{{indexmenu_n>2}} ===== Global Surface Settings ===== ---- Properties in this category allow you to customize scene surfaces globally, meaning changing any property here will affect the entire scene unless the object's materials use a [[weatherade_manual:quick_start?#per_material_override|property override]]. ==== Enable Coverage ==== Enables coverage in materials that use Weatherade shaders. If disabled, then the shaders will act like Unity Standard shadar. ---- ==== Basic Settings ==== ---- In the URP some properties in this category are divided into 3 layers which allows to use up to 3 different snow types. By default, only one layer is used. Additional layers can be activated on a per material basis. === Paintable Coverage === This option enables the ability to edit the automatically generated coverage occlusion mask. Vertex colors are used for regular MeshRenderes, and Terrains use an additional texture-mask. Both can be painted with [[weatherade_manual:tools:total_brush_lite|Total Brush]] which is included in the package. In BiRP currenty only ⠀R⠀ channel is used. In URP all 4 channels can be utilized, if different snow layers are used. It's recommended to enable this option on a per-material basis, instead of enabling it globally from a Coverage Instance, as this incurs a performance overhead. This feature uses additional vertex streams which is incompatible with the static batching. === Use Average Normals === If this option is enabled, the shader will use an additional set of normals stored in the UV4 channel. This helps eliminate mesh "cracks" when using [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#displacement|displacement]] and improves the coverage on meshes with split normals. {{ :wiki:weatherade:average_normals.jpg?nolink |}} It's not recommended to use this feature on very primitive meshes such as cubes, as it may produce weired results. Works better on more organic objects with a denser mesh. Generate these normals by selecting an object in the scene and clicking the "Average Normals" button in its material UI, or go to the [[weatherade_manual:tools:total_brush_lite|Total Brush]] window and click the same button there. It's recommended to enable this option on a per-material basis, instead of enabling it globally from a Coverage Instance, as this may incur a little performance overhead. This feature uses additional vertex streams which is incompatible with the static batching. === Stochastic Sampling === Enables stochastic sampling that eliminates visible tiling artifacts. This option has a performance overhead because the texture fetch operation is performed 3 times instead of 1. {{ :wiki:weatherade:stochastic.jpg?nolink |}} === Coverage Texture === Texture which is used to build the snow coverage surface. \\ It uses a specific channel mapping: * Normals - ⠀R⠀ ⠀G⠀ - adds pseudo-relief details to the snow. * Height - ⠀B⠀ - used for the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#displacement|displacement]] feature and as a snow surface mask on the coverage transitions, to make them more organic. * Smoothness - ⠀A⠀ - used for the snow surface glossiness. Can be also reused for the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#sparkle_and_sss|Sparkle]] effect. This texture must be imported with the following settings otherwise it will look wrong: \\ \\ * Texture Type: Default * sRGB: disabled All other settings can be left as default. === Tiling === The uniform tiling value of the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]]. === Color === Color of the coverage. === Smoothness (URP only) === Coverage smoothness range. Remaps the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] alpha channel, which is used as smoothness. === Normal Scale === Bumpiness of the coverage. The ⠀R⠀ and ⠀G⠀ channels of the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] are used to construct normals. === Amount === Amount of the сoverage applied to the surface. === Triplanar Blend Hardness (URP only) === Blend hardness between the triplanar projections. === Emission Masking === Masks the base surface emission effect by the coverage. {{ :wiki:weatherade:emission_masking.jpg?nolink |}} === Coverage Normals Overlay === Forces to overlay coverage normals over the base surface normals even when [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#displacement|Displacement]] is disabled. This value is a linear interpolation between the base normal map and the coverage normal map. ---- ==== DETAIL MAP (URP only) ==== ---- Detail map can help to improve the snow surface details close to the camera. {{ :wiki:weatherade:detail_map.jpg?nolink |}} When using this feature you can put a lower resolution texture into the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] slot, since the detail map will increase the detail anyway. This reduces the memory overhead and makes the snow even better. === Detail Texture === Texture used for the detail mapping. Channel mapping used: * Normals - ⠀R⠀ ⠀G⠀ - adds additional micro-relief details to the snow. * Smoothness - ⠀B⠀ - used for the snow surface glossiness and Color Enhance. This texture must be imported with the following settings otherwise it will look wrong: \\ \\ * Texture Type: Default * sRGB: disabled All other settings can be left as default. === Tiling === Tiling of the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]]. === Remap === Remap the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]] ⠀B⠀ channel, which is used for the smoothness/Color Enhance. === Normal Scale === Micro-relief scale of the details. === Distance === The distance in units where the details will fade out. Do not use too high values to prevent surface noise at a distance. ---- ==== AREA MASK ==== ---- Area mask settings allow you to control how the coverage occlusion will look. All parameters here are related to each other. === Mask Range === Range of the coverage mask values. A value of 1 means the transitions between the coverage and base surfaces are as soft and wide as possible. === Bias === The bias of the coverage area. \\ This property is needed for two things: * Fix the coverage banding and Z-clipping