[ON $20 FIXED PRICE SALE!✅]Sky Master ULTIMATE: Sky, Ocean, Volume Clouds-lighting, Weather, RTGI

I dont have the means to test it for occulus unfortunately, so i can guarantee compatibility. I could though test to see if it is compatible with a scene arrangment that would work in such a setup, or maybe test it with some emulator in Unity (if one exist) ?

Normally the sky rendering should work out of the box, since it is something in the background (so even if both cameras see the same would still not be an issue i gather)

The volume clouds do use the camera position to calculate lighting, but not for the rendering itself, so again should work, but i cant be sure or maybe miss something.

Is there any way to test this without having the actual device (a templete scene or plugin etc ?). I will check that out first and get back if i find something.

 

This is just a sample i made in Particle Dynamic Magic fast, it is not in Sky Master at all, so the clouds are just one of the Unity static skyboxes (the dawn one)

Of course the clouds will be properly placed and pass in front of all these systems in the most spectacular way i can make it so , i will play a lot with filters in Unity 5 to enchance the effect

 

Great stuff. How is your Particle Dynamic Magic 2 coming along?

 

I finally did the submission this week, it was an accumulation of work since last summer , so it was super hard to get everything together, test to the extreme for perfection and make manuals/promos etc, but is finally over (after uploading 4 packs with a slow connection too as a final challenge , Unity 4-5 varieties and same for the bundle (Advanced FX Creator) )

The pack now has everything i initially planned with the added decals, gameobject particles for all systems, cool shaders, grass, perfected splines, all possible optimizations (batching, multiemission, pooling, threading, optimized scripts) etc, plus the standard forces, turbulence etc that were the initially released systems)

Now i can focus on Sky Master without any distraction and work in parallel on my new AI pack that will connect to all other packs (e.g. will make agents run from rain when ecounter rain or lightning from volumetric Sky Master clouds, or use the super optimized one pool per effect systems in Particle Dynamic Magic 2.0 for firing and dynamic decal effects and have agents chop trees for wood with InfiniTREE integration)

The plan is to make all these packs complementary for a grand scheme that will allow a complete game (at least as many aspects i can cover, mainly from gameplay side of things) to be made with everything working perfectly together.

I have the need for that AI system since the ones in the store are not working for my more complex cases and have very limited samples, so instead of trying to adapt a foreign system to my needs that would take forever as well, i decided to create my own and put it up to the store with actual samples, like a small mini game templete with full functionality that will help everyone use it better and at the same time perfect the system for my RPG too.

The butterflies and decals scene in Particle Dynamic Magic 2.0 demo is a tiny taste of the new massive combat AI system.

 

here you can easily test with the unity prefab provided by google

https://developers.google.com/cardboard/unity/download

that would be a great add for your asset

 

Thanks for that, i was looking for a way to test as would be very interesting, especially with the volumetric clouds could have some stunning results in a 3D mode.

I will test it asap.

 

Some examples of integration with Sky Master sky, clouds and volumetric atmosphere, these were very fast put together too and will be WIP for some time

 

Very nice - let us know when your other asset is released to store.

 

Thanks

I will notify both in the Particle Dynamic Magic 2 thread and this one when the pack is released to the store.

 

WIP for dual screen / 3D support. The control for sun beams / fog are not yet in synch in left/right camera, so this does not represent the final look.

Thanks a lot for the Cardboard download, it works great for testing such a setup

I have tested the system and generally works fine, the only problem is that my SeasonalTerrain script that handles the Fog presets uses the main camera to set/grab the scatter fog and sun rays scripts, so it will need a choice for cardboard setup, where the script will find the left / right cameras and apply /control the scripts there.

This is trivial to do, so i will try to add it for the next version.

Also i get some issues in the demo scripts where the Camera.main i use does not work, so i will see how i can fix that as well (but that is not in the main Sky Master system, just the demo scripts, so should be fine either way)

 

youhouuuuuuuuuuuu! your asset is ready for the futuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure!!!!!!!!!!

