VOLUME GRASS - Unlimited Density

Hello Tom,

I ve tried to make silhouette cut out work, but i failed after some time. I have groups the spere and the grass on the same layer, but the silhouette cut out still doesnt work.

Please have a look

Thanks.

 

Can you compare with my example scene where it's defined ? In Unity free you can only use "write into z buffer" in Volume Grass material inspector. In Unity Pro you can use also rendering depth into rendertexture. Camera needs to have SetupForGrassRendering script attached (and enabled - in example scene it's disabled because I wanted to make it compatible with Unity free by default). Specify which layers will be rendered there and grass should cut these objects then.

Could you specify more exactly your setup ?

Tom

 

Hello Tom,

Yes, i try to run your sample football field, but the object clipping does not work. I use unity pro, but i use write to z buffer in volume grass material inspector. Setup for grass rendering is also added, but i am not sure if it is enabled. I will check.
What info do you need? i will screen capture it.

Thanks.

 

Hi, checked this once again and generally it works on my side. What's your platform and rendering path ?

Silhouettes cut behaves like follows (Unity 4.5.2f1):

1. On DX11 z write doesn't work, but you can use "setup for grass rendering" script (unity Pro required). On example remember to enable script (this is disabled by default). Choose layer(s) of objects you'd like to intersect the camera. Then place intersecting objects on these layers. On example scene this is layer 8. By default its unnamed so to see what actually happens on cameras culling masks name 8th layer like "grass depth". You can also name layer 31 (last one) like "VG". This last layer is used to render sidewalls of grass field so they are properly cut when viewed "outside". If you check "use custom depth shader" this is all. Go into play mode (in editor mode / scene view it doesn't work). If you don't check "use custom depth shader" you need to select child of grass object named "sidewalls" and change shader used on material to anything (like "Vertex Lit").

2. On DX9 z write works - so you don't need to setup camera script. Choose this option in grass material inspector. Sidewalls need to use GrassRenderDepth shader because I set render queue to Opaque+248 there. This way sidewalls are rendered after opaque geometry, but before grass (which is Opaque+250). Also - sidewalls need to write into depth buffer only, not into color buffer. They act like "invisible barrier" to grass "outside" and silhouettes are properly rendered. There are, however 2 considerations:

- everything rendered after Opaque+248 will be cut also. For particles this is not big problem in most cases. On example scene, however you might see that skybox is also cut, because it's rendered last. In scene view skybox is rendered first, so this is not problem. In runtime you'll see problems at borders, but this is not big problem as skybox is almost never "seen" thru grass silhouette. This is only case in my example soccer scene, but if you put anything around soccer field everything will be fine.
- in deferred we've got 2 passes and there is problem with draw order. For sidewalls you can use any shader that have deferred pass defined and is rendered but has tag "Opaque"="Opaque+248" defined and writes nothing in color buffer (use ColorMask 0 or blend zero). For example such shader works for sidewalls in deferred:

Code (csharp):

1. Shader "Custom/Sidewalls" {
2.    SubShader {
3.      Tags { "RenderType"="Opaque" "Queue"="Geometry+248" }
4.      ColorMask 0
5.      CGPROGRAM
6.      #pragma surface surf Lambert
7.  
8.      struct Input {
9.        float2 anything;
10.      };
11.  
12.      void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) {
13.      }
14.      ENDCG
15.    }
16.    FallBack Off
17. }

Next - DX9 and Unity pro camera setup script (when writing into z depth is OFF) - considerations are the same as in case of DX11 above.

3. OpenGL - like in case of DX9 - z write works and considerations are the same. I couldn't test it in deferred mode on my PC however (looks like everything is rendered in forward no matter camera settings), but I assume things should work the same. Simply PC can be forced to use open gl, but its implementation is buggy.

 

Is stuff like translucency and self shadowing going to be saved for Volume grass 2?

 

I'll try to manage this but this means much heavier shader, too

 

Is it possible to save object with a volume grass to prefab? Meshfilter is generated dynamically, so it gets lost. I tried exporting mf to obj firstly, but when I re-assign, it does not appear as visible grass.

Also, if on start, during the game, I run VolumeGrass.BuildMesh(), Unity hangs up in some infinite cycle.

 

VolumeGrass.BuildMesh() is editor one. But somebody made it already runtime long time ago (look at previous forum thread for VG1.0). Saving to OBJ might be not enough, but you can save it to ".asset" then you can use it in prefabs. It's not part of VG package, but this can be realised by a few lines of code (check for CreateAsset() function in unity docs)

Tom

 

Have you seen these before?

