PlayWay Water - high quality water system

I am using the latest version of PlayWay since I bought it recently. I have volumetric lighting disabled, and am running on a (crappy) Intel HD Graphics 4000. It should support shaders up to SM 5.0, so I don't see a problem unless if it's Intel specific.

 

It's AMD and it's actually worse than that. Any built-client i make will actually crash out if this (your most recent version) of playway is in any of the scenes that get loaded. I have a live game where i had to remove all the water in it right now just to push updates so this is hugely bad.

 

Not sure if this AMD-Unity bug is related, but thought I'd mention it, as the fix may be in 5.4.

 

I said this is 5.4

 

Thanks! I'm looking into it.

Unity 5.4 + water currently crash when GPU skinning is enabled on AMD GPUs. A temporary fix is to disable GPU skinning in "Edit/Project Settings/Player".

It was already fixed by UT and probably the fix will be included in the next engine update after 5.4f3.

 

Ouch. The way most games with unity are structured, that seems like a pretty significant performance hit, but it doesn't seem like i have much of a choice so i'll try that.

 

Sent you a pm + invoice, can i have the beta please?

 

Sure! Please stay patient just for a few days for beta 4.

I've stopped sharing beta 3, because it caused too much issues in some use cases and is already very well tested.

 

Ok, thank you.

 

https://gyazo.com/208780d566cbd46e37ab04421ab2bc73
Disabling GPU skinning prevents the crash but man does it ever look terrible. You can only see white spots in the image, but you're actually bombarded with thousands of huge, flickering colorful... things. Could we get a fix asap please or some additional guidance.

 

Sure, will do my best to help. Can you try to disable water settings one by one to find out what is causing this?

Does it happen in the sample scenes too?

 

I won't be around tomorrow and I'm forced to share next beta a bit later, Saturday at morning. Apologies for the delay.

 

Hi, your water system looks very impressive. I am looking for a solution for a non-planar ocean, for example a arc hemisphere (like this : http://forum.unity3d.com/attachments/cubed-sphere-jpg.73810/), it just covers 1/6 (or even smaller, let's say just 5° of 360°) of the globe. I haven't buy your asset and and I am wondering if can use the "Custom Meshes" option to achieve this with PlayWay water after reading the manual. Thanks .

 

COULD I GET A REFUND please, as I have never been able to import this without errors in the year I've owned it and you obviously don't offer any support even when the problem would appear to be with files missing from it's very own asset.
So I would like a refund.

 

Sorry, I still support only planar geometries for now.

I never make any problems with refunds, you could just PM me... but what you say is completely unfair and simply not true. This asset always worked fine with latest Unity stable versions and I'm fixing all bugs that get confirmed in a reasonable time.

 

I'm shooting blindly here, but maybe you are referring to the sample scenes that depend on Scion Image Effects? I've mentioned that dependency in a popup in all scenes, but still - not having it results just in a few harmless console errors that Unity is not able to locate Scion scripts. It doesn't impact inner workings of anything.

There is now a free alternative to Scion - Unity Cinematic Effects and I've already migrated most of the sample scenes to it. I will include them in the next major stable update.

 

Erm... I deeply apologize, I had everything prepared for today's beta release, but I've stressed out and apparently copied folders other way around replacing my recent work with old files from UBOOT (a game I work on).

I had earlier work on repository, so it's just work from Wednesday to recreate. I can't work today and thus realistically I can release the beta either late on Sunday or on Monday.

Please stay patient, this beta is a solid work and I think that it will satisfy everyone. I will post a detailed changelog and some introduction to the changes it introduces later. It still has some issues on Mac OS, but I'm going to finally fix them in the beta 5.

Regarding an update to the stable version on the Asset Store, I'm going to publish it next weekend. It fixes a few bugs that was reported in this thread and unreported here VR planar reflections bug that seems to occur just on Unity 5.4f3, that causes reflections to travel around when camera rotates.

 

Just purchased PlayWay Water for use on PS4; however, I'm getting shader errors. Is there a way to have the shaders build correctly for PS4 without having to manually fix all the errors?

jashan mentioned that he got it working on PS4, but I'm not sure if that was on the latest version (1.1.3) or a beta version:

 

One thing that you may try is to "force pixel shader" on WindWaves component. If this still won't work, please PM me all the errors and I will make it work back again.

