XFur Studio 2, the most complete fur solution for Standard, Universal RP and HDRP

Community Showcases
1

This tool has been released and you can get it on the Asset Store !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY4-P1y7YE4

Hi everyone !

We wanted to share with you a little sneak peek at XFur Studio 2 and some of its features. While this asset is still in active development with an ETA of late Q1 2020, we felt that you would appreciate seeing some of the new things you will be able to use in this version.

Remember that users of either XFur Studio (1.x) and XFur Mobile will receive a considerable discount when upgrading to XFur Studio 2. While there is not yet a definitive price tag for this asset, due to the many improvements, new features, additions and in most cases complete re-working of the features you can expect a price raise compared to both XFur Mobile and XFur Studio (1.x) so right now is a great time to get either current version of XFur Studio, start developing and getting familiar with the asset and get ready for the big upgrade later this quarter.

While this is just a small tease of what is to come, we are making fast progress with XFur Studio 2 so you can expect many more videos showing the new features we are adding to the asset. At this moment, most of our development time is being given to the revamped Weather FX and Physics modules which will also experience a considerable jump in both quality and performance thanks to some GPU acceleration that is being used for their processes.

We hope you will like this small update and that once it is released XFur Studio 2 will be a great addition to all your projects!

3 Likes
[DEPRECATED] XFur Mobile - Please follow the link inside to XFur Studio 2, our newest version
[DEPRECATED] PIDI - XFur Studio. Please follow the link inside to XFur Studio 2, our new version
[DEPRECATED] XFur Mobile - Please follow the link inside to XFur Studio 2, our newest version
2

Hi again!

XFur Studio 2 development has continued as fast as possible, with some minor delays due to the current situation, but as we iterate through different versions and approach a release candidate we thought it was time to showcase a few more features that we are adding to the asset :slight_smile:

Dynamic Fur Samples Count

One of the most requested features during the past two years has been the ability to dynamically change the amount of samples on the fur to arbitrary numbers as well as to increase their count past the 24 samples provided by XFur Studio 1 in order to better simulate long fur.

With XFur Studio 2 not only can the sample count be set dynamically at runtime but the samples count has been expanded to 128 fur samples while also adding an up to 500% performance boost in all platforms, including VR.

Simplified, semi-automatic workflow

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XFur Studio 2 has a much easier to follow workflow, removing the need for setting up shaders, materials and settings in most tasks and handling it automatically, to ensure that you can get the fur ready to work in as few clicks as possible.

On top of this, new systems to switch between different feature levels designed for different platforms have been put in place so switching your fur simulation between different rendering pipelines, between mobile and desktop / console platforms or VR is just a button away.

Integrated Mobile Support

XFur Studio 2 is a full re-write of XFur Studio 1 with new techniques and systems in place that allow it to have a higher performance in all devices, keeping a stable frame rate on mid to high end mobile devices. An Open GL 3.0+ device is required to work with XFur Studio 2
Support for Universal RP and HDRP

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Another feature that has been requested for years was support for the new Scriptable Rendering Pipelines introduced in Unity 2018. While these pipelines are in many cases limited when compared to the Built-in pipeline, we have managed a working port of XFur Studio 2 which retains most if not all of the features of the asset (with some additional performance costs). While the Built-in pipeline will remain our recommended development solution and the most feature rich version of the asset, Universal and High Definition RPs will receive updates and fixes during the whole XFur Studio 2 cycle as it is our goal to achieve feature parity between all pipelines

Higher quality fur and fur mixing

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In XFur Studio 2 we also introduce a new way of representing fur strands with handy tools that allow you to generate your very own style of fur with just a few clicks. On top of this, up to 5 different fur styles or Fur Profiles can be blended in a single fur material, meaning that your characters can have a far more complex look and a higher level of detail with just a fraction of the performance cost that it would require if multiple materials were used.

Fur overlays and markings are also a possibility now, as is color mixing of up to 4 different fur tints per material.

These are just some of the many features that are currently being added to XFur Studio 2. In the upcoming weeks we will cover even more of them, such as the new systems for Physics and weather FX, the new blood and damage system, XFur Studio - Designer (previously XFur Painter) and much more.

We hope these news are exciting for you, and remember that every owner of a license for XFur Studio 1 or XFur Mobile will receive a considerable discount when upgrading to XFur Studio 2 :slight_smile:

Have a great day, and keep safe!

3 Likes
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@IrrSoft1

Congratulations! Version 2 seems like a great upgrade. Any update on ETA?

