IndieEffects: Bringing (almost) AAA quality Post-Process FX to Unity Indie

Well at least I didn't have much on the project I was doing so i just copied most of what I had to another project and updated unity. it works now.

 

Cool!

 

Huh? it won't export? does it fine on my machine!

And Cyrien got it working with a rendering modification, according to him. so for true HDR, you would need to somehow produce a buffer that renders values greater than 0..1 range in indie.

 

And yes, there have been problems with needing to update unity to use my effects. I am now going to provide both a .zip and a .unitypackage for download: the .zip is for all versions, but requires you check the dependencies first. the .unitypackage has all dependencies done for you, but it requires you have the latest version of unity to use it.

 

And by dependencies, i mean needing to set the parameters manually!

 

I can't export my stuff with in the temp that my computer melts; because exporting that google drive demo on page 13 made my computer like 55-57ºF so way over 100ºF. That is just too hot.

 

why on earth would it do that? my computer is very low end, (and that is core i3 and intel hd graphics!) and it exports webplayers without temperature problems!

 

When I am building a project or lightmaps my computer gets about 58-62C. UDK building: 60-72C. Scary stuff. The CPU stays at 100% and it gets hot. Clean the fan and replace the thermal paste on the CPU once in a while. That helps with mine.

 

No clue, at all.

 

Mine's an iMac, can't even open it up...

 

Mine's a school laptop, not allowed to... But i do occasionally open it up and blow the dust out of the fans, believe me, a lot of dust gets into a laptop fan!

 

My imac probably has way too much dust in it. Wait! Your school gives you laptops?!?!?!?!?!

 

Does it work with unity free?

 

This is the point if the package, of course it works with unity free!

 

Overheating is a common problem with older iMacs. My earlier imac (2011 or 2012 model) started to overheat after one year of use. Heat raised up to 90 degrees of celsius (secondary heatsink) and that is a lot!

Now i got new model (last year) and temperatures stays really low, but then again i'm not sure if i can trust the numbers from sensors: ambient temperature sensor gives only 15c while room temperature here is like 25c. I dunno, perhaps they got some sort of thermoelectric cooling system nowadays?

Anyway, you might want to use fan controller app to add some rpm at least for harddrive, cpu and gpu fans. Older imacs fan speed is forced to 1000 rmp, while they can go up to 4000-7000 rpm. How stupid it might sound, i'm pretty sure Steve Jobs have told the engineers to force fan speeds down because the noisy iMac is not an option. And believe me, noise is loud when you set fans to max. Good thing is, about 20-40% boost seems to drop temp from >90 to around 50 celsius.

If you cant use fan speed controller for some reason, you can always try what other people have find helpful:

 

Thank you for this super detailed report, and that unconventional solution to the overheating problem. My iMac is relatively old and I have the fan at around 1842 rpm using smcFanControl.

 

@Eric2241: Yes, My school gives the students laptops! only problem with that is, when they give a new grade laptops, it is usually the most up-to-date model they reeled in the year before, so guess what happened to me? I got what I thought was a powerful laptop, (it's the one I develop IndieEffects on now) but then, twoyears later... THE YEAR 8's GOT A CORE i5 LENOVO LAPTOP AND I AM STUCK WITH A CORE i3!

Anyway... at least it gives me a good platform to optimize on, as a lot of games don't optimize for my laptop all that well. it also means if it will run on my laptop decently, a more modern machine will be flawless!

 

My high school doesn't give out anything but papers as far as I'm aware of, which means I'll just have to buy my own for 9th grade. As for my optimization computer I've got a dell inspiron 580 thats like 4 or 5 years old. It was good for an entirety of a month, at most.

 

Well, at least you're lucky, it means you get to pick what's in it, rather than get year-old tech from the school. (happens all the time over here, they were introducing ivy bridge and SSDs when my laptop came home, and it still has a mechanical drive and a sandy bridge core i3)

@chelnok: Apple actually limit the fan speeds? those idiots! no wonder most iMacs are quiet as a mouse...

But sitting on a jet engine is better than a burning motherboard...

 

Yep, they limit it to a default of ~960 rpm.

 

Fuzzyquills, how much fps run my ssao in full screen ? Because as i know, ssao is a recent effect and needs a little power so i'm curious to see how it runs on integrated chipset (you have the i3 chipset or an old gma ?)

 

wait your in 9th grade? wow I thought you were in college or older. How do you have time to do all this with school? I'm going to 9th grade too and I barely had any time to work on my project with all the homework. what school do you go to?

 

yep I'm going to 9th grade. I'm on summer vacation right now, so I have more time.