 

Hi! The water looks great!.
Im thinking of buying. There is one big question though.
Do you have any example of the water which is more tropical and where you can see the bottom. Refraction distortions etc. This is a dealbreaker for me.

Thanks!

 

Hi,

i get this error:

"Shader error in 'PlayWay Water/Standard Volume': '' : 'unity_WorldToShadow' already defined at Assets/PlayWay Water/Shaders/Water/UnityShaderVariables.cginc(128) (on opengl)"

Edit: Seems to be some problem with opengl version. I commented out some lines in UnityShaderVariables.cginc and disabled refraction, now it works:

#define unity_WorldToShadow[0] unity_WorldToShadow[0]
//#defineunity_WorldToShadow[1]unity_WorldToShadow[1]
//#defineunity_WorldToShadow[2]unity_WorldToShadow[2]
//#defineunity_WorldToShadow[3]unity_WorldToShadow[3]


Thanks,
daschatten

 

Today is a very sleepy day in my city, but I'm near the end of the work for the beta and should finish it today.

If anyone would need fast a fix for the planar reflections bug on VR that I've mentioned earlier, please use a patch attached to this post for the time being.

You may need to use the beta for this, because caustics are pretty important for such water. I can post some screenshots for you soon.

I already have a fix for this in the beta and will try to isolate it for the next week's stable update. Just to be sure, what's your Unity version?

 

Beta 4 is ready and I will upload and share it in a few hours. I will describe now some of the changes it introduces.

Shader Sets

Probably the only commonly disliked thing in this asset was the way it built its shaders. The way I did this before was transitional and I did it this way, because earlier I've used Unity shader keywords to create shader variations on the fly. It had its limitations though and 7 keywords in one shader was causing extreme RAM usage and I had to adress this in some quick and dirty way.

Recently, I had some extra time for the water and decided it's time to address this issue in a better way. Starting with 2.0b4 shaders are still built on the fly, having similar flexibility, but the process is no longer confusing and is very easy to control. Each water object now requires two assets to work correctly: a profile and a shader set. As an example, for profile you may choose a storm, while as a shader set you may choose an ocean, a lake or a puddle preset. Profiles describe the look of water, but doesn't tell it how it should work, while shader sets are the opposite. They describe the shaders technical features and general intrinsic mechanics that water should use in its code (like wind waves mode - disabled, Gerstner, FFT or planar reflections - disabled, enabled, high quality).

One shader set may be shared between many water objects and thus there is no longer a confusion in multi-scene setups where small oversight or misunderstanding may result in extra shaders being built and add to the build times.

This change has forced me to rewrite most of the water code though. Most of the water components are gone now and there is just all-in-one Water component whose inspector adapts to the settings chosen in the shader set. I've written the code in a way that ensures that unused features don't use memory. It's also more handy this way, but may force you to re-apply some references of the old components and apply some changes to your custom scripts, but it will probably be rare. In case of any issues, please contact me. It's important to me to make the update process as easy as it is possible given the extent of the changes.

There is an auto-updater that will remove all deprecated components and transfer settings from them to the shader set.

Caustics

Caustics should now work as expected. For the time being there is only "physical" way to render them. I'm going to also add a "fake" way soon for weaker machines, or if you simply don't care.

Shores

I'm working on the shores for a long time now and starting with this update I've added it major user-oriented polish and improved their demo scene (Shore.unity). Shores are still not finished, but now should be visually pleasing and stable to use in your projects.

I still have many plans related to them and it may take a few months to finish them completely. It's a very complex subject.

Local effects in projection space

Effects like local foam, wave particles and soon the wakes are now rendered in a custom projector space and are no longer distance-limited. I have introduced this for the first time in 2.0b3, but it had some issues. It's probably stable now and finished.

Performance improvements

As always I've added some new scripting optimizations. It should contribute to a more stable and generally higher FPS, but may also be completely unnoticeable if your game is far more heavy on the GPU than it's on the CPU side (it's rather rare on Mono).

Delays

Single-pass stereo rendering for VR and Mac support for the new features has been delayed again. I apologize for this. It's among my top priorities now and I hope to have it done for 2.0b5.

Bug fixes

I've probably fixed all reported 2.0b3 bugs. If you will notice any bugs old or new, please report them to me.

Important

Although many features of the beta should be pretty stable and safe to use now, there is still a standing issue if the update process isn't broken for some projects considering the extent of changes it introduces. If you are in hurry and need some stable results soon, I don't recommend using this beta for now. If you will decide to use it, please backup your project.

