Flora Grass not showing in runtime and can't create custom flora grass. Help appreciated!

[hurbivore]

Hi,

  I'm having issues with the grass in flora not appearing in play mode. I've also tried creating my own flora scriptable object to use with Stylized Grass shader however, when it asks for a mesh in source data I have tried dragging and dropping several meshes in but always get this error message "UnassignedReferenceException: The variable m_mesh of DetailScriptableObject has not been assigned.
You probably need to assign the m_mesh variable of the DetailScriptableObject script in the inspector.
ProceduralWorlds.Flora.FloraEditorUtility.DetailerEditor (ProceduralWorlds.Flora.CoreDetailScriptableObject data) (at Assets/Procedural Worlds/Flora/Scripts/Editor/FloraEditorUtility.cs:145)
ProceduralWorlds.Flora.DetailScriptableObjectEditor.DetailerEditor (System.Boolean helpEnabled) (at Assets/Procedural Worlds/Flora/Scripts/Editor/DetailScriptableObjectEditor.cs:28)"

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Bryan]

Can you add the grass to the normal terrain details and paint the grass? 
 

[hurbivore]

Hi Bryan, which grass are you referring to? The one provided with Gaia Flora or the stylized grass? Thanks!

[Bryan]

The stylized grass you want to use. 

 

[Isaac]

Hi @hurbivore,

I can reproduce the issue and will see if it can be fixed, in the meantime, you can fix this issue by duplicating an already existing detail scriptable object (some can be found in Procedural Worlds -> Flora -> Content Resources -> Presets) and editing it. Hover over an item and press Ctrl+D, then you can move it and rename and start editing it.

[hurbivore]

@Isaac Thanks that worked! I was able to create a new Flora item. However, I'm still having issues with any sort of Flora items rendering in play mode or build. I forgot to mention that I'm using URP, Unity 2022.3.6f1

[hurbivore]

@Bryan The stylized grass does work outside of Flora, I used it as part of Synty Nature Grass Spawner and it added the grass successfully to the terrain (although not well aligned with the terrain)

[Isaac]

Hi @hurbivore,

To understand further the issue, could you please send me screenshots of what the Flora Terrain Tile setup (located on the terrain) looks like with the Detail Scriptable Object attached in the Flora Renderers tab? Here is an example:

Also, what does the Detail Scriptable Object Settings look like? There might be a value within it that makes it not show up.

[hurbivore]

@IsaacSorry for the delay. I've actually updated to Gaia Pro 2023 to see if that would help but now I've noticed that there's no Flora option. Is there no option for Flora in Gaia Pro 2023? And sorry for making this more confusing 😅

[Peter]

@hurbivore There is good news and there is bad news regarding the new Gaia version & Flora 😉

The bad news is: Flora does not exist in Gaia Pro 2023 anymore: Since unity added their own native GPU instanced grass rendering system, we discontinued it, especially since the setup and the difference between design time and runtime was a bit confusing.

The good news is that this should potentially fix your issue since you can now instead use that native GPU instanced rendering system to render the vegetation instead. What you need to do is to use the "GPU instanced" checkbox in the Resource settings for the detail spawner, then supply a prefab that you want to render for that grass item.

The prefab needs to be simple, LOD groups are not supported. The shader on the prefab needs to support instancing - if the stylized grass shader is not compatible, you can use the Terrain detail shaders that come with Gaia instead.

Please see step 11 in the migration guide for more info & screenshots:

https://canopy.procedural-worlds.com/library/tools/gaia-pro-2021/written-articles/30_installation__getting_started/migrating-from-gaia-2021-to-gaia-2023-r160/

 

[hurbivore]

@Peter Thanks for the explanation Peter. That's a shame! I was hoping to add different LOD groups using Flora (which I understood could be done?)  I've had a look through the guide but I also recall seeing a GPU instanced option in Gaia 2021. Is that the same thing?

[Bryan]

In the spawner its marked GPU Instance which would tie into the new Unity instance indirect system. 
Flora was instance indirect as well but as peter mentioned is no longer in Gaia. 
So in terms of Unity, it's the same, flora it's slightly different. 

[hurbivore]

@Bryan Sweet that makes sense. Thanks!

[Bryan]

No problem! 

If you are happy with the support we have provided and with the asset, could you please consider leaving a review on the Unity asset store? It would help us out a ton! 

[hurbivore]

Will do!