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HORIZON[ON] - Bridge the gap between the sky and your scenery.

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Becoming, Jul 30, 2014.

?

In which scenarios would you use Horizon[ON] ?

  1. Small to medium sized terrains (first/third person view/driving game)

    33.9%
  2. Small to medium sized terrains (flying game)

    17.5%
  3. Big to huge sized terrains (first/third person view/driving game)

    41.4%
  4. Big to huge sized terrains (flying game)

    31.9%
  5. Small to medium sized terrains on mobile (first/third person view/driving game)

    16.9%
  6. Small to medium sized terrains on mobile (flying game)

    13.1%
  7. Big to huge sized terrains on mobile (first/third person view/driving game)

    16.4%
  8. Big to huge sized terrains on mobile (flying game)

    18.1%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Its a custom solution... Top secret at the moment ;)
     
    docsavage likes this.
  2. Smokas

    Smokas

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    Problem with horizontal scaling. Inspector is a way too wide. But... it seems that is Unity 5.4 problem. I set GUI layout to fixed width - and it looks nice.
    Placed logger inside OnInspectorGUI code - more than 10 000 layout width value was logged :)

    Screen Shot 2016-07-25 at 15.18.57.png
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2016
    hopeful likes this.
  3. asimov99

    asimov99

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    Hi

    I just have buy Horizon[on]. I have a problem with preset and prefab.

    Null pointer exception with asset preview texture in HorizonPrefabListEditor.cs :
    EditorGUI.DrawPreviewTexture(r, myTexture);

    New project
    Insert object Horizon[ON] Master
    Insert object Horizon[ON] Transition Terrain
    Go to Horizon[ON] Parent
    Load Settings : Horizon[ON] DecoPainterPrefabList_Trees

    If i put any preset in my scene, nullpointerexception :(

    And the transition terrain not appear like you see in the screen. it's visible in the scene but not in game.



    Can you help me ?

    unity : 5.4.0b23
    Thanks
     
  4. Becoming

    Becoming

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    It seems like you have loaded a tree library instead of a horizon master prefab...
    Unfortunately i dont know a simple way to store prefabs with different filetype to avoid the possibility of loading a wrong prefab.

    You can see in the inspector that the object is a tree list and not a horizon master, i guess this causes the issue. Try to load the ExampleSceneSettings prefab or save your own and load this one.

    Let me know if you need more help.
    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  5. asimov99

    asimov99

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    hum ok. can i change the axe Y of Horizon ? because i move the object Horizon and when i run the game, Horizon go to 0. My problem is: i have already a big terrain with many object and relief, and the horizon is too low :



    And sorry but the Transition Terrain is invisible and when i remove my skybox, transition terrain appear.. and why the color and resolution looks bad :




    and last question, global fog hide Horizon... :(


    thanks for your response and sorry :( i'am desperate.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2016
  6. Smokas

    Smokas

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    1. Will Horizon manage more then one Transition Terrain?
    2. The video about Displacement would nice :)
     
  7. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Don't worry we will sort it out ;)

    The terrain transition is an alpha blended object(to be able to receive shadows and be transparent) that means it needs an opaque object beneath it. If you just want to place your terrain above horizon you dont need a terrain transition you can just sacele the horizon so that the size of the hole in the middle matches the size of the terrain.

    About the look(resolution/colors/brightness, etc.) its just a matter of settings. The brightness in your screenshots is too high which you can change with the "global tint" color picker in the inspector of the horizon master(main settings).

    The global fog is the unity standard assets effect? You may have to change the distances in it or use the fog feature of horizon instead (though i would recommend to use an atmospheric scattering asset - eventually in combination with horizons fog - for a much nicer look).

    I would recommend you to play a bit with the example scene in a fresh project to make yourself familiar with horizon. Also watch the videos and check the manual. I myself mostly try to figure other assets out just by experimentation but i feel that horizon is quite unique in its idea and so some things are maybe not intuitive until you understood the basic concept.

    There are more tutorial videos in the making. Until then please do not hesitate to ask for help here or if you are really stuck you can also leave me a private message with your skype name and i will contact you and try to help in a screenshare.

