SUIMONO Water System - 2.0 BETA Announcement

Wayne, are you using dynamic reflections? If so is it checked both on the Suimono_Module object as well as the Suimono Surface object?

 

I found it!! Ok, if this was a novice mistake then please forgive me in advance I'm still new to Unity. I took a look at your _DEMO_BETA project and the water was great. Reflections and everything awesome. Which told me that I'm doing something wrong in my scene. I duplicated your settings for things like deferred and all but it still didn't fix it. So i looked in your SuimonoModule.js file for camera operation and noticed this:

//set camera
if (setCamera == null){
if (Camera.main != null){
setCamera = Camera.main.transform;

And I realized that my scene camera is parented to my game character. (3rd person system and I wanted the scene cam behind the character to 'see' the character in the Scene inspector.) And obviously the transform of the main camera - in my case - was just a simple offset from my character. Soon as I unparented the main camera it all worked. In my case getting the transform of the camera's parent might have worked..? I didn't try that but perhaps that might have worked too - letting me keep my camera as a child of the character.

Sorry for the hastle. Soon as I studied your demo scene I realized it was my bad and your water system was working wonderfully.

 

OK, glad it's working! The other thing you maybe could do is explicitly set the camera in the Suimono_Module. If it isn't set with a game object, then it automatically searches for the main camera in the scene... but sometimes this may not be the camera you want. try dragging the parented camera to the "Scene Camera Object" slot on Suimono Module... it should work, but if not I'm glad you found another solution

 

Ive put the day's work into ocean surgery, actually avoided all the arty stuff entirely for what I thought was a fun idea and saw how much I could integrate scrawks ocean directly back into the suimono UI, possibly with a mind to making the two representations togglable in realtime, which I think would be neat, although communicating between c# and js can get tricky. I added controls to the UI for the idea given to me by scrawk for altering that version's behaviour in real-time (to blend between calm and stormy behaviour easily), it looked quite simple to add further permutations that would stack in the UI so thats one thing. In addition I think I can possibly get it working believably with coasts (with proper beach waves even) and a nice idea that I admittedly took a cue or two from the livenda videos was the slight translucent/scattering effect on the surface, not very deep (your backlit effects for large waves are great), but enough to give a possibly variable control density to the fluid on the surface. Could be adapted into something more there, (I wonder if blending several nice textures at the edges would look pretty nice especially if their density could be modelled and animated, but shouldnt run ahead of myself. Another consideration was skyshop integration as an alternative option to the atmosphere skrawk supplies with his ocean - would give me a reason to bury my head into my mountain of literature. Enthusiastic at the moment, hoping i can keep the momentum as this is ostensibly aimed at my own work in which this is one system of many I am trying to tie together - but if I can get it polished enough youre welcome to distribute it as 'the odd experiment some unity stranger did' on an informal, Suimono license owning basis

 

Amazing work until now, I'm trying with dx11 pro

2 things:

1) The foam disappears after each save a new profile
2) Specularity hot is too unreal, too flat color and it should emissive to get the bloom effect

Other things have already been written...

In any case, great job so far!

 

Hi ThunderTruck... the foam shouldn't disappear.. Are you saving the presets while during playmode? I'll double check nothing is amiss...

As for the specularity, interesting point about Emissive! I'll try reducing the brightness and adding an emissive component in the next update.

 

Love how this is turning out. Beautiful. Does the water clip through the boat?

Can I see some more screens?

 

I've been doing more beta75 testing. Totally awesome! I really love the underwater effects...so realistic. I tried a pc standalone build and saw a strange art artifact. I'm not using DX11, using the 'swimming pool' preset. The artifact occurs at the transition from seeing underwater to moving above the water surface. Note that this only seems to happen in the standalone build. I cannot replicate it in the Unity editor. I'll paste a screen shot. It has that 'missing texture' look you see when Unity draws something with a missing texture.

 

Thanks Wayne! Yeah I noticed that as well... it only happens in forward rendering. It missed the underwater target shader but I've already updated it for the next version

 

Piers909 - I could show some more screenshots.... or... I could show a VIDEO....

