Changelog

Version 2.2.0 (Apr 3, 2024)

• Introduce new LOD Beam Group component to dynamically switch between different beams' qualities to improve performance.

Version 2.1.3 (Dec 11, 2023)

• The VolumetricDustParticles Culling feature is now using the FadeOut Camera (identified through the VLB Config's Fade Out Camera Tag property) instead of the Unity's Main Camera.
• Order components in the Add Component menu under a VLB category.
• Fix BeamGeometry sub-GameObject duplicated sometimes when adding and removing specific components on a beam.
• Fix shader warning dot2 implicit truncation of vector type that could happened in Unity 2023.

Version 2.1.2 (Nov 1, 2023)

• Auto refresh all beams and their depth buffer cameras when editing the Custom renderer index for Depth Camera property.

Version 2.1.1 (Sep 18, 2023)

• Fix minor warnings on new Unity versions.
• Installer improvements.

Version 2.1.0 (Aug 25, 2023)

• Introduce new Effect from Profile component and Effect Profile asset system.
• Fix Volumetric Light Beam HD inspector not showing when selecting a prefab asset in the project browser.

Version 2.0.2 (Apr 8, 2023)

• Introduce Installer asset to facilitate the upgrade to newer versions of the plugin.
• Move the plugin's files from Assets/Plugins/VolumetricLightBeam to Assets/VolumetricLightBeam.
• Remove the Volumetric Light Beam assembly definition asmdef.
• Add Custom renderer index for Depth Camera feature to specify a custom Renderer index used by the depth cameras when using URP.
• Add Copy Debug Info and Clear Asset Store Cache buttons in Config inspector.

Version 2.0.1 (Jan 19, 2023)

• Fix crash happening when undoing placing a beam in prefab mode with some specific Unity versions (around 2021.3 and 2022.1).
• Fix adding beam from context menu when in prefab mode not being placed properly.
• Fix "Setting a Texture property to a GPU instanced material is not supported" error popping when using GPU Instancing sometimes.
• Fix GPU Instancing sometimes broken for HD Beams in standalone builds.

Version 2.0 (Dec 03, 2022)

• Add new Volumetric Light Beam HD implementation with advanced features such as Volumetric Shadow and Volumetric Cookie support.

Version 1.99b (Aug 22, 2022)

• Add an option to restore beam's base intensity during flickering pauses.
• Optimize editor code accessing Config instance.
• Fix beam not hidden when disabling the VolumetricLightBeam component while the Fade Out feature is active.
• Fix Dynamic Occlusion Raycasting broken with 2D beams.

Version 1.99 (Apr 25, 2022)

• Fix Dynamic Occlusion Depth Buffer being a bit off when using 4-sided beams.
• Add package.json file to support standalone package, so you can import it using the package manager.

Version 1.98 (Jan 23, 2022)

• Add full Light Color Temperature support.
  
• Add Intensity multiplier, Spot Angle multiplier, Limit Range Max Distance multiplier feature.
• Add Camera Exposure support for HDRP.
• Improve support of beam's GameObject scaling.
• Fix Dynamic Occlusion Depth Buffer with beams scaled negatively.

Version 1.97 (Nov 12, 2021)

• Add Editor options to toggle on/off scene visibility and pickability of all beams in your scene.
  
• Fix and delete remaining sub-GameObjects when duplicating a beam in the editor with a Dynamic Occlusion (Depth Buffer) component.

Version 1.96 (Oct 20, 2021)

• Add new "Edit in Scene View" feature to tweak some beam's properties directly in the 3D view using convenient gizmos.
  
• Minor Editor UI improvements.
• Fix broken documentation URLs.

Version 1.95 (Jun 14, 2021)

• Speed up loading by switching Noise 3D texture to real Texture 3D asset.
• Minor improvements on shader hot reloading.
• Drop support of Unity 5 and 2017.

Version 1.94 (Apr 12, 2021)

• Add a new collection of runtime effects (Flicker and Pulse components) to apply cool strobe and flashing FX on your Lights and Volumetric Beams in a couple of clicks.
• Convert DustParticles Spawning Min Distance and Spawning Max Distance to a single Spawning Distance Range.
• Tons of Editor UI cleanup and improvements with shortened inspector windows and new icons.
• Lot of code optimization to make update functions faster and GC Alloc free.

