x4fab
patreon
Third attempt
🕑 Added 2020-01-16 02:56:16 +0000 UTCI’m very sorry for lack of updates and responses, as usual, got stuck with something. But I got some interesting news! I finally managed to make something out of that mess of a grass, by switching back to textures and combining that approach with a few things I learned with geometrical grass. Now grass spawns more frequently, and with better texture (made a special generator), seam is not that visible.
Shape of that grass is heavily inspired by GRID Autosport grass texture, I feel like grass being uneven like that and narrowing down towards the end are the key to reduce visibility of that seam ruining first version of grass.
Although shading is simpler, with texture like that, tweaks still allow to change shape a bit. For example, here are two different looks, tidy and messy grass, changing according to TRIM_PERIOD in config. Settings for shape, so far, are size, how cut it is, how tidy it is, and width-to-height ratio.
Other four parameters set how color mask for grass should work, allowing to adjust influence of different factors: green saturation, green-to-red ratio and lower+upper brightness thresholds. Those parameters could be set for the whole track, or, the way configs work now, tracks can use up to four extra configurations, and then use texture, area or meshes to generate adjustments map (with four channels mapping to four extra configurations). This way, it’s easy to hand-paint texture if needed, and there is no limit in parameters if there would be a need to add more later on. Oh, and meshes can get extra adjustment areas, allowing to fine tune certain spots, like so:
Here, I added a few extra spots in different places and set it to look more trampled, rarer to spawn, by adjusting one of color masking parameters.
Again, sorry for the delay with the upcoming update and responses, and thank you for the support! One thing left to do is to add a support for custom track textures and custom grass shapes for certain areas (for things like fields of grass, higher swamps vegetation and all that sort of thing).
Attaching a preview build, if possible, could you please test the performance with it, with medium setting in Grass FX section? I didn’t set the rest properly, and medium in there is, like, the baseline for all those attempts.
UPD: Found a bug, shading with speculars appears to be out of sync, that will be fixed.
Comments
Ilja Jusupov aka x4fab
Here is the documentation for Grass FX: https://github.com/ac-custom-shaders-patch/acc-extension-config/wiki/Tracks-%E2%80%93-Grass-FX Yeah, I feel like with those huge maps, there is a lot of wasted resources because of lack of instancing… Static cars come to mind, for example, with instancing, those could be up to 100k models when camera is nearby. Very interesting idea of using separate track KN5s for instancing, didn’t think about that. In a way AC already allows it with “models.ini”, although it wouldn’t save anything right now (and I’m not sure if it would understand reusing models, or if POSITION in there even works). But that means new solution would be somewhat familiar already. Thank you!
No problem. instancing geometry would be phenomenal and I think a much better solution than scattering with grassfx. It would be great if we could utilise higher poly assets with LODS throughout to ensure good framerates. As an example if we could load tree_3D.kn5 (with LOD settings already baked) in a config and scatter it along points from an xml or other external file with its own scale, position and rotation attributes. Or scattered throughout the scene by referencing the existing geometry. Object instancing could be huge for AC and could allow for some forza horizon type worlds. The last update was fantastic keep up the great work !
Ilja Jusupov aka x4fab
Hi, and very sorry for the delay with the answer. It should work, the way I set it up, it sync color if original color is overly green. If it wouldn’t work properly, please let me know, I’ll readjust that threshold (tried to make it blend nicely as well). Not sure yet about density and especially fade distance… I could add some lowering multiplier for density, but I think that would be it for now. I’ll need to think some more about how to combine those settings with presets from Grass FX settings. Although it allows to create bushes, but no matter the texture or configuration, it would still spawn regular grass, it’s not really meant for much else, for now, at least… I definitely would want to try and do something similar for trees later on though, so I think it would be better to wait a bit for now. And as for larger maps, I’m thinking about a way to add some instancing geometry, that should help a lot. Not quite sure how it would work yet though. 🤔 Thank you!
