Sunshine! - Official Thread

Sunshine 1.6.2 Available in the Unity Asset Store

• Preliminary support for new "Pure Deferred" renderer in Unity 5
• NOTE: Unity 4 and below cannot compile the new Deferred shader, please ignore errors or simply delete Internal-DeferredShading.shader
• Changed overcast/ray cookie import settings to work across more versions of Unity.

And for those curious, the changes made for 1.6.1:

• Fixed Occlusion shader in Unity 5 Beta

 

Hi there,

I'm trying to integrate sunshine and marmoset Skyshop. Basically I'm trying to get the mobile terrain shader flying so it catches sunshine shadows.

I've read the example in the docs but ended up with errors.

Just wondering if you could assist?

Cheers!

 

Feel free to PM me a small scene with the shaders you need integrated and I'll do my best to find the problem.

 

Hows mobile compatibility with the current version of sunshine, Does everything (minus overcast) work on opengl es2 , including deferred renderer in unity 4.5 (not the new one in 5)?.

 

I don't think the the PrePass renderer runs in es2 in anyway, so it's not a concern (unless they've changed it).
Light rays work in theory, but I've had trouble getting them to look right on the Ouya. Honestly an es2 device probably isn't powerful enough to run volume light in an actual game unless very low-res.

 

Hi PolyVector.

I encountered a strange problem. When I use Sunshine my terrain trees become semi transparent. Have a look at the screenshot. How to fix that?

Thanks!

 

Transparent shaders don't write to the depth buffer, so the volumetric Scatter effect will either render entirely in front, or entirely behind transparent objects.

There is no perfect solution, but here are a couple workarounds:

• You could make sure the tree material uses a Cutout type shader, instead of an Alpha Blended one, this will write to the depth buffer and allow the scatter to "see" trees.
• You could edit SunshinePostprocess.cs and add "[ImageEffectOpaque]" above the OnRenderImage() method.
  • This will have the downside of distant trees appearing in front of scatter, but you might mitigate this by implementing a fog effect in the tree shader to match the scatter.

Hope this helps.

 

I need to use a variant of the Tree Creator Leaves Optimized, the one in the Advanced Foliage Shaders plugin. So workaround 1 can't be applied. Workaround two is ideal since I am working in a very foggy environment. Unfortunately the modification you suggested didn't work. I placed [ImageEffectOpaque] one line above void OnRenderImage(...). Is there an explanation why this didn't work? Any other possible workarounds?

 

I don't know why it wouldn't work, that's odd. It's supposed to tell Unity to render the ImageEffect after Opaque geometry, but before Transparent. I suppose it's possible that the tree shader is alpha-blended, but the Queue is set to "Geometry", which would make that solution fall apart.

Edit: Adding Tags {"Queue" = "Transparent"} to the shader might fix it, if that's the case.

You could still tweak the tree shader to use cutout alpha, instead of alphablending, this would be my ideal solution. Those are the only ideas I have ATM since the volume effect has to apply at some definite point in the render pipeline (same issue exists with Unity's "Volume Fog" effect).

 

I just thought of another possible reason for your problem. The shader you're using may have a custom RenderType which has not been added to your Camera-Depth and Camera-DepthNormal shaders. When this happens, the objects render fine, but aren't represented in the camera's depth buffer, making them invisible to the Scatter effect. I vaguely remember running into this exact problem with the Advanced Foliage system in a past project.

 

The author of the Advanced Foliage Shaders said, that even though I am using Deferred Lighting, my tree shaders are using Forward rendering, because they use transparency. Now I'm just trying to manually edit the shader in question, but I am unsure what to do with this line:

#pragma surface surf TreeLeaf alphatest:_Cutoff vertex:MyTerrainTreeVertLeafFull nolightmap nodirlightmap noambient finalcolor:customFog

The manual says I have to add this line:

#pragma surface surf Lambert vertex:sunshine_surf_vert exclude_pathrepass

But this isn't a lambert shader and the "vertex:..." part is already defined by the foliage shader. What to do now?

