--PolyWorld-- Low Poly Toolkits and More!

Well, I've been fixing a non-fatal bug in the color map calculation for the terrain. I managed to get it rendering more accurately than what is currently available. You guys might not notice a difference but it'll be 'more correct' so to speak.

I'm also compiling together the Android demo build and scene. The mobile demo scene will be included in the next update. The difference between this and the normal one is that meshes are combined and the world is lightmapped. Which brings me to my next point:

The next update will also have a updated version of the Mesh Combine script that is in the Urban Construction Pack. This is done and ready to go.

It's a good update with some nice extras, but I'd like to do some videos and imagery prior to publishing, so I'm aiming for Friday.

 

The terrain mesh gets rendered to OBJ so you can edit it in an external application. The downside is that the vertex colors aren't written to the file. I may investigate this for a future update, or just explain how to get the exact result inside 3D Studio Max.

 

Both of those export geometry and UVs only, but not the vertex colors.

 

thanks for the update and for keeping us all in the loop and for your efforts. we have not said this but your assets are really nice. i think its safe to say that everyone considers you and your work like one of the best of the best in unity asset store. basically you giving us the tools that many will use. and we all are here just waiting to see what you will do next.

 

ok im not in expert on this

so if obj file format is not acceptable, perhaps some other file format that unity could export to using publicly available scripts.

like i say im not expert, but hopefully the community will have a solution that we all could use.

it would be great to be able to export in the long term

in the short term i think your right on to focus on scripts used to generate terrain and meshes from existing terrains and meshes

and then to focus on asset packs... still good to have export so people could take whatever is generated into like blender and other editors for both mesh and textures editing outside and then be able to import it back.. sort of extended workflow that could be ironed out in the months to come

 

OBj and FBX are the only game in town. The obj format is an ascii file format. Just text, so it's the most flexible. The key thing is to know what flags need to be written in the obj file so the 3d app's importer knows to treat those values as color. So if Blender can't do it then it's of no use.

Looking at http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/21303/how-can-i-include-vertex-color-information-in-obj-files, the color values are just tacked on to the end of each vertex position. Shouldn't be too difficult. It won't make it in for this update but in the future, sure.

 

any thoughts on how this could be made into something like voxel where you can realtime add and remove facets and how you could buildup and destroy faceted game objects and terrains realtime.

so basically you want to deform the terrain or tunnel into the terrain or undo that and build up. think all the things you can do with voxel, but using faceted style terrain and objects


one thing i was going to try once the mesh to faceted mesh script comes out is create a faceted mesh from some mesh and then add some destruction script (i have number of them i got on unity asset store) and see if we can get faceted destructible objects going so they would shatter like faceted like breaking some crystal lattice, that would be so cool...

thanks!

 

also, in this video

we see some tabs

one of them i guess is polyworld script for the terrain

but we also see two other tabs

one that looks to be "ibl mat" but i cant make out the rest

and another one which looks to be "env. e" but i cant make out the rest

so what exactly is "ibl mat" (im guessing ibl material, but i could be wrong") and where do i get such a plug in / asset

and what exactly is "env e" and where do i get such a plug in / asset

thanks again, just trying to recreate all the stuff we see in your videos on this

 

Those are my personal dev tools. The IBL Manager just controls the image-based lighting intensity of all IBL materials in the scene. I have a completely different project that uses this tool.

PolyWorld projects (not just scenes) would mainly consist of 2, maybe 3 materials max. Changing the IBL intensity should be easy without the tool.

The Environment Editor is a front end to all the fog, ambient, sky, and directional light settings. They're all just bit shortcuts to the fragmented interface for Unity's environment settings.

 

release is out with script we all have been waiting for!

dude you are the man you said you were knocking it out this week and you burned the candle out doing so but you got it out to us and for that we are thankful!

 

i got a little something for everybody (ok for those like myself with unity indie)

the assets uses the Colorful post effects package to get the dreamy, reddish pink color remapping effect.

but if anyone goes over to the unity asset store page for that asset
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3842

one quickly learns that it only works for Unity Pro, well that sucks since most including myself wants the dreamy, reddish pink color remapping effect like the author has

so i went all out and pulled a little hat trick of my own. i got said asset working with Unity Indie using RenderTextures and some cpu time which kills the framerate by 50%, but hey i got the nice dreamy reddish pink color remapping effect that author has and my framerate is still not all that bad and if it is there is always Unity Pro...

so here is what anyone interested has to do.

