GPU Instancer v1.8.0 Copyright ©2018-23 GurBu Technologies --------------------------------- Thank you for supporting GPU Instancer! --------------------------------- DOCUMENTATION --------------------------------- Please read our online documentation for more in-depth explanations and customization options at: http://wiki.gurbu.com/ --------------------------------- SETUP --------------------------------- 1. Add the desired Managers to your scene 1.1. Add Prefab Manager Tools -> GPU Instancer -> Add Prefab Manager 1.2. Add Detail Managers to your scene (Requires at least one Unity terrain present in the scene) Tools -> GPU Instancer -> Add Detail Manager For Terrains 1.3. Add Tree Managers to your scene (Requires at least one Unity terrain present in the scene) Tools -> GPU Instancer -> Add Tree Manager For Terrains 2. In the Inspector window, press the "?" button at the top-right corner to get detailed information about setting up the manager. Additionally, you can check the Getting Started Documentation from the following website: https://wiki.gurbu.com/index.php?title=GPU_Instancer:GettingStarted Best Practices --------------------------------- It is highly recommended to read the best practices wiki page to get the most out of GPU Instancer: https://wiki.gurbu.com/index.php?title=GPU_Instancer:BestPractices Tools --------------------------------- Tools -> GPU Instancer -> Scene Prefab Importer The Scene Prefab Importer is designed to easily define prefabs from the existing prefab instances in your scenes to the GPUI Prefab Manager as prototypes. Tools -> GPU Instancer -> Prefab Replacer Replaces the selected GameObjects in the scene hierarchy with the selected prefab as instances of that prefab. Edit -> Preferences -> GPU Instancer GPU Instancer Settings can be used to personalize the GPUI Manager editors according to your needs. Additional Components --------------------------------- GPU Instancer includes additional MonoBehaviour components that you can use to manage custom operations. For detailed information on these components, you can check the GPU Instancer Getting Started Documentation page at: https://wiki.gurbu.com/index.php?title=GPU_Instancer:GettingStarted#Components --------------------------------- SUPPORT --------------------------------- F.A.Q.: https://wiki.gurbu.com/index.php?title=GPU_Instancer:FAQ If you have any questions, requests or bug reports, please email us at: support@gurbu.com Unity Forum Thread: https://forum.unity.com/threads/gpu-instancer.529746/ --------------------------------- DESCRIPTION --------------------------------- GPU Instancer is an out of the box solution to display extreme numbers of objects on screen with high performance. With a few mouse clicks, you can instance your prefabs and Unity terrain details and trees. GPU Instancer provides user friendly tools to allow everyone to use Indirect GPU Instancing without having to go through the deep learning curve of Compute Shaders and GPU infrastructure. Also, an API with extensive documentation is provided to manage runtime changes. To provide the fastest possible performance, GPU Instancer utilizes Indirect GPU Instancing using Unity's DrawMeshInstancedIndirect method and Compute Shaders. GPU Instancing results in magnitudes of performance improvement over static batching and mesh combining. Also, other available solutions for GPU Instancing (including Unity's material option and the DrawMeshInstanced method) fail short on limited buffer sizes and therefore result in more draw calls and less performance. By using the indirect method GPU Instancer aims to provide the ultimate solution for this, and increases performance considerably while rendering the same mesh multiple times. GPU Instancer consists of three main Monobehavior classes named "GPU Instancer Prefab Manager", "GPU Insancer Detail Manager" and "GPU Insancer Tree Manager". GPU Instancer Prefab Manager --------------------------------- By adding your prefabs to the Prefab Manager, the prefab instances you add to your scenes are automatically rendered by GPU Instancer. It also provides additional functionality such as adding/removing instances at runtime, changing material properties per instance, and enabling/disabling GPU Instancing and Rigidbodies on instanced objects (at a specified area) at runtime. Note that prefab manager only accepts user created prefabs. It will not accept prefabs that are generated when importing your 3D model assets. GPU Instancer Detail Manager --------------------------------- Detail Manager takes over rendering of detail prototypes added to your Unity terrain. It comes with a grass shader which gives you the ability to customize how your grass will look on your terrain with a set of shader properties that can be edited from the manager. GPU Instancer Tree Manager --------------------------------- Tree Manager takes over rendering of tree prototypes added to your Unity terrain. Billboards are automatically generated for Trees and added as the final LOD level in the prototype's rendering pipeline. --------------------------------- FEATURES --------------------------------- - Out of the box solution for complex GPU Instancing. - VR compatible. Works with both single pass and multipass rendering modes. - Mobile compatible. Works with both iOS and Android. - Easy to use interface. - Tens of thousands of objects rendered lightning fast in a single draw call. - GPU frustum culling. - GPU occlusion culling (also supports VR platforms with both single pass and multipass rendering modes). - Automatically configured custom shader support. - Supports Standard, Universal and HD Render Pipelines. - Complex hierarchies of prefabs instanced with a single click. - Multiple sub-meshes support. - LOD Groups and cross-fading support. (Cross-fading is supported on Standard Render