1.4.7

Maintenance update, error messages regarding Unity 6 now properly direct to the Unity 6 version of this asset.

Fixed:

- Script compile errors in Unity 6.4+

1.4.6

Fixed:

- Patched critical shader errors when using APV in Unity 6 (not supported)

1.4.5

Added:

- Billboarding, parameter to control the amount of vertical rotation

Changed:

- Removed shader error workaround for MacOS added in v1.4.4. The related bug is now fixed in 2022.3.36f1+

Fixed:

- Hotfix for OUTPUT_SH4 and SAMPLE_GI shader macro errors in Unity 6000.0.9f1+

1.4.4

Added:

- Foliage Renderer integration

Changed:

- Implemented proper error handling for Unity 6.

- Improved handling of grass benders below the grass, which should not apply any force.

- Corrected LOD Group set up on GrassPatch_Realistic prefab.

Fixed:

- Shader compile error on MacOS when using 2022.3.15+ (workaround for known URP bug)

1.4.3

Fixed:

- Wind gusting not respecting the wind direction configured on a material.

- Shader error when building for PS5

Removed:

- GrassBendingFeature script file (obsolete since v1.3.0)

1.4.2

Minimum supported version is now Unity 2021.3.16f1.

Added:

- Parameters to choose which vertex color channel is used for shading, wind and bending features.

Changed:

- Optimization improvement for runtime usage of color map baking (~22-60% faster). The render result is now kept in memory and the GPU->CPU coping normally done for saving is skipped.

- Shader code no longer requires editing to support DOTS instancing.

Fixed:

- Entity Graphics rendering not having any effect in a build in Unity 2022.3+.

- Shader error when Probes Volumes was enabled.

1.4.1

This is the last update supporting Unity 2020 LTS

Added:

- LOD Crossfading support for cast shadows in Unity 2022.2+

Fixed:

- Script compile error in Unity 2022.2 (only)

- Shader error in Unity 2023.1.7+ (URP v15.0.8) due to now backported code from Unity 2023.2

- Grass turning black when Entity Graphics was in use without MaterialProperty components to define a color

1.4.0

Verified support for Unity 2023.1.f1

Added:

- New general Grass Render Feature, this now handles Bending, Perspective Correction and Dithering in one render feature.

- Support for runtime Color Map rendering (GrassColorMapRenderer.Render()).

- Hue Variation Height parameter, allows limiting the hue shift to the tip of grass geometry.

- Option to use the camera's forward direction for Perspective Correction (on the render feature).

- Additional wind gust texture variant (omni-directional).

- Support for Rendering Layer Mask (lights and decals).

Changed:

- Improved UI for the Colormap Renderer inspector to provide more concise instructions and notifications.

- When saving a Colormap asset to a file, the texture is now saved as a separate .PNG file. This will allow Unity to properly compress it.

- Grass bending can now be disabled on the render feature.

- Angle/Distance fading now uses a dithering texture (assigned on the render feature).

- (Unity 2022.2+) LOD crossfading now uses the same shader function now native to URP.

- Hue variation is now applied on a per-pixel basis.

Fixed:

- Colormap not taking effect when entering Play mode, if it was saved to an asset.

- Non-terrain objects always rendering on top of terrains in a Colormap render output.

- Colormap Renderer, non-terrain objects not being restored to their original Y-position after rendering.

- Colormap Renderer, fresnel reflections potentially still being visible when using a third-party lighting system.

- Ensured the flower prefabs have a centered position by default.

- Grass benders not rendering using the SRP Batcher, if enabled.

- Shader error 'redefinition of sampler_linearClamp' in URP 14.0.7+

- Material UI, not respecting individual texture assignments when selecting multiple materials.

Removed:

(Deletions aren't tracked by Unity packages, these must be performed manually on your end)

- GrassBendingFeature class.

1.3.4

Added:

- Colormap Renderer, texture detail parameter. Allows to filter out high frequency details.

- Stylized Grass Renderer component, wind zone Main and Turbulence multipliers. Allows wind to be normalized to match potentially other wind-enabled shaders using the same Wind Zone.

Changed:

- Colormap Renderer, will now restore the terrain's original vegetation drawing setting after rendering (Nature Renderer use case).

- Colormap Renderer, will no longer enable Directional Lights that were intended to remain disabled (eg. lighting system with a disabled moon during daytime).