1. get and import polyworld asset
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18572

2. get and import colorful image effects asset
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3842

3. get indie effects asset
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/in...uality-post-process-fx-to-unity-indie.198568/

4. add my little ChannelMixer.js script to the camera
(sorry that its in js, i know how horrible, on the right side at least it's not in visual basic)

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. @script RequireComponent (IndieEffects)
3. @script AddComponentMenu ("Indie Effects/Channel Mixer")
4. import IndieEffects;
5.  
6. private var mat : Material;
7. var shader : Shader;
8.  
9. public var redR : float;
10. public var redG : float;
11. public var redB : float;
12. public var greenR : float;
13. public var greenG : float;
14. public var greenB : float;
15. public var blueR : float;
16. public var blueG : float;
17. public var blueB : float;
18. public var constantR : float;
19. public var constantG : float;
20. public var constantB : float;
21.  
22. function Start ()
23. {
24.    mat = new Material(shader);
25.    mat.SetVector("_red", Vector4(redR * 0.01, greenR * 0.01, blueR * 0.01));
26.    mat.SetVector("_green", Vector4(redG * 0.01, greenG * 0.01, blueG * 0.01));
27.    mat.SetVector("_blue", Vector4(redB * 0.01, greenB * 0.01, blueB * 0.01));
28.    mat.SetVector("_constant", Vector4(constantR * 0.01f, constantG * 0.01 * 0.01));
29. }
30.  
31. function Update ()
32. {
33.    mat.SetTexture("_MainTex", renderTexture);
34. }
35.  
36. function OnPostRender ()
37. {
38.    FullScreenQuad(mat);
39. }
40.  

5. set

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. BlurShader in Indie Effects (Script) to MotionBlurAlphaBlended
3.  
4. make sure that Motion Blur in Indie Effects (Script) is unchecked
5.  
6. set Shader in Channel Mixer (Script) to Hidden/CC_ChannelMixer
7.  
8. set Red R to 80
9.  
10. set Red G to 40
11.  
12. set Red B to -7
13.  
14. set Green R to -7
15.  
16. set Green G to 102
17.  
18. set Green B to 27
19.  
20. set Blue R to 6
21.  
22. set Blue G to 13
23.  
24. set Blue B to 60
25.  
26. set Constant R to 4
27.  
28. set Constant G to 0
29.  
30. set Constant B to 17
31.  

6. run and watch before your very eyes in amazement the dreamy redisk pink colorful polyworld that you always wanted...


anyone seeking extra credit can simply replace use Indie Effects with a little script of their own. I mean why drag Indie Effects into it when all you really needs is just a few lines from Indie Effects base class.


cheers!

 

v1.5 is out! Grab it!​

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18572

v1.5:

• Added Mesh Combine script which is found in Window->Quantum Theory->Combine Meshes
• Added PolyWorld Mesh Converter which is found in Window->Quantum Theory->PolyWorld Mesh Converter
• Terrain color calculation is more accurate and has a warning dialog if gameview window is a bad size
• Mobile demo scene added.
• Shaders now use the IBL cubemap and reflection cubemap on mobile devices if supported.
• Added README!

Post your screenshots here!

 

Great !!! Thanks a lot Quantum Theory...

It works fine (until now). Even with the crazy Knot from the Primitives Pro asset.
Can't be easier to use. (Simply don't forget to add a texture to the object or prefab !)
Hope I can show screenshots soon...

6R

 

What kind of control does the script have (id est, granularity of color usage; being able to have fewer colors based on color contrast)?

-Steven

EDIT: Just saw there's a video explaining conversion linked in your Asset on the Store; watching now but still feel free to elaborate if you have more information

EDIT 2: Sorry one more question. Do you wholesale split ALL vertices or only at boundaries where colors are different? From the looks of it since you're also doing shading, that pretty much every face is made separate, and if so could this be an option (Keeping like colors grouped and welded which saves on vert count)?

