Graphics [HDRP-UPR ✅] Sky Master ULTIMATE-Physical skybox-Volume clouds-Weather FX-Ocean-Realtime GI-Mobile

New GI Proxy demo with v3.4 Volume lighting. Real time color grab.


Glass and volume light effects in v3.4, with GI Proxy for Global Illumination (GI Proxy asset is included in Sky Master ULTIMATE)

 

Global Illumination and the new Volume lighting system in v3.4 Beta. (With and without the v3.4 Volume lighting system pics)

Big -34% discount on Sky Master ULTIMATE- ($59 instead of $90)

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta is now available for Google Drive download for all Sky Master ULTIMATE users. Please send a PM with the invoice and i will send a link asap.

 

Real time Global Illumination, rainy glass and the new Volumetric Lighting system in v3.4 (top pic show the scene without the GI Proxy and volume lighting systems)

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta is now available for Google Drive download for all Sky Master ULTIMATE users. Please send a PM with the invoice and i will send a link asap.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta Demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

Big -34% discount on Sky Master ULTIMATE ($59 instead of $90)​

 

Desert effects, new v3.4 demo WIP

 

UPDATE:

The v3.4 Beta testing is going very well, i have various great comments of the improved usuability and i am grad these help a lot in various ways streamline the experience.

From the feedback so far, some things i am working on to improve further for the store release

Beta issue #1. Extra tweaking in the new shader clouds, to get them to the demo quality when inserting them from the configurator, without extra user input. This is a bit tricky, as there is so many possibilities in their configuration, but i will try my best to make the as beautifull as possible when they are first entered in the scene from the configurator option

Beta issue #2. The ground shader setup is a bit tricky as well and not easy to setup, even with the new options in Inspector, due to how the shader works, so for this end i will offer a few presets to make evident what the various slider combinations can emulate (e.g. wet ground etc) so take the guessing of how to configure the sliders out of the equation (and still offer micro tweaking with the sliders of course)

Other things in WIP for the release is a new Mars like planet setting, with dust storms, dual suns etc and a new demo for GI Proxy with the volumetric lighting (the one in the recent video posted), plus refinements in the Attol v3.4 demo.

v3.4 will be a major release, so i will take a bit more time to super polish it before the store, with further tweaking of defaults and refinement of controls.

The Beta is available in google drive download for all current users of the pack. A big thanks to everyone that has participated in the Beta so far !!! and provided valuable feedback.

Beta demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

Big -34% discount on Sky Master ULTIMATE- ($59 instead of $90)​

 

One more thing that came up during the Beta:

Beta issue #3. There is a ghosting (vertical) issue which happens with the new volumetric lighting-fog in Forward mode and seems to happen when Occlusion is used in this camera mode. I have a temporary fix to try if Forward mode is used. (this will be automatically handled with passing an option to the shader in the next hotfix based on rendering mode, so wont need any manual step or option setup)

After Line 42 in AtmosphericScattering_OcclusionSM34.shader file, in the vertex shader section add

o.uv.y = 1.05 - v.texcoord.y;

line below the o.uv definition in order to invert the occlusion image to normal, in Forward rendering mode.

I will do many more tests on this as well to see if it happens in other cases and cover all and issue a hotfix that will handle this automatically.

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on the store front, many thanks to the store team !!

 

UPDATE:

A few more tweaks for the next Beta patch:

- fix issue where moon system wont be affected by worldscale factor if lat/lon moon is setup before the scaling happens (currently will work normally if scaling happens first and then lat/lon moon is activated)
- add option for volume particle clouds to be created on map center or a customized shifted position (currently is enabled in a way such that will traverse the map with wind, this will remain the default option)
- Add a help text stating that the Skydome option is for special cases (e.g. when two skies needed in the same scene or skybox is not available or viewable) and should not be used for the normal sky case (which works in the Unity 5 skybox by default and is enabled when "Add Sky" is pressed and is the most feature full version)

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta Webplayer demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

UPDATE:

One more tweak for the next Beta patch:

Add public variables to set the layers in "is_cloud" case in SetRenderQueue script , so clouds can be sent to back (e.g. layer -1) when the player is on ground.

 

UPDATE:

The 2ond Beta patch is now ready, i will upload and add a description of the changes today.

The patch will also include the new GI Proxy demo scene with flowing water and sun light beams with the new Volume Lighting system.

