Going direct from one weather preset to another does not properly end FX

[mroshaw]

Hello again!

If I start a weather preset:

// Start Rain
HDRPTimeOfDay.Instance.StartWeather(1);

Then start another preset, without first calling StopWeather():

// Start Snow
HDRPTimeOfDay.Instance.StartWeather(2);

I get a weird hodge-podge of mixed sound effects and some VFX. If it's mandatory to call "StopWeather()" before starting a new preset, it would be good if this was documented somewhere. Even better would be it StartWeather() automatically called StopWeather() to prevent this happening.

[Peter]

Hi, thanks for the feedback! Please note that we do not advertise these functions as an official API yet. Once we do decide to offer an API we would review the functions from this perspective and we will iron out such issues as well.

[mroshaw]

Thanks Peter!

I've got to say, for a full price "stand alone" asset, the features of HDRP Time of Day pale in comparison to other, similar assets on the store. And at this price point, it's really disappointing, and I'd really hoped this would be worth the additional cost over and above the, already ham-strung, Gaia Pro 2021 version. It feels like I've shelled out for an alpha release, and I'd expected better of PCW not to go with the "Early Access" nonsense that plagues Steam and other stores.

[Adam]

Sometimes I think people forget just how many systems have been added to Gaia over the years, at no extra cost.

People were not charged extra for this. We made it because we wanted something better than Unity, and because we liked it. 

You were aware that the new HDRP TOD would come to you in Gaia Pro 2022, and would be included in the update, at no extra cost. All you had to do is wait a month or so.

I also disagree with your comment about it being early access. Will it get more features... yeah sure, as all products do. Does it work quite well now. Yes.

[mroshaw]

Hi Adam,

I think you've got your wires crossed here. I bought the full HDRP Time of Day asset from the Asset Store. I have no intention of buying Gaia Pro 2022 at this point, as I'm happy with what Gaia Pro 2021 does for me. As you said Gaia Pro 2021 won't be getting an updated ToD, and because I wanted the "full featured" HDRP Time of Day, I bought the HDRP ToD asset. It's not the case at all that "all I had to do was wait a month or so", as Gaia simply has nothing to do with this.

And please get your facts in order - Peter told me that HDRP ToD would NOT be shipped with Gaia Pro 2022, and that owners of Gaia Pro 2022 would simply get free access to this very asset. This contradicts your claims that HDRP ToD relies on Unity 2022 features and so would not even be supported on Unity 2021 or Gaia Pro 2021. That's why I bought this asset - because Peter said THIS is the ToD system that would be the "strategic" solution going forward, irrespective of Gaia. Are you now contradicting that AGAIN and saying it isn't?

You really have inconsistent messaging that you are sharing with your customers, so please ensure in future that you're all sharing the same story.

With all that said, as I've discovered, the "standalone" version that I've bought on the store isn't full featured and is missing key functionality that I would expect.

You are of course welcome to your opinion as to how "well" the product works, but then you are not a customer. I am, and I'm not pleased with the product I've purchased and I think customers have the right to expect professional assets to do better than "work quite well". Don't you?

[Josh]

11 hours ago, mroshaw said:

Hello again!

If I start a weather preset:

// Start Rain
HDRPTimeOfDay.Instance.StartWeather(1);

Then start another preset, without first calling StopWeather():

// Start Snow
HDRPTimeOfDay.Instance.StartWeather(2);

I get a weird hodge-podge of mixed sound effects and some VFX. If it's mandatory to call "StopWeather()" before starting a new preset, it would be good if this was documented somewhere. Even better would be it StartWeather() automatically called StopWeather() to prevent this happening.

Weather blending is not yet supported and i am not aware of any other system that does have this feature. It is planned to allow this support, for now i have added a debug log message and a return in the start weather function letting you know that weather system is active and it can't start until you tell the system to stop. (This will come with the next update)

Automatically stopping a weather effect is something that could be added if start weather is called but may cause issues for other users and would be an optinonal thing.

