LookDev Studio

[UnityJuju]

Welcome to the LookDev Studio discussion thread. You can use this thread to ask questions and share feedback about the LookDev Studio prototype.

What is LookDev Studio?

Artists – no matter their expertise – need a place to quickly import, iterate on, and refine their art. In Unity, there has yet to be a simple starting point for importing one asset and manipulating its environment to determine and visualize iteration pathways. Now we want to speed up the process for artists like you to get started in Unity.

That’s where our LookDev Studio comes in. This feature set now makes it easier to import, visualize, validate, debug, compare, and develop high-quality visuals of your assets in Unity.

The LookDev Studio is currently a prototype targeted toward artists working in Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) and Universal Render Pipeline (URP). As it stands, the feature set prioritizes the ability to import and view individual assets and small dioramas under various light conditions.

We would love to hear what you think about the LookDev Studio prototype so far, and where you see it within the Unity ecosystem. Check out the bottom of this thread to learn more about how you can share valuable feedback that will directly impact the development of this latest product.

How to get started

• Please click the links below to download the latest release as a ZIP file through Github.

• HDRP project

• URP project

• Make sure you’ve installed Unity Editor version 2021.2.2f1 or higher.

• Extract the entire ZIP file to a location of your choice.

• In Unity Hub, click Add, then navigate to where you’ve saved the extracted project.

• Open the project using 2021.2.2f1 (or higher).

• The project will not work correctly in a version lower than 2021.2.2f1.

• Please note that the HDRP project in particular is heavy and can require up to 15 minutes to build the library and open.

• If the project doesn’t open directly in LookDev Studio, go to the top menu and select LookDev Studio > Enable.

• If you want to download a test Asset to try the import and setup flow yourself, you can download one here.

For license information and changelog, please see the parent repository.

Resources

For more information, please refer to:

• LookDev Studio Documentation (attached file)
• HDRP: Requirements and compatibility | High Definition RP
• URP: Requirements and compatibility | Universal RP

Ways to Import

There are three different ways you can import your Assets.

• The recommended way to add models and textures to the project is to Drag and Drop several models and textures, or complete folders, directly into the Scene view or Assets Tab.
  

• You can also import assets via the Import button.

• You can save your model directly into the LookDev/Models folder and they will appear in the asset Models tab.

What’s new in the 0.2.0 release

The second release of the LookDev Prototype brings a selection of customization functionality and usability improvements.

First and foremost, we have the URP version of the project available, complete with sample content and Skybox setups for all of your URP needs!

0.2.0 also brings new features for both HDRP and URP versions, such as:

• Lighting prefabs and lighting preset customization, making it easier than ever to create your own preset lighting Scenes with premade or custom lighting prefabs.

• Animation preview. Drag and drop animations on your model to view them in the LookDev Studio at different speeds. This is only the early beginning to cover your animation LookDev needs, and we’d love to hear your feedback and wishes.

• Filtering functionality makes it possible to filter based on selected assets, or create custom filters or directories to view only relevant content at any time.

• LookDev project settings allow you to generate Prefabs or Colliders on model import, select a custom asset directory to view content, open assets in preferred DCC tools, or generate your own automation rules for Texture import.

• Channel debugging gives a quick and easy shortcut to debug content in both HDRP and URP. Use the dropdown, or the B/N shortcut (M to go back to normal).

• We also bring a selection of smaller usability features:

• New tab UI, with added Shader, Lighting, HDRI and Animation tabs.

• Save Prefabs changes or make Prefab variants directly in LookDev

• Save and load up to 5 camera positions in the top bar, or use shortcuts: CTRL+1,2,3,4,5, Load: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Quickly switch between Lighting Presets with - / = key shortcuts

Current state

Importing and Validating 3D Characters in Unity I LookDev Studio Tutorial

LookDev Studio is currently a prototype and doesn’t have an official release date determined yet. As such, we do not recommend using it for your production yet.

The plan is to collect early feedback to guide its next phase of development and ensure LookDev Studio is tailored to your needs before we complete a full release plan and feature set.

Known issues

Since this project is still in its early stages, there are a couple of known issues that we are aware of and will work on for future iterations.

We’ve listed some of them below along with workarounds for this first release.

• On first open, it can take a little while for all of the thumbnails in the sidebar to load.

• After some time, all the thumbnails will load correctly.

• Mac OS only: The import button in the sidebar can only import one Asset at a time.