 

Indeed , with minor tweaks and a few controls should be fine in stereo mode. Should be just a few lines of code to have the image effects setup to both left/right camers automatically (i will add a cardboard checkbox in the terrain/fog control script and the user must input the cameras in the proper fields as reference)

 

Hi nasos,

Slightly off-topic - but will your "Particle Dynamic Magic 2" be able to help you generate particles/effects like you see in Krypto's "Realistic Effects Pack 1,2,3"? Also do you have a steer on the likely price of "Particle Dynamic Magic 2"?

 

The pack is a framework of emitting everything from every possible source with a huge number of cool manipulators and controls. In that sense is can do way more than a specific functionality and is easy to customize a single effect for making a library of effects. In short, if you would like some of the effects in these packs, they probably can all be recreated with the system and I would love to add any specific ones on request, to the extend i can come close to the art, as i am not an artist (at least officially ).

The system also works with all other Shuriken particles, so you could always grab the art from any other pack and apply all effects of the system right away, which is one of the strongest aspects of the system imo, since it is like an extension to any other particle pack on the store.

The price will be $90, which i hope is indie friendly for what it offers (AI system, Decal system, Batching system, Fire propagation system, forces, turbulence system, gameobject (scripted/animated) particles, brush based particle paiting, dynamic grass shaders and system, auras system and so much more)

I would also recommend my other pack, Toon Effects Maker that is a system for putting together customized particle effects (that is, one step before using them with Particle Dynamic Magic dynamic effects) and helps put together complete effects like projectiles, with text, sound and light.

That pack also has a big toon oriented library (this the name) with a toon ocean system as well and can also convert any 2D-3D-particle animation to sprite sheets for use in 2D games or particles.

 

Sounds great. Does it cater for Shields (semi - transparent, reacting to 'impact'), Lightning arcs?

 

I have a system with procedural shiled motion applied on the shield sphere as well as a ripple system on impact (so the shield will ripple faster on impact)

You can see that behavior in the demo (first category, the effect with the ligthning emission from the blue sphere)

The lightning has two systems, one is the chain lightning with particles and the other the line renderer based lightning with the ribbons system.

Another system can be found in Sky Master ligthning as well that combines the particle and line based lightning to create the lightning seen in the heavy storm volume clouds in Sky Master 2 demo (2ond preset of volume clouds). This system is best suited for the downward ligtning.

 

Can't wait.

 

Great, let me know for any other questions on specifics.

I attach a pic that shows where the ripple shiled is in the demo and the demo link. You can grab the blue sphere and crash it on the floor to see the ripple effect (note that is not directional, just a faster version of the general ripple motion, there are plans to make it directional as well later e.g. ripple more at the point of impact than the rest)

Particle Dynamic Magic v2.0 demo
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Particle Dynamic Magic 2/PDM 2.0 DEMO.html

 

Great - will give it a try.

 

So if I'm correct I can craft my own skyboxes with realtime weather (like shadow casting clouds, rain, wind effects on speed tree models, and so on?)

Does this have support for moonlight as well? Currently I've been using a second directional light to handle sun shadow casting and reflectiveness.

I think one of the main reasons I was asking about it in comparision to Time of Day is due to the visuals Time of Day seemed to create. If sky can be created to look similar to that in this that all the more awesome!

As for my question about the water I was just curious as to how you got the reflective specular effect working on it.

The more I see the work put into this the more I'm sold on it. I just need to know how precise of controls I can have on it, for instance if I can use its functions to control other scripts such of Volume Fog, Fog Lights, and distance building lights turning on when its night.


I am curious as to how effective the rain effects are as well. How much control do you have when it comes to producing rain, and do you know any side shaders that could work in creating wetness over objects during rain? I was originally thinking to use Shaderforge to produce those effects, and wonder if I can trigger the rain shader effect with Skymaster.
edit*
It seems rain can impact on surfaces, that is a neat feature but I still wonder if I can create rain droplets running down windows and so on. If not my question about triggering a shader still applies.

 

There is moonlight (set intensity, but it is trivial to do anything with it), also things like light shafts image effect control and moon glow control from the main Sky Master scripts. The skyboxes can indeed vary with various presets in sky rendering (that can be expanded upon in code by copying one and changing parameters) and i have a big collection of clouds and volumetric clouds with shadows, lightning etc to use (which will get increasingly bigger in upcoming versions)

The sky uses the accurate physically based model and it can be tailored with presets and parameter tweaking to look like TOD or any other system, as there is no limitation to the model. If you show me a few target pics of TOD, i can create a preset for the next version to match that look for example.

