[RELEASED] Polaris V2 - Ultimate Low Poly Terrain Engine

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Polaris V2 is available, get the tool here.
It will be at $75, user of the V1 can upgrade to V2 for $25
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Note that V1 and V2 are different systems serve for different purposes and scales. V1 still in active development and still receive support.
Version Comparison
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For full description, please take a look at the User Guide, available online HERE.
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Polaris V2 is a user friendly low poly terrain engine dedicated to help you create gorgeous, large scale stylized, flat shaded landscapes, that can run well on both Mobile and Desktop applications, save you a lot of time and effort!

Polaris V2 is the first low poly terrain engine to use GPU technologies for generation, which enable multi-terrains editing and real-time live preview.

Polaris V2 let you work with traditional sculpting method or the modern procedural workflow, or somewhere in between.

FEATURES
:star: Super easy to learn: No more guessing works thank to Live Preview, in depth document, or even ask and answer right in the editor in less than a second!
:star: GPU Accelerated: perform heavy tasks on GPU side which consume less memory and provide smoother experience, enable multi-terrains editing and real-time live preview!
:star: Modern & easy to use toolbox: familiar terrain tools you can easily find in other engines like Painters (more than 12 types of them, with API for runtime painting), Spline (road, ramp, river, etc.), Stampers (procedural sculpting, texturing & spawning), Billboard editor (create billboard assets), Texture creator (texture authoring), and some unique tool like Group tool & Backup tool. More coming!
:star: Advanced geometry generation: Speed up your scene with dynamic mesh wireframing, multiple levels of detail (up to 4 levels), Unity Navigation System compatible; more interesting geometry with cross-tiles matching, XZ plane displacement and terrain holes.
:star: Massive foliage rendering: Dense forest rendered within a blink of the eyes, with no Game Object overhead, support for GPU Instancing, billboard rendering & grass wind animation.
:star: Various shading styles: From Lambert, Blinn Phong to Physical Based; from Gradient Lookup, Color map to Splats; whatever!
:star: Support for LWRP: easy to upgrade to LWRP with shaders already provided. HDRP coming soon!
:star: Easy to migrate from other tools: Convert any existing environment created using Gaia, Map Magic, Terrain Composer, etc. to low poly terrain in a few clicks away. Support for various data types, from Unity built-in terrain, RAW files, to other kind of textures, etc.

Polaris V1 and Polaris V2 are different systems serve for different purposes and scales. Data from V1 can be imported to V2.
This package requires Unity 2018.1 or above.
Support for LWRP requires Unity 2019.1 or above.

Screenshots:

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RELEASE NOTE
(see full log)
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V2.4.2
IMPROVEMENTS

  • Texture Importer/Exporter: adding import/export visibility map.
  • Faster grass preview on painting.
  • Group Tool: Adding bulk data import, export.
  • Group Tool: Adding some context menus.
  • Group Tool: Adding more overridable properties for Foliage settings.
  • Geometry Stamper: Adding ability to stamp to visibility channel, use Falloff curve to blend with source geometry.
  • Stamper Tools: Adding Snap To Terrain and Snap To Level Bounds action.
    CHANGES
  • LWRP and URP support now provided in separated packages. Install them using the Extension Window.

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V2.4.1
NEW FEATURES

  • Adding support for Universal Render Pipeline.
  • Adding Extension System for extent Polaris functionalities using third parties assets.
  • Adding Height Map Filter component, apply blur and step effect on height map sampling.
  • New terrain callbacks: PreProcessHeightMap and PostProcessHeightMap
    IMPROVEMENTS
  • Shading settings GUI improvements.
    FIXES
  • Reset Shading setting doesn’t flush out terrain material anymore.

===
V2.4.0
NEW FEATURES

  • Geometry & Texture Painters Live Preview: now you can see preview of painter effect on terrain surface.
  • New set of Geometry Painter: including Terrace, Remap and Noise painter.
  • New set of Terrain Shader: Lambert, BlinnPhong and PBR Vertex Color.
  • Support for Amplify Shader Editor: now you can visually edit terrain shader to fit your special needs using ASE. Support for both Builtin RP and LWRP.
  • Terrain Wizard: Adding new option to select number of splats and normal maps when using Splats texturing model.
  • Terrain Wizard: Support for Vertex Color texturing model.
  • Interactive Grass: Now support for both Builtin RP and LWRP with better interaction.
  • Wind Zone: a new component which allow you to control global wind effect on grass.
    IMPROVEMENTS
  • Adding new noise type for noise generator, including Billow and Value noise.
  • Terrain & Foliage shader is completely remade for both Builtin RP and LWRP, using Amplify Shader Editor.
  • Terrain Converter: now pick an appropriate terrain shader depend on number of terrain layers. (4 or 8 layers)
  • Editor GUI: Display terrain shader’s name under Material slot in the Inspector.
  • Re-organize shader family and shader files.
  • Improve tree and grass painting performance.
    FIXES
  • Terrain Wizard will force using PBR lighting model when using LWRP.
    DEPRECATED
  • Drop support for Unity Shader Graph, most shader now use Amplify Shader Editor.

