Speedtree in HDRP?

Now that HDRP is out of preview, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect Speedtree to work with it, at last?

 

I second that - Unity please provide and update what is going on with speed tree v8 and latest HDRP.

 

I contacted SpeedTree and they told me that they gave all the assets necessary for the implementation to Unity. The ball is in your court!

 

Any news?

 

I cannot understand why it is delayed this much. @SebLagarde

 

Because its not a core feature?

Also, I don't understand why Unity should do it?
Its a SpeedTree product, and their license. Their interest and profit.

Rewriting manually everything would be a pain, since the lack of the shader documentation atm is immense.
I bet this is stopping everyone from the SpeedTree porting shaders.

They're kinda lazy a*oles, and I understand why.


I've been porting HDRP v6 SpeedTree via ASE on my own. Need to fix some wind issues, other than that it works.
If you've got ASE I can share the shader later once I've fixed all the issues and tested it (probably after this weekend, unless something horrible brokes).

(ASE needed because I'm using customly passed wind time. Other than that I should work w/o it, if you don't need wind)

 

I asked on the SpeedTree forum yesterday, since HDRP is now out of preview. That's the answer, fyi:

https://forum.speedtree.com/forum/s...edtree-modeler/8204-speedtree-unity-with-hdrp

 

"Bring a usable SpeedTree solution to the shader graph"?
Really?

WTF

They should've ported that shader ages ago without any shader graph.
And this answer is completely rage enducing.

 

Speedtree integration is one of the most dissapointing storys within Unity.
It was never really finished in my opinion.

What we need is a completely re-written solution, based on Speedtree or not....

 

The worst part is that there is no statement from Unity on the matter whatsoever.

 

Indeed, it seems like Unity thinks it's SpeedTree's problem and SpeedTree thinks it's Unity's problem.

 

Team Work Makes the Dream work right guys?

Come on guys speed tree and unity we need vegetation options in HDRP please give us some sort of news. Like "hey leave us alone" well get to it in our own unity fashion - Now speed tree's turn. Don't look at us we provide a ready to use editor it's unity's fault they haven't figured something out with THEIR shaders. All Joking aside it's not like people's companies/projects and livelihood's are relying on this oh wait some of us are dang Let's go guys!

 

This might be useful for some of you guys as a base shader:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/an-almost-complete-speedtree-v6-hdrp-port-via-ase.840517/

Its a nowhere complete, but at least you'd be able to render the v6 trees in the viewport / game (hopefully )

I was unable to find whats the difference with the Global Wind code in built-in vs HDRP, so I've decided to just publish as is with the Global Wind node disconnected.

Probably gonna spend a little bit of time on the wind and also ask guys from the ASE discord.
Maybe they'll be able to figure that stuff out. (or not )

 

I still can't believe there's no good tree or cloud solutions for HDRP. Either built-in (i.e. comes default with Unity) or on the asset store right now. I am using NatureManufacture's tree's in HDRP. They are decent, and quite frankly the only 3rd party asset I've found to be worth anything -- and even they lack a lot of good features.

I don't even know if there's any others out there publicly besides people making their own. It pretty frustrating if you're working with HDRP and don't have the ability to upgrade shaders yourself.

 

Almost all of the NatureManufacture assets are HDRP and they are awesome. Tropical Forest Pack is also quite good (currently beta). And Enviro HDRP clouds are awesome. I did a test this week:

And I won't hold my breath any longer for SpeedTree to come up with anything, they clearly abandoned their lots of money paying customers. I mean, the small publishers can keep up while SpeedTree who cost a lost more don't seem to care at all.

 

Good news guys! I've managed to fix issues regarding wind, and now the v6 port is complete!
It also supports custom time manipulation (example script now included), which should be pretty useful for some games.

(well, any that doesn't rely on TimeScale for pausing and uses trees + wind)

(link is in my signature)

 

I find that going easy on certain vegetables and fibre can also fix issue with wind.

