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Surforge 1.4.5 - 3D rendered PBR texturing in Unity

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Sergeyv_3d, Jan 27, 2017.

  1. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Hello,
    Thank you very much for using Surforge.
    I am sorry for that you run into this issue. I will do my best to solve it.

    Couldn't you please check, after what exactly is this happening?
    I can see a scene named "Home" in you project, could it be related to that scene?

    Couldn't you please try if this works:
    Close Surforge window, close all scenes, and restart Unity.
    Press "Window - Layouts - Revert Factory Settings".
    File - "New Scene" (a single one, not "add" for multiscene editing). Start Surforge, and press "New Texture".
     
  2. jermaine88

    jermaine88

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    Thanks for the reply,

    The home scene is the scene that is open, and the only one in the project. Nothing is in that scene.

    I tried revert factory settings and occasional the scene view would show for a second but then it would go grey like in the screenshot.

    Creating a New scene is the one way I can get it work, but if I close out unity3d and open up the scene will get this issue
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2017
  3. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    I am investigating this issue now.

    I googled this problem, and found a similar issue here, not related to Surforge.
    http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1226339/unity-54-scene-tab-broken.html

    Is there more information in the console? Could i see it, please?
    Have you ever seen such problems with your current Unity setup besides Surforge?

    Couldn't you please try to create new project, fresh Surforge install from package, never saving any scenes in the project, and check if it reproduces? Could you please confirm , is the issue connected directly to scene loading?

    Could i ask you to zip the whole project folder as it is(not only Assets, but with Library and ProjectSettings and everything else) and send me, please.
    I know that this will take time and it can be big, but it could help a lot. I see this bug for the first time, and still can't reproduce it.
    Thank you.
     
  4. PhilatovMA_

    PhilatovMA_

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    Thank you, i am doing now like you recommend.
    Unfortunately, I must collect textures to atlas, because atlas is using to batch geometry.
    It will be nice if you add non-square texs in future !
    On pictures above you can see my content. All borders i must add to an atlas.
    city_1_1.jpg city_1_0.jpg city_1_2.jpg
     
    alexanderameye and pixelsteam like this.
  5. jermaine88

    jermaine88

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    Thanks for the help. As noone in this topic has reported the issue maybe it's not a purely surforge problem
    I just tried a fresh install

    found the editor log
    This is the error showing up there

     
    Last edited: May 27, 2017
  6. Eelcapitan

    Eelcapitan

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    Hi, I have the same issue too. My problem starts after I close the project and restart again. I get a NullReferenceException and I cant open no scene or do anything to work in that project.

    upload_2017-5-28_19-0-6.png

    This is no rant, I just want to know how to solve that issue, cause I think the program is superawesome and well made. Since Ive seen that you working on it Ill await your solution.

    Thank you.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Thank you very much for finding this. This seems to rarely occur.
    I managed to reproduce the issue, although in a different way, when switching between skins in Unity Editor.
    I'm working on fixing it. I am very sorry for you faced it.

    Edit: Done. Fix will be part of next version.
    I am finishing the upcoming update. I should finish couple of things and carefully test everything. Hope to send it for approvement soon.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2017
  8. Eelcapitan

    Eelcapitan

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    Thanky you Sergey, glad you figured it out.
     
  9. castor76

    castor76

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    Excellent, what can we expect from the next version?
     
  10. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Directed primarily to bug fixes, upcoming version also includes some interesting features.
    The main part is material system improvements. I rewrote some code to free extra texture samplers, by combining even more stuff together.

    For now, as a result of this optimization Surforge materials got custom Normal Map slot.
    surforgeNormalMapSlot.jpg
    This is only the beginning of upcoming requested improvements of Surforge material system.
    There is a good basis now for future improvements. I think it's a good step in right direction.

