Can’t Upgrade until IOS Terrain Tree Bug is fixed ( Unity 4.3 and higher )

Unity Engine
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First let me say I love Unity. My Unity game has hit the top 10 in RolePlaying on IOS in several countries and it’s thanks to the simplicity of building in Unity and the Asset store.

But there’s an issue that is increasingly becoming a problem to the point where it’s now affecting my game development.

Unity 4.3 introduced a regression to IOS terrain trees. Since Unity 4.3 adding even a single tree to the terrain results in unplayable frame rate.

There’s been several but reports filed here:

also here

There is a long thread about the problem here:

and more threads here

I contacted Unity a few months ago and was told the issue was solved in an upcoming version. But as of Unity 4.5.2 it hasn’t been solved.

It’s become a problem for me now because I cannot upgrade my game since it is effectively unplayable when upgraded to any version above Unity 4.2. I am missing out on new version updates that are essential for IOS game development. For example, I need to identify when the game is running on an iPhone 5C or 5S, but that detection is only available in version 4.3 and higher.

With iPhone 6 around the corner and IOS 8 being released I fear my Unity 4.2 version will soon run into more compatibility problems.

It’s been more than half a year that this issue has existed. i understand Unity is incredibly successful and busy, but I thought IOS Terrain trees would be an important bug to solve. It’s made worse by the fact that it’s a regression, so something that I relied on (terrain tree performance) has effectively been removed from the product.

If anyone else encounters this issue please, please, please add your vote to the Bug report:

As an independent game developer it’s hard enough to make a living from my artworks. I’ve very happily invested many thousands of out of pocket dollars in the software, upgrades, add ons and the asset store because I believe in Unity - I’ve been a paying customer since version 3. I’m very happy with the work Unity is doing, but I am here asking about this bug because I want to pay and upgrade to Unity 5 when it arrives and I need this bug fixed to do that.

Thanks for listening and I hope that this regression/bug can either be fixed or at least addressed.

800×451 88.8 KB

Trees are Good:)

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I think this issue needs to be looked at, asap by Unity Dev

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It looks like there are a few reports of frame dropping from version 4.2 to version 4.3:

and

I read the release notes and it says Unity rewrote the occlusion culling system in version 4.3 - maybe that has something to do with it.

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The issue tracker report on this seems to have been updated to ‘Fixed in future release’ today:-

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That gives me hope SeelOfQuality:) Thanks for posting that - i’m going to keep my eyes peeled on the updates.

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Just downloaded 4.5.3.p1. Still have the same problem.

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Thanks for the update:)

i read this : http://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?10535-Alpha-8-2-is-out!/page11

“when there is an actual fix to an issue, it will say something like the following: “Status: Fixed in Unity 4.3.1” Just so people know that “Status: Fixed in future release” doesn’t mean it is actually fixed, just that it will possibly be fixed on a future Unity version.”

I hope this isnt the case. But Unity engineers are good guys and i’m sure they will have this fixed hopefully before using the IOS 8 SDK becomes a requirement.

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So this pretty much means that it is pointless to start creating my next game, a realistic hunting game hopefully using Unity’s terrain engine?

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Yes, I believe that the ‘Fixed in future release’ status means that while Unity has been able to resolve the issue in an internal build, they haven’t yet determined which from public build the fix will be integrated.

Since this fix was only made within a few days of the release of 4.5.3, it’s understandable that it perhaps couldn’t have been included in that, but hopefully it appears in a fairly prompt 4.5.4 release…

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Well Unite is on this week and I hope forget about 4.5.4 → 4.6 Launch with new features and load of fixes.

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I hope so. Unity just announced Unity 4.5 for Samsung Smart TV. I’ve been preparing for this, but i cant take advantage of it until who knows when. I love unity but it feels really awful to work on my game in 4.2 and watching new, needed updates pass me by. I’m not really sure what to do except keep working and keep hoping for the bug fix.

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@protopop , according to bugreport logs, our QA wasn’t able reproduce your issue on Unity 4.6 beta. But since you didn’t include any sample project it is hard to tell if exactly your issue was fixed. You might give a try to our 4.6 beta release (Unity Editor Beta Releases) or add simple repro project to your fogbugz case.

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I’ve got this problem too, and a fix wasn’t mentioned in the 4.6 release notes. But I’ll give it a test today.

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Thanks for the scoop. I will download 4.6 and report back as soon as I can test it out. Fingers crossed:)

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The problem is not fixed. I did a very simple test scene in 4.2.2. (terrain with lots and lots of trees); in an iOS build from that, xcode reports CPU usage is 10.5ms. Then I imported the project to 4.6 and did a build. CPU usage is 47.5. No changes to the scene. I’m submitting a bug with this repro project.

EDIT: My bug report is case 627766

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Thanks for testing that.

This is really disappointing, If it isn’t fixed in 4.6 then i have no idea when we’d actually see a fix, if ever. My game is set in nature and removing the trees isn’t an option. And just supporting A7 devices isn’t an option either. When I released BrightRidge 1.0 it didn’t work on A5 devices and there was a lot of upset feedback. That pushed me to optimize (unity is really flexible) and provide A5 support with version 1.1. But unless i can get this same 4.2 performance in a new version i’ll effectively not be able to continue making games for iPhone and iPad. I’ll test it too as soon as i get a moment to upgrade the project file.

Unfortunately it means no new GUI and upgrade to 4.6 for me. I’m actually pretty scared. I’m like the definition of a broke, hard working indie dev, and I’ve made a real push with my new game and have invested a lot in it, and i just feel like it’s this countdown until Unity 4.2 is obsolete. Like Apple will suddenly announce all new games need to use the IOS 8 SDK and my version won’t support whatever’s required.

Anyways i feel like a complainer but i just wish my game business wasn’t on the line here. It has made me realize that by putting my faith in non open source software we have to take what we’re given. I still believe in the ability and hard work of the developers - but I guess this is not a priority regression or it’s too hard to fix. I notice it happened in Unity 4.3 and that’s when they completely rewrote the culling engine, so maybe its all connected. I think personally its because they removed PVS culling which is what i used to great effect before 4.3

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I couldn’t agree more, protopop. We actually started converting a standalone game that has lots of trees right after 4.3 was released, so I thought that trees simply weren’t an option on mobile, and so we spent a lot of time creating our own tree system, which works, but is substantially inferior to the Terrain Engine. Imagine my surprise (and frustration) to find this thread yesterday.

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I think looking on the asset store for some kind of replacement is best bet…I had issue with Unity built in feature Depth script - made a post about it, found solution for mobile devices on asset store saved me 50percent cpu…i understand your pain with this as although many bugs have been fixed each release, problem is performance with mobile and understanding that each feature of unity there has to be a mobile solution for it also but this is simply not a option as it would take forever to program…

I hope this moves up the priority list…

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Fix was done for 5.0. I’ve talked to the developer who fixed it, and he said there are plans to back port it to 4.5 soon.

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Thanks for the good news, smiledriver! Very glad to hear that.

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