Relief Terrain Pack (RTP) v3 on AssetStore

Hi thomas !

RTP is FANTASTIC !!

close distance is very nice



But a far distance we see the tiling



Do you have a tip?

 

Paint over it with some sand?

Edit: Not a good solution once you get over there this area will look the same (tiled).

 

Yes, good point - we can achieve some variation by applying sand layer via kind of noise mask (if you can't paint it manually). Removing tiling might be difficult in case of specific texture. However - use everything you've got to fight it:

1. UV blend with replacement
2. perlin normals
3. global maps to hide
4. mentioned above - mixing 2 layers coverage, but randomly.

Tom

 

Ok thank, it's work

 

Hi when I try to generate my splatmap I Get the "Current Settings will not generate an output" error.

In the console I noticed I kept getting this error:

Now, I'll show you all my settings for the terrains and LOD manager etc.

Next,

Also,

Lastly,
Since I cant upload more images, I put the final LODmanager settings here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkw9y0l84qfmqld/Tsettings3.jpg?dl=0

Thanks

 

Any idea how to fix the fog? See pic please.

 

Hi Tom.
There is a small trouble. I have four terrains. The first two have same terrain data and RTP settings. And the next two have same things but differs from previous.
I have scenes for terrains:
terrainA_1
terrainA_2
terrainB_1
terrainB_2
Sometimes terrains become black when i load the first two scenes. And it remains until i load terrainB_1 or terrainB_2.

What is the reason?
Thx.

 

At first glance I guess you've manipulated number of layers in TC while RTP script component was there.
1. remove RTP script from all terrain tiles (select all and remove)
2. when you've got 4 splat layers in TC you can restore RTP component for terrains.

RTP handles fog separately from Unity. Look at my pdf docs. You need to select exactly the same fog mode in LOD manager as you've got in Unity - before you compile shaders. In newest RTP3.1 fog parameters (color, density) is updated automatically by script attached to LOD manager (RTPFogUpdate.cs)

I can't get where exactly are your terrains placed. In a single scene or separate ? For multiple terrains with different settings in ONE scene you need to use grouping (look at my video or pdf doc). You need to use materials then. This also means - shader copnfiguration on multiple scenes need to be the same (the same LOD manager options enabled).

Tom

 

Each terrain placed to separate scenes. Do you mean that i should use different materials at this case?

 

You need to use the same LOD manager shader settings for every terrain. Materials are preferred for such setup. Each terrain will have separate material assigned by RTP (check Unity terrain settings - material field) as scene object. You could try to save it as asset by some kind of your editor script, but I believe this is not necessary. After scene loading you can call reliefTerrainScriptInstance.globalSettingsHolder.RefreshAll() function. Is it additive loading ?

Tom

 

Thx for answer, ill try these tips. Yes, its additive loading after my project started.

 

Thanks for the update, RTP and Skyshop now perform very well together .

I have another issues though, but I'm not sure which asset is responsible for it. I use UFPS together with skyshop and RTP. When I equip a weapon and shoot, parts of the scene turn immeadiately black. I can imagine it results from the muzzle flash of the weapon?! In a scene without RTP everything works fine, as well as in a scene without Skyshop or with an additional light-source with Intensity >= 0.01. Do you have any idea where this effect could come from?

Before:


After:


Best,
Lanaany

 

From your description it seems that you don't use lights except for light coming from your gun. I'm I right ? This might be problematic as RTP can get such issue. In deferred it's not a problem (always 2 passes). In forward I'd suggest to use one directional light, even if you need to turn it's power to 0.02. Use "noforwadadd" in LOD manager to make sure RTP terrain won't render twice. You gun produces point light I guess. Terrain should react to this using spherical harmonics, so it costs nothing. If you don't use "noforwardadd" it's not that bad either, because only a small patch of terrain, affected by your gun will be rendered twice. You can exclude this main directional light from rendering on other objects (light mask). This should work.

