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TC Partiticles - Millions of GPU particles

Discussion in 'Made With Unity' started by pvloon, Sep 15, 2012.

  1. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Also as someone artistically impaired, please please PLEASE include good advanced samples to learn from (if you could strip the particles from the museum demo scene include most of those as is in an empty scene, that would rock!)
     
  2. ZJP

    ZJP

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    +1

    Ok for the indie price. Count me in.


    JP
     
  3. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Indie version is closed source, no priority support (of course if you report a bug I will fix it, other than that pro versions get priority)
    Pro version gets you source code access (including a GIT hub version), dedicated e-mail or Skype support.

    For release pro and indie will have the same feature set, and so will the first update or two. That might branch off at some point though, depending on how things go.

    Lastly, I've been a bit too busy to properly look at licensing, but indie will be restricted to individuals or companies generating less than 75000$ revenue

    Anton is working on sample scene's as we speak :) I already discussed the possibility with him to include some of the effects of the micro star. The centerpiece, the star, will be included! The other effects aren't that great to learn from though, and also are set up in an old version of the system (you'd be surprised how fast the system is changing ;)). so those will not be included. More learning material will be added as time progresses, I don't want it to massively delay release for now.
     
  4. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    I would strongly suggest against the 75K$ revenue cap, most companies making >75K$ will want the pro version anyway and doing anything specific in the licence means not using the default unity licence (which is a big no no as having the default unity licence is what makes owning hundreds of assets manageable legally speaking)
     
  5. pvloon

    pvloon

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    I did not realize that, very good point. I will use the default asset store license, 75K$ companies probably end up buying the pro version anyway indeed. Thank you!
     
  6. xenius

    xenius

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    @ronan: I've been sketching out a couple great sample scenes to use as learning tools. While the Microstar effects are cool, they only look the way they do because our scene is running in Linear Space, using very specific bloom settings, and several other post layers, so its not the best example. I will be creating a very similar effect though, structured almost identically in the unity scene, just set up a bit different to look nice sans the postfx.
     
  7. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Has it been pushed as planned btw? IIRC the plan was to push to the asset store yesterday?
    Can't wait to toy around with this :)
     
  8. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Hi Everyone,

    Unfortunately we were not able to release today. All features are pretty much complete, but when bug testing on some more GFX cards we found some bugs, leading to other bugs, etc.etc. After being dragged into those we're finally able to solve them, only one final hurdle remains it seems. It had to push release back. I will off course continue to work as hard as I can for release :) Stay tuned!
     
  9. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Any chance you can release this new just stating the bug and that it's beta and will be fixed soon? I'd really like to have my hands on this asap!
     
  10. xenius

    xenius

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    @ronan: Patience grasshopper. Particle Magic will soon be yours. In all seriousness, the bug is a big one, it actually prevents me from building the sample scene I have designed. Your wait will be over soon :)
     
  11. ZJP

    ZJP

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    "Particle Magic"?!?! :(
    Very common name. TC Particle Engine is most better. My 2 cents ;)
    Anyway, good luck for the "bug hunting".


    JP
     
  12. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Don't worry, it's still called TC Particles* ;) But it's obviously run by magic!

    Also, it seems that we have finally tracked down the last piece to complete the puzzle! There's still quite a lot of work to do that has been postponed as a result of the bug madness, but it's certainly on it's way :)

    *Fun fact: TC Particles was a temporary working name, but it stuck.
     
  13. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Keep us posted! :)
     
  14. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Sure thing!

    Let me walk you through what we have been working on since the release of Museum of the Microstar :)

    Most of the work has been sunk into bug-fixing, code cleaning, making sure it's all robust, coherent, etc. Aka: boring back-end stuff!

    One of the more important results of the back-end revamps is that you can now instantiate a particle system at runtime. This used to be impossible: All random numbers were pre-generated on the CPU, taking a good second on a core i7 for a million particles.
    I used to think generating random numbers on the GPU was extremely tedious and slow, but this article proved me wrong. I changed to generating the random numbers at runtime on the GPU, and it works perfect! It also saves lot's of VRAM.

    Another important part was improving the workflow. The system had clogged up a bit, so it needed some revising. In the end we decided on this inspector for the main system, and for the forces:


    And some simpler ones for the other components which aren't worth showing.
    In conclusion: Many small tweaks have made the system a pleasure to work with... Hopefully!

    Lastly, possibly most exciting, some new features! Forces and colliders have gained a variety of shapes, as well as proper scaling. The colliders gained a particular interesting shape: Terrains!

    300K particles colliding with two terrains.