The sky rendering also has much more tricks, like dual sun support (coming soon in v2.1, it is just 4 lines of code addition to the effect), halo like effects, special filter mode for emulating heat haze and more to come. It is one of the most versatile systems to create artistic and physically correct skies, so the possibilities are many.

Also the system works in Skybox mode, which means it does not need a spherical dome that takes up from performance or special calculations to work with Unity 5 GI (like extracting the algorithm from the shader in script), so it is super performant as well. That said, there is a fully working dome solution in there from the previous versions that can be used if desired for whatever reason.

The water had a ready to use setup from Unity 5 effects, with the specular reflection script handling the effect, i did not do something extra, but i do have the full setup for the demo in the pack, so you can see exactly how i made it work there. It has been a while so i dont recall at all the exact procedure that i used to integrate it with the pack.

Also there is support for volumetric fog (expanded height fog image effect, with scattering and a special gradient control mode for amazing effects) and sun shaft controls from the main scripts. This control will be expended to work in stereo mode as well (add and control the effects in two cameras for left/right eye) and more effects will be supported (bloom is the next one to add to the script controller)

The time of day is easy to read from the script (and adjust too), so it is trivial to create a script to open/close lights based on time of day. I will add a sample too in the next version, for reference.

The new refractive rain(Unity 5) supports both refractive rain drops that react to light and water splash with animation that also is refractive and reacts to light. You can see the exact effect in the Special FX section in the Sky Master v2.0 demo, i have a point light and spot light with halo too to test the lighting. This is definilty one of the most amazing looking effects i have made so far as well . The other ones would be the heavy storm volume clouds with ligthning, lighting, then the volume clouds in general and the volumetric scatter fog with gradient support.

 

Oh wow this really does sound amazing. As for the rain what would you think is the best solution to make rain look like its running down windows? Should I just use Shaderforge to create this? Or does Sky Master support this? Also can the rain particles be adjusted be thinner and longer?

Also I am more trying to create semi "real" sky boxes combined with anime styled paintings.

Example1

Example2

This example is of Deus Ex's Nighttime scenes. I'm trying to have the day be very nice and beautiful but night time be lit up similar to this.
Example3

The project I'm working on takes place inside a building. It's a side scrolling point and click (at least part of it is), and the background city is a large selling point. I'm trying to create a city background drop with dynamic lighting and weather. I'd like these effects not to effect the interior of the building (accept for lighting).

This system really seems like it could help a lot if it carries all of the features I need (which currently it really does.)

I'm wondering if the Volumetric Clouds can be created to look similar to that in the photos.

Lastly does this have an effect similar to the lighting in "Sunshine" and if not are there plans for anything similar in the future? It's not a necessity at all, I was just wondering.

Thanks for answering my questions, your constant response is all the more a reason to purchase this asset. Sorry for so many questions though. >.<

 

@ nasos,

Just how much of the 'Sky' could I alter and change on the fly in runtime? Or, putting it another way, what are the main things I cannot change in runtime easily...?

 

Some samples using what is already in the pack (no special textures done yet and this sample does not use a sprite sheet for variety either). Also the sun is intentionally made to look dark behind clouds, this is a simple option in the sun shafts script (Z depth one).

I dont have the running down windows shader implemented, but is one of the things i was planning to do, so i will add it to the features for v2.1. I do have a lot of control of the refractive shader now so i am sure will be easy to integrate the drops in a signel shader.

As a matter of fact, i think i already had a version that uses multiple water drops in a single quad for better performance, which means the effect for the window is 99% there already.

The clouds shown have a distinct line between their main colors, like a toon style from what i see. I will try to get that effect and have a sample in the next version, i dont promise it will be exactly like that but since i have full control of the texturing and coloration i am sure i can come close.