 

Sure. More specifically, if there is a _Color property in the material, like all Diffuse materials typically have, that color is multiplied with the vertex colors when baking occurs. The "Brighten By Color" swatch in the script adds to the result.

If your model is too bright, darken it with the material color. If it's too dark, brighten it with the swatch in the script.

The vertices have to be broken to get correct shading and faceted colors. I could skip over the breaking but the result is actually pretty ugly. I can break the vertices but not facet the colors (ugly). However, I can't keep the model smooth and have faceted color.

 

If customers of Polyworld don't mind, please consider providing feedback in the store. It helps me and it helps prospective customers.

In v1.5, a Readme file is included in the root. Be sure to look it over!

 

No I know (I discovered Max vert painting doesn't translate to Unity without doing splits)...

...what I'm asking (which I guess you answered) is if you just split every vertex on a mesh, thus increasing the vert count by a factor of 3+/-?

Also, as per my initial question, could you add functionality to use fewer colors (a reduction), and remove the option to shade by angle or even allow for shading direction (top down)?

Thanks man

-Steven

 

Yes. In short, that's the only way to do this so it can be useful to most users.

If you increase the blur amount, there will be less color variance. There currently is no shading by angle. If you wanted to color based on a direction, this is better handled by external applications which allow you to paint a texture by normal direction.Then composite that into your diffuse texture, then bake the vertex colors through the script.

 

here is my hello world screenshot showing mesh and polyworld faceted mesh for the unity 3rd person controller



i set Blur Amount to Some

 

This looks really nice. Is the script also reducing Polygons?
Thanks!

 

hi


1. im converting a lot of meshes batch style and i ran into little problem im getting tons of

The shader assigned to the material named cars does not use the _MainTex and/or _Color variable. To fix, switch it to the standard Diffuse shader.
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)
QT_ConvertMesh:OnGUI() (at Assets/Quantum Theory/Polyworld/Editor/QT_ConvertMesh.cs:75)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

so please add a check box that allows us to default materials to diffuse shader or what ever shader is closest...

that would really be great way to do mass conversions of our meshes


2. also add check box that would allow skipping meshes that cannot be converted, but that would allow meshes that could be converted to be converted. you could just send to log file a list of the ones that failed and why.


3. change mesh convert to work like terrain convert where it adds the faceted mesh to hierarchy and gives way to toggle which one is rendered and to update the faceted mesh when the source mesh is changed.


4. where possible add options from terrain convert to mesh convert. mesh type (triangles, quads), resolution (full, half, quarter, eight, sixteenth), use associated mesh, hide associated mesh, hide mesh, auto bake vertex color, smooth vertex color, use custom shaders, bake vertex colors, chunk density, device mesh into chunks...


5. add combine faceted meshes to mesh convert so that the generated faceted mesh would be a combination of selected meshes


6. if possible add combine faceted mesh materials so that the generated faceted mesh would be a combination of selected mesh materials



7. what about having a convert scene script where you open and run the script and it converts the entire scene replacing all meshes and terrain with faceted ones and saving it as name of scene-faceted. and listing a list of game objects that could not be converted

thanks in advance

 

I don't like scripts replacing source data behind the scenes. I would have to make a permanent change to a material that some may not want. I'd rather inform the user and they can decide whether or not to make the change. It's also possible that the selection might have been made in error.

I considered this, but I decided it's better to do all or nothing. Having a mix of some and some that don't would more than likely create a useless prefab where some meshes would be missing. Then the user would have to track down and delete the bad data. I want to make things as easy as possible.

You can already do this manually, but imagine several hundred prefabs of buildings, crates, or other prefabs that are commonly duplicated in the scene all with the source and faceted version. Lots of redundancy and not really a clean way to work. Right now, all you need to do is drag in the source, unfaceted prefab and hit convert. All the duplicated, faceted prefabs would update on the spot.

The script doesn't reduce triangle counts. I am certainly not smart enough to venture into an intelligent polygon reduction algorithm when there are some excellent options already available. I'd have to raise the price of the packs for something that would ultimately be subpar.

