Graphics [HDRP-UPR ✅] Sky Master ULTIMATE-Physical skybox-Volume clouds-Weather FX-Ocean-Realtime GI-Mobile

Wow, I've been away too long. You have done a LOT of work once again Nasos. Just downloaded the beta and hotfix, but won't have much time for it until the weekend at best. Demos look good, and I like the fact that you've left the "roll mode" evolution in the thread. Good to see that you are human, and have to work though the issues like the rest of us. Good thing is, it looks like another complete success. Keep on cutting code!

Mark

 

Target for final islands demo, the final demo will be a combination of the prototypes in the following pics and use Sky Master and InfinIGRASS to the full extend





http://i.imgur.com/3oZ2w3e.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9b3jLX5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RCD0DAT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zlhsv85.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/FmioqDH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/C1PglRg.jpg

Thanks for the kind comments .

The demos will also get a super enchanced version that will use InfiniGRASS system as well, for rocks and grass in the islands, after v3.0 release.

 

UPDATE:

Fixes for v3.0.3b Beta update so far:

- Added new radial ocean option and integrated into the Inspector for easy setup, this mode is best for endless ocean emulation
- Fixed issue where sun would appear dark behind shader based clouds
- Added option to set the max night time (default is 22.4)
- Added legacy seasonal change samples as option
- Lowered low margin of sky brightness control -previous lowest value it was too dark
- Adjusted stars and cloud coloration timing further - fixed a delay in star appearence
- Fixed issue where clouds would not grab the defined in script moon color at night (with moon_light option) and would grab moon light instead
- Added the shift dawn option in Inspector
- Added option to properly add more water tiles (or the new radial plane) in addition to an existing water system (so it is easy to move from tiles to radial for example)
- Adjusted water reflection for near night time, so it does not go very dark very soon.
- Fixed issue in Foggy volume weather, where a black flickering area would appear due to keys missing in the preset gradient, making the final gradient have a black color at start.

Thanks a lot everyone for the great feedback, it helps immensly into the refinement of the finer points and details of the system.

 

UPDATE:

Extra Fixes for v3.0.3b Beta update:
- Fixed issue in Foggy volume weather, where a black flickering area would appear due to keys missing in the preset gradient, making the final gradient have a black color at start.

 

Video of the new clouds motion and wind interaction, higher clouds have a bigger latency to wind direction based motion change.

 

Seems like these clouds are starting to look a bit more realistic now. Something that looks like NUAJ but does not have all the problems of nuaj would be great (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/2441). Looks like you are getting much closer now with the look and I know you are continually working on it which is great to see. Good work.

I grabbed the infinigrass already but have not had time to implement it yet.

 

Indeed, the goal is to come as close as possible to a true volumetric solution, without the extreme slow down in DX9 or using DX11 and i keep moving towards that goal with new shaders, motion tricks and particle roll locking. The final step is to implement an impostors system to cover for the endless cloud bed (there is a renew system included that can emulate it, but would be preferable to have the impostor system in place).

A lot more work will be done towards the perfection goal in v3.x cycle as well. The particle clouds also have one major advantage, that they are completly customizable with any texture and shader, plus they can have a sprite sheet for unlimited variety. Another idea is to create a feature that will assign these sheet textures based on particle position etc in the cloud, this is also planned for v3.x cycle.

InfiniGRASS works with Sky Master ULTIMATE snow and wind systems as well, you can readilly enable gradual snow growth in snow storm weather and melt away after this weather is changed. The windzone can be created with Sky Master and can be inserted in the InfiniGRASS manager so they both use the same wind.

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE is on discounted price until v3.0 release !!!!

Make sure to grab the asset before the behemoth v3.0 update arrives at the store.

The new v3.0.2 beta (final beta) is now available on PM request to all Sky Master ULTIMATE users.

 

Really looking forward to this The nuaj clouds look very nice, but I bet that you can and will achieve the same or better results

 

I will definitly try to do the best possible, since this is the only clouds i can afford for my RPG as well, as it is packed with detail and anything else would not be possible to use anyway, so this system is my top priority for v3.x cycle to make even cooler

I have also now finished with the two manuals (Guide for configurator and complete script parameters reference guide) and the system is now very close to release. The manual alone took me two days to create (around 80 pages)

 

