NEW CloudsToy for Unity 5. Volumetric Clouds in Unity for free.

Hi there!

I wanna share with you guys, the utility i'm close to finish (if i fix some 'final' errors, i hope so...)

Here you have some screenshoots i've made for the spanish community - UnitySpain:

http://www.unityspain.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=124&func=view&catid=29&id=4742〈=es

Link to a video posted in my youtube's channel (sry, it's in spanish) but i think it will be enougth to figure out how it looks like even if you don't understand -nothing at all- my speech:

I hope you like it, it's gonna be ready soon (a few days) and it will be free for commercial/noncomercial projects under a Attribution Licence.

it will be available at : http://www.jocyf.com/utilsEnglih.html

 

FANTASTIC! Looking forward to giving it a try. Thanks for showing us your project!

Gary Haus

 

Looking pretty nice, will be watching to try.
If I find it useful I will be donating.

 

Looks pretty good. How is this different from the other volumetric cloud projects that have been posted?

 

I haven't try any volumetric cloud packpage with all setup for you to configure the clouds as you want. I just used some cloud, using particles testing post here in the forum, long time ago. So, i cant compare it with any other Clouds utility.
I suppose you'll have to try it and pick betwen this or any other one by yourself.

I must say there are some improvements that i could make in futute releases (taking care on FPS, how clouds are generated in space using a cuadtree space partitioning or someting like that, etc...), this is just a first version : a procedural way to create the clouds and modify them using only the inspector.

 

Very nice!
What is the cost in drawcalls?

 

Depends on the complexity (number of parts emmitted by every single cloud), size, number of clouds, the render mode and shader selected (for the cloud).
All this parameter can be changed through the inspector in runtime mode directly, but there's no billboardig method for the clouds that are far away. So you can make very expendive clouds (2-3FPS) or very fast ones (130 FPS) making the sky be full enought of cloudsb but, as i said, depends only you -what paremeters you use- for the moment, the utility will not offer by now any kind of improvement to avoid drawing all that stuff (Billboards, occlussion of some kind, .etc...)

 

ok. Thanks for the answer!

 

Simply amazing! Looks really realistic! When do you plan to release this?

 

CloudsToy, volumetric clouds for Unity3D, It's already available for download at : http://www.jocyf.com/utilsEnglih.html

Hope you like it.

 

Very nice implementation and very fast in terms of drawcalls.
Also it is plug and play and you can affect many parameters.

Thanks Jocyf!

 

I just stayed up way too late playing with this. Love it.

 

very easy to use and realistic solution, compliments!

Thanks Jocyf!

 

Thanks a ton

 

The next release of CloudsToy (v1.1) will fix some minor bugs and update some litlle details in the editor parameters.
But the greatest feature will be an integrated Procedural Texture system to generate textures in the fly while you see the result in the clouds in realtime. The texture parameters will be editable in runtime as the cloud parameters are right now.
I'm about to finish coding and the result is just great (at least for me).

You wanna stop looking for textures for your clouds, in short time you could !

 

Now that sounds interesting!

 

big improvement!
good job

 

awesome!

 

The new release (v1.1) is out using the same link as always (see post nº1). Now with procecural textures linving in your clouds. it's as simple to use as the previous version.
Hope you like it.

Here you have a screencast about how I use it. (Sry it's in spanish, my english is bad, really bad). Maybe i shoud try to make one in english but i'm afraid you dont gonna understand anything. Anyway...

Hope you like it.

 

Awesome! Thanks a lot!

 

New versión CloudsToy 1.2.

Changes are :
Detected a problem building an executable. Shaders moved to Resources folder and renamed properly.
Animation of the cloud itself, for now only a sort of autorotation.
Procedural Texture (PT1) are created only if it's selected in the editor, otherwise it will be not instantiated at all.
(Usefull at runtime, one less thing to care about, cause you don't gonna select PT1 in your final build).

As usual you can download it at :

http://www.jocyf.com/utilsEnglih.html

 

played with this again for a bit this morning. Still loving it!

 

PLZZZ make it for free ok

 

¿?¿?¿? It's already free.
Pls, read the first post!

paulygon : i'm glad you like it. It's like a little Unity-toy, isn't it?

 

and it's not even Christmas yet!

 

This is Great!!! ....Thanks

 

Just started playing with Unity, love your clouds!

Used here:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/74124-Second-project-rise?highlight=clouds

and

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/73783-First-project-mini-world

I think it might be helpful to have some more paint types for light coming from the side...