I'm going to release new tutorial and video soon together with next RTP version 3.1g as I found some glitches. Tutorial will cover extensive PBL/IBL issues.

Tom

 

Ok, thanks again for the quick work-around. I'm really curious about the new tutorials,

Best,
Lanaany

 

quick question I know how to select all, but I can't find the remove button? Or maybe I'm confused, please explain.

 

It's not a button but is available at context menu (rightclick) on ReliefTerrain script component in editor. If you select all your terrain pieces in Hierarchy window - ReliefTerrain script inspector will be impoded with hint box "multiobject editing not supported" - right click - remove component. You can do it one by one, but if you've got a lot of terrain objects that would be tedious.

Tom

 

Im still getting problems: i recorded it to see if im doing anything wrong?

 

I guess it's rather TC related problem on your video because you don't present any RTP output - I just can't help when I don't see what happen on the RTP side. However I see you attach colormap and normalmap, but I don't know if this work like my texture will be splitted into smaller pieces (you've got a bunch of terrain tiles in your scene) and applied to each RTP script instance. Maybe ask eagle555 on his forum ?

When RTP is properly configured in LOD manager (compiled shaders with first pass - 4 layers - presented in both my pdf doc and first steps video) you can attach ReliefTerrain.cs script to your terrains manually. TC does it for you (RTP button) plus it can apply automatically global colormaps normalmaps for each terrain so you don't need to make it separately for each terrain object. More than this - you just need to configure the rest of RTP functionality in ReliefTerrain inspector, not in TC.

Tom

 

I've upgraded to the new version and the terrain is black. Import it to an empty project, assign the component to my mesh, add a texture, reply yes to the LOD manager prompt, select mesh, apply changes. And the mesh is still black. These steps would get me started in the last release. I don't know what it's like using RTP on the unity terrain, are the default options consistent? It seems like I have to troubleshoot with each update to get it to work. Adding a light to the scene change anything. This product is terrific when it's set up and working. New features are great, but I would love a baseline settings standard. That no matter what, when I insert it into a project I get the same basic results and I can add features from there. Thanks.

 

Hi, I'd really like to help you, but don't have enough input. I can't think about any change made to latest release except for fixes...

Is it still the same problem as previously - do you use Skyshop together with RTP ? Do you use RTP over mesh or on terrain ? Can you tell me anything more ? Monkeyscience posted guidelines on his thread how to fix it. Anyway - this issue is not to be resolved by any of RTP's updates and my updates do nothing with this issue because it was Skyshop related problem - out of my control. All I could do now (and did previously inspecting your project for a few hours...) is waiting for more data from your side.

However, terrain blackness might be not Skyshop related. Especially when you're in DX11 mode and deferred lighting you need to apply a script to this (shown in my first steps video).

Tom

 

New extensive Physically Based Lighting as this is implemented in RTP is on the way. First two parts (out of 4) are ready.

This tutorial covers basics of physically based rendering implemented in RTP. You'll see how to use various glossiness and specularity controllers available per layer and globally:

Tutorial below covers IBL - Image Based Lighting in RTP.
I also describe a few additional per layer controllers and simple, cheap alternative to IBL specular lighting - reflections modeled by grayscale 2D map:

ATB, Tom

 

Part 3 of PBL tutorial series is ready. This tutorial presents IBL features in Relief Terrain Pack that can be integrated/synchronised with global Skyshop Sky object.

Also a shader that's independent from terrain but has most of Relief Terrain Pack features available together with integrated IBL is discussed.

ATB, Tom

 

On your video - you're in DX11 mode and you haven't checked this targe platform (only default dx9 is selected) before you compiled shaders. In your case, however, it's probably also matter of rendering path. I can guess you've got deferred rendering path selected for your camera which makes it absolutely necessary to add this script to your main directional light:

ReliefShaders_applyLightForDeferred.cs

Tom

 

And the last part of PBL series. Here I present Phsycially Based Lighting in Relief Terrain Package when using deferred rendering path. There are drawbacks presented and possible workarounds.