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V2.3.2
NEW FEATURES

  • Interactive Grass (touch bending): Breath life into your scene by making grass react to moving agent. Support for unlimited agent. This feature is still experimental, LWRP not supported yet.
    IMPROVEMENTS
  • Grass Prototype: adding Pivot Offset and Bend Factor properties, support for custom mesh for grass shape.
  • Prototype Group: cache prefab asset path to avoid reference lost when down version the editor.
  • Terrain Wizard: now you can open the wizard in Shading context menu to set terrain shader, by setting Lighting model and Texturing model.
    FIXES
  • Terrain Pinning: now only accept left mouse click.

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V2.3.1
FIXES

  • Minor fix for main thread checking.

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V2.3.0
NEW FEATURES

  • Object Painters: paint objects as prefab instance onto terrain surface.
  • Spline based Object Spawner/Remover: randomly spawn/remove game object as prefab instance along a path.
  • Object Stamper: stamp game object as prefab instance using mask.
  • Object Helper: Utility component for managing spawned game objects.
  • Prefab Prototype Group: a new data container for ease of managing prefab variation.
    IMPROVEMENTS
  • Foliage Filters System: now become Spawn Filters System, which will work with both Foliage Painters and Object Painters.
  • Painters Tools: tree prototype/grass prototype/object selector now support multi-selection mode, with different probability for each prototypes.
  • Texture Creator: support multi-selection mode for Foliage Distribution Map Generator.
  • Foliage/Object snapping: now you can choose to snap them to terrain surface, or world objects with collider (filtered by layer mask).
  • Geometry background generation: geometry mesh now generated in background thread in some case to avoid hanging the editor.
    FIXES
  • Rename geometry root object from “_Geometry” to “~Geometry”.
  • Terrain Pinning: newly pinned terrain will copy main data (dimension, material properties, etc.) from source one.
3

I want it, when will it be available?

4

Early August, I will update the thread when it is accepted!

1 Like
5

This looks really cool.

What is the difference between the lite version and the full version?

I noticed each picture is of a smaller location. Is it possible to make larger areas?

1 Like
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  1. The main difference is that Lite version doesn’t have Geometry Painter and Environmental Painter, you have to prepare height maps & distribution maps in external programs, then use them in the Inspector with simple built-in component.
    The Full version also multithreaded and have many more cool stuffs. Please see the online User Guide for full description: https://docs.pinwheel.studio/polaris
  2. Yes you can make large area with this tool, depend on the dimensions you set for it, and what kind of shading you use (Flat or Smooth). The example looks small because its proportion is not so correct (sorry, I’m a programmer, not a skilled artist :slight_smile: )
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I bought the lite Version of this and plan on upgrading to the full version when that comes out. So if I understand you correctly the height maps can be made within the asset in the full version ?

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Thank you for purchasing!
In the full version, you don’t need to create the height map to shape the terrain, you can paint directly on the terrain instead (traditional sculpting method). However, the height map slot is still available.
PS: I’m adding a feature to export height map from terrain geometry after generation, will be available in the very near update. Stay tune!

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Good news!
It’s officially available now!
Get it here: Polaris - Low Poly Terrain Engine | Terrain | Unity Asset Store

1 Like
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Im soryy for this question but I have also bought the full version so answer me please :slight_smile: How can I make a random hightmap for this terrain to use for my game? (I’ve bought this asset because I thought it’ll help me to procedually generate my world ) Can U help me just to generate a heightmap at runtime (using Perlin Noise) and than put it to Heightmap of terrain at runtime too . I would be really thankfull if You help me :frowning:

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Hello Polaris,

I bought it today, first of all my compliments for the job, is absolutely amazing, is easy to use and very user friendly.
But I have a problem, when I try to build the game is giving me this error.
Assets/Polaris/Scripts/EnvironmentalPainter.cs(960,38): error CS0103: The name `SceneView’ does not exist in the current context
Do you know why?

thanks

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Sorry, this package is not dedicated for runtime generation, because some operation is time consuming. I think it’s hard to have a polished result when doing it at runtime.
By the way, I know a Youtube series which can help you with the problem, take a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbpMiKiSKm8

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Please add these yellow line into the file Assets/Polaris/Scripts/EnvironmentalPainter.cs, I’will push an update soon.

NOTE: Please contact me directly via email (support@pinwheel.studio) for faster support, I haven’t check the forum for a while due to a busy week.

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#Dev log:
I’ve added a new color painter to let you paint vertex color directly on the terrain, with some features as follow:

  • Texture based brush
  • Define custom brush
  • Custom color picker right in the inspector, with color wheel, swatch, custom palette
    This will be available in v1.2.0 update!
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#Devlog:
I’m experimenting on a new tool to generate terrain LOD when building the terrain. It works quite well and seamlessly between different LOD. Can’t wait to see it live on the next update!

1 Like
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Version 1.2.0 is now available, get it here.

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Version 1.3.0 is coming

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Version 1.3.0 is now available, get it HERE.

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Hi, is it possible to generate multiple terrains tile seamlessly together with this asset?

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Hi, this tool generate multiple tiles of THE SAME TERRAIN GAME OBJECT, to take advantaged of LODs and painting performance, multiple tiles of different terrain game object is not available in this version yet! :slight_smile: