Vegetation and shader bugs

[eX Software]

Hello.
All these major issues can be described as a single sequence of actions that led to them (I've previously reported some of them in the chat):

1) In most cases (at least 9/10 times in my experience), when creating a new terrain in a level and adding a vegetation layer, objects in this layer remain invisible but appear in the game mode. Attempting to generate Global Illumination on this editor session causes a crash. However, after reopening the editor and map again, everything works as expected;
2) Two-sided textures in vegetation layers are bugged (causes flickering);
3) If a texture without the necessary properties for usage on terrain is assigned to the terrain, heightmap changes will be invisible, as expected. However, in this case, attempting to open such a map in game mode consistently causes a crash (perhaps the cause is different, but for me, the crash always happened in this sequence of events);
4) The map doesn't open on my configuration (GTX 1060) if shadow quality is set to Ultra or Very High (editor crash);
5) Lighting is bugged when SSLR is enabled in the settings (color artifacts from light objects);
6) At a 1280x720 resolution with SSAO enabled, a black line appears on the floor about a meter from the player and follows them continuously;
7) Firing a weapon causes micro-freezes and severe performance drops until the shooting is finished.

Additional requests that are crucial for proper workflow:

1) Fluttering vegetation shaders should be assignable in branch, bush, and grass materials, along with dynamic shadow shaders for them (similar to Leadwerks);
2) Allow decimal values in the Density setting for vegetation layers (this was possible in Leadwerks 4.x).

I'm attaching a link to a map where you can see all these problems (you'll need the Nature Starter Pack to launch). As I understand it, at the moment the map will not launch in game mode and will crash due to the third point: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xQ-TiN-0Ok08WKn9OFih8BOKMrmEjpEH/view?usp=sharing
 

[eX Software]

It's strange, my topic doesn't show up in bug reports at all. I'll just leave a new message so it appears higher in the list. I hope the team haven't forgotten about my request. Most of these problems are fundamental and significantly delay us in transferring projects from LE 4.6 to the new engine.

[Josh]

Hi,

Your thread is not lost. There is an option to filter the topics so that only unsolved issues are shown. This is how I keep track of reports:
https://www.ultraengine.com/community/forum/120-bug-reports/?filter=unsolved_topics

The main reason this has not been solved yet is because it has many different issues packed into one thread, and it seems like a complex topic, so every time I look at the reports, there is usually something else I can solve more easily. However, as the number of unsolved reports gets smaller, the average difficulty is getting harder, and your issue will get solved sooner or later. I can't say exactly when because I don't know how long the remaining issues will take to solve.

[Josh]

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

1) In most cases (at least 9/10 times in my experience), when creating a new terrain in a level and adding a vegetation layer, objects in this layer remain invisible but appear in the game mode. Attempting to generate Global Illumination on this editor session causes a crash. However, after reopening the editor and map again, everything works as expected;

I cannot produce this error. Here is a test using the free nature pack DLC. meshlayertest.zip

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

2) Two-sided textures in vegetation layers are bugged (causes flickering);

Yes, this is a known problem I will probably fix this week. I think this is the same issue:

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

3) If a texture without the necessary properties for usage on terrain is assigned to the terrain, heightmap changes will be invisible, as expected. However, in this case, attempting to open such a map in game mode consistently causes a crash (perhaps the cause is different, but for me, the crash always happened in this sequence of events);

I don't understand this description.

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

4) The map doesn't open on my configuration (GTX 1060) if shadow quality is set to Ultra or Very High (editor crash);

This is not surprising. These increased the shadow resolution to very big sizes. The setting has been replaced with a more explicit percentage setting (50%, 100%, 200%, etc.) but it would not surprise me if a GEForce 1060 runs out of memory on some of the higher settings still.

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

5) Lighting is bugged when SSLR is enabled in the settings (color artifacts from light objects);

I don't see any effect of screen-space reflection at all in my scene posted above, because all the materials have high roughness. I will need an example to test with and a screenshot, so I know what I am looking for.

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

6) At a 1280x720 resolution with SSAO enabled, a black line appears on the floor about a meter from the player and follows them continuously;

Tried adding the SSAO effect in the editor, but I don't see anything odd.

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

7) Firing a weapon causes micro-freezes and severe performance drops until the shooting is finished.

This seems unrelated. What code is this weapon using? Is it loading any files dynamically? What aspect of performance actually drops? The framerate? The update speed?

[Josh]

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

2) Two-sided textures in vegetation layers are bugged (causes flickering);

Issue is now fixed.

[eX Software]

Points 2, 3, and 6 have been fixed and can no longer be reproduced. Thanks.

As for point 4, well, it's quite likely due to excessive GPU load, although I have 6 GB of VRAM and a small test map that keeps crashing.

Regarding points 1, 5, and 7, I decided to reproduce the issues in a private YouTube video for clarity. Everything was tested on a completely clean FPS project (with Nature Pack DLC) after updating the engine to the latest testing version and pre-cleaning the ProgramData files.

By the way, I keep forgetting to mention an annoying bug with the "sticking" show navmesh function. When launching the editor for the first time, the navmesh is forcibly displayed, even though, as seen in the footage for point 1, the checkbox for the function is turned off. I have to toggle it twice on the vid to finally turn it off.

