Feedback request - Unity Planetarium pre-release
polycounter lvl 3
Hi all, I am looking for some feedback/suggestions on what could be improved / added to the asset to make it better, its currently in pre-release production.
UP is a tool that procedurally generates different components of a solar system, there are different types of planets and a highly customizable background generator, this is intended for far to medium distance range and not intended to be able to land on planets.
Here is a first look at what the system can generate, this video was produced a while ago and there has been more work done towards the background generator, see pictures below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_q4vUBnWg
Features
All planet textures are up to 4k resolution with their own custom shaders to handle animations, they all come with a auto generate button via a seed allowing unlimited (or near enough) variations of the planets.
They are all created using substance designer, included will the be the sbsar files to use in unity along with the original sbs files so you can view how they where made and change them to your own desire if you own substance designer.
The plugin will officially support unity 2019 and above at release.
Each planet planet and background type will come with their own shader, each of which was made in amplify shader editor and thus can be edited again with that tool.
There are currently 7 planet types a star and a background generator, below is a very quick overview of each
Barron - Aimed mostly towards a mars type planet, with an atmosphere but mostly rocky and no surface liquid or vegetation.
Gas - Is used to represent a planet that is either made up of a gas, or has a thick atmosphere where you won't see any land. It has layer bands that circulate part of the planet and also animates between bands to give a realistic feel like the gas clouds are moving and interacting with each other.
Habitable - The most complex setup in the list as it has many different components to work in its fullest form, it is designed to represent a planet similar to that of earth, including water, land, clouds, city lights at night, polar ice caps and thunderstorms all in an animated material.
Ice - A frozen world covered with ice, designed to have a fairly flat surface but with cracks between ice sheets.
Metallic - The idea of a planet that had a metallic surface, either static or in liquid form, this texture has an animation aspect where you can give it the feel like the planet is a molten metallic one, while there is no known example of one of these its a cool fictional idea.
Rocky - This planet is designed to be a rocky planet with no atmosphere, thus has craters similar to that of the moon.
Volcanic - A hot planet that is partially molten lava, this could be a proto-earth type planet or even a planet close to the sun. The planet comes with some animation for the lava fields
Star - the colour can be changed to your liking.
Alongside the above is the background generator, this is a powerful tool to create a varied set of space background textures to be used in different ways:- skybox (6 sided cube), element/modular(each element on its own game object), panoramic (inverted sphere), due to the overwhelming options available for this tool there is also an editor tool specifically designed to help ease the creation of your space scenes.
All code will be FULLY annotated with no dll's, your able to view how things are made and change them as much as you like.
Full documentation on all functionality of the editor tool, the generation parameters, initial setup and tips on how to use some functions (most are self explanatory) the editor tool also has a full tool tip system to quickly give an overview of what each aspect does.
Included with all of the above will be 3 sample scenes to show the system in use for you to learn from along with break down tutorial videos for each system.
*Planned features that I hope to bring out after initial release - so at this point don't count them as included with the tool, though if you want to up-vote a feature if you feel it is important then please go ahead.
Tutorial videos on how to make each sample scene
An auto generation button for the background textures - the current one was designed for an older build of the background system and while still works to an extent it may take several attempts to make anything of use, currently the suggestion is to make the background textures using the editor tool itself.
Star solar flares
Asteroids
Black hole - there is currently an asset for this however it needs improving and as its not currently a priority will probably be finished after release.
The release date of the tool is not set, this depends on the reaction here and how long it takes to finalise a few of the features.
I am also weighing up the options for pricing, again suggestions are welcome (be reasonable, I know everyone wants it for free!)
Please leave your thoughts and comments below
UP is a tool that procedurally generates different components of a solar system, there are different types of planets and a highly customizable background generator, this is intended for far to medium distance range and not intended to be able to land on planets.
Here is a first look at what the system can generate, this video was produced a while ago and there has been more work done towards the background generator, see pictures below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_q4vUBnWgFeatures
All planet textures are up to 4k resolution with their own custom shaders to handle animations, they all come with a auto generate button via a seed allowing unlimited (or near enough) variations of the planets.
They are all created using substance designer, included will the be the sbsar files to use in unity along with the original sbs files so you can view how they where made and change them to your own desire if you own substance designer.
The plugin will officially support unity 2019 and above at release.
Each planet planet and background type will come with their own shader, each of which was made in amplify shader editor and thus can be edited again with that tool.
There are currently 7 planet types a star and a background generator, below is a very quick overview of each
Barron - Aimed mostly towards a mars type planet, with an atmosphere but mostly rocky and no surface liquid or vegetation.
Gas - Is used to represent a planet that is either made up of a gas, or has a thick atmosphere where you won't see any land. It has layer bands that circulate part of the planet and also animates between bands to give a realistic feel like the gas clouds are moving and interacting with each other.
Habitable - The most complex setup in the list as it has many different components to work in its fullest form, it is designed to represent a planet similar to that of earth, including water, land, clouds, city lights at night, polar ice caps and thunderstorms all in an animated material.
Ice - A frozen world covered with ice, designed to have a fairly flat surface but with cracks between ice sheets.
Metallic - The idea of a planet that had a metallic surface, either static or in liquid form, this texture has an animation aspect where you can give it the feel like the planet is a molten metallic one, while there is no known example of one of these its a cool fictional idea.
Rocky - This planet is designed to be a rocky planet with no atmosphere, thus has craters similar to that of the moon.
Volcanic - A hot planet that is partially molten lava, this could be a proto-earth type planet or even a planet close to the sun. The planet comes with some animation for the lava fields
Star - the colour can be changed to your liking.
Alongside the above is the background generator, this is a powerful tool to create a varied set of space background textures to be used in different ways:- skybox (6 sided cube), element/modular(each element on its own game object), panoramic (inverted sphere), due to the overwhelming options available for this tool there is also an editor tool specifically designed to help ease the creation of your space scenes.
All code will be FULLY annotated with no dll's, your able to view how things are made and change them as much as you like.
Full documentation on all functionality of the editor tool, the generation parameters, initial setup and tips on how to use some functions (most are self explanatory) the editor tool also has a full tool tip system to quickly give an overview of what each aspect does.
Included with all of the above will be 3 sample scenes to show the system in use for you to learn from along with break down tutorial videos for each system.
*Planned features that I hope to bring out after initial release - so at this point don't count them as included with the tool, though if you want to up-vote a feature if you feel it is important then please go ahead.
Tutorial videos on how to make each sample scene
An auto generation button for the background textures - the current one was designed for an older build of the background system and while still works to an extent it may take several attempts to make anything of use, currently the suggestion is to make the background textures using the editor tool itself.
Star solar flares
Asteroids
Black hole - there is currently an asset for this however it needs improving and as its not currently a priority will probably be finished after release.
The release date of the tool is not set, this depends on the reaction here and how long it takes to finalise a few of the features.
I am also weighing up the options for pricing, again suggestions are welcome (be reasonable, I know everyone wants it for free!)
Please leave your thoughts and comments below