The night time is easier to achive. So i will create a new preset for the SkyMasterManager for that day and night in the pics and try to also get the right cloud look and post some pics to give me feedback of how close i am . This will be included in the next version (but i can also send it on demand before that of course)

I dont have the volume lighting of sunshine, but the image effect use have both a volumetric fog and sun shaft use from the volumetric clouds that give a very nice 3D atmosphere effect. The only limitation is when the sun is a lot off screen where the sun beams wont show (still the sun shafts image effect covers a rather wide angle even when the sun is offscreen.

The pack does have a system of sun beams that can use quads to emulate sun shafts from windows when the sun is a lot of screen to the left/right for example, but this does need work to get perfect per case. Still the system is working great and could be used for something like that and be great combined with a moving/dust shader.

This is also actually a great idea, i will see if i can integrate that as option when the sun is off screen and also see if i can encode the side way shafts to my volume fog shader (that is also a possibility, maybe i do manage to emulate what Sunshine does by combining the shafts and fog scipts/shaders, but i cant 100% promise i will manage it )

Here is also a video of the day time sample, recorded with Bandicam in my very old non gaming laptop that is also downclocked because it overheated and shut down

 

There is no limit to what can be changed, at any point you can define an empty preset and do anything with the sky parameters as they are not governed by the preset system. It is advised to create a preset with the parameters that are satisfactory for every time of day, so they can smootly lerp from one to another during the day cycle.

 

Excellentay!

 

BTW I give a ++ to moonbeam and moonshadow... even emissive-style light from stars etc.

 

Will we have the option to modify the clouds too? Change the texture or 3d "volume"? I love that your willing to create presets but I also want to make sure I can have precise control when it comes to adjusting parameters for everything if possible.

Your clouds look great, but I feel that if I was able to modify/create my own with my own images I could produce closer results to stuff like this when needed.
Cloud Example

I mentioned the rain earlier. The effect you created is really great but strains from the effect I'd like to try to create. I'd like to create the droplets to be long and skinny. I was just hoping I could change the individual rain effects to my own liking, as well as the rain droplets to equate to something more like these...

Rain Example 1

Rain Example 2

Rain Window Example


And how does the rain particle system work? Is it generated based on a volume I create for it generate it? Or does it generate rain automatically and surround objects based on collisions?

I noticed that there seems to be sound playing when the storm comes. Can I replace these with a fmod implemented sound system (for more control)?

I think in the end, I've just seen a lot of systems with a lot or a little features, but they don't exactly let me break down them into exactly what I want. Yours carries a lot of things, most of which I'd love to use, I just want to make sure before I purchase I have a lot of control of the effects I create >.<

Here was a work in progress to allow the 2d sprite character to be lit in a day and night system (using 4 directional lights as a work around.) I had to use the directional lights to light the sprite when the light wasn't casted on her and to have the moon cast shadows. I am interested in how the ambient control works for different times of day so I can properly light the sprite without her going black.




Thanks for answering all my questions

 

Ambient controls, colors changable in the main script per day quarter

@Anisoft

The system is completly modular and everything is fully controllable/changable.

You can create and insert any texture for the clouds and any shader too, i use base shaders in all my samples in the demo, but there can be special shaders that will give inner motion and detail in each cloud particle (i have such a base shader in v2.0.1 in the demo scene, not shown in the demo on the net).

The rain is particle based, so is 100% changable and can be used with a sheet to animate it or make some drops thinner or all drops as thin as you like, there is no limitation whatsoever.

Sound is also changable to whatever you need, there is no actual tie between lightning and sound, so you can use a more elaborate system for doing that (lightning does enable/disable the light component, so you could grab that change and control your sound as you see fit with any other system)

Ambient color goes black at night, but that color also be adjusted directly on the Sky Manager script for various day quarters

@Duffer123

The moon light can be set to cast shadows as i dont have any controls for that, so is free to be adjusted to any setup. Only the positioning of moon light is controlled (and the sky halo, moon shafts)

Moon beams are already implemented with the image effect (sun shafts grabs the moon as emission source at night) and can be tweaked as desired or use a preset from the SeasonalTerrainSKYMASTER script.

 

Great - thanks nasos

Any news on release date/time for Particle Dynamic Magic 2? Does PDM2 use shaders as well as particles?