It would be a cool feature

 

Saw the 2nd one, but it's impractical for grass. First one - I'm not sire how grass is rendered itself. It's only about shadows. It's possible to put selfshadowing in VG, but renderer gets heavy then. From what I see for very small grass patch it's realised at about 30fps - not much impressive.

Tom

 

Hi Tom. I'm just learning Unity and programming as a hobbyist - feel like I'm way out of my league in these forums.

I bought your Volume Grass and it is amazing. Is it possible to get the mower scene that was in the earlier version of your VG to study? The current version on the store does not have that scene as part of the package and I didn't read the contents thoroughly. I bought it on impulse after playing with the web demo.

Thanks

--------------

Edit - Thanks Tom for the files. This grass makes my levels look great.

 

Hi, I discontinued mowing functionality. It was hard to setup and almost nobody used this. To get earlier version of the package you can drop me private message with your order number and date.

Tom

 

Hello,
How about painting feature like normal terrain grass ?

 

VolumeGrass 2 is planned to have this (coverage based on density map/texture), although I've got no ETA on VG2 release this moment.

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Great asset! I have a question about presets. I often apply to many custom mesh terrain objects, and would like to change what the default values are. For example, turn on and configure global colormap, set grass height, different default grass blades billboard texture, wind settings, etc. I was able to modify the values in VolumeGrass_CustomMesh for extrudeHeight, plane_num, etc. But the others I either can't find where the default is, or for others (example, WindZoneSync variables), changing them doesn't have an effect.

Thanks,
Owen

 

Hi, there are in VolumeGrass.cs:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   public int slices_num=4;
3.    public float plane_num=7;
4.    public float mesh_height=0.25f;
5.  

But you need to know that some values are taken and injected back into material. So you could eventually prepare material to copy between different grass patches (drawcall wise when batching is taken into account).

In SyncWindZones there are default parameters as well:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   public float Amplitude=1f;
3.    public float ConstantBend=0.1f;
4.    public float NoiseFrequency=0.06f;
5.    public float NoiseOffsetAnimSpeed=0.5f;
6.  

To get more "professional" preset system you'd need to code it yourself. I'll think about it for future updates as well.

ATB, Tom

 

Thanks, that's helpful -- it works with the variables in VolumeGrass.cs, but not those in SyncWindZones -- it seems to ignore whatever I put in there. However I did get it to work, by editing the values in the Grass shader, with the editor tool, and then right-clicking the Grass shader and selecting "refresh".

Thanks again for the awesome asset!

 

Hi Tom,

I'm having problems with getting this working in DX11. It works fine in DX9, but I really need DX11 for the Oculus Rift. In the soccer example, I've enabled the "Setup For Grass Rendering" script and tried it with and without "Use Custom Depth Shader", but the balls keeps getting cut off. I do have Unity Pro. Is there something else I need to do to get the soccer demo (and hopefully the project I'm working on as well) working?

Here is a screenshot of it:



Thanks in advance!

 

In DX11 writing into depth buffer doesn't work, so you can uncheck this in soccer field material inspector (Write to Z buffer option). Then, when you enable Setup For Grass Rendering in Main Camera you need to specify culling mask for objects that should cut silhouettes against soccer field. In our case it's a ball. I've just imported VG1.5 on fresh project and found it didn't worked for a moment. Ball has defined layer 8 which for fresh project is unnamed. It didn't work neither for DX9 nor DX11. For DX9 worked only using "Write to Z buffer". What I did to make it working was:

1. define new layer - named, lets say "VGcut"
2. select this layer in Setup For Grass Rendering
3. select this layer for ball

And it still hadn't worked... After a while I realised there must be kind of glitch in Unity. Then I selected different layer in script and for ball. Then back - I reselected layer "VGcut" in cam script and ball. And it finally started rendering ball for aux render texture used for cut.

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your reply. I now got the demo working in DX11. I hadn't unchecked the Write to Z buffer option ...

However, I'm now having problems with the Oculus Rift. I'm getting weird holes in the ground.


Do you have any idea what can be causing this? I have tried applying the Setup for Grass Rendering script to a single eye (camera) and both eyes.

Thanks in advance!

