Unity plugin + VFX Graph

Since the DepthKit Unity plugin does not run on the HD Render Pipeline, and the VFX Graph only runs on the HD Render Pipeline, I am shut out of creating powerful effects.

Is there an ETA for Depthkit + HDRP?

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Hey Nick, so glad you posted about this. We are actively developing Depthkit integration with the VFX graph for much more flexibility in creating your own aesthetic. What kind of effects do you have in mind?

Hi Jillian,
Seven years ago there was this recording built using three synced kinect point cloud files taken into 3DMax (rendered as Krakatoa particles) .

https://vimeo.com/38874664

https://www.onformative.com/work/unnamed-soundsculpture/

Itā€™s become quite