Gaming Creating an ocean exploration simulator

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Bruce: My GitHub username is thamstras, if you want to add me to the repository. I'll take a crack this evening at getting some things going.

Done.

General question though, what exactly does unity expect as a mesh format if not 3ds?

 

[Loru]

He said that wavefront OBJ is supported... Which is cool, because the format is relatively simple, so I am reasonably confident that I can build a converter for NOAA data.

Unity supports RAW heightmaps.

General question though, what exactly does unity expect as a mesh format if not 3ds?

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/3D-formats.html

And basic terrain

 

[meson800]

Looking at the repo, do we really want binary assets in there? Seems like a good way to quickly grow repo size...

 

[Urwumpe]

Looking at the repo, do we really want binary assets in there? Seems like a good way to quickly grow repo size...

How else?

 

[Woo482]

The fog density needs tweaking, but it works :shrug:

 

[meson800]

How else?

Within Unity, press Edit > Project Settings > Editor. In your inspector window you will see the Editor Settings for your project, under “Version Control” set the mode to Meta Files.

This will tell Unity to generate a small file for each object in your project (everything; Scripts, Prefabs, Textures, you name it, it metas it). Now, when an asset is modified in the editor, only the asset and it’s associated meta file will report changes, instead of the entire Library folder.

And then Asset Serialization, set it’s mode to “Force Text”. This will output Unity levels as an YAML document instead of a binary file

That's from an article on using Unity with Git--I haven't finished installing Unity yet, but there evidently is an option to output as text.

---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7atj1yM8NA

Procrastination: Underwater edition II - YouTube The fog density needs tweaking, but it works :shrug:

Those look good. What were they created with? (Obviously with Unity, but with our repo?)

 

[Loru]

Those look good. What were they created with? (Obviously with Unity, but with our repo?)

Nope - I made a model today and played with Unity's terrain engine for 10 minutes.

 

[meson800]

Ok, Unity noob here...

I cloned the repo and went to open existing project in Unity, but when I navigate to the repo, I get the error "Selected folder is not a Unity project".

What am I doing wrong?

 

[jangofett287]

A) Make sure your on the develop branch.
B) I think the repo might be missing a folder. Specifically "Library". I don't know enough about Unity to know if its needed, or if the editor can rebuild it.

---------- Post added at 04:24 ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 ----------

Ok, The editor does regen the library, not keeping it would make the repo smaller, but without it opening the project might start to become a slog.

 

[meson800]

A) Make sure your on the develop branch.

Doh.


I changed the mode to "Force text", and it added a bunch of text .meta files. I'll see if it works without the other files.

 

[Urwumpe]

I don't think "force text" will make a big difference in the end... contrary, should we ever get into conflicts, we might enjoy some "fun" there.

 

[kamaz]

Had a look at NOAA bathymetry DEMs:

- the "hi-res" DEM is 30m grid... hope that's not too low for our purposes?

- the data format seems quite arcane and will take me a few days to deal with (30M text file, one line, fixed-length fields and some strange header in front)

 

[Urwumpe]

Had a look at NOAA bathymetry DEMs:

- the "hi-res" DEM is 30m grid... hope that's not too low for our purposes?

- the data format seems quite arcane and will take me a few days to deal with (30M text file, one line, fixed-length fields and some strange header in front)

I think its no problem ... we could write a tool to preprocess the data and turn it into something better for our purposes.

Also a 30 m grid DEM is already a pretty large region, so its IMHO at least a great way to start.

Which region of the oceans would be your favorite?

 

[Loru]

Guam - there is Mariana Trench nearby

 

[kamaz]

Sure I can write a tool, I'm just saying that it will take me a few days, because I have to figure out the data format.

Scratch that, it looks like I have found something which is easier to digest:

- US coasts at 1 arcsec resolution:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/coastal/crm.html

- global coverage at 1 arcmin resolution:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html

...the highest resolution DEMs are of US coastal areas, so I think that's what we have to start with.

Downloading now, will see what it's worth...

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, I wonder about using three render passes right now:

Above surface
submerged
VC

All with different settings.....

EDIT: Correction.. I would need five cameras to choose.

Above surface as seen from above the surface
Above surface as seen from below the surface
Below surface as seen from above the surface
Below surface as seen from below the surface
VC

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Unity supports RAW heightmaps.



http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/3D-formats.html

And basic terrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7atj1yM8NA

You are a super-hero, Loru! :lol:

That Unity designer makes me feel like I wasted a lot of time some years ago teaching myself OpenGL. Looks the biz.

The mention of the Mariana Trench brought this old thing to mind.



Sorry it is a very rough mesh, I threw it together in 30 minutes for a laugh on Anim8or. And no, I am not proposing to volunteer it as a third party add-on, or even take it any further than it is, but it is a vessel that fascinated me, in pictures, since before I could read properly. I would love to be able to contribute to this project, but there's a small thing called being over-worked and having no time, not even to make much progress with a B-58 mesh I am committed to and still only able to give minutes to every odd week.

Just want to say, great job all, and best of luck. This project is looking so cool!

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Well, I wonder about using three render passes right now:

Above surface
submerged
VC

All with different settings.....

EDIT: Correction.. I would need five cameras to choose.

Above surface as seen from above the surface
Above surface as seen from below the surface
Below surface as seen from above the surface
Below surface as seen from below the surface
VC

Ummm, that sounds quite sensible, no objections here

so I fought my way through the unity installation (some crap about license files that I had to retrieve...) and loaded up the project folder as a unity folder. I dont see anything out of the ordinary, just the normal assets. So the project at this point is just some unity autogenerated project files?

I am not quite sure where to go from here, probably some tutorials will help.

 

[Urwumpe]

So the project at this point is just some unity autogenerated project files?

Yes, I am mostly experimenting right now to find out how to utilize Unity for the project. I just created the project as far as I know it right now and now try to find out, what to know next. Luckily, there is Loru.

 

[jangofett287]

Reminder to all: If your using GitHub for windows, after you make a commit you need to press the sync button to push it to the repo. Someone said above that they had set the project to text meta files, but that's not been pushed to the repo. Also be sure to fully exit out of Unity and MonoDevelop before making a commit, 'cause temp files. Finally, if I'm going to start work on a first attempt a physics, is it best for me to work on my own branch or the develop branch?