New Features in Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0​

Ocean - Water system
- New water system, for spectacular bodies of water, with full underwater emulation (fog, caustics, fish, sun filtering/beams)
- Reflection and refraction support
- Foam and shore edge detection
- Many presets that cover anything from ocean water to forest ponds.
- Extremely fast GPU based water
- Wave height calculator with boat and floating objects sample (full buoyancy system will come in v3.1)
- Tile based system for easy adjustement of water to various areas (infinite ocean and LOD support will come in v3.x cycle as well)
- Option to have water follow the hero, for endless ocean emulation
- Shore line wave height modulation, for realistic shores
- Local point light support
​

Volume clouds
- Volume clouds LOD system (near and far, reduces overdraw, especially useful for 1080p resolution and mobile)
- Volume clouds fade in/out for gradual appearance and sound (rain, thunder etc) fades
- Volume cloud fix (white cloud appeared when particle count was not divided exactly by cloud center count)
- New volume cloud shader with scatter effect for realism, new realistic presets
- Volume cloud vertical formation, for more variety in cloud bed arrangement
- Height based particle coloration (to emulate the effect of shadow on lower cloud layers)
- Big number of new presets and samples that showcase all the new features
- Point light interaction with volume clouds, for use with lightning
- Accumulation option, for thicker cloud formations.
- Smooth cloud motion and wind emulation
- Camera roll particle stabilization system, for hard rolls without particle rotation (few limitations only when plane comes down from very high up with a straight down angle)

Lightning
- New dynamic lightning system, with extra detailed branches and complete randomization
- New glow effect

Moon phases
- New shader based moon phase system, with multiple options for total control
- Optional moon coloration for red moon style etc
- Automatic per month and year moon phasing changes (not accurate system, emulates a shift during the month)

Latitude / Longitude based Sun Positioning
- New system to position sun based on time of day and geographic coordinates. This system can be used as an extra option to the default system where sun Y & Z position are user defined for versatility.
- Integration of all systems with the new TOD system (e.g. water, clouds, fog)

Snow
- New snow and mud puddle shader, for meshes and Unity terrain, SM2.0 and SM3.0 varieties
- Gradual snow appearance and melt away controls, integration with InfiniGRASS, Unity and SpeedTree trees and billboards, meshes etc

Liquids
- New water drops on camera shader, with refraction and water drop motion
- Screen freeze effect also integrated

Volume Lit particles
- Particle shader that receives light (directional and point/spot light)
- SM2.0 base (directional) for full compatibility
- Optimized for speed
- Atomic bomb example (bonus)

Shader Based Cloud Dome
- More realistic shader based dynamic cloud dome added, for emulation of higher clouds, above the volumetric cloud bed.
- Replaces the texture based cloud dome that was available from the initial Sky Master release
- Artistic features like glow and special motion blending

Sky Master Editor - Configurator - Library
- Global configurator of Sky Master prefabs and automation of prefab creation
- Particle scaler included and automated scaling (particles etc) for the whole prefab (particle scaler can be used as stand alone too)
- Library of ready to use volume clouds, sky moods, effects etc, all one click away and with preview images
- Global modifier controls to alter the environment look easilly

Volume Weather
- New Volume Weather module, that uses the volumetric clouds and fog for most realistic weather effects. Inner cloud lighting for lightning is just one of the many new posibilities.
- New refractive rain and splashes for even more realism
- New system to define weather patterns, per season with weather events
- Integration of the module with the configurator for easy weather event assignment
- Integration with the snow and ocean-water systems

New Airplane - Boat demo mini games
- Airplane demo, that showcases the new volume cloud shaders, stabilization system, soft cloud system for terrain integration and smooth look in intersection of clouds and airplane in the fly through.
- Boat demo, showcasing the new water system, wave height calculations, boat motion based on wave direction, floater system, underwater features and shore line wave adjustements. Also the new volumetric weather system (heavy storm, snow, rain).


A summary listing of the refinements and new systems in version 3.0.

The final beta is now available for download on PM or email request for all current Sky Master ULTIMATE users !!!

 

I can't figure out how to pm you from here.

 

You can press my user name above my icon and then "start conversation" link.

 

Small note on an issue on the new beta (v3.0.2 with v3.0.3b update).

The CreatePlaneSM script must go in a folder named "Editor" (can be anywhere as long as it has that name) in order to properly build the project, as it is an editor script. I missed this as i put this option the last minute and is now fixed for the final release.

Thanks a lot to twobob for bringing this to my attention !!

 

UPDATE:

After lots of feedback, i have come across a few more issues to resolve (some clouds go green at certain weather, rain is too heavy because it grabs wrong particle count pariable of flat clouds and a few more smaler issues). These will be handled today and i will upload a new beta version tomorrow.

