--PolyWorld-- Low Poly Toolkits and More!

Hi LaralynM. Sorry you're having some trouble. If you don't mind, please send me a unitypackage file with the FBX and texture to support@quantumtheoryentertainment.com.

 

Turns out it was user error! I've messed around with exporting and using mesh combine, and it works beautifully. Thanks!

 

Looks like I'm still having one problem: after combining the meshes and performing the faceting, one part of the model is solid black instead of vertex shaded. This also happens occasionally when working with terrains (and I haven't been able to figure out what makes it work or not work). I'm emailing you a .zip with the models and textures. Thanks!

 

I've been interested in creating some low poly environments for quite some time, but being new to 3D, I haven't had much luck finding tutorials. I am interested in Unity specifically for this toolkit, but with no knowledge of the terrain creation tools, I'm curious: can I create floating island environments similar to these?







I ask because I'm wanting to work with as few programs as possible and fear that I'll need to model the islands in another suite, to then import into Unity. With this asset kit, I feel as though I can reach my goals with Unity alone but want to make sure...

Thanks for any help!

 

i don't see why not, just takes a bit of playing around with the polyworld toolkit

did you see the videos and screenshots he did

oh and look at their eyes, are those killer antelope?

 

I watched the videos and even walked around in the demo but just wasn't sure if the terrain creation tools only allowed for a traditional, one-sided "ground" to be created.

 

Technically, it is possible but the process is a bit hacky in my mind. Both sides of the floating island are the same terrain object. The bottom one is actually just a mountain that is flipped. I would convert both terrains to PolyWorld, then meshcombine them. It's not a clean process but it works in my head. I haven't actually tried this.

Thinking more about it, the islands would have to be square.. Not really what you want.

You could always find the models online, or something that looks like them, then convert them to the faceted look using the script in the Toolkit.

In any case, that is a theme I plan on creating and publishing in the future. PolyWorld will have many packs to choose from over the course of the next 12 months.

 

@qt great to hear, bring on the packs...

@saucer78

there is an asset that will convert the terrain stuff to regular stuff

and then you could use polyworld terrain convert to convert the terrain

and use polyworld mesh convert to convert the other stuff

and there are also mesh paint programs that in asset store that do for mesh what terrain tool sort of does for trees and grass and other meshes...

so check out the wiki and the asset store, you maybe able to create some workflow that would convert your island until @qt comes up with something, if ever...

 

Thanks for the info guys. I'm also glad to hear there are more packs on the way.

One more question though: if I do convert the terrain to a regular mesh (or whatever the term may be) will I still be able to use the cave tools included with the pack? Can caves be created through any object, or must they be used on the terrain plane?

There's also the option of purchasing a floating island asset pack and then converting the islands to PolyWorld to keep a similar aesthetic: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14107

 

Here are some quick tests with Polyworld and some cartoon Islands(@saucer78)...
All is made within Unity3D ! No external 3D models !

6R

 

There are no cave tools, so to speak. Just ways of moving and snapping objects together to create a cave system. You can't delete polygons from the terrain if that's what you're referring to.

That Floating Islands pack looks like it would convert nicely.

 

I'm having a lot of fun with PolyWorld, but I'd like to take advantage of light baking as well to add depth to the scene. Is there a QT shader that behaves well with Beast? When using the QT/VertexColors/IBL/Diffuse shader I get the 'Material doesn't have a texture property '_MainTex' error.

Does this mean I should do all of my light baking before converting it to a polyworld mesh? That would make it progressively difficult to do things like make prefabs/tiles in the style and place them.

 

That's new to me. I baked the entire level with beast lightmapping using that shader for the mobile demo scene that's included in the pack. When are you receving the _MainTex error?

On a side note, Beast will not consider vertex colors for bounced light. "White" is used in its place.

 

Oh ok, I guess I misunderstood the means by which one creates caves with PolyWorld. I'll just have to purchase it and find out myself, since it looks like @p6r has figured out how to quickly (hopefully) create some independent floating islands.

Thanks again for the help - I'm excited to jump in!

 

I receive the error upon hitting the 'Bake' button. (Actually I receive about 50 of them in reference to multiple materials in the scene.)

The light bake seems to want to proceed afterward, but I have been cancelling it as opposed to waiting for the scene to finish, as the error seemed worth addressing.

