GAIA - AAA terrain generator, procedural texturing, planting and scene creation

giving up on 5.3, going to try and install 5.2.2.
Adam, is that the version you recommend?

 

Wonder what the latest drop of 5.3.2 is like.

 

that is what I just tried. Very choppy play, not like the previous version. If 5.3 is just a beta, let me know your recommended version, I will use that?

 

You pretty much have to figure out which works best for you. For me, Gaia runs fine on 5.3.1 but others have issues with 5.3.1. A lot depends on your other assets as well. Some assets run fine on 5.3 but others have issues. I know of people running Gaia on everything from 5.1.3 up through 5.3.2.

I stuck with 5.1.3 until just recently. I don't really like jumping to the newest version. Unfortunately other assets I use required me to update. But so far, 5.3.1 has worked fine for me. I haven't received the errors others have.

With all the different factors possible, it is hard for any asset developer to just tell you - run x version. I would probably go with what @chingwa recommended. In addition to being a Gaia user, he is also the developer of Suimono water system and Tenkoku sky system. Based on his recommendation, it sounds like 5.2.2 might be a fairly stable version to try.

 

Mobile friendly big terrains possible for a Air Combat game?

Thanks

 

To add a specular alpha channel to a PNG or JPG image in Photoshop, try this:

1. For terrain textures, start with a plain image with no alpha/transparency.
2. On the "Layers" tab, Select > All.
3. Edit > Copy.
4. Go to the "Channels" tab.
5. Create new channel (using the button at the bottom).
6. On the new alpha channel, select Edit > Paste. You should see a greyscale version of your original image.
7. Select the alpha channel, and use Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast to turn the brightness way down.
8. Your final alpha channel should be nearly black, with only hints of the original image visible.
9. Save as a PSD file, and remember to select the "Alpha Channels" option.

Your other alternative is to use a specialized tool like Shadermap Pro, or Bitmap2Material to create a separate specular map, and copy and paste it to the alpha layer in Photoshop. Hope this helps.

Edit - Oops, looks like you already knew this. I missed your follow up post. I'll leave this here in case anyone else is interested though.

 

+1 - I also think that substance support would take Gaia to an even higher level

There is some support for substance use when using RTP. Although it's a bit hackish - it is not the substances themselves but textures drawn from the substance - it works.

Speaking about RTP: Some integration / guidance / help bringing Gaia closer together would be fantastic... especially if you throw in the substance thing on top.... I use RTP with Gaia created terrains now... it works... but especially when it comes to texturing it can be a hassle to select the correct resolutions as RTP is quite picky about that part.

Let's face it. There is noone above and noone besides RTP right now when it comes to terrain shading... or am I wrong??

So the combination of Gaia-RTP-substances would be fantastic-amazing

 

Yes, better RTP support would be ideal. You could get some really AAA terrains that way.

 

All that RTP needs is terrain, albedo, normal and heightmap textures to work. You have all but heightmap textures now, and there are new and much better textures with heightmaps being provided with the next version of Gaia - so it is perfectly compatible with RTP and provides all of the necessary components.

However, there is also a configuration aspect to RTP and I find it confusing. My personal results have been unsatisfactory to my standards - I am sure more due to my lack on understanding of how to configure it effectively, than any shortcoming in the product.

I reached out to the author several months ago, and if he or one of the forum users here can provide some guidance on how to set up RTP properly then I will happily script whatever is required to make it simple and easy for the rest of us.

 

I agree... RTP is not for the faint hearted.... I've had great results but it is mostly after a lot of messy trial and error, moving sliders up and down, more than a strict and logical workflow

Tomasz is a genius but regarding ease of use and user interface he could learn from you, Adam I know it will always be somewhat a tradeoff between complexity and ease of use but still RTP is really complex...

Easing the gap with some Gaia tricks sometime down the track (dont get stressed and distracted, Adam ) would be a dream come through....

 

Finally started working with GAIA, loving the results so far. Work in progress screenshot in the editor, some of it is hand painted.

 

RTP is extremely confusing in comparison to this.. THANKS ADAM FOR MAKING THIS.. I just bought both

 

Loving Gaia! Everything ready for procedural terrain generation feature.