 

Ok, first of all, this problem is not specific to the Advanced Foliage Shader. The same transparency issue occurs when I use the Forward converted Sunshine/Shaders/Custom/Tree Creator Leaves shader. So from now on I will use the Tree Creator Leaves shader to solve the issue since you have that one, too.

- Setting Tags {"Queue" = "Transparent"} did not help, but merely put the trees in front of the fog.

- The shader is set to alphatest:_Cutoff. Is that what you mean with setting it to "Cutout"?

- RenderType of the AFS is "RenderType"="AFSTreeLeaf". And RenderType of the Tree Creator Leaves shader is "RenderType"="TreeLeaf".

 

That solution would require custom fog to blend in, which may be a bit too complex a solution to be practical in this case.

Ah, okay. Support for these RenderTypes will need to be added to your Camera-Depth and Camera-DepthNormal shaders (if AFS doesn't already include these shaders pre-modified). This is the usual Unity requirement for any custom RenderType that needs to be visible to shaders using Camera Depth/Normals.

Edit: I've PM'd you a modified shader, let me know if that helps.

 

ok, so in forward rendering, to quickly get setup with a scene that has a giant street floor, my best bet is to probably put a floor beneath the player following with the shadow receiver custom material, and then i would probably get light rays to work, but the shadow would be beneath the floor. is this the only way to get shadows?
or
If i use the maximum distance in sunshine, to a small amount, will this show shadows on the giant floor, in the minimum distance?

I remember in the past there were issues with using the shadow shader on a giant floor. Thats why i was asking.

i'm ok with only getting the light scatter to work, if shadows arent going to work reasonably. Maybe you could point me in the right direction on how to just get light scatter without shadows, if thats the case.

 

I'm not sure I understand correctly. For both Shadows and Light Rays, you don't need the floor to "cast", in fact it's much better if the floor is not included in the "Occluders" layer on a mobile device, since this will save some fill-rate. You would want to use a Sunshine shader to receive shadows though.

There is no Minimum distance for shadows, only Maximum... unless you count the "Custom Bounds" feature, which doesn't work with Light Rays.

The Light Rays shader itself definitely runs on ES2, but on the Ouya for example it appeared unusable from what I assume had to do with the buffer's bit depth (an RGBA32 RenderTexture is required for Sunshine to work correctly).

If you want to try using Sunshine without shadows, simply don't use any Sunshine/ shaders (you can "Uninstall") and uncheck the Custom Shadows option. This will allow you to experiment with only using Light Rays.

Edit: I should mention that I'm currently at a disadvantage testing on Android because my Nexus 7 died last month so I'm out of practical test hardware. I hope to get a newer tablet soon though.

 

Hi Poly,
I'm not sure what you mean by "Cast" i only referred to a "Shadow Receiver Custom material".
Additionally, i'm not sure what you mean by Minimum Distance, i only referred to a "Maximum Distance"
...
Either way, It sounds like your saying that if i just want to use the light rays, then i dont need custom materials and i should remove the floors from the occluders.

Sounds like a plan, thank you. Also that RGBA32 RenderTexture may be why it wouldnt work when my game was "Build" with 16bit checkbox in the build settings. If that interferes with the shader.

Also in the past you mentioned that sunshine requires my shaders to be able to receive light. is this still the case if i just want to use the Light Rays?

Can i use shaders that ignore light. if i want to use Only light rays?

 

I must have misread it, my mistake.

Regarding the 16bit format, that does sound like it could cause a problem. I'll bet it's possible to tweak Sunshine (if you're familiar with ImageEffects to change the RenderTexture format to something custom and either remove or modify Sunshine's Encode/Decode shader helpers that are used for the RGBA32 format. That's probably beyond the scope of my support though.

About using only light rays, you're correct there is no need for custom shaders/materials, you may use any shaders you wish. The only requirement is that objects you wish to affect the light rays ("occlude light", "cast shadows", all the same thing) are included in the "Occluder Layers" of Sunshine. For example, if you wanted a wind mill to affect the Light Rays, that object should be on a layer that's listed in the "Occluder Layers" setting.

