Speedtree issues in HDRP

I read in the Unity 2019.2.0 release notes that they added support for Speedtree. Here is the comment in the release notes:

"Graphics: Added SpeedTree support to the Scriptable Render Pipeline."

However, when I import any speedtree tree into Unity version 2019.2 (using HDRP), I still get pink materials by default. I then have to unpack the material in the prefab, and assign each material the HDRP>Lit shader in order to see the textures properly.

Then I have to re-assign all of the textures for all of the materials, the billboard material as well. After all of this, I see dark polygon (like broken normals) on the Speedtree trees. And on top of this, I don't see the wind working, because I'm not using the Nature>Speedtree shaders I'm guessing.

What exactly about SpeedTree support was actually added then? It doesn't seem to be working very well at all to me. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong perhaps?

 

Scriptable Render Pipelines are the underlying technology that LWRP/Universal and HDRP use. However, you still need support in HDRP itself in order to get this stuff working properly.

I believe they are working on a ShaderGraph-based SpeedTree solution. I dont know what the release plan for this is (presumably 2019.3/7.xx but I should not presume). I know some work was done on it as recently as 10 days ago on github (SpeedTree)

 

Yeah I think these trees might be on a slow-growing github branch....


I'm sorry!

 

Not as sorry as me. Because I may be barking up the wrong tree, but I decided to take a leaf out of the book of recent memories, and recall what happened to a previous, non-Shadergraph HDRP SpeedTree implementation that someone was developing for the previous HDRP version - that branch was struck by lightning, for the gods had other priorities and plans.

 

I suppose I expect if for 2019.3's 7.xx HDRP because we nearly got it for 2019.2 6.xx, and because if we dont get it for HDRP coming out of preview, not only will there be an elephant in the room, but that elephant will be the only thing with a trunk!

Oak-ay Oak-ay, enough of this corny ent-ertainment. When there are signs of it arriving I will let the world know via whats-sap or sapchat.

 

Ok thanks guys. I was expecting them to "just work" right out of the box, maybe a bit presumptuous on my part. I'll just wait for it to come along slowly then. Thanks for the info.

And I like the puns, intentional or not

 

Cheers. Hopefully you have missed most of the wait, HDRP came a long way in the last couple of years. And more was done to the SpeedTree stuff on github yesterday https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ScriptableRenderPipeline/commits/SG/SpeedTree

The puns were certainly deliberate, it does not take much to set me off and hippocoder certainly managed to!

 

It was really funny to see HDRP support for SpeedTree back when it made no sense, and now that it does, they created LWRP first because it is out of preview while HDRP is not I was begging for LWRP support back when it was close to go out of preview but nobody cared, they were "focusing on the HDRP version" that got scrapped

Anyway.. I just use a SSS shader for trees and get done with it, can't wait for these slowpokes at ST...

Some people may find it "unfortunate" but these things make people change engines, and entire projects and studios to shift to the competition. So, the real unfortunate thing is sending your users to the competition. I wholeheartedly do not recommend it.

 

On URP/LWRP I reported yonks ago an issue with the textures just looking.. dark and weird, is anyone else seeing this?Just using the example Tree assets from the asset store...

 

Yes that's what I see too.

 

You really can't depend on these people for serious production. It seems they focus on hobbyists who use Unity for school projects. OR someone is sabotaging Unity which sounds paranoid but it is so unprofessional that I do not know what else to say. Very disappointing. Half of the new and heavily advertised features can't be used because of such problems either with 3rd parties or with Unity itself.

 

One could say that the current state of Speedtree with UniversalRP has 'planted the seeds of doubt' in my mind.

On a serious note, i will post back if I get any update from the developers, last I heard back from them they acknowledged the issue but seem to be working on other parts of the Speedtree integration so far which isn't promising.

 

Successfully got a response to (Case 1185340) [URP]SpeedTree Shaders makes shadows become fully black when switching to URP SpeedTree Shaders,

They could reproduce it (obviously) and it has been sent for resolution with the developers.. we shall see!

 

Trying to ping the devs about it here as I got it acknowledged in a case
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ScriptableRenderPipeline/pull/4273

 

Got an official issue logged for this with UniversalRP/LWRP but it will probably also apply to HDRP here, please please vote for it to escalate it!

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...ge-their-appearance-depending-on-the-distance

@soleron @camta005

 

Absolutely! I have been working on a project of an intersection and unfortunately i preplanned to important my scene into untiy from maya just to place a some mass trees in the scene using some assets, my biggest mistake to use this work flow for the production as since i have imported my scene i am having issues with everything!
First with the Global Illumination, then Light map uvs, light probes and finally the trees look dark now with out any reason! Thats so disappointing!

 

They just don't seem to give a damn? They do not seem to care about not only what their users are going through, but also not doing well with major partners and that is NOT good.

Look at Substance, SteamVR, SpeedTree these are simply not possible to replace with amateur hour assets in the store. And it is not the asset makers to blame, these companies have huge budgets and ages of know how.

Unity itself afaik has NO substitute for their nature shaders in HDRP... and even their own terrain system is not properly supported this is pathetic.