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

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by AdamGoodrich, May 21, 2015.

  1. magique

    magique

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    I'm just reporting back some more information on my idea of using Real Imposters LOD combined with Smart LOD. I found that the Real Imposters asset is fantastic and does exactly what it's supposed to do. It really helps with performance for having distant objects as nice billboards automatically. However, I had issue with the Smart LOD system and just to get them to work together was going to take more custom scripting and some overhaul on the way Smart LOD works. I've decided to take the plunge and get World Streamer, which will give me better control over loading/unloading objects not in range. And the Real Imposters LOD system will just work out-of-the-box with it.

    For the record, it was easy to just add the Imposter script to prefabs and then have Gaia spawn them and it works. So, definitely a recommended asset.
     
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  2. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    Hey there,

    They are a really great way of giving more contents in an easy way to all package owners.
    They in small thematic batches, so you can download and archive them an only pull into your project the ones that you need.
    There are also some that has Village Interiors & Village Exteriors as combo BLUEPRINTS, so you can slap these down as completed small solutions in the form of POI's

    Any one of them can be used to make new POI's yes and with specifically FarmSets01 and the more complex ones that is included with Gaia v1.5.0

    I am sure like with the v1.0.0, many tutorial vids will come to display the setting up of these so that users can start to compile there own libraries of POI's that suits their own game world/project.

    all you need to have is own the packages, then you import the downlaoded BLUEPRINTS and they will neatly sit in their own directory so that you can cleanly remove the ones you dow't want in your project space anymore

    Cheers
    Cobus
     
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  3. magique

    magique

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    @Cobus, thanks for all the information. I've been sitting on the fence for a while now and not getting a solution for my interiors/exteriors. I've had my eye on your assets as well as one other in particular. However, seeing all the amazing free upgrades you have planned, your integration with Gaia, and the great sale you have going on, I am finally going to move to get these. I'll be picking up both the interiors and exteriors kit sometime during the sale period.
     
  4. mantekkerz

    mantekkerz

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    Anyone any ideas why I never get water? I had this in v1 too. Kinda hoped it might magically disappear with 1.5 but still not there. I can see the water plane in the editor when I'm creating my terrain, so I know where to expect it, but it never seems to actually get rendered. Loving the new Utah Mesa stamp.

    Also, I know multi piece terrain is not intended to be supported yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any tips or ideas on workflow for this. I guess my main concern would be keeping continuity between tiles. Any thoughts?
     
  5. tapticc

    tapticc

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    Hi, slightly off topic but I'm trying to keep performance really high for my new game, the Stats window FPS count seems to be quite different to the standard asset FPS script, which should I believe?! It feels smooth to play but I'm unsure on why the figures would be so different :)

     
  6. tapticc

    tapticc

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    When you add the water component I think it's just a small plane, you have to resize and position it?
     
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  7. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    That's a great way to know if an asset you already own is Gaia compatible, but it would still be good to maintain a list of assets that have specific Gaia enhancements, as a buyer's guide if you will. We all know that certain unscrupulous types might take advantage of the "Gaia Compatible" logo, when they've really done nothing to earn it. Anyone can slap that on a product ATM, but only @AdamGoodrich can add those products to an "approved" list. Such a list would mean any "Gaia Compatible" products would need to be tested and approved by Adam before claiming the only certification that mattered - a place on the list. Since this logo allows vendors to trade on Adam's good name, and the respect that he's worked hard to earn from this community, it's only fair that he has a say in who can use it.

    I'm downloading the new version now, and looking at a few of the "Gaia Compatible" products that have been extensively discussed here already as well. It's been a long time coming, but now that it's here, I anticipate I'll be completely reworking ALL of my terrain assets in the coming weeks to take advantage of some of these great new features. Thanks and congrats to everyone involved in this new release. :)
     
  8. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    You need to import the environment std asset to get water.

    I simulate it in Gaia purely to visualise where it is in relation to your terrain.
     
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  9. jonfinlay

    jonfinlay

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    Any ideas what could be causing a 'flickering'/'clipping' of terrain when the player moves? Part of the terrain vanishes, never noticed this before.
     
  10. tapticc

    tapticc

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    Is it a dark flickering on terrain you can see (tweak the bias settings in the lighting area) or is it the distant terrain appears as you move towards it (camera far clipping maybe?)
     
