[RELEASED] SPACE UNITY - Space Scene Construction Kit

I'm happy to announce that SPACE for Unity - Space Scene Construction kit is now available in the Unity Asset Store.

Buy SPACE for Unity in the Asset Store

Price: $85

Preview Video (Sample scenes, workflow in Unity, package content overview):
Short Version:

Long Version:

Description:
Create unique space scenes with a single mouse click. Save money, distribution size, and memory through modular approach to replace skyboxes.

Feature Overview:
Editor Extension: Custom editor extension with GUI for one-click space scene creation
Custom Filters: Custom filters to generate scenes with desired brightness, complexity and content
Space Assets: Nebulas, galaxies, stars, planets, and moons are randomly distributed in the scene
Graphic Assets: Hundreds textures(diffuse, normal, and illumination maps up to 4096x4096)
Planets: Planets with climate, volumetric atmosphere, night lights and optional rings and moons
Asteroids: Local and endless interactive asteroid fields with arrays of common and rare materials
Camera Effects: Space Particles and Space Fog (seemingly infinite as it re-spawns around camera)
Scripts: Fully documented and optimized C# scripts
Manual: Detailed PDF documentation and (video tutorials on spaceunity.com)
Camera Script: Script for smooth camera chase spectator chase
Bonus: Fully flyable Spaceship Prefab with thrusters, particle effects, sound effects, and simple weapon
Scene Switcher: Scene Switcher script for easy switching between scenes

Support:
https://www.imphenzia.com/contact

Available Expansion Packs:
Planet Expansion Pack 01

 

just purchased! Awesome Asset!

 

Deal. Download in progess.....

 

PURCHASED!!

Can't wait to dig in tomorrow, looks amazing!

 

Great, thank you all so much for your support I hope you find good use out of it to make some sweet space games With it being a new release, I welcome feedback / questions and issues to improve the product in future updates.

 

Congrats on the asset store release. Can't wait to get home and start messing around with this. I believe this package along with Darkcoder's space graphics tool kit = Epicness. Im not even sure if thats a word, but thats what it is. You have really outdone your self with this one. A+++.

 

Purchased this a couple hours ago, and have been spending a lot of time playing with the various options. There's a lot of really cool stuff here.

However, there's a couple things I've noticed. When using the Space Scene Construction Kit prefab generator, planets and moons are sometimes placed very close to one another, or even with their meshes intersecting. This happens most often, of course, when you've got lots of planets. Also, if the material of a planet atmosphere's mesh renderer is empty (None), then you can see a number of cyan dots on the planet. Planets with the Planet-Desert-OrangeWithImpacts material don't seem to be generated with an atmosphere material. Not a huge deal, but it'd be nice if it was cleared up.

 

Thanks - I'm very happy to receive such feedback =)

Thanks for the input - much appreciated!

Intersections: I'll implement sphere overlapping checking in an update to ensure that it won't occur. I'm not sure how common it will be to have too many planets in a single scene - but it's simple enough to prevent the overlap so expect that very soon.

Atmosphere for Planet-Desert-OrangeWithImpacts: This is a bug, the material should have an asset label that says exactly "atmosphere-brown-medium" - then it will pick up the atmosphere when created. It'll be fixed in the next release but until then you can manually add that label to the material. It's also worth noting that you can change the asset labels of planet materials to have the atmosphere you want if you often prefer thicker atmospheres for example. I'll add tutorials for planet atmospheres and how they work on my site shortly as well.

Again, thanks for your input and for buying the asset.

UPDATE: I have created a support page on spaceunity.com where I list all the reported issues, what the cause is, how to work around, and when they will be fixed. I've also put some info about what future features I'm working on for coming updates.http://www.spaceunity.com/support/

 

We have just bought this package and the expansion. It looks very impressive - good work so far! We have a few questions / requests.

Firstly, we'd like to store the assets in a folder we call 'Plugins'. When we tried to do this it breaks the asset. Would it be possible to support this? Is there any chances we can make?

Secondly, as we have seen being mentioned before - we would like to use the planets in the scene so our ship can fly around them (same with the star). I saw you mentioned camera changes to solve this. Would it be possible to have this as an option in a future release?

Thanks again!

 

Thanks for purchasing and I'm glad you like it!

About folders, all the paths to the assets are defined early on in the script SpaceUnity/Editor/SpaceSceneConstructionKitEditor.cs. If you prefix line 26 so it says "Assets/Plugins/SpaceUnity/" it should work. I just tested it and it generates scenes at least.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. // Base path of assets where this script will search for space assets (materials, prefabs, etc.)
3. // private const string _basePath = "Assets/SpaceUnity/";
4. private const string _basePath = "Assets/Plugins/SpaceUnity/"; // <---- change path to this
5.  

