Super-fast high-quality SSAO

If you don't know the differences between the two packages, then it doesn't matter which one you buy. (Hint - sonicethers is better. His quality is top notch, color bleeding, and it's the cleanest ambient occlusion effect I've seen)

 

I'm using both SSAO PRO and Natural Bloom in my current project. While SSAO PRO works better than the unity standard, it does cause about a 10 frame drop. Even though NB isn't the same thing it has absolutely no effect on the frame rate with stunning results, so working off that I trust his new SSAO will be as good as he says it will be! (also all the best Minecraft shaders are his, and that's wicked)

 

Hey, guys. Just wanted to update everyone on what's going on. I've just finished up the demo scene and am putting the finishing touches on the documentation. I'm happy with how the effect itself is now. I did want to discuss compatibility.

So far, beta testing has gone well and helped solve issues. It works well for AMD and Nvidia graphics cards (laptop and desktop) on Windows. It works with Legacy Deferred, Deferred, and Forward rendering paths. It does not require DX11 but works fine with it enabled. It also works with orthographic cameras. As I don't have access to a Mac and am not a Linux user, I'm unable to officially report on the compatibility of these platforms. I also do not own an Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, or PS4. Regarding mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.), I've never really developed for platforms such as these (and don't really plan on it), but I am doubtful that a complex effect such as SSAO could be possible on such computationally-limited devices at reasonable speeds.

So, this effect may or may not work on consoles, Linux, and Mac. As I said, I can't state officially whether they do or do not until it's been tested. If there's anyone out there who has access to these platforms who wishes to contribute to this project and help with testing, please send me a PM!

I'd like to be able to report officially on the compatibility of these devices before release, but I don't want to delay releasing this much longer. I'll be conservative in mentioning compatibility in documentation and on the Asset Store page for now until I know for sure.

Regarding SpeedTree, using .spm SpeedTree assets works just fine with SESSAO in Unity 5. Also, trees made with Tree Creator work just fine as well in Unity 5 and Unity 4.




Oh yeah. Look at that beautiful tree.

 

@sonicether Could you post a few more pictures to appease my curiosity while we wait? BTW, this asset is beautiful. Look at the black in the crevices, very nice.

 

Make a build for linux and mac and let the users tell you if the builds run properly.

 

Looks good. Waiting for Sonic Ether clouds, Sonic Ether whatever and Sonic Ether everything else.
Violently throws wallet at Sonic Ether.​

 

Ajajajja. Mee to. I'm considering giving my paypal account for self servicing. I badly want to try that trully GI silution too.

 

well GI is up next

 

For the Mac platform, build a Webplayer will also a good idea for testing, we may report it works well or not on our Mac.

 

Subscribing to this one too so I can compare it to SSAO Pro if the price isn't that bad.

I recently bought SSAO Pro and it was infinitely better than the 2 included SSAO image effects. Curious to see how this one can be even better.

 

How is the GI and AO coming along?

 

Alright, so I was getting all pumped for release putting together the web demo, and when I ran it, I noticed something that I hadn't before.

The technique I had been using to improve performance didn't scale well to scenes with substantial geometric complexity rendered at lower than 1080p resolutions. I had primarily been testing and developing this effect at 1080p and above, so I hadn't noticed it before. I had to try to figure out an alternate approach. I think I've found it.

The user will be able to choose whether they prefer the original approach or the alternate approach, of course. The original approach allows for wide, smooth AO but can cause some "low-res" aliasing and crawling with low render resolutions or in areas of fine detail, whereas the alternate approach (called "preserve details") provides sharper details at the cost of more apparent discretization (banding) artifacts. Lowering AO radius can alleviate discretization artifacts, of course. I tried to get the performance cost of both approaches as close to each other as possible.

I know my perfectionism comes across in how long it's taken me to complete this asset. I only hope that it also comes across in the quality of the asset once it's released. That being said, this has been a learning process, and I also have to keep in mind that I can continue to improve this asset even after its release. I just really want it to make a strong impression the day it hits the Asset Store. I'll continue to finalize preparations for release, and if I don't run into anything too nasty again, I'd like to submit it very soon. Thank you for sticking with me.

 

cool, new features!

 

This is off-topic, but I totally just realized, you're THE Sonic Either, aren't you? The one that makes minecraft shaders? I'm glad to see you're expanding your horizons.

 

Yep, that's me!

It's happening! I just submitted the asset to the Asset Store. Go check out the official support thread here!
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/sessao-high-quality-ssao-w-color-bleed.323511/

 

Looking forward to purchasing it!

 

everyone is

 

*applause*

 

Hopefully the GI comes next

 

hey guys ... just so you know (in case you haven't been following the new thread) - Sonic Ether's SSAO has FINALLY been approved and is in the asset store

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/36093

 

YES!! Boom, bought it. Thanks SonicEther!

 

If anyone is curious, I made a thread comparing SSAO Pro and Sonic Ether's here.

 

This is a beautiful AO, so much detail, a bit heavy handed though.
I have a few questions:
I noticed the portion of the GPU profiler dedicated to post process is higher with SE than unity's, about 2x the usage. I use medium sample and down sampling of 2. How would I achieve the same performance with SESSAO?
I also noticed that color bleeding is subtractive, you seem to multiply that with the image. Any chance to have additive instead, I'd like to get a nice GI look.
The occlusion intensity is capped at 0.5, any chance to remove that cap? I fine tune below half usually, keeps it subtle while anchoring objects.
Color bleed amount is capped at 1, can you cap at 5? I like my shadows subtle but my colors cartoony.
I PM-ed you about the shader replacement for the grass.

 

Wow I was surprised to find that the thread is still since a year!. I Love this SSAO an use it all the time. I wonder if you could add an option that for vr the depth is shared instead of the need of computing twice. Please consider unity 4.x if adding this request