Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

FXLab - Advanced Effects for Unity Free

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by Marrrk, Sep 4, 2013.

  1. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Hi there,
    a friend of mine and myself are working hard on our next asset which should be finished in a couple of days.
    This asset is especially for Unity Free (no Pro license required) users.

    The asset allows us to create following effects:

    Glass/Crystal:


    Colored Glass
    Dispersion Glass
    Refracting Glass

    Heat Haze

    Motion Distortion:

    Motion Distortion as feedback effect

    Black Hole

    Water:

    Water Depth Usage
    Water Dispersion

    Shockwaves:


    These are only the effects provided by us, more are possible and we will deliver many more.

    The images above don't show the full potential, so please try the WebPlayer.


    What do you think?
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2013
    maurostick likes this.
  2. Tiles

    Tiles

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2010
    Posts:
    2,481
    This is a great asset! Well done!
     
  3. Icoplay

    Icoplay

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2013
    Posts:
    7
    Really great stuff. The heat haze is especially good!
     
  4. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Some material settings are wrong in the sample, I need to fix that, because of this the edges of the HeatHaze are too much visible and the blurred red crystal doesn't show the refraction effect properly.

    Need to tweak many thinks, but after this I hope I can release it :)
     
  5. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    Awesome. Do you think it will be possible to do full screen post effects ?
     
  6. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Yes, I have a class for this, which will be used for underwater effects, but can be used for anything else. The drawback is like for every else effect, that it will dispose the other effects when it renders over them, so the user needs to be careful on what he will display. But in most cases this is manageable.
     
  7. ZJP

    ZJP

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2010
    Posts:
    2,649
    Nice team. They did it again (after the Glow shader). Well done.
    I'm in, as usual but what the price?
     
  8. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    This time we try to target $20. I think the water alone justify this.
     
  9. chelnok

    chelnok

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    680
    ok.. very nice.. I think i have missed something :)
     
  10. Alesk

    Alesk

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2010
    Posts:
    339
    I love you :mrgreen:
     
  11. jessee03

    jessee03

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2011
    Posts:
    729
    Very amazing for Unity free :) I am impressed by the effects you managed to pull off. Please keep updating with new effects
     
  12. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

    Joined:
    May 1, 2009
    Posts:
    924
    For sure buy! Very interested in water and underwater effect. As well as full screen. Have these been tested yet on mobile?

    Great work again guys!
     
  13. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    No, it has not been tested on mobile, but it uses a similar technique as the Glow for Indie asset which runs on IOS devices, as long as the device supports at least SM3.0 (the provided effects use 3.0) it should work. No Windows specific mechanics or native Dlls will be used, also everything should be AOT compatible (no huge usage of LINQ).

    I will try to find someone with an IOS device to test it.
     
  14. delibowlen

    delibowlen

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2013
    Posts:
    57
    Looks very great, can´t wait to see a Live Demo ;)
     
  15. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
  16. ZJP

    ZJP

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2010
    Posts:
    2,649
    Indeed. This is a good price. Thx for the reply.
     
  17. HolBol

    HolBol

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2010
    Posts:
    2,887
    This is fantastic. Can I ask how you did it?
     
  18. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    I use the screenbuffer as canvas and grab my needed results, put them into a texture and use this inside my shaders. Nothing special, but to make this stuff usable in realtime was hard. Some care needs to be taken when grabbing the results and creating the textures, also there are some differences in the used texture formats per platform.

    Btw the release of this will take some time as I am now able to create a usable depth texture which works better for the water and allows us more effects, for example soft particles, I will add a sample for these and need to update a component and the documentation.

    The documentation so far.

    If someone is willing to throw a glance over it, maybe I am missing something useful.
     
  19. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

    Joined:
    May 1, 2009
    Posts:
    924
    Any news on test on Mobile?

    Also, this looks bloody awesome. I have many uses. Can you make a good underwater shader...please.
     
  20. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    No news for the mobile stuff, I will ask someone I know about that.

    Regarding the underwater effect, the one we currently have is a simple blue tinting slow distorting one, nothing great as we did this only as an experiment. So tell me what makes a good underwater shader? Keep in mind that we are still limited by the non Pro version of Unity even if we have, reflection, refraction and depth available.
     
  21. The-Spaniard

    The-Spaniard

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2012
    Posts:
    149
    That is great! I'm very impressed that you can achieve those effects in Free, without render-to-texture! I think I'll be buying when it comes out...
     
  22. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    Do you think advanced full screen post-effect like Depth of Field, SSAO, Bloom, Motion Blur are possible or it's too expensive ?
     
  23. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Its possible, but may require some changes in the subsystem. The IndieGlow asset does some post processing. It does not work with the equal system like the FXLab will, but the FXLab is capable of doing stuff like this.

    The FXLab will render everything in half resolution, but in most cases this wont be a problem, and can be tweaked.
     
  24. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    I redesigned the underlaying framework to make it more flexibel. Now it is possible to specifiy/render designated fx textures. This also allows custom textures. Provided in the asset will following fx textures:

    • ScreenBuffer, a copy of the scene
    • Depth, a depth texture (24/32Bit)
    • Height, the height below a defined plane
    • Reflection, a reflection texture on a plane

    Also I experimented with particles and created soft particles (left: soft particles, right: normal particles):


    WebPlayer Demo
     
  25. xtremepman

    xtremepman

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2012
    Posts:
    388
    Looks nice

    *bookmarks page*
     
  26. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    Very very good :D
    Are there any issues with anti-aliasing ? Is the anti-aliasing is did in the screen buffer ?
     