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on -34% sale ($59 instead of $90) - v3.4 Beta is also available for download for all current users. (v3.4 Beta Demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html)

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta - Patch #2 (v3.4.1)

- Added public variables to set the layers in "is_cloud" case in SetRenderQueue script, so clouds can be sent to back render layer (e.g. layer -1) when the player is on ground.
- Fixed issue where moon system would not be affected by worldscale factor if lat/lon moon is setup before the scaling happens (currently will work normally if scaling happens first and then lat/lon moon is activated)
- Added option for volume particle clouds to be created on map center or a customized shifted position (currently is enabled in a way such that will traverse the map with wind, this will remain the default option)
- Added option for volume particle clouds to be created on a custom center
- Fixed issue where the volume cloud bed size would not be affected by the cloud bed size factor in Inspector (only the wind related placement was affected).
- Add a help text stating that the Skydome option is for special cases (e.g. when two skies needed in the same scene or skybox is not available or viewable) and should not be used for the normal sky case (which works in the Unity 5 skybox by default and is enabled when "Add Sky" is pressed and is the most feature full version)
- Added two presets for easier ground shader setup (dry and wet ground sample parameters)
- Fixed issue with the new Volume Lighting system in Forward rendering path, where there was vertical shadow ghosting when Occlusion was used in this camera mode.

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on -34% sale ($59 instead of $90) - v3.4 Beta is also available for download for all current users. (v3.4 Beta Demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html)

 

Hi everyone,

I will be leaving on vocation for next week, so while i will try to see to any issues that come up, i will probably be limited in this, so i will try to check as often as possible.

The v3.4 Beta is ready for download and there is two patches available, i can send upon PM request for everyone insterested.

The Beta needs a few more refinements (mainly in teaking of parameters of items that go in the scene through the Inspector that not yet match the demo tweaks, e.g. in the new shader clouds and need further manual tweaks, i will try to further automate this to get great results as in the demo with minimal user input and in all cases after insertion through the step by step configurator) and thus the v3.4 store release will be later in the month and the discount is extended until then.

 

Just purchased, very good assets. I need to set transparency of water to 0 --> to simulate deep oceans and lakes please explain how to do this with you water shaders/materials.

 

Hi,

Thanks . There is 3 ways to affect the transparency of water. The two are based on fresnel and depth factors and are accesible directly in the Sky Master Configurator Inspector (Water section - Frasnel Bias - Offset and Shore blend offset).

For example you may lower the Frasnel Bias to bring the sky reflection closer to the player and hide the close by transparency. The Shore blend offset will deepen the transparency to deeper water (e.g. high values will only create transparency near the shore edges, lower values will extend this to deeper water etc)

Also there is the main base transparency of the whole ocean, which is accesible in the Water script (WaterHandlerSM) and is defined per preset. The preset will get its value from the color defined in this script (e.g. if the Atoll preset is chosen, you should adjust the "Atoll Water Color" variable in this script). To adjust transparency, in the "Atoll Water Color" adjust the Alpha value of the color, the higher the less transparent the water will become (independent of the Fresnel and other optic features). At 255 Aplha the water will be completly opaque.

Note that the shore blend offset is above both Fresnel and Base transparency (so will create a shore transparency even at 255 Alpha base)

The new v3.4 Beta also has more controls for water, like an option for a more realistic rendering coloration based on sky traits in the new gradient based sky coloration, direct transparency control and many new features and usuability enchancements. The Beta is available in Google drive link and has already receieved two patches based on user input, with very few tweaks remaining until release (mainly the preset values in the new shader volume clouds so can be like in my demo scene when inserting from the configurator in the step by step configuration and one control for the fog gradient resolution).

Here is the v3.4 Beta demo (older version, the new is further enchanced in the Beta download), which also has controls for water (press button on right side to show the controls) to test the various effect of the parameters on the fly.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

Let me know for any further questions

 

I have also created a video showing the new controls in Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta (and some of the current version ones) for water transparency, reflection and other properties, for reference.

 

UPDATE:

The new Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta patch (Patch #2 -v3.4.1) is ready for download in google drive, please let me know with a PM and i will send the link asap.

The patch also includes the new GI Proxy demo scene with flowing water and sun light beams with the new Volume Lighting system.