Pipeline only) - Automatic 2D Billboard generation system (auto-added as last LOD). - Shadows casting and receiving support for instances (frustum culled instances still can cast shadows). - Ability to use custom shadow distance per prototype and to choose the LOD to render shadows with. - Support for Floating Origin handling. - Multiple camera support. - Unity 5.6 support. - Well documented API for procedural scenes and runtime modifications (examples included). - Ability to Remove instances inside bounds or colliders at runtime. - Ability to extend with custom Compute Shaders. - Example scenes that showcase GPU Instancer capabilities. Prefab Instancing Features: - Ability to automatically instance prefabs at your scene that you distribute with your favorite prefab painting tool. - Automatically Add-Remove prefab instances without any aditional code. - Automatic detection and updating of transform position, rotation and scale changes. - Full or area localized rigidbody and physics support. - Nested Prefabs support (Unity 2018.3 and later). - Add-Remove-Update prefab instances with or without instantiating GameObjects (examples included). - Instance based material variations through API (similar to Material Property Blocks). (Not supported on Android because of buffer limitations) - Enabling and disabling instancing at runtime per instance basis. - API to manage instanced prefabs at runtime. - Includes mobile demo scene with custom controllers. Detail Instancing Features: - Dense grass fields and vegetation with very high frame rates. - Included vegetation shader with wind, shadows, AO, billboarding and various other properties. - Support for custom shaders and materials. - Cross quadding support: automatically turns grass textures to crossed quads. - Ability to paint prefabs with custom materials on Unity terrain (with Unity terrain tools). - Ability to use prefabs with LOD Groups on Unity terrain. - Further performance improvements with automatic spatial partitioning. - API to manage instanced terrain detail prototypes at runtime (examples included). - Editor GPU Instancing simulation. Tree Instancing Features: - Dense forests with very high frame rates. - Speed Tree support with wind animations. - Speed Tree 8 support with wind animations. - Tree Creator support with wind animations. - Included billboard baker and renderers. Extension Packs: - Crowd Animations: Provides workflows for GPU Instancer to be used with animated crowds. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/gpu-instancer-crowd-animations-145114 Third Party Integrations: - Map Magic and Map Magic 2 integration. --------------------------------- MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS --------------------------------- - DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 and Shader Model 5.0 GPU (Windows) - Metal (macOS, iOS) - OpenGL Core 4.3 (Windows, Linux) - Vulkan (Android, Windows, Linux) - OpenGL ES 3.1 (Android 8.0 Oreo or later) - Modern Consoles (PS4, PS5, Xbox One) Note: Oculus Quest (any version) is NOT supported --------------------------------- KNOWN LIMITATIONS --------------------------------- There are certain limitations that are introduced by the way Indirect GPU instancing works and/or how Unity handles it. You can find a list of the known limitations in the following wiki page: https://wiki.gurbu.com/index.php?title=GPU_Instancer:FAQ#What_are_the_Known_Limitations.3F --------------------------------- DEMO SCENES --------------------------------- You can find demo scenes that showcase GPU Instancer capabilities in the "GPUInstancer/Demos" folder. These scenes are only for demonstration and you can safely remove this folder from your builds. Some demos also have a "PostProcessing" folder. For best visual results, you can add a "Post-Processing Behavior" script to the scene cameras and add the setting object to this script from this folder. SRP NOTE: If you are using URP or HDRP, you can extract the corresponding override packages under the "GPUInstancer/Demos/" folder to view the demo scenes in your project. For more information, please check the "Demo_Packages_SRP-Readme" file under the same folder. --------------------------------- CHANGE LOG --------------------------------- v1.8.0 New: Added URP LOD Cross Fade subgraph and a sample shader Changed: URP render scale and shadow distance values are now calculated from Quality Settings render pipeline asset instead of the Graphics Settings Changed: Added Occlusion Culling warning for URP when HDR is disabled Changed: Replaced obsolete masterTextureLimit with globalTextureMipmapLimit for Unity versions 2022.2 or higher Fixed: Occlusion Generator RenderTexture memory leak Fixed: Material memory leak Fixed: Occlusion Generator mip level calculation error Fixed: DetermineTreePrototypeType method error when material reference is null Fixed: Removed unnecessary variant prefab choice on Prefab Manager for model prefab variants Fixed: Instances are rendering blurry on Unity 2023 HDRP when Motion Vectors is enabled v1.7.7 Fixed: Crash caused by previews on Unity 2022.2 when using Forward+ rendering mode v1.7.6 New: Added GetVariationBuffer API method to access variation ComputeBuffer Changed: Detail Manager will show an error message when Detail Scatter Mode is set to Coverage Mode Fixed: Error when adding billboard to objects with LOD groups with more than 4 levels Fixed: Error when destroying object within Modification Collider Fixed: Tree Manager uses the original prefab when adding prefab variation Fixed: Detail Manager spatial partitioning error when detail resolution is higher than the terrain size v1.7.5 Fixed: Files with .compute extension without kernel causing "Assertion failed" error messages during build Fixed: Auto. converted URP SpeedTree7 shader alpha test not working v1.7.4 New: Shadows Only mode support New: Added Terrain Normal Effect setting for Detail Prototypes Fixed: Auto. shader conversion syntax error when using Instanced Property with ASE shaders Fixed: First run in editor fails after script compilation when Reload Scene setting is off v1.7.3 New: Added API methods to release Compute Buffers manually New: Added API methods to support NativeArrays for prefab variations Changed: Managers will be disabled when Unity is run with -nographics command line argument Fixed: LOD shadows are not shown correctly when set to None Fixed: Null reference exception when render pipeline asset is not set for URP Fixed: TreeProxy_GPUI shader error on Metal Fixed: ChangeMaterial API method error when setting material for meshes with multiple submeshes Fixed: IndexOutOfRangeException when using 7 or more levels on an LOD Group Fixed: Auto converted URP SpeedTree8 shader does not use alpha test Fixed: When original material is used with LOD cross-fade, objects disappear in edit mode v1.7.2 New: LOD cross fade support for Android New: LOD cross fade support for URP 10.x and later (shaders require to be compatible with LOD cross-fading by using the LODDitheringTransition method) New: Soft Occlusion, Tree Creator and Built-in Billboard shaders now support LOD cross-fading Changed: Added error message for LOD Groups in child GameObjects of a prefab Fixed: AddPrefabInstances method not calling the setup method for instances Fixed: Matrix4x4FromString method causing errors when the computers default language is using a different decimal separator Fixed: Editor exception when Tree Manager has no Terrains defined v1.7.1 New: Better Lit Shader support New: Better Shaders support New: MapMagic 2 integration editor simulation support for Terrain details New: MapMagic 2 integration floating origin support New: Added menu item option to add Detail Managers under Terrain Game Objects New: Added Select Shader button when there is an incompatible shader warning under prototype settings New: Added temporary menu item to fix Unity 2021.2.8 shader compiler bug New: Added help menu items to access online documentation New: Added LOD cross-fading support for Tree Soft Occlusion shaders New: Added AddPrototoypeToManager API method to add pre-defined prototypes to Prefab Manager Changed: Auto converted shaders from Packages folder will be created under GPUInstancer/Shaders folder instead of PrototypeData Changed: Prototype LOD Settings can now be edited when multiple prototypes are selected Fixed: HDRP LOD Cross Fade does not transition smoothly Fixed: When a prototype does not have an LOD group but have a billboard, cross fading is not applied Fixed: Tree Manager edit prototype prefab button does not edit the prototype on the additional terrains Fixed: Generate Billboard toggle is not applied when editing multiple prototypes v1.7.0 New: 2D Billboard generator support for URP and HDRP 10.x and later Changed: When a shader is missing GPUI instancing setup, an error shader will be used and an error will be shown on the console instead of a warning Changed: When Shader Graph shader is missing GPUI instancing setup, a link to the shader setup documentation will show on the prototype settings with an error message Changed: Prototype Billboard Settings can now be edited when multiple prototypes are selected Changed: Automatic shader conversion processes shader code much faster now Fixed: "Importer(NativeFormatImporter) generated inconsistent result for asset" warning when a prototype is removed from Tree/Detail Manager Fixed: Automatic shader conversion causing editor to stuck with message "Application.UpdateScene" Fixed: Missing Tree Proxy shader on SRP causing Argument null exception when using SpeedTree shader Fixed: SpeedTree prototypes does not take billboard distance setting into consideration Fixed: Test Both eyes for VR Occ. Culling not working on Single Pass Instanced rendering mode and on SRP with Multi Pass rendering mode (Please note that we assume that Unity provides correct camera projection matrices for VR. Some Unity/URP/HDRP versions provide false projection matrices which results in incorrect culling. E.g. URP has errors prior to version 12.x, HDRP currently has bugs on all versions) v1.6.0 New: Material Variations support on Android New: Option to apply rotation and scale changes for Floating Origin feature Changed: Pre-set gpui_InstanceID inside shader setup function for better performance while using material variations Changed: Added progress bar and cancel button to Prefab Replacer Changed: Occlusion Culling on HDRP now gets the depth from the texture array directly instead of copying it to a temporary texture Fixed: Detail Manager simulator still runs after the manager is disabled when keep simulator live option is active Fixed: Material variations does not effect shadow passes Fixed: Compute shader method typo Fixed: Sometimes Managers Awake method is not being called at Editor Mode causing null reference errors Fixed: GLES3 compute shader maximum UAV warning Fixed: GLES3 incorrect shadow instance count calculation Fixed: GLES3 shadows only shader not working Fixed: SPDTree shader duplicate instancing pragma warning Fixed: PS5 invalid compute buffer handle error Fixed: HDRP Occlusion Culling error "Texture creation failed. 