About moving in the scene, in the Hierarchy, click SpaceScene/SpaceCamera and change the "Relative Speed" parameter in the inspector from 0 to a low number (e.g. 0.001 or 0.01) and you'll start moving within the scene. Don't travel too far though because you'll close in on nebulas as well. This will be addressed in future updates where I'll support an additional camera for fixed nebulas and galaxies yet allowing good movement around planets.

Hope this answers your questions, and if not - don't hesitate to let me know =) Thanks onace again.

 

Great! Thanks for the reply and advice! We look forward to future updates and expansions!

 

Couldn't wait until payday so I picked it up this morning. I look forward to using it tonight and see how it looks in my space strategy game that I'm working on for my One Game a Month entry (http://onegameamonth.com/). I have a few plans for this package.

 

Can one land on the planets and move around?

thanks,

shwa

 

Well, not waiting until payday made you get advantage of the introductory price at least =) Thanks for purchasing! I'll have a look at ONeGameAMonth as well - like the tag line: "Make games, not excuses"

That is not possible unfortunately. The main purpose (at this stage) is to act as a background for games taking place in space.

I'm currently working on an improvement to support planetary systems that you can navigate through - but actually landing on planets would be quite far ahead in the roadmap... but I am thinking of solutions for it =)

 

congrats man, this package is very usefull for my project.
the graphics are awesome.

purchased =D.

I have a question..
how long you gonna support this product...I mean, include new resources and features?

 

Thanks mate - glad you like it!

There is no "end" date for support - I'll keep developing it and adding features as I come up with ideas and as doable suggestions come in! Right now I'm working on warpspeed/hyperdrive jumps between Space Scenes that will be added in coming update. I'm also improving navigation in planetary systems by adding a second optional camera to keep nebulas and galaxies locked despite a lot of movement around planets. Local stars are being improved... looking into addressing the issue with floating point errors for long distances as well... the list goes on =)

As for graphical assets, most of them will have to be released as expansion packs because the package is now 498 MB in size of the allowed 500 MB limit. If Unity lifts the limit I can pack some more graphical assets in as well. Or if I can optimize it and/or compress textures without noticeable loss I might also consider that to add a few more things in the base asset.

 

I notice in the video tutorials that the materials are all set as Particle/Additive. How does this stuff look when the materials are set as mobile particles? Do the textures and objects perform well on mobile platforms?

 

The package isn't tuned for mobile yet, but it has been tested on Android to see how it works (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG_PZHNpll0) and it is the asteroids that affects performance most. Without asteroids, but with all nebulas galaxies and local star (which are all additive) - along with 500 space particles and 500 large fog particles. My Samsung Galaxy S3 (which is a high end phone) ran at a constant 60FPS and I'm not sure how much overhead there is since it's VSync on. When I added 200 alpha fading and bump mapped asteroids like the video shows I got 40-50 FPS with explosion effects as well.

I'll probably add a master setting to an update soon so you from a script can call a function let's for example say "SetQuality(Quality.MOBILE_LOW)" which then automatically reduces particles, changes materials to mobile (you lose the ability to set colors with mobile particles which will not look as nice) and also tune other settings such as remove bump mapping (which has a high impact on lower end phones) etc.

 

Really enjoying using the package. Just to add to the conversation, I tried the package on a Motorola Xoom tablet (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834209001) with Tegra 2 and the frame rate is decent (I haven't optimized my game, texture size or added an FPS counter). The only issue I see is that the shader used for atmospheres creates a black, what looks like a sorting issue with the planet. If I disable the atmosphere, everything is fine. I'm borrowing the tablet from a friend and I'm not very familiar with it so let me figure out how to take a screenshot and I'll post it.

 

Here's my quick fix:
1. Moved the planet object out of the spacescene and scaled it up to 100
2. Added a collider (trigger) to the atmosphere and added a script with just debug.log for now when entering and leaving the atmosphere (OnTriggerEnter OnTriggerExit)
3. Removed the ontrigger from the planet collider (I wanted to bump into it) but you could leave it on and just add an OnTriggerEnter (to Planet.cs) to force the ship to explode / land

My goal is upon entering the atmosphere to quickly reduce the players/ships health so that you pretty much die/explode before hitting the planet. This could also be done with the sun but on a much larger scale (to prevent player/ship from getting even remotely close) but could be reworked to allow some sort of landing / scene switching

I would add +10000 on the asteriod field seed planned for a future update.

Really stoked at what this will add to my game - great job!!!