 

[Josh]

8 hours ago, eX Software said:

By the way, I keep forgetting to mention an annoying bug with the "sticking" show navmesh function. When launching the editor for the first time, the navmesh is forcibly displayed, even though, as seen in the footage for point 1, the checkbox for the function is turned off. I have to toggle it twice on the vid to finally turn it off.

It is very likely I will not remember this if it is just a comment on an unrelated thread.

[Josh]

@eX SoftwareIn your video, the console shows a lot of "Failed to load shader family" errors. This is very suspicious. If the meshlayer shaders are not found at startup the vegetation won't appear.

[Josh]

The problem with screen-space reflections has been fixed.

 

[Josh]

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

7) Firing a weapon causes micro-freezes and severe performance drops until the shooting is finished.

I created a scene with the FPS player with a weapon and a terrain, no mesh layers.

terraintest.zip

When I first fire the gun there is a pause for several seconds. This is probably due to some collision shape being initialized for the first time. The gun should not use one, but it could be by accident. After the initial pause, the speed remains fast while shooting.

I can only see this effect in the debug build. The release build might be doing it, but if so it is barely noticeable.

[Josh]

The pause you are seeing is caused by additional resources being loaded the first time the weapon is fired, probably primarily the extra shader family. The solution is to move this code into the Start method so they get loaded at startup and not while the game is running.

Loading material "Materials/Decals/Bullet Holes/Concrete/bullethole_concrete.mat"
Loading texture "Materials/Decals/Bullet Holes/Concrete/bullethole_concrete.dds"
Loading texture "Materials/Decals/Bullet Holes/Concrete/bullethole_concrete_norm.dds"
Loading material "Materials/Particles/smoke.mat"
Loading texture "Materials/Particles/smoke.dds"
Loading shader family "Shaders/Lambertian.fam"

The C++ and Lua components will be updated in the next build to solve this issue.

[Josh]

On 2/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, eX Software said:

1) In most cases (at least 9/10 times in my experience), when creating a new terrain in a level and adding a vegetation layer, objects in this layer
5) Lighting is bugged when SSLR is enabled in the settings (color artifacts from light objects);

1. You appear to be somehow missing shader family files, which means you are probably also missing the Shaders/MeshLayer/Culling.comp file. If this file is not found when the editor starts it will not be able to display vegetation at all.
2. SSR issue is fixed. I do not know how to produce the blue flashes that are appearing on your screen unless you upload the project, or at least the map and shader files you are using.

[eX Software]

Thanks. I'll try something with the project, maybe recreate it in another folder. Well, if this list is finished, I should mark this topic as closed?
Of all the problems that I didn't add in the main list, there's also the problem with Show Nav Mesh function, which has to be toggled as in the video at the first launch - it's technically enabled, but the checkbox is disabled.

[Josh]

I am not able to produce this error. I start the editor with the Show Navmeshes menu item unchecked. Open tha attached map. The nav mesh does not show. Then I click the Show Navmeshes menu, it becomes checked, and the navmesh shows.

navtest.zip

[eX Software]

Yes, I get different shader misses. I install the latest testing version, check the cache in Steam and create a new project in another folder (not in Documents, but in C:\Games), but the "Shaders" folder doesn't appear in the editor folder at all. Very strange. I have the standard Ultra version, not Pro.

[eX Software]

I just checked terraintest.map. Yes, it helped, micro freezes and fps drops when shooting are now fixed. The SSLR bug also no longer appears after the latest updates. As for the navmesh bug: after switching once after creating a new project, it usually no longer occurs later. Of course, it's interesting why it could occur at all. It seems to have been there since my first tests of versions like 0.9.7 or earlier.

[Dreikblack]

54 minutes ago, eX Software said:

"Shaders" folder doesn't appear in the editor folder at all

Shaders are in a Project folder.

You can find it in the Editor in Templates\Common\Shaders if you need for manual copy-pasting to project

[eX Software]

6 hours ago, Dreikblack said:

Shaders are in a Project folder.

You can find it in the Editor in Templates\Common\Shaders if you need for manual copy-pasting to project

Thanks, but the thing is that the missings follow the editor's path, not the project's, which is what Josh noticed.

[Josh]

So when this happens, you must be starting with no project, so the program starts in the project manager?

[eX Software]

I demonstrated in this video how it works for me, literally from the moment of creating the project. The second launch of the editor immediately identifies the project and opens it automatically. I don't know why these missings are there in the console.

[Josh]

I can produce this behavior if I remove the shownavmeshes value from the settings file...so it's probably just not handling the default behavior correctly...

[Josh]

Okay, I just had to change this:

bool visible = true;
if (settings["shownavmeshes"].is_boolean()) visible = settings["shownavmeshes"];
SetNavmeshesVisible(visible);

To this:

bool visible = false;
if (settings["shownavmeshes"].is_boolean()) visible = settings["shownavmeshes"];
SetNavmeshesVisible(visible);

I believe that will solve the problem.

[Josh]

On 3/7/2025 at 11:02 AM, eX Software said:

Thanks. I'll try something with the project, maybe recreate it in another folder. Well, if this list is finished, I should mark this topic as closed?
Of all the problems that I didn't add in the main list, there's also the problem with Show Nav Mesh function, which has to be toggled as in the video at the first launch - it's technically enabled, but the checkbox is disabled.

I think everything here is resolved? If not, please feel free to create a new thread.