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Beautify! - Improve image quality producing incredibly crisp and vivid scenes

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Kronnect, May 3, 2016.

  1. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Beautify 4.4 is now available on the Asset Store!

    Here's the full changelog:

    - New feature: Sun Flares! Beautiful, fast and procedural lens flares.
    - Added bloom depth atten (reduces bloom effect with distance, useful to cancel bloom on skybox)
    - Added bloom & anamorphic flares ultra mode which improves quality especially for VR
    - Added full support for Unity Animator window
    - Added Basic mode with a super-reduced/fast feature set
    - Added Depth of Field exclusion mask
    - Changed Outline order so it renders before bloom
    - [Fix] Optimization: prevented execution of some script code associated with disabled effects

    Enjoy this update!
     
    CaptainMurphy likes this.
  2. zevist

    zevist

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    Hello,

    Thank you for 4.4!

    -Added bloom & anamorphic flares ultra mode which improves quality especially for VR

    Ultra mode work very well with htc vive & steamvr & labrenderer (no more flickering):
     
    drmanhattan and Kronnect like this.
  3. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    You're welcome! Thank you for using Beautify and for sharing the screenshot. It looks very cool!
     
  4. Baraff

    Baraff

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    I am seeing random black frames when using Beautify. It seems to be tied in with the bloom effect in that if I turn it off the random black frames do not occur. I see this in the editor and in builds. I seem to have been able to get rid of the problem on one scene by removing beautify and starting again with adding it. Another scene seems to not be responding the same way as I have removed and added but the problem is still there. I just updated to the latest 4.4 but the problem is still there, although I did paste the settings back in again. I will likely have another attempt but change all the settings manually to see how that goes. I think I may have done it that way on the other fixed scene.

    The problem seems to manifest when looking at certain directions. By this I mean when I manage to see it if I carefully and slowly move the camera around that area I can sometimes lock in on the and exact direction showing just a black screen.

    This project is using 5/5/0p1, linear, HDR, directX 11.

    Any ideas on what might be causing this problem.
     
  5. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    When looking into that direction and the image goes black, does it solve if you turn off any other image effect?
     
  6. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

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    The Depth of Field effect in the scene view is giving me a strange Grain effect. When disabled the camera effects are normal in the scene view.



    When enabled everyhting gets a graid effect. Take a look to the blue skye



    Any ideas? IG everything is normal. You don't see this effect IG.
     
  7. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Does this grain effect disappear if you switch to Best Performance mode?
     
  8. RonnyDance

    RonnyDance

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    Yes it does :)
     
  9. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Nice. I'll pm you with a fix and will include it in next update.

    EDIT: submitted.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2017
  10. Baraff

    Baraff

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    Replying here so I can include images. Can't do that on PM.

    This image is showing the problem manifested by using Anamorphic. Turning either Anamorphic or its' reduce flicker option makes is vanish. Camera was as pos -11.56391, 6.6, -7.583514 and rot 1.62, 182.56, 0 size 1,1,1
    upload_2017-3-21_12-59-2.png

    This one is the problem manifested by using Bloom. Turning bloom off makes is go. Bloom's reduce flicker off has no effect. Camera is at:pos -11.56391 10.2, -7.583514 rot 1.62, 182.56, 0 size 1,1,1
    upload_2017-3-21_13-8-20.png

    There is no water in this scene.
    Turning off any other effect has no effect on the issue.
    changing settings of bloom has no effect. Only turning it off removes this black section from the screen.
    There are a number of lights in the scene and the problem can appear while the camera is facing other directions.
     

    Attached Files:

  11. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    @Baraff thanks for the additional details. I have not been able to reproduce this. Could you please contact me by email so we can connect on Skype and/or send you some updates to try to narrow down the issue? Thanks!
     
  12. Baraff

    Baraff

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    Email sent
     
    Kronnect likes this.
  13. Kolyasisan

    Kolyasisan

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    Hi. I am really excited about this asset and I want to buy it. Though, I have several questions.

    How does this stack compare in performance to the same effects found in the default Cinematic Post-Processing from Unity?

    How does the procedural lens flares feature look like? This one is important to me and I could not understand it's glory from one picture you attached on a previous page.

    Oh, and I also really want to know how eye adaptation works. The one I found in Cinematic PE is very jumpy and hard to control.

    Can we have some kind of a demo to see and evaluate all the effects?

    Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2017
  14. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    @Kolyasisan thanks for your interest! Generally speaking the goal of Beautify is to make your game stand out improving the image quality and do it fast. Because of this, as soon as you add Beautify to you camera you will see instant improvements, the image will be clearer, more vivid and your sky will show less banding, plus you can of course configure it or add up to a total of 20 optimized effects in the same render pass. It's also fully VR compliant including Single Pass Stereo.

    I'll contact you for the demo of Beautify.
     
  15. Kolyasisan

    Kolyasisan

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    Thank you. I will wait for it.
     
  16. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    turboscalpeur likes this.
  17. turboscalpeur

    turboscalpeur

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    Yess, Thanks for pointing some of them out @Thrawn75 :)

    I must say about Beautify, for those thinking purchasing is very lite of Performances cost truly, I think one of the most essential Post FXs Asset in the Store; Only with Beautify you can already get images results as the day and night comparison from the vanilla Unity and so varied possibilities.

    The Asset, is just so easy to use too, in pre-settled or custom as well.

    So for those whose need, a Full Post Processing Asset, regulary updated with new features as well, just buy Beautify, you will have made your day :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2017
  18. drmanhattan

    drmanhattan

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    Hi @Thrawn75 thanks for releasing Beautify, I love it.

    I seem to have a strange issue with the editor in scene view when using it however. In my scenes I have two cameras, one with Beautify applied.

    With this second camera enabled in the scene the scene view seems to merge with the game view to produce a weird effect which makes unity hard to use. Any ideas? I can post some pictures if it'll help.

    In the mean time, here are some images of the game I'm working on, which is using Beautify with Amplify color:

    https://imgur.com/a/sMsYF
     
    Kronnect likes this.
  19. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    @drmanhattan hey, much thanks for the feedback and sharing those pictures!

    You can prevent Beautify from working on the Scene View removing these lines:
    Code (CSharp):
    1. #if UNITY_5_4_OR_NEWER
    2. [ImageEffectAllowedInSceneView]
    3. #endif
    Just edit Beautify.cs and locate that before the class definition.

    Cheers!
     
    drmanhattan likes this.
  20. drmanhattan

    drmanhattan

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    Thanks so much for the quick reply, I'll try that later.
     
  21. drmanhattan

    drmanhattan

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  22. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Small patch is now available (v4.4.1) which addresses the grainy skybox issue introduced in latest update plus it prevents a rare black out issue related to bloom producing a black image when some pixels in the scene are out of safe HDR range.
     
  23. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Hi everyone!
    Happy to announce the 1st Annual Beautify Contest!
    Participate from April 1-20 and get a chance to win $200 USD and free vouchers!
    Thank you very much for using Beautify and enjoy this competition :)
     
  24. Meltdown

    Meltdown

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    I've just upgraded to Unity 5.6, why is Bloom so much more intensive?

    Check out this screenshot, the bloom on the red lights on my finish line are hugely exaggerated, I had to turn bloom intensity waaay down....

     
  25. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Does it happen with latest 4.4.1 update? Will check this anyway since tests with Unity beta have been quite limited until now.
     
  26. Meltdown

    Meltdown

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    Weird, It seems this is only a problem in this specific scene, I copied my camera and beautify settings from another scene and it seems ok now :)
     
    Kronnect and hopeful like this.
  27. contempt

    contempt

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    I recently picked up Beautify to add bloom to a VR simulation for the Vive and it works beautifully with Livenda's CTAA (which only supports multi pass stereo rendering) but I've been trying to get Beautify's bloom working with a complementary Hololens project and Beautify doesn't work (nothing actually displays just black) if I have single pass stereo rendering set in Build Settings. Using multi pass stereo rendering it works well but tracking isn't as smooth as single pass without bloom. Do you have plans to support single pass stereo rendering for Hololens with Beautify? Thanks.
     
  28. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    @contempt hi and thanks for getting Beautify. Have you tried it with the very latest update? If the issue persists, could you tell me if it also occurs inside the emulator?
     
  29. contempt

    contempt

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    I updated and added Beautify into my Hololens project Thursday afternoon (yesterday). I don't use the emulator to test or Holographic Remoting instead I push builds directly to the Hololens to get a better sense of real world performance.
     
  30. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Ok thanks, I'll check this and get back to you.
     
  31. TheBullet

    TheBullet

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    @Thrawn75 Do you think you can add a tint option for sun flares? I'm making a space game and it has suns of different colors. If I could choose a tint color would be great. Thanks!
     
