i am looking at is emulating various harmonics by inserting more than one of the GI Proxy scripts, each with different light density and height from ground, to emulate better local and global interaction of light and dynamic regulation of the systems in a higher level.

    Also i think of making an upgrade path form GI Proxy to Sky Master ULTIMATE for early 2017, so everyone that has the GI Proxy asset and wants the Sky Master ULTIMATE can upgrade directly.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2016
  10. HermesonBF

    HermesonBF

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    GI Proxy 2? I Can't wait to use it :D
     
    nasos_333 likes this.
  11. Knightmore

    Knightmore

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    GI Proxy 2 for free with Sky Master ULTIMATE... This is getting better and better :D
     
    nasos_333 likes this.
  12. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Sky Master ULTIMATE contains the full GI Proxy system, so will be same indeed for v2.0, the upgrade will be done at same time for both packs as well.

    v2.0 will focus on managing and offering more control options over the current base system, add more bouch options and better interface (that should ideally allow to change the lights to any other type in a streamlined way as well and have sample lights to choose from, including the standard point lights and the new area Unity lights etc)

    The emulation of various harmonics automatcially (so the user wont have to place multiple systems and adjust height and density manually) will be the main focus and optimization of this composite system.
     
  13. NeatWolf

    NeatWolf

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    Is there any chance we can upgrade from GI Proxy to Sky Master Ultimate, or the whole bundle?
     
  14. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    I am looking into that aspect currently, i will ask Unity if this is possible and move on with it as soon as the current GI Proxy discount is over if i have a possitive answer from Unity store side.
     
  15. chiapet1021

    chiapet1021

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    Hey Nasos, any chance of showing some screenshots of GI Proxy 2.0 in progress? :)
     
  16. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    I dont have either the harmonics or the area light systems done yet, so will post pics as soon as either is closer to final.

    Also another focus will be integration with Sky Master ULTIMATE, for example with the volumetric lighting in Sky Master ULTIMATE like the below videos, this helps set the feeling in various ways over the base GI effect (some of the focuses on this on Sky Master volume lighting side is dust emulation and noisy volumes for the next version).




     
  17. chiapet1021

    chiapet1021

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    Great. I'm looking forward to updates on how you're enhancing GI Proxy. The more I look at real GI (including Unity's use of Enlighten and SEGI), the more I feel like quality approximations, combined with a quality AO post effect, may be the best way to go for now, even if it's not true GI with infinite bounces. Just seems like it's too hard to get fully dynamic GI in any engine, not just Unity.

    Or maybe the scriptable render loops will give you and other developers a better way to tackle GI down the road. :)
     
  18. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    As tech moves forward i hope full GI becomes viable for more complex worlds, for now i use a combination of the GI Proxy and Unity's GI in my game and will adapt as tech moves forward.

    One perk of GI Proxy is that it is using a versatile algorithm to calculate light and bounces, so is open to experiment with (e.g. what i do not with the new area lights and combinations with filters or emulating various harmonics etc for v2.0). The combination with Sky Master volumetric lighting also gives very nice results and enchances atmosphere along with lighting, so a lot more will be done in the combination of the two as both move forward.
     
  19. chiapet1021

    chiapet1021

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    Hey Nasos,

    I was wondering how progress is going on v2.0? You've made so many great updates to SkyMaster and InfiniGrass. I'm hoping GI Proxy is getting some development love, too. :)
     
  20. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    I have nearly finished with the InfiniGRASS core (remains to integrate the new batched billboards system and a few extra optimizations) and now i am doing the GUI and user experience. I want to take extra time in perfecting the GUI, so it is many steps ahead of v1.x in usuability, so this can take a while and i plan to keep a Beta for a long time as well before store release.

    I have sent a PM with two demos, one is the latest InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo, this is pre-planted and pre-created land and is not using streaming land creation-planting (these are used for infinite worlds in the full procedural demo) and the other is the full procedural world demo (heavier for stronger PCs) that has the ability to change the various brushes while creating the new lands around the player and create various biomes on the fly.

    The system can also do planting on the fly on pre-created terrains, so the biomes can be changed on the fly in the case also where the world land is not procedurally created.

