虛幻4 程序化 植被

Lennart Johansen is an expert in 3D visualization and mapping systems. And now he’s helping 400+ developers apply procedural vegetation and run-time masking to myriad games and virtual experiences. Unexpectedly, his part-time hobby has blossomed into a full-time job. And he’s got some cool growth plans too.

Lennart Johansen是3D可視化和制圖系統(tǒng)的專家。 現(xiàn)在，他正在幫助400多個(gè)開(kāi)發(fā)人員將程序植被和運(yùn)行時(shí)遮罩應(yīng)用于各種游戲和虛擬體驗(yàn)。 出乎意料的是，他的兼職愛(ài)好變成了全職工作。 而且他也有一些不錯(cuò)的增長(zhǎng)計(jì)劃。

Based in northern Norway, with a background developing complex systems for military and civilian purposes, Lennart Johansen is well acquainted with harsh environments. While preparing those systems – some of which are used for search-and-rescue operations – many of his pre-Unity development challenges were like those faced by Unity developers.

Lennart Johansen總部位于挪威北部，其背景是開(kāi)發(fā)用于軍事和民用目的的復(fù)雜系統(tǒng)，他熟悉惡劣的環(huán)境。 在準(zhǔn)備這些系統(tǒng)(其中一些用于搜索和救援操作)時(shí)，他在Unity之前的許多開(kāi)發(fā)挑戰(zhàn)都與Unity開(kāi)發(fā)人員所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)類似。

“We had to solve a lot of similar kinds of problems when creating the mapping systems, where we used real-world data for the rulesets and spawning systems.”

“在創(chuàng)建映射系統(tǒng)時(shí)，我們不得不解決很多類似的問(wèn)題，在這些系統(tǒng)中，我們使用現(xiàn)實(shí)世界的數(shù)據(jù)作為規(guī)則集和生成系統(tǒng)?！?

“我們內(nèi)部都有游戲” (“We all have a game inside us”)

Johansen brought his hard-earned work experience to his first Unity project – a virtual-reality piece. “I truly believe we all have a game inside us waiting to come alive, so it was just a matter of time and circumstances before I started mine, which inadvertently led to Vegetation Studio.”

Johansen將他來(lái)之不易的工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)帶入了他的第一個(gè)Unity項(xiàng)目-虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)作品。 “我堅(jiān)信我們每個(gè)人都有一個(gè)活著的游戲，所以我開(kāi)始采礦只是時(shí)間和環(huán)境的問(wèn)題，這無(wú)意間導(dǎo)致了Vegetation Studio的出現(xiàn) 。”

But how did he get started with Unity?

但是他是如何開(kāi)始使用Unity的呢？

“When I began that VR game project a few years back I chose Unity for a number of reasons, including that it supports new hardware quickly.”

“幾年前我開(kāi)始進(jìn)行VR游戲項(xiàng)目時(shí)，出于多種原因選擇了Unity，其中包括它可以快速支持新硬件?！?

Johansen’s primary motivation for using Unity, however, was actually people not technology. “My main reason was the strength of the Unity communities and the well-stocked Asset Store. When you’re a small team with limited resources, these things can really help kickstart a project.”

Johansen使用Unity的主要?jiǎng)訖C(jī)實(shí)際上是人而不是技術(shù)。 “我的主要原因是Unity社區(qū)和儲(chǔ)備豐富的Asset Store的實(shí)力。 當(dāng)您是一個(gè)資源有限的小型團(tuán)隊(duì)時(shí)，這些事情確實(shí)可以幫助啟動(dòng)一個(gè)項(xiàng)目。”

A flat-shaded, stylized scene created with Vegetation Studio

由Vegetation Studio創(chuàng)建的平面陰影風(fēng)格化場(chǎng)景

將游戲開(kāi)發(fā)者變成資產(chǎn) (Turning game dev into an asset)

So what gave Johansen the idea for Vegetation Studio, his first asset?

那么，什么讓Johansen想到了他的第一筆資產(chǎn)Vegetation Studio的想法呢？

“When we were working on our VR game we wanted to let players use a level editor with complex outdoor scenes and vegetation on large areas. After prototyping the functionality, it occurred to us that we had created something that other developers could leverage for their own games. So with the idea of filling a niche in the Asset Store, we decided to spin it off into a product.”

“當(dāng)我們從事VR游戲時(shí)，我們希望讓玩家使用關(guān)卡編輯器來(lái)處理復(fù)雜的戶外場(chǎng)景和大面積的植被。 在對(duì)功能進(jìn)行原型設(shè)計(jì)后，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)我們已經(jīng)創(chuàng)建了其他開(kāi)發(fā)人員可以將其用于自己的游戲的東西。 因此，出于在Asset Store中填補(bǔ)細(xì)分市場(chǎng)的想法，我們決定將其拆分為產(chǎn)品。”

For further inspiration, Johansen went back to the source: nature itself.