 

Please make sure you're actually using the shaders that come with PolyWorld on all your assets.

What version of Unity are you using?

Also, send me an email at support@quantumtheoryentertainment.com with a unitypackage file of your scene that's causing the problem. The vertex shaders and cginclude should handle this as it does in all my scenes.

 

Using Unity 4.3.4f1.

All shaders set to QT shaders.

I'll upload the package in a while.

 

Is it possible to texture Polyworld meshes? I love the faceted style but I'd like to be able to make strategic use of textures for detailing. Even Timothy J. Reynolds, whos art this is inspired by will sometimes use textures to bring it out more.

One example would be some of the meshes here:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7032

Or these
https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/93129691/hd/991454ffec50febab84026119ac79af9.png

Or this, which makes very subtle use of texture...
http://www.turnislefthome.com/206630/2225255/3d-work-client/red-robot-labs-(game-concept)

 

Here is my answer after I have used the Mesh Converter script : (Wait and see what QT says...)


No Texture :




Quantum Theory "Texture" :




Original Texture from the free spider on the asset store :



6R

 

Here is another example (converted and textured) :



6R

 

Just a heads up on the mobile demo scene.
Total draw calls: 239
Iphone 4: using Advanced FPS Counter - 3 fps.

Can this be improved?

 

Tried to convert the free Unity Chan model and getting error in the conversion (Array Index out of range - while converting head_back) It also hanged Unity. Have to Kill unity to come in again. All textures have been converted to Advanced and the correct RGB or ARGB type.

Would be nice to have a graceful exit when the conversion fails so Unity doesn't hang.

 

Show us what she looks like.

 

wow your work is very nice so u use his script to convert and then u put back the original texture by using the original shader on the converted mesh, nice... lol new level of fun...

 

Thanks im...

Here I'm using the Toony Pro Colors shader (because I have it) but you can use another one like the included "Self-illumin" shader.
The most important is the size of the vertices : On too small vertices it doesn't work very well following my tests.

Example : The "big" vertices from the legs are visible. The small vertices on the helmet are less visible...



6R

 

Yes, by using Unity Pro's static batching and occlusion culling. LOD dropouts can be used as well.

Aside from Pro, make sure the vertex-lit rendering path is enabled. With a draw count that high and a framerate that low, I suspect it's set to forward.

The scene wasn't made for older mobile devices but quickly optimized to run at a decent framerate on modern phones. If I were to make a real scene, I wouldn't have such long sightlines and aim to occlude or drop-out distance objects.

I'm looking into Unity Chan.

 

It did not succeed in the conversion so there is not an output mesh.

 

I added support locally, but note you'll be multiplying the vertex color of the original with the color of the texture. The result will be very dark.

If you want faceted and textured, just use a standard diffuse shader on the converted model.

 

Couple things:
1. The script doesn't hang at all. It looks like it does because the progress bar stays visible, but unity is very much alive and kicking.
2. The script died because skinnedmeshrenderer components were adding to models that have no weights.
3. That's fixed in my local version, but now I see I need to write support for blendshapes.

Here is the Unity Chan output. Notice the face is missing because it uses blendshapes (morph targets).

So the next update will have:

1. Support for blendshapes. (canceled due to lack of support in Unity. I'll instead use meshrenderer/meshfilter)
2. More misc checks prior to conversion.

Thanks for your patience. Characters can be authored in many different ways, so sometimes I might miss support for a certain iteration. It's like whack-a-mole..

 

More on blendshapes:

I did some research and to my dismay found that as of Unity 4.5 it is impossible to add blend shapes to a mesh inside the editor. Duplicating a mesh and even using CombineMeshes causes blend shape data to be lost. There is a request to add this feature here:

http://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/expose-blend-shape-vertex-data

I can't add support for blendshapes unless Unity exposes the data, or allows you to create blendshapes inside the editor. I can extract the meshes of each blend shape, but I can't reconstruct the arrays used in the skinnedmeshrenderer.

Vote it up if you want this feature. Sorry guys. I will update the script and the assetstore documentation accordingly.

*edit* Oh btw, as long as the mesh with the blendshapes is linked to a bone, the model will convert over just fine. Just blendshapes will not carry over. I have this working with Unity Chan.