    GI Proxy is also in the pipeline, but i wont start fully on it until the grass system Beta is released, at which point i will focus on finishing the Sky Master and GI Proxy code refactoring and adding many usuability features and new features in the existing systems.
     
    chiapet1021 likes this.
  21. magique

    magique

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    Just to clarify. This system is completely independent of any Unity GI solution? I'm curious about how it looks and performs on a console system like the Wii U. I've recently found out that Precomputed Realtime GI isn't working on Wii U either because it's just not supported or there is a bug. So this asset caught my eye as a possible alternative. Any reason to think it wouldn't work on the Wii U?
     
  22. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    Yes the system is an emulation of GI using standard Unity point lights (can be extended to use other light types in bounces, e.g. i have a sample script that can replace bounce lights with Jove lights)

    The method is to create a grid that emulates bounce lights that are done as light sources on the point of impact of the original light (and recast from these sources for a 2ond bounce is also supported). This of course means that the system will have as much as detail as lights used in the method, so for a very precise color grab on smaller items for example more lights would be needed and many lights on heavier scenes can be slower.

    Though you have complete control, in the attrium i get nice results with 2-10 lights, though with 3-4 lights would still give nice overall GI feeling.

    For WiiU, try putting a few point lights extra, e.g. 3 to 8 (without shadow cast) in your scene and see how performance is affected and this is a good test to see how the GI proxy would affect your performance.

    Also make sure to use Deferred rendering path as it is better when using many lights.

    The system is doing everything in full real time, so there is no baking involved at any stage.
     
  23. magique

    magique

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    Thanks for the information. Right now I have a setup in one project of Baked + Precomputed Realtime GI. Since the precomputed GI isn't working, I'm removing that, but would still like to keep the Baked mode with my point and spot lights being Mixed mode. Would this system support that combination?
     
  24. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    I have not worked with Unity GI much, so i am not sure on this, though the system places Unity point lights so my guess is that will behave no different than when adding manually point lights to your scene (in their default mode).

    If you need these lights to have a special setup for the GI mix reasons (e.g. some parameter must be changed on the light to work in that case), i suppose would still be possible to write a script to set these properties on the light pool or when lights are created in my script ( i could guide to where this would be added for example)

    Let me know of the exact requirement (e.g. how point lights should be setup, if special setup is needed) and i could tell better if there might be an issue. The lights are generally very versatile (so can be anything and setup in any way, but would require minor extra scripting per case for example)
     
  25. recon0303

    recon0303

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    A bit confused here by some comments, are you doing a upgrade to Sky Master Ultimate?? I been looking at this asset for awhile now, but someone said its free with Sky Master? or going to be, or did I hear this wrong??

    I own Sky Master Ultimate , InfiniGrass, InfiniTree...right now.
     
  26. magique

    magique

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    I just need point and spot lights to be Mixed mode so that the light from them will be baked for all static geometry, but when a dynamic object moves under it then it'll be lit dynamically. And they would, of course, need to be able to still contribute to your GI solution.
     
  27. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Gi Proxy is included in Sky Master ULTIMATE, so if you have that assets there is no need to get the standalone (Sky Master has the latest version and is update along with the standalone as well)

    The asset is in GI Proxy folder after Sky Master ULTIMATE is installed
     
  28. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    The source lights can be set to any mode, the system only uses them as reference to cast bounce lights. The bounce lights now are a different thing, these are created in play time, so there is no pre-baking done for them and thus my guess is that dont require to be in mixed mode.

    If you need to pre-bake these lights, this is also still possible, but would be outside the system in play time use (e.g. you can do the lights in play time, grab the bounces and copy them to the scene in editor mode and bake them, independently of the GI Proxy system and then when enter play mode have them disabled (contribute only the baked lighting on objects) and use the real time point lights boucnes of GI Proxy as normal over that.

    I have not done this though, so let me know if you think this would have any issue.
     
  29. magique

    magique

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    Sounds good. I haven't bought the asset yet so I was just inquiring first. This thread says [ON SALE] so does that mean the $40 price is the sale price? If so, what is the normal price and how long will the sale last?
     
  30. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    I just noticed the On sale in title, i forgot to remove as i have not visited the thread for some time. The system is now back to normal price ($40)
     
  31. magique

    magique

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    Bummer. I missed the sale.
     
  32. recon0303

    recon0303

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    hmm never noticed... well then.. Good to know.. I had it all this time and never knew lol...
     