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Hi there!

Thanks ! Unfortunately, due to the current situation with the COVID we’ve had to slow down some of our work so we won’t achieve our Q1 planned release (on top of this, the Asset Store is also struggling to keep up with approval times at the moment) but we are trying to finish the asset and have it ready for approval in early April, so we expect a release by late-April to early May if there are no more setbacks ( as the main developer, I’m right now focusing on staying healthy so development can continue uninterrupted! )

We hope this helps ! :slight_smile:

.

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I totally understand. This is not a good time . Thanks for the quick reply.

Stay healthy!

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Here is a small showcase of the brand new (still WIP) LOD module included in XFur Studio 2, now with the ability to synchronize with a Unity LOD Group and seamlessly switch between different geometry LODS as well as control the amount of fur samples, the quality of the different effects and much more.

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This post is also to let you know that XFur Studio 1 has currently a 50% off that will last until April 2nd. All owners of a license to XFur 1 will receive a considerable discount when upgrading to XFur Studio 2 which, on top of the current 50% discount, will give you a very good deal once XFur Studio 2 is released.

But even if you don’t decide to upgrade, right now is a great chance to get XFur Studio and learn why it has been trusted by hundreds of users since 2018 :slight_smile:

Have a great week!

2 Likes
7

There are new updates regarding XFur Studio 2.

We are currently working on the Quality of Life improvements to the whole toolset as well as on the new painting tools to be used for fur edition. Here is a small list of the updates we are currently working on :

  • New seamless painting system for XFur Studio Designer. It works entirely on the GPU which makes it extremely fast, without needing any colliders nor raycasting.
  • New painting modes : Fur Masks, Fur Data, Overlay / Markings, Grooming, Blended Fur Profiles and more.
  • XFur Designer works on all pipelines supported by XFur Studio 2 at release ( Built-in, URP and HDRP )
  • GPU accelerated FX and Physics modules
  • Overlays / Decals / Markings module that allows the use of additional textures as “decals” to be projected over the fur as instance specific markings.
  • Fur Map generator, to make the creation and use of Fur Strands maps much more streamlined.

Due to the current delays we have with the CoVID situation, we are aware that XFur Studio will be available around the time of the Unity 2020.1 release and we are taking that into account as well, ensuring that it will have compatibility with the latest unity versions at release. We will have more information for you soon about targeted release dates, editions and more for XFur Studio 2 :slight_smile:

Here is a small early WIP from our new painting method as it was implemented two weeks ago used only for color painting (we are currently adding all final painting modes for XFur Designer as well as its fully revamped UI) :

More news will be available soon. Have a great week!

1 Like
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OMG, that’s fantastic!

Oh, but hmm…will those be “baked” into the fur textures, or is that something that we could add to our character customizer so players could select and place the decals?

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Hi there!

Currently, the idea is to have them act as additional maps that can be swapped at runtime and are mixed with the fur through shader, not baked in any way. Our current implementation allows to mix 2 to 4 different textures into a single “decal map” that is then projected on the fur.

The decals are projected using the same UVs as the rest of the model as if they were overlay textures ( so no custom placement at the moment ) but we are looking into developing a small API for our new painting system to allow for custom decal placement and fur data edition both in Editor and Runtime as well as easy integration into custom in-game character editors, though this may be available after release since there are other items with higher priority in our roadmap at this point.

EDIT : Since I feel my answer may be a bit unclear, here is a better explanation

  • Decals are not baked. They are layered textures (similar to using Photoshop layers) and each character can have its own set of decals eve if they are using the same model or are instances of the same prefab.
  • There is no custom placement for decals (yet), they are an additional map projected through the same UV layout of the model. However, if you can procedurally generate your own decal textures using the UV Layout of your model then you can assign this to XFur 2 without any issues.
  • Custom placement for decals will be considered for a later date thanks to our planned roadmap for a comprehensive API for XFur Designer (previously XFur Painter) that will allow for painting, grooming and complex decal composition at runtime but this is not going to be available at launch since there are other things to finish first.

We hope this clears things up. Have a great week!

1 Like
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Thanks for the details. Totally understandable that custom runtime placement is lower priority, but we’d love to use that once you can get to it.

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In the last week we have been working hard on updates for XFur Designer, the new painting, styling and editing toolset for XFur Studio 2 and the next iteration of XFur Painter.

Since so many new features are being introduced in XFur Studio 2 it became evident that the quite simple UI of Xfur Studio 1.x was not enough for our newer workflows and its icon-based approach also meant that its functionality might be less clear than ideal in many cases.

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In XFur Studio 2 we have completely revamped XFur Studio - Designer and have developed a full overhaul of the UI focusing on streamlined workflows, ease of use and flexibility.

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While this UI is still a work in progress its general layout is a huge step forward from XFur Painter in version 1. New features, painting modes, a true 3D world space based brush as well as full GPU based painting ensure a smoother experience even when working at higher resolutions.

We are very excited with the improvements we have made to XFur Studio 2 and can’t wait to share with you our first WIP videos of XFur Designer and XFur Studio 2 in the following weeks as we get closer to a release candidate. Some high quality demos are also being prepared to truly show the full potential of this version of XFur Studio that has been in the making for quite some time now.

Have an excellent weekend ! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
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As part of the new XFur Studio 2 development we have done our best to make the whole design of the asset much more modular, to allow for advanced users to easily extend the usability of the fur as well as to create much more complex effects.
As part of this new goals, we have created the brand new XFurStudioAPI which allows you, among other things, to easily paint data into any of the different property maps of an XFur Studio Instance with a single line of code :

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The brand new XFur Designer is entirely built around the new XFur Studio API and most of its functions can be easily recreated within your games to provide advanced and complex character creators to your players.
We hope this will be a very helpful addition to all your projects. Have a great week ! :slight_smile:

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We are currently working on the VFX system for XFur Studio 2 and have some very important improvements in place compared to version 1.

  • The whole process works in the GPU now, making it much faster

  • Finer control over the way the fur FX look and work is being added

  • Different quality settings for memory-limited platforms

  • Per-pixel FX for higher quality results on low poly characters and more precise FX “painting” for things such as blood in wounds

  • Simple “solid color” based effects on mobile devices and a more complex “textured” look on higher end platforms

  • No polygon limits

This is a work in progress, and we are rapidly iterating over it. Graphics wise, our first goal was to achieve visual parity with version 1 but using a much better and faster method. This was achieved and you can see the results in the pic below. We plan to show more results soon :slight_smile:

Have a great weekend !

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1 Like
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Here is a first video for the working VFX Module in XFur Studio 2 as well as the brand new Dynamic Painting objects which we hope will open a whole new level of gameplay and customziation possibilities to all your projects, in an easy and in most cases code-free manner :slight_smile:

Again, this is a work in progress but we are moving ahead towards a release at a steady pace and with great results all around both in quality and performance, so we are very excited for what we will be able to offer you with this new product :slight_smile:

Have a great week!

1 Like
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In a new update to the way XFur Studio 2 keeps improving over the foundations of XFur Studio 1, we want to give a sneak peek of the results of our new grooming algorithm which works entirely on tangent space, to produce mostly stable results even on animated characters :

While this means that grooming maps from XFur Studio 1 are not compatible with XFur Studio 2 out of the box (something for which a conversion tool is being researched and developed at the moment in order to ensure a painless transition) the results are already far superior and mean that this incompatibility is well worth it :

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In this first pic you can see some simple, coarse fur which has been groomed in a downwards direction on the mesh during its “rest” pose.

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Here you can see how the grooming direction of the fur remains stable even when manipulating the rig

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Even on some more complex poses.

While this method is not perfect either and some minor inaccuracies are to be expected in some rotation heavy animations (for example those that involve rolling the character more than 90-180 degrees within the animation itself without any root rotation) it still provides a much higher level of precision and consistency.

We are right now in the process of integrating grooming into the XFur Designer suite as well as the XFur Studio API for runtime based grooming as well as finishing the last details of our brand new GPU accelerated physics module.

After this, we will work extensively on documentation, tutorials, demos and everything else needed to prepare a release candidate for XFur Studio 2.

Have a great week!

1 Like
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Wow, that’s fantastic!

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Here we have another small update this time regarding the new GPU based physics module. Our goal with this module is to achieve extremely performant, per vertex physics simulation regardless of rig complexity or polygon count by moving the whole physics computations to the GPU.

While we are still tunning our algorithms for high quality and realistic results our first tests are quite promising :

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And a very exaggerated (and with lower framerate due to GIF conversion) configuration in order to show the current early physics simulation :

We will be showing many more results soon! :slight_smile:

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A small clip showing some of these new XFur Studio 2 features running on a mobile device (Honor X7) :

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A new iteration of our GPU Physics system as well as a small glimpse at different parameter tweaks for different kinds of fur :

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