[Next-Gen Soft-Shadows 2] Sophisticated dynamic penumbra Shadows for Unity

Thank you for the answer. Just to clarify, I would need to perform this two step setup every time I want to switch between projects where one uses Next Gen Shadows and the other doesn't?

EDIT: No need to clarify, it's early in the morning. It's exactly as you said.

 

Only once per Unity install and per Unity project (delete shader cache folder).

 

Best shadows solution, great for my STALKER 2 game). But, may you add blending for shadow cascades, and "Screen Edge Mask" for contact shadows?

 

Change between shadows projection to StableFit and CloseFit to see which one goes better. The latter is recommended.
Also try removing the cascades entirely, will look pretty anyway. ^^

 

Could this be engineered to work in unity 5.4.4?

 

Yes,
You can install on Unity 5.4.4, it should work. Even if not officially supported, you can email support and we'll happy to help out.

 

Thanks. I know shader keywords have changed in the last couple versions, that's why I asked.

 

Hi,
We are not using any ShaderKeywords on NGSS 1.x and if I remember correctly it was rise to 256 in v5.5 (Unity already use a small portion of those internally for their standard shaders).

 

hey used ngss in my latest viz

 

Beautiful scene, music and shadows.

 

not really visible cause of the dof but the grass catches some really nice contact shadows!

 

sorry! Could this be engineered to work in unity 2017 beta?

 

@tatoforever I am working on a large project in 5.5.3. It uses Tenkoku Lighting system.
Has your asset been tested with it? I bought your asset but concerned about blowing up my project.

 

It does (source: I'm using it)

 

Wow. Just started doing some directional light tests.

 

Small bug with your ContactShadows.cs, at least in 5.6.0p3.

You currently do:

Code (CSharp):

1.         if (mCamera.renderingPath != RenderingPath.Forward && mCamera.renderingPath != RenderingPath.DeferredShading)
2.         {
3.             DestroyImmediate(this);
4.         }

But this doesn't check what the actual rendering path of the camera is currently, it only checks what the setting on the camera is, which in the case of the Default option which is "Use Player Setting", it automatically fails on any default camera since it will fail both those checks. So what you should be using is mCamera.actualRenderingPath so you know what the true render path currently being used is.

Also, it shouldn't destroy the script.. It should just disable it. I was really confused at first why the script kept removing itself just from me clicking enable/disable, and always deleted itself once entering play.

 

@Invertex,
You are right, renderingPath could return Default and the check fails. I've replaced it with actualRenderingPath which reflect the global setting better.
Thanks for the check.
Anyone interested in this small fix please email support right now.

Also wanted to let you folks know that huge improvements to directional shadows quality are coming. One of those are seamless transitions between cascades splits and PCSS filtering for v1.4

 

Beautiful,
Can you post more shots with beautiful foliage with lighting and shadows from your project?

 

Hello,
I'm working on full NGSS compatibility with Unity 2017 but won't be available till Unity 2017 gets out of Beta stage.
You can always get access to pre-release versions (email support).
As always, will keep you updated with everything.

 

Here are some Next-Gen Lighting and Shadow tests for our project DroneTopolis.com

 

Little thought I had, the ScreenSpaceReflections in Unity's PostProcessingStack are already raytracing into the scene to do the reflections, it seems like a waste for multiple assets to be potentially doing similar traces. I wonder if it would be possible to use its results if available to aide the performance of contact shadows. It's just a thought though, I don't know enough about how your approach works compared to theirs. They seem like two effects that would have a lot of synergy in terms of how they function.

 

@Invertex,
It's a bit different yeah. Contact Shadows raymatchs in light directions, ScreenSpaceReflections raymatchs into surface normal direction. Also ContactShadows is not really a post-process, the reason it was added to a camera was to have shadows on Scene Editor.
In NGSS v2.0 you'll be able to have contact shadows on every light.

 

You are amazing. This asset is amazing. Thank you +1

 

@pixelsteam,
Those shots are amazing, have you tried adding ContactShadows to that scene? It will feel the gaps missing by directional shadows really well.
Regards,

 

Increasing shadows distance when it's evening, for more blurry looking, looks amazing!) But, Contact Shadows.. When trying to add it's to my Camera and setup it, Unity crashes, i'm using two lights on scene. (day and moon)

 

@N30N57,
It looks to be a Unity Editor bug on Mac.
You have any Editor.log and/or small project with a repro crash that i can take a look at?
Regards,

 

I will add those tomorrow when I test the script you had sent me.