Sky Master ULTIMATE is on sale for a limited time, until the v3.4 Beta goes up on the store !!!

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

Enjoy ​

 

Conversion of Volume Particle Clouds to Shuriken for v3.5 (WIP). Most of the base is now done (including billboards roll stability etc) and the focus will be on shading tweaking and an as easy as possible transition to the Shuriken (e.g. an automated conversion if possible while both systems are available in current Unity version and until Unity decides to eliminate the Legacy Paticles)

The Shuriken system will also open new possibilities of interaction, with both its native capabilities and the included Particle Dynamic Magic systems.

 

The New in v3.4 volumetric lighting and Sun beams (from every sun direction, sample videos below of v3.4) will get a noise function for v3.5 to emulate wind on the atmospheric dust.

UPDATE:

A few more new features for v3.5:
- Moods collection system, that will auto tweak the system for various moods and save a preview as well (TBD for the save preview image). Also considering making a snapshot system and lerp to states (or instant state re-creation).
- Guidable floaters (currently only boat moves in the sample gameplay script) and optimization when massive amount of floaters are needed (multithreading and frame spliting the calculationss)
- More waves in the shore line breaking and with special FX
- The new in v3.4 volumetric lighting system (which allows sun beams from every sun direction) will also get a noise function to emulate air in the atmospheric dust that is currently emulated in v3.4. The GI Proxy demo (v3.4 shown above) will also be augmented with the new noise system as option for even more variance.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta will last a bit longer and the reduced price will revert to normal after v3.4 release on the store. The Beta is ready for download for all current users of the system and there is two patches available, i can send upon PM request for everyone insterested.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

UPDATE:

Volumetric lighting in v3.4 (for effects like sun beams from every angled direction) - noisy dust special FX WIP for v3.5. The noisy dust effect may also come in v3.4 if i am pleased with the progress until v3.4 release.

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on sale for a limited time, until the v3.4 Beta goes up on the store !!!

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

A few possibilities with the Sky Master ULTIMATE ground shader (wetness, snow, real time coloration etc). The terrain splat maps should have a proper corresponding bump map splat assigned for best result.

UPDATE:

Volumetric lighting in v3.4 (sun beams from every sun direction), combined with the real time Global Illumination proxy system of Sky Master ULTIMATE.

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on sale for a limited time, until the v3.4 Beta goes up on the store !!!

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

UPDATE:

Another addition for the next v3.4 Beta patch, control of the gradient volume fog resolution of the gradient texture, for better adaptation of the effect on larger world scales.

 

Volumetric lighting and dust WIP (Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4)

 

Vivid Dusk settings WIP (Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4)

 

The third patch for v3.4 Beta has been released and is available for download in Google Drive. I can send the link on PM request immediately to everyone interested.

The patch stabilizes the random flicker of sky in editor mode (game mode is not having the flicker issue, it is editor side only). Also i have added a first base of the dust emulation in the new volumetric lighting system and augmented the GI Proxy demo with it.

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE with InfiniLAND system, WIP base for InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo. The lands will be created & planted on the fly as the player moves and the next gen grass and trees will be streamed and pooled as the player reaches the grow distance. Sky Master will be used for handling the dynamic snow coverage on grass and trees.

Image in HD: http://i.imgur.com/DLDgiTH.jpg

 

Playing with v3.4 demo and reflection tweaking

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta is ready for download for all current users of the system along with first three patches for the system, i can send the links upon PM request for everyone insterested.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

Weather dynamics, volumetric clouds and weather severity slider tweaking in v3.4. New rain and cinematic FX.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta is ready for download for all current users of the system along with first three patches for the system, i can send the links upon PM request for everyone insterested.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta demo (WIP): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL v3.4 DEMO.html

 

UPDATE:

A few more have been added for v3.4 final patch, i decided to add the new Volume Particle clouds Shuriken option in v3.4, since the earliest this feature comes the better for converting and be ready for the time Unity may remove Legacy particles at some future version.

Also i will be doing much more tweaking in both the volume particle clouds and new shader volume clouds.

Other things that will be handled is adjustable haze amount in underwater (currently is fixed value), the events system functionality will be made more clear in Inspector (and some notes that are not correct will be fixed to show better the actual functionality, plus a repeat events option will be created), a control for fog gradient resolution will be added and a speed offset factor will be available to adjust the base non volume clouds (shader on domes) wind speed based on the global wind.