    Speaking about colliders, here's a quick speed test I did today:


    100K particles, 38 colliders, on a GTX 660, computing collisions takes 3.338ms (sorry for the GC spikes, it's being worked on)

    Another new feauture is offscreen particle rendering. Pick a downsampling factor and hear your GPU sigh of relief as fill rate stress drops dramatically. Additionally, it allows for much more elaborate rendering effects. That's something where a lot of research will need to be put into, something we don't have the time for now. Don't worry, it will be in the package, only as an experimental feature though! Here's a first screenshot, showing how this new rendering power can be used for smoke like effects:

    One turbulence force, one radial force, one collider, can't remember how many particles.

    It's not the prettiest yet, but this does show that GPU particles aren't necessarily bright glowing debris only!

    I have just sent RC1 to Anton, who's working on the test scene's, manuals, etc. I might launch a website soon, to put all those things there.

    Thanks for reading and most importantly for all the motivation :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2013
  15. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Are you sending this RC1 to the asset store now? Or is it doing a roundtrip for demo scene update?
     
  16. pvloon

    pvloon

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    I really feel sending it to the asset store now without documentation and demo scenes would really hurt, more than waiting a few days. So yes, RC1 will do a roundtrip for demo scene's, documentation, possibly some more bugfixing. It shouldn't be too long though, the wait will soon be over! (Believe me, I'm even more anxious to release this thing as you are :) )
     
  17. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    I'm sure you are, still no chance at getting an early version? Can you feel i can't wait anymore lol? Seriously the wait is driving me crazy :)
     
  18. pvloon

    pvloon

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    I do, and I really appreciate the enthusiasm! :) I've send you a PM
     
  19. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Answered it in hopes i catch you before you hit the bed:)
     
  20. ZJP

    ZJP

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    O.M.G
     
  21. rahuxx

    rahuxx

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    YES this is unbelievable.
     
  22. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Aye, as i was saying in another thread, systems like this is what make unity's strenght, it may not be AAA out of the box but seriously, an additional 85$ is far from a deal breaker over a 1.5K licence and adds quite a bit of the AAA power just by itself (have a look at the UE4 demo, the massive particles are responsible for a lot of the wow factor).
     
  23. unity_sg

    unity_sg

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    Wow, look's epic, really impressive !
    It will allow new perspectives for the Unity engine !

    Will this work with collider in moves ?
    And with non-convex mesh collider ?
     
  24. MornFall

    MornFall

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    I ... Need... That... !
     
  25. ZJP

    ZJP

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    Take a ticket and stand in line. ;)
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2013
  26. jeroenvdv

    jeroenvdv

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    Really looking forward to working with this new particle engine.

    For now, only a couple of emitter-sources available? I can see "ring" with diameters, probably a sphere, but will it be possible to use a (runtime-script-assignable) mesh (with transform/scale)?)
     
  27. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Thanks for all the responses :) Booy I want to release this! :) RC2 is out, demo scene is on it's way, still need lot's of work for documentations, websites, etc. ;)

    @unity_sq: Moving colliders work! No mesh collisions, for now, though. First few updates will focus on rendering (and bugfixes). After that, I will probably work on collision. I have some nice sketches of how to collide even with skinned meshes ;) (No promises, of course)

    @jeroenvdv: Ha, goed om meer Nederlanders hier te zien! For emitter shapes, you have the following options: Sphere, box, hemisphere, ring, cone, line, and... mesh! (with transform and scale, of course)

    Thank you all for the patience, and hold on just a little longer :)
     
  28. ZJP

    ZJP

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    I don't have enough "O.M.G" ;)
     
  29. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Having had the chance for a long chat for the author i can state the following:
    - This system rocks, very stable versatile
    - The author rocks, professional, willing to help, not pushing issues on others, quick thinker

    You better buy this soon when it's released before he realise he's selling it too cheap :)
     
  30. ZJP

    ZJP

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    [jealous]
    Grrrrr...........
    [/jealous]
    That my idea. ;)
     
  31. sloopidoopi

    sloopidoopi

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    The last time i felt so impatient was long time ago when I was a jung kid waiting for Christmas.
    Dear Santa Claus: please give me your particles, NOW!
     
  32. rahuxx

    rahuxx

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    Any chance of allowing forum users to try RC2?
     
  33. ZJP

    ZJP

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    Doubt. Most of us would not buy the final product because:

    ;)
     
  34. jeroenvdv

    jeroenvdv

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    Great. Happy! :)

    - Zodra ik even een gaatje in de agenda heb doen we alsnog ff die meeting! -
     
  35. hellcaller

    hellcaller

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  36. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Hi Everyone :)

    I'm still working as hard as I can to release this. We have decided that no matter what, we well submit the package to the Asset Store this Sunday evening. Unfortunately, we've run into some severe bugs again. At first it wasn't too bad, but for some reason they got worse and worse, to the point were we really can't produce a demo scene like that. Again, we will submit this Sunday no matter what, but it sure is troublesome!