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  8. Becoming

    Becoming

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    1.) Yes and no, you can of course just have many of them in your scene and they work but in the current version it is just a square(rectangle if you scale it nonuniformly) with a hole in the middle, in the next update i will add modular terrain transition pieces(to make more complex shapes possible eg. L,T shapes or any other).
    2.) is planned :)

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
    recon0303, docsavage and Smokas like this.
  9. Smokas

    Smokas

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    Waiting for that :) I like your asset very much - it solved my problem - one (or more) action place (city, space station, etc) and not resources hungry surrounding landscape around :)
     
    recon0303 likes this.
  10. asimov99

    asimov99

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    thanks , i'm using Horizon[ON]_Disp_Level_XXX and change parameters, remove fog, change ambient occlusion, it's look great...

    thank you :)

    avec.JPG
     
    TeagansDad and Becoming like this.
  11. Smokas

    Smokas

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    Tried to create two terrain spots. How it looks when you add second Transition Sky :)

    Screen Shot 2016-07-27 at 09.34.02.png
     
  12. asimov99

    asimov99

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    house.JPG

    Very good effect Horizon[ON].

    Thanks ^^
     
    TeagansDad, Becoming and docsavage like this.
  13. abhuva

    abhuva

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    Hi,
    first let me say that i am really impressed - its a wonderful tool and i enjoy using it. It was really simple to get the idea and how to set up maps.

    Unfortunately i encountered a problem now, not sure if i just miss a setting or if its a bug.
    I have several scenes with Horizons set up. Each scene is loaded seperately/independend from the the others. All horizons are different (textures, setup, displacements etc..)

    I realized during a test-build that in the scenes was a wrong horizon present. I looked into the editor and noticed that once i change a scene, a wrong (or more exactly - previous loaded) horizon was present. Once i clicked on the Horizon(ON) Master it updated the correct textures.
    Of course this isnt possible in the final build...
    I did setup the horizons without a prefab (first created the Master, then the transitions and displacement maps as childs via rightclicking in the hierarchy and selecting the different things).
    Is there something missing when i do this in this way?
    The problem is always present currently, once i change a scene, the horizon is wrong till i click on the horizon-Master GameObject in the hierarchy.

    If you need some screens to pin the problem down, let me know.

    Edit: I am using Unity 5.3.4f1 on MacOSX El Capitan
    Every Horizon object is set to non-static
    I am using only Multi-Level-Arrangements and the Transitions.

    It might be good to know that i followed the documentation closely while setting up the horizons.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2016
  14. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Thanks for the detailed description. The solution to this is rather simple, you have to make a material set for each scene and assign the materials to the according meshrenderers. This way all scenes are independent. Another way is to change the values/Textures/etc. on level load via script.

    The horizon master is just a way to set up multiple materials at once to avoid seams and tedious work to keep materials in sync.

    Let me know if you need more help!
    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  15. Becoming

    Becoming

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    I never tried to have 2 Sky transition in a scene because i think it does not make much sense to do this... since we deal witha big object it should be placed roughly at the scene origin to avoid floating point imprecision(also relevant for your gameplay). you can encapsulate multiple terrains with one sky transition object.

    If you have a good reason to have multiple, let me know and i will see if i can do something about this problem.

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  16. Becoming

    Becoming

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    I really appreciate that you show your results :) Glad you are satisfied!

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
    asimov99 likes this.
  17. Smokas

    Smokas

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    You asset is pretty much good for VR - where computing resources are not so powerful.
    There are some dynamic procedural terrain generators in asset store - but not suitable for mobile VR.
    Examples when more then one sky transition would be nice:

    1. Mars colony with few bases and some sort of transportation ways between them.
    2. VR tour through towns in Saarland.

    The difference between "flat" game and VR game is that rides between "action" places in VR are enjoyable :)

    It's up to to decide if this feature needed - IMHO if it will take too much work, don't worth.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2016
  18. abhuva

    abhuva

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    Thanks, easy solution and works fine now.
     
  19. Smokas

    Smokas

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    Tested with flying camera - FPS keeps around 85, placing blendmeshes sometimes drops to 80. Very good for VR :)

    Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 20.11.30.png
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2016
    Becoming likes this.
  20. asimov99

    asimov99

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    Hi

    Sorry, i have these build errors, have you a solution ?

    buildError.JPG

    thanks to you
     
  21. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Mhh, maybe its a Unity 5.4 issue with the shader compiler, although i wonder if it has to do with the other errors you get...
    Maybe it is a ShaderForge thing, the Building and Tree shaders are made with shaderForge, so people can make changes and customize them. If that is the case a recompilation of the shaders with the latest shaderforge version would probably do the trick...

    I will look into it and let you know!
    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  22. asimov99

    asimov99

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    Last edited: Jul 30, 2016
    twobob, Akshara and hopeful like this.
  23. AlbertoMastretta

    AlbertoMastretta

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    Hello @Becoming.

    I've been using Horizon[ON] for a couple of months with great looking results. So far I've found it very easy to use and today I come with my first question so far.

    I'm working on a racing game and use a new setup of Horizon for each track. They all work fine, except that I need to refresh the horizon by clicking on the hierarchy every time I switch between scenes.

    It somehow carries over the displacement settings from scene to scene. Is there a way to refresh the Horizon through script so I can prevent this problem?

    Or is there a setting i'm missing on?

    That's all for now.

    Cheers!
     
  24. abhuva

    abhuva

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    Had the exact same issue, here is the answer (just some posts above yours...):

     
  25. AlbertoMastretta

    AlbertoMastretta

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    Wow I totally missed it!

    Thank you @abhuva!
     
  26. gecko

    gecko

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    Apologies if this was answered already (but I can't find it): Is it possible to convert a Unity terrain (or a mesh) to Horiz[on]? We'd like to use it for a project that uses realworld environments (built from DEM data), and we have terrains made from that data but I can't find anything about converting them....
     
  27. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Not really but you can use the heightmap and the textures(4 layers) with horizon and use the terrain splatmap as mask in horizon.

    Horizon uses 4 channel 8 bit heightmaps so you would need the 16bit heightmap from your terrain and convert it to 8 bit, then copy the same heightmap into each r,g,b,a channels.

    with the approach you loose a lot of the good things of horizon though... i would suggest to use terrains or meshes for the outskirts where you need the terrain to be accurate to the real world and then use horizon to surround it to give the impression of an infite landscape.

    Let me know if you have more questions or other questions arise.

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  28. Chylinski

    Chylinski

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    Hello, I just bought the Horizon and I don't have the prefab called "Skydome" in the folder. What should I do?
    I have only two skyboxes inside.
     
  29. Becoming

    Becoming

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    Hmm, i though i left a note in this portion of the manual saying that the skydome is only neccesary for unity 4.x, unity 5 already comes with a halfway decent skybox... you can ignore this skybox step(also you can and should use your own skybox/sky solution assets for more spectacular skies).

    I will check the manual again for inconsitency.

    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  30. AD5

    AD5

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    hi i have horizonON and its really perfect for my project (3d tower defense with a small terrain and view to horizon) however im having a bit of a problem. when i change scene the horizonON is displaying the settings from the previous scene. if you click the horizon it changes to the correct settings itself, but you can not do this when you make a build!
    any help for me please?
     
  31. docsavage

    docsavage

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    Hi @AD5, Had same issue and so have others. Answered in post #974 just a few above. It's not an error just a workflow.

    Easiest way I found was to copy the HorizonON object from the demo scene. Make a duplicate of it and it's materials folder. Break prefab instance. Rename the copied horizonOn object and materials to relevent names eg, HorizoOnLevel1, DiplacementMatLevel1, skyTransitionLevel1Mat etc. Then go to the horizonOn scene object. Look at the individual objects - sky transition object, displacment objects etc. You'll see a material assigned. Just change it for the new one you made Then just edit the horizonOn parent as normal and when you save it saves this version. You'll have to do this for every scene but it's quick enough.

    Hope that helps:)

    Edit - can do via code as well apparently. Not done that though so can't advise
     
  32. AD5

    AD5

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    ah great thanks a lot! i feel like an idiot now though because i thought id read through this entire thread looking for the same problems and must of not read the last page! thanks again
     
  33. docsavage

    docsavage

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    No problem,

    Don't feel like an idiot. I always miss stuff. Actually don't use me as an example of being sensible:D
     
  34. asimov99

    asimov99

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    Hi, it's possible to set "Fog { Mode Off }" on "Horizon[ON]_Disp_Level_Regular" or "Horizon[ON]_Disp_Level_Start" for not to see the fog on horizon ? if yes, in what script ? Thanks....
     
