See-Through System - shader-independent visibility obstruction handling

Hey CatsPawGames, do you think your plugin will work with the beta 5 version of Unity? We are looking for a wall vision solution, and this one might be the best one for us. We will try it anyway but I would like to know if you tested it on 5.x (latest is 22). Thanks !

 

Hi! I didn't test it on Unity 5, but it should work just fine. Even if not, it should be pretty easy to make compatibility patch, so if you run into some problems, just send me a message.

P.S. Please send me a message anyway, I would love to place information about Unity 5 compatibility into description.

 

That's really appreciated, once we tried it I will get back to you (by PM).

 

Seems that the Asset store is down right now, we are not able to buy any plugin (Waiting for server...). *sigh*

 

And I wondered why there wasn't any sales in couple days... It seems Asset Store is having some problems.

 

Nevermind, this is an issue with the beta 5 version (I guess). It worked on the 4.6 one

 

Version 1.5 uploaded to Asset Store, major change: depth sensitivity.

 

Version 1.5 is avaliable on Asset Store, changes:
- Depth sensitivity control
- Shader compatibility changes to Hologram and Alpha Hologram effects.
- Unity 5 compatible.

Coming in 1.6: colored hologram effect.

 

See-Through System is participating in February Madness Sale - get it at 65% off!

 

Got it!

 

Thanks, hope you'll find it useful!

 

I'd suggest adding the Unity Pro requirement to the asset store page, otherwise you'll probably get a number of bad ratings from users that bought in on impulse during the madness sale.

 

Good point, I'll submit description update, although it's in the image effects category, so it should be pretty self-explanatory.

 

It's in "Shaders/Fullscreen & Camera Effects", as is Liquidum Pro, also in the madness sale. Not everything there requires Pro, Liquidum lists "No Render to texture. No Unity Pro-Only post effects." People give bad ratings for problems that would have been obvious if they had read the complete description, therefore it is wise to avoid any misunderstandings right from the beginning, esp. for an asset that doesn't have a lot of reviews yet.

 

This is true. I was just about to buy it. Luckily I read the forum first.

Quick question anyways, does this work with an object behind terrain? Like a unit behind a mountain.

 

Quick question. Does this support windows phone 8 and windows 8 ?

 

I submitted description update with explicit Pro requirement yesterday, now it's up to AS review team.
As for Terrain, it works with any renderers, Terrain included.

I'm sorry, but I didn't test it on windows phone. It almost definately works with windows 8, and I'm positive it would work with windows phone OS since I try to make shaders as platform-independent as possible. There's 2 weeks tryout period during which you can demand refund without any explanation, so my advice is to try it out, and if there's some problems - you can either contact me and I'll try to sort it out, or you can get full refund.

 

I m using separate cameras to render different objects. My trigger layer objects are rendered in one camera and obstacle layer objects are rendered in another camera. with this setup i am not able to achieve the same result as shown in demo. Is there a workaround for this ?

 

Hi, if I understood correcty and you're using your own custom rendering pipeline with multiple cameras - then I doubt you can make STS work with it without serious time investment. If you already bought it, I suggest getting a refund.

 

Its not a custom rendering pipeline. I am just reordering the rendering with different cameras. I have a 2D background layer and a 3D car on top of it and one more 2D layer on it. Check d attached screenshot. i want to mask cam 3

 

Are your objects geometrically obstructing each other from POV of any camera? If not, STS will not trigger since it generates obstruction masks based on rendering from a single POV. If yes, then applying STS effect to that camera should work. You can send me your scene and based on that I can give you more detailed answer (my email is in asset store publisher info).

 

So far with one camera setup i could achieve this. but not any close to what is shown in demo. Tried all possible settings with no luck

 

Try this:
1) Enable "Check render types" in Advanced Settings since you're using 2D sprites.
2) Check your Background layers - they should NOT contain your obstacles.

 

Tried still no luck. Should i try different shaders ?

 

No, shaders have almost no effect on STS. Can you pack your project with some test scene and send it to me? I'll look at your setup.