    I will try to finish baked light export, but maybe it will have to be moved to the next release.
    It turned out more tricky than i expected, also it was little delayed by urgent fixes.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2017
    Mark_01, doq and radimoto like this.
  11. steven12

    steven12

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    下一个版本估计什么时候出
     
  12. castor76

    castor76

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    As for the floaters that indents the details, I was wondering if it would be possible to make them to have their textured alpha or vertex alpha to control how they are faded out instead of relying on their edges to become flat. This would mean I can custom create more organic shaped decals and have their edges faded away so I can overlay them etc.
     
  13. neoshaman

    neoshaman

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    He is asking when the next version is coming
    google translate: The next version estimates when out
    ;)
     
  14. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Next week. It requires some more work this weekend. I'm going to send it for approvement on Monday.

    I think it's possible. Nice feature to have.
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  15. castor76

    castor76

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    Yeah, also, I know surface forge is based on the mesh , but what is stopping from having normal mapped decals from contributing to the generation of the texture? It seems like it can already render off albedo from decal, so why can't normal be used as well? If this is possible, it is going to be super awesome because we can quickly create all sorts of custom decal normals using photoshop and then just use them in surface forge.
     
  16. jermaine88

    jermaine88

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    Good to hear the problem might be fixed.

    thanks for the hard work
     
  17. TS42

    TS42

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    The new 1.0.5 release looks awesome! Can't wait to give it a shot
     
  18. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Thank you :)

    Good news, Surforge 1.0.5 is now available.

    added: Normal Map slot for Surforge materials, which is blending with Surforge rendered normals.
    added: Reload button to update material list with changes in "Surforge/CustomPresets/Materials/".
    added: Show material names when hover with mouse in material list.

    fixed: Layout issue when Scene View not showing its contents in some cases.
    fixed: With more than one Scene View opened, Add Detail tool not worked correctly.
    fixed: Custom Material Sets import when load previously saved scenes, not only new.
    fixed: Material icons rendered improperly before skybox changed at least once.
    fixed: Selecting "none" in open model field caused error.
    fixed: Composer material issues when preview on arbitrary scene mesh, due to Material ID mask mipmaps.
    ChangeLog
     
  19. steven12

    steven12

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  20. neoshaman

    neoshaman

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    He is saying: this is good!:D
     
  21. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

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    Love Surforge...
    Is it possible to turn off the help menu. I have the hotkeys memorized.
     
  22. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    I'll try to add this option in the next versions.

    Tooltips in Surforge are implemented through Unity Editor built-in tooltips, to speed up the developement. They unfortunately do not have any settings, so i need to either implement my own tooltips system, which is huge task itself, because of floating window positioning.
    The other possible option, is to duplicate every GUIContent in Surforge gui code(with tooltips and without it), which is not elegant.
    I'm looking for optimal solution. One of the options i want to try, is to print the tooltips on the Scene View.
     
  23. castor76

    castor76

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    If I want to duplicate the material into another one, how can I do this?

    Say, if I have material 1 and I want to duplicate / copy paste its setting into another material 2 , how do I do this?

    Sometimes, I want to make the material 1 and 2 or 3 almost the same but slightly different, but it's difficult to manually copy over settings over and over. Can't I just copy the current material into some buffer and then paste it?

    Also, we need a lot MORE different types of non metal materials. Need more rocks, fabrics (this non existent) more organics stuff.

    We need more decals too, but there is someone who makes packages for it already so I am hoping it makes more organic ones too. Surforge is good, but it can be greater if there is more different types of materials.
     
  24. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Sure. To copy paste material, hover it with mouse on texture preview and press Ctrl + c, hover another and Ctrl + v.
    You could also swap materials with Ctrl + c, Ctrl + x.

    I will add more materials and decals content. It is always great to have more prefabs to work with.
     
    Mark_01 likes this.
  25. hopeful

    hopeful

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    I've not dipped into making things with Surforge yet, but possibly for clothing it could be used to add buckles, weaves, seams, zippers, buttons / button holes, snaps, embossed leather, brocades, prints, and that sort of stuff?
     