The chunks functionality don't really apply to props and prefabs.Those terrain options are setup for an iterative workflow whereas the mesh converter is a one shot workflow. Your iteration on the model and texture data should be outside of Unity.

Sort of happening already. Submeshes are combined as they will all use the same material. If you're referring to combining meshes of separate gameobject selections, use the Mesh Combine script to do that.

Not sure I understand that one. Is that different from #5?

Depending on the scene, that could take quite some time to calculate. Are you sure that would be commonly used?

 

hi,

first let me start by saying thank you for the quick response to my post

just throwing some more ideas out, so its not a problem

i already started to write script that would convert a scene and partial convert of selected game objects is not that hard either.

what would be nice if your scripts exposed a public api that we all could use in our scripts instead of me having to cut and paste the code since there is really not an api that i could use. so u could have

PolyWorld.ConvertTerrain(source path, faceted path, options)
source path would point to terrain
faceted path would point to faceted mesh created
options would be any options used to convert specified terrain

PolyWorld.ConvertMesh(source path, faceted path, options)
source path would point to prefab to convert
faceted path would point to faceted prefab created
options would be any options used to convert specified prefab

PolyWorld.ConvertGameObject(source game object, faceted game object, options)
source game object could be terrain or prefab with mesh
faceted game object would be the game object it would create
parameters would be any options used to convert specified terrain / game object

the above should not be hard to do by refactoring the existing scripts.

and these
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/polyworld-for-unity.239365/page-3#post-1676176

 

Hi,
I've just tried mesh converter! My origin mesh has 330 verts - 370 tris. After convert to faceted mesh, verts increased a lot. Now, faceted mesh has 1130 verts - 370 tris. It not good for mobile performance! My scene now has about 200k verts. Is there any way to reduce verts of faceted mesh?

 

The way to reduce them is to reduce them on your source mesh. The vertex count purposely goes up because vertices are no longer shared between triangles.

Really, the increased vertex count is mostly a memory consideration. The performance tradeoff is favorable since the entire scene is now between 1 to 3 materials and entirely vertex colored. Then, set it to run in the vertex-lit rendering path and the framerate will be excellent. In conventional projects, it would take a monumental effort to get the material and draw call count this low. Also remember there are no textures to load except the sky.

This is even less of a consideration on ios devices, where the rate of upgrade is over 90%. Most iphone/ipad users have the latest device.

 

This week: PolyWorld sky and lighting pack. 13 faceted sky textures with accompanying IBL cubemap for ambient lighting. FREE FOR ALL!

 

WOW ! Thanks a lot...
6R

 

re: lighting / skies

WOW Thanks! Looking good!

 

hi please post some instructions on how to create water like you have it. thanks in advance!

 

Very nice. If I set it to run in the vertex-lit rendering path. Can I have lighting and shadows like in your picture?

 

Very cool

 

Lighting yes, but you can't do dynamic shadows in the vertex-lit rendering path. You'll have to bake the lighting.

 

Hey QuantumTheory,
I wan't to ask if your MeshToPoly conversion can be applied during runtime or if it is Editor only? I want to convert procedural (non-Unity) terrains and meshes.
Also since I don't need the Unity-terrain conversion and the woodland meshes I wan't to ask if you plan/consider releasing the mesh conversion script separately? Maybe it would be more consistent if you sell the base package and all the art assets/themes separately? This way you can update them independently and customers can purchase them modularily according to their needs.
Anyway, thank you for the awesome work!

 

It's currently editor-only. I'm sure it could be done at runtime but I have no plans on going down that road.

I consider a variety of options on how to sell the conversion script but decided including it in the toolkits would be the best option for the customer, not necessarily for me. It's better to inconvenience myself rather than those who enjoy my work.

 

@exiguous

i dont think that applying script realtime would be practical at least with the hardware that exists nowadays.

also the asset is really great well worth it, so much fun to play around with it.

@qt

please help with water

i put a plane and i added scripts to it but its not coming out like yours. so i have to roughen it or paint it and run it through some of your scripts before hand to get it the way u did it... so any chance you could add something on doing water the right way...