 

Regarding the complex and the simple, something I currently seem to be considering quite often..

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
― Confucius
“Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.”
― Pete Seeger
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
― Ernst F. Schumacher
“People often associate complexity with deeper meaning, when often after precious time has been lost, it is realized that simplicity is the key to everything.”
― Gary Hopkins
“If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.”
― Tom Peters

edit..and this one attributed to Albert Einstein..

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

 

Screenshots Selection of the night





To see more Screens:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/turboscalpeur/

What i have used:
Gaia
Some SpeedTree Models
Grass (HQ Photographic Textures Grass Pack Vol.1 & 2)
3DForge
Rocks
Bird Flock: Crow
Time Of Day
Scion
Colorful FX
Some Textures included on Gaia's next release from GameTextures.com;
And some others Scripts.

Cya!

 

Kia ora

Not sure where this came from or how I managed it:

Assets/Gaia/Scripts/ExtensionSystem/Extensions/CameraAndLight.cs(89,77): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `ScreenSpaceAmbientOcclusion' does not exist in the namespace `UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects'. Are you missing an assembly reference?

 

Looks like Unity can't find the SSAO camera effect. Have you recently upgraded the version of Unity you're using? If so, you may need to re-import your Image Effects so they match the new version. I usually delete the existing ones first, to be sure I'm actually replacing them. They should be located in your project folder at ...\Assets\Standard Assets\Effects\ImageEffects, with Editor extensions in ...\Assets\Editor\ImageEffects.

 

Really love how Gaia enables me to create landscapes that exceeds anything I have been able to create before. In terms of user friendliness it is among the best, especially considering the complexity of the tasks it is handling. I'm so happy I found it.

I'm building a small Windows platform game, which will feature a very specific landscape type (Scandinavian) for which I will be using my own textures. The terrain size in each scene will be 2048x2048. I'm planning on using a 2048x2048 texture resolution, but I can see that Gaia's default texture resolution seems to be lower. Would 2K textures be a problem?

I've read a lot of negative comments about Speed trees and performance issues. But from the various screenshots and videos in this forum, it does not seem to be a problem to have a lot of Speed Trees in a scene. Is it only a problem on the mobile platform or do I have to carefully manage the number of Speed trees spawned by Gaia?

Finally a quick question about water. I've just got Ceto today for my Oceans needs, but I am looking at solutions for inland lakes and especially rivers and waterfalls. Does anyone have suggestions for this (preferably with C# support)?

 

I can recommend Aquas for inland lakes and rivers (though waterfalls are not currently supported) https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/52103. Although, to get the river flow to match the direction, you would need a tool such as EasyRoads Pro, however the developer does mention in his forum how to do this manually without the need of a 3rd party tool.

 

It came from the beta copy I gave you - beta because its not been cleaned up for release yet - import unity standard Effects package before you import Gaia.

I don't believe so. Next release of Gaia comes with 2k sample textures. You can always just downgrade them in Unity itself by clicking on the textures and changing the settings.

Depends on whether you are targeting older or more recent mobile, and there are so many factors at play. My suggestion is to do some searching on mobile optimisation in Unity.

In Gaia spawn rules you have the ability to set an instance count, and Gaia will not exceed this when spawning, so you can choose how many trees you want to place in your scene.

To control grass - also a performance killer - you can lower detail density in the terrain settings on your terrain - as well as lower detail distance.

 

Tip of the day!

This came from @tomaszek the author of RTP via @ZenMicro so I thought I would share it here.

There are many times working with terrain where I have seen this flickering - and its incredibly annoying. The answer is in the Shadow Bias on your light source. Just increase the shadow bias until the flickering issue goes away.



So i just checked this in a fresh project - with a plain directional light in editor mode (lighting is deferred linear) looking down you can see the annoying flicker / crappy lines effect. Check the bias - I set it to zero to make it worse.



So without changing the view point I adjusted the bias until the effect went away.



And here is a little shot of the environment I just created to test it - all done with assets included in the next release of Gaia.

 

Looks awesome! Gonna check it out for sure, after i finished my exams in 2 weeks

 

tip of the day indeed

 

thanks mate,.. that helped

Thanks mate that helped a lot

 

Thanks, I'll look into this one.