• If you want to import several files at the same time, we recommend dragging and dropping them into the project directly from Explorer.

• The light rotation goes from 0-1 but cannot go past its min or max values at the moment.

• Keep an eye on the Light Rotation slider to see if you are close to the min or max values.

• Maximizing the Scene or Game view and then minimizing will remove the custom UI, leaving only the viewport.

• Go to LookDev > Return to Unity and LookDev > Enable to reset the UI if this occurs.

We want to hear from you!

Once you’ve had a chance to try the LookDev Studio prototype, we encourage you to complete our survey to help inform the development and for a chance to win one of five $50 USD Amazon gift cards.

Check out our Blog Post for more information about LookDev Studio and sign up here to be kept in the loop with future releases.

Thank you for your interest, we’re looking forward to your feedback!

The specific lighting setup used for this image is available in the 0.2.0 release (HDRP only). It is called “FiaPortraitLighting” and is available through the Lighting Preset dropdown.

7370945–964483–LookDevStudio_Documentation_v.0.2.0.pdf (8.31 MB)

[ShawnTheMiller]

Hi all, just had a quick run through of the LookDev studio and thought it was a really great start!

Some first thoughts, please forgive me if I’m missing some of the concepts here or doing something wrong -

• There doesnt appear to be a link between say a scene prefab and the model loaded in the LookDev scene?
• How can I acess models/prefabs already loaded into a project? What’s the workflow for that?
• I found myself wanting sliders (fine control) for Orbit camera/Turntable
• Wasn’t fully clear on the usage for Game mode vs Scene in this case, other than less controls.
• When loading a second character the one in the scene dissapears, I guess I asumed it would just load another.
• When saveing and realoading the chracter is gone? Maybe I’m not using it as its intended?
• PLZ let me get animation onto the character in the futue =D

Thanks for now! Sorry again if some of this is just me being silly and missing something.

[UnityJuju]

Hey there! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! :3
I’ve spoken to the team, and here are their answers:

• The missing link between prefabs and what is added in the scene view in the LookDev Studio prototype is due to a technical limitation of controlling the position of the assets in the scene
• To access models in the project you can return to Unity by going to menu on top and selecting LookDev Studio > Return to Unity. From there you can find the assets under:
• Assets > Art
• Assets > LookDev
• Packages > LookDev Studio > DefaultAssets
• Please log your feedback for the sliders into the feedback form and we can add it to our dev lists
• The Game Mode is primarily used for taking the screenshot using the little camera button. The main focus is on using the Scene view at this stage
• You should be able to add multiple assets into the scene view when dragging and dropping them from the side asset panel into the scene view. If this does not work for you please include it in your feedback and steps to reproduce.
• Any assets added to the project should persist when you open the project again. Please attach a screenshot and we might be able to help
• Great request! Please log that into our feedback form as well and we can look after it!

Feel free to ask more question and log any feedback you have into our feedback form

[sacb0y]

This looks neat, hope it comes to URP. I already kind of have a setup for this myself XD

[newguy123]

@sacb0y

This looks neat, hope it comes to URP. I already kind of have a setup for this myself XD

Fully agree

Anything and everything Unity does, should be cross platform compatible, and auto adapt between platforms.

Not only that, it should work on CURRENT LTS as well as TECH versions, but also future versions.

Not be another Book of the Dead, that’s now living only in the graveyard. That doesnt help anybody, except maybe Enterprise customers that has the time, money and manpower to dissect and code something like that themselves. For the rest of us, make things simpler, not harder please.

[sacb0y]

@newguy123

Fully agree

Anything and everything Unity does, should be cross platform compatible, and auto adapt between platforms.

Not only that, it should work on CURRENT LTS as well as TECH versions, but also future versions.

Yeah the logic should be more similar to the logic on the asset store. At minimum a focus on current LTS versions and where it makes sense a support on both main pipelines.

The most satisfying assets have no issue with this logic.

[Rich_A]

Disappointing to see important features (including DLSS and FSR) being silo’d between URP and HDRP :-/

[Yonderboy_1]

This is definitely something that’s been lacking in Unity, but its something I would have hoped could be rolled into Unity itself without the need for a separate app.

Adding environment maps and lights is something that Unity is obviously capable of and would be good to have something like this seamlessly integrated into Unity rather than yet another add on. If this is intended to be competitor for Substance Stager id understand it being separate - but from what I can see its not.