 

For now, i haven't enought time to add new features to CloudsToy. I'm too busy with other (paid) projects. Maybe in the future... i don't know...
But, to be fair the are more Volumetric Clouds utilities here in the forum :http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/68831-Clouds-Test!?highlight=cloudstoy.
And there is a fantastic sky tool (not free) in the Assets Store, UniSky...just fantastic (but not volumetric clouds though).

 

Really great man!!!! so can I use these clouds to project "Godrays" (sun shafts) for an underwater scene? If yes any ideas how this can be done. I really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance.

 

These clouds are one of the best assets I have ever seen for unity! Thx and keep up your fantastic work. And (people forget bout this): its simple!

 

Seems it doesn't work with unity 3.4.2, when dragging the asset it shows an empty object without visibile size (i changed its scale without any feedback)

 

The clouds look absolutely amazing!

A couple of questions though, is there anyway I can control the position of the creator box, without moving the existing clouds?

 

Hi , is it possible works on android and iphone ?

 

In Unity 3.5 at least, it's just really big - you may have been zoomed in too far. But if it used to render the clouds in the Scene viewer that doesn't seem to work anymore. It does work in-game though.

Anyway, this is a great cloud system. Jocyf, I just sent you €5, and I may use this in my game Skylight. There's no credits page in the game itself but I'd credit you in the readme, if that's acceptable.

 

Hi, about your asset "CloudToy" I was wondering if there was a way to make the clouds stop emitting certain clouds and start emitting a new type of cloud?
For example, If I have the preset "Sunrise" and I want it to stop emitting the "Sunrise" preset(while the "Sunrise" clouds are still in the sky) and start emitting a preset like "Stormy", is there a way in which that I can do that though a script?
Thanks in advance!

 

Sry, i've been months without entering the forum. So, i'm going to answer all the questions...

GlitterWad : No, you cant move the box and leave the clouds in the original place.

atromgame : Depends... but in general, NO. This clouds are particles and particles are expensive in mobile
devices. I said depends, because it does depend on the number of clouds and it's size.

Nition : tnx, man. You can change the size scale of the boxes (creation dissapearing -the yellow one- boxes), just tweaking their's transform in the inspector. And you can set the size amd number of clouds you want to be created.

Kayden007 : Yes, you can do that. The variables of the clouds are public, so you can access them and change the values. In fact, that's the way i did it. Look at the Cloudstoy.cs and you'll find the Sunrise function (line 158) where i changed certain values. You can do the same, it will work for public values.
(If you need to change some private ones -not recomended-, you can change the original Cloudstoy script adding a public function to change that private variable).

Later,
Jocyf

 

This doesn't seem to be working with Unity 4.01f2. While in the editor if I press play I can see the clouds and they look great, however in a standalone windows player the clouds don't show up.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

The clouds were invisible in a standalone build, checked the output log and it contained hundreds of these:

(Filename: Line: -1)

ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index is less than 0 or more than or equal to the list count.

Parameter name: index

0
at System.Collections.ArrayList.ThrowNewArgumentOutOfRangeException (System.String name, System.Object actual, System.String message) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at System.Collections.ArrayList.get_Item (Int32 index) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at CloudsToy.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

(Filename: Line: -1)

 

Hum works here with Unity 4.00f7...

 

I know it's been a while... but...

I've been trying CloudsToy in Unity 4.2.1 and it works.
There are some issues with the editor class that shows a lot of warning messages in the console, but it works.

I've tried to make a standalone build too and so far no problem at all.

I'll look at the reason for all those warning messages, mostly because they are very disturbing and i'll post the modified ClousToyEditor.cs right here, in the forum, so Unity 4 users can solve this issue just copy/pasting the script.

EDIT: Script modifed for Unity v4.

 

these are way better than I expected after half an hour I've got them looking amazing! and to save cpu I've just made it follow my players x and z pos because the map is so huge, just need to make them get darker somehow to follow my day/night cycle

 

I'm glad you like it.
I made this utility time ago (about 4 years ago if you trust the date of the first post) and people still use it. I just can't believe it!!!.
I've seen demos, games, even some oculus game using it. I know for sure because some of them emailed me just to let me know what they had created with this little toy-cloud utility.

Some time ago, Cloudstoy had even been included in a programming book: https://books.google.es/books?id=KC...6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=cloudstoy holistic&f=false

Amazing!