  35. PiAnkh

    PiAnkh

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    Horizon[ON] and streaming terrain

    Hello,

    has any one tips about using Horizon[ON] with streaming terrain?

    If for example you have 6x6 terrains which are streamed in, how could you use Horizon to make the transition and also match the non-loaded terrains.

    thanks for any advice

    Ronan
     
  36. sammi32

    sammi32

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    Hi,

    I am very interested in Horizon [ON]
    I use Map Magic (procedural terrains) there are problems or it works with it?
    My goal is an open world game, with chunks.


    Much greetings
     
  37. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    How well does this perform in VR? For VR you would need 90 fps stable.

    It would be great if you could create a pc build of the demo scene with simply the main camera being replaced by the SteamVR ( https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/32647 ) asset's CameraRig (in the prefab folder). That way one can see immediately if and how it works in VR.

    Thank you very much for your consideration! :)
     
  38. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    With which graphics card did you test it? Anything below 90 fps (stable!) is not an option, you'd get motion sickness. Also, there needs to be performance room for game logic as well.
     
  39. KarelA

    KarelA

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    @ Rowlan. I used Horizon in my VR project. http://store.steampowered.com/app/395880/ <- PC PC PC PC. Runs 90fps Had no problems with performance.
    Even have the GearVR version of this app (only using simpler shaders) running on my old Galaxy Note4.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2016
  40. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    @KarelA: thank you, but I can't consider a mobile phone. The VR displays use 90fps at more than full hd resolution. It must be that or higher, therwise you'd get serious motion sickness.
     
  41. KarelA

    KarelA

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    @Rowlan Sorry. I was confused by your answer. Did not mean that you have to run it on mobile. I edited my original answer for clarity reasons.
     
  42. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    @KarelA: Thank you very much for the clarification!
     
  43. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    I bought Horizon[ON]. So far I'm very impressed. Now I need some good day/night lighting, the in-built one isn't sufficient. Is there something anyone can recommend in combination with Horizon[ON]? Since I need it for VR, it should be good regarding performance and of course work without problems with Horizon[ON].
     
  44. recon0303

    recon0303

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    I believe Peter/aka The developer of Horizon On. uses Time of Day??/ I believe. I never used it, but I use Sky Master, and also for other game we have used UniStorm, both for my experience worked fine with Horizon On. You may have to modify some things, depending on your game..I also use my own custom solutions before for Day and Night, Horizon On was easy to use..

    We make mainly Mobile games, but I have in the past made PC games with Horizon On. I have had Horizon On, since it nearly released.. I own all of Becoming tools nearly. His Snappy Grid, for UI, Level and World building is amazing... its one of my favorite tools we use all the time for all of our games.
     
    Rowlan and docsavage like this.
  45. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    I have a lot of z-fighting on the HTC Vive with the default scene of the asset. Is there a way to prevent this? I tried both with z-fighting script on and off, didn't help.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2016
  46. KarelA

    KarelA

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    Where is the z-fighting occurring? Can you post a screenshot for better illustration?
    The only type of z-fighting that i had was the one where terrain layer overlapped with another. The issue was also documented and the z-fighting script worked for me.
     
  47. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    Here's an animated screenshot. In this case it appears a few clicks along the z-axis in the example scene:

    https://gfycat.com/VainTenseGoose

    but you have it everywhere.
     
  48. KarelA

    KarelA

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    hmm seems, that you have zfighting going around on trees. Just to make sure, turn off the trees for a moment and see if the issue goes away. If these are indeed coming from the trees then try to play with camera near and far clip planes to see if it gets any better.
     
  49. hopeful

    hopeful

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    Is it possible that it's a shadow issue, and not z-fighting?
     
  50. Rowlan

    Rowlan

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    Yes, it seems to be a shadow issue. I toyed around with the near clip and the flickering is less noticable. The default of 0.05 causes heavy flickering. Using 0.15 causes the trees to flicker less. But still some mountain shadows flicker. So I'll have to go higher.