[alexandre-fiset]

@Yonderboy_1

This is definitely something that’s been lacking in Unity, but its something I would have hoped could be rolled into Unity itself without the need for a separate app.

Just so you know, LookDev is also a Window in Unity.

What we do now is that we have our project and a copy of it with no script for outsourcers to test their assets in. LookDev Studio looks promising for that purpose as it’s much easier to setup for people not familiar with the SRPs and the package manager.

[UnityJuju]

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with us! :3
What you are seeing today in this forum post is an effort to understand exactly what you need from a tool/functionality like this. The needs are different depending on the projects you are running.
Please bring your thoughts and ideas into the feedback form so our team constructively act on it.

[MadStuntman]

Sorry guys, but I will be pretty straight in my comment and if you are quite emotionally vulnerable, then you better not read.

“Artists – no matter their expertise – need a place to quickly import, iterate on, and refine their art.”
I know in person a lot of artists and animators and nobody and never complained they have a problems with Unity UI. I don’t know why you have decided that artists needs your dedicated simplified UI. Are you thinking they are too creative for learn base Unity UI spending max 1-2 hours for that? Moreover almost all of them have pretty good knowledge of Unity UI aswell as UE4 UI which is more complicated that Unity’s one.

But what they really wants (you just need to talk them directly instead of inventing the next useless feauture which was born in the greatest minds of product managers) are useful filters in the Project and Hierarchy windows and option “Show only related with selected” for models, prefabs, materials, textures and animations. For example, if you have selected specific prefab in your scene, you must have possibility quickly set filter by that option for showing the meshes, materials, textures and animations (in Project windows) that included in selected prefab without using of context menu Open in context and clicking on specific parts to show its in Project window.

A single feature that is really useful (for me personally) is a quick creating of material of specific type, but you can add this option into Create menu. Instead of Create - Material you can introduce Create - Material - extended menu.

[alexandre-fiset]

@MadStuntman

I know in person a lot of artists and animators and nobody and never compalined they have a problems with Unity UI. I don’t know why you have decided that artists needs your dedicated simplified UI. Are you thinking they are too creative for learn base Unity UI spending max 1-2 hours for that?

Lets say that you run an outsourcing firm and that you have to deal with clients running Unity with built in, Unity with URP, Unity with HDRP, Unreal, Godot and custom engines, then I believe you would welcome that there’s a streamlined way of testing different lighting setups and model imports.

You could have Lookdev Studio installed and use it for many projects. It is a much simpler approach to authoring 3D art then setting up artists to version control and project-specific tools and etc.

[MadStuntman]

@alexandre-fiset

You could have Lookdev Studio installed and use it for many projects. It is a much simpler approach to authoring 3D art then setting up artists to version control and project-specific tools and etc.

There are no simple approach at all considering different versions of SRPs (HDRP/URP) for Unity 2018.4, 2019.4, 2020.3, 2021.1, 2021.2b. LookDev Studio can’t resolve any problems related to SRP versions zoo. And using of Plastic SCM instead of Git made version control as easy as possible even for artists.

And finally it isn’t resolving the main problem of workflow with any assets which I pointed - there are no useful filters. When materials and textures count will grow you need to scroll window a few dozen of seconds with your max attention before you find required texture or material. And there are no different if you using LookDev Studio or standard Unity UI.

[cloverme]

So, as an artist and gamedev, this does not really help my workflow at all. I’m not quite understanding where Unity is getting this design workflow feedback. Same thing with ArtEngine, most people who design their own assets are using Blender on the low end, highend you’re using zbrush or cinema4d. I see this is sort of helpful in realigning some textures.

Sorry, I guess you caught me on a bad day, but you sent me the email, so you’re going to hear it.