Lux package is installed to resolve HDR PBL range in deferred.

A note on RTP version used in PBL tutorials 1-4 - it's newest RTP3.1g that should be available on AssetStore soon.

Tom

 

Hello,

Yes it's a little wrong. As you're doing two things at the same time, you are assigning a colormap and a normalmap to only 1 terrain, and then I think you want to assign them to all terrains. But clicking generate is generating a splatmap as you have splat output activated, but there's no splat layer in there so nothing happens. You don't need to use the generate button in this case, but you need to click the 'Select' buttons next to the colormap and normal map.

I made this tutorial video for assigning multiple colormaps and normal maps to RTP with TC, by using the auto search feature:

Nathaniel

 

Three more questions, is there planned support for Unity 5 and also when i use the terrain shader with Skyshop IBL, will it also cover the IBL on grass shader Skyshop shader applies ?

I dont know about trees, but the grass probably gets its properties from IBL Skyshop shader.
Terrain trees probably use their individual prefab shaders, so no problem there i guess.

Also can i keep the painting, textures and grasses of my current terrains as they are and just enchance them or does this require starting everything from scratch ?

Thanks
.

 

I'll do my best to make RTP U5 compatible as soon as possible when U5 is officially shipped. I've experienced some issues in U5 beta I tested RTP with. So, now I wait for Unity staff to address them. I hope they will... If not... (I can't promise anything for Unity 5!) ... I'll do my best to ship workarounds. Anyway - I won't just "drop it" for U5, but make RTP work with U5 - be sure .

As for IBL questions - RTP doesn't cover grass, detail nor trees rendering. RTP is about terrain surface shading. If you want to use RTP with Skyshop goodies - feel free. Installing RTP doesn't affect existing grass, details or trees. You assign RTP script component on existing terrain (which has coverage splatmaps for 4/8/12 layers, grass, trees) already prepared. RTP takes care about IBL on terrain surface only. That's what presented in my videos.

Tom

 

I see, thanks, seems perfect. Increadible work in this pack, cant wait to start working with it

 

hi, tomaszek

Thanks you for your Tutorials. Can you write Tutorial about blend mesh with terrain? I understand many function in RTP, but i dont understand how to work blend with terrain.

With best Regards, Leonid.

 

I'm interested in possibly purchasing this. The terrain looks really fantastic and the features seem to be the best of the best. I'm concerned most with performance though. Do you get comparable performance to the standard Unity terrain rendering or is RTP slower? Or is RTP higher performing? As much as I'd like to really push the limits of terrain quality, I'm actually more interested in performance. So, even if I had to tone down the detail in RTP, if I could get superior performance to equivalent standard Unity terrain then I would be thrilled.

 

I'll try to put more videos. At this moment you can follow exact steps described in my pdf doc. There is a whole section dedicated to geom blend.

No, you can't expect better performance. Although you get reasonable performance (test my example scenes available on the first post) and you can select features used, it's impossible to get F1 paying for honda civic from 1990...

Kindest Reagrds, Tom

 

Unfortunately, testing the example scenes won't help me because I can't test them on my target hardware (Wii U). The first one ran at 60 FPS, but no idea how much extra FPS is hidden by vsync there. Thanks for the response though. I may get this at some point.

 

Wii U is not that bad platform. Stands above XBox 360, but below XBox 1. Reading it's specs about GPU clock, bandwidth and other specs I'd expect that RTP can be an option. Performance boost you can get when you render for example 8 layers in one pass (this is what RTP can do) saving a lot of CPU drawcalls (at cost of higher GPU load). But as I said - its pixel shader is not that performant as classic shader is. You can still go fullscreen mode on my demo - then fps will be clamped to 200fps - this might give you an idea. It's pixel intensive shader, so performance depends on amount of pixels shaded. In fullHD with most options turned off (in the demo there is dynamic snow which is also not free) I'd expect around 5-8ms (160-200fps) for terrain rendering (the more terrain objects the more performance problem you'll have - esp using materials, even with standard included bumped specular terrain shader). It has to do with Unity terrain handling and is not shader related.