 

I don't think this is a system limitation on their size , more of a sanity test limitation that they can lift if you contact them, i'm 99% sure that i already own assets on the store larger than that as 1 being 620 and another being over 700MB rings a strong bell in my mind.

 

Oh, my original 900 MB package was rejected in the review process with instructions that the limit is set to 500 MB and like you said - it's probably not a technical limitation but rather that they want to keep the packages reasonably sized. But I'm unable to go above 500 the support said so I'll have to stick with expansions for now. Maybe this is something new that they have introduced?

 

I just think you should contact caitlyn and ask her directly about how you can work around this. It probably is possible if justified.

Here's one i purchased recently, as you can see in the description it's way above 500MB

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/6859

 

Also can't be a new restriction, that package i linked got updated to asset store on the 20th (3 days ago)

 

I can ask for again, although I did notice that the one you linked to unfairly got a one star rating because a buyer couldn't download the package. It could still possibly be a new rule which can't be applied to existing packages that were already over 500 MB.

 

It wasn't an existing package, this got released for the first time like a week ago, maybe 2 tops (i was one of the first buyers).

And it downloads just fine for me.

 

@ronan: No need to pressure him into trying to sort it out again. A bit pushy, no?

@imphy: Expansion packs are fine by us!

 

What do you mean? Not pushy at all no, just telling him that he has the option, i see very often people seem to think there are hard asset store limitations, i don't care if he changes it or not, i want him to know that he "can" change it, nothing pushy about giving the right info to someone.

 

Ok, this is the decline message I got when I submitted the package:

I didn't want to reduce the resolution, so I went for the split approach. Considering I'm planning to add multiple gigabytes of nebulas, planets, galaxies, stars, (and audio) I think I better just stick to the expansion pack approach since it'll allow such amounts of data.

 

Well it's a tradeoff, it means you'll need to maintain many packages at 500MB max if multi GB so it may be cumbersome for you, but it does allow billing separately for expantions so if you plan to make more it sures make more sense to split

 

Yes, I think it still makes sense so every update (no matter how small) don't result in gigabytes of download. But I'm happy to say that all the functionality updates and added features (and I've got quite a few in mind!) will be updated in the base release of course - so there is still a lot to come =)

 

Actually i didn't think of that, you're right having it as standalone would mean updating a single files requires a multi GB re download, i really don't mind but i can see it being a concern on a slow (or worse, capped) connection

 

Man do you ever sleep? All the music and Unity Add Ons... amazing.

Anyway in Unity 4 when I make a scene there is no DeepSpace layer made automatically....

Great kit and I also picked up the planets... Now I have something to do with all the spaceships I model.

 

Well... I don't sleep much... 3-5 hours per night lately which isn't too healthy I'm guessing but it's too much fun. Then there is the game dev, web dev, house renovation, day job with 3 hour commute, argh.

The layers aren't created on import of package in any Unity version. This is because there are a fixed number of layers so you'll have to name it manually. There are details about this in the Before You Begin section of the included PDF. Too bad layers and tag naming can't be scripted with a pop up if there is a conflict.

Best of luck with your game and glad your spaceships find some use

 

Just want to give a big thumbs up for this guys customer service and his speed of dealing with issues. All that and I have not even tested the package yet.

His customer service is worth the price itself!!

 

Bought your pack because it looked great. However, I'm getting two errors upon import because I already have a CameraFollow.cs and an Asteroid.cs script since we are doing a space game those common names will come back often. Would it be possible to name your scripts with something less common ? Example: SU_Asteroid.cs (SU standing for Space for Unity). That way it would completely avoid this type of issue.

So if I refactor my scripts I lose all my serialized data and if I refactor your scripts I will be stuck doing this every time I need to update to a newer version.

EDIT: Also we ran into the trouble that we are using layer 20. It says we can change which layer in the manual for Unity Space. How can we do that so the kit works with another layer than 20 ?

 

Good point with the script names - I will add a prefix for coming updates.

Regarding Layer 20, it's a pain that layers are static but since I guess it's for bit-masking purposes I understand that's the limitation. Since you have full knowledge of your project, it may be easier to change Layer 20 that's already in use?