Jesse Graffam
This info isn't on the Discord... so for now please keep this among Patreon members only... the new GrassFX track INI settings which will probably become public from Ilja, and probably won't be removed, are: https://pastebin.com/uSzgbmYw I have also been testing a "High" setting in extension\config\grass_fx.ini which I made look like "Medium" but with more range, which you can find the settings for here: https://pastebin.com/S0zbFuG5 Cheers, and thanks for everything Ilja, this new GrassFX and mask features are AMAZING. Also excellent idea @ having 4 different maps/configurations for excellent control over things.
If you have downloaded one of the existing configs already, you can open it up from: assettocorsa/extension/config/tracks and use it as an example for editing your own tracks. Or you can join the discord and download example track ini files from there.
Hi x4fab, the texture approach for the grass works well. I was wondering if it could allow for custom user billboard textures which don't colour blend with the terrain such as texures like these. https://quixel.com/megascans/library?search=cat&search=palm Also if there were options to control the density and fade distance for specific grassfx configurations thatd be great. I think this could allow for grassfx to be used for not only grass but bushes, groundcover details and even distant tree billboards to scatter all types of vegetation. This could be great for larger maps as it would reduce the polycount significantly on trees, bushes ..etc as they could potentially be scattered via grassfx configs. Looks great, keep up the fantastic work!
__EASY__
no no, me search new config grass for create .ini for tracks
Go to Content Manager -> Settings -> GrassFX You can active, change quality, and configure shadow settings. Then go to: Tracks Config and click on the '3 dots' icon in the upper right and install track configs, to get the community made configs that include grass configuration on tracks.
hello Ilja, unfortunately to activate FXAA I have to activate Post processing which uses several resources in VR so it is the dog that bites its tail. However, don't worry, by decreasing the super sampling in VR from 300 to 250 I can keep the 90 FPS in VR with a minimum loss of sharpness. The new grass is very realistic. However in VR, the most important thing is image sharpness even at the expense of some details ... Thanks for your work that has greatly improved Assetto Corsa.
__EASY__
how did i find the configuration settings for this new grass ?
xez
All good now Ilja. It was 'operator error', with me being the error. I reinstalled the latest patch and everything is working as it should. Thanks!
Ilja Jusupov aka x4fab
Sorry, I’m not very familiar with how VR works, can you use FXAA in there? If so, would it help to enable FXAA in AC video settings, then go to Graphics Adjustments and switch original FXAA to CMAA2, and enable FidelityFX?
Ilja Jusupov aka x4fab
I’ll get presets working, I think for VR only option for now would be to have lower density grass, unfortunately. I just can’t figure out how to get it working faster at the moment.
Ilja Jusupov aka x4fab
Could you please DM me what does Lua debug app show? Just in case, you need to select base in the list of WeatherFX implementations and Sol for controller
Looks fantastic. we blended it with long and short grass and just wonderful. Amazing. For those just requesting and not supporting the effort. Support the man! He is doing great work! :-) [bro fist bump]
Thanks for your hard work...
Iracing is currently the best visual sim in VR. I'd like you to use your great intelligence and programming skills to improve, if possible, the visual sharpness in VR.
I think that without use of VR performance are absolutely right. With Vr i prefer less visual option in change of higher SS for great clarity.
I like the new grass. Performance are good (I use VR HP Reverb , SS 320) without grass FX i have steady 90 FPS, with grass Fx On frames drops occasionally to 83/85 , wich is not good in VR.
Tony Bew
Love the grass, love the clouds every week gets better. Great work
xez
Sorry to bother you Ilja, but could you please explain to me how to get your alternative weather FX running properly. No matter what I try, I just end up with a cloudless sky. I'm sure it's my fault, but I just can't work out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.
Im a fan of this style, looks more believable, short and dense like in real like
I like this one! The grass looked good on the tracks I tried - and seemed less 'pop-in' prone than the last iteration. Performance seemed just fine too.