 

voted...

 

Love this polygonal visual style. I think it works best when used for organic shapes. Not so interested in the buildings to be honest, they look pretty `normal` in their low-poly flat-sided versions.. almost like it's still too accurate ... I love the trees and landscapes and rocks etc more.

 

On this page you can discover my actual work using the fantastic Polyworld plugin + Megabook :

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/my-paperworld-3d-book.257290/

6R

 

Now that's cool! Nice work!

 

v1.55 is now uploaded.

I added some checks for correct material setup. Also added a failsafe conversion method for meshes with blendshapes (Unity Chan should now convert).

 

Thanks QT...
It was so kind of you to add the convert script to allow us to make such creations.
6R

 

Here is a quick test : ;-)

 

Here is the full version of my book :

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/my-paperworld-3d-book.257290/#post-1705896

6R

 

Here is a picture with a floating island :
(I have "traced" the Cloud textures from the free Sky FX Pack to have a kind of 2D polyworld clouds.)



6R

 

Been modeling many different iterations of a modular asian roofline. What a pain.. Started with something far too high poly, then worked my way down until I got to this which is about where it should be.

I'd like to add in some edge-work to break up the perfect angles. Coloring that will also help. This is a good base.

 

This is looking very cool!

I am brand-new to Unity (as in, just started today) but would greatly appreciate some pointers on how to create these islands. I've been through a few YouTube tutorials and have created some terrain following QTs video (I do have PolyWorld too) but have no idea where to begin with modeling complex shapes like these without the help of the mesh-based Terran tool.

I'm wanting to create fairly large islands, with houses and trees from the toolkit, and would also like to have small lakes/rivers and waterfalls flowing off the edges of the islands. Do you know if it will be possible (or easy for a newb like me) to place flowing water on a floating game object like the islands?

Here's a detailed example of what I'm trying to achieve (but then convert to low poly):

 

Hi, i've worked today with PolyWorld (Very Very Nice package).
I've created a system for color vertices with a procedural terrain "PolyWorld'Like".
I've made this vidéo with TerrainEngine :

The script for move water vertices is too slow. I don't use it, i think it must be directly in the water shader.
QT_SurfaceNoise can be optimized a little bit also :

Original​

Code (CSharp):

1.         while(true)
2.         {
3.             for (var i=0;i<newVerts.Length;i++)
4.             {
5.  
6.                 Vector3 vertex = baseHeight[i];
7.              
8.                 float s = (Time.time * speed+ baseHeight[i].x + baseHeight[i].y + baseHeight[i].z) * scale;
9.                 float finalVal = Mathf.Sin(1.25f * s) * noiseStrength;//(Mathf.Sin(s) + Mathf.Sin(1.25f * s)) * noiseStrength;
10.  
11.                 vertex.y += finalVal;
12.  
13.                 newVerts[i] = vertex;
14.             }
15.             mf.mesh.vertices = newVerts;
16.             mf.mesh.RecalculateNormals();
17.          
18.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(UpdateFrequency);          
19.  
20.         }

Optimized​

Code (CSharp):

1.    
2.         while(true)
3.         {
4.             if (Renderer.enabled)
5.             {
6.                 Vector3 vertex; // Cache Optimization
7.                 Mesh m = mf.mesh; // Cache Optimization
8.                 float T = Time.time;
9.                 for (int i = newVerts.Length - 1; i > -1; --i) // Fatest loop
10.                 {
11.                     vertex = baseHeight[i];
12.                     vertex.y += Mathf.Sin(1.25f * ((T * speed + vertex.x + vertex.y + vertex.z) * scale)) * noiseStrength;
13.                     newVerts[i] = vertex;
14.                 }
15.                 m.vertices = newVerts;
16.                 m.RecalculateNormals();
17.             }
18.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(UpdateFrequency);          
19.         }
20.  

 

@ dyox : WOW ! Nice Environment ! It doesn't work for me !?!
Console alert with the 4th line "Renderer.enabled" here !?!

@ saucer78 : Thanks a lot.
I have used one of the platforms from the free Mushroom Land package ! After I have faceted it (and scaled Y) I have duplicated it to have another one (and for the same shape) above the first one with another texture. (I have scaled X and Z a little bit the platform above.)
I use the Quantum Theory Diffuse Texture shader.