  26. castor76

    castor76

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    Not just detail decals, but actual surface materials for fabrics, and just generally non metallic ones too.
     
  27. steven12

    steven12

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    Can't you cut it from the middle like this? NKS@$}1L6B1N1B@YUOKFFQJ.png
     
  28. castor76

    castor76

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    Yeah I am also wondering about this too. Often, I would like to cut out the middle.. but There is not enough lasso tool that does something like this.. All I do is lay down depression decals to something like this, but it is very limited.
     
  29. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    I am afraid Surforge can't cut holes in the middle of shapes. Surforge Poly Lasso shapes are simple polygon shapes. You have to start your cut from outside of the shape, or snap it to the shape's edge.
    But you could draw shapes on top of other shapes. You could use a workaround with "floater" shapes, or additional height layer in most cases.
     
  30. castor76

    castor76

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    I really think for the first few basic lasso tools, (maybe first 6?) they seems to be simple enough to be able to make them a floater variant by inverting the scale and its normal direction... I don't know how to create a custom lasso tool, so I can't try it. Is there way / doc on how to create a custom lasso tool? any info on how they work?
     
  31. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    It is not that hard to create your custom Poly Lasso tool preset.

    Open "\Surforge\PolyLassoProfiles\" forlder. There is "polyLassoProfiles.prefab" where links for all PolyLasso prefabs stored, in the order thay appear on PolyLasso tool list.

    Click on the one you want to use as a base of your new prefab in Inspector tab. Unity will select the prefab file, stored in "\Surforge\PolyLassoProfiles\Profiles\" folder. Duplicate it, rename, and drag to the end of polyLassoProfiles.prefab's list to create reference. Save your project, and restart Unity Editor.

    Select your new prefab in the project, and check the Inspector tab. There are all props that form Poly Lasso shape, mesh, and other settings. A lot of settings.

    Here is the format specification. This part is not yet user-friendly, let's say it's for enthusiasts for now. There are no limits for the settings now, and wrong values could lead to not viable prefabs. So read the specification carefully.
    The basic things, like edge profile, on the top, more advanced on the bottom.
    The best way to understand the settings, is to check how it is implemented in built-in prefabs, that ships with Surforge.
     
  32. castor76

    castor76

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    This may have no good solution, but I would ask anyway.

    Scene file size.

    Well... I can sort of understand why scene file size for Surforge are large. It contains high number of high mesh polygon mesh objects so it is probably the reason for it.

    It's ok for couple of scenes, but when you start creating 10+ scenes for actual production of the game, the surforge projects keeps getting larger and now mine is sitting around 5g at the moment. Most of the scene file sizes are anything from 40mb to 100mb.

    I was wondering if there is any practical way to reduce the scene file size when using Surforge?

    Do we really have to zip up the files / back them up and remove them from project in order to keep them reasonably sized project?

    I have ofcourse separated Surforge from actual game project for obvious reason, but still... checking out surforge project is now becoming a real concern.

    Anyone with any idea?
     
  33. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    The reason of large scene size are not meshes. Textures are heavy. If you do not save them with the scene, this could be confusing, because after loading you would see no textures before press render key.
    I'll try to do something about it. For now you could make the size of the scene smaller if render with 1024 resolution before saving.
     
  34. castor76

    castor76

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    Oh.. I see..

    But if that is the main reason, I am sure if pressing render or force render after the scene has been loaded should help?

    By, how much it could save if no textures are saved I wonder?
     
  35. steven12

    steven12

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    (Alpha)How does transparent texture export?
     
  36. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    A significant amount of the scene file is occupied by the stored textures. All intermediate textures and masks that Surforge creates when you hit Render, are uncompressed, to make it work fast and to be of high-quality.
    I think the best solution will be the ability to choose whether to save or not. I'll check if it's possible to add this.