'None' is not supported" v1.5.4 New: Added Rendering Layer Mask support Fixed: NullReferenceException when adding an instance if the buffer size is zero during initialization and the Auto. Update Transform Data is enabled Fixed: Editor Layout error after dialog boxes are shown Fixed: LOD Color Debugger changes original materials color when Use Original Material When Instanced is enabled v1.5.3 New: VR Single Pass Instanced rendering mode support Changed: Occlusion Culling Type Preference setting is now obsolete, GPUI will always use Compute Shaders for obtaining Depth Texture Fixed: VR Occlusion Culling "Cannot create GPUI HiZ Depth Texture for occlusion culling: Screen size is too small." error Fixed: HDRP shader conversion not working when include pragmas are inside shader passes Fixed: VR Occlusion culling not working when test both eyes setting is enabled on SRP Fixed: Editor Simulator not loading the correct SceneView camera in Unity 2021.2 v1.5.2 New: HDRP LOD Cross Fade support New: Prefab Manager can now show preview images of prototypes that do not have gameObject references New: Multiple shaders and materials can now be selected for setup using the context menu New: Added "Use Original Material When Instanced" Preference option Fixed: Camera half angle not being calculated correctly when auto select camera is disabled Fixed: Detail Manager threads not cleared when manager is disabled before initialization finishes Fixed: Generate Bilboard GUI errors Fixed: Prefab Manager throwing errors when the prototype does not have a prefab reference Fixed: ClonePrototypeAtRuntime API method unnecessary initialization v1.5.1 Fixed: Build error 'The name 'keepSimulationLive' does not exist in the current context' v1.5.0 New: Added Package Importer system which automatically imports required GPUI packages depending on the UPM packages and script defines New: Added ClonePrototypeAtRuntime API method to create a copy of a prototype at runtime New: Detail Manager can now run simulation automatically and update changes without manually pressing the Start Simulation button New: Added "Remove From List" button to Prefab Manager to remove the prototype from the manager without deleting its' data Changed: InstanceDataArray is now obsolete, InstanceDataNativeArray will be used Changed: Auto. Update Transform Data feature now runs in Jobs Changed: In editor mode Detail Manager will render terrain details by default Changed: Renamed NUM_THREADS to GPUI_THREADS because it was causing compile errors on PSSL Fixed: Editor Layout error after dialog boxes are shown v1.4.6 Fixed: Occlusion culling depth texture format error on HDRP Fixed: PrefabInstancing demo scene out of bounds error v1.4.5 New: Receive Shadows option on Mesh Renderers of a prefab is taken into consideration while making the DrawMeshInstancedIndirect calls New: Added ChangeLODShadow API method to edit LOD shadows at editor mode and/or runtime New: Added "autoIncreaseBufferSize" optional parameter to AddPrefabInstance API method Changed: Improved editor performance of managers by significantly reducing the amount of text read calls made by auto-shader conversion Fixed: GPUInstancerPrefab component serializing state Fixed: Map Magic 2 integration IMultiBiome compile error Fixed: Unnecessary draw calls are being made for disabled LOD shadows Fixed: SetDataPartial setting data more than once in some cases v1.4.4 New: Added foliage support packages for HDRP 10 and URP 10 New: Added demo override packages that support HDRP 10 and URP 10 Fixed: Occlusion culling depth texture not scaling correctly when render scale is not 1 on URP Fixed: CopyTexture format incompatibility issue for HDRP 10 Fixed: AddModifyTerrainsRuntimeDemo generated terrains now use the correct terrain shader in URP Changed: HDRP 10 and URP 10 GPUI shaders are remade with ShaderGraph 10 v1.4.3 New: Added a sub graph and a demo scene for material variations with Shader Graph Fixed: Instances are not rendered when editor is paused Fixed: Map Magic 2 integration can not import objects from graphs with biomes Fixed: Shadow distance is now correctly read from the Universal Render Pipeline Asset in URP. Fixed: XR and VR libraries are now checked for and the VR logic defaults to non-VR if both libraries are not present. v1.4.2 New: Multiple Terrains support for Tree Manager New: Map Magic 2 integration New: Added API methods to set buffer data using NativeArrays New: Added Assembly Definition files Changed: MapMagic integration files added to an extra unitypackage which can be extracted on demand Fixed: When generating new prototype data Tree and Detail manager overriding existing one if the file names are the same v1.4.1 New: ShaderGraph Node for adding GPU Instancer setup on newer Shader Graph versions Changed: Increased Occlusion Cull Offset max value to 0.1 Changed: When GPUInstancer folder is moved under another folder (e.g. Plugins) new files will be created at the new location instead of Assets/GPUInstancer Changed: LOD cross-fade feature is disabled for HDRP and URP (should fix Tree Manager sometimes not showing trees in HDRP) Fixed: Settings file not being loaded when an API call is made before a GPUI Manager is initialized (Should also fix some Demo scenes getting null pointer exception when first loaded in newer Unity versions) Fixed: Occlusin culling bounding box depth value mapped to -1,1 while it should be 0,1 (Many thanks to Dmitry Nozhnin for pointing out this issue!) - This now results in more but still accurate culling Fixed: SRP auto-shader conversion for custom shaders updating include paths incorrectly Fixed: Auto-converted shaders being updated after original shader is modified when auto-shader conversion is disabled Fixed: DefineGameObjectAsPrefabPrototypeAtRuntime API null pointer exception when attachScript parameter is false Fixed: Billboard Generator creating faulty billboard atlasses when texture resolution in project quality settings is set to a value other than "Full Res" Fixed: LOD Color Debugger and Draw Call Debugger not showing colors on SRP v1.4.0 New: Added HDRP foliage shader support New: Added an override package containing the Universal Render Pipeline versions of GPUI demo scenes New: Added an override package containing the High Defition Render Pipeline versions of GPUI demo scenes New: Added Universal Render Pipeline