• Build this into polybrush (if you ever get that to work correctly as designed in HDRP). You know what artists would like to do inside of Unity… Paint 4K materials from Artstation on any model inside of Unity. We want to paint rust, dust, moss, dirt, mud, etc on models. Don’t shill me ArtEngine, no indiedev is using it.
• Make the Digital Human package actually useable other than the one-off demo that only works in a few select versions of Unity. An even bigger artist tip, how about make it work with character design tools that artists are actually using from the popular character software vendors already out there. The HDRP eye shader is terrible, no one uses it. The HDRP Hair shader? Oh yeah, you don’t have an HDRP Hair or HDRP Skin shader… we have to use other shaders by 3rd parties and when you move up in HDRP versions, every shader needs to be updated or replaced. How about that, why don’t you start with making HDRP forward compatible like you “promised” you would at Unite 2019.
• There’s no HDRP detail shader for terrain that artists want to use. Even worse, there’s no tessellated terrain shader for HDRP yet. Psst is 2021… you promised one by 2019 back in 2017. So if we want to paint grass, flowers, etc, we can’t because… there’s no HDRP detail shader for terrains.
• Guess what no 3d software package easily generates on the fly that Unity HDRP materials require… the integrated mask map. Who’s brilliant idea for a PBR material standard at unity decided to make a map mask texture that only gets generated by the HDRP material wizard? You know what would actually be useful that artists need, a “generate mask map” button like you have for “fix normal”.
• You know what really irks us the most… the only way to really make use of HDRP from a performant standpoint is to use low poly models with high texture resolutions (4k or better) otherwise what’s the point of moving to HDRP. Guess what Unity handles very poorly, multiple material storage and memory handling and it can’t handle high poly models as well.

Here’s a really big tip, instead of hiring a 20 person team to make a one-off video demo (heretic, Adam, etc) why don’t you work with small team indiegame developers to actually see the tools and what our workflow actually is before going down these roads of making these tools no one is asking for.

-Make HDRP performant
-Make Realtime Global Illumination in HDRP a reality (in an LTR)
-Make a HDRP Skin & Hair shader that works past 1 version of unity
-Create a way to use High Poly models like they did for UE5
-Make HDRP terrains tessellated and with an HDRP detail shader
-Create GPU indirect instancing with high-z occlusion

-Stop creating one off tools no one needs.
-Listen to your community of single & small indiegame devs.

[UnityJuju]

@MadStuntman

“Artists – no matter their expertise – need a place to quickly import, iterate on, and refine their art.”
I know in person a lot of artists and animators and nobody and never compalined they have a problems with Unity UI. I don’t know why you have decided that artists needs your dedicated simplified UI. Are you thinking they are too creative for learn base Unity UI spending max 1-2 hours for that? Moreover almost all of them have pretty good knowledge of Unity UI aswell as UE4 UI which is more complicated that Unity’s one.

It is great to hear you find artist workflows in Unity already good and we know artists are extremely well equipped with handling complex software.

Objectively, adding a 3d model with textures to a new project requires a few steps. An example flow looks like this: import the asset into the correct folders to keep things tidy, create a material, import the textures to the correct folder, mark the normal map as normal map, assign the textures to the material, assign the material to the model and this includes a few steps of locking and unlocking the Inspector. It is not hard, but it takes time. And this is before we get into checking if the asset textures behave properly in indoor/outdoor lighting scenarios. These are some of the key elements we are addressing in this prototype.

What is the workflow that you follow? Is this less of an issue than we have observed?

This prototype is the first step - we are starting to walk the path and need your help to correct the course early on. This is our forum to speak to the artists so all feedback and ideas will be well received and appreciated!

You can actually find the feature you requested for material creation in the prototype. You can find it next to the IMPORT button. We have selected some starting presets for materials, but there is vision for expanding that in some shape or form.
Are the ones in there relevant? What else would you add?

Also, it would be great to hear from the artists you know! You can send the link to this thread so they can contribute with their feedback, so we act on it!

[system]

I’m no artist, so I can’t really comment on the usefulness of this stuff.
I’m a solo dev and I won’t use this thing, ever, unless I am forced to.

I’m already keeping my assets nice and tidy otherwise I have zero chance to keep myself sane and be able to find the assets I need to operate on. Keeping them tidy and organized inside Unity is basically zero effort.
Say hello to the proper naming convention, to the tags and advanced search capabilities. I don’t need a drop down menu, I’m fine with the t:Texture2D search.

I also don’t like Unity’s tendency lately to move everything into a separate, compact window which disrupts the workflow.
I literally HATE working in UI Builder because it is hard to interact with other parts of Unity while the window is open. Same with this one. Apparently, single monitor users are forgotten and quickly will be left behind.
Also, you’re throwing away one of Unity’s strong suit: the customizable user interface.

[MadStuntman]

@UnityJuju

It is great to hear you find artist workflows in Unity already good and we know artists are extremely well equipped with handling complex software.

Objectively, adding a 3d model with textures to a new project requires a few steps. An example flow looks like this: import the asset into the correct folders to keep things tidy, create a material, import the textures to the correct folder, mark the normal map as normal map, assign the textures to the material, assign the material to the model and this includes a few steps of locking and unlocking the Inspector. It is not hard, but it takes time.