  32. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Yep.

    EDIT: beta sent by pm.
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2017
  33. TheBullet

    TheBullet

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    You're very fast! Thank you.
    Now the solar flares look better and the solar wind movement looks great.



     
  34. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    @TheBullet that's beautiful! Now I want to get on board that ship! :)
     
  35. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Something fancy to share: a short example of the latest Beautify feature, Sun Flares!
    This video shows a minor late minute addition: Solar Wind effect to animate those diffracted rays.

     
    nxrighthere and turboscalpeur like this.
  36. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    turboscalpeur likes this.
  37. Garen_

    Garen_

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    Hi, i've been searching for a nice and efficient depth of field asset for some time now... Wasted some money since most of them are not working properly so now i'm still using Unity3D DOF which is horrendously slow...

    Another question. Does your bloom require any threshold values to tweak the bloom or there isn't any threshold values like Sonic Ether Natural Bloom(which looks really nice btw)

    If possible, can i request for a demo version to test the DOF and Bloom? Thanks!
     
  38. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Beautify is very fast, it's one of its features indeed. Bloom has a threshold option which you can ignore setting it to zero.
    Sorry there's no demo but if once purchased it doesn't work as you needed I can refund it (you can contact us by email with your invoice number).
    If it solves the problem you have found with other solutions, please comment that in the review section. Thanks!
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2017
  39. Garen_

    Garen_

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    So if i set the threshold to zero, means there is no bloom? Or the the emissive values of the materials will take over and dictate the level of bloom for that object?
     
  40. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Yes, the brightness of the pixels will be preserved and used for bloom if you set threshold to zero. Then you have a second parameter Intensity, to augment or reduce bloom level.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2017
  41. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Hello everyone!

    A new update has been submitted with two interesting additions:

    1) Solar Wind Speed option for the Sun Flares effect. As shown in one of the videos above, you will be able to smoothly animate the flares. It gives lot of life to the effect!

    2) Bloom Layer Mask. This new option allows you to specify which objects in the scene will be effected by both bloom and anamorphic flares. There's no immediate way to determine which pixels are light due to self-emission in a post-effect so this option is really useful for those looking for a glow effect on a limited group of objects. The alternative is giving enough emission to the materials and apply an appropriate threshold combined with intensity. You can also use this feature as a way to "highlight" custom objects with the bloom effect.

    Hopefully will be available shortly. If you want to grab it now, send me a pm or get it from our support forum on kronnect.com.

    Cheers!
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2017
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  42. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Shodan0101 likes this.
  43. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Hi everyone!

    Today marks an important milestone: 150 ratings on the Asset Store with an average of 5 stars!

    Thank you everyone, really, for your support and feedback so far! I'm really glad this asset is bringing so much joy to so many people.

    Please, take a moment to check the submissions on the ongoing contest here:
    https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/1st-annual-beautify-contest-april-2017-submissions.463904/

    If you plan to submit your screenshots please do it promptly as the deadline for vetting candidates for the final poll ends April 20. Good luck to everyone!
     
    rrahim and Shodan0101 like this.
  44. Shodan0101

    Shodan0101

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    Love Beautify, its one of my fav assists! Thank yo so much for this awesome asset! Do you maybe have Volumetric lighting in the pipeline one day? That would be amazing! ;D
     
    Kronnect likes this.
  45. Shodan0101

    Shodan0101

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    WOW!!!!! ;D
     
    Kronnect and hopeful like this.
  46. kkqqpp

    kkqqpp

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    Hi,
    I really like Beautify and had been using it for a half year.
    Can I request some features?
    Anamorphic Flares: depth-based spreading, just like what it does on Bloom's depth atten
    Downsampling on both Bloom and Anamorphic Flares, because I found them are affecting the performance a lot.
    Thank you.
     
    Kronnect likes this.
  47. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Thanks for the suggestions - please sign up on kronnect.com to get latest beta updates. We'll try to add those in next version.
     
  48. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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  49. theRayll

    theRayll

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    Hi, How can we change bloom intensity in run time, through script?
     
  50. Kronnect

    Kronnect

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    Use:
    Code (CSharp):
    1. Beautify.instance.bloomIntensity = value;
    For instance:

    Code (CSharp):
    1. if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.B)) {
    2.        Beautify.instance.bloomIntensity += 0.1f;
    3. }
    Cheers :)