artifacts * Shrink/expand the coverage occlusion mask in conjunction with the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#mask_range|Mask Range]]. Internally it works similar to the shadow bias property on the Unity light sources. {{ :wiki:weatherade:bias.jpg?nolink |}} It's recommended to use values greater than 0.05 to get better results. For terrains, you can use something like 0.1 to make the transitions more soft. === Leak Reduction === Reducing coverage leaks at the cost of increasing mask hardness. The coverage instance renders the scene depth and blurs it to get soft coverage transitions, which results in a side effect called "leakage" or "bleading". It looks similar to well-known light leaking artifacts, because Weatherade uses one of the soft shadows algorithm, called [[https://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/10/direct3d/Source/VarianceShadowMapping/Doc/VarianceShadowMapping.pdf|VSM]] === Direction Offset === The linear offset from the original direction of the coverage instance. Values below 0 will create a stronger direction-dependent coverage mask, and values greater 0 can help add more coverage on the opposite side of the direction of the coverage instance. Internaly it just adds this value to the coverage direction mask. The precipitation direction is given by the Coverage Instance transform. On the examples below the coverage instance transform direction is set straight down: {{ :wiki:weatherade:dir_offset.jpg?nolink |}} === Direction Range === Shrink/expand the coverage direction mask gradient. You can make the direction mask more hard lowering the range. ----- ==== TESSELLATION ==== ----- Improves the appearance of a surface when using the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings#displacement|Displacement]] feature by subdividing the mesh triangles. This feature is performance intensive. It's recommended to enable it on a per-material basis and use its settings very carefully. Also it's not recommended to use it if you don't use the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#traces|Traces]] feature. Weatherade implements the Edge Length tessellation method with some specific additions, that improves performance: * View frustum culling (useful for large meshes such as terrain) * Mask tessellation by [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings#snowdrift_range|snowdrift]] slopes * Data-driven tessellation factor (works with [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#traces|Traces]] feature) Example of the data-driven tessellation in action: {{ :wiki:weatherade:tes_path.jpg?nolink |}} === Edge Length === Maximum screen-space length of the edge. Edges longer than this value will be subdivided. === Snow Factor === Multiplier for the overall snow surface tessellation. === Snowdrift Range === Range of mask that used to increase the tessellation factor on snowdrift slopes. === Frustum Culling Offset === Maximum distance from camera's clip planes on which tessellation should not be applied. \\ Weatherade tessellation uses Frustum Culling to improve performance on large meshes by appling tessellation only for visible triangles. When [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#displacement|Displacement]] is used you should increase this value to compensate the displacement and prevent mesh clipping. The higher the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_displacement|Coverage Displacement]] value, the larger this value should be. This can be especially noticable on a terrain mesh. {{ :wiki:weatherade:frustum_cull.jpg?nolink |}} If increasing this value does not help and there are still clipping artifacts on the terrain, you should increase the [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:terrain_utility?#bounds_multiplier|Bonunds Multiplier]] value in the [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:terrain_utility|Terrain Utility]] component. ---- ==== DISPLACEMENT ==== ---- In the URP some properties in this category are divided into 3 layers which allows to use up to 3 different snow types. By default, only one layer is used. Additional layers can be activated on a per material basis. This feature allows you to raise the vertices of the mesh by the coverage mask, creating realistic snowdrifts. This has some overhead, so it's recommended to enable this feature on a per-material basis only for surfaces such as terrain and other important objects, where you need a real snow volume. === Height Contrast === The contrast of the coverage height, when using the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#displacement|Displacement]] feature. For this purpose, the ⠀B⠀ channel of the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] is used. === Heightmap LOD (URP only) === Defines the height map MIP level. Use higher values to get rid of noisy displacement. === Coverage Displacement === The amount of displacement added to the mesh verices. It depends on the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] ⠀B⠀ channel, as it's used as a height map and multiplied by this value. === Offset === Offsets the black point of the coverage mask gradients. This useful to prevent unnecessary displacement on some not-covered areas. See how the snowdrift's displacement starts too early and lifts the base surface when the Offset is too small: {{ :wiki:weatherade:disp_offset.jpg?nolink |}} ---- ==== TRACES ==== ---- In the URP some properties in this category are divided into 3 layers which allows to use up to 3 different snow types. By default, only one layer is used. Additional layers can be activated on a per material basis. Enables interactive traces on the snow coverage.