But joking aside thanks for helping out. A lot of people don't have your technical skill so it'll be helpful

 

Very cool! Maybe a silly a question, but I'm assuming one would need to use v6 Speedtrees only then? No version 7 or anything else will work correct?

 

If the data layout is the same, they could work. (in theory)

But probably will look differently.
SpeedTree shaders seems to be backward compatible.

Worth trying?

 

Ok. I will probably give it a try at some point then Definitely worth trying. Even if it doesn't work, I can get some v6 SpeedTrees (at least I think if they still sell them).

 

Really hope that a developer sees this as this feature is vital to making natural environments in Unity!

 

Ive had SpeedTrees working for a while now, not hard to do at all. Heres what i do:

Once mats are converted, you must add Alpha Cutoff (0.01) in the mats for any fronds and leaves, then adjust the metallic on your base color/texture (0.7), and make sure to lower smoothness to 0, if not your LODS will look crapy.

Then i add my wind/foliage shader, and all set.

 

This sounds awesome, maybe you can help me with a quick question. I can't get wind to work at all with speedtree 6 and unity, hdrp or not. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, and I can't seem to find a solution anywheres. The speedtree sample trees from the unity store work perfectly fine.

 

Check out ShaderTimeControlExample script. It feeds values for the current time to the shader.

Basically placing one in the scene should be enough. This is in case if you're referring to my port.

Otherwise - no idea
Need more information. Basically placing trees on the terrain + wind zone should work for the default v6 trees.

 

Hi, I actually just solved my problem, lol

It turns out it was the location of the windzone. The speedtree samples worked fine outside the windzone, but the speedtree 6 trees need to be placed within the windzone. Since the sample trees were working, I wasn't even considering the windzone location to be a problem.

Thank you for the helping, it was greatly appreciated.

 

Dang it, I just bought a month of Speed Tree 8 just to find out that wind isn't supported.

 

They announced SpeedTree v9 and v8 is still not supported for HDRP. This is getting ridiculous. HDRP has been at a point where SpeedTree can convert their shaders for a while now. HDRP not being ready enough is bullshit. That was a valid excuse the first year but we're past that. I've spent nearly 1000 USD on speedtrees. At this point I cannot recommend SpeedTree to anyone. Go with NatureManufacture. Far better support and price/quality ratio.

 

Be great to get some kind of official update from unity or speed tree on whats going on with HDRP and speed tree were all waiting...

 

Yes, I asked them about a year and half ago about Speedtree in HDRP and they said they would.....

There's not really any information or communication happening. Is Unity wanting Speedtrees in HDRP? Is Speedtree going to implement Speedtrees for HDRP?

 

No, they say Unity has to do it. Unity doesn't. I bought 1.000+ € SpeedTree from them. Waste of money etc. Never again!

 

I've got ST8 working in the HDRP templates , maybe this will help others while waiting for the offical Unity/SpeedTree info to come through...

I followed the Speed Tree process here, which I'm sure you know about, but it's a bit out of date but works.

For Unity use template 2 rooms ,because the first one had incorrect PBR lighting - which I worked out, but nice to know I wasn't imagining it. This might be tripping people up.

My main issue was getting subsurface maps to match Speed Tree view port for my White Oak. So I had to do some texture edits in ST, and create a custom Diffusion Profile in Unity to compliment.

In my experience, the default Subsurface Scattering/Thickness/Translucency (would be nice to conform to one) settings exported from Speed Tree is not a match to Unity's needs.

In that, in ST I unchecked Subsurface colour and only use the Subsurface % and edited the brightness and contrast had to be clamped to black and white for wood branch vs leaves , (Black=opaque, white=transparent) to get the amount of subsurface seen in Speed Tree view port in Unity. This may take some back and forth between the two, be sure to have the same lighting conditions and sun position in both.

Important note is that if your branch area is not 100% black ( - in ST that is. It gets inverted to white on export to Unity) it gets affected by Unity's Diffusion profile easily, tinting it the leaf subsurface colour. The threshold can be very fine there.Took me a while to figure out what was happening.

