[Released] Real Imposters LOD System

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1

Hi,
i just released my first Asset to the Asset Store: Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making

Real Imposters LOD System finally brings Imposter Rendering to Unity. It replaces your complex Gameobjects with dynamically generated 2D Billboards to dramatically decrease your polygon count.

Features
• REAL Imposter Rendering
• up to 20x more FPS
• 100% dynamic - no preprocessing required
• simple drag and drop setup
• supports caching & preloading of Imposters
• supports shadows from direction lights
• mobile ready

=== Webplayer Demo === === Android Demo ===

6 Likes
2

Interesting indeed, I will probably buy it.
How is working with culling cameras?
In particular, do you think can work well with Sectr VIS ? (I hope you are familiar with this other software, if not I will point you to the assetstore)

Thanks in advance

3

@micuccio it depends on how Spectr VIS culls the objects. I could imagine 2 things:

  1. by deactivating the GameObject - then it will work out of the box
  2. by deactivating the MeshRenderer - then it will need a small fix to work (2 lines). I think i will add it to the next Version
4

Looks interesting.

5

Looks nice, but sometimes with imposter rendering checked, shadows disappear.
Definitely a good asset!
Michael

6

Thanks for the reply @sakati , is there any way to test it before to buy? I mean to see how it may work with Sectr.
It does not matter for me if you test it and post a video or if I do.

7

Looks amazing. The demo is mindblowing.

Do the impostors have normal maps? How would they work if the illumination changes?

8

My question is similar to StaffanEk, I’m curious if the plugin supports real-time lighting changes, like a day/night cycle.

1 Like
9

I would like to know this as well. Looks perfect for us as long as we can use our lighting system with it.

10

Testing it out in a endless runner I am working on. After a whiAle the imposters stop rendering.

11

Wow this is great! I’ve been searching for an Imposter solution forEVER.

The first (and last) time I I recall imposters being used was in Trespasser by Dreamworks. I’m one of the few people that absolutely loved the game, and appreciated how far ahead of it’s time it was.

Awesome work man

12

@mensch-mueller the distance at which imposters with shadows are culled is adjustable. I will fix the demo soon. Thanks for the pointer.
@StaffanEk the Imposters aren´t normal mapped. It´s something i´m planning to do in the next update - but i don´t want to promise anything. Right now the Imposters need to be updated manually when the Ilumination changes.
@SteveB i also LOVED Trespasser. The physic engine was amazing!
@0x646877 Could you please send me some code to test the issue - i´m sure i can help you out.

13

Ahh, that is too bad. Is this a limitation with the actual code? If the imposters do not change with Unity 5’s lighting, such as the sun going down or nightfall, then they seem much less useful to me. They would suddenly stand out like a sore thumb.

14

Does it work with trees and grass?

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@Teila it´s a tradeoff. Using normal mapping would double the memory footprint and the time needed to update the imposters. I think its better to manually trigger an imposter update when the lighting changed to much. If it doensn´t change every frame or every 10 frames it will probably give you a better performance.
@angel_m yes - but tree and grass rendering systems usally have a pretty good lod-system by themself (e.g. Speedtree). I think the Imposter rendering wouldn´t help much in this case.

16

Looks cool! How would this work with a Time of Day system? Would you manually update the Imposters whenever the lighting has changed a noticeable amount? And how long does it take to generate the Imposters in the web demo?

17

@Stormbreaker yes - it would work this way. The Imposters are completly dynamic. They are regenerated whenever the camera moves a noticeable amount (can be configured). There is absolutly no preprocessing needed. You could e.g. use the Imposter rendering for procedural generated meshes. I didn´t exactly messure the imposter regeneration time in the webdemo - but i think you can get a feeling for it when you move the camera around a bit.

18

Hi sakati. I am thinking about buying the package.
But the android apk you created has the unity5 procedural skydome in it and this is a fps eater and I cannot come to a conclusion about the fps gain. Could you make one without the sky?
Thank you.

19

@elias_t Sure, here you go: Dropbox
I wasn´t aware that the skydome is a fps eater - thanks for the info.

1 Like
20

Wow! Nice!