  11. jonfinlay

    jonfinlay

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    The terrain disappears completely, I've got the far clipping at 59,000 for the horizon, but its the same at 2048. But I'll have another look at the clipping, must be related somehow, thanks.
     
  12. mantekkerz

    mantekkerz

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    Whoops! :eek: Completely forgot about that, thought I already had it in my project but it was a seperate water package from a old environment pack.

    Cheers.
     
  13. magique

    magique

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    Is this so we can use them with something like ats Colormap Ultra?
     
  14. jonfinlay

    jonfinlay

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    Here is my savannah at sunset. Amazing what the correct lighting can do, especially around the sun. All-in-all very pleased with the new version of Gaia and appreciative of all the hard work that's gone into it. Particularly the noise and rigged mask for the textures which I had requested some time ago, and also the ability to deactivate all rules in the GameObject Spawner rather than delete each one individually, which took ages. So big thanks to Adam and the testers for doing a fine job!

    Grab 20160222175639 w1900h1200 x0y32z65r180.jpg
     
  15. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Yep its generally a handy thing to have if you have other assets that needs them - i will make a patch release in the next week based on what I see this week (hopefully not to many bugs) with a grass splat map exporter as well.

    Doh... firing up my list of things to do again :)
     
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  16. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    You did this already - awesooome :)
     
  17. magique

    magique

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    Awesome. I tried Distingo, but no sure it's going to be what I need in the long haul so I definitely want to try Gaia 1.5 with ats Colormap Ultra. And I never had a convenient way to get the proper maps to make it work. So, a big thanks for these new exporters.
     
    S4G4N likes this.
  18. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

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    gaia_2_rev.jpg First 1/2 hour really impressive.
     
  19. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Hard to say - that performance even in the unity stats seems incredibly low for an empty scene - something seems wrong. You terrain textures seem off as well.
     
  20. tapticc

    tapticc

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    Thanks, do you mean off colour wise or tiling wise?
     
  21. runningbird

    runningbird

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    How do you get any work done Adam whoa just walking around the levels are amazing.
    Grab 20160222154710 w1900h1200 x-408y165z-629r305.jpg Grab 20160222154529 w1900h1200 x-235y163z-525r196.jpg
    Grab 20160222145431 w1900h1200 x185y204z-270r48.jpg
     
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  22. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Awesome - I talk it you like the POI then - they are made from a small subset of @S4G4N / 3DForge Village Exteriors Kit - he and @TerrainBuilder assembled them for the release - i just bought em to life - and they are super cool - one of my favourite features of this release :)
     
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  23. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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  24. tapticc

    tapticc

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    Managed to get over 200fps when using smaller window size and turning off certain quality settings so just got to find the balance now
     
  25. judah4

    judah4

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    Hi, now that the giant 1.5 update is done, is there a roadmap for multiple terrain editing? I really love Gaia but I kind I want to be able to seamlessly match terrains with it. Is there any workflow I can follow for the time being using multiple terrains with Gaia?
     
  26. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Heyas @judah4! Long time no see! I remember you from back when I was in Christian's skype chat for the photon framework.. :)

    Multiple terrain support is the next big thing on the roadmap. Unfortunately it is going to be another big update, so it might be a few months before full support is in there. Adam has talked about trickling the next updates out over time, so not really sure how he plans to do that. Might be the multi-tile comes out in several releases over time, if that is something that he can map out to work in that way.

    I started a tutorial on using Sectr a couple pages back in this thread. I'll dig out the link and add it to my signature. I need to get the next part of it done and posted. The basic gist of it is creating one huge terrain and using a grid (which I'm doing using Sectr Terrain from Complete - not sure which of the smaller packs it is from). Then I stamp the terrain based on the grid and once I have finished stamping, I use Sectr to slice the terrain using the grid. Afterwards, I will run all my spawning on individual tiles using Sectr to load and unload the tiles. Then in game, I will use Sectr Stream to create the feel of a seamless environment.

    Hope this helps while you wait for the multi-tile. Good to see ya!

    EDIT: Added link to siggie.. Just click the [Part 1] link... will add other parts to that line and also go back and link all the parts at the bottom of each post in the series
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2016
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  27. ateanna

    ateanna

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    Hi I just downloaded Gaia during the Madness Sale in the Asset store. When I imported the package, there were errors. I did not do anything else besides clicking the import button. I'm quite new to unity and to scripting, and don't know what to do with these scripting errors. Can anyone help me? I don't want my $30 to go to waste. Thanks!
     

