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Official Unite Now - Building Effects with VFX Graph in the Spaceship Demo

Discussion in 'Visual Effect Graph' started by AskCarol, Apr 28, 2020.

  1. AskCarol

    AskCarol

    Unity Technologies

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    Unite Now Session

    Join the Spaceship Demo Project to see how they integrated visual effects, lighting and sound into Timeline sequences, and then made the effects react to gameplay.

    Where
    You can watch the session here.


    Make sure to sign up to get access to all Unite Now content.


    ______________________


    Together with this Unite Now session we are also hosting a Q&A here in this thread to answer as many of your questions as possible.


    A team of product experts from across Unity will be available starting after the session. Our Community team will continue to field questions to foster an ongoing discussion with the community. Please feel free to ask your questions in this thread.


    Some basic rules
    • Don’t bundle multiple unrelated questions in one reply. One question/topic per reply.


    • Only questions related to the topics of the session are permitted.


    • All questions will be fielded by our Community Managers (@LeonhardP and @AskCarol)
      • Replies will have to be approved by the moderators to show up in the thread.


      • Once approved, the questions will be forwarded to the relevant experts.

    We really look forward to hearing from the community.

    Thank you!
     
    AskCarol, Apr 28, 2020
    #1
    laurentlavigne and dgoyette like this.

  2. XanderHD

    XanderHD

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    Was there every any Q&A here? Researching the spaceship demo
     
    XanderHD, Jun 3, 2020
    #2

  3. AskCarol

    AskCarol

    Unity Technologies

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    Yes! We just need the questions :) So, super happy to help answer any of yours.
     
    AskCarol, Jun 4, 2020
    #3

  4. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    These "Unity Now" videos have been really impressive lately. Thanks for making these.

    I have some "meta" question about the spaceship demo. The video goes into good detail on the specific visual effects, as I would expect. But I was wondering if someone might be able to give a quick overview of how all the different sub-scenes come together? For example, there's "Spaceship", "Spaceship_FX", "Spaceship_GR", etc, each containing the different kinds of assets in the scene. How did you work in that environment is a sane and efficient way? I've tried multi-scene editing before, and it seemed really cumbersome, as I couldn't "save" a multi-scene layout. Every time I reopened Unity, or switched scenes, I'd have to manually reopen each scene.

    So, I guess the questions on this demo are:
    • Specifically, how were the developers managing these multiple scenes? I assume they were generally all open at once?
    • Is there really an advantage to splitting up all of the stuff into the different scenes?

    And one more question: What is the licensing like for the spaceship demo? For example, if I really liked the smoke texture used, are these available somewhere for use in my own project? I'm assuming it's not generally okay to just use the assets from this project in my own commercial project.
     
    dgoyette, Jul 3, 2020
    #4
    AskCarol likes this.

  5. ThomasVFX

    ThomasVFX

    Unity Technologies

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    Hello,

    The multi scene setup is part of a community open source framework of runtime and editor tools named gameplay ingredients that you can find on GitHub.

    Using this framework as a package you can save and open a set of scenes at once by double clicking one asset.

    Also, communication between scenes is achieved through broadcasting messages that can be intercepted by level scripts. As obviously cross scene object references are not allowed, you can still create safe sync points in the level scripting...

    Which makes work between audio, lighting, VFX and level script easier to tackle, especially when you're working with multiple users at the same time, every job can work on its own scene.

    About licensing, it's released under unity companion license ( https://unity3d.com/legal/licenses/Unity_Companion_License ) so reuse of most assets is restricted.
    However, we reused VFX textures from a CC0 pack we released some years ago so these are totally safe to use in your commercial projects:

    https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/11/28/free-vfx-image-sequences-flipbooks/
     
    ThomasVFX, Jul 7, 2020
    #5
    dgoyette likes this.

  6. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    dgoyette, Jul 7, 2020
    #6

  7. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    looks good but so complicated
    i'd like to see a very simple example: adding grass on geometry
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 9, 2020
    #7

  8. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    I imagine Unity will be leveraging their highly skilled internal teams to create AAA-looking demos, to show what the system is capable for. For the simpler stuff, maybe people like Brackeys, or other creators, can tackle those one-off things.
     
    dgoyette, Jul 9, 2020
    #8

  9. ThomasVFX

    ThomasVFX

    Unity Technologies

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    Indeed

    Spaceship is indeed made of effects that range from really simple ones to more complex. The purpose of this presentation was not an introduction of Visual Effect Graph, but to highlight more complex, common production cases and how to solve them.

    For introduction material, in addition to other tutorials out there, here's a list of curated resources that you can find useful:

    Adding grass on geometry on mesh can be achieved with various methods though:
    • Using the Point Cache Bake tool to generate a point cache
    • By baking your own point cache in houdini as in the GrassWind sample
    • In 2020.2 we will introduce tools to sample positions directly on a mesh.
     
    ThomasVFX, Jul 10, 2020
    #9
    laurentlavigne likes this.

  10. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    any that's runtime?
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 11, 2020
    #10

  11. andybak

    andybak

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    I think "sample positions directly on a mesh" will be runtime. Someone official can correct me if I'm mistaken.
     
    andybak, Jul 16, 2020
    #11

  12. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    i don't see it in hdrp 7.4.1
    upload_2020-7-16_18-35-22.png

    I'll try in 2020.2 to access the newest version
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 17, 2020
    #12

  13. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    2020.2 has no node to sample a mesh at runtime
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 17, 2020
    #13

  14. andybak

    andybak

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    Which VFX Graph version? I think you need the unreleased version from Git.
     
    andybak, Jul 17, 2020
    #14
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  15. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    upload_2020-7-17_19-32-27.png
    I've done a quick browse of unity's github, couldn't find their vfx graph, what's the url?
    EDIT: 9.0.0 preview-33 also doesn't have sample mesh at runtime
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2020
    laurentlavigne, Jul 18, 2020
    #15

  16. andybak

    andybak

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    There's just one single repo that contains URP, HDRP, Shader Graph and VFX Graph: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics

    Last time I tried (about a week ago) HEAD worked on the latest 2020.2 alpha but sometimes there's a lag where the latest HEAD needs a Unity version not yet released so you might need to go back a few days worth of commits.
     
    andybak, Jul 18, 2020
    #16

  17. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    oh ok , thanks, I'll try.
    What effects have you made with the vfx graph? URP by chance?
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 19, 2020
    #17

  18. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    I just got started with VFX Graph. The examples are really great for learning, especially the Spaceship Demo, thank you very much for that. However, one rather common effect is missing in the examples: Water. Water Splashes and such. Or Fluids. It would be great if Unity could add examples like water splashes which could come in handy for boat racing or a car driving in rain.
     
    Rowlan, Jul 23, 2020
    #18
    laurentlavigne likes this.

  19. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    Yeah, common interactive stuff so that all we need to do is change the reference mesh and the art assets
     
    laurentlavigne, Jul 23, 2020
    #19