Hope that helps.

 

Hi Poly.
I've a problem what using sunshine.
Please see my attached file. The left pic is taken from PC and the right pic is taken from mobile(android).
I can't know what happend.
I use sunshine terrain shader(sunshine/nature/terrain/diffuse).
When I use lightmap, I always see the right pic from mobile. If I delete lightmap, no problem.
Why is it different? How can i fix it?
Hope for your help. Thanks.

 

I have a question. I have been using Sunshine to draw the shadows of the static items in a scene. The shadows need to be seen from a long distance and currently only update when the player position is moved which isn't often. The player needs a dynamic shadow that updates every frame for it's animation and needs to have a good quality on that shadow. Having the character and the other objects all use Sunshine shadows every frame makes the character's shadow quality unacceptable as expected.

Is there was a way of using both Sunshine and the built-in shadows at the same time so I can have 2 different shadow maps at the same time?

I know lightmaps for the static objects and using Sunshine for the character would be the optimal solution, but I have a bunch of different light angles and many different levels so that would be over 3500 lightmaps that would need to be baked. They also take up more space and the project is a mobile project.

 

Hmmm, looking over the in terrain shaders, I think they may be implemented wrong. Try this:

• Delete Sunshine's "AddPass" shaders entirely
• Edit Sunshine's "FirstPass" shaders, at the very bottom you should see a line like Dependency "AddPassShader" = "... Simply remove the "/Sunshine" part of the path if it exists.

If that doesn't help, let me know and I'll investigate further. Also, feel free to send me a small test scene demonstrating the problem since it's often much easier than trying to work out the exact setting/shader/etc causing the issue.

Sunshine has no way of supporting multiple shadowmaps unfortunately, and if this is a mobile game the performance would suffer. It sounds to me that the critical feature here is the static lightmaps that you need to create in 1,000s of arrangements. I would suggest using Sunshine for this purpose only and doing something custom for the character shadows, like a blob/projector/volume/etc type solution.

 

Thanks for your quickly rreply.
I did it as your advice.
I deleted all AddPass shaders and remove Dependency "AddPassShader" = "... code in FirstPass shaders.
Unfortunately it don't change anything.
I think AddPass shader is nothing to terrain shader(FirstPass).

I edited FirstPass shader. Albedo value! and fixed it.

void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o)
{
fixed4 splat_control = tex2D (_Control, IN.uv_Control);
fixed3 col = 0.0;
col = splat_control.r * tex2D (_Splat0, IN.uv_Splat0).rgb;
col += splat_control.g * tex2D (_Splat1, IN.uv_Splat1).rgb;
col += splat_control.b * tex2D (_Splat2, IN.uv_Splat2).rgb;
col += splat_control.a * tex2D (_Splat3, IN.uv_Splat3).rgb;
o.Albedo = col;
//o.Albedo = col * 0.2;
o.Alpha = 0.0;
}

Can you fix your shader code? thanks!

p.s if you test your terrain splat shader based DX11 from PC, you see same result(too bright).

 

Oh, you know what! It seems like Unity may have changed this shader since the original version always multiplied by 2x... I remember Aras saying he was considering removing the 2x stuff a while back, he must have done it.

Thanks for catching this, I'll change it for the next release.

Edit: BTW, what version of Unity are you running?

 

My unity version is 4.5.4

I edited Sunshine.cginc shader.

inline fixed3 SunshineDecodeLightmap( fixed4 color )
{
#if defined(SHADER_API_GLES) && defined(SHADER_API_MOBILE)
return 2.0 * color.rgb;
#else
// potentially faster to do the scalar multiplication
// in parenthesis for scalar GPUs
//return (2.0 * color.a) * color.rgb;
return 2.0 * color.rgb;
#endif
}


And I edited FirstPass shader, remove some codes.
#pragma multi_compile SUNSHINE_DISABLED SUNSHINE_FILTER_PCF_4x4 SUNSHINE_FILTER_PCF_3x3 SUNSHINE_FILTER_PCF_2x2 SUNSHINE_FILTER_HARD
#pragma target 3.0

As a result fixed it I'm not sure it's normal.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll try to have it sorted out in the next release.