If you do have to change from Layer 20, it should be possible by doing the following:

1. Define a new layer (using a free layer number) - the name doesn't really matter, I've just used DeepSpace.

2. Go to SpaceUnity/Prefabs/SpaceSceneElements and change the layer of all prefabs (and children) to the new layer you created

3. Select the prefab SpaceUnity/Prefabs/SpaceSceneElements/SpaceScene/SpaceCamera and change Culling Mask for the camera to the new layer in the inspector

4. Here's a painful one... You can't modify the lights directly on the prefab since inspector isn't available so you need to manually drag the Local Star prefabs into a scene so you can edit all three of them (so, from SpaceScene/Prefabs/SpaceSceneElements/LocalStarLarge and LocalStarMedium and LocalStarSmall

5. Once you have the three local stars in a scene, expand the children and go to Directonal light and change Culling Mask and set it to light up everything EXCEPT the new layer

6. For each of the three local stars in the scene, also go to the Point light child and set Culling Mask to ONLY light the new layer you created

7. Drag the three local stars from the scene one by one and overwrite the original prefabs with the new culling mask configurations (you can then delete the local stars from the scene again, they were just used to modify the settings)

8. Finally, change the Main Camera (or equivalent) abd change the Culling Mask to EXCLUDE the new layer (you don't want the camera to render the background, that is the job of the SpaceCamera) - UPDATE: This will probably have to be performed on the main camera on every demo scene because it's not a prefab camera. If you fly fast out of nebulas, it's most likely because the Main Camera is excluding the wrong layer =)

That should do it I think. I'll do a tutorial of this because I'm sure others will be using layer 20 as well. If you have any space scenes that you already created that have lost their prefab connections, you'll have to change the culling masks on them manually by the way - but most likely it should be sufficient to do it for the main prefabs. UPDATE: The exception is Galaxies in existing scenes because when they were created the prefab connection was disconnected.

Hope this works for you, otherwise don't hesitate to let me know!

 

Thank you for the quick reply and the detailed instructions Imphy ! I will give this a try.

 

Nice work! Hopefully the competition will allow both products to improve and benefit Unity users. I can already see my documentation and videos are severely lacking compared to yours

Good luck

 

Amazing!!

Got around to playing with the kit this morning and it is amazing. I would suggest for anyone to grab now rather than when the price goes up. Although it will still be worth $100 without a doubt.

 

Thanks =) Glad you like it!

Hi Darkcoder - I've seen your package in the thread too and I wasn't actually aware of it before I launched mine (poor market research by me =) but at the moment I see how the packages work together. Mine is more geared towards a wide variety of colorful space scenes and you have more realism, with your planet shaders for example. We can probably learn from each other and thumbs up for some healthy competition to push our assets to the benefit of our users. Good luck to you too!

 

I'm submitting the first update since the release to the asset store now and I'm hoping it'll be live before the weekend. It's minor fixes and mainly regarding Unity v4:

In short:

I'll announce here when it's been approved and ready for download. New features will come in the next feature release version - this was mainly just minor fixes.

 

Holy cow.. there is some Documentation in there oddly in the Documentation folder... THANKS!!

 

Version 1.02 is available now. As mentioned above, mostly minor fixes in this one.

 

So let me understand a bit more about your package.
Do I still have to use skybox or your prefab (or a prefab generated from your package) will replace it?
Is there a limit on the size of your 'space orb' ? Can my ship fly 'through' the limit of the generated 'space orb' ? if the generated 'space orb' replaces the skybox then I guess this is not an issue.
Edit:
After looking at your tutorials, I understand how you did this (using 2 cams), thanks anyway. Your idea is brilliant btw, I am sold.

 

I bought the package and start playing with it. I am using Unity 3.5.7f6 Android/iOs regular license. First thing I noticed is the 'DeepSpace' layer does not exist in the Main Camera Culling selection. Seems like all the prefab don't have any layer assigned. Secondly, when I want to re-position a Nebula (or any other generated object) like you did by rotating it, the rotation pivot point is not centered as you shown in the video.
Let me know if these are to be fixed or its my own issue. Thanks in advance.

 

The layer name is not imported with packages unfortunately, this is a limitation in Unity - but the objects are still assigned to Layer 20. It will still work, but as the documentation PDF mentiones in the "Getting Started" section, the best thing to do is to set the name of Layer 20 to "DeepSpace" and it should all look correct for the culling masks for objects and cameras.

Pivot points should be in the center of the sphere for nebulas, galaxies (use the parent object!), and local star (parent object again). Planets have their own center as pivot point so they can rotate around their own axis - but they can be moved within the sphere to the position you want. Please let me know if you still experience any issues with the pivot point and we'll sort it out.

 

Awesome, you rock.... Now get back to work on those asteroid seeds...

j/k

I'll check out the update tomorrow

 

To rotate the Nebula and have the pivot in the center of the sphere make sure that you set it to "pivot" and not "center".

See Gizmo Display toggles here: http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/PositioningGameObjects.html

 

As suggested, setting DeepSpace to Layer 20 works and also thanks to Alf, the pivot setting also works now. Thanks!
Btw, hopefully you will be adding more planets/stars/beautiful assets in the upcoming release as your vid suggested. These were strong incentives that got me to purchase your package