 

Hello! I'm reporting the same bug that Thronin found a couple of years ago, when running in standalone i get a bunch of the same error messages he's getting. I'm using Unity 5 Personal Edition. Your clouds generator is a lot better than any other (free) I've found, which is kind of a necessity for me as a broke student, so I would very much appreciate if anyone had figured anything out concerning that bug.

 

I did not made any standalone app so I didn't see that coming.

That happens because the LoadAssetAtPath function is now only an Editor one. Besides I notice that the old projector shader doesn't work either, so I need to update some new Unity 5 Standard Assets into the project to make it work again and delete the old stuff.
I will publish a new version -v1.3- soon (maybe next week) modifying the less possible to make it work again (I would like to update the hole project to update the clouds with suriken particles instead the old legacy ones, but I don't have enought free have time to make it, so...).

 

Thank you really much Jocyf, this is amazing.

But as syvsto said, sadly it has some issues with Unity 5... The broke student I am is impatient to see about v1.3

Thank you really much, your work is great !

 

Hi,

Good news: The new CloudsToy version is already here.

I've made several changes to the hole project and create two different versions for Unity 4.x and Unity 5.x (If someone is still using Unity 3.5.x, the 'old' version (v1.2) will still be available in my web page).

ChangeLog:

• CloudsEditor.cs and several other scripts had changed to allow assigning new clouds shaders and
  Projector Material in the inspector window. So if you want to try any other shader in CloudsToy, now you can.
  
• Modified several scripts to Fix all Unity v5 warnings.
• Imported new Standard Assets stuff to upgrade the new Projector shader. (Deleted some of the old Unity v4.x stuff only in the Unity 5 version, obviously).
• Colorized the most important CloudsToy variables and created tooltips to all CloudsToy variables. The inspector is now ritchier.
  
• Now a layer named CloudsToy can be created with that exact name in any layer position the user wants to.
  ( So no need to use the 30th layer number by default anymore if the user dont want to).
• Adapted the code to work with Unity v4 and v5.
• Reorganize the hole project.
• Updated both shaders (CloudBright and CloudRealistic). Now both of them use all three colors when configuring CloudsToyMngr. I've made that in both versions (CloudsToy v1.3 for Unity 4 and CloudsToy v1.0 for Unity 5).

CloudsToy v1.3 for Unity 4 will never get another update at all (just some fix if some bug is detected, that's all). It works starting from the first major v4 version: Unity v4.0.

CloudsToy v1.0 for Unity 5 will continue evolving over time. I don't have too much free time, but I would really love to update old the old legacy particles stuff and make it work with shuriken, add 'Undo' support and some other things (lit clouds, maybe? now that we have GI and all that cool stuff in Unity 5.x).

As always it's for free under attribution licensing terms: http://www.jocyf.com/licenceEnglish.html
Here in Spanish: http://www.jocyf.com/licencia.html

CloudsToy download link: http://www.jocyf.com/utilsEnglih.html
If you speak spanish try this one: http://www.jocyf.com/utiles.html

One more thing: If you encounter any kind of bug, just post it here. I'll do my best to fix it.

Greetings,
Jocyf.

 

Hi, good news:

CloudsToy for Unity v5.x is now alive in the Asset Store: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/35559
Now with undo/redo and an improved inspector look -colored and tooltiped-. As always it's free.

 

Many thanks! It's really a great cloud tool, I like it very much!
I just upgraded to Unity 5 and the old one was causing problems so I was searching if there is a new version and was happy to see that you already updated it!

First I had problems after I installed the version from the asset store, I think I the cause was that I had the old files still in the project, even if I renamed the old files to .bak it was causing problems. Even the example scene was throwing an error.

So I installed the one from your page in an emtpy project, this was working.
Then I deleted the old Volumetric... folder and imported the files from your page again, but it seems to be a bit different to the files from the asset store and the editor script was renamed and duplicated. So I deleted everything again and imported the package from your website again and now it was working, the example scene (with palmes in the dessert), too.

EDIT: Tried now the one from Asset store again and deleted the one CloudToy folder before importing and now the example scene from asset store is working, too. Can't reproduce the error message.

Is there any difference between the one from the asset store and the one from your page? Are they both always up to date?

 

Both should work, but the one in the asset store has Undo-redo feature and a better (and colored) inspector panel. Almost all changes betwen them are related to the EditorClass script and both should work.

To update cloudstoy you should delete all cloudstoy related files from your project, before importing the new version.

 

Altivasoft is right, that's all the differences betwen those two assets. And both should work just fine.
Remember to delete previous files before importing the new asset.