  27. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Antialiasing should be applied when activated, but the generated "textures" are at least half as big as the screen resolution so there may be visible aliasing artifacts even with activated antialiasing.

    Also I refactored the fullscreen effect class and created/refactored 2 fullscreen/postprocess test effects:

    Depth of Field:


    WebPlayer Demo

    Underwater (still under construction):


    WebPlayer Demo
     
  28. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    The project is dead ? I was so happy when i saw some post effects on Unity free :-(
     
  29. Loic-Joint

    Loic-Joint

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2012
    Posts:
    45
    as Cyrien5100, I follow the project and I hope he is not dead ^ ^
     
  30. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Its not dead, its almost finished :)
     
  31. Hikiko66

    Hikiko66

    Joined:
    May 5, 2013
    Posts:
    1,304
    Awesome.
     
  32. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    Cool :) When will it be released ?
     
  33. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    It is inside the asset store review pipeline, maybe 1 or 2 weeks I guess.
     
  34. FlatterBacke

    FlatterBacke

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2013
    Posts:
    17
    Hi all want to write something to here :D
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2013
  35. FlatterBacke

    FlatterBacke

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2013
    Posts:
    17
    Hi i want to show you the actual webplayer version of the karibic island scene using this asset.
    Im not done yet but enough to post a link to show.

    http://www.flatter.syrka.net/Unity/Assets/FXLab/PreviewWebplayer/Aktuel/Compiled.html

    Itz not done @ all but it comes as free additional Sample Scene using our asset for you.

    2 more scenes like this will follow later showing other effects you can make with FXLab but this take some more time and will be after the realease.
     
  36. Zaddo67

    Zaddo67

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2012
    Posts:
    489
    This looks fantastic!! Great work. I am especially interested in Depth of Field and motion distortion. I will definitely buy when it hits the asset store.
     
  37. Zurusona-Kitsune

    Zurusona-Kitsune

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2012
    Posts:
    94
    This looks great, I'm looking forward to it.
     
  38. FlatterBacke

    FlatterBacke

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2013
    Posts:
    17
    Another Update for the FXLab Island Preview Scene.
    I Added a swim sound, Splash Decals when you jump into the water with an particle system.
    Nothing spezial but better then befor think.
    This Scene is near done now to show the Water Effect of the asset, itz later as free additional download in UnityPackage form free for all to download.
    The Package contain some Scripts by me like the Fish, Bird Controller and the WaterEventScript for Decals, UnderWater view and more other stuff.

    Here the Link to the Webplayer again:
    http://www.flatter.syrka.net/Unity/Assets/FXLab/PreviewWebplayer/Aktuel/Compiled.html

    Greetings.
     
  39. brilliantgames

    brilliantgames

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2012
    Posts:
    1,937
    Wow amazing! You need to explain how you were able pull some of these 'pro only' type effects! :)
     
  40. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Well everything you will need for this is reachable through the Unity API. The "magic" behind this is how and when to use those. Was a pain in the ass to cover the pitfalls.

    Quick Info to the AssetStore submission:

    Still pending, after 4 requested "fixes"..
     
  41. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
  42. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

    Joined:
    May 1, 2009
    Posts:
    924
    Congrats MarrrK and team! A really incredible breakthrough for us Unity Free users!!!
     
  43. schoen08

    schoen08

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2012
    Posts:
    6
    Great work! I had the opportunity to test this and it´s working perfect.
     
  44. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    I am working on the next version (1.1) which should include following changes (ordered by priority):

    • Changes on the post processing system (regrab of the scene in full resolution, maybe multipass support)
    • Bloom post processing shader
    • SSAO post processing shader
    • Comic/Cell shading post processing shader
    • Fisheye post processing shader
    • Antialiasing post processing shader
    • fixes for the water shader (view depth and height calculation)
    • reusable "render" textures (currently you receive no direct access to the textures)
    • Volumetric lights
    Not every point may appear in 1.1 but we will try at least.

    I will keep you informed about the further development of the next version.

    Currently finished are the two top points, from which you can already see the Bloom effect:

    www.dras.biz/FXLab/Samples/Bloom/Bloom.html
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2013
  45. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
  46. carking1996

    carking1996

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2010
    Posts:
    2,608
    How's performance?
     
  47. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Very good so far, this version uses only a depth texture and nothing more so it will generate normals via shader, but the performance is considering this quite good. But I need to tweak it more and test it on a computer moire capable than my underpowered development laptop.
     
  48. Cyrien5100

    Cyrien5100

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    145
    Looks good for a wip :) What technique are you using ? Sphere based approach (crysis 1)? Semi hemisphere ? Volumetric ?
    As i can see, it take in account normal map, right ?
     
  49. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032
    Hi,

    I am still experimenting with it, so far I have two versions.

    The first is very identical to this:
    http://theorangeduck.com/page/pure-depth-ssao

    The second to this:
    http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?234822-new-and-fast-SSAO

    I am not satisfied with the results yet and will try to work a little bit more on it. Maybe I should try a better sample scene with it.

    The noisiness will stay as I don´t want to blur the results (every extra grab is expensive, so I avoid it when possible).
     
  50. Marrrk

    Marrrk

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
    Posts:
    1,032