為了獲得進(jìn)一步的啟發(fā)，約翰森回到源頭：自然本身。

“When evaluating the different tools available, I realized that while they let you place objects individually or using brushes, real vegetation actually grows everywhere it possibly can. That made us want to use a different approach with rule-based procedural vegetation everywhere and a run-time masking system for roads and structures. For example, our idea was that a house prefab could contain the masking info you need to control the vegetation as you drag and drop it on your terrain.”

“在評(píng)估可用的不同工具時(shí)，我意識(shí)到，雖然它們使您可以單獨(dú)放置對(duì)象或使用畫筆放置，但實(shí)際植被實(shí)際上會(huì)盡可能地生長(zhǎng)。 這就使我們想在各地使用基于規(guī)則的程序植被以及針對(duì)道路和結(jié)構(gòu)的運(yùn)行時(shí)遮罩系統(tǒng)的不同方法。 例如，我們的想法是，房屋預(yù)制件可以包含在您將其拖放到地形上時(shí)控制植被所需的遮罩信息。”

Masking a house for rule-based vegetation

為基于規(guī)則的植被遮蓋房屋

The users apply rule-based vegetation throughout a scene or game, using their existing trees, plants, grass, etc., then they can do manual editing to add the artist’s final touch. And that was a large part of Johansen’s impulse for helping developers build great-looking environments for fun games, as well as making their lives simpler.

用戶使用他們現(xiàn)有的樹木，植物，草等在整個(gè)場(chǎng)景或游戲中應(yīng)用基于規(guī)則的植被，然后他們可以進(jìn)行手動(dòng)編輯以添加藝術(shù)家的最終觸感。 這是Johansen推動(dòng)開(kāi)發(fā)人員為娛樂(lè)游戲構(gòu)建美觀的環(huán)境并簡(jiǎn)化生活的一大部分。

“I would like users to spend their time on game content and functionality, not solving the hard problems of creating an optimized render loop, for example, because I’d like to think we’ve already done that for them.”

“例如，我希望用戶將時(shí)間花在游戲內(nèi)容和功能上，而不是解決創(chuàng)建優(yōu)化渲染循環(huán)的難題，因?yàn)槲蚁胛覀円呀?jīng)為他們做到了?！?

路上的顛簸 (Bumps on the road)

As a neophyte asset publisher, however, Awesome Technologies had a lot to learn about users and use cases. “One of our biggest challenges has been understanding user workflow for tools and how developers use and combine different systems. A surprise for us was that they never seem to use it as we imagined when we started development.”

但是，作為新手資產(chǎn)發(fā)布者， Awesome Technologies有很多關(guān)于用戶和用例的知識(shí)。 “我們面臨的最大挑戰(zhàn)之一是了解工具的用戶工作流程以及開(kāi)發(fā)人員如何使用和組合不同的系統(tǒng)。 讓我們感到驚訝的是，他們似乎從未像我們開(kāi)始開(kāi)發(fā)時(shí)所想象的那樣使用它?！?

And another thing he did not expect was how many developers out there work with large world projects with hundreds if not thousands of terrains streaming in as players move around. So, ?due to the multitude of different workflows and use cases, one of Johansen’s big challenges has been to develop and support a flexible toolkit that can work well in any kind of workflow, letting users enable just the parts they need for their project.

他沒(méi)有想到的另一件事是，有多少開(kāi)發(fā)人員在大型世界項(xiàng)目中工作，隨著玩家的到來(lái)，有數(shù)百個(gè)甚至數(shù)千個(gè)地形流入。 因此，由于工作流程和用例的多樣性，Johansen面臨的一大挑戰(zhàn)是開(kāi)發(fā)和支持一個(gè)靈活的工具包，該工具包可以在任何類型的工作流程中正常工作，讓用戶僅啟用其項(xiàng)目所需的零件。

A further challenge for him was low-level access in Unity itself. “Earlier, the game engine was more like a black box and many times we wanted to have better control on the API level. Happily, things are looking much better now with the Package Manager and more code moving to C#. It’s easier now for us to see what’s going on ‘under the hood’ and to extend our modules.”

他面臨的另一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)是Unity本身的低級(jí)訪問(wèn)權(quán)限。 “以前，游戲引擎更像是一個(gè)黑匣子，很多時(shí)候我們想更好地控制API級(jí)別。 令人欣慰的是，現(xiàn)在有了Package Manager ，事情變得更好了，更多的代碼移到了C＃中。 現(xiàn)在，我們可以更輕松地了解“幕后”的情況并擴(kuò)展我們的模塊。”

Deep in a primordial boreal forest

在原始的原始森林深處

并非總是艱難的戰(zhàn)斗 (Not always an uphill battle)

As Johansen hoped when he started using Unity, the passionate user community was quite helpful. “Their feedback from the beta to official release was great. There have been many friendly developers of all experience levels giving invaluable comments, info and advice. We really appreciate it.”