Tom

 

Hello tomaszek,

Since we're on the subject of performance and your videos before that. I want to ask something that relates both.
I've watched the videos once (PBL). I understand Deferred rendering constraints in RTP.

My project uses Deferred,Linear.PBL I was thinking about using 4 layer+rain effects on the terrain.
Since your videos mostly cover Forward and 8 layers in Deferred, I wanted to ask;

-How can I get the most of RTP in Deferred path while maintaining performance?. Is using 4 Layer+FX is fast?Any advice is appreciated.

I understand the trick you do with Lux PrePassLighting to get HDR specs in Deferred.
-Do you have any plans to add a similar PrePassLighting shader to RTP? It is completely OK to use Lux, just asking.

-Is it possible for you to give some advice/recipes about common RTP usage scenarios based on their performance? I know, all is covered in the .pdf but there are so many settings and performance tips are all divided between pages and working modes.
If you can write down a paragraph on RTP performance, divided by the rendering path, it would be easier for everyone to read and learn.

-Is everything you show on PBL video 3 about "customizable shader" does also work for deferred?

-Do you have any new videos planned?

Thanks

 

Generally deferred is better option in presence of more realtime lights. In forward a mesh is rendered as many times as there are number of lights that influences that mesh. In case of terrain I found terrain is rendered as bunch of separate meshes (thus - so many drawcalls). When you've 1 direcitional light (sun) + 5 point lights affecting small parts of terrain you'll have 1 render of whole terrain (for directional light) + 5 renders of terrain patches for point lights. In deferred you'll have always whole terrain rendered twice + renderings in screenspace for pxels being influenced by addtional lights.

So - for outdoor scenes where 1 directional light is enough (+ eventual lightmap to get it better locally here and there) - forward is preferred. You can even ask Unity to render terrain in forward even if your camera and rest of objects use deferred. Simply you can add surface shader directive in ReliefTerrain-FirstPass.shader named

Code (csharp):

1. exclude_path:prepass

- see Unity docs for reference.

So in deferred 4 layers your terrain will be rendered twice (2times more drawcalls comparing to forward - one directional light) but it's still quick enough. In fullHD - basic terrain options , 4 layers + rain should not get more than 8-10ms on low-mid end GPU.

No , I won't redefine PrePassLighting in RTP. There are so many packages (often free and godd like Lux) that it makes no sense doing this. Redefining PrePassLighting shader is problematic as this interferes other such solutions. On U5 new deferred mode I hope whole process will be sorted out good enough so we don't need to do anything (PBR andone geometry pass needed).

You need to test scenarios yourself as performance depends on too many factors. In your case - 4 layers should be quite quick + additional 3-5 ms for rain effects on low-mid end GPU (like GT240 in fullHD). I could make a simple list like the most expensive is (in decreasing order):

1. POM self-shadows
2. triplanar
3. Full water (with droplets)
4. snow

Rest of features got minor impact on performance.

Yes, my customizable "bonus" shaders can work in deferred - if used w/o Lux there is (enabled by default) #define keyword:

RTP_DEFERRED_PBL_NORMALISATION

If you use Lux - uncomment this.

TIme, time... As you see videos are extensive (many things to discuss) they are pretty hard to manage (for PBL it took me a long time to make "a plan" for video discussion). So - answer is - "yes" I plan next tutorials, but I can't tell anything on when they are will be ready .

Tom

 

Thanks Tom,
Many wonderful tips there.
I was able do the "render terrain on a deferred project" trick. That really helped the performance.
So now I'll watch the forward rendering RTP videos closely to get the other RTP goodies

I saw on another post of yours that you're advising to render the droplets with a separate geometry using Terrain blend script. On top of that I was unable to see the droplets on the terrain. Am I doing something wrong?or is it better to use Terrain blend while using rain drops? What if I want all my terrain to have droplets?