[video=youtube_share;YYBTJt5KmVA]http://youtu.be/YYBTJt5KmVA

 

Awesome demo! Gimme! Regarding the underwater target shader issue, I didn't think to try deferred rendering in my tests. I'm still new to Unity but i"m learning...

 

Hey chingwa,

I was wondering if buoyant objects will be able to interact with the 3d waves? I.e. dropping a heavy cube will cause physical (3d) ripples rather than just a textured effect. If not in the beta, I would love this feature in the future. (if even possible!)

Thanks

 

Hi Piers909,

No I don't think so... I've been working on improving the texture splash effect so it actually displaces and forms a 3d effect, but the 3d waves it interacts with will not be displaced. I should know pretty soon or not whether the above texture displace will work or not.

 

Can we expect a beta 8 soon?

 

Hi Piers, yes, Beta8 will be ready pretty soon... can't say exactly when yet, but should be not much more than a week. Here's a small list of what can be expected in beta 8...

- Infinite 3D Ocean setting working on DX11 (hopefully DX9 as well)
- Performance improvements and shader fixes for Android and iOS
- New FX Objects let you place particle fx (and audio) anywhere in your scene. (very handy for splashes, ripples, etc).
- New FX Registry allows you to easily tweak or add your own fx systems.
- Wave Shoreline effect reformulated.
- New work-in-progress example scene (showing example boat object and infinite ocean).
- bug fixes galore.

 

Hi chingwa !! Been following this thread for quite long!! And hey !! News for you. You got some serious competition. Have a look here-http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/212889-Nephilim-DX11-Ocean-amp-Water-Engine-for-AAA-Ocean-Rendering-Simulation

Video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykPjzV9Z5Ew
Before this in my views suimono was the best. But what now?

 

I agree that this ocean shader looks very nice indeed! However the thread and site have not been updated for nearly 5 months and just say "coming soon". It could very well mean the project's been discontinued (although I hope not, as competition is good for the users).

In any case Chingwa's ocean solution so far offers the slight advantage of actually existing (as in "you can download and use it in your project")...

 

I'll be first to say that that's an unfair comparison. In all honesty, I don't see any DX11-only solutions as 'competition' against solutions that support OpenGL/DX9 as well. Going down the DX11-only route opens up a lot of options to create a more impressive result, but it also cuts out two thirds of your customer base. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Livendas work (super keen to give their SSR a go!). It looks great but I can say there's not actually that much going on shader-wise, just a combination of some great tricks and you'd be surprised how much of a difference integrating IBL makes.

In short, I think both products have their markets, with no one system outdoing the other.

 

By the kind permission of Chingwa i'm adapting Suimono for a very much dx11 based 'mod' that will only be available to Suimono owners that should, hopefully, keep everyone with swanky video cards happy. It may take a while because ive got a lot on my plate but it will be free to Suimono owners and hopefully you might like it. Nephelim looks very nice and perhaps I cant match that kind of quality but those investing in Suimono may well hopefully, eventually, get a perk to their purchase.

And it is definitely, without a doubt worth noting that dx11 can make pretty things and all but isn't practical for most platforms, hence my contribution will be free, Suimono 2 has for a start the ability to cover way more platforms for a start

 

Thanks for the support guys. The preview they put out looks really nice, but as far as Suimono 2.0 is concerned.... I'm not worried

 

Do it and i'm in.

This ^^

 

Yeah I agree suimono may not be the best looking but its the most flexible one.

 

When will beta 8 be released ? And when will it hit the store?

 

Hey Man, Just scroll up a bit on this page and you'll find your answers

 

Just bought the original version! Can't wait to get the beta for Sunimono 2 as well! I bought several other assets along with Suimono, I hope that doesn't mess up the invoice number thingy, regardless, it is a fantastic product and worth every penny!

 

3 - thanks for the support! I just registered you for the beta, let me know via email if you don't receive a registration number. Hope you enjoy the beta, more good stuff coming soon!

 

Got it! Thanks, I'll write a review in a bit, probably one of the best purchases I've made in awhile, great work!

