InfiniGRASS STUDIO✅-Massively optimized,interactive & non uniform volume grass for procedural worlds

[nasos_333]

ARTnGame presents the next major vegetation optimization and rendering asset, InfiniGRASS.

The InfiniGRASS system main purpose is to massively optimize in game vegetation, for maximizing performance and allow big grass density and view distance with top rendering quality. The system can paint ultra detailed static or dynamic grass everywhere, without any limit in shape, form, shader or placement surface. The system provides true non uniform grass for absolute realism with incredible performance (GPU based).

It is possible to apply any amount of grass anywhere, on objects or terrain. Based on a custom multithreaded LOD and AI system for ultimate performance and adaptability, from higher end systems to mobile (mutlicore is recommended).

The grass may also be grown dynamically in real time and the player can interact with it, by chopping or stepping on it.

The core system works on all platforms, but the grass shaders that will initially come with the pack are SM3.0 and the mobile varieties will come as a bonus later.

InfiniGRASS is the ideal companion for Sky Master ULTIMATE and has been developed with the new Syy Master v3.0 update in mind, for perfect fit with the new Water/Ocean and Snow growth systems as well as Sky Master lighting and volumetric fog. Seasonal changes will also be enabled in InfiniGRASS once Sky Master v3.0 is released.

Initially the system will come with 6 grass types and shader varieties (vertex and transparent based), an editor to place grass, real time placement option and a complete fence creation and rocks placement system.

The pack will be submitted to the store this week.

DEMOS:

InfiniGRASS v1.1 NEW Demo - Multiple LODs - Per splat map scaling - new Brushes (rocks, mushrooms, wild grass, ground leaves) - Object follow mode
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/INFINIDY/INFINIGRASS/INFINIGRASS_PAINT_DEMO.html

InfiniGRASS demo with Sky Master v3.0 Snow-Water-Sky-Rain
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79230236/INFINIDY/INFINIGRASS/INFINIGRASS_SKYMASTER3_DEMO.html

Instructions:
-Paint grass with right mouse button and erase with left.
-Paint fence with right click and stop painting with fence paint toggle button.
-Paint rocks with right button, erase with left. 3rd rock type can be painted on itself !!!
-Press “Interactive on” to plant interactive grass, use for tall grass and use “cast ball” toggle to cast balls on the grass. Use small brushes for best dynamic result.
-The hero can also step on the grass (if balls are not activated)

• Toggle snow and water (and rain in special FX) in Sky Master demo to see how these extra FX integrate with InfiniGRASS

Round planets - InfiniGRASS fully supports any surface

Grass Interaction - Before stepping on grass

After stepping on grass

Uber detailed grass

Fully compatible with Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.0 (volume fog, image effects)

Endless Fields, placed in editor or real time

(Note: The pics are from WIP and the system has grown a lot since they were taken and is constantly polished for perfection. SpeedTree trees will not be included in the pack and can be downloaded from Unity store for free)

Videos and images from the latest version will follow soon.

All the grass, rocks and fencing in the images is placed/created with InfiniGRASS.

Sky Master ULTIMATE customers will benefit from specially made shaders that support the new global snow coverage feature that will be included in the upcoming v3.0.

[nasos_333]

The grass can be defined directly from prefabs. In the pic there is a combination of instantiated grass and flowers within the same grass type.

[Singularity]

Looks good,

Can you provide details regarding performance? How is this rendered? Is it dx11 only?

[nasos_333]

Extreme grass density crash test, the impact on CPU is minimal to non existent as it is all GPU based. I have this dense grass as a preset, it takes lots of ram though and this density is not needed to get good results, but is impressive for locally extreme thick low height grass.

If ram is not an issue, the whole level can be filled with such density without much impact in fps (and the grass can be placed on any surface and orientation as well)

@Singularity

Looks good,

Can you provide details regarding performance? How is this rendered? Is it dx11 only?

It is DX9 and performance scales from extremely fast (static grass with shader based wind), to mid range (one interactor per frame) to heavier for stronger systems (multiple concurrent interactors) and depends a lot on the trade off between performance and LOD distances.

When batched the grass motion is purely shader based, so it is super fast without much impact even with extreme grass density. The transparent variety will induce a bit more of rendering ms due to overdraw, but generally in low-mid grass height case this is not so evident.

For interactive case, it is a trade off between draw distance, items per group and draw calls. The system batches items in groups of a certain number. If the item number is high, it takes more to open the batch for interaction (so you may experience a bigger local performance drop while interacting), but you have more items batched in a single group and thus lower draw calls when batched and not interacting. The LOD system will disable these groups after a distance or LOD them, so you can still choose to have lower items numbers for faster interaction and keep draw calls low, by lowering LOD distances.

Generally the system is made for total control over the performance/looks trade off in the dynamic region. LOD supports smooth fade out.

Adding grass in real time has very little impact, even while growing it in a temporal dynamic phase.

The grass can be extremely easilly be customized and generally the system can be used to place anything with the same LOD system and grouping logic, so besides the grass, the imagination is the limit as to how else it can be used.

