example projects?

[moushkka]

Where can I find example projects for amplify texture 2?
I'm currently trying to get virtualized displacement mapping using multi-tile uvs to work, and it seems like amplify doesn't like the way I've set things up. So it would be very useful to have some reference to look at.

Also, is there a version of the amplified tesselation displacement shader for the standard unity 5 shader?

[Ricardo Teixeira]

Where can I find example projects for amplify texture 2?
I'm currently trying to get virtualized displacement mapping using multi-tile uvs to work, and it seems like amplify doesn't like the way I've set things up. So it would be very useful to have some reference to look at.

Also, is there a version of the amplified tesselation displacement shader for the standard unity 5 shader?

Hello,

Thank you for your interest, we really appreciate it. We currently do not offer sample projects but we would be happy to send you an example.

We would be happy to help you setup your scene, additional setup information can be found in the AT2 Manual and the in-depth video tutorial. Have you been able to setup AT2 using single/standard textures? To use multi-tile uv's simply import the texture collection into Unity and add the first texture in the collection to your AT2 Material as you would with any other type of texture and build your virtual texture.

What Unity version do you currently use? We would be happy to forward you the tesselation shader.

Thanks!

[Ricardo Teixeira]

is there a version of the amplified tesselation displacement shader for the standard unity 5 shader?

Do you happen to have access to the Alloy Physical Shader Framework? The public AT2 package includes support for the Alloy tesselation shader.

[moushkka]

Yes. If you could send me an example project that would be great
I'm using Unity 5.3.2

I don't currently have access to the alloy physical shader framework.
I'm trying to decide whether to use amplify texture for a new project, and haven't yet decided on what other packages to use.

What I'm currently trying to do is using Zbrush's multi map export to get get color normal and displacement maps into Unity.
Using the Amplify Texture/Legacy Shaders/Tessellation/Bumped Specular (displacement) shader I can get the base color and normal maps to work.
The displacement doesn't want to play though. And I get no sensible error messages
The displacement maps exported by Zbrush are psd files. Is that something that amplify texture likes?
Are there any docs on exactly what kind of file formats amplify texture accepts?

The bumped specular shader says Heightmap (A) in the inspector for the displacement map.
Does that mean that the displacement should be in the alpha channel of the specified image?

Also, I want to create my own shader that use amplify texture. But I can't seem to find any documentation for any of your shader code. Are there for example any docs for the functions in Shared.cginc?

[Ricardo Teixeira]

Hello,

Thank you for the quick reply, we would be happy to help.

Yes. If you could send me an example project that would be great
I'm using Unity 5.3.2

I prepared an example project using multiple tiles and the legacy tesselation shader, i'm going to send it via PM with a few additional notes. There seems to be a problem with tesselation shader tilling and the fix is not ideal, unfortunately we currently cannot provide a fully working Unity 5 Standard tesselation shader. Using alternative custom shaders such as the one found in the Alloy package should allow you to bypass the current limitation, we would also be happy to convert free alternatives such as the DX11 Free Tesselation Shader if it fits your project requirements.

When using legacy shaders be sure that the correct preset(1) is selected in the Virtual Texture, you will need to rebuild the VT after changing the preset. Make sure that the required channels are also enabled, in this particular case the Displacement Channel(2).

I don't currently have access to the alloy physical shader framework.
I'm trying to decide whether to use amplify texture for a new project, and haven't yet decided on what other packages to use.

No problem, if you do get a chance be sure to try it out, it's a great alternative to the Standard Unity shaders.

What I'm currently trying to do is using Zbrush's multi map export to get get color normal and displacement maps into Unity.
Using the Amplify Texture/Legacy Shaders/Tessellation/Bumped Specular (displacement) shader I can get the base color and normal maps to work.
The displacement doesn't want to play though. And I get no sensible error messages

Is your build target set to desktop and are you currently using DX11? The project I sent you should work out of the box, be sure to let us know if you see any warnings or errors in the Unity console.

The displacement maps exported by Zbrush are psd files. Is that something that amplify texture likes? Are there any docs on exactly what kind of file formats amplify texture accepts?

We do not recommend using PSD files for actual textures, or any other type of texture that requires further manipulation by Unity, not only does it take longer to process it uses more memory leading to unavoidable crashes when importing large Multi-Tile Texture Collections; Unity converts your PSD textures into a usable format in the background.

You can use any type of bitmap texture supported by Unity with AT2 such as TGA, PNG, TIF or even EXR.

The bumped specular shader says Heightmap (A) in the inspector for the displacement map.
Does that mean that the displacement should be in the alpha channel of the specified image?

You could if you stored your Displacement in your Normal Map Alpha Channel for example, is this particular case you can simply use a displacement texture collection.

Also, I want to create my own shader that use amplify texture. But I can't seem to find any documentation for any of your shader code. Are there for example any docs for the functions in Shared.cginc?

Yes, you can convert almost any type of shader. Be sure to check section 14 - How To Convert Your Own Shaders of the Amplify Texture 2 Manual.

Let us know if you have any additional questions, we would be happy to help.

Thanks!

[moushkka]

Thanks for the example and the prompt reply.

The reason for my displacement map not working was that I had forgotten to set the layout preset to the legacy one. Thanks for that tip.

If you have a converted version of the DX11 Free Tesselation Shader I would very much like to have a look at it.

The example you sent is using four channel 8 bit tga textures for the displacement. Is the actual displacement encoded in the four components somehow? Or is the shader just using one of the channels.
Is it possible to just provide AT2 with a 16bit grayscale format somehow?
I cannot seem to get 16 bit images to save as tga files. And Unity doesn't like 16 bit grayscale pngs.

[Ricardo Teixeira]

Thanks for the example and the prompt reply.

The reason for my displacement map not working was that I had forgotten to set the layout preset to the legacy one. Thanks for that tip.

Happy to know it's working, be sure to use the tessellation shader included in the sample I sent you, it includes a few temporary fixes for displacement texture tiling.

If you have a converted version of the DX11 Free Tesselation Shader I would very much like to have a look at it.

We would be happy to convert it but please test the shader on your side first and let us know if it fits your requirements regarding performance, quality and tiling(standard textures).

The example you sent is using four channel 8 bit tga textures for the displacement. Is the actual displacement encoded in the four components somehow? Or is the shader just using one of the channels.

Parallax and tessellation based shaders usually use a single channel, using a grayscale texture is a valid option.

Is it possible to just provide AT2 with a 16bit grayscale format somehow? I cannot seem to get 16 bit images to save as tga files. And Unity doesn't like 16 bit grayscale pngs.

That type of displacement texture is currently reserved for terrain displacement, Unity will automatically convert your 16bit textures to 8bit. As an example, with some shaders it's possible to use 16bit textures for the Albedo channel, we include HDR variants of the amplified Standard shaders in the public AT2 package.

Let us know if you have any additional questions,

Thanks!