 

Would this work on iOS builds? Specifically a build on iPads

 

There's currently an issue with mobile where Unity override custom shadows filtering with a default hard shadows in forward mode. It works but in deferred mode only.
I'm trying to reach Unity folks to see why this is enforced and went they plans to lift this limitation or fix it (if it's a bug).

 

Interesting. Will get it and let you know if there are any issues! Hope unity get back to you. Can't stand the amount of effort I have to go through to get somewhat decent looking shadows

 

since this is my favourite shadow asset for unity at the moment i would like to do a feature request. there is still a lag of shadows in fully indirect lit areas where is no direct light. therefor unreal and for example naughty dog is using capsule shadows. i really would love to see this working in unity. i guess you know what i mean if not i can link a paper.

 

Hi,

I followed the steps in the documentation.

- backed up the old unity shadow library.
- imported yours
- opened unity
- strength of shadows still works.

shadows still look blocky (like old) lights have no shadow type options.

- tried deleting the shadowcashe just incase. didn't help

EDIT:

Forget everything I said, I seemed to install in into an older verion of unity, and thus, the effect didnt work in my project XD

Everything now works, and looks so much better. Thank you so much!

I'm off to review (not under this account tho)

 

small teaser. using contact shadows i get some noisy artifacts on large surfaces. fidled around with the settings a lot without any success

 

My grass shader + NGSS low shadows resolution.

 

still getting massive noise on very low angles of the direct light on flat surfaces any suggestion?

 

Make sure your Bias on the light isn't too low.

 

[EDIT]
I got the paper (silly me). It's something I'm planing to bring in the future. Works in a similar fashion as SSAO but capsules can offsetted/projected from dominant light.

 

Remember that ContactShadows is not a full shadow replacement. It's only there to fill gaps, bias and peter panning issues with conventional shadows.

 

@N3ON47,
That's one of the strength of NGSS, even at low resolutions it looks awesome.
PS: The ground and grass textures are beautiful.

 

i just use it to fill the gaps but my directional sun is rotating full 360 degrees and at some point it is very flat and than i get massiv noise

no matter what i change its just more or less noise on those angles

 

@nbac,
You will always get such noises when light direction and surface normal are close 90 degrees (perpendicular) because of shadowmap depth precision.
Best way to avoid this is to have uneven terrains or objects casting shadows that will mask the effect at extreme angles (such as in your pic). What about turning off your floor casting shadows? Set it to only receive them. In this example, ContactShadows can't do much as the ground is flat and it only coverts tiny distances, for large distance you already have the sun light shadows.
Try my suggestions and see how it goes. I'll be happy to help.

 

We are working out a NGSS trailer that will be highlighted in our social media sites, this could potentially give your games some sort of visibility. So if you got any raw (or not even raw) video files of your game, simulations or even prototypes to share with us, I take them all.
Once again thank you guys for your stellar support, NGSS 2.0 will be previewed this summer.
PS: NGSS have been chosen by Vivian Editor picks.

 

i do have furniture in the room of course, just to better visualize the problem i removed everthing. here i would benefit from contactshadows a lot. i get this noise on far less extreme angles. the question is am i doing something wrong or is this a regular tradeoff/ limitation from the technique.

 

Hey there, great work on the asset!

I read a little further back in the thread that NGSS supports Single-Pass Stereo, is that also true for the Contact Shadows? I'm seeing some strange behavior in the right eye:


This was observed in v5.6.0f3.

Any idea what might be going on there?

Thanks!

 

@tatoforever Is there a way to somehow alter the shadows strength? It`s a bit dark for cartoony games!

 

Is it working on 5.6.1? got a bunch of errors when I tried to build with it and only managed to get the point lights working

 

It's a workaround and might not be an option if you're using forward rendering, but I deal w/ this by using a second non-shadowcasting light with the same position and orientation as the main light, and then tweaking the color and position of both lights until the surfaces and shadows both look good.

The downside is that it's fiddly, and obviously as expensive as two lights (although at least the second one doesn't need shadows.)

The upside is that you get a lot of control over what your shadows look like -- you can control their tint color, not just how dark they are.

 

Try changing ambient lighting. Upcoming update will let you do that but only globally. The reason is that NGSS 1.x is working with a black box renderer that doesn't tell you light indexes (you don't know exactly which light settings you are dealing with). In NGSS 2.0 you'll be able to tweak back strength and a bunch other settings.

 

It should work yes. What are your project/platform/renderer settings?
Can you please submit a test case report (support AT psychozinteractive DOT com)?

 

It's true for all shadowing techniques but not ContactShadows. ContactShadows VR update is coming.