support for SpeedTree 7 and 8 trees New: Added Update Simulation On Change option to update terrain detail simulation when terrain is edited in Editor Mode Changed: Detail Manager now logs a relevant error message if the required pipeline version of the GPUI foliage shader is missing Changed: DefineAndAddVariationFromArray now allows to use an array smaller than the buffer size Fixed: Infinite import loop issue when using Unity 2019.3 or higher Fixed: Obsolete virtualRealitySupported API warning Fixed: URP foliage shader culling back of vegetation quads v1.3.0 New: Added support for Universal Render Pipeline New: Foliage Shader Support for URP Changed: Render pipeline detection will run automatically when GPUI is upgraded to a new version Fixed: Editor layout issues in Unity 2019.3 v1.2.7 Changed: Initialize in threads default value set to false for Detail Manager (causing issues for some setups) Fixed: Occasional removal warnings when quiting the game while Auto Add/Remove Instances feature is enabled Fixed: Gaia integration spawner error for Pro version Fixed: Pink terrain on AddModifyTerrainsRuntime demo on new Unity versions v1.2.6 New: Added an option to keep simulation live for the Detail Manager in Editor mode New: Added a version of the Foliage shader that uses Lambert Lighting Fixed: Detail simulation not working in the HDRP 6.9.0 in Editor mode Fixed: Shader conversion removing UnityCG.cginc reference within CGINCLUDE v1.2.5 Fixed: MapMagic integration build error v1.2.4 Changed: Added unassigned value and model prefab warnings to MapMagic integration Fixed: Invalid Cast exception when using multiple variations with different types Fixed: Out of range exception when removing a destroyed object from prefab manager Fixed: Missing profiler endsample error when occlusion culling is disabled v1.2.3 New: Added option to disable light probe usage Changed: Auto. Add/Remove Instances freature now also works with enabling/disabling GameObjects at runtime Changed: Prefab Manager API methods GC optimization Fixed: Dither Crossfade errors on 2019.2 Fixed: compute shader errors on the new HDRP versions v1.2.2 New: Added Occlusion Cull Offset setting to prototypes New: Added Occlusion Cull Accuracy setting with 3 levels of accuracy to prototypes New: Added option to increase custom shadow distance farther than the shadow distance of the Quality settings Changed: Auto Add/Remove feature now also initializes Prefab Manager when a new instance is added before initialization Changed: DefineGameObjectAsPrefabPrototypeAtRuntime method sets the Prefab Manager's defult minCullingDistance to the defined prototype Changed: Improvements for occlusion culling mip calculations Fixed: Move component error when Terrain is a prefab Fixed: HiZOcclusionGenerator and TreeProxy shaders not being included in builds automatically v1.2.1 New: Added settings to edit GPU max. thread counts and max. compute buffers New: Added settings to switch between Occlusion culling modes New: Added Draw Call Count info on the Registered Instances section on the manager editors New: Option to not to re-enable mesh renderers when prefab manager is disabled New: Option to set layer mask for ignoring renderers on managers Changed: C# and HLSL code refactoring for better multi-platform support Changed: PrefabsWithoutGameObjects demo script to exemplify usage of GPUI API for partial buffer update Changed: Default max compute shader thread group counts for each platform Fixed: Incorrect occlusion culling mip map calculation Fixed: Incorrect occlusion culling on Metal Fixed: SetLODBias API index out of bounds exception when using more than 4 LOD levels Fixed: Prefab editor simulation not working when mesh renderers are disabled Fixed: UpdateVisibilityBufferWithMatrix4x4Array API can not find runtime data error when instance count is zero Fixed: Shader code to show no LOD cross fade warnings Fixed: Compute Shader code to show no temp register warnings and uninitialized variable warnings on DX11 and GLCore v1.2.0 New: Occlusion Culling now works in LWRP and HDRP New: Added Occlusion Culling debugger with overlaying option New: Added LWRP and HDRP support for instancing simulation in the Editor New: Added setting option to disable auto shader conversion and auto shader variation handling New: Added DrawCallColorDebugger Changed: Occlusion Culling performance improvements Changed: Added error messages for materials with missing shaders Changed: Added error messages for detail and tree prototypes with missing prefabs Fixed: Prototype ordering error when same terrain used in multiple scenes Fixed: GPUIStandardInclude.cginc Unity 5.6.6-7 compatibility issues Fixed: GPUInstancerPrefabRuntimeHandler error when using multiple prefab managers in multiple scenes with the same prototypes v1.1.4 New: Context menu item to setup materials for GPUI support from editor without using managers Changed: Added set renderers enabled/disabled option for enable/disable instancing API methods Changed: UpdateVisibilityBufferWithMatrix4x4Array can now optionally be used for uploading partial data to buffers Changed: Variation buffers can now be defined after the Prefab Manager is initialized Changed: UpdateVariationFromArray can now optionally be used for uploading partial data to buffers Changed: Color variation shader example edited to work in all platforms Fixed: Auto. Add/Remove does not modify variation buffer sizes v1.1.3 New: Context menu item to setup shaders for GPUI support from editor without using managers New: API method to change mesh at runtime New: API method to run auto shader conversion through editor scripts New: API methods to start/stop GPUI rendering simulation in editor mode New: API method to add shader variants through editor scripts New: Added Min Distance culling option New: Added Bounds Size