The next patch will be the last before the store release. Also the asset will continue to be on discount until the v3.4 release.

 

First pics of the combined Sky Master v3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo, showcasing a fully procedurally created vast world.

Also while optimizing the demo, i discovered that the volume fog created some CG collection due to the gradient handling, thus i have worked around this and is now even more optimized.

A video and then a webplayer demo will follow soon.

All Sky Master systems (including the new clouds and volume lighting in v3.4) can be used in the vast open world directly from my tests and the only thing needed was a follow scipt so that cloud domes are always centerd to the player as he moves in the vast landscapes.

Also even with all effects on (water, volume clouds and lighting, ambient calculations, sky with gradient control etc) and real time terrain, foliage planting and creation (with pooling and streaming in InfiniGRASS v2.0) the performance is great (and my tests are on my very old 2010 PC)

Everything in the pics is procedurally generated and can be regulated in real time (e.g. tree type and placement, grass and trees amounts, terrain height and noise frequencies, roads height and width, cloud speed, coverage and evolution, water type etc)

 

UPDATE:

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 used in streaming vast open worlds (endless procedural creation) with next generation grass, environments and shadows.

InfiniGRASS 2.0 uses a combination of balanced batching and pooling to get the best adaptation / next gen grass look VS best performance and smooth streaming ratio.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 is also adapted for the endless world to make sure it works properly under the full world scale for the volume clouds, volume lighting and other systems.

This is an early demo of the possibilities, a lot more additions and optimizations will be made until the final demo.

The demo is software recorded in my 2010 PC, and uses most effects in both Sky Master (volume clouds, volume lighting, ambient calculations, waving water, refractions-reflections etc) and InfiniGRASS (grass can be burned, erased and has wind emulation, player interaction etc)

 

From the WIP in the Sky Master v3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 procedural dynamic world demo (Video). Everything in the world is procedurally created on the fly.

Added snow, fixed an issue in cloud shadows, added wet/snow terrain materials and adjusted the volumetric lighting further.

 

Few pics from the Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 volume clouds WIP

 

WIP from the new Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo, for procedural world and weather conditions generation.

Based on this new combination of systems, a lot of weather etc functionality will be fine tuned and new system will be created to tie the climate, foliage and land together in various ways for the procedural fully automated creation of an evolving world.

 

A note on the rainbow on v3.4 Beta version, the system is made such that the rainbow will appear during and shortly after rain weather is activated and will disspear in clear weather.

If the rainbow is needed to stay constanly on independently of weather, the rainbow material can be copied and the copy applied to the rainbow and thus wont be controlled by the weather system and remain with any property the new material has.

A few videos from the Beta WIP

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta is available in Google Drive download.

.

 

A few pics from tweaking volume fog, using gradient to control depth vibrance and coloration

 

WIP videos from the new Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo, for procedural world and weather conditions generation.

 

WIP videos from the new Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.4 and InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo, for procedural world and weather conditions generation.

 

The Shuriken based Volume Particle Clouds are now completly done and ready for release along with v3.4.

This was the only major v3.4 that remained, thus only a few tweaks to shader clouds and expose of a few more parameters in the configurator are left until v3.4 release.

 

A few comments on Volumetric Clouds use as fog (regulation of hard edge with water-ground), rendering clouds in front of other transparent items when in ground level (e.g. tree billboards) and use of Volumetric Fog with Unity fog in scenes with transparent objects (e.g. billboards, water).

The Volume Particle clouds have a special variable in the shader that is based on Soft Particles feature (but has extended range) that can adjust the hard line of the particles with water and ground.

The issue where clouds that are in front of trees, may show behind billboard trees, is an inherent issue due to the way transparency is handled. All transparent items render in one go and due to the way the order is calculated (e.g. by the center of the particle system batch than the individual particles) it may cause the particles to appear in various order (e.g. when the center is behind the billboard transparent trees the system renders all particles behind as well independently of their actual position).

To address this the method is to separate the transparent items to layers and thus define exactly the order they are rendered. The default layer is 0 where all Shuriken and Unity tree billboards etc transparent items are rendered. So to tell the system that clouds should be rendered above the billboards i have created a "set render queue" script that will apply the chosen layer, which in the specific case should be 1 (so the clouds render above the billboards at 0). Water is set to -1 by default (will render last after clouds and billboards).