I totally understand your videos take lots of time to produce. RTP is like a ocean when it comes to features.
It is not up to me, but it might help, if you just do a video showing one feature at a time with just one scenario. Keeping it short and focused.
I'm particularly interested to see how I can control RTP settings on via runtime quality/performance settings menu. Which settings are important in RTP? what to call, when to refresh? any pitfalls?
or another might be just using "Global trees map" WC/TC feature.

Not the right place to ask but also wanted to ask about the "Volume Grass". Really interested in its progress.

Thanks again

 

I would also be extremely happy if you included some discussion related to editing the shaders at runtime in the PDF or, even better, a video.

A direct question you may be able to answer is this: Is it possible to enable and disable things like super-detail and simply refresh at runtime? or would I have to switch between pre-compiled solutions and re-apply them to the terrain? I did a quick look through the docs and didnt see any reference to a global for Super-Detail settings, and haven't dived into the code yet to look for it either. Thanks in advance Tom!

 

You can not recompile shaders runtime. However RTP makes it possible to compile shaders for 3 runtime levels in max. By default you have got 2 levels PM and SIMPLE, I don't count CLASSIC mode which is simply a raw fallback).

Superdetail feature is turned on in PM, in simple mode it's not used regardless of it's enabled or not in LOD manager. So - to change shading levels runtime (C#):

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.       RTP_LODmanager RTP_LODmanagerInstance=GameObject.FindObjectOfType(typeof(RTP_LODmanager)) as RTP_LODmanager;
3.        // POM with soft self-shadows
4.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_LODlevel=TerrainShaderLod.POM;
5.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_SHADOWS=true;
6.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_SOFT_SHADOWS=true;
7.        // PM
8.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_LODlevel=TerrainShaderLod.PM;
9.        // SIMPLE
10.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_LODlevel=TerrainShaderLod.SIMPLE;
11.        // CLASSIC
12.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RTP_LODlevel=TerrainShaderLod.CLASSIC;
13.        // call refresh to switch
14.        RTP_LODmanagerInstance.RefreshLODlevel();
15.  

To refresh shaders after modification of any parameter (like snow coverage for example) by script (C#):

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.       ReliefTerrain rt=GameObject.FindObjectOfType(typeof(ReliefTerrain)) as ReliefTerrain;
3.        rt.globalSettingsHolder.RefreshAll();
4.  

Using water as geom blend makes sense when you'd like to use water feature only on small parts of terrain - like streams on my example scene. If you'd like to have rain effect on whole terrain - turn it on for terrain. It's not THAT expensive, but it's not cheap either. You jest check difference in performance (GPU eaten in ms per frame) with rain turned on and off. There is no better method to judge it yourself.

Further VG is sustained this moment (selling 5-8 copies a month makes it disputable "work more on this or not"...)

Tom

 

RTP 3.1g is available on AssetStore. I used this fixed version when working on PBL tutorials above.

Tom

 

Purchased this recently and love this asset and I'm using it with Terrain Composer and it is good that asset dev's work together with integration stuff
now I need to buy some good textures with normal maps etc

 

Two things:

1)
When removing RTP from my scene and terrain, any new terrain turns black. The only solution is to create a new scene which is not good. Any suggestions on how to correctly remove RTP form the scene?
http://gyazo.com/0afd1e40c870557682b35c50867f1ea9

2)
The links bellow show a simple terrain with basic textures and splatmap for distribution using RTP and Unity's default terrain shader.
I have two issues here.
One issue regards the frame rate. Note that there is a 50% drop on the frame rate in RTP compared with Unity's default terrain. I am using RTP with basic setup and 1 pass only on a MAC/openGL.
The second issue regards the view culling. Note that the terrain with RTP is culling at a certain distance and displaying a base material on the terrain, while Unity's default terrain is working without any issue.
RTP:
http://gyazo.com/f7b9862ddf5015b9037fdbc7ddbfa658
UnityDefault SplatMap:
http://gyazo.com/5d3f68c8c6e74159833eb558b2db3fc4

Hope I was clear on the issues.
Thanks in advance.
F.