 

I have submitted the pack, so should be up early next week. Hopefully monday, but sometimes review takes longer depending on the workload in Unity store submissions.

PDM2 introduces many new shaders indeed, the major ones are for giving inner motion and detail to particles so you can have complex effects with less partciles (diablo 3 like technique, seen in the multiple fires demo scene) and the grass shader that gives shader based motion to the batched grass to have the best of both worlds (full controllable grass and placement, with super performance with shader motion)

EDIT: Also I attach some moon beam settings to see where to change what to get the effect. Note that the SeasonalTerrainSKYMASTER script must be set to an empty preset to change these parameters (or alternatively code a preset by copying the code of the ones closest and altering the parameters)

 

A better version of the cloud video in Vimeo, youtube quality generally suffers more

 

Wow it really looks great, is there any support for 3d "particles" (meshes) for the clouds images/textures? Not at all requirement just another question xD

Also I was trying some of the demos you have up. It didn't seem like the ground and objects were ambiently lit by the sky, was that not shown avaiable in that demo? Or was I just not noticing it correctly.

 

Currently the volumetric clouds use a Legacy Shuriken that emits bilboard particles, so it does not have the option to use a mesh. That said, this could be available in an update later, but after the upcoming v2.1.

The ambience in the demo is not from the skybox, it is gradient (or maybe one color, i will check it), because mainly my PC took forever to do the GI with Enlighten in the scene and i bandoned the idea. The sky rendering is done directly on the skybox, so it is definitly possible to grab the GI and IBL from that, just needs a strong PC (or a render farm depending on the case, Enlighten is not yet very mature or optimized, looks cool though)

Here are a couple of videos of a simpler scene i did manage to bake real time GI on

I have the ocean demo too in the asset page, but i dont remember if that was baked or not with the GI.

Also note that there was a bug when this video was taken and sun light persisted when the sun was under the globe at night, that is why you can see light under the sphere at night time. This is now fixed as of v2.0.

 

How I loved that sunset! p.s. where did you get the water from? (I am torn between a number of different options at the moment re game water - sea, rivers, lakes) They all seem to have advantages and disadvantages - and many don't do 'underwater' properly...

 

This is the Unity 5 water, i dont remember exactly which one but was included in the effects. So this one is free and the setup is included in Sky Master too (i have renamed the scripts so they dont collide with a possible import of effects package and for probable future changes i may need to do to enchance that water)

 

So Skybox ambiance is based on global GI? I thought the skybox ambiance didn't... That's why it it was easy to light up shadows and objects based on the sky... light-mapped or not :/

Guess I was wrong... but if I am correct your system is based pretty much entirely off the standard Unity 5 skybox right? So anything that standard can do, this can do + way more?

 

Besides the IBL, the GI gives another factor to the shadows and lighting, so the final color is a mix of the two. So you are right that the Skybox ambience alone is indepentent. I cant say for sure how this works inside Unity when combined, that is whether the IBL is considered in the GI as a pre-calculated step or both are applied independently.

The system is based on the Unity 5 skybox indeed and renders directly on the skybox, with all the perks this brings (best performance, ready to use in IBL etc).

There is also an option to use the older dome system, so essentially there are two systems in one.

 

I couldn't understand 100% is that the clouds do cast shadows right? Over any objects?

(Off topic) What does your particle designer bring to the table that the standard Unity system doesn't?

I'm trying to re-create elements of my particle shooter in Unity (from Gamemaker) and would love to have the best control when using particles. (For instance influence based on music) If your system can bring that better then the standard particle stuff, that would be great. So far Unity's system revolves around making systems, but I'm trying to make Systems, control many emitters (for better preformance.) Unless Unity has already great performance handling many particle systems, I may want to work with your system instead.

Example

Spoiler

 

The game looks very cool

Particle Dynamic Magic 2 offers a big number of performance optimizations, like a custom batching system for decals, a multi emission system from a single source, special shaders to give super detail with less particles, Multithreading and much more.

I have a sample that particles and turbulence are controlled by music as well, integrated in the Transitions module, so you could use this as base for any kind of music related effects and integration to other music systems. Thats will need scripting though.

