so on the right we have billboard grass… looks bad, They only look good when they are in conjunction with planes and crosses. In the middle is a grass mesh 4 planes facing outward to look like a group of grass leaning out, looks ok in one clump but not alone or up close. The grass on the left is simply planes shot up in a straight line to simulate a blade of grass. You notice none are casting shadows and if you have ever used grass much then you know the wind isn’t very realistic.
The answer is below… Unity’s tree editor.
So as most of you already know unity’s tree creator isnt the easiest to work with to make trees and often doesn’t have 100% quality, but what about making grass with unity’s tree editor? No-one said you cant…
So here’s the step to making brilliant grass!
- Make sure you have imported the “terrain assets” included with unity located under
Assets>Import Package>Terrain assets and then create a tree game object by selecting GameObject>3D Object>Tree or Create>3D Object>Tree
#1
-Remove the first branch (stump) so that there is only the single tree gameobject.
#2
-Create a “leaf” game object by clicking the leaf symbol under the “Tree” Hierarchy.
#3
-After creating the leaf, select the leaf in the Hierarchy and change its “Geometry Mode” to cross (from billboard)
#4
-Select a shader with a 2D image attached, unity will automatically modify it.
#5
-Rotate the cross section until it is upright. The rotation tool is back to front while doing this for some reason.
#6
-Select the tree in the Hierarchy and modify “Alpha Cutoff” until the shadow no longer has the shadow of the planes.
#7
-You can now modify the shadow on/off and the quality as-well as wind settings to your choice
#8
- Once you are done select unity terrain and go to trees and add your grass as a tree mesh prefab. You will then be able to pain on the grass.
This is what it loooks like and it can be clumped together more.
So, easy on your CPU/GPU, looks better, can cast or receive shadows, can be effected by windzones (for grass displacement when player steps on it), completely free and easy to make different kinds… hope you guys like and find this useful.
The grass looks pretty good by the way.