 

same here just working on my game when I have the chance but summer homework has been getting in the way...
and then I have camp which is going to stop me from getting any good work done.
also have you noticed that the indie effects package has gotten more efficient, I just realized that almost all the effects only lower my max fps in my scene(it doesn't dip below the lowest amount of fps) at least in the small editor

 

@thetoxicuser: ...and it performs even better in a standalone player! I even tested this myself!
I also have sort of a problem to share: make sure to have your game draw your scene in under 250 draw calls when using the next version: for some reason, rendering a second cam in the background ups them!

@Cyrien5100: your SSAO runs at about 40fps on my intel chipset on the default settings. as for my dell mini 9's gma 950, though, it only has shader model 2, so it wouldn't show it at all...

 

with fullscreen, it goes all the way from 60-70fps to 15-27 fps which is a big problem for me.....
also 250 draw calls might be a problem. I have 2736 draw calls when viewing my entire scene which is not going to work. any help on how to lower the draw calls?

 

Well, I could try using only one camera, that would drop them. also, a question: are you using a terrain? I have found terrains have a bad track record for reducing framerate with this package.

and what's the fullscreen resolution? too high can result in a performance drop. the new pack aims to at least allow 720p maximum res with good framerate, whereas the one you're using is the older version which was only really good for 640x480 to function efficiently!

 

Is the new version out?

 

Nope... still finishing up everything!

 

Alright, i'll be adding in a overlay effect then.

 

, same with me

 

No im not using a terrain. would you like to try the scene for yourself and see if its better for you?

 

Cool, nice logo by the way!

 

@thetoxicuser: that would be great... so yes, if possible, upload your scene and I will test it.

 

do you want a webplayer or download, I haven't made a webplayer before so not sure what to do.

 

heres a link to the standalone: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0wmyq43oa1f18w/New Unity Project 1_1.rar

also I will be going away tomorrow for two weeks so i won't be able to reply to any questions you have unless I get them today.

Edit:
warning it is a big file might take a while.
press ESC to quit.

 

It LAGS, but that's some good graphics! How did you get that stream?

 

And that is a MASSIVE file! Downloading now...

 

sorry it has my whole project in it(took an hour to upload) but only part of a scene also textures are huge.... probably should have compressed them all to 1024. enjoy! also sadly I'll have to wait to hear your response since I'll be away in new york the part where it's just wilderness and no wifi or 3g or 4g or any g's......

forgot to say to quit the game press esc.

 

it was on the asset store I have no experience with particles. I haven't even read the documentation yet. and sorry about the lag too many draw calls I need to limit geometry and texture size and also redo the stair area which looks ugly right now but will soon look realistic. the final version will be a 2.5d platformer(move in 2d geometry 3d) so depth of feild will be neccessary.

 

Hey thetoxiciuser. Because of my internet I have to limit how much I can download. Can you post some screenshots when you get back from your trip. Want to see your work. Have a good trip.

 

I like your profile pic, where is it from. And if it's an asset where did you get it?

 

Thanks. Have not had a profile pic and just grabbed this from my drive. It is the icon for the Coconut Palm Tree Pack I am selling on the Asset Store.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7888

 

Its Alive!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pzdl1obl0u76z4z/Screenshot 2014-07-18 10.27.03.png
Ingore the leaking on the top and bottom of game view, that is just an issue that occurs mostly with unity pros render textures.

Performance Test - On my iMac mid 2010 with AMD Radoen 5670 512MB
No Image Effects 81fps - 86fps
Ambient Obscurence 40fps - 42fps (and looks ugly)
Standard Unity SSAO 29fps - 18fps (looks better than ambient obscurence)
My SSAO 81fps - 74fps (surprisingly really fast and looks way better).

Now I'm still working on the SSAO as an pro image effect but don't worry it I will port it to indie effects.

 

A core i3 isn't bad, a lower number like i5 and i3 against an i7 doesn't mean they are bad. however one of them may cost a more then another but still there better then having an intel atom or lower (one of the cheapest and bad ones).
And also I'm probably guessing your laptop costs 150$ - 200$, you can build a PC that can beat a entry grade iMac or even the high end macs under 800$ or under 600$ that can run crisis 3 on high settings.

 

It isn't too bad though the older i3s vs older i5s have a bigger performance spread so to speak.

 

Custom shader?

 

yessssssss

 

Cool cool cool

 

You are literally the most amazing 12 year old ever...All I can do is write Java, C# (Microsoft java), and JS. But you can do shaders AMAZING. How do you do it, shaders require large amounts of advanced mathematical knowledge.