Also i have now optimized the clouds further, with far less particles and the same visual result, so there is even more performance optimization.

 

New Atoll water style in action

The new v3.0.4 beta (final beta) is now available on PM request to all Sky Master ULTIMATE users.

If you like the pack, please remember to leave a review. As I am a one man team, reviews help a lot with keeping the asset development at highest priority and work on the cool updates faster.
Thanks a lot in advance for any reviews and for the amazing support so far !!!!​

 

UPDATE:

The new atoll preset has now been added to the preset and Inspector and is refined. It will be included in v3.0 release, along with a demo scene.

 

Atoll video, time of day and clouds

 

Draw call analysis


Volume lit particles - A bomb

Volume lit particles - Smoke

Volume lit particles and a draw call analysis on the various Sky Master parts.

Sky Master can take as little as 10 draw calls for all its systems (in cloudy weather, a few more when snow is enabled and more when lightning is enabled)

Atoll demo video, boat perspective

 

UPDATE:

I solved an issue with the point light specularity in the water shader and now is working as supposed to, so i will be exporting the final Atoll webplayer demo very soon, probably in a few hours.

I have also included a volume lit particle sample (smoke) for reference

 

UPDATE:

The Atoll demo is now ready, i had some lasts tweaks that were required, to define well the order of rendering, so particles, clouds and water would render properly at all player positions (even above the clouds)

I have used the volume clouds as reference (since these are instantiated and will use the default layer 0 and move to layer 1 when the player is above the cloud bed (so particles not in any sorting layer do not render inside the clouds)

The water is in layer -1 and the plane for water effects in front of the camera in sorting layer 3

Also I did some minor tweaks to the shaders for the webplayer (i got some small errors on build and now are all fixed)

I am adding a few final touches (fishes and birds) and will upload it soon. The demo also showcases local lights support for the water and the volumetric lit particle shader.

 

The first Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 Beta demo is up !!!!!

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 Atoll Demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL DEMO1.html

Enjoy

 

Demo updated controls





I have added extra controls for the water color-depth and will come in the next demo soon.

 

Final demo



Packs shots




Icons


Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 final details have now been finished and everything is ready for submission to the store !!!

The final demo will come today as well, with many more controls for the water and performance optimizations for the storm weather.

I would love to have opinions on which of the icons and pack shots to use as well, it is really hard to decide

 

For those looking to run this on mobile... don't. At least not with the current 3.x version. The cloud system is slow and the water not usable on any mid-range device. My test on galaxy s5 runs hyper slow. On the same device, using the standard water (comes with unity) and a cloud particle system, runs at 60 fps. Using Skymaster doesn't even pass 10 fps.

Something needs real work on those shaders. It only seems to run fine if you use desktop. I'm hoping the author is able to improve the performance at some point.

 

I will be doing some mobile specific tweaks and test with these later and get back with results. The current v3.0 system is for desktop indeed, there is no specific mobile optimization in yet.

For example the clouds require different performance options and shading and the water the same, these are meant only for desktop and highest end mobile.

The system is one of the fastest possible on desktop, so it is near the line where it will be usuable on mobile with extra optimizations and as mobile mid range moves up.

Did you test with Unity's water 4 advanced water on mobile or the simple water ? For example does it have reflection and refraction ?

Also the resolution matters a lot, a 2500x1600 resolution on mobile for example would be heavy even for some desktops, so if such resolution must be used there is no current way to get such graphics on the much weaker than desktop platform at such extreme for mobile resolutions.

What resolution is used on mobile on your tests ? That is probably one of the main reasons of the slow down is my guess.

The clouds use the unity legacy particles, so besides their script that can be disabled in the static case and can be controlled ror performance in dynamic, there is no other reason why they would be slower, given they use the same system that does 60fps on the mobile.

After v3.0 release, i will be working more on providing a mobile oriented integration in all levels on the new v3.0 systems and ready to use presets and mobile friendly version of the modules, this will take a while to perfect and when it is done i will announce the official support for mobile on the complete range of features of the version 3.0 of Sky Master ULTIMATE.

All systems of version 2.x that run on mobile are also available in Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0, the new in v3.0 features are additional to the previous systems and extend them.

Of course things like the sky and many of the shaders can already be used on mobile and clouds with less particles, v2,x shaders and more performance regulation, the water is the main thing that needs the most attention.

 

The enhanced Atoll demo is up !!!! Enjoy

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 Atoll demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL DEMO2.html

The "Smoke & FX" button enables a volume lit smoke and a point light on ocean samples.