    The exported Transparency texture is saved on Albedo alpha channel.
    To see it on the exported material, you have to switch exported material's Rendering Mode to "Transparent" in Unity Inspector tab.
     
  37. castor76

    castor76

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    I have previously used before and after scene save events in Unity to run some custom editor script. So I am sure this is possible.
     
  38. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Hello guys. Check the poll.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2017
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  39. castor76

    castor76

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    Ok so as for the source code polling issue, why is it not going to be compatible with the scenes? Is it because it has more features / work in progress then the current version in the asset store?
     
  40. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    That's bacouse of way how Unity Editor works. The script from dll and script from .cs file, being named the same for Unity Editor different. When you open your scene saved with "dll version" in "sourcecodes version", there will be missing script links.

    You could of course repeair all links by hand or with some tool, but if there tons of objects you would have to repair tons of links.

    That's why it's better to do it as soon as possible. Also, scripts better adopt when they change something. For example, the only reason why Surforge not working with 2017 beta, the method for saving the png files changed. If you would open the "sourcecodes version" in 2017, it would ask you to "fix the issues". But with dll, it would not.
     
  41. castor76

    castor76

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    Ok, then I will just have two project with current surforge and another one when source code version is released. That should solve the problem for me at least.
     
  42. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    I faced with a difficult Unity Editor related issue. Couldn't you please give me advice, dear Surforge users.

    As you know, Unity 2017 released.
    There method for saving textures to files was changed. I already mentioned this above.
    In Unity 5.x it was Texture2D.EncodeToPNG
    In 2017 it is ImageConversion.EncodeToPNG

    This seems really simple, but it turned out i can't build the Dll compatible with both 5.x and 2017.x
    Unity just does not support, or update the old method from the dll. But with source codes, it works.
    I am struggling with it for some time already. I thought I could find a workaround, something like extract image saving code into separate .cs file, but for several reasons it seems not possible to do it good way.

    What could be done with it now:

    - The simple and most right solution is to just change Surforge from dll to sourcecodes. It could be done fast, and it will also solve possible similar issues in the future.
    The downside is, that scenes, saved with dll versions of Surforge will not load and work in sourcecodes versions. This is due to how Unity Editor works, and i am afraid nothing could be done with it.
    Checking the poll, i was glad to see, most users do not mind this.

    - Another possible option is to drop 5.x support, building the dll with 2017. I think this is a temporary and less attractive solution. This will not solve future issues. And i really want to continue support of 5.x as long as possible.
    Changing Surforge from dll to source codes, which still have to be done at a certain stage, will not allow to handle old scenes, saved with "dll version". It's better to do it sooner.
     
    red2blue likes this.
  43. hopeful

    hopeful

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    I think most customers will always prefer to have source code when possible. That's my vote. ;)
     
  44. doq

    doq

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    Go with the simplest solution, provide the source code in future updates. If users need a dll for current projects, you could supply it as a support request or host a private repo for verified customers.
     
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  45. castor76

    castor76

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    source code is the way. always.
     
  46. ThatVanillaGorilla

    ThatVanillaGorilla

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    I just got the asset today. Great program. I always feel sorry for asset makers. Constant updates to Unity forcing updating all the time. Just want to say thanks for the work you put into it.

    I vote source code as well.
     
    neoshaman likes this.
  47. steven12

    steven12

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    What do you mean?
    {@[ELU]Q%LKA8ZTECGCJVGY.png
     
  48. Sergeyv_3d

    Sergeyv_3d

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    Something went wrong with Add Detail tool. I will try my best to fix it.
    Couldn't you please provide more details under what circumstances is this happening. Can you reproduce it every time?
    What OS and version of Unity and Surforge are you using?
    Thank you.
     
  49. radimoto

    radimoto

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    Just reading about the DLL issue... my vote is to move to source code
     
    neoshaman likes this.
  50. elbows

    elbows

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    I vote for source code too.
     
    neoshaman likes this.