\\ {{:weatherade_manual:traces.gif?nolink|}} This feature requres an additioanl component, called Trace Mask Generator, which must be added to the Coverage Instance gameobject and configured properly. If you haven't already added the [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:trace_mask_generator|Trace Mask Generator]] component, you will be prompted to do so. Click the "Add Now" button. {{:wiki:weatherade:add_trace_gen.jpg?nolink|}} In Built-in RP it also requires the objects to use Weatherade shaders or a special [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:tracer|Tracer]] component on them. === Base/Snow (URP only) === Blend factor between the base surface and coverage. If set to 0, the base texture will be visible inside the traces. === Color === Multiplier color of the generated traces. You can use it to simulate greater depth or ambient occlusion effects within a trace. If the color is set to white it will have no effect as it is internally multiplied by the coverage color. In URP the Color alpha is used as [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#blend|Blend]]. == Blend (Built-in RP only) == Factor of the linear blend between the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#color|coverage color]] and [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#color1|Color]]. == Range == Range of the trace mask, used for the color [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#blend|Blend]]. You can shrink this range to get sharper mask. === Normal Scale === The normal scale of the generated traces. === Use Detail Texture === Determines whether traces will use the global [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]]. == Detail Texture == The global texture, that used to add details to the generated traces. \\ It uses a specific channel mapping: * Normals - ⠀R⠀ ⠀G⠀ * Height - ⠀B⠀ This texture must be imported with the following settings otherwise it will look wrong: \\ \\ * Texture Type: Default * sRGB: disabled All other settings can be left as default. == Tiling == The uniform tiling of the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]]. == Normal Scale == The normal scale of the details. == Detail Intensity == The intensity of the detail displacement, applied to the generated traces. ---- ==== BLEND BY NORMALS ==== ---- Tweaking properties here can help make coverage transitions more organic. {{:wiki:weatherade:blend_by_normal.jpg?nolink|}} === Strength === The amount of base surface normal map influence on the coverage transitions blending. Consider this like the well-known height blending technique, but without the need to provide an additional height map, since Weatherade simulates this using a normal map. === Power === Power of the normal map blending. This just raises the faked height map to a math power. ---- ==== DISTANCE FADE ==== ---- Applied to terrains only. This feature allows you to eliminate the tiling artifacts on terrains by blending between original textures and [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:terrain_utility?#lod_albedo|LOD textures]] with lower tiling values. Be sure to [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:terrain_utility?#bake|bake]] your terrain LOD textures using the [[weatherade_manual:additional_components:terrain_utility|Terrain Utility]] component to use this feature. === Start Distance === The distance from camera at which the baked LOD texture starts to appear. === Folloff === The size of the fading gradient for the original/LOD texture. The higher the value, the softer the blend will be. ---- ==== SPARKLE AND SSS ==== ---- In the URP some properties in this category are divided into 3 layers which allows to use up to 3 different snow types. By default, only one layer is used. Additional layers can be activated on a per material basis. Sparkle effect adds these little shinny dots on the surface, which improves the snow appearens. SSS (SubSurface Scattering) simulates light penetration into the surface and exiting from different point. To take effect in Deferred rendering path these two toggles must be enabled/disabled together, as Weatherade uses a single empty channel of the normals GBuffer texture to pass the snow mask to the final lighting stage, where these effects can be calculated. === SSS === Enables subsurface scattering effect on the snow. == Intensity == Intensity of the subsurface scattering effect. === Sparkle === Enables sparkle effect on the snow surface. {{:wiki:weatherade:sparkle.gif?nolink|}} == Mask == Optional black and white texture which ⠀R⠀ channel is used as a sparkle effect mask. If no texture is provided, the alpha channel of the main [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|coverage texture]] can be used. == Amount == Amount of snow sparkle effect. This value depends on the [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#mask|Mask]] texture. == Brightness == Brightness of the snow sparkle effect. It's recommended to use the Bloom post process effect to improve the sparkle appearance. == Distance Fallow == Maximum draw distance of the sparkle effect. Decrease this value to prevent unwanted noise and artifacts on far distances. == Local-Space Mask Source == Source for the sparkle mask which will be used in the object local space. == LS Tiling == Uniform tiling of the local space mask. == Scree-Space Mask Source == Source for the sparkle mask which will be used in the screen space. == SS Tiling == Tiling of the screen-space mask. == Highlight Mask Expansion == Expansion of the highlight mask, that is used to show the sparkle effect only on highlights from the lights sources. === Lightmap Mask Power === Power of the lightmap mask. Values greater than 0 prevent the Sparkle and SSS effect in dark areas, when baked lighting is used. === Color Enhance (URP only) === Enhance the snow surface color. The [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] ⠀A⠀ + [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]] ⠀B⠀ channels are used as a source. === Highlight Brightness (URP only) === Brightness of the highlight from the main light. === SSS Remap (URP only) === Remap the SSS mask values. [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] ⠀A⠀ + [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]] ⠀B⠀ channels are used as a source. === Color Enhance Remap (URP only) === Remap the color enhance mask. [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#coverage_texture|Coverage Texture]] ⠀A⠀ + [[weatherade_manual:snow_coverage_instance:global_surface_settings?#detail_texture|Detail Texture]] ⠀B⠀ channels are used as a source. -----