So I also needed to edit the foliage Diffusion Profile for my tree species in Unity to mimic the subsurface colour seen in ST and prevent the branch areas from tinting the same colour. I duplicated the Bamboo one from the above rooms template, and modified it.

This can take some trial and error but these are the bits to play with...

Scattering Distance: This will control the subsurface/transparency colour seen in the viewport and how much your branches are affected (to match the colour seen in ST for a White Oak, I have R=30, G=50, B=0, intensity=0 atm)

Thickness Remap: Set for 3 - of course, this may differ depending on the tree species - I have only done this one so far, but expect to have diffusion profiles for various species - the default 'foliage' doesn't cut it for me..

I now have close to WYSIWYG from Speed Tree viewport in Unity, but I'm tweaking it all the time, especially expect to do it more for an actual scene than a R&D template.

I'm working on a more open world game - with the new template, though has foliage in it, is all setup for a controlled, confined environment with reflection probes and I need assured template settings for an open world terrain. So I have a tree prefab in the open air room and I created a terrain with grass materials and painted a few trees on that.

It's on the terrain I'm mostly testing, and going to the room scene after to see if it's still looking ok - which it is a lot brighter because of the reflection probes so I expect more tweaks with lighting will be in order.

Unity v2020.2.1f1
ST v8.4.2 (Unity Subscription Edition)

 

Good info jezelf. Is there dedicated Speed Tree Shaders currently that work in HDRP? The main thing is the wind. Does the ST wind transfer over to whatever hdrp shaders are for it. Without that wind transfering over correctly it doesn't matter how good they look need the life into the trees only the wind provides.

 

Nope, as far as I know. That's why I made custom ASE based shader. (But its for v6 trees)
Has a few issues though, and not a complete 1 to 1 conversion, but, may be useful for transfering wind functions if you have ASE.

Main issue - it doesn't seems to batch with SRP batcher correctly, and I don't know why. Asking ASE devs, and Unity forum yielded zero results, so yeah hit a brick wall.

Alternatively, there's always a source for the SpeedTree shader (available in builtin shaders) which allows to port shaders with anything, including ShaderGraph as long as you've got time and basic shader knowledge.


But the real problem here is Speed Tree devs. They just don't want to port shaders at all.
Which is both upsetting and infuriating at the same time.

 

I'm using the Lit shader. And not got to wind yet. But I will need it too, you're right it adds the life - my focus was WYSIWYG for SpeedTree side atm. Wind will be the next step, but sounds like there's a wall to get through first.

 

SHAME ON YOU! What irrational expectation...

 

Rest assured Epic has something to do with it. Don't be surprised if you see them buying Speedtree in the future.

 

https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/commit/7f9945fc07fb6ea39de3d4da288fe56e04826694

 

Before getting your hopes up, I just want to point that commit is still in WIP branch - meaning it's not merged yet.

Unity has had Speedtree 8 HDRP shaders in wip branches for a long time (year+), one can just hope this time around they actually merge them to main branches

 

Ya the main thing is the wind. I think most people don't have too much trouble getting speedtrees into Unity HDRP, for the most part. It's just that the wind doesn't work. Having to download files from a 3rd party site like Github, for Unity, just seems weird.

Here's to hoping what sqallpl posted above actually works -- the speed tree 8 shader graphs for HDRP, if they work with wind, would be excellent.

 

SpeedTree 8 support was added to the HDRP roadmap.

https://portal.productboard.com/unity/1-unity-engine-graphics/c/262-speedtree-8

 

While it is nice to have a specific SpeedTree shader that supports wind, most of the people neglect the fact it may tank your performance. That is if nothing will be done to how SRP batcher works.

SpeedTree is based on submeshes, which will break batching by default. And even if that is supported in the future - there's an issue with light probes.

Submitted my opinion, but top priority for this feature should be SRP batcher and features that are missing.

 

Yeah can u shader that shader? looks like it would be very helpful

 

Link is in my signature. Just in case:
https://github.com/VergilUa/SpeedTreev6HDRP_ASE_Port