  33. mangax

    mangax

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    am really on fence on buying this asset...
    is there any performance comparison between this asset and latest unity GI (GI on low settings)
     
  34. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    The system is very different in approach than the Unity GI, thus it is hard to compare. It uses an array of standard Unity point lights as bounce to emulate GI. The array is used adjustable and can follow the player or be fixed.

    To gauge performance create a grid of shadowless point lights and preferably use deferred rendering path, to see how your system will handle the GI emulation with GI Proxy.

    GI Proxy is also included in Sky Master ULTIMATE and combines very well with Sky Master's volumetric lighting system, for extra atmospheric effects (a few videos of the combination are in one of the posts above this one).
     
  35. mangax

    mangax

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    thanks for replay,,, so how many lights exactly i should test with?
     
  36. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    You can start with a 2x2 grid (4 lights) and also check a 3x3 grid (9 lights). Also you can check the demo and see how many lights are usually used in the demo as well.

    Demo (volume lighting is from Sky Master ULTIMATE system): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/SM34/GI PROXY v3.4.3 DEMO.html

    The number can be user adjusted, the height from ground (or along surfaces normal) is user defined, so you can have less lights higher to cover more area with less detail or more lights closer to surfaces to cover more detail and combine the two as well for emulating various GI scale levels.
     
  37. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Last edited: Feb 2, 2018
  38. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Note for GI Proxy

    The system is now upgradable to Sky Master ULTIMATE (currently on lower price, the upgrade price will be $50 normally, currently is $25)
     
  39. N00MKRAD

    N00MKRAD

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    Can you reupload the demos?
     
  40. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    I checked the demo and works ok, is there any other demo needed (e.g. any of the older ones) ?

    I removed the older ones because Dropbox stopped support for web pages, though i can export any from the project and send it in zip form as well, if an older one is needed (though the new covers mostly everything i think)

    Let me know for anything in specific and i will see to produce it asap
     
  41. N00MKRAD

    N00MKRAD

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    Nevermind, I overlooked the Google Drive link.

    This one is down though.
     
  42. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Indeed all my Dropbox demos are down because Dropbox decided to remove support for presenting web pages like a web host service and thus I had to remake all demos as standalone ones.

    I could also point to the download for the Dropbox files if windows demos are not an option e.g. with a Mac and these can then run locally I suppose but is an extra step than the direct showing in the web browser
     
  43. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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  44. DGordon

    DGordon

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    Sorry if you answered this already. Does this require a specific set of shaders, or can I use ASE and Alloy with this? I saw it requires collision boxes ... is it as simple as having collision boxes on my floors, walls, etc to make this work? Im using prefabs of tile pieces to make a tile based dungeon ... what would the work be to get this working?
     
  45. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    The system uses standard Unity lights, so wont require any extra shader work. The colliders are needed to register the lights in the scene.
     
  46. an_n

    an_n

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    Hi :)
    I have approximately the same problem as here

    So I have a simple scene with 1 directional light with shadows Offf on it and few dynamic objects. Then I add the LightCollisionsPDM script on my directional light game object. And while the directinal light has shadows Off, shadows do not appear. So then I switch shadows On and after that I can see shadows.
    Also almost all dynamic object on my scene don't cast shadows (Cast shadows Off on Mesh renderer component):

    (the white cube casts shadows, blue one does not)

    So I have the same question:
    Do I need to leave the actual Light component active with Shadows enabled?
    Should I activate casting shadows on dynamic objects to see the shadows?

    I would like to avoid Unity lighting and allow dynamic shadows on dynamic objects on the same time using your tool.
    If I must create Unity lighting on the scene with shadows enabled on it then what is the reason to use your plugin, if scene already will have light and shadows?

    Sorry for my silly questions. I would appreciate any help to find the solution :) and sorry if I seem to be rude, I don't want to hurt anybody. Thank you! :)
     
  47. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    The system does not handle shadows, so you shadow the scene and your lights as you normally would. Then the system will spread point lights to emulate the GI using the GI script, those lights are by default not shadowed, so will not affect your shadows.
     
  48. an_n

    an_n

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    Thank you a lot for your answer.
    Well, of course, it's a Global Illumination system, it's not a shadows system or something like this. Silly me. :) Sorry for such questions.
     
  49. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    np :), let me know for anything else
     
  50. hopeful

    hopeful

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    So ... what is happening with this these days? I noticed it's on sale pending an upgrade.