    @Ronan: You got lucky, I'm way to easy to talk into things ;) Thanks again for the help with the DLL, I sorted it all out. Thank you for the kind words :)

    @Sloopidoopi: Have you been nice this year?

    @Rahuxx: Unfortunately, no ;) ZJP pretty much nailed that.

    @jeroenvdv: Zeker :) Lijkt me leuk, laat maar weten wanneer het uitkomt via de mail!

    @hellcaller: DAT GLASSES

    I will be posting another update on the system here, regarding how forces work, somewhere today. Back to bug fixing now!
     
  37. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    Hehe :)
    No worries just let me know if you need help with anything (non directcompute related) else.
     
  38. SimtropBuggi

    SimtropBuggi

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    I know right now OpenCL support is just a 'maybe' but I do hope it gets included eventually. I'd like to release on Linux and Mac platforms.
     
  39. pvloon

    pvloon

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    @SimtropBuggi: It's mostly up to unity really. I would love to support openCL, but right now it's a massive pain to do so in unity. I've asked Aras if it's a possibility to abstract the compute API so it works with DirectX 11, openGl, and openCL. He said it was a big maybe, but it might come in the future :)



    May the force be with you

    While you are all patiently waiting (hopefully), let me give you some more info about the system :) One of the best parts of the system is the added interactivity. An important part in that are the particle forces. Unitys shuriken system only has a very, very basic force system. Believe when I say that it's amazing to see 100s of thounands of particles flying around affected by forces!

    It's simple to create a force for a TC Particle system: Create a gameobject and attach a TC Force component!



    As you can see forces have 3 important area's: One for general parameters (strength, falloff type, inherit velocity), shape (sphere, capsule, box, disc, hemisphere or constant), and lastly the force type. The system currently has the following force types:

    -Radial: Pushes / pulls particles away / towards the center of the force
    -Vector: Pushes particles in given direction
    -Drag: Slows particles down
    -Vortex: Rotates particles around center, and pulls them inwards

    And lastly, Turbulence, which is somewhat more complicated force type, but also the most exiting one. It's what gives particles the nice natural chaotic movement.

    Here's a screenshot of how it might look like:

    The parameters on the right specify the kind of noise, the frequency, etc. To help you visualize what the noise is doing, there's a realtime preview in the scene view! The arrows show direction, the colours show the 'stability' of the field.

    I hope this gives some insights into the system :) Enjoy!


    Lastly: http://tcparticles.tinycubestudio.com/ is pretty much done! Take a look there, let me know what you think
     
  40. ZJP

    ZJP

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    ;)

    Edit

    You have changed the price?!. Again! :(

    Your a good developer. I'm now sure you're a good commercial too. Started at 50$, release at 99$. I'm in of course but...
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2013
  41. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Blame ronan for that one ;) Don't worry, launch price will be $80 as promised, as a special! :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2013
  42. ZJP

    ZJP

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    Puiifffff!!! Saved.
     
  43. pvloon

    pvloon

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    Looking back at this thread for the original prices of 50 and 100, not sure what happened there. Also, the original planned basic version was much more limited than it is now as you wouldn't get force baking. Keep in mind that was waaaay, months, back. System has grown a lot since ;) I need to update the starting post
     
  44. ZJP

    ZJP

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    Yeah, and you miss the...free version. ;) ;)

    JP
     
  45. ronan-thibaudau

    ronan-thibaudau

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    I can very much say that the price is damn cheap for what it does :)
     
  46. xenius

    xenius

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    $DustyPlanet.jpg

    In case you guys are wondering about features that have been added since the system's initial incarnation.

    Here's a sample scene (that will be included in the package) showing off terrain particle collision, and offscreen particle renderering. The coolest thing (in my opinion) about the way is functions, is that the terrain collider forces particles beneath it up onto its surface. What this means is that you can have particles dynamically emitting from an area on the terrain at the same X/Z position/dimensions as the emitter. So you can either have them spawn across a whole area like this, or in a more localized way around the player.

    Just thought I'd tease you guys a bit more :)
     
  47. reissgrant

    reissgrant

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    Looks amazing!
     
  48. SimtropBuggi

    SimtropBuggi

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    Teasing isn't nice :)

    Any timeline for release?
     
  49. tobobox

    tobobox

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    Will there be a way to program behaviors for particles... ie. to be able to use the gpu for boids or flocking systems?
     
  50. unity_sg

    unity_sg

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    Is it possible to interact with the particules with scripts ?
    Or destroy particles when they collide with an object with a specitif tag or layer ?