 

Hello again Tom,
I've watched your "Shadow Softener" video and want to ask a question regarding that.
I don't have "Shadow Softener" but I have " Sunshine" from the same kitchen but a slightly different product.
I tried using RTP with Sunshine and couldn't make it work. I've made the following changes to FirstPass.

Code (CSharp):

1. // Sunshine part
2. #pragma target 3.0
3. // Define the Shadow Filter
4. #define SUNSHINE_FILTER_PCF_4x4
5. // Include Sunshine
6. #include "../../../Sunshine/Shaders/Sunshine.cginc"

I should also mention that I'm mainly rendering on deferred mode but using forward for terrain.If that changes anything.
No errors come up but I don't see shadows on forward rendering terrain.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Where have you put sunshine code ? In case of RTP it's not that straightforward as in case of other (surface) shader. Take a look where my softener code is placed and try to modify it accordingly. But I can't guarantee anything - as far as I know Sunshine deeply redefines shadow system, whole softener redefines only a part of it (shadow collecting). So - kitchen is the same, but dinner might be different . And I don't have Sunshine in my package collection. Anyway - in RTP I put softener code in shadow collecting pass where it can work.

Make sure RTP DOES use materials or you wouldn't be able to use both RTP in one scene and Unity's terrain shader on the other. W/o materials shader is _globalised_ across project. Then - make sure your scene w/o RTP has had material removed in Unity terrain settings tab. Restart Unity.

Framerate - you can't expect comparable framerate on solutions of incomparable results.

Basemap - take a look at Working modes video. I described how does it work. If you don't use materials basemap distance should be set to infinity (RTP makes it 500000) but this setting is sometimes overwritten (when you're in Unity settings tab in editor) or in some older versions of Terrain Composer. If you use materials basemap distance is low and is intended to render simplier shader version there.

Tom

 

Hello again Tom,
I've change your Softener code in prepass shader (just like you showed in your video).
I guess that means it is not going to be that easy to eat that dinner
Is there any other things that I can try in this case?

 

Hi guys,

Since the "Search Thread" function is gone on the forum it's a bit hard to find feedback of user of RTP on mobile.
I just would like to know if it's working properly on mobile platforms ? and to know a bit more about performance on
mid-range smartphones ?

Thanks !

 

It's not prepass but ReliefTerrain-FirstPass.shader. I guess you've just though about it when posting . Anyway - the reason I needed to define my own ShadowCaster/Collector passes inside terrain shader was that RTP can handle holes. So - for shadow caster/collector I need to resolve the shader with this alpha cut feature handled. If you remove completely my shadow passes you'll get shadow handling as in case of simple opaque. Thus - if you don't use holes feature you can try to patch my terrain shader just the way it's described in Sunshine docs. This might work. Anyway - disable holes in LOD manager when not used because they are enabled by default and impacts a bit performance early-z optimizations on GPU.

Answered a few times before, but I understand that going thru 34 pages of forum is tedious... So - one user told me that it worked on his iPad3. But I can't tell anything more. It compiles w/o warnings nor errors for gles (meets gles2 requirements I believe). On my Mali400 tablet it doesn't work. It's simply too heavy system. But that's what one could expect from AAA level shading (with some features not present even in engines like Cry or UDK).

ATB, Tom

 

Thanks for your quick reply it allowed me to confirm what I thought.
I'll buy RTP to use on my desktop projects because your Assets seems to be really good.

Keep up the good work !

Duke

 

Hi Tom,

Sorry if this has already been answered but my textures look terrible close up - here is a picture of it: http://imgur.com/24Vz41m

Is this something simple I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

 

First thought - doublecheck you normalmaps. Their type need to be marked "normals". Check with my textures included. Check is your textures look similar to what you get using mine (in RTP / Special / combined normals tab)

Tom

 

Hmm yes it seems to be the normal map but the import type is correct, when I use a substance texture it looks fine.
Oh well substance it is