 

I would have to disagree in regards to it being an early access, sure there may be a few bugs but most products on the store have edge case bugs that only show in specifics ways. We appreciate your attention to these bugs so we can fix them for you and anyone in the future. But the amount of features built into this system is far greater than most TOD/Weather systems i have seen on the store.

With Override volumes, Interior controllers, weather effects, Fully compatible lighting with all Unity HDRP core stuff, Custom weather shader that applies weather effects, GTS full terrain weather effect support, Fully customizable profiles for time of day, Post processing profile control to customize post fx, Some ambient audio configuration, Ray tracing support and more. This system offers great value and far more features that the old system Gaia had for built-in and URP.

Like i said we appreciate your input and feedback into making this a better product, but i am unsure as to what features you would expect that other systems on the asset store do offer, from what i have seen in your comments you are asking for features that other systems on the store don't even offer.

Please let us know what features you want Here and we will sure take a look at them and take it under consideration as we develop the system further.

 

Josh

[mroshaw]

Thanks Josh. I just want to control the systems in code, that's all.

[mroshaw]

@Josh and @Adam - just to let you know that I've updated my review on the Unity Asset Store. In hindsight, I was rash and should have based my feedback on the advertised features and how well they are delivered, not on what I perceived to be features that I alone expect. I've taken a step back, stopped myself from getting wrapped up in APIs and scripting, and have just been blown away by how beautiful my Gaia scenes look with the ToD package applied. I have some AI stags that I've been tweaking, and I managed to capture one in the distance, shrouded in fog, while the rain was pouring down around my character - it really did look absolutely breath-taking.

I want to offer my sincere apologies for my brash responses and unjustified criticism. As a hobby developer, I've only just started to appreciate just how much work goes into these projects and assets, and the cost to buy just doesn't do any justice to the time and effort spent. I apologise most that this must have felt like a personal attack on something you hold dear. That's totally unacceptable.

I'm still looking forward to seeing what else this baby can do, so thank you again for creating this stunning asset.

[Josh]

1 hour ago, mroshaw said:

@Josh and @Adam - just to let you know that I've updated my review on the Unity Asset Store. In hindsight, I was rash and should have based my feedback on the advertised features and how well they are delivered, not on what I perceived to be features that I alone expect. I've taken a step back, stopped myself from getting wrapped up in APIs and scripting, and have just been blown away by how beautiful my Gaia scenes look with the ToD package applied. I have some AI stags that I've been tweaking, and I managed to capture one in the distance, shrouded in fog, while the rain was pouring down around my character - it really did look absolutely breath-taking.

I want to offer my sincere apologies for my brash responses and unjustified criticism. As a hobby developer, I've only just started to appreciate just how much work goes into these projects and assets, and the cost to buy just doesn't do any justice to the time and effort spent. I apologise most that this must have felt like a personal attack on something you hold dear. That's totally unacceptable.

I'm still looking forward to seeing what else this baby can do, so thank you again for creating this stunning asset.

@mroshaw Thank you for re-thinking your review we appreciate your feedback and like i said before we are always open to user input and suggestion.

 

Glad you appreciate the asset and what it's capable of, you did make great suggestions and ideas and we will for sure take these into consideration during the next steps of our development. We accept your apology and we're happy to forget this ever happened and focus on making this asset better for everyone. 🙂 

We can understand the frustation that an asset not doing what you think it should be capable of as well it's happened to us in the past but we find just reaching out to the developers first is always the best options. We hope that you will stick around and keep offering your feedback and any bug reports you may find with us.

 

Josh

[Adam]

All good. Thanks for the updated review. We want to get you the API's you want sooner rather than later.

In general the way we approach api's needs to change as well. At the moment they are too closely coupled, and we have had a bunch of issues in recent releases where the product versions are out of sync, and this causes compilation issues.