Procedural Ivy in Unity

Last summer we were involved in a really special project.
Niantic and Playcraft organized a Jam to test the Niantic AR framework called Lightship.
Our job was to create something using the Lightship API and provide them with feedback.
One of the main features we developed for our application was a procedural Ivy that covers the world around you.
Today we are going to show you how we created this on Unity.
Models:
sketchfab.com/3d-models/ancie...
www.mixamo.com/#/?page=1&type...
sketchfab.com/3d-models/old-r...
sketchfab.com/3d-models/besie...
sketchfab.com/3d-models/the-m...
GitHub:
github.com/ToughNutToCrack/Pr...
Discord:
/ discord
Instagram:
/ tntcproject
Twitter:
/ tntcproject
Twitch:
/ tntcstreaming
WEBSITE:
toughnuttocrack.it/
FACEBOOK:
/ toughnutocrack

[@b3armonk]

Words cannot describe how amazed am I at your channel's work. And you selflessly gave everything away for free! No gatekeeping! You are advancing the gaming industry forward!!!

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you so much for your words, too kind!

[@AlexBlackfrost]

Amazing work, guys, it looks great. I learnt a lot with your video!

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you Alex, glad you like it :)

[@Baraborn]

Awesome!

[@BarcelonaMove]

Wow thats crazy shit man!
Thank you a lot for sharing it without putting any paywall, you are dope!

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you so much, happy to be useful :D

[@xinoHITO]

This is incredible! Really amazing work! Hope this comment appeases the algorithm so more people see this!
PS. Just an idea... Imagine applying the ivy to surfaces to make them climbable or make a character climb on them.

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you so much, very kind!
Yeah, creating a concept around it is a great idea 🔥

[@mat-qt4fq]

So you generate all geometry directly after the initial cast, and then offset vertex positions and switch transparency on and off?

[@Pachink0P]

That looks great!!!!
Can it be used on editor or is it strict to runtime??
Can be a great level creation tool :)

[@TNTCProject]

Hey. You can use it at runtime and then use the fbx exporter to create a mesh with the selected objects 🙌

[@TNTCProject]

So yes, it is possible!

[@Pachink0P]

@@TNTCProject magnificeeeent

[@Dehakuzo]

Any tips for transferring this to URP? This work is amazing though, the ivy wraps so satisfyingly.

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you! The graph version of the shader should be pretty easy to implement, we would probably share an implementation in URP.

[@TNTCProject]

We've created a URP version of our Ivy shader using the shader graph. Hope this can be helpful :)
github.com/ToughNutToCrack/ProceduralIvy/releases/tag/URP

[@Dehakuzo]

@@TNTCProject Oh this is delightful, Thank you! The growing and blooming animations are delightful to see!

[@scraub8913]

I'm not at a point to use this, but I want to at some point. This is cool.

[@TNTCProject]

Thank you!!

[@quadriproduction]

Look greatGood Work but I see shaders are just for build in..Do you plan upgrades for urp and hdrp?

[@TNTCProject]

Thanks :)
Yeah, it is for the built-in, but the graph version should be pretty straightforward to implement in URP.
We will probably share a simple version of it :D

[@quadriproduction]

@@TNTCProject Thanks for reply..yeah use graph will be better than write pure hlsl because campatibility

[@TNTCProject]

@@quadriproduction We've created a URP version of our Ivy shader using the shader graph. Hope this can be helpful :)
github.com/ToughNutToCrack/ProceduralIvy/releases/tag/URP

[@jfotso]

How would you go about changing parts of mesh texture at runtime

[@mat-qt4fq]

You can access a Material and its shader at runtime. There you go, that's how you do it

[@Rafale25]

Couldn't you write the isOccluded function like this instead ?
bool isOccluded(Vector3 from, Vector3 to) {
Vector3 dir = to - from;
Ray ray = new Ray(from, dir.normalized);
return Physics.Raycast(ray, dir.magnitude);
}

[@jacquezkhmediumgamer2002]

So you can transfer this to Unreal Engine