Version 1.93 (Mar 29, 2021)

• Fix support of Blending with Opaque Geometry feature with orthographic cameras when running on WebGL build & URP.
• Fix support of Dynamic Occlusion (Depth Buffer) feature when running on WebGL build & URP.
• Remove max limit for beam's Intensity property.
• Introduce new plugin's logo.

Version 1.92 (Mar 01, 2021)

• Improve support of GPU Instancing with features enabling/disabling system: disabling specific features will allow to batch more beams together and improve performance.

Version 1.91 (Feb 09, 2021)

• Add Config asset override per platform feature.
• Add error message when trying to tweak beam's outside and inside intensity independently without advanced intensity mode enabled.
• Improve plugin's resource loading in editor.

Version 1.90 (Jan 11, 2021)

• Add different options in Config asset to disable specific features to speedup build export time.
• Improve Trigger Zone's mesh when working with 4 sided beams.
• Improve rendering of Soft Intersection Blending with camera.

Version 1.89 (Dec 08, 2020)

• Add Beam's Shader Accuracy feature.
• Add Beam's Tilt Factor feature.
• Fix support of ScalableBuffers with URP.
• Fix support of Blending with Opaque Geometry feature with orthographic cameras.
• Fix Config asset not always properly saved when automatically setting the Render Pipeline property when importing the plugin for the first time in a URP or HDRP project.

Version 1.88 (Nov 18, 2020)

• Add Beam's Skewing Factor feature.
• Add Skewing Handle helper.
• Add Local Space and World Space directions support for dust particles, in addition to full control of their velocity.

Version 1.87 (Nov 03, 2020)

• Improve feedback when using wrong Render Pipeline option.
• Various optimizations.
• fix GetInsideBeamFactorFromObjectSpacePos function with 2D beams.

Version 1.86 (Sep 21, 2020)

• Add Screen Space Dithering option to smooth color banding issues.
• Fix Exponential and Exponential squared fog wrongly applied with URP.

Version 1.85 (Sep 04, 2020)

• Fix shader compilation error happening with URP and Vulkan on Unity 2020.1.2 or higher.

Version 1.84 (Aug 24, 2020)

• Improve 2D support: add a new Dimensions property on the beam to control either it will be generated along the Z or X axis.
• The TriggerZone component will now generate a 2D Polygon Collider instead of a 3D Mesh Collider for 2D beams.
• Rename enum OccluderDimensions to Dimensions.
• Improve support of LWRP.

Version 1.83 (Jul 23, 2020)

• Speed up build export time by generating only the necessary shader.
• Add full SRP Batcher support.
• Detect the render pipeline is use when installing the plugin and automatically set the proper Render Pipeline setting.
• The plugin's shader variants keywords are now declared in local and do not contribute towards Unity’s global keyword count limit anymore.
• Fix non-breaking errors that could happen when exporting URP builds:

failed to open source file: 'Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition/Runtime/ShaderLibrary/ShaderVariables.hlsl'

• Fix GPU Instancing that could be disabled in exporting builds while working in the editor.

Version 1.82 (May 25, 2020)

• Add support of Editor scene visibility and picking. It requires Unity 2019.3.14 or higher though.
• Fix possible shader error undeclared identifier '_DynamicOcclusionDepthTexture' that could happen randomly with GPU Instancing enabled.

Version 1.81 (May 04, 2020)

• Fix support of Single Pass (Multiview or Instanced) Stereo Rendering on mobile VR devices (Oculus Go, Oculus/Meta Quest) with Unity 2019.3 or higher following this internal fix.
• Improve Fog support

Version 1.80 (Mar 31, 2020)

• Introduce a new and more advanced Dynamic Occlusion feature: Dynamic Occlusion (Depth Buffer)
• Give more control over performance by adding more properties to Dynamic Occlusion feature.
• Fix some issues related to Dynamic Occlusion occurring in Unity 2019.3.6 with HDRP.
• Fix beams not movable without trackChangesDuringPlaytime enabled with SRP & GPU Instancing.
• Performance improvements with SRP.
• Improve support of Unity 2020.1

Version 1.77 (Feb 25, 2020)

• Improve support of both HDRP and URP by using their native API.
• Fix glitchy beams when having both the scene view and the game view opened in editor when using HDRP or URP.