 

To back up something said earlier up, im not remotely worried about Suimono's viability compared to Livenda (also, Justin, you're the second person i've said to today 'AAARGH SEE SHARP') the only gripe I have in all of it is it becomes a total pain to get JS and c# cooperating, to a point where I just have one script in plugins used to communicate between them

I'm essentially just waiting for a certain feature to be added to a tool i use before i continue on my super sexy remix of this for dx11 users, which wont work on anything that isn't dx11, will only be available to Suimono customers (I'm in it for the education and my own game so im not getting money and it doesnt contribute to whatever the price this is set at and I dont mind at all). This package really is having a decent shot at letting everyone enjoy its features, hence not letting the vast majority of users, who cant afford the very expensive one and find flat oceans a little underwhelming go without a solid, art-driven, solution. My version will be off on a tangent however and will use Suimonos interface (Which is absolutely excellent by the way, very user friendly indeed for those who just want to get stuck in), but it won't play along with the majority of the rest of it because it'll be using a somewhat different approach to shading and wave generation and at least in part have a focus on strong realism and integration with projects that are moving to a pbr approach. It may not arrive tooooo soon, i want to get everything right, but Justin's dx11 pro setting is great in itself and with the right settings you can get some really nice results

 

Oh just cant rely on you "soon"'s chingwa

 

Patience, Grasshopper...

 

Suimono is very configurable
But ... some small problems

- If I change the "Surface Roughness" or "Reflection Distance" of SUIMONO_Surface when I start the game, the values ​​return as early.
- Suimono is not compatible with the ambient occlusion?
- I have bugs with textures on the ground (Relief Terrain Pack), and that only with Suimono
- I can not change the water normal texture
rendering is nice, and it is very configurable! great !!

 

Hi Laurent,

That terrain looks really nice

1) for changing settings, it's best to play your scene, change them while playing and then save your own preset (yes you can save presets while playing). Then you can use this preset going forward. In general I recommend working this way as not all features show up correctly in the editor (foam for instance). You only get a real view of the water while playing the scene.

2) ambient occlusion: I see what you mean....different options keep reversing the refraction effects so they appear upside down. I'll put in a settings switch in the next version so you can manually click and reverse them if need be, it seems the best way as different systems keep having different requirements in this regard.

3) changing textures: You can change the the textures by two ways... if you want to change the textures for all water surfaces you simply need to replace the textures stored in the "Suimono Module Lib" component. But if you only want to change textures for one specific water surface in your scene, you need to go to that surface object under "General Settings" and click the "Use Custom Textures" option... then you can go onto the child "Suimono_object" and manually change the textures on the shader. Please note though that changing the normal texture is only one part of the equation... for best effect you should also change the greyscale heightmap textures as well.

4) the relief terrain pack bug is a new one for me.... is it darkening different spots on your terrain? Does it still happen when you have ambient occlusion off?

 

Yeah chingwa I too had the same bug with rtp3 and suimono.

 

Thank you for your answers !!!Great support

I do not know if you know how to solve this compatibility problem.
It really would be a shame not to use RTP and suimono
I took a video for you (The quality is low...like my net connection )
[video=youtube_share;5LxDdwWjTJo]http://youtu.be/5LxDdwWjTJo

look at the white lines on the beach

But the rendering of water is good!
I love the underwater effect

 

That's odd. Which version of RTP are you using? I've never seen this while using RTP with suimono

 

There's a setting in RTP3 which lets you set darkening based on water height of the texture below a certain line, and also there's a mask you can set to make a surface look wet with running water, have you altered these since starting and if so does the problem improve if you remove them (In the case of the wetness mask you have options to flood the terrain or dry it, you obviously want to dry it)?

 

Ah thanks for the video! I'm not sure if this would make a difference, but you can try turning off the caustic generation. These are projected lights with animated masks, and it's possible it could be causing this issue... on the "_caustic_effects" game object (which is a child object of "SUIMONO_Module") try unchecking the "Enable Caustics" option and let me know if this has any positive effect.

Otherwise you can try what lazygunn suggests as I'm not familiar with RTP really... or you could temporarily replace rtp with a generic Unity terrain shader and see if that has any effect...?

 

Hi, I was wondering why the skybox reflection on the water is color-inverted. I mean it's like a negative of the sky (very clear at 0:19s on the video)... Is it by choice or is it a problem with the water system?