Here is also a first video of the effect (WIP so some textures may seem off). Grass can be painted on any surface and in both the editor or real time (with real time growth as well).

https://vimeo.com/136718194

All my videos are recorded with Bandicam in my not so stellar old PC (intel Core 2 Duo), so there may be some skips when i am accessing the menu to control Sky Master sun etc, the effect is 100% smooth when playing without Bandicam. I will create a demo today and post for actual performance testing.

[nasos_333]

Empty level for comparisson

About the videos, unfortunately my PC is rather old so when i record with Bandicam the performance takes a huge drop, so videos are looking slow.

Here is a comparisson for example, normally i get a smooth 14-16ms everywhere in the stage in the pic (in 1080p) and with bandicam ranges from 20ms-35ms (in 720p !!!).

So the only solution is to export a demo, to showcase the performance (or grab me an extrernal video recorder that i have postponed for so long ).

[Xoduz]

Looks very nice!

The system can paint ultra detailed static or dynamic grass everywhere, without any limit in shape, form, shader or placement surface.

Does this mean I can paint grass on skinned characters?

[nasos_333]

@Xoduz

Looks very nice!

Does this mean I can paint grass on skinned characters?

:), sure, if they have a collider

One note, the grass does not move with objects (like in Particle Dynamic Magic system for example), it can potentially move with objects (since in dynamic phase you can do anything with it, fully script it etc) but wont be practical for the massive grass use.

But it will be a great idea to add such an option for local effects later.

[SAOTA]

This is is beautiful, would love to see how this adds to my arch viz scenes. Good job nasos_333

[nasos_333]

@SAOTA

This is is beautiful, would love to see how this adds to my arch viz scenes. Good job nasos_333

Thanks

It is ideal for architectural i suppose, as there is total artistic freedom as far as grass textures/prefabs/assets go.

Also it supports full shadows and self shadowing, that make a world of difference, with independent shadow LOD.

The placement system can easilly be adjusted to create any kind of other foliage, like bushes or vines etc, with or without LOD and dynamics. I will be working on more specific shaders for such other bonus items after the initial release (though the grass shader may already be used with some tweaking to get a first nice result in vines etc)

[nasos_333]

Video with the heavy grass (still super fast, just takes more ram).

The video is recorded with Bandicam (thus is not at all indicative of performance) and i also access the inspector to control the sun etc

https://vimeo.com/137028173

[Singularity]

Excellent! Thanks for the comprehensive answer, it’s very much appreciated.

What is the price ?

[nasos_333]

@Singularity

Excellent! Thanks for the comprehensive answer, it’s very much appreciated.

What is the price ?

I am thinking of a lower price for early adopters (30-40$) and then move to $60 a few days after the release.

[Singularity]

Delicious!

[nasos_333]

Sky Master ULTIMATE v3.0 - ocean and use with InfiniGRASS

@Singularity

Delicious!

Here is another demo i am working on, this will emulate see weed motion and uses Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.0 and its new Ocean module for the water and sky.

Note that Bandicam makes the video look much slower on my old PC, the actual gameplay is very smooth. Also i had an error when recorded that video that made draw calls 10x the actual ones (320 actual, 2500 with the erroneous prefab), so this is only to show the look, for performance evaluation i will post a webplayer demo soon.

https://vimeo.com/137219881

[nasos_333]

UPDATE:

The GUI is now complete, all refinements are finished and the demo is the current WIP and will be done today, so the pack will be submitted by the end of the week.

Also i just filled an entire map with super thick grass in real time, making this demo is super fun

About the pack icon, i have created some but i am not sure which to put in yet. Any suggestions are welcome :).

[davisj16usmc]

I’d recommend the third icon in the second row. Looks great! I’m definitely buying.

[nasos_333]

With Sky Master ULTIMATE 3.0 Ocean-Water systemAfter real time painting

Before real time painting (starting grass painted in editor mode)
Gradual snow gather in grass (and trees - terrain with Sky Master v3.0)
Paint on any surface

@davisj16usmc

I’d recommend the third icon in the second row. Looks great! I’m definitely buying.

Thanks :), i cant wait to finilize it and see cool uses in games.

I have been playing with it all day and decided to create the snow shader that will work with Sky Master v3.0 as well, i post some pics above of the WIP. The grass will gradually gather snow along with the terrain and melt in summer etc

The thick grass in wind motion is too epic to describe as well :), the demo will support wind control to get the turbulent effect.

[nasos_333]

https://vimeo.com/137126805

Some more vertex varieties, this uses a more detailed grass model that bends in a more smooth way.

[nasos_333]

UPDATE:

The demo is now ready and working perfectly, i have also added the snow coverage feature and interactive grass in the same demo stage for completeness. Wind controls and artistic controls are also included.

I will upload the demo later today, after some extra testing.

[nasos_333]

The first edition of the manual is now done, if anyone would like to preview it before the system is on the store (and provide suggestions for improvement which would be most welcome), i can send it in email.