 

Here's the water terrain object that's currently in the demo scene. Unhide the SceneTerrain-Water gameobject, enable the terrain script, then hide the SceneTerrain-Water-Scene gameobject to follow along.



All I did was make a terrain object as small as needed. Adjusted the heights so it fit nicely to the terrain underneath. Sculpted waterfall..

For texturing, you'll notice the green grass around the edges of the water, little it of dirt beyond that, then just plain black for the deepest parts. White was painted at the base of the waterfall.

The reason it's colored this way is because the shader adds a reflection cubemap. To get pure reflection only, the diffuse color should be black (hence the deep parts). I painted green and brown for some water color variation. It's a neat way to fake the particulate matter inside the water. Be sure to use the Vertex-Lit/Reflective shader.

Next, the QT_SurfaceNoise script is added to the PolyWorld mesh gameobject. This whole thing is going to be replaced by gpu shaders in the future, but I'll explain it for now.

1. Scale is the size of the sinusoidal noise; the frequency.
2. Speed is how fast it scrolls.
3. Noise Strength is the size of the waves; the amplitude.
4. Update Frequency is how frequent the water is calculated in seconds.

This script is just an experiment and should only be used on desktops. It eats performance and will devour your framerate on mobile. Putting this in a shader will likely yield much better performance, but I'm not sure how mobile performance will be impacted.

 

amazing thanks, i'll try it on my map and see how it works out!

yes gpu shader for water would be very nice.

after skies

 

Visual prototyping has begun on the next themed pack. Tons of cool ideas coming down the pipe.

 

very nice, keep posting pictures...

also can't wait for skies and lighting to be added to release!

 

Hii,
i´ve seen your plugin and is really awesome,i would like to use it for my wii u project but i found some problems and i would like askig here before i´ll buy it.

1.-This plugin is for the last version of unity? (4.5) i ask it because the unity version the wii u developers use now is 4.2.2, Can i export the OBJ mesh model with their textures and shaders to blender, for example, and later export that model in FBX extension keeping all textures and shaders made with polyworld.

2.-Vertex-lit and fixed function shaders are not supported, in wii u dev, there is another way to import other type of shaders for example.?

cheers

 

1. PolyWorld requires Unity 4.3.2 or higher, but I don't see a reason why it couldn't work in 2.2. Right now, you can't export the models with color intact. I'll see about downgrading to 4.2, loading the project, and giving it a test. I have to push the Polyworld update with new lighting, so maybe this version will be 4.2

2. You can use Unity's standard vertex colored shaders and get very, very similar results. The only thing you'd miss is the ability to use cubemap ambient lighting and cubemap reflections.

 

It could be better to get a polyworld version for unity 4.2, meanwhile i can use it in unity 4.5 and import my OBJ models to Blender convert to FBX and import to unity 4.2.

cheers

 

i don't think polyworld is creating .obj files right now. last i saw it was .asset so i think author was going to add support for obj soon...

 

Polyworld writes OBJ files for the terrain only, and without vertex colors.

 

Is there any plan for mesh? If write mesh to obj files, I can use third party tool reduce verts after converted

 

For terrain, yea maybe. But for everything else you can't That's not how faceted lighting and color works. You'll be removing triangles if you do. The best way to reduce the vertex count is to reduce it on the model before conversion.

If you're using 3DSMax: In edit poly->subobject->vertices, select all the vertices and hit "break." Now try reducing the vertex count and you'll see what I mean. You'll end up resorting to vertex welding, then reducing, but then you're just back to the source model's topology.

 

Okay, thanks for your answer! Waiting for next update

 

hey update is out, come and get it, fresh off the grill, piping hot!

 

I will still have to investigate a 4.2 version.

 

I love the terrain script--been having a lot of fun trying different terrain approaches with it. I'm trying to use the object script and having some issues, though. I have an .fbx object with a simple diffuse material on it (one texture). When I convert it to Polyworld using the mesh script, I get a pure white object with no textures. And when I make a change and regenerate the mesh, it creates an all new one at 0,0 instead of replacing the existing one the way the terrain does. Am I missing a step? Thanks!