VOLUME GRASS - Unlimited Density

hi again, i see someone has the same problem with me,it looks like it's an asset store download bug.OK,so can you give me the right version link,thanks^_^

 

Upgrade to U5.0.1 at least and the problem will be gone when downloading.

Tom

 

hi,It works well now,thanks a lot.I have learnd your tutorial but i still don't know how to make some effects: object with grass on it and fringe on the edge(as the picture below,for example),can you give me some cue? thanks^_^

 

Your screenshot refers to some 2D situation. Current VG has limited option to solve edges - they are straight cut or gradualy lended one only (when you push down vertices with my coverage painting tool).

Tom

 

OK....thanks all the same.^_^ hope this situation and more similar problems such as hair,feather,fur.....can be solved in vloumegrass 2.0，expecting !!

 

Hi TOM... any news about VG 2?
Thanks!

 

Not yet, but it get higher on my todo list. Just released UBER (look at this !)

Tom

 

Hey Tom,

I've been generally pleased with the plugin so far. It looks great, but there are a few issues when using the plugin in a prefab. I need to be able to use the same object across multiple scenes and projects, and unfortunately, when I save the object as a prefab, some settings do not carry over. Specifically, the mesh assigned to the parent Mesh Filter, and the material assigned to the "sidewalls" child do not stay assigned.

Any thoughts on these issues?

 

Find some free meshfilter to obj exporter. Save your grass mesh to asset file. The same for material, you could make a simple script that use AssetDatabase.CreateAsset() like function to save sidewall material. Objects made by VG editor are scene objects thus you loose reference when making prefab out of them.

Tom

 

Oookkay. Your Uber is done. Congratulations. Looked awesome!

How about that volume grass "painting" via terrain texturing?

 

Hey Tom, is it possible to place grass via an image? I can't paint it on, it'll take too long.

 

Hi Tom,
i have a terrain mesh with Volume Grass_Custom Mesh script attached to it. Im using linear space light and dx11.
I wanted to know if there is a way to apply a specular image or a way to disable specular on your grass since grass doesnt give specularity as a huge plane (dont know if this is an issue of my project or if its not contemplated in the system). Leave you two images, one backfaced to the sun and the other towards the sun.

By the way your grass tool is AMAZING!

 

Hmmm, I don't really get the issue. Could you specify me exact setup you've got ? Lights present, forward/deferred. Grass is set in VG1.5 to Lambert Lighting so - theoretically you can't get specular highlight unless you use some weird IBL specular cubemap with IBL specular feature enabled in my material inspector.

Tom

 

Im using deffered, and variable light parameters due to time of day script in the project. I would simply like to "turn off" the specularity of the grass.

Sebastian

 

I'm trying really hard to make it looking like in your previous screenshot but I fail... It simply does not produce any highlights. Can you check VG in fresh project and in example scene ? Maybe there is something very specific in your scene that makes it working like this ?. If you still can't detect it either - please cut everything that's not related to my grass and the issue from the project, zip it and upload it somewhere. Give me link on private message here on the forum. I'll look into this myself.

Tom

 

Hello, I wanted to ask how VolumeGrass works with SSAO? Would the preformance drop down, or it woudn't make a big diference?

 

You won't get correct SSAO for grass planes. Output geometry normals are not broke down to separate blades. Depth texture is not written (it's top surface). But grass itself consists of "faked" ao feature - making bottom of grass darker thus bringing more depth in look.

So - VG doesn't break SSAO, but wont provide you with the output you probably ask for (separate grass blades in proximity of each other producing occlusion effect).

Tom

P.S. Anyway - Id recommend to stay tuned on this product. I've promised new version and I'll do it. Currently I'm involved in making UBER more robust and it's really time consuming.

 

Would be cool if you include foliage shaders in UBER. You could also include the VolumeGrass.. It would be really a UBER shader pack!

 

1 Is it current version unity 5.1.1 ready , runs out of memory on 32GB Ram when building soccer field
2 How do you rotate the prefab ,
3 can it be loocked or frozen prefab when done ?

looking forward to your reply

Thanks Dan

 

Hey tom, i know you are great with answering questions. I had one above that I think got missed. Thanks

 

Hi Dan,

In Unity 5.1.1f1 I've just opened the project from VolumeGrass has been submitted to AssetStore as the newest version there. Soccer field RAM peak was around 800MB to build the soccer scene. In web player plugin-container for Unity takes 140MB. I'm on Win7, IntelHD4600 GPU, Unity pro. Whats your platform ? I don't really understand what could take that amount of RAM.

You can put grass object in prefab, but first you need to save the mesh with any scripting tool (free - for example from unity wiki). Look at this post above:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/volume-grass-unlimited-density.256497/page-6#post-2184152

I will try to openVG from unity package on fresh project too and check build of soccer field.

Tom

EDIT: Win7, U5.1.1f1, pro license. Imported VG from asset strore, built soccer scene, took less than minute on my PC Unity required less than 800MB at peak. Build works.

 

Currently - not. You can try to export terrain surface to obj, optimize in 3d modelling software (cutting parts that are not coverred by grass). Then split into a few objects and use VG on custom script to preapre grass for it - look at my example scene for this. Yes, I plan to make it possible painting grass with Unity terrain brush (so it can be taken from texture), but I'm very engaged in UBER now.

Tom

 

Does it integrate into TC at all? I could use TC to apply the grass via image then.

