How to "mimic" the discontinued Ambient Skies functionality with a custom made city scene

[Dutchottie]

I was wondering if I can use Gaia without using the terrain creation tool - I know, that's crazy! - to "re-create" the functionality of Ambient Skies?

Looking at the older Ambient Skies videos I really like this easy to use changing and tweaking of the overall lighting. However, as the functionality of Ambient Skies has been integrated into Gaia Pro but is not present as a separate set of tools, I was wondering if I can still use the functionality without having to use the other Gaia tools.
In case, I have a urban scene and I don't need Gaia to create a terrain but I would really like to "have" Ambient Skies to easily set and tweak all the lighting (Unity 2020.3).

Does anyone know if this is possible? If so, can you please help me get started with setting this up using Gaia Pro?

Thanks!
Marco
I have the World Bundle compatible with 2020+

 

[Bryan]

12 hours ago, Dutchottie said:

I was wondering if I can use Gaia without using the terrain creation tool - I know, that's crazy! - to "re-create" the functionality of Ambient Skies?

Looking at the older Ambient Skies videos I really like this easy to use changing and tweaking of the overall lighting. However, as the functionality of Ambient Skies has been integrated into Gaia Pro but is not present as a separate set of tools, I was wondering if I can still use the functionality without having to use the other Gaia tools.
In case, I have a urban scene and I don't need Gaia to create a terrain but I would really like to "have" Ambient Skies to easily set and tweak all the lighting (Unity 2020.3).

Does anyone know if this is possible? If so, can you please help me get started with setting this up using Gaia Pro?

Thanks!
Marco
I have the World Bundle compatible with 2020+

 

You could use the "photo mode" which would allow you to adjust the scene lighting in one easy spot. 
To use this tool while you are in playmode you can hit f11 to bring up the mode: 


From here you have several options: 
Camera Settings 
Unity Settings
Landscape Settings 
Lighting Settings 
Water Settings 
Post FX Settings 
Photo Mode Settings. 

Which great about this, is that you can change your lighting in your scene and see the changes. 
The only thing you want to make sure after making these changes is in Photo Mode Settings go to Load Last Settings and make sure that is enabled and reset when closed is disabled. This will save what you currently have. 


Personally I use this all the time as its such an easy way to adjust your lighting in your scene rather quickly. 

[Asset Glue]

Regarding the functionality. Try this.
1. Back up the scene/project. 
2. Navigate to the "Window" tab, click Procedural Worlds, then click on the "Gaia" foldout and then click on "Show Gaia Manager"
3. Navigate in the Gaia Manager to "Create Runtime"
4. Deselect everything except the sky and select the sky system to use. (If you want the wind zone then add it.)
5. Press "Create Runtime"
6. Navigate in the scene hierarchy to" Gaia Runtime", in there you will now have Lighting and Weather.
7. The Sky can be changed in "Gaia Lighting"
8. Create a new profile using the "Create New Profile" button and name it something.
9. Start using Gaia Lighting, change settings and access other functionality right there.

Something that Bryan mentioned to me before is that you can create a "Scripts only" version of GaiaPro from the Gaia Manager. That might help to not have to import the entire package. Then you could only import the assets for sky and stuff you want. 

Hope that helps!

Edited January 21, 2022 by Asset Glue
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