 

Hello PolyVector,

I'm seeking support for your asset, with an issue I'm having. This inquiry is less about the coding aspect which I'm sure you're used to, and more about the fundamentals. You see, my project takes place primarily outside. Due to this, your asset only leaves the game with a hazy effect; the true effect only visible when the camera is within the shadows. (Which is practically never, in normal gameplay.) As seen in the gif I made below.



Everything looks great while inside the shadow, however during gameplay we're never inside the shadows. Therefore leaving our entire screen with just this bright, misty/hazy effect that you seen on the left. (Obviously I can change the values to make it not hazy/noticeable, but that would be the same as essentially disabling the plugin.) Not entirely should how we could go about fixing this, if there would be a way to 'invert' the effect, or what exactly.

Hope to hear back from you soon.

 

Anyone get this working with AFS and RTP? Sorry if this was already answered.

 

I see your dilemma. The effect is meant to simulate light scattering through dust/fog in the air, so in a sense it's supposed to look like Haze.

• Tint the scatter to be bluish, or the color of your sky, this can allow it to blend in more seamlessly.
• Try toning down the intensity, sometimes less is more with this sort of thing.
• Play with the Exaggeration slider.

Something I still plan on adding in a future version is "view dependance", so the intensity can ramp up as you look at the Sun. This would make things a lot more realistic, and probably reduce the overall haze in the scene except where appropriate. I don't have an ETA though on this.

Inverting the effect should be relatively easy if you edit Sunshine Scatter.shader, but chances are it would just look wrong.

If the effect is simply not something that fits your game, hit me up for a refund, no problem.

 

I'm pretty sure both have been proven to work, but they can require some shader modification. Hopefully this process will become easier in Unity 5, but for now I would look back through this thread as there's been some discussion already.

 

I think it might be nice if sunshine merely did the volume shadow part, perhaps some alternative blend, or maybe I'm just not understanding Gamershaze.

 

The custom shadows in Sunshine are totally optional, but I know what you mean. I think a scatter-only approach (with more scatter-related customization) has always been my ideal as well, but access to Unity's built-in shadow system is almost non-existent, so most of the work/complexity winds up being the custom shadow system.

That said, you can always tweak the Scatter shader to customize the way it blends, I know some games have done this to make the Scatter use a more complex (and view-dependent) inscatter algorithm.

 

Sunshine 1.6.5 is Available in the Unity Asset Store

• Added Scatter Ramp Texture functionality. This allows for custom view-dependent falloff gradients! (samples included)
• Compatibility with Unity 5 beta 17
• Updated Documentation

 

Hello ploy!
I am currently working on a project combining Alloy+SkyShop with Sunshine and maybe shadow softener.
My question is:
1- would it be okay to use Sunshine and shadow softener together? softener for spot/point light and Sunshine for directional light, as it should be.
2- Is there any potential pitch that you already collected (there are some post in these thread I have go through. Alloy does has a Internal-PrePassLighting.shader file and I am looking into the different between Sunshine tweak and Alloy's.but it would be great if you could address things ahead)

 

There has been a bit of discussion in this thread you might find useful. The TLDR version is that these 3 can be a tricky set of assets to juggle, but it is possible. I would recommend using Shadow Softener for all shadows and Sunshine for Scatter only. This makes integration -much- simpler if the performance works out in your particular game.

Basic process would be to delete Sunshine's replacement deferred shaders, and keep "Custom Shadows" unchecked. Then, assuming you are using prepass rendering, you would need to create a new Prepass shsder combing Alloy/Skyshop's changes with Shadow Softener's changes.

From the sound of it I'm not telling you anything new, mostly just confirming what you already know. Let me know if you run into any trouble along the way.