    Attached Files:

  28. Daniel-Talis

    Daniel-Talis

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    First read the documentation in the documentation folder. 'Quick Start.pdf' will get you going.
     
  29. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Hi @ateanna... The speedtree errors, simply go to the speedtree models and click on the regenerate button at the bottom of the inspector for each tree.. Been a while since I did this but I think clicking once on the error will highlight the tree in your workspace.

    The other errors, I'm not sure about. Did you import the required Unity standard assets packs as well? It almost looks like one of the scripts maybe didn't import all the way or something. Try right clicking on the Scripts folder that is within the Gaia folder in your project, then click Reimport. Sometimes I get similar errors when I'm going back and forth between Unity and Visual Studio.

    Unity version, OS you are running on computer, and what build platform you have Unity set for is always a huge help when reported problems. :)
     
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  30. TeagansDad

    TeagansDad

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    I've made some progress on my performance issues with the SpeedTrees and I wanted to share it with the rest of you. If you remember, I'm going with more of a top-down camera perspective, so I wanted to spawn my trees as Game Objects rather than as part of the terrain so that the colliders on the trees don't mess with my camera or with the player selecting a navigation destination on the terrain.

    @AdamGoodrich suggested that I delete some of the excess colliders on the SpeedTrees. What I ended up doing was moving all of the CollisionObjects that are part of the SpeedTree prefabs out of the root prefab and into the LOD0 mesh. The colliders are never going to come into play on anything other than the LOD0 mesh anyway. I also deleted the small branch colliders on the Broadleaf tree and enlarged the radius of the colliders on the leafy areas.

    Which brings me to the next part: I discovered this very cool new asset called Ultimate See-Through that has given me trees that fade when they get between the camera and the player.

    So if I rotate the camera such that the tree blocks the view of the player:




    Or if I run behind a tree:




    It will fade the object over as many frames as you want it to, plus you can set the degree of transparency per material. I've made the leaves almost totally transparent (5%), as if the camera is positioned near the top of the tree looking down, there will be 3 or 4 meshes of leaves overlapping and even 20% opacity isn't enough to not obscure the player.

    I've got Gaia spawning 400 trees that can fade when they block the camera, with little performance impact. (Still dealing with the performance impact of those 400 trees, which is better than before -- but the game doesn't run noticeably slower with Ultimate See-Through running.) Still planning to have my camera avoid collision with the buildings and terrain, but doing so with the trees makes the camera move too much too quickly, so fading is my preference.
     
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  31. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia has been tested with 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 with zero errors - there is 1 warning I am aware of in 5.3. I will need to learn more about your project to understand why you are seeing this issue. There is most likely a clash with another asset - but there is not enough information to work out what the issue is from the screen shot provided.
     
  32. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    My first task is to take a day off :) I can't remember when I last had one - its been such a massive amount of work to get 1.5 out. The next major work on Gaia will be to make it multi tile enabled.

    The 1.5 release of Gaia will allow you to work on one tile at a time - so set your tiles up and disable the ones you are not currently working on. If you are going over tile edges then you will also need a stitching tool - there are some in the asset store. Its a bit tedious doing it this way - but still infinitely better than doing it all by hand.
     
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  33. TeagansDad

    TeagansDad

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    You guys haven't seen tedious terrain stitching unless you've stitched together terrain nodes in the Dungeon Siege engine, one node "door" at a time -- and without being able to see what you are stitching it to. :cool:
     
  34. judah4

    judah4

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    Oh, hey. I barely recognized you. Okay, that sounds fine. I have a bunch of terrain tiles made and I was stitching them together with my own system but the way Gaia works it would be best to do it in the system. I guess I'm not feeling up to reconfiguring my stitching system to work with Gaia.
     
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  35. judah4

    judah4

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    Have a good day off! I guess I can wait a bit more. I had a way to stitch terrains with my realtime terrain editor I was trying to build so I guess i can borrow from that and try to get it working with Gaia.
     
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  36. FractalCore

    FractalCore

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    I hate to be a downer, but the Gaia asset I'm downloading off the Asset Store is thoroughly wrecked. I've downloaded the 910mb file three times. It downloads fine but on import it gets about 10% done then gives me this error...