 

TC works with regular Unity terrains, not connection to VG technique. Just wait patiently for update of VG. It will come sooner or later.

Tom

 

What about performance? (I see it's a lot!) I really can't understand how these grasses doesn't causes big performance hit while Unity's default grasses takes a lot. Some technical or understandable explanation?

 

Because Unity places a lot of geometry on the terrain surface which causes huge drawcall load on CPU. In VG it's simply one mesh - top surface of grass area and the whole trickery is placed inside pixel shader. So - you can have as dense grass as you wish with one poly mesh. Of course - "magic" inside pixelshader isn't free either, but is faaar lower than when you try to put as many grass billboard planes with regular geometry.

Tom

 

Really great idea, good job! Unity should've done this feature a long time ago.

 

Hi,

after i have disabled DX11 in the PlayerSettings, i get this line ingame and editor.

What can i do?

 

I'm having an where it looks like when I create the volume it has inverted normals? This is in a fresh project/scene with only VG in it. See attached image. Thanks.

 

Try to construct it placing control points clockwise. Should help .

Is it always placed at the border where far distance is reached (thus no VG grass, but plain texture instead is used ) ? I mean - can we "come closer" to the issue ?

Tom

 

Hi,

yep, that's correct.

When i enable Direct3D 11, that line disappears. But i have to disable Direct3D 11. I've tested it already with a new grass instance, but without success.

 

Is it the case in my eample scene (meadow). What's your Unity version and VolumeGrass version ? Platform, lighting (forward, deferred). To help you I'd need to reproduce the issue on my side.

Tom

 

Hi,

I'm using Unity 5.0.2f1 Personal Edition - Forward Rendering, VolumeGrass Version 1.5d. Platform: Windows x86, Mac and Linux. I'working on Windows 8.0.

And yes, in your example scene meadow, there is the same issue.

I've reimported the package without success. I've created a new scene and added the volumeGrass but the lines are still there.

I've just created a new project. The problem exists as well

Thanks

 

I can't reproduce the issue on my side (Win7 U5.0.2, IntelHD4600 GPU, forward/deferred DX9). Just built example scene and put it here:

http://www.stobierski.pl/unity/VG_test.zip

Does it not work for you (test on DX9 hardware) ? Maybe updating Unity will help, they updated Microsoft HLSL (dx9) compiler in new version. Maybe U5.0.2 makes some wrong with output code for your GPU. You can submit fresh project with my VolumeGrass installed (meadow example) to Unity as bug report. They will get the hardware you're working on and maybe will be able to tell what's the difference in compiled shader. That's the only thing I can do now.

Tom

 

This looks truly amazing!!!! The game I'm working on is perfect for this as I'm looking for a very natural environment. Unfortunately I need to be able to paint the grass dynamically in realtime (my game is about bringing color to a black and white world) and I read that is in your roadmap.

Do you have an estimated time for that feature or is it going to take a while? No pressure man it's only that I would love to use VG

 

Not yet, sorry I can't promise it very soon. But will try to handle till the end of the year.

Tom

 

no problem thanks anyway for the quick response

 

tomaszek: Quick question ,

Awesome plugin thanks for sharing it on the Asset store . My question is this, I am currently making a football environment and need my white lines to match better with my grass . I was looking over your soccer demo. And notice your white lines blends nicely how is this achieved I have a flat 3d model that has the lines overlayed over top of the current grass mesh. And i want to have the lines look and feel like painted grass like you have in your demo

 

White lines are global colormap that is textured top planar and multiplied with grass color. In my case it's greyscale texture with white lines and grey stripes from "soccer field lawnmower".

Tom

 

Thanks for the quick reply, but it seems like the global color map is turned off . Also where is this hooked up in the original soccer file ? I have found the soccer jpg you speak of. But in the grass shader I have not found the global color map (well I did find it but it's turned off in the shader) which if this is true where is the textured lines"soccer jpg" being used? I see all the other textures being used except the lines

 

On soccer example click on grass and material. There is "global colormap" option selected (checkbox at the top). Then unfold global colormap section below - you put texture there and set params. UV mapping you can set manually there or by using yellow handles around the grass object.

Tom

 

Sorry, Still not seeing where this is ... We just recently downloaded the script(last Friday), So I don't know if this is a different version. I do see where the UV's are effecting the lines but do not see a drop down. That lets you add in the map.
At the bottom of the screenshot is the only place where I see the global color map and its says switched off. To be sure I have clicked the check box it turns blue but the options don't appear.

 

I've just installed VG1.5d on U5.1.1f1
On soccer scene global colormap is turned on by default. On the top cehckbox (clock on the box on on the label) you can switch it on/off. When turned on drop down like on the below screenshot is available:

 

How do you think your grass system compares to Rocket League grass?

 

Don't know the technique behind the mentiond game, but it seams like real geometry in their case. Gras blades probably populated by DX10 geometry shader.

Tom

 

Would this work with Planetary Terrain and RTPv3 ?
Thank you !

 

PT - no. Besides it is abandoned product as far as I know. VG is independent from RTP. You can use them both though.

 

Sorry I was not specific enought about PT, my question was :
Does VG work only on UnityTerrain type surfaces? or will it work on any other surface in any orientation ?
I know PT is abandonned by the original creator, but I am actually pursuing its development myself.

 

Its just a shader, you can use your mesh for top surface of grass or use VG editor.

 

Hmm! Some nice looking competition.