[NEW PATCH] uNature - GPU, Interactable Grass. Interactable Trees, MultiThreading and more!

Better to be finished right than to rush

 

@ElroyUnity here's an open source grass system that you might find interesting: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/free-critias-speedtree-grass-system.433219/

I imagine you're doing something similar.

 

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

it definitely looks very good, but as he mentioend there are a few limitations with the systems which don't exist in uNature,
The LODs system i use in uNature is also a lot more advanced and does not require you to rebuild the grass mesh (thank you very much @eagle555)


I know it takes so much time for uNature to come out and i am so sorry for that, i really am trying to free as much as time as i can for uNature and i will be putting almost every minute i have into finishing uNature starting in October, i will really try my best to get it out for you guys!

(will also get some better comprasion images when the new lods mechanics are working properly )

 

Are you also planning to take advantage of the new GPU Instancing features in the newer versions of Unity? I'm looking forward to getting some grass in my game!

 

There will be an option to enable that

 

Hey guys,
The new gpu grass system is almost done, no mesh rebuilding, barely visible memory usage and zero and i mean zero spikes when loading a new chunk/ modifying terrain

Too good to be true

 

We need proof!

 

Haha fair enough,
Will get you guys an example today

 

Okay guys so here's a little demonstration from a very wip stage,

Some notes -> density & rotation isnt implemented yet but partially done already (should be done tomorrow)
And its obviously not the end result (it wont just appear like that, it would load several chunks instead of only 1 so you wont notice that "flick").


The main idea of the video is to look at the fps when loading new chunk (no spikes )

 

More updates :
https://i.gyazo.com/de115532b400978a214a5d9c66a89f7b.mp4

GPU generated rotation, densities, heights, and more!

So happy about this one, its so fast that i literally suffer no spikes no matter what i do
Also, It should be super easy to integrate with custom shaders, and as always, mesh terrain is supported and modifying the terrain height, colors (for color maps) will be easy (1 line) and instant! (almost no spikes)

P.S : Wont be online for the next 25 hours as part of an tradition! sorry guys!, no support until i am back, as i cannot use the computer at all.

 

Great, but why does the grass always look like its rendering at steep angles?

 

It might have to do with the terrain and wind bend settings for the terrain Elroy is using

 

I hope so because it just looks all wrong.

 

I'm 90% sure because I had the exact same results when I was first using Map Magic, and just tweaking down the bend fixed it.

 

Yep sorry its from the wind settings, forgot to turn it off

 

Your product sounds very interesting. Especially the point that it seemlessly integrates into a running environment. The better performance sounds very interesting to me. However I need to ask something: How is the culling performance, when loading a terrain? Just giving you a little example: I use a terrain sized 1200x1200 units, some trees on top and no gras. The resolution settings are Height: 257, Detail 128, Detail Res per patch 8 control 256 and base at 64. The scene is empty otherwise, just a directional light and a cam. No nifty stuff. Everything works fine. Now at runtime I deactivate and then I active it. The result is tiny little spike by the culling going up from around 0.27ms to 3ms. Now I keep everything the same and just paint one type of grass all over it. Performance is still good but the culling spike now goes up to 34ms. In a full featured game enveronment, especially at fast paced games like driving sims this is already way too much.
How does uNature behave in this situation? Does it make a difference? If yes I'd immediately buy it. Promise. Maybe I would also call my first born Elroy. But don't take this one for granted. ;-)

 

That's good timing!

Until a week ago it would have happened on uNature as well ( although not as much, probably only 2-3 ms ) but after integrating GPU Grass Generation, you should have none when activating/ deactivating a terrain

 

Awesome!

 

GPU grass system???!!! Wow! Can't wait.

 

Do you know yet if this will work on 4.7?

 

Nope as a lot has been changed, but can't see why not.

I think the only issue would be SpeedTrees but i could just upload a different version without speed trees for 4.x

 

That would be much appreciated!

 

Okay guys the grass mechanics are pretty much done!!!
Everything works well out of the box, height interpolation is fully accurate and the gpu generation is magnificent.

I will be getting you guys a video that showcases the system in a day or two and will aim for release very soon

 

One question: In your early bird material you released there was only one type of grass. Does mixing different types of grass work too?