    Failed to import package with error: Couldn't decompress package
    UnityEditor.Web.JSProxyMgr:DoTasks()

    One time I managed to import it somehow and half of it's missing, no speedtree textures, no Gaia option in the Window menu, etc. Weird.

    This is on Windows 7 and Unity 5.3.2f1. Also this is into a new empty project. Originally I was importing into a project that already contained the Characters, Effects, and Environment assets like was advised here earlier. Still bad.

    I'm sure it's some kind of asset store problem (or something on my end) since others here have been using it. Just wondering if anyone else has had these problems, so I know I'm not crazy :)
     
  37. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Not really sure what to do with that - its a Unity thing - i have successfully downloaded and used on a number of different computers - mac and pc. Curious as to how other people have solved this.
     
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  38. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    Thanks sharing these images.
    There has been tons of showcasing the Village Exteriors Kit buildings and prefabs from a 3rd person and FPS perspective but now so good looking Top Down images as well.

    I specifically provide all my assets to be able to work for any of them and not sell separate packs.

    Great work you doing here :)

    Cheers
    Cobus
     
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  39. KingLlama

    KingLlama

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    It seems i'm running into a issue getting the new 1.5 in my project. Once I try to import it, it shows this in the console.

     
  40. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    What happens if you install into a clean project. Looks like you have a lot installed in that one. Installing in a clean project will tell if you have an issue with Gaia or a conflict somewhere. If Gaia works in clean project, install other code assets one by one until you figure out what is causing the problem. I've had this happen with other assets in the past and had to do this. Not with Gaia but pre-Gaia. That is one of the problems when you go and start mixing a bunch of assets from a lot of different folks. ESPECIALLY if they didn't use namespace definitions within their code.
     
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  41. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Which build type are you using? I noticed the UnityEditor.Web in the error. Is it a Web Build? Sometimes what platform you are building for can make a difference. A screenshot of the error with a view of your project can also help sometimes see things that might be there to cause a problem.

    I'm on Windows 7 x64 with Unity 5.3.1f1 with Standalone build for windows and not having any errors at all. I also see a lot of people in a lot of different asset thread complaining about issues with 5.3.2, so wondering if it may be a 5.3.2 issue?
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2016
  42. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Cant really help here either - that code is not part of Gaia. Looks like some Unity debug code.
     
  43. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I have tested on 5.3.2p2 with no issues... this looks like another unity package management issue.

    Some suggestions from a Cobus - the king of large downloads (@S4G4N). Go to where the file is downloaded in Unity and delete it and any other version that may be there. The start the download again fresh and download. This should sort any package issues out.

    On my Windows 10 machine this is : C:\Users\{your user name}\AppData\Roaming\Unity\Asset Store-5.x\Adam Goodrich\Editor ExtensionsTerrain
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2016
  44. S4G4N

    S4G4N

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    Just to add to that,

    I use Eset's NOD32 anti virus and firewall software, and when I unpack large asset packs, disabling the firewall component for 5 minutes, removed that problem for me as well as makes the time it takes most cases less the 1/2 the original time.

    Cheers
    Cobus
     
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  45. FractalCore

    FractalCore

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    It's PC Standalone.

    This is what I did, that's how I know the package is 910mb. Downloaded it three times.

    It wouldn't surprise me at all if it's a problem with this version of Unity. There's been issues from day one. I'll download the Patch release (5.3.2p2, same as you) and see if that helps. There's a newer one but I don't care at this point, there'll be another new one in a few days probably. And I want to minimize the things that could be going wrong here.
     
  46. FractalCore

    FractalCore

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    Oh yeah, and after I quit when it fails to unpack, I get one of these bad boys...

    Clipboard-1.jpg

    That's on the way out of Unity before it brings up the Unity Bug Report.
     
  47. OUTER-GAMER

    OUTER-GAMER

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    Hello Adam! Can you explain how this method works for paint texture? We use the flow map as a splatmap? Thanks
     
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  48. FractalCore

    FractalCore

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    Ok, well this is embarrassing... You're gonna laugh.

    My hard drive was full o_O

    One of those things... 2 terabytes finally ran out and I hadn't noticed it was almost full.

    So yeah it unpacks now. Wizzo!
     
  49. tapticc

    tapticc

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  50. smada-luap

    smada-luap

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    :confused: :eek: o_O :rolleyes: :D

    Yup. That about sums up my reaction :) lol
     
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