Also the boat will create a dynamic wake on water, the best way to see it is by leaving the boat outside the cave and enter the cave with the GUI button, then control the boat in "Lake" preset where the wakes can be seen clearly.

The dynamic shader based wakes depend on the boat speed and direction (so they will fade towards the back of the boat)

 

UPDATE:

The demo has now received a few more enhancements, in water motion when the scene position changes and the rain weather has also been added. The link is the same as in the above post.

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 Atoll demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL DEMO2.html

The 2ond demo, that showcases the snow system to its full extend (trees, terrain bump follow) and glass effects will be uploaded tomorrow.

 

UPDATE:

The final beta v3.0.5 Release Candidate (RC1) is now being uploaded and the system will be available on PM request to all current users immediately.

I will also upload the snow/glass 2ond demo and refine the airplane demo a bit more and post this as well, hopefully today

I have emailed the caustic textures creator (Jos Stam) to see if i can include them in the pack, otherwise i will have a link to the textures here and in a text file in the caustics folder.

The caustic textures can be downloaded in the following link: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/stam/reality/Research/PeriodicCaustics/index.html

I have also organized all the new demo content in Assets/version 3.0 folder (around 200MB), including snow, caustics (if they will be included eventually), ground textures etc, so they can be easily removed if required to lower the asset size.

 

UPDATE:
The airplane and snow demos are now ready and uploading, they will be available in a few hours.

I added an option to change the cloud materials in the demo and all day time controls from the other demos.

Also there is an option to have a smooth follow mode or a hard mode which follows the airplane roll without smooth factors (cockpit style view)

NOTE: The snow demo uses Unity terrain and trees, which are extremely heavy in order to look good (they take up to 1800 draw calls for terrain-trees alone for example when billboards are set far), so to gauge performance the Atoll demo is preferable where everything is far more optimized and no Unity terrain - trees are used.

I recommend avoiding using Unity terrain and trees when possible, if performance and great looks is required. I will be doing grass with InfiniGRASS and trees with InfiniTREE 2 later for a demo that will include all the packs and be next gen looking and optimized. Also i will see how i can convert the Unity terrain to mesh, for ultra speeds and provide a splat map based system for mesh terrains and a snow shader to go with it.

The GUI is also taking a lot of draw calls, so disable after the changes for the perfect experience in the demos.

 

The new Snow demo is now up

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 Snow & Glass demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/SNOW DEMO 1.html

Press "snow" button to start the effect and any other weather (cloudy etc) to start melting back to normal

 

Pool demo

 

UPDATE:

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 has now been submitted to the store. The new price will be $95.

I will also upload in dropbox for direct download for all current users and provide links on request before it hits the store.

The system will receive a lot of updates during the v3.x cycle to make it even more spectacular in looks and functionality.

Now i am working on FFT waves as an extra option for v3.1, the current v3.0 system will be the fastest option by far, so will remain the default and FFT can be enabled on demand. Other major upcoming features include hiding of water inside boats, projected grid for ocean, local water dynamics with memory (local wave dynamics are applied in v3.0 system and will be expanded with wave trails in v3.x cycle) etc.

I have also found a method to create ultra detailed procedural cloud textures for use with the volumetric cloud system, so i will offer a lot more artistic and ready to use detailed cloud textures very soon !!!

 

A note on the volumetric cloud sprite sheet usage

In volume clouds, a sprite sheet may be used to give variety to clouds. Each cloud will grab a randomized texture from the sheet when the system is created.

To properly use the feature two things are important. In the Ellipsoid Particle Emitter of the cloud prefab, the Min and Max energy must range from the first sheet item to the last (e.g for a 3x2 sheet will be min = 1 and max = 2x3=6)

In Particle renderer the UV animation must have X Tile and Y tile as in sheet (eg. X = 3, T =2 ) and Cycles set to 1.

This process will be automated in Inspector in v3.1, where there will be an option to setup the clouds for sprite sheet ans a procedure to replicate the above steps in an automatic way.

 

Another note on the volumetric clouds, fade in/out properties.

The system has a fade in/out module to regulate clouds when weathers shift. The timer for max fade out time has been set half way so clouds will dissapear faster, so two cloud beds will co-exist for less time.

It is possible to set the "max_fade_speed" option to a bigger value (e.g 2.5) in the colume cloud prefabs for a full smooth out of clouds (more gradual until complete extiction), but this will have both cloud beds active for a few more seconds, so it is best for a bit stronger systems.