 

Thanks Adam.

I was probably not clear enough in the description of my target platform. I'm aiming to do a stand-alone game for PC with decent specs, so Mobile optimisation is not a factor for me. Just wondering how dense a forest I could create in my PC-game. I guess I'll just give it a shot

 

Comming to a Unity store near you I believe http://www.veagames.com/#!landscape-auto-material/v642z

NOT cheap tho, but looks great

 

Be interesting to see how it looks in Unity - and whether or not they are doing any custom shaders.

 

I wish you would stop posting. Now I have to buy birds.........

 

Lol!
I'm trying to get evolving the Stuffs! Guilty i am

Btw, that Birds are cheap, great and so easy to use!

 

I have been watching this thread and decided to take the plunge. Just bought Gaia and cant wait to dive in. I understand the new update will make this asset even more amazing. Will be checking in often

 

Welcome and be sure to post screenshots of your progress, it's always great to see different perspectives.

 

Awesome asset, very useful!

 

OK... so i have been head down working on finalising the release... and one of the things I wanted to improve was the ability of the spawner to place interesting points of interest into your scene.

Cobus of 3DForge was kind enough to provide some of the new props from his Village Exteriors Kit - and even though I am not quite finished with it yet - the results are pretty impressive!

These props and POI (Points of Interest) will also be supplied free of charge in the next release

 

Looks like another cool feature. I like that term 'points of interest'. I wonder if that is the same as 'coordinates of interest' or is it something like the camera pointing at a particular spot on a terrain which contains an 'object of interest', or a 'person of interest' (NPC)?

 

Looks like they plan to release in February. They mention it can be applied "by hand, or apply masks from World Machine (or any other terrain generator)." I see a possible Gaia tie in...
But yes, pretty pricey. It would need to add a LOT to the game, above and beyond what Gaia is already doing, to justify buying. And it would need to do it without impacting performance, which I've read might be an issue. Still worth keeping an eye on though.

 

Lots of problems with Landscape auto material. They might want to fix their unreal version first. It's just not useable from a performance perspective. No colliders on the rocks, you just walk through them. Very limited in scope as well (forest scene, you have to hand craft everything).

Pretty though. Comes with some very nice assets.

Ideally, Gaia will add some shaders like those. Maybe get some water and good tree assets included as well. Maybe hire a unity programmers to consult on the shader? I think Gaia can get all those without upsetting the ecosystem.

At some point, people are going to always want to do more if they're serious.

 

Yup, had to buy those too. They look great.

 

Having come from UE4 myself and having used LandscapeAutoMaterial, I can say it does require quite a bit of work to have it run performance-wise. It's eye-candy and it's breathtaking but it's definitely not meant to run "out-of-the-box" in any situation. LOD is a big issue and I've lost many an hour to it.

But, yeah, pretty.

 

@S4G4N , is there any chance you could have a 24 hour sale pretty please, say next Thursday for your interiors and exteriors packages? I missed out at Christmas time as my son "needed" an X box one with Halo 5 first!

These packages are just what I need.

 

Some more playing (on my "off" time ) with custom terrain shaders, Gaia, and Tenkoku...

 

Really pretty!!

 

Look ma.. no hands Naughty wood piles!!

Am wrestling with providing more capability at the cost of more complexity - or less capability and less complexity.

 

And Fixed

 

Finally grabbed it, cheers for a great asset Adam

As for RTP, i love it and i'm pretty familiar with it, havent used the leaner update yet (unity pbr, cutting out the noise and UBER's snow have me sighing in relief although i'm mainly interested in the new triplanar standalone) but i'm happy to answer any questions regarding its use

 

GREAT!!!
I can see this going down a great path of procedurally doing realistic looking lived in look & feel points of interest.

Cheers
Cobus

 

Can you do.. more capability with less complexity?

 

Awesome! Nice to see you back again

 

Cobus (3DForge) and I just had a great chat - even more collaborative goodness coming your way soon.

I decided to add some more complexity - but not a lot - most of it auto configures - so the flexibility will be there for those that want to dive under the covers and get their hands a little dirty.