Offset option Changed: TerrainData instanceID check changed to GUID to not to update SOs frequently Changed: Duplicated prefabs are now added to the Managers as seperate prototypes Fixed: Instance Remover wrong position calculation with box colliders Fixed: Scene Prefab Importer window error with child transforms v1.1.2 New: API method to change materials at runtime New: API method to change instance counts at runtime New: API method to get the instance data array New: API method to get the prototype list of the GPUI manager Changed: Optimization for Auto. Add/Remove instances feature Changed: Optimization for runtime API methods Fixed: Instance count being ignored on Compute Shader visibility calculations Fixed: Unity 2019.1 obsolete PreferenceItem warning fix Fixed: Compile error with AssetDatabase reference v1.1.1 New: Added LWRP support for the GPUI Foliage Shader New: Added ShaderGraph GPUI Setup node (ShaderGraph v4.x only) New: Added a new overload for the InitializeGPUInstancer API method where you can initialize a specific prefab prototype New: Added Prefab Instance Serialization advanced action, to render prefab instances without GameObjects by saving transform data without aditional coding (Unty 2018.1 and above only) New: Added experimental Simulation feature to render instances in Edit Mode for disabled mesh renderers and serialized prefab instances New: Added LOD color debugger tool to visualize prototype LOD levels Changed: DrawMeshInstancedIndirect argsBuffer stride size is fixed to uint and the count is set according to the renderer amount Changed: InitializeWithMatrix4x4Array API method so that it is not required to call the InitializeGPUInstancer before calling this method Changed: Optimization for Prefab Manager Editor which will no longer re-enable renderers while exiting Play Mode Changed: Nested Prefabs Optimization for Scene Prefab Importer tool Fixed: DefineGameObjectAsPrefabPrototypeAtRuntime API method null reference exception when the manager is created at runtime Fixed: HiZ Occlusion Generator controls for stereoTargetEye as "both eyes" when VR is enabled only Fixed: Compute Buffer not set error when using 5 or more LOD levels v1.1.0 New: Occlusion culling VR support (both single pass and multi pass) New: API method to change LOD Bias values for prototypes at runtime New: Setting to edit instancing bounds size New: Integration to version control systems like Perforce which uses readonly files New: Options to disable scaling on Tree prototypes New: Added custom depth normals shader New: MapMagic integration Biome support Changed: Modified foliage shader to use the custom depth normals shader Fixed: GLES shadow rendering error Fixed: Occlusion culling disabling DepthNormals on the camera Fixed: Null pointer error when Prefab Manager manager is disabled with Auto. Add/Remove Instances enabled Fixed: Prefab Manager not creating Proxy for SpeedTree8 Fixed: Map Magic integration GameObject not being saved in scene when imported Fixed: Detail Manager not finalizing initialization when the activeThreads list is not cleared v1.0.2 Changed: LOD cross-fading feature is optimized to run according to shader feature and graphics API Changed: OpenGL compute shader max thread count changed to 512 Fixed: OpenGL compute shader matrix type error Fixed: OpenGL not rendering instances with shaders that has cross-fading enabled Fixed: DrawMesh error when there are more materials than the number of submeshes on the renderer Fixed: SpeedTree 8 shader import dialog showing multiple times during prototype generation v1.0.1 Fixed: Settings showing wrong labels for prefab options v1.0.0 New: SpeedTree8 support with top-down billboards New: Editor multiple add/edit/remove option for Prototypes New: Edit function to Tree and Detail prototypes to change the prefabs New: GPU Instancer Preferences to personalize various editor behaviours New: Auto-update system for upgrading from previous GPUI versions New: Auto. generated Shader Variant Collection for including used shader variants in builds automatically New: Auto. Floating Origin handling option New: Instance count warning system for Prefab Managers New: CameraHandler component to manage camera switching automatically New: Text-Mode for prototype lists New: Custom Preview texture drawing system for prototypes Changed: Shaders moved out of Resources folder to reduce the amount of shaders included in builds Changed: Included shaders are modified according to new folder structure Changed: Tree Manager coroutine initialization is now optional Changed: Manager Editor sections changed to Foldouts Changed: Reduced asset package size considerably by optimizing demo assets Fixed: Dark preview icons for Unity 2018.3 versions on Linear color space Fixed: Tree Manager showing trees in wrong positions when terrain position is changed during initialization Fixed: Show Rendered Amount GUI not showing zero instance count when draw calls are disabled Fixed: Prefab manager adding incorrect rigidbodies to instances when disabled v0.9.9 New: Threading option for Detail Manager initialization New: Option to disable Mesh Renderers on prefabs to increase initialization speed New: Prefab streaming system with PrefabListRuntimeHandler component New: Added an option to all billboards to face camera position (ignoring camera View Matrix rotations, ideal for VR) New: Min. Culling Distance option per prototype New: Option to filter prototypes when removing instances with colliders or bounds New: MapMagic Integration single Prefab Manager option New: MapMagic Integration Threading option for Prefabs when using single Prefab Manager with disabled Mesh Renderers New: Added GetDetailMapData/SetDetailMapData API methods for Detail Manager Changed: SetGlobalPositionOffset null checks and warnings added Changed: AddPrefabInstance method optimization when automatically increasing buffer size Fixed: Tree Proxy not being created when using no-GameObject workflow Fixed: Tree Proxy not being cleared when proxy GameObject is destroyed Fixed: Built-in shader source code not recognized without updating material when first added to project Fixed: Prototype preview icon lighting problem for Unity 2017 on Linear color space Fixed: Cross-fade method error on shaders when building in Unity 5.6 versions Fixed: Possible memory leak on repeated initialization for visibility buffer Fixed: SetGlobalPositionOffset not updating spatial partitions on Detail Manager Fixed: GPUInstancerInclude PSSL dot method casting error when building for PS4 v0.9.8 New: Managers can now continue rendering in Scene View camera while the editor is paused New: All managers and tools now have "Wiki" buttons that will take you to their respective documentation pages New: Tree Managers now have an option to disable the random rotation of trees on Unity terrains Changed: Automatic shader conversion update for LWRP/HDRP 4.3.0 version Changed: Menu items moved under Tools Changed: The way prototype previews are displayed Changed: The GPUI Soft Occlusion Shader is renewed to match the original Nature/Soft Occlusion Shaders better Changed: Billboard Generator brightness option has been modified to match the original colors better when brightening Fixed: GPUIStandardInclude.cginc errors on some Unity 2017.2 versions Fixed: Standard Shader Cutout variant not showing in build Fixed: Meshes with a single submesh but multiple materials causing issues in rendering Fixed: LOD cross-fading results changing with time scale v0.9.7 New: Added Render With Selected Camera option to limit rendering to one camera New: Added Detail Texture Layer option to Detail Manager New: Added support for the internal "Standard (Roughness setup)" shader New: Added option to use frustum and occlusion culling for shadows New: Added UpdateVariation API method to update variation buffer at runtime New: Added a new demo scene that showcases the use of custom compute shaders to extend GPUI Changed: Managers now show the Unity Archive link to download built-in shaders, if necessary Changed: Improved the CPU times when handling transform changes Fixed: Billboards not using the original prefab's Layer Fixed: SpeedTrees without BillboardRenderer not showing billboard distance options Fixed: Standard shader error for Unity 2017.3 versions Fixed: Billboard renderer causing a minor artifact in forward rendering and single-pass VR when there is a CommandBuffer using the depth texture Fixed: A bug that would prevent builds from Unity 2018.3 beta versions v0.9.6 New: Added a grass mower model and grass mowing mode for the detail instancing scene New: Added shadow casting option for custom billboards Fixed: Possible initialization problems when having multiple prototypes with no-gameobjects Fixed: Manager showing as initialized before gpu buffers are generated Fixed: MapMagic integration missing min. culling distance setting v0.9.5: New: Nested-Prefabs support (Unity 2018.3 and later) New: Tree instancing demo scene New: Optional minimum culling distance setting New: Shadow Distance option per prototype New: Shadow LOD options New: Clear Shader Bindings menu item New: Prefab Replacer tool for easily replacing GameObjects in scene with prefab instances New: Brightness setting for baked billboard textures New: Added a cutoff override option for the billboard generator Changed: Shader conversion automatically disables other procedural instancing setups to enable GPUI support for various shader assets Changed: Internal shaders are now marked hidden to remove clutter Fixed: An error in 2018.3 Beta where an issue with the way DateTime worked caused the managers to re-convert shaders Fixed: Billboard normal atlas dilation causing bright outlines Fixed: TreeCreator billboard material properties and reversed normals issue Fixed: Shader conversion error when project is updated while the Manager is running in editor Fixed: Wrong bounds calculation when first mesh in a prefab is scaled Fixed: Standard (Specular) shader now works with LOD cross-fading v0.9.4: New: Tree instantiation calculations are made in Compute Shaders for better performance Changed: Automatically create GPUI supported version for custom billboard shader Fixed: Map Magic integration not adding Tree Manager for pinned terrains v0.9.3: New: API Method to remove instances inside a given Bounds or Collider New: Added grass removal function to Detail Instancing Demo New: Added Instance Remover script which removes instances based on colliders of the object when initialized New: Support for Unity 2018.3 prefab system New: Added custom billboard option to billboard generator New: Added billboard extensions for custom billboard generators Changed: Added forceNew parameter to InitializeGPUInstancer API method Changed: Map Magic integration Editor max prefab distance increased to 10000 Changed: Added SetCamera method to Map Magic integration class Fixed: Can not find manager warning when instances were initialized before the manager with "Auto. Add/Remove Instances" option enabled Fixed: Map Magic integration Editor not showing prototypes when there are only Trees Fixed: Map Magic integration Editor not updating shader and billboard bindings v0.9.2: New: API Method to define prototypes for procedurally generated GameObjects without prefabs at runtime New: API Method to add instances to a prototype from a list of GameObjects at runtime New: API Method to remove prototype definition on the manager at runtime New: Demo Scene showcasing how to add-remove procedurally generated GameObjects on the Prefab Manager New: Tree Creator billboards now have their own shader that supports their translucency color Changed: Enable