 

Well, in case of Oculus... It's like 2 independent camera setup which VG doesn't handle...by default. When you would analyse Setup For Grass Rendering script you'll how it's done there. Fortunately VG is all open source, so you can try to make it working (in DX9 you could use writing into depth buffer, but you need DX11). The plan is like this:

1. separate scripts for LR cameras - we need 2 independent render textures to cut grass precisely
2. Render texture defined (line79 in script) - take care right size is used. I'm wondering if this is the issue here
3. line 86

Code (csharp):

1. myRenderTexture.SetGlobalShaderProperty("_GrassDepthTex");

As you see for render textures we can use global assignment only - we can't define it separately for L/R. So you should add an parameter to script so L camera script would define it like this:

Code (csharp):

1. myRenderTexture.SetGlobalShaderProperty("_GrassDepthTexL");

While right camera script like this:

Code (csharp):

1. myRenderTexture.SetGlobalShaderProperty("_GrassDepthTexR");

We now get 2 independent render textures (they render depth for L/R)

4. Now tricky part - VG shader uses _GrassDepthTex texture while we need to be able using L or R global texture in shader. You can either:
a. define both textures _GrassDepthTexL and _GrassDepthTexR in one shader
b. make two separate shaders - one using _GrassDepthTexL, the other using _GrassDepthTexR

5. Make 2 materials (in case of 2 shaders) or material param (if you'd like to sample both render textures in shader but use only one). Using this:

http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.OnWillRenderObject.html

You can determine which camera is currently rendering grass object (attach such selector to grass). Then select temporarily material or change param.

Sorry, I don't have Oculus to test anything. I know above solution is far from plug&play standards, but this is at least the thing I can help you with your issue...

Good luck !

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Thanks a lot! I got it working in the Oculus, but it has a slight delay when objects are moving or when you move the camera (you still see the holes from the previous frame). I think it is because of the performance of the Oculus that went downhill in the latest update, but the Oculus team is working on a fix for that, so hopefully it will be better.

 

Hi,

Glad to hear you made it . I'm not sure about the issue, but you need to make sure your "cutting" cameras that render depth texture for cut are processed BEFORE real camera for a rendered frame (real cameras use results from depth cameras). I think that might be an issue here, so try to adjust camera drawing order by modifying Depth param in cam settings.

Kindest Regards, Tom

 

Hi Tomas, I think this is the last product you have for sale that I have not purchased lol!

Anyway I am considering purchasing but am curious to how long the workflow is for volumetric grass. I am very far along in my current project but would really like to use this asset. I am using RTP and AFS at the moment. Are there any compatibility issues I should be aware of before trying this out?

 

You can use my grass anywhere, but need to consider how it's placed on the scene. It's not like terrain gras where you "paint" it over surface. You need to make volume model first. Using my editor where you place "meadow outlines" and then you get volume mesh. You can also use any modelling software to make flat surface of grass and then "extrude it".

Tom

 

I just started using volume grass and am not getting any depth on my grass. Even on the soccer demo the grass looks like a straight line with no outline. Did I miss something setting this up. I am using windows, forward rendering, and dx11.

Also i'm getting this error since installation. Maximum number (64) of shader keywords exceed etc...

 

In DX11 default z-write doesn't work. I posted guidelines above:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/volume-grass-unlimited-density.256497/page-3#post-1821325

So - it definitely works on DX11, but only in Unity Pro (RenderTexture needed). With these keywords error - if grass appears (w/o silhoutettes) means that shader itself can be compiled. Which Unity version do you use ?

Tom

 

I am using unity pro 4.5.

 

This might be kind of glitch over here, not necessarily related to VG. Anyway - it works ion my Win7,DX11 on U4.5.

Tom

 

Hey Tom,

I'm planning the tech/tool list for my next game and I would absolutely love to include volume grass. However, working on iPad and iPhone is an absolute must. May I ask if you have any timeline or predictions about the release of version "2.X" and mobile device friendliness?

The vertex color painting method sounds great too, as long as custom meshes are okay and it doesn't require unity's terrain system. I usually prefer to paint my own vertex colors. Is this a possibility in an upcoming release any time soon?

Also, deferred rendering for mobile devices is quite a performance sink. Could you add some sort of pros/cons table to the documentation to show how deferred and forward differ wrt the appearance of the VG?

 

Hi,

I was looking at the ability to make VG mobile friendly, but it doesn't look optimistic. It's still too heavy shader for mobile. At least my Mali400 tablet could not get it working.

I don't have any specific release date for VG2.0. VG1.5 isn't sell well which makes further developemnt disputable. However I still maintain current version to the level it need to be supported (desktops).