- Colormap Renderer, now creates a temporary empty renderer through script, to prevent any third-party post processing effects from interfering

Fixed:

- Console warnings about demo scene scripts not being part of an assembly

- Wind gusting accelerating over time when tied to a Wind Zone

Deleted:

- Stylized Grass Shader/Runtime/Renderers folder, now obsolete

1.3.3b

Hotfix for shader error regarding invalid cast

1.3.3

Added:

- Integration for Nature Renderer 2021

Changed:

- Vegetation Studio Pro integration is no longer default, as to not interfer with the Hybrid Renderer.

Fixed:

- Preemptive shader error fix for Unity 2023.1.0a26+

- Shader warning thrown in 2021.2+ related to using the Graphics Debugger

- Materials not receiving shadows, or showing banding artefacts, when a single shadow cascade is used. (In Unity 2021.3.15+, or versions released after December 15th 2022)

1.3.2

Added:

- Support for Unity 2022.2

- Support for the Forward+ rendering path

- Support for dynamic wind directions from a Wind Zone component

- Wind: Gusting speed material parameter

- "_Seed" parameter for use with the Hybrid Renderer in DOTS (0.5.0 and 1.0.0+)

Fixed:

- Min/max material parameters not displaying override options on material variants

- Grass bending pass no longer executes for overlay cameras.

1.3.1

Fixed:

- Terrain material being overriden when using the Colormap Renderer with specific settings.

- Preliminary fixes for Unity 2023.1.0

1.3.0

IMPORTANT: Read the update guide here https://staggart.xyz/sgs-130-upgrade-guide/

Minimum supported version is now Unity 2020.3 and URP 10.3.2

- Reworked the grass bending functionality for greatly improved performance.

- Restructured folders to follow the UPM standard. Scripts now in a separate Runtime/Editor folder.

Added:

- Prefabs specific to use with the terrain system (without LODs)

- Normal maps for all grass textures

- Masking Sphere component. Fades out the grass towards a single point, with a given radius.

- GI support for DOTS Instancing (Hybrid Renderer)

- Options for near/fade camera fading

Changed:

- Recreated most grass textures for improved shape and density.

- Scale map is no longer experimental

* Transitions between different terrain layers are now seamless

* Grass scale defaults to 100% for any layers not configured

- Translucency shading is now greatly improved for orthographic cameras.

- Color Map Renderer now respects individual materials assigned to terrain tiles.

- Reworked material UI to support multi-selection and Material Variants. This causes the following parameters to be reset:

* Normal parameters

* Distance fading parameters

* Environment reflections toggle

Fixed:

- Alpha clipping value no longer influences the angle fading functionality.

- Color map rendering as completely red if the terrain had 0 height.

- Grass appearing shorter if the "Apply scale map" option was enabled, yet no scale map was present

- Sparkles appearing when the grass geometry occupies <1px on the screen and MSAA is enabled.

- Certain terrain layers not being configurable in the layer-based grass scale options

1.2.2

Fixed:

- Grass bending appearing flipped in Unity 2022.1

- Edge fading being inverted when using the OpenGLES graphics API

1.2.1

Minimum supported version is now 2019.4.15f1

Added:

- Emission color parameter (HDR)

- Vegetation Studio Pro LOD debug now also shows on grass

Fixed:

- Wind direction not matching up between ambient wind and gusting

1.2.0

Added:

- Translucency

* Offset parameter. Controls how much the effect wraps around the mesh

* Falloff parameter. Controls the size of the effect (previously hardcoded to a value of 4, which is now default)

* Indirect strength parameter. Shading can now also be performed for light hitting the front of the grass.

- Parameters to control normals are now available in VSP (requires the prefab to be refreshed)

Changed:

- When activating the Nature Renderer or GPU Instancer integration. Filepaths in the shader are now automatically rewritten based on their current install location

- Grass bending now fades out at a constant 2 units towards the edge of the render area, no matter its size.

Fixed:

- Translucency shading being wrongly affected by the grass color as it appears after lighting

- External material changes (eg. source control) not being reflected in the material UI

1.1.9

Fixed:

- Color map renderer not being able to find the necessary renderer when first set up

- Grass bending not taking affect at higher elevations

1.1.8

Fixed:

- Shader not compiling in WebGL builds in Unity 2019.3-2020.2

[ Full changelog is in the package itself! ]

Stylized Grass Shader (for Unity 2021-2023)