Also the particles that follow the main one could be linked to the heat seeking system (missiles in the demo) with local space and be activated to seek and hit near targets in a certain distance. The single source emission could also be used to emit from only one particle to the desired transforms.

The clouds do cast shadows, i have two solutions, but the activated one is recommended (plane shadow caster) than the older projector based one. Note that both shadows and lightning are setup in the heavy storm clouds (2ond preset in the demo)

For the complete set of features for my two Particle Packs you can visit my site (www.artengame.com) and see the latest forum threads for details. There is a huge number of features in both packs.

 

Thanks! I hit limitations using Gamemaker and decided I'd like to move my project over to Unity and make it a 2D sprite, 3D world set game.

As long as I can modularly use this particle system in a modular spell system. Allowing me to create different spells in which there particle effects can be adjusted, updated, and so on, then all the more awesome!

I was curious if these particle supported multiple blend modes, "normal", "additive", and if possible "emissive." One of the things I'd like to use with Unity 5 is combining light effects with the spell particles. If there is some built in light system for shooting particles and casting light in an area that would also be awesome.

I believe I also asked if this supported "SpeedTree" wind simulation but I don't recall getting a response on that front. Does this support wind for SpeedTree imported models?

 

The Speed Tree wind is governed by the wind in the scene, it is not handled by Sky Master. Sky Master has a control for the material of the trees, so they can change color based on season and is possible to use it in Unity terrain as well. I will add the wind control as a feature in the v2.1 list as well, would be interesting to control it per season and weather type perhaps, so there wont be need to script for it.

Particle Dynamic Magic uses Shuriken, so it is completly modular and all created systems are dynamic and use the base Shuriken system that is fully customizable. The system can also emit gameobjects, so anything can be used, lights included or any other scripted/animated item or decal with surface conformation etc.

Blend modes can be anything Unity supports for transprent items, included blend, additive etc and i have some special shaders as well for blend+additive etc in PDM2.0.

 

Sounds amazing, Ill keep following for new updates and such. And expect me to purchase this soon. I think I'd like to see more examples of this in conjunction with pbr materials and such but thats not required.

I am definitely interested in buying this.

 

Great , let me know for any other questions

 

Do you have any examples of the light working with pbr? Some pbr textures being lit by the sky?

 

The sphere in the above ocean videos uses the Standard Unity 5 material that is PBR i suppose. I have not played at all with the new material possibilities though, so i did not grab pics with various material properties.

I will check to see f i can come up with some examples, but i have never used the new materials before besides the default, so it may take a few tries to make it happen.

 

I have a metal pbr substance if you'd like to try that out. I just want to be sure its pbr settings and light works throughout the asset. I'm sure it will since you did say its based off of Unity 5's standard skybox, but here you go anyway.

Metal Tile Substance

Bathroom Tile Substance

These are substances so the filesize is very low due to them being generated. It should work out of the box in Unity as these are the exported substances meant for Unity.

Give it a go if you needed some pbr textures to test out with.

I can make more if you want for other demonstrations. (pbr grass, tree bark, and so on)

I was also wondering if for the "volumetric" sunlight effect if we could increase the resolution of the rays.

 

I have come across a big problem, i have used the standard unity 5 skybox and a simple material (unity 5 standard) and i cant get the ambient to be grabed from the sky.

I remember when i did the ocean video i was baking the scene with the single sphere and ocean for days to get the result and colorarion from the sky.

So i dont think i can recreate this easilly, i either do something wrong or needs that procedure to get the result.

I post a pic of the simple setup, if there is a way to get the ambient without baking forever, i will definitly try it out with Sky Master, otherwise it wont be possible to test since i cant have the PC held up by the baking.

 

Oh damn that's unfortunate. I swear you didn't need GI baking activated for the ambient light to work though (edit* I actually tested it with gi and baked gi turned off, the ambient default sunlight lit of everything in the scene fine).

edit* It seems GI has an effect on whats dynamically re-lit, rather then the on start bake of how Unity handles lighting.

Again I believe GI has anything to do with

Feel free to use the substance textures I sent you for any future demonstrations. They should work.

 

Can you get the skybox color on the sphere ambient without GI on, Like in my setup above ?