 

Hi,
Sent you the link of my project archive to leonidmv@gmail.com
Please do check the project.

 

I took a look at your setup.

Minor problem: "car" layer was excluded from Background Layers, so your car didn't show in the transparent window. That's easily fixable (just include "car" layer to Background Layers).

Major problem: your cameras aren't aligned with each other. If you disable your Oblique Projection script and set child cameras rotation and position to zero, STS works as it should. When triggers and obstacles cameras have different POV or FOV/projection size, STS-generated obscurance mask will obviously be shifted.

I wrote a small update that can work with multiple unaligned cameras and tested it on your scene - there's 2 camera fields in Advanced Settings, drop your cameras into them. I'll send you links to updated files, also this change will be included in 1.6 update.

 

I tried the method exactly you suggested. Removed Oblique script. aligned the cameras. Added cameras to appropriate slots still i cant see the car through building. Am i missing anything else here

 

Did that as well. Still no luck. can i send the updated project once again ?

 

Maybe it'll be more productive if we organize Skype call or something similiar. I'll contact you through email.

 

@CatsPawGames
Okay its working now. Background layerMask was rendering obstacle layer as well. Thanks a ton.

 

Glad that it worked out. Btw, you don't need to align cameras if you're using updated version.

 

Is there or would there be any way to mask the obscurer in such a way that only a part of it may become transparent (according to map)?

 

Currently there isn't, but it's pretty easy to implement. I'll include this functionality in next version.

 

That's great. Would it still be material-independent? I want to use Unity 5 standard shader, with this plugin, but also use a map somewhere to only allow transparency in some places for obscurers.

 

Yes, it will be material-independent. Most likely there will be a small helper component with slots for visibility maps that can be placed on objects with renderers.

 

Thanks. Definitely a buy.

 

Last day of madness sale at 65% off!

 

Likewise, it would be nice if it were possible to mask what parts of a trigger may become visible behind obstacles.

I bought the asset. If you manage these 2 things it's definitely 5 stars and a positive review.

edit:
I have tried the asset btw and it works as advertised. Thanks a lot.

 

It will be a little trickier with triggers but I think it's possible. Will be included in next update also.

 

Hi, does this system work with Oculus rift? (2 cameras)

 

Hi, I didn't test it with Oculus rift. It should work fine with multiple cameras, but there might be unpleasant effects since transparent see-through windows will be generated independently for each camera, so they can be mismatched between eyes.

 

Ok thanks, I might give it a go to see how it feels.

 

I've been contacted by some users reporting performance issues on mobile devices on newest version of See-Through System. It seems 1.5 update incurs some heavy mobile-only performance cost. This issue will be resolved along major overhaul of most parts of STS in version 1.6 (expected to be released in a week) - this will also improve performance on other platforms.

 

Hey I'm guessing this works with Unity 5 PE? Luckily I bought it when it was on sale, I get to use it sooner than I thought.

 

Yep, I'm glad there's no need for "works on Pro-only" assets any more. To be honest, I only tested it with Unity 5 Release Candidate, not the current version, but it worked without a hitch. I'll test it on released version during the weekend, but I doubt there will be any problems with it.

 

Status update on 1.6 version: Overhaul is completed (optimized shaders, completely rewritten mask generation, removed need for RenderTexture restore, major blur optimization, reduced drawcalls, almost completely removed colored trigger costs), which greatly increased performance on mobile devices (down to 7-8 ms on low-end Android with colored triggers and hard blur enabled - major part of it is background rendering).
What's left: Obscurance masks & polishing Colored Hologram effect looks.

 

Update on 1.6 status: Finished obscurance masks(only for obstacles - trigger masks will be added in 1.7, was indeed trickier than I thought originally) and colored holograms. Unity 4 version is ready for deployment and will be uploaded tomorrow, Unity 5 version has some bugs that need fixing - I hope it will be uploaded along v4 version. If not, it will be added later once all bugs are fixed.

 

Good news: Version 1.6 is now bug-free on Unity 5. Update will be simultaneous for both 4 and 5 versions of Unity.