Version 1.76 (Feb 14, 2020)

• Fix support of HDRP with Unity 2019.3 or above.
• Dust Particles sub-GameObjects will now be generated with the same static editor flags than the Volumetric Light Beam GameObject itself.
• Fix compilation warning occurring on Unity 2019.2 or above.
• Fade Out feature can now be enabled at runtime.
• Fix issue when trying to create a Config Override asset during playtime.
• Prevent reflection probes from breaking GPU Instancing.
• Fix some artifacts visible when the beam's cap is too close to some opaque geometry.

Version 1.75 (Nov 25, 2019)

• Beam's meshes will now be generated with the same static editor flags than the Volumetric Light Beam GameObject itself, allowing beams to be visible in baked Reflection Probes.

Version 1.74 (Oct 31, 2019)

• Add Min Distance's Dust Particles property.
• Fix UI issue appearing in new Prefab window.
• Fix assert triggered when hot reloading scripts.

Version 1.73 (Sep 20, 2019)

• Add Dynamic Occlusion's Fade Distance Units property.
• Optimize Dynamic Occlusion memory usage.
• Improve Editor UI and fix compatibility with Unity 2019.3.

Version 1.72 (Aug 02, 2019)

• Fix depth blending not properly computed in some cases with HDRP and GPU Instancing.
• Fix support of ScalableBufferManager.ResizeBuffers.
• Fix Editor UI exception Getting control 2's position in a group with only 2 controls when doing mouseDown.

Version 1.71 (Jul 03, 2019)

• Fix rendering issue occurring in Editor when using custom SRP and GPU Instancing Rendering Mode.
• Fix shaders not properly initialized with SRP in Editor until play-mode is entered at least one time.
• Add new Local Space 3D Noise mode.
• Various shader optimizations.

Version 1.70 (Jun 05, 2019)

• Introduce a better way to modify Configuration properties to prevent your local changes from being overridden each time you update the plugin.
• Fix support of Render Scale and Dynamic Resolution with LWRP.

Version 1.64 (May 06, 2019)

• Add Fade Out feature.
• Rename Volumetric Light Beam properties fadeStart & fadeEnd to fallOffStart & fallOffEnd.

Version 1.63 (Apr 23, 2019)

• Fix support of Unity 2019.1.0.
• The Volumetric Light Beam class is now declared as partial to ease extending it.

Version 1.62 (Mar 12, 2019)

• Fix Single Pass Instanced Stereo Rendering Method in VR.
• Fix beams switching on and off randomly in rare cases with GPU Instancing enabled on standalone builds.
• Fix Dynamic Occlusion wrongly computed on scaled beams.
• Add new Consider Triggers property on Dynamic Occlusion to specify if a beam should also be occluded by triggers or not.
• Improve loading time on exported builds.
• Editor inspector UI improvements.

Version 1.61 (Jan 07, 2019)

• Improve SRP support when using HDRP or LWRP version 4.0.0 or higher.
• Rename beam's Alpha properties to intensity.
• Beam's intensity can now be binded to Unity's spotlight intensity property.
• Square beams (beams with 4 sided geometry) are now properly oriented.

Version 1.60 (Dec 10, 2018)

• New GPU Instancing feature: dynamically batch multiple beams to combine and reduce draw calls.
• Change the Force Single-Pass Config's property to Rendering Mode property.
• Dynamic Occlusion is now fully compatible with 2D objects: a 2D sprite can occlude volumetric light beams.
• Now properly supports mirrors and reflections using render-to-texture camera with oblique near-plane projection matrix.

Version 1.52 (Nov 5, 2018)

• The Layer specified in the Config on which the procedural beams are created is now optional.
• Fix shader errors on some iOS devices when using Metal API.
• Fix compilation issues with Unity 2019.1 alpha.

Version 1.51 (Sep 12, 2018)

• Fully supports the Lightweight Render Pipeline (LWRP) and the High Definition Pipeline (HDRP) introduced in Unity 2018.1 with the Scriptable Render Pipeline experimental feature. Check the Render Pipeline page to learn the steps to follow.
• Prevent spike from happening when the 1st beam is instantiated by loading the 3D Noise texture at startup.