ATB, Tom

 

Okay, thanks Tom

 

It seems to me that many folks (including myself, who has bought everything you have ever put out) bought this asset because you advertised it with the features of 2.0, this makes ending development of the product pretty lame, particularly because it is useless in many situations without some of the promised 2.0 improvements.

 

I understand your point, but if you were me, what would you do ? Invest your time in product which sells a few copies a month or spend time on another product which require quite a lot attention in regards to incoming Unity5 release ? I haven't told that I'd never release 2.0, simply I can't do too many things at the time.

Tom

 

Hey Tom,

I have a question regarding wind zones, I am unable to scale up the wind zone that is effecting my grass as well as change the normal map shape of what it is using. For example in the demo meadow scene if i were to take the propeller and have the grass ripple underneath of it rather than blow around I am unable to do that currently. The idea is that a helicopter is going to be flying in, grass is blowing around and when it gets close enough there will be a rotor wash effect rippling the grass back.

Currently the only way I've been able to achieve this is by setting a normal map up with the ripple to both the grass shader and the wind force but then the grass ripples all over. Is there a way to have the grass blowing around with the default normal map and have the wind force influence it with its own shape? like a ripple?

Everything else has been great so far, good product.

 

Hi. I'm not sure what's exactly the problem. For helicopter - we can make such effect for one spherical wind zone. Additionaly we've got directional wind available. When you open my meadow example scene you've got the setup ready. There is propeller game object with "WindZone spherical" child which affects underlying grass. There is a script to sync helicopter/spherical wind with grass. It simply gets wind zone position and puts it into grass material properies under wind section of volume grass material inspector.

Tom

 

I'm getting errors after importing:

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(27,33): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(45,39): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(59,23): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(547,49): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(548,39): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(552,39): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(576,39): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(590,57): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(591,47): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(595,47): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(613,57): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(614,47): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(618,47): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(957,27): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(960,31): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(980,65): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(981,55): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'

Assets/VolumeGrass/_Internal/Editor/VolumeGrassEditor.cs(985,55): error CS0117: `Tools' does not contain a definition for `current'​

I'm using unity 4.6.1f1

 

Oops, I need to test it in U4.6 (was 4.5) then. Will try to fix it ASAP and post workaround here at least (to not wait for AssetStore udpate review).

ATB, Tom

 

That's odd. I imported VG1.5 (newest one) on My U4.6.0f3 - no errors. I've just udpated Unity to 4.6.1.f1 - still no errors and all example scenes work. So - maybe you should update VG ? Which version do you use ? I'm on PC Win7.

ATB, Tom

 

Weird. I re-downloaded it and open a new project and it works fine but same errors in my project current environment. I'm starting to question what's wrong with my project. Well disregard, its on my end then.

 

Its simple, you have some asset with a class called Tools. Best solution for now is to change all those Tools that throw error to UnityEditor.Tools and the issue will most likely go away. I had this issue with RTP as well.

 

eh, namespaces...

 

I would buy this in a sec if it could replace the terrain grass system and work on mobile. But like many I think we are waiting on v2.
Also, it doesn't need to work on crappy old devices, the terrain system on unity needs about a Samsung s4 or an iPhone 5s, so if it runs well on those, I think it's enough.

 

Will take your suggestions into acount.

 

Will V2 Have support for webgl? I just purchased this and it really is amazing, however not working with webgl is quite unfortunate.

 

Haven't tested this yet for webgl compatibility. I plan to take a closer look at VG in next few weeks to make it U5 compatible, too.

ATB, Tom

 

Hi! I'd like to use the grass Mowing Depth effect from Lawn Mower demo (http://www.unitymagic.com/shop/volumetric-grass-lawn-mower), but I can't find any settings for that. Can you help me? Thanks!

 

Mowing depth affects the render texture value generated by the lawn machine. And this is taken in the sahder. BUT - this is functionality that has been discontinued in VG1.5. Unitymagic still sells VG1, but I've got no info from them. When did you buy it there ? I even forgot they manage my package (selling 0.5 copy a year...). So - UnityMagic - sorry. We don't cooperate anymore I'd say...

Tom

 

Greetings Tom, could you help me with a U5 Beta shader issue? On import I get the error "COLOR1 must be a four-component vector" for the shader "GrassShader.shader". Unity 5 seems to upgrade the other shaders/scripts just fine.

 

I'll be inspecting VG against U5 soon.