 

What do u mean ?
You can use as many grass types as you want if thats what you are asking

 

Perfect! And yes, that is exactly what I was asking

 

Been getting lots of private messages lately about my statement on how the memory usage is reduced, and on a fully generated terrain - https://i.gyazo.com/c9da4ef0b71023cdaf1d44dd4a5ab6c6.mp4

(As always you can use mesh terrain/ what ever you prefer, also notice how you there's no spikes when it loads chunks )

I get -



(Also note that i am using 2 different grass prototypes!!)

Another pic with the editor next to the task manager -> using 3 prototypes this time)



So yep, does that answer your question ?

 

By the way, was getting questions about why the grass looks so low-densed, its because i had a little bug with the cutoff stuff, here is the current result :


Without lods :


Sorry for the amount of posts today!, trying to keep you guys updated!

(Memory is still the same and fps is even better now)

 

Hi guys, Could someone tell me if unature is still to come free to tree manager system owners?

 

Yes!

My plan is to have two versions:

uNature Lite : Costs $40 you get full power, but without source code. (This one the TMS users gets for free)

And

uNature Pro - Costs $60 (obviously an upgrade is possible) and you get full power and full source code.


Honestly i am still not sure if i will go by that, i want to hear your opinions because many people told me that i should seperate it for 2 packages and make an upgrade because they dont mind paying for it, but i really want to hear your opinions .

 

Great i'm in. Been looking at loads of foliage assets and this seems to fit perfect. Thanks for the quick response .

 

Happy to hear that

 

I 100% want uNature, so I just bought TMS =D It's a staff pick right now!
It's not immediately necessary, I've got a basic interaction system in and working, so I'll hold out for uNature to actual implement it in.
Using MapMagic for level generation by the way.

 

Oh thats amazing!! i haven't actually notice it .
Thank you so much for letting me know that!

And thank you ! currently pushed the third beta to my 31 testers, hopefully it will go through well and when i am back from the vacation i will push the version to the store .


So yea heading now on a vacation till the 24th, the support will be A LOT slower, happy i was able to push the new beta first, will try to still be active on support and the forums!

 

The only reason I bought TMS was to get uNature so I hope you stick by your plan.

 

Yep you will still get uNature for free anyways, thats for sure.

 

Hi Elroy, Just a quick question about the collider system. If I have mesh collider or several simple colliders on the tree instead of one capsule collider will the system still work?

I am implementing climbable tree's and playing around with a few ways of doing this (one relies on colliders).

Also is there any info regarding the unature grass system (how it deals with lighting and shadows specifically).

Thanks,

Andy

 

Hey Andy,
Yep it works with any kind of colliders/ any amount of colliders that you use.

About shadows - havent yet added it but i will add it when i am back from the vacation, and what would you like to know about the lighting ?

 

Great news!

The lighting, i was just interested because most current grass/terrain grass look so dull. My game is all out doors and I only want to use 'natural' lighting from the sun/moon, GI, and fire where applicable. But i don't intend on lighting the place up with spots/points etc..

I'm getting this error on import to a new project.

error CS0246: The type or namespace name `IHittable' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?

 

Same here. That's exactly how my current game is designed as well.

 

You are Amazing Sir, cannot wait for this! Didn't realise about UNature till now. I got Tree Manager a while back

 

Uhmm cant see why not, honestly the shaders will be very easy to edit and i plan to add these stuff so it should be ok,

About the error on vacation so cant help privately but try moving the "IHittable" script to a different place on your project, it fixed it in some other cases.

Haha thanks !

Absolutely, will do my best, lets first make it work for Wii U :d

 

Upgrade from Tree Manager to your pro version of uNature sounds fair to me. You put a lot of work in this and uNature is a LOT more features than TM. $20 update to pro seems fair to me, and it includes source code!

Thanks!

 

Thanks Teila

 

@ElroyUnity Is this restricted to the same detail amount as the Unity terrain is? We have a problem where our grass looks patchy on our 8kmX8km world which is really annoying.

 

Try tiling your world. Instead of 8km, cut it into 1km squares and tile them. You will get better details and the option for more dense grass.

 

Got any tools you can recommend?

 

Honestly you choose w/e size you prefer, the serialization will just be slower, so i agree with Teila on that one.

I recommend World Streamer which is a good tool that i will integrate or the TC2 tool that has terrain streaming ( both will be integrated of course )

 

The only tool I know to easily make tiled terrains is Terrain computer. You can use it even if your height map was made elsewhere. World Creator does it as well but it much more expensive. The other idea is to use World Streamer, since that can also be used to stream your terrain, making it much more efficient.

Yep, what Elroy said...World Streamer. lol