 

I got a
"Maximum number (64) of shader keywords exceeded, keyword UNITY_HDR_ON will be ignored"
When merging Alloy and shadow softener "Internal-PrePassLighting"
will it help if I remove some of your PCFNxN levels? or any shader keyword is removable ?

 

You may have to define a smaller PCFNxN kernel, no need to remove anything in the cginc. (Edit: I mean there's no need to edit Shadow Softener.cginc)

 

Thanks Ploy they work together now
And one more question:
I am using PCF3x3 now. Do you have any idea how many shader keyword do I saved comparing to PCF4x4? As I may try to add SSRR in to make it look even nicer. Or does is just not massing with screen space effect shaders?
PS: as a reference I was using a gtx980 x4way SLI. and rendering to a CAVE like system. So performance is not so much a problem for it. What I trying is to make the most out of the rending effects.

 

Glad it's working, you're quick!

I honestly don't know how much room moving from 4x4 to 3x3 will leave you, but I've used Sunshine with SSRR before and it looked pretty good. Good luck!

 

Just tested Sunshine on my Note 4 running the latest Oculus Mobile SDK and a Gear VR headset. Unfortunately my demo doesn't get past the splash screen. Are there any plans to support the Oculus Mobile SDK in the future? Thanks.

 

I don't have a GearVR, but the reports I've had of Sunshine+Oculus stuff crashing (so far) have turned out to be Oculus SDK bugs. I would make sure this isn't a known issue with the particuilar Oculus+Unity versions you're running.

Sunshine plays nicely with stereoscopic camera setups, and is even optimized specifically for this with the Master/Slave camera setting in SunshineCamera.

 

Should we disable unity default shadows in Quality Windows to work with sunshine?

 

It is best to not disable the Unity shadows as they can be used as a fall back in the event Sunshine isn't supported.

 

When I disable the unity shadow everything looks good but after enabling it all shadows becomes totally black
What should I do?

 

You'll have to give some more information in order to properly see what's going on.

1. Are custom shadows enabled in Sunshine?
2. What version of Unity?
3. What renderer are you using?

 

1- No
2- 5b17
3- Deferred

 

I'm having a hard time reproducing it on my machine (OS X Unity 5 beta 17).

It might be an issue that's only showing itself on Windows. If you could PM me a small test project that reproduces the issue, that would help to track it down faster.

 

Ok, But first I have to say there is 2 more problems that makes sunshine totally useless for me!
First I'm using lots of Image Effects on my camera and because of that sunshine post process doesn't looks so good
It becomes bright and moving it to up and down of the components just doesn't help

Second why when I just try to move an object in the scene it start to baking light setting again after a minor change in the scene?

 

Please keep in mind that Unity 5 is beta software and changing constantly, likewise Sunshine support for Unity 5 is merely "preliminary" as I try to keep up with the massive internal changes between betas.

Your first problem with Sunshine becoming overly bright might have to do with mixing it with baked lightmaps, since this hasn't been fully tested in all combinations in Unity 5 b17.

Your second problem doesn't sound related to Sunshine. Unity 5's new Enlighten integration has iterative light baking that behaves as you've described.

If Sunshine isn't useful to you, please feel free to PM me your Invoice # and I'll get you a refund right away, no big deal.

 

suggestion - you should make the documentation PDF available in the asset store description and in this thread. I was searching all over trying to remember where it was...

it's also useful for people to check out before they purchase.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've added the link to the first post in this thread and I'll try to remember to add a link in the asset store description with the next update.

 

Hello I have purchased Sunshine awhile ago and it is very good!

I was wondering if there is way to just use the overcast (the cloud shadows). Whenever I use Sunshine, it forces itself to be the only realtime shadowcaster. It won't let any of my other directional lights use realtime lights.

I want to use the default directional lights to cast realtime shadows. I want Sunshine to only cast cloud shadows. I am using orthogonal camera. Is there a way to do this? I would be so happy :]

Thank you so much!