Sun Shafts for UNITY FREE!

Hello there!

Welcome to my forum topic for Sykoo Shafts!
This is where I'll be writing all the updates with patch notes, news about the asset and even my future similar assets will be revealed here!

Sykoo Shafts is the perfect asset for you who have low budget but yet wants sun shafts in your game! You no longer have to buy other risky assets for several tens of dollars just to have some performance decreasing effect in your games! Now with Sykoo Shafts, you can develop a game for any platform (yes, including mobile) without having decreased performance!

Main Features:
• Works in Unity FREE and PRO!
• Performance rich while granting high quality!
• Works on any platforms, including low-end mobile phones!
• In-depth comments to help you improve the script!
• One single script to drag & drop - then you've got sun shafts!
• Incredible customer support + a tutorial video that can be found here!



Also note that,
if this asset makes some success, then I'll make sure to release my effects for Noise, Vignette and Bloom! Price will be set between 0-10$ depending on how much Sykoo Shafts sells!

Here are some screenshots
This picture is from my game, Lens



After publishing the first couple of pictures for Lens (my own game), there were lots of questions on how I managed to get post-processing effects to work on Unity Free (at all), especially with high performance! Here is the Sun Shafts at least, if this asset makes some success I'll make sure to share off rest of the post-processing too!

Also, don't forget to check out
Lens (my own game)
SurvivalEngine (my other asset)

 

Please let me know any price suggestions you've got!

 

It would be good to know how efficiently it performs - esp. on some sort of mobile device - before assigning a price.

 

Thank you very very much for your feedback, that's actually very clever and I should've thought about it! ^^ I'll definitely make an example build for my Android device and post the results, though I know it will work just fine with all the optimization I've done for it.

 

Right now making an example build for Android (had to download Android SDK... that's why it takes long time). I'll post the results here A webplayer will also be available soon!

 

1.02 Version is ready now and it's almost release time!
• Works incredibly smooth on mobile platforms now
• Updated the time interval so now it does not have a ridiculous radial blur
• Updated the UI that the script grants in Inspector, easier editable by users
• Now you can also edit the tint color for the shader used, depending on your background color!

Please let me know any price suggestions you've got!

Mobile platforms:
I succeeded to decrease the effect that occurs by this asset to just a few draw calls, meaning it will now work perfectly smooth on Mobile platforms! (Tested on my Android Samsung Galaxy S4).
It also gives a huge variety of support to older and newer devices as well!

 

I've been thinking about the selling method:
I will submit this asset to the Asset Store first. While waiting for approval, the asset will be up and running at PayLoadz (where I sell my other asset - SurvivalEngine). While the asset is waiting for approval/decline from Asset Store staff, there will be an undefined yet discount running, meaning it's like "early access"! Please let me know any price suggestions you've got, so I'll set up the discount depending on that as well

 

There will be a webplayer soon!

 

Looks really nice, how do you choose where the sun appears in the sky?

 

Hey!
Thank you very much for your kind comment.
The directional light component is acting as your sun. You just attach the main script of the asset to the player camera / main camera, then you have your directional light component that acts as your sun. You attach the directional light component to your script's "Sun" variable, and then whenever you rotate the directional light, basically change its "direction", then the sun shafts will be changing according to that as well.

 

Ah I see, that's how I thought it would work. Makes sense, thanks for that

Keep up the good work!

 

I'm glad you like the method It is pretty performance saving just to use a single directional light rather than drawing the shafts from one specific area towards every vector. Thanks alot for your kind feedback, I'll definitely keep up

 

I'm still waiting for price suggestions!

 

Hi, I would really like to buy this asset, as I have to think about saving costs all the time I'd probably pay between 5 -20 USD, would that be fair? It depends on how much value it will bring to my game(s) and performance costs...
I would be willing to buy it now outside of the asset store to use it see how it works in my game..and/or test it(do you want any beta testers? ) or is there a web player I can experience this in 1st hand?
When will you release this?

 

Also, it looks great so far just to add that! Are there options to set sunshaft density / amount or colour etc? What do the options look like?

 

Hi, @khos85 ! First of all, thank you very very much for your price suggestion and your kind comment!
I really like the idea of your price, it'll definitely be something between 5-20 dollars.

Sykoo Shafts will actually bring more than expected to your games. It has an amazing performance rate even though the method is to read pixels and draw them smoothly. This is also compatible with mobile platforms, meaning that even if you develop a game with Sykoo Shafts, you can port it easily to mobile platforms such as Android/IOS without any performance issues!

You'll be able to purchase this tomorrow hopefully, where it will officially be released on PayLoadz and at the same time, it'll be submitted to Asset Store. If it gets accepted into Asset Store, I'll keep on updating the asset both on PayLoadz and Asset store in order to maintain high quality customer service, so even if you purchase it tomorrow as a "early-access", you'll still get all the features that Asset Store purchasers will get!

I tried to release a web demo of this, but sadly enough I failed to upload the player into Drive and also to Dropbox (and I'm studying for I.T...). I'll try to make a downloadable 'game' with Sykoo Shafts in it, such as a web demo would look like so you'll get to test it out first.

Sykoo Shafts also gives full control to its users, in this case you and the other customers. You'll be able to control everything, such as tint color of the sun (you can change the color of the shafts depending on your skybox, so it won't be stuck with one single color), you'll also get to control amount, quality and smoothness. In order to change direction of the shafts, you simply just rotate the Directional Light object in your game. These edits will be easily done by just optimizing the variables in the inspector menu to suit your game and taste!

Thank you once more for an amazing feedback, I really appreciate it! I'm sorry this post was kinda long, but I wanted to answer your questions as briefly as possible so that I won't miss any of your questions! ^^,

Thank you once more, and I'll hopefully see you on this topic tomorrow as it will be a release!