Version 1.50 (Aug 20, 2018)

• Massive performance optimization. You can expect between a 1.5x and 3x speed boost.
• New Shared Mesh feature bringing drastic memory footprint improvements, which can be controlled project-wise or per beam.
• Add Render Queue customization in the configuration file.
• Dynamic Occlusion improvements via 2 new Occluder Surface properties.
• Add a temp workaround to handle HDRP until full custom SRP support in future update.

Version 1.42 (Jul 20, 2018)

• Add TriggerZone feature designed to track objects passing through the light beam and to track when the beam is passing over them.

Version 1.41 (Jul 2, 2018)

• Add Blending Mode feature.

Version 1.40 (May 16, 2018)

• Fix color gradient feature on devices with Shader Model 3.0 capabilities.
• Fix various minor rendering artifacts on low-end platforms such as mobile.

Version 1.39 (May 2, 2018)

• Restore Alpha Inside / Outside properties
• Code clean up
• Minor improvements and optimizations

Version 1.38 (Apr 6, 2018)

• Fix visual artefacts appearing on cap geometry mainly on iOS platforms.
• API improvements

Version 1.37 (Mar 19, 2018)

• You can now customize the Tag applied to the generated beams from the configuration file.

Version 1.36 (Mar 9, 2018)

• Add Gradient Color feature.
• Merge "Inside Alpha" and "Outside Alpha" properties into one unique "Alpha" property.

Version 1.35 (Feb 24, 2018)

• add "Sorting Layers" and "Order in Layer" properties which determine the render order, to be able to mix Volumetric Light Beams with 2D Sprites.

Version 1.34 (Feb 2, 2018)

• 'trackChangesDuringPlaytime' property can now be changed in real-time.
• All properties are now properly clamped when changed during playtime from script and/or animator.
• Editor UI improvements.

Version 1.33 (Jan 18, 2018)

• Add '3D Noise' support on mobile devices. Now the limitation is the following: 3D Noise feature requires shader capabilities equal or higher than Shader Model 3.5 / OpenGL ES 3.0. Any mobile devices released after 2012 should support it.
• Fix '3D Noise' bug not appearing in editor's scene view with WebGL set as the current platform.
• Improve scripting API: you can now change any properties just after instantiating a new beam from script, without having to call any other methods.
• Improve compatibility with Unity 2018 beta.
• Fix issues when compiling shaders with STEREO_MULTIVIEW_ON.

Version 1.32 (Dec 27, 2017)

• Add Dynamic Occlusion feature.
• UI and performance improvements.

Version 1.31 (Dec 16, 2017)

• Performance improvements.
• UI improvements (realtime infos in 'Volumetric Dust Particles' inspector).
• Noise3D workaround because of a bug in Unity Editor (not happening in build) when WebGL is the current platform.

Version 1.30 (Dec 3, 2017)

• Add Volumetric Dust Particles feature.
• Add Attenuation Equation feature, to choose between linear (legacy), quadratic (realistic) or blend (custom mix between linear and quadratic) attenuation formula.
• Fix beams not properly rendered with orthographic cameras (including editor scene view camera).

Version 1.20 (Nov 22, 2017)

• Drastically improve beam rendering when looking at it from behind and from inside.
• Merge properties fresnelPowInside and fresnelPowOutside to fresnelPow.
• Remove property boostDistanceInside
• Add properties glareFrontal (which replace boostDistanceInside) and glareBehind

Version 1.13 (Nov 15, 2017)

• Fix auto property update when tweaking Spotlight properties from Editor Inspector
• Fix message saying that Noise3D was't properly loaded when opening the configuration file from editor before creating a VLB without Noise3D enabled
• add VLB coneVolume readonly property

Version 1.12 (Nov 10, 2017)

• Improve multi-object editing feature

Version 1.11 (Nov 5, 2017)

• Support property changes during Playtime: you can now dynamically animate every properties of the beam and/or the spotlight via Script, Animator or Timeline. Make sure to check the new 'trackChangesDuringPlaytime' property to enable this feature.
• Performance improvements

Version 1.10 (Oct 25, 2017)

• add 3D Noise feature to simulate dynamic and volumetric fog, mist and smoke.
• add multi-object editing support.
• improve global configuration file, with global noise properties and geometry layer ID.
• major optimizations thanks to shader's multi compile.

Version 1.00 (Oct 3, 2017)

• First release