 

The next Atoll demo version will have one extra option for misty look in mountains.

 

Current ARTnGame offers


Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 has been submitted to the store. The new price will be $95.

Make sure to grab the pack in the current lower price !!!!

The system offers a complete, feature full & very powerful sky - atmosphere - ocean - weather & volume clouds creation suit for absolute integration, ease of use and all at extremely optimized speeds. Advanced effects are also available, including Turbulence & Forces, custom batching system, advanced dynamic decals and much more.

 

The last demo for Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 is up

Airplane demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/PLANE DEMO 1.html

Other demos:
Snow & Glass demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/SNOW DEMO 1.html

Atoll demo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/Sky Master/SKY MASTER 3/ATOLL DEMO2.html

The Atoll demo will also receive a few enchancements lagter, with more point lights and volumetric fog closer to the player (to cover the mountains like in the pics above)

 

Quick optimization guide for the Atoll demo, for lower end target systems. The main points that make the difference are the volume cloud update rate and the water reflections.

The test above is on my very old CPU (core 2 duo E7500) and with all image effects and detailed mesh terrain on, the terrain also has the dynamic snow shader applied. The shader based cloud dome is also active in the above test.

The volumetric clouds take only one draw call for any amount of clouds.

 

Really liking this

 

Thanks , i am now working on FFT waves and more demos for v3.1, plus more local dynamics modes like water trails with memory etc

 

UPDATE:

The FFT waves vertext shader is almost done and now i am moving to perfect the fragment shader for the rendering, then i will integrate with the system and provide them as option, enabled through the Inspector.

 

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 is now up at the Unity Asset Store !!!!

Enjoy one of the most complete environment creation suits, with sky - volume clouds - effects - weather - gradient based volume fog and ocean all integrated in one package, along with sample environments and mini games.

The water will get FFT waves as option in v3.1, the FFT system is already working great.

Please if you like the pack, when possible, leave a review so i can work much faster on upcoming updates.
As i am a one man team, reviews help a lot in keeping the developement for packs full time & delivering extra features faster. Thanks a lot in advance for any reviews for the packs.​

 

Playing with volumetric clouds and sun in Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0. New demos WIP.

 

Dynamic Snow Growth using InfiniGRASS and Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0

The snow weather is started in the Inspector and thus there is a pause when entering and leaving the inspector to move back to the game. There is zero pause when used directly inside the game as the effect is shader based (so it is a simple variable set in the shader to do the effect).

The snow growth can also be previewed in full real time in InfiniGRASS demo with Sky Master (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/INFINIDY/INFINIGRASS/INFINIGRASS_SKYMASTER3_DEMO.html)

 

Freefall through endless clouds - v3.1 new Demo

 

Freefall through endless clouds Time of day and rays WIP - v3.1 new Demo

 

UPDATE:

The work on mobile oriented automatic setup is the current focus and options for auto setup of various properties and systems to best suit mobile will be available. There will be several levels of optimizations to suit various mobile targets (2 levels at least)

 

UPDATE:

My latest work on squeezing of maximum performance from the system while still keeping the great look. I have now managed to get it down to just 2-3ms even for heavy storm where refractive rain and lightning with local lights in clouds and water co-exist.

The test was done in my rather old PC (core 2 duo, 2010 CPU), with the terrain, some extras like the fish and seagull and most effects on (sun lit volumetric clouds with scatter shader, 2 layer shader based clouds, physically based sky rendering in skybox, sun shafts, refraction, specular in water, lightning, full wave options, local lights in water and clouds, refractive & normal rain, far distance shadows, wave height calculations for the boat, dynamic snow/water on terrain shader etc)

I have the new max performance scene ready for download on PM request, for everyone interested to run the system on lower end PCs or just needs minimal overhead in a project.

These optimizations will also be integrated in the Inspector for v3.1 so they can be directly controlled and adjusted, for even more performance gain if required.

 

UPDATE:

I have been asked about the increased pack size in v3.0 (from 150MB to 350MB).

The majority of the size increase comes from the new demo assets, which are all included in the SkyMaster/Assets/Version 3.0 folder. These assets can be erased to free up to around 200MB, which will bring the asset to its previous 150MB size (which can be further reduced by erasing some of the v2.x demo material and terrains).

Some of the Version 3.0 folder assets are used in the demos and some of the system materials (mainly the ground and snow materials), so new custom assets will have to be used in their place (or simply keep the ones that are of interest).