Waterfalls are particles. You can make your own ones or you can find packages on the asset store. For a nice cartoon waterfall you can use the "OnQ ultimate fx pack". I have tested it and it's very nice here.
6R

 

Well I'm very glad I joined this forum, haha.

@dyox: I'm speechless. I guess TerrainEngine is quite powerful; I cannot believe you created that environment in just a day. It's absolutely beautiful and almost precisely what I'm looking for! I assume you're the creator of the TerrainEngine software/asset? I'm scared to ask how much licensing costs...

@p6r: Thanks again for the tip - I'll look into the Mushroom Land package or other assets... I dunno why I assumed you created the islands within Unity. I forget that despite its capabilities, it's not much of a modeling program.

So, I guess a waterfall particle generator will need to be placed at the edge of a river? I haven't played with water much, but wasn't sure if it behaved "naturally," following the laws of physics like other objects in Unity. (Meaning, if I created a stream and a cliff, the water would flow right over the edge, finding its own way down.)

Thank you both for your help (and QT). I'm am VERY new to development, but am dedicated to learning as quickly as possible and am amazed at what a single person can accomplish with the proper software these days (and help from the community, of course!).

 

You're welcome.
Here I have used a model for the platform but I can create some platforms within Unity too. But as you say Unity isn't a modeling software.
For waterfall you can use particles but for water flow you can use specific assets like Fluvio or Flow (both have a free version !).
Don't hesitate to look at the asset store. You can find... all.
6R

 

Nice work on the faceted terrain What are your plans for that code?

And yes, the surfacenoise is too slow to use and it will be moved to a vertex shader at some point, probably with the next pack.

 

Hey @QuantumTheory , I noticed you mentioned several expansion packs on the way for PolyWorld - one specifically pertaining to floating islands. I certainly understand that you might not have a detailed release calendar laid out, but do you have any idea when an islands/floating terrain pack might hit the asset store?

I'm working to complete a VR ride by the end of September but would hate to waste $45 on this Floating Island pack today and log in to see a similar expansion for PolyWorld in the asset store tomorrow

Thanks so much for any insight, I'm loving PolyWorld!

 

I only have an idea of what packs I'm going to focus on but no release schedule. Here are the packs coming in the near future:

1. PolyWorld: Ancient East Toolkit
2. PolyWorld: Woodland Toolkit update (more stuff)
3. Something PolyWorld or different altogether.

Again, this is only the near future, say 1-3 months. If there is enough interest from the community for a specific pack, I'm open to changes. Regarding your timeline, I'd say go ahead and buy the pack you want to buy.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. That Islands Pack asset looks like it will work perfectly, but I was curious to know what you had up your sleeve.

 

I hate to spam this thread, but I've got an immediate issue converting the Floating Island assets I recently downloaded (I am happy to also contact the creator for support, but first need some vocabulary to address the issue).

So I placed a few of these islands into my scene and attempted to convert the root of each prefab. Each island seems to contain two separate meshes: a top and a bottom. (Each half also contains a Mesh Filter component in the inspector; I have no idea if this is significant, but I have not noticed it in any other prefabs or assets.)

PolyWorld gives me this error message when I try to convert the root:
Material verification failed. Please check debug console for details. Aborting.

The debug console reads:
Shader assigned to material: island6_top GameObject: top1 does not have a _Color or _MainTex property. Use a standard diffuse shader as a workaround. Aborting.
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object)
QT_ConvertMesh:CheckMaterials(GameObject[]) (at Assets/Quantum Theory/Polyworld/Editor/QT_ConvertMesh.cs:166)
QT_ConvertMesh:OnGUI() (at Assets/Quantum Theory/Polyworld/Editor/QT_ConvertMesh.cs:75)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

I still know nothing of shaders, but noticed that these islands seem to use a proprietary system of some sort, as the shader listed for each mesh is a "Serj Shader" (Splat1 Tex4 L M S) and "Serj" seems to be the name of the asset creator. I have tried combining the meshes, but the top and bottom remain separated and the conversion attempt results are the same. I have also tried to apply different shaders, but the textures seem to get grayed-out on every other selection.

If anyone knows how to fix this or how to approach this issue with the asset creator, I'd greatly appreciate any help!