正如Johansen希望在開(kāi)始使用Unity時(shí)所希望的那樣，熱情的用戶社區(qū)非常有幫助。 “從測(cè)試版到正式發(fā)布，他們的反饋非常好。 有許多經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的友好開(kāi)發(fā)人員，他們提供了寶貴的意見(jiàn)，信息和建議。 我們非常感謝。”

And so far, Vegetation Studio is being used in everything from indie games to large simulations by a wide range of studios. While the majority of games filling their landscapes with Awesome’s procedural vegetation are still in development, some games will be entering early access and release soon.

到目前為止，從獨(dú)立游戲到大型工作室的大型模擬，Vegetation Studio都在使用。 盡管大多數(shù)使用Awesome程序性植被填充游戲的游戲仍在開(kāi)發(fā)中，但有些游戲?qū)⑦M(jìn)入早期訪問(wèn)并很快發(fā)布。

Regarding the Asset Store, Johansen appreciates the help and feedback he’s received, which allowed the burgeoning publisher “to reach a much larger market than they could with direct sales.”

關(guān)于Asset Store，Johansen非常感謝他所提供的幫助和反饋，這使蓬勃發(fā)展的發(fā)行商“可以達(dá)到比直接銷售更大的市場(chǎng)”。

A snow-covered slope descending to a lush mountain valley

冰雪覆蓋的山坡下降到郁郁蔥蔥的山谷

植被是一個(gè)成長(zhǎng)行業(yè) (Vegetation is a growth industry)

As well as supporting and adding features to the base asset, which takes up approximately 20% of his time, Johansen has many vegetation-related projects on the go, including a terrain-shadow system and Vegetation Studio Professional, which is available in beta for current users of the asset.

除了支持和添加基本資產(chǎn)(約占他20％的時(shí)間)的功能外，Johansen還在旅途中進(jìn)行了許多與植被有關(guān)的項(xiàng)目，包括terrain-shadow系統(tǒng)和Vegetation Studio Professional ( 可在Beta版中獲得)資產(chǎn)的當(dāng)前用戶。

With the introduction of Unity’s C# Job System and Burst Compiler, Johansen saw the possibilities for run-time procedural vegetation. Consequently, for their upcoming Pro version, Awesome completely rewrote Vegetation Studio from the core up using the C# Job System to multi-thread vegetation instance-generation and preparation for rendering.

隨著Unity C＃Job System和Burst Compiler的引入，Johansen看到了運(yùn)行時(shí)程序化植被的可能性。 因此，對(duì)于即將發(fā)布的Pro版本，Awesome使用C＃Job System從核心徹底重寫了Vegetation Studio，以多線程生成植被實(shí)例并準(zhǔn)備渲染。

Later this year, in another blog post, Awesome will be sharing their experience adapting Vegetation Studio for the C# Job System and Burst Compiler.

今年晚些時(shí)候，Awesome將在另一篇博客文章中分享他們將Vegetation Studio用于C＃Job System和Burst Compiler的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。

貫穿生物群落 (Running through the biomes)

Finally, in terms of new features, Johansen and crew at Awesome are also adding mesh terrain support and biomes (i.e., distinct regions/environments like deserts, grasslands, rainforests and tundra).

最后，就新功能而言，Johansen和Awesome的工作人員還增加了網(wǎng)狀地形的支持和生物群落(即沙漠，草原，雨林和苔原等不同的區(qū)域/環(huán)境)。

“This will let developers create multiple rulesets for both vegetation and terrain splat-maps, and apply them on user-defined areas. That will make it easy to create, for example, an oasis in a desert or a green forest at the base of a snow-covered mountain. Users will be able to combine and blend between many environments across multiple terrains and meshes.”

“這將使開(kāi)發(fā)人員可以為植被和地形splat-map創(chuàng)建多個(gè)規(guī)則集，并將其應(yīng)用于用戶定義的區(qū)域。 這將使在沙漠中或在白雪覆蓋的山基上的綠色森林中創(chuàng)建綠洲變得容易。 用戶將能夠在跨多個(gè)地形和網(wǎng)格的許多環(huán)境之間進(jìn)行合并和融合。”

With fine-tuned controls in assets like this, the grass is always greener . . . exactly where you want it to be.

通過(guò)對(duì)此類資產(chǎn)進(jìn)行微調(diào)的控制，草叢總是更綠。 。 。 正是您想要的位置。

演示地址

免費(fèi)獲取Vegetation Studio之類的資產(chǎn)和一件T恤 (Get assets like Vegetation Studio and a T-shirt for FREE)

Spend between $50 and $250 in the Unity Asset Store during August and get up to 6 free assets – including Vegetation Studio – worth over $250, plus an Asset Store T-shirt. Just be sure to activate the promotion using your Unity ID first.

8月在Unity資產(chǎn)商店中花費(fèi)$ 50到$ 250，并獲得多達(dá)6件免費(fèi)資產(chǎn)-包括價(jià)值超過(guò)$ 250的Vegetation Studio-以及資產(chǎn)商店T恤。 只要確保首先使用您的Unity ID激活促銷即可。

Activate now!

立即激活！

翻譯自: https://blogs.unity3d.com/2018/08/01/first-time-asset-publisher-tames-nature-with-procedural-vegetation/

虛幻4 程序化 植被

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