Auto. Update Transform by default if there is rigidbody on prefab Changed: Do not create runtimedata when there are no MeshRenderers Changed: Prefab Manager max distance editor limit increased to 10.000 Changed: Memory optimization on Tree Manager initialization Changed: Improved SpeedTree billboards Fixed: UpdateVariationFromArray invalid cast exception for multiple variation with different types Fixed: Duplicate Hi-Z Generator components when SetCamera is called for the same camera multiple times Fixed: Tree Manager not calculating prefab scale Fixed: Missing reference exception when disabling manager for procedurally generated GameObjects Fixed: Prefab instances duplicating when dropped on the manager multiple times Fixed: Forward rendering GPUIStandardInclude.cginc fog error for Unity 2018.2.1 and later versions Fixed: Billboard mesh showing wrong atlas frames on some angles (Requires rebake of previous billboards) Fixed: Billboard colors and lighting corrected for linear color space Fixed: Tree Creator trees windzones now work correctly Fixed: Tree Creator billboards crossfading now works correctly v0.9.1: New: Added support for the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) New: Added support for the Lightweight Render Pipeline (LWRP) New: Automatic shader conversion now also works for SRP shaders New: Added option to use custom Health/Dry noise texture for each detail prototype Changed: Further optimized Detail Manager memory usage for Android Fixed: Automatic shader conversion now creates shaders in an internal folder if the original shader is in "Packages" (Package Manager) Fixed: Error on shader conversion for ShaderGraphs Fixed: GPUIStandardInclude.cginc errors on some Unity 2017 versions v0.9.0: New: Tree Manager for Unity terrain trees New: Speed Tree support with wind animations New: Automatic Billboard generation system (designed and tested for Unity terrain trees) New: Gaia integration New: "Auto. Add/Remove Instances" option for Prefab Prototypes New: "Auto. Update Transform Data" option for Prefab Prototypes New: API Methods to Add-Remove-Update prefab instances without instantiating GameObjects (Demo scene included) New: API Method to offset transform positions of all instances New: Shadow rendering performance improvements and LOD settings New: LOD cross-fade support (with animation or fade transition width) New: LOD bias adjustments New: Prefab Scene Importer Tool New: Custom vertex color wind animation support for Soft Occlusion Tree shaders New: Limited support for Tree Creator trees New: Added mobile version of the Prefab Instancing Demo scene with mobile controllers Changed: Prefab instances in the scene can now also be added to the Prefab Manager to create prototypes Changed: Furter optimized update functions to reduce overhead on loops Changed: Mesh Renderer "Cast Shadow" option is taken into consideration when rendering shadows Changed: Various editor improvements for ease of use Fixed: Vulkan API detail rendering compute shader error and UAV count warning Fixed: Vulkan API foliage shader blinking issue Fixed: Vulkan API not rendering prefabs with more than 3 LOD levels Fixed: Added Standard shader vairants (Cutout, Transparent, Fade) for instanced shader features not compiling in builds Fixed: Missing AddRemoveInstancesDemo scene prefab references v0.8.3: New: Added Detail Density for Detail Manager Fixed: SetCamera now does not add the Occlusion Culling buffer to the camera if Occlusion Culling is turned off in the manager. Fixed: Grass initialization kernel position 0,0 random position and rotation generation problem Fixed: Prototype list null check on initialization and registered prefabs count check on register v0.8.2: Fixed: Multiple fixes and improvements for OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan API on Android target platforms Fixed: Auto custom shader conversion DateTime error when updating project v0.8.1: New: GPU Occlusion Culling (for non-VR platforms) New: Map Magic integration New: Max LOD levels increased to 8 New: Detail initialization is now faster New: Detail spatial partitioning memory and performance optimizations New: Auto-converted versions of custom shaders are now automatically updated when the originals are modified New: Option to use original shaders for shadow casters on prototypes that fall outside the view frustum New: Layers are now taken into consideration with instancing New: Warning messages in manager editor windows New: Terrain is now set automatically if Detail Manager is added on the terrain GameObject New: Additional API methods added to manage registered prefabs New: Out of bounds check for prefab API methods New: Added scripting define symbol: GPU_INSTANCER Changed: Detail simulation improvements, works with frustum culling Changed: Max detail viewing distance increased to 2500 Changed: LOD calculations now better reflects Unity LOD Group settings Changed: Custom editor properties are reordered and grouped Changed: Terrain Proxy will not be added if the manager is already added to terrain Changed: Removed terrainData reference on TerrainSettings for terrains that are generated from scripts Changed: PrefabInstancingDemoScene now has its own shader for the Asteroid Haze, which is also instanced as a prefab prototype Fixed: Prefab Manager Custom Editor null reference exception when manager is disabled at runtime Fixed: TerrainProxy DestroyImmediate multiple times error when detail manager is added under the terrain GameObject Fixed: Built-in shader can not be instanced warning loop. Now shows error in custom editor when instanced shader was not able to be created, and throws a warning in play mode Fixed: Multiple fixes for some iOS, tvOS and macOSX platforms using the Metal API Fixed: Multiple fixes and improvements for Vulkan API on android target platforms