 

Thank chingwa
effectively, it is caustic!
Nickel, it works. I will try to use caustic RTP

I saw this problem, I will try to know the cause

 

laurent - OK, well at least there is a temporary solution! However I suspect this has to do with how RTP handles secondary light attenuation... and I'm not sure there's anything I could do on my end to fix this. You could do a test by attaching a normal Unity point light or a spotlight onto your player and move around the terrain. If you get a similar bug as above then this would be the problem, and something to take up with the RTP guys.

seith - I've never noticed that in my tests here, but I did notice it in the video. Strangely, it seems to be only the clouds/skybox that is reveresed... the reflected rocks for example aren't reversed... laurent, you're using the dynamic reflections option, correct? Can you tell me whether you're running in linear or gamma space, and whether you're using deferred or forward rendering?

 

Any plan to integrate IBL into the shaders? Suimono is the only thing in my project that doesn't use ibl or have skyshop interaction (all my materials are physical based (alloy) save for skin shader).

 

Hi OneShotGG,

Well, I know IBL is the hottest thing in games tech these days. I don't have any specific plans to incorporate IBL currently... honestly I'm just focusing on getting 2.0 out the door at the moment. How much difference would IBL water make in your scene? If you can put up a screenshot (or email it to me... konnichiwa[at]tanukidigital.com ) of how Suimono water looks in your IBL scene it may help me decide how soon to look at this aspect.

 

Please look at my attachment, why does my image look like this. I've looked at others peoples videos from above and they're awesome, yet this is all grainy??

 

Hi jf3000,

That picture looks interesting and weird, but I can't tell anything about what it is... can you post a new image pulled back a bit so I can see how it relates to your scene? Can you also tell me a little info about your setup... such as:

1) Platform/OS version
2) Unity version # and whether it's indie or pro license?
3) Suimono version you're using? (1.48 from asset stire, or one of the 2.0 betas?)
4) deferred rendering or forward rendering?

All the above will help me narrow down what problem you're having. thanks!

 

Seems like an old version of your software since it said 7.5 is out, but I have a question before I go any further, how come on your forum for this plugin it was very active at the end of 2013 then all of a sudden went completely dead for like 2 months and the only posts active seem to be yours. Did people just give up on this?

Windows 8 64 bit
Indie version
2.1 beta

Being new to this I dont know what deferred rendering or forward rendering is.

The plugin was giving me much grief i removed it. Still keen on hearing back from you.

 

Don't know why the forum is so quiet these days but I assure you many many people are very happy with Suimono. It is in active development and the 2.0 beta is shaping up very nicely. There is plenty of activity here on the Unity forum and I get a lot of email feedback as well, so perhaps people just find it easier to use these resources over my own private forum. (shrug)

either way I try to be as accessible as possible for any questions or issues. I certainly want anyone who's made the investment in Suimono to be happy with using it.

You can check your rendering mode by looking at your main scene camera under "rendering path". If it's set to Player Settings, then you'll need to go into the top menu instead and check under player settings what the default rendering path is set to.

Also there are a lot of differences between say Unity 3.5 branch and the 4.0 branch. There were also some Unity System bugs in the early 4s... (can't remember now... 4.2?) that messed up rendering for a lot of people. I'd recommend upgrading to the latest unity 4.3.4 if you haven't already.

But again, let me know your unity version, and your rendering path, and give me a clearer picture of what the problem is and I'll see if I can get to the bottom of it.

 

Actually, you may be referring to the original suimono sub forum. I opened up a second 2.0 beta specific forum (just to keep them more organized) which has been more active since the end of the year... I just assumed most people switched over to the beta and have been posting their questions in that sub-forum instead...

All Forums: http://tanukidigital.com/forum/index.php
2.0 Beta Forum: http://tanukidigital.com/forum/index.php?board=5.0

 

I am awaiting an email from you I hope

 

Ive now started on your forum. Same issue looks real bad.

 

Hi All,

Just an fyi, I'm putting the final touches on beta version 8 and I should have it out and ready for download sometime this weekend. I won't get too much into the changes/fixes/ and additions quite yet, but shoreline waves have been overhauled for one, and there have been some tweaks to the normal calculations that should give nicer lighting results... here's a pic...