 

Wow, it sounds impressive, and if the price is right I think you'll do really well with this, I think indie devs always wanted some proper/fast sunshafts! I do not think there another asset like yours? Honestly, I cannot wait to try it. Would you please let us know once it is available on payloadz/asset store, I want to give it a go asap, in various games I have on the go. Many thanks.

 

Thanks alot!
Yes, usually people are very interested of sun shafts, and I was once too - and now being able to create my own asset building on it, is just awesome! I hope that you'll like the concept!

I've made up my mind and Sykoo Shafts is now available at PayLoadz for 10$!
You can purchase the asset now as early-access here:
http://store.payloadz.com/details/2228566-software-games-sykoo-shafts.html

 

Is there a demo link ?

 

I literally failured to upload a web player demo to both drive and dropbox, but I'll try once more now!

 

Thanks

 

I just purchased downloading now... looking forward to trying it out. I agree with you that many would like sun shafts in Unity Free (like me). I wish you much success, I think this will be successful. If I purchased from payloadz like I did and your assets get on the unity store, will I get access to that?

 

All right, I'm uploading a game client instead (40 MB), that's the example scene also included in the asset
There is no skybox in the background so that the shafts can be seen better. Don't forget that you can edit the shafts completely, from the intensiveness to the tint color and quality, I just made the 'starter pack'!

 

Thank you very much for purchasing!
Yes, it's a feature that's really needed and I hope that people appreciates this package
Thank you very much, I really do wish that it will become successful. And yes, you'll gain access to the same features!

I'm proud to say that you're my first customer on this!

 

The demo is now done and can be downloaded (6MB rar file) at https://www.mediafire.com/?k11xaa0so1fo825

 

Thanks a lot, checking it out asap

 

Just trying it now and can see the sunshafts, cool! One question I have is if it is normal when I look at the light that it seems over exposed, see in your sample:



Which setting is it to lower the value, I like to keep the range high but the there seems to be a lot of white everywhere, how can I focus the sunshaft more. Is that normal for sunshafts?

 

Oh wait I think I see how to tone down the intensity in the SS_SunShafts material cool! This is an amazing asset!

 

(Show pictures??)

 

You can click on the material in the asset folder, then on the inspector window you'll be able to see the variables for the shader, like Tint Color, range etc.! You can optimize those to suit your game.

 

1.03 version will be ready soon with bug fixes! Please let me know if you find any bugs!

 

I'd recommend you to make a full walk through of options + use and put it on youtube, to show potential customers this nice asset.

 

Hey! Thank you very much for your feedback and suggestion, I'll definitely make a tutorial video showing the option available to edit from the Inspector. Thank you also for your kind comment!

 

1.04
• Comments updated, fixed all the grammatical errors
• Updated the default tint color and quality to make it fit regular games better
• The first video tutorial of Sykoo Shafts is coming either today or tomorrow
• Updated the code a bit to make it look better and more beautiful, fixed the syntax

1.0.4 is available to be downloaded at PayLoadz now. Those of you who have already purchased the asset obviously gets the updates for free.

 

Hi, can I use my old payloadz link to get the update?

 

They are subtle but there as you can see in screenshot, still working on the correct mix of settings but it works like a charm for me. I am impressed.

 

Thank you very much for posting this picture! Finding the right settings that'll suit your game is the best thing to do. This asset is very early in the development and therefore it'll get updated so many times.

Yes, you can use your old PayLoadz link

 

I have an issue where I have two cameras in a scen, one main camera for the player and then a 2nd camera where if I pause the game that is used to show a menu, on both cameras I have the sunshaft script. If I pause my game so to switch to the 2nd camera this error shows:

DrawGUITexture: texture is null
UnityEngine.GraphicsrawTexture(Rect, Texture, Material)
SS_LightShafts:OnGUI() (at Assets/Sykoo Shafts/SS_LightShafts.cs:141)

I cannot thereafter recover from this error, other scripts do not seem to work, I guess due an error..
How to handle cameras that are enabled/disabled that use your sunshaft script?

 

You could try to make some sort of switch. Whenever the first camera is enabled, the second one's script is disabled. Vise versa

 

Alright

 

Please let me know if you encounter any more problem!

 

HERE IS THE TUTORIAL!
@khos85

 

Please be sure to share the word with your friends!

 

As I see that this asset is getting more and more popular, I may even plan to release some other post-processing effects for Unity Free, like pure bloom, vignette, noise effects etc!

 

Yes please from me When? I am looking for bloom and a nice dirty lens effect.

 

I'll wait and see if this asset gets to some places, sharing the name of my asset and forum link so people can purchase is always a plus

I can fix the bloom effect quite easily, so is the dirt efect

 

I fear my friends would tell me to go somewhere, saying WTH are sunshafts and why are you talking about those in a pub...

 

Hahahahaha that was great!
But I'd appreciate if you share the word in the forums, with people you know that uses Unity etc!

 

You should do some marketing, or get a couple of nice looking games to use your asset as reference..
I'm planning on adding your sunshaft asset into my 3D paraglider game, see URL: http://www.desura.com/games/3d-paraglider (15000 views) , and other games I have...they are not the worlds coolest games I have made but it better than nothing..I would be willing to add your logo or something if you want (we could something out)? but saying that it might not be your target audience..let me know if you like this idea.

 

Will this work with a point light?

I realize it was designed to work for a directional light like the sun, but it occurs to me another use could be as part of an effect for an explosion. In that case, I'd use a point light, with the idea that objects encircling the explosion would send shafts in different directions.

Also, could it work with a spotlight?