What is the workflow that you follow? Is this less of an issue than we have observed?

Sorry, but you described workflow for skinning of cube or plane or any other 3D primitives. Usually artists creating their FBX models in appropriate software like Maya, ZBrush or Blender with full material mapping, UVs and using internal materials which are were built into FBX as well as textures. All that you need is create the folder MyModelName in your Project window, drag FBX there and select “Use external materials (Legacy)” in the Materials tab of FBX import settings if you need to correct something. Then Materials and Texture folders will be created in MyModelName and there are no reason to find any other correct folder because their location is already correct. About marking textures as normal map. Unity always show tip with “Fix” button if the texture assigned as Normal map wasn’t marked as Normal.

You can actually find the feature you requested for material creation in the prototype. You can find it next to the IMPORT button. We have selected some starting presets for materials, but there is vision for expanding that in some shape or form. Are the ones in there relevant? What else would you add?

I found this feature and I told about I’d like see this feature in context menu of standard Unity UI as submenu of Create - Material - instead of swithching to LookDev window

Also, it would be great to hear from the artists you know! You can send the link to this thread so they can contribute with their feedback, so we act on it!

I already posted that link in some Discord servers and I have seen only 2 reactions:

1. I need install Unity beta and use HDRP for that? Oh noes!
2. Not interested.
   Exactly same as in the comments of guys above.

And I’m want recall you again what exactly the people want. Useful filters and context filter by selected item.
Let imagine I’m artist and want optimize my textures and want to change crunch compression quality to 100% instead of 50% only for normal maps and only in selected folder like there:

Please tell me how I can select all of the textures marked as normal map in specific folder? Despite the fact they have _n suffix if I type _n and run the search for type Textures then it will return me results starting from the root of Asset folders. But if I have filter where I could select “Textures” -“Normal” and checkbox “Search in currrent folder only” I could complete my task in 5 seconds. Instead I must use Ctrl + mouse click on every normal map and finally I will got rage if I misclicked and reset my selection after I already selected ~100 textures.

P.S. I have a strange feeling that Unity team live in different dimension than most of developers including coders and artists. You are making a new tool for nobody, your AssetStoreOriginals team still beleive that most of HDRP users uses Unity 2018 and can’t upgrade their assets, demo team releasing absolutely useless VFX Character demo (and others) and seems like that the development of amazing Kinematica package has been stopped. I know Unity haven’t a lot of money like Epic, but when you compare what sort of tools Unity and Epic provides for their users you want to cry, switch to UE4 and forget Unity as a bad dream. Sad but true.

[lmgiorni]

Is there a reason why it was decided to make it as a separated tool instead of a part of the LookDev option aviable in Unity a few versions ago?
I would love to have something similar but in my own project with all the materials, shaders, textures, assets and prefabs that I already have. No drag and drop, no copy assets from one directory to another. Could also be able to maybe add some animations I already have or maybe apply a timeline and get a screenshot of that.

Not sure if its interesting enough as a separate tool, there are already many other PBR real time visualization tools for artists also in packages like substance that now a day is standard on any pipeline that uses HDRP.

If the idea is to integrate it later in Unity Editor, maybe I will give it a try.

[UnityJuju]

Thank you for your detailed feedback MadStuntman, and for sharing the project with your artist connections. All feedback we receive trough the form will be looked after.
The search field in the Project Tab allows you to filter assets by type, text and you can chose between searching in All, In Packages, In Assets or in the currently selected folder - “_n” :texture

lmgiorni, this LookDev Studio prototype is separate and different from the LookDev tool for the purpose of quicker testing and having this reality check. It is a really early version serving as a vehicle to start this conversation. Having a prototype makes it easier to take structured feedback and make sure we are on a path to making something that fits all workflows.
Hope you had a chance to log your feedback into the survey form. It would be great if you share more info around what is your setup, what are you missing? Especially features you cannot implement yourself and you wish were there.

[MadStuntman]

@UnityJuju

The search field in the Project Tab allows you to filter assets by type, text and you can chose between searching in All, In Packages, In Assets or in the currently selected folder - “_n” :texture

Could I teach Unity developer how the search conditions really works? When you searching in the way like you posted in your screenshot you will get in results all of textures that consists “_n” in the whole project, but not in the current folder. Please try to search something in the real project like me