Note that the default for clouds is to render at zero layer, since they are normally above the player and transparent objects are not expected to be seen behind them, but for ground-fog use the layer should be set to 1 to cover for the cases where transparent objects may be behind the clouds.

The same technique applies to other items, e.g. particles on scene etc. All the above also apply globally to Unity systems and thus is useful for any game or setup when transparencies are involved.

Picture guide for quick reference on the above (the script - method is also described in the manual with a few more details):



Similar issues may also appear when transparent objects are used with the Volume Fog, this fog does not affect these items. In this case the Unity fog may be enabled in addition, to affect water and particles or billboards and match the volume fog.

Picture guide for the Volume Fog use with Unity fog:

 

Final shader based volume clouds shader tweaking in Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4, with all features in (scattering, image based cloud shaping with adjustable image offset to emulate another layer of motion if needed or used for static shaping etc).

The WIP now is focused on providing as many ready to use cloud presets as possible for a range of effect (from realistic to more spectacular etc), since the new possibilities are so many and tweaking them to perfection.

 

New Shuriken Volume Particle Clouds (Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4) and new Streaming world demo with InfiniGRASS v2.0

 

Streaming world demo WIP with InfiniGRASS v2.0 and Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 for evolving volume clouds, volumetric lighting and sky-atmosphere-fog shading.

 

UPDATE: RTP controller for rain and snow

I have devised an RTP controller first version for everyone interested in RTP integration. This can be updated later (and until v3.4 release) with more suggestions on features.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-QCdE1dswQBWVBUenNNVEh2bTA/view?usp=sharing

I have included a demo scene for reference, the controller must go to the RTP terrain in order to grab its material and also needs the references to Relief controller and SkyMasterManager.

The system will increase snow and rain gradually based on weather, SnowStorm and Rain weather will trigger the effects.

The new v3.4 Beta is available for direct download on PM request (one patch remains with a few tweaks and additions) and i will include this RTP controller in the final patch as well.

 

Volumetric lighting demo with GI Proxy, for v3.4

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.4 Beta used along with InfiniLAND and InfiniGRASS systems (WIP for InfiniGRASS v2.0 demo).

The new volumetric lighting system in v3.4 is used for the lighting.

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on 34% sale for this week also and v3.4 should be submitted next week (price will return to regular after the store release).

The Beta is available for download on Google Drive for everyone interested, on PM request (one final patch remains for store release)

 

Does the volumetric light only work with one light , for example is it meant to just be used for the sun or can other point lights work with it to ? I noticed in your atrium demo if you turn on the point light it displays and appears to have volumetric lighting but that the sun rays disappear in the demo , is this meant to happen ?

 

Hi Ian,

The volume lighting in v3.4 is for the sun and has scattering and other atmosheric properties integrated. Local lights fogging is planned for v3.5 or v3.6 after v3.4 release (spot light is already done).

 

UPDATE:

The final additions for v3.4 are now done (final patch) :

- Tweaking of new volume clouds to look like the demo tweaked when entered from the Inspector step by step setup
- Preset types for coloration and curves for the above purpose and variety
- Added control of the back distance of the new volume lighting system, so distant mountains that do not receieve shadows wont look overly bright and control of this brightness so the effect can be adjusted as needed per case (also added Inspector controls)
- Finilized Shuriken option for Volume Particle Clouds and readjusted some of the parameters auto adjustements for the new system to be perfected in looks
- Solved and issue with new cloud shadows where the cloud camera facing system would rotate the shadow plane and create moving shadows, now i remove the shadow plane when the camera facing option is activated.
- Optimized the Volumetric Gradient Fog (gradient is now in a more optimal spot in code)
- Added option for new clouds to follow the player, for infinite worlds
- Added loop option in the weather events system and refined the GUI
- Fixed issue where the sun coloration system would bug the Auto ambient calculation and create a over bright intensity
- Added RTP support for rain and snow weather
- Set Water tiles colliders to disabled by default (can be enabled easilly in the inspector if needed)

Now that these final changes are done for the final v3.4 Beta version i will work on the manual and release the system to the store probably this coming week after a final round of testing.

 

Nice to see, that 3.4 is finally around the corner.
You even worked on something we talked about I'm glad, that I could help.
I'm looking forward for the volume clound tweaks and the RTP rain support I could already try out a bit.