Screenshots

 

Hi zuzzu,

i'm using 5.4.0f3. But if you take me on the beta list i can check it with your new version which looks very promising

Thanks,
daschatten

 

Hi zuzzu,

thanks for the beta. Some remarks:

• Remove [RequireComponent(typeof(DynamicWater))] from WavesParticleSystem.cs

• NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  PlayWay.Water.WaterMaterials.CreateMaterials () (at Assets/PlayWay Water/Scripts/WaterMaterials.cs:408)
  PlayWay.Water.WaterMaterials.Start (PlayWay.Water.Water water) (at Assets/PlayWay Water/Scripts/WaterMaterials.cs:104)
  PlayWay.Water.Water.CreateWaterComponents () (at Assets/PlayWay Water/Scripts/Water.cs:511)
  PlayWay.Water.Water.OnValidate () (at Assets/PlayWay Water/Scripts/Water.cs:476)
• I can't get the shore waves to work. I attached static water interaction (or similar) to my terrain but the water stops working and looks like in the image attached. The only other component on the terrain is RTP.
  

 

Thanks for the report, I've applied the necessary fixes.

It's probably too shallow for the settings used in the profile. To get good results automatically use generated underwater areas with medium steepness on that component. Alternatively, you can play with foam shore intensity and extent on the profile to make it less foamy near the shores.

Btw are you using it for a river? Those interactions are valid only for a sea shore as there are different processes going on in those two cases, but it's worth a try.

 

Hi!
Nice that you are working on tropical water!

1. Im still wondering if you have refraction distortions of the sea bottom when looking from above (not meaning caustics). Couldn't se any image of this.

2. Is there any possibility to get to try the beta without having bought the product yet, i am very interested in buying.

Tips on improving the visuals on the new features.

1. The caustics look big and blurry, also with strange big blobs right next to the shore. in image 2 and3. I think it would look great with an oldschool more "fake" technique.

2.the black outline on the shore foam looks a bit weird, remove it or make it super vague.

Good work anyways!

 

Hi zuzzu,

can you please provide the fixed version?

I tried those settings but only Foam Shore Intensity has an impact. Looks better now but it still is static, there is no water flow. I use a gaia generated terrain with islands and at the position in the screenshot the water is around 2m deep.

 

These are good points. I was aware more or less of them though and I'm going to work on this soon.

Dynamic caustics are still pretty useful. They work very well with dynamic waves on a calm water (like on pools). Sea is too complex for gpu to handle it perfectly, but it still looks good enough when it's seen in motion and may be better than a flat texture in some cases. I will add fake caustics too, because they are faster and may look better in many cases too.

Beta is here just to try and its features are wip. I don't share it with non-customers because I really don't want anyone to buy an asset for it and consider it a part of an official offer. I'm going to add all of its features (and even more) as a free update in a reasonable time, but I simply don't want additional commitments. I hope that you understand.

No no, I've meant that I've applied just the first two fixes that you suggested (RequireComponent etc.) It's nothing major to be worth sharing for now.

What you see is because big waves cannot exist on a shallow water and break. You should be able to achieve the effect that you need by using very high steepness on StaticWaterInteraction (forcing it to be considered a deep water) and also a high shore foam extent on the water profile.

If this still won't help, then maybe your water isn't at zero elevation? I could possibly make some omissions for such case. I will fix this soon for you, if that's indeed a case.

 

Is this a requirement for playway water? I mean water in zero elevation. If yes another vote for support non-zero elevations Thanks

 

No no, it isn't a requirement It just may be a bug in that feature in the beta, I'm not sure. It's just a blind shot, probably everything is fine.

 

Hi, Unity fog doesn't seem to work with playway water, but in demos I see rather water blending with the horizon, is there a way to change water color near horizon or make it more transparent?
Thanks

 

FWIW, I was playing around with it tonight and Volumetric Fog & Mist by Kronnect seems to work with PlayWay. I was using it to create bits of vapor rising off of a tropical lagoon. This is with the current version of PlayWay from the asset store - I haven't tried the beta yet.

 

Thanks for the info, but I need a low-cost(from performance point of view) effect just to blend water with skybox near horizon.

 

Edit: just saw the post from the dev higher up... looking forward to that feature!

Hello peeps! I'm currently using Ceto for my VR simulation but that asset does not work in single pass stereo mode. Does PlayWayWater support single pass stereo rendering?

 

IIRC that was the latest version. I didn't get to test the betas on PS4, yet. I'm pretty sure I also saw some shader errors but those were harmless. The issue, if my memory is correct, was that Unity has some limitations when it comes to removing shader code that doesn't work on a specific platform, so some shaders that don't work on PS4 (and are not necessary for PS4) throw these errors. It's a bit annoying, but it's not really a problem. When I did my testing, the water worked perfectly on the PS4 even with those errors.

I should also "fairly soon (tm)" do some testing with the current betas on PS4 / PSVR. I'll probably upgrade to beta4 today and can't wait to get SPSR-support ;-)

At @ronjart - not yet, but it should be coming very soon

 

Apology for a late reply. It depends on the render path that you use.

In forward render mode material fog should be used (you can enable it in Lighting tab), while in the deferred mode you can use GlobalFog or some similar image effect.

 

Hi, your product work great on PC but i got error when trying to export to WebGL. Is it browser error ?


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If this abort() is unexpected, build with -s ASSERTIONS=1 which can give more information.

 

I stumbled upon a weird issue. playway water once added crashes unity layouts (see sceenshots).
Basicaly, unity stays operational but in game view all tabs disappear. When you switch back to scene view they come back.
If I start the game water is static (no waves, nothing) and many other things are rendered incorrectly or not rendered at all. But in scene view everything is fine (water is animated and everything is rendered correctly)

When water object is deleted from scene or even if Water camera component is disabled on camera everything goes back to normal.
The weirdest part is it worked properly at the beginning. But at some point this started happening.

 

The next stable version (1.1.4) should be available soon, it is in a review for some time. It fixes all reported bugs for now, if I hadn't missed anything.

WebGL is not supported for now, sorry. You can contact me about the refund.

That's indeed extremely weird. What is your Unity version?

Also, could you try to disable some of the water features? That would help to narrow this down.

 

Thanks for getting back to me.
5.3.6
I use only water base component, render volumes is disabled

 

What about mobile support? I will buy it if some advances have been done, last thing I remember is that a mobile version was coming in February.

 

@zuzzu Something I noticed with seed's is that you are assigning it to Random.seed. Won't that keep replacing the state of the seed, causing the same random numbers to appear over and over for the rest of the game?

 

@zuzzu Hi, We are using Playway water in a VR project on the Oculus and for the most part it's working perfect and looks beautifull. The only problem we encounter, is with the underwater image effect. When underwater only one eye gets rendered correctly which is especially apparent when coming out of the water. Here the waterdrops effect is working without problem on both eyes.

I think the problem with the underwater effect is that it only blurs on the right eye.
Can you give me some pointers on where to look to fix this? Maybe a way to disable the blur without breaking the depending other effects?

I hope you can help me, because we would really like to use the rest of the effects like the underwater sound effect and the waterdrops.

Let me know if you need additional information.

Thank you.

 

Hey @zuzzu,

Just installed the newest build of 1.1.4 and it looks like the right eye of my VR eyes is no longer rendering. Even installed cleanly and no dice.

I reverted and everything was swell (hehe water pun). Have a quick fix you could shoot me over? Happy to test any updates on my Vive in the future.

Thanks!

 

I'm having the same issues as @8bitgoose, only the left eye on the Vive shows water. What's the latest version that works for the Vive + Unity 5.4 and where can I download it? (I have 1.1.4).

 

Hi,

PlayWay Water System 1.1.4

I have a scene where there is a very tall object that casts a shadow to the ground and water when the sun shines light on it. The shadow of the object does not seem to cast over the water, but only to the ground. In that shadowed area where the shadow is suppose to be, I can still see the reflection of the sun from the water.

I tried activating the "Receive Shadows" option in the water script, but still no shadow of the object overlaying the water.

Is there a setting I am overlooking? Or, is this a feature currently available for this water system?


Thank you

 

Sun shadows on water
 Enable “Receive Shadows” toggle on Water component.
 Attach WaterShadowCastingLight component to your main directional light.

Did you miss the second check?

 

I did miss the second check, so thus, I just attached the "WaterShadowCastingLight" script to my directional light as you've mentioned and it now works! It wasn't listed in the documentation and so I had overlooked this in the list of scripts.

Wow! The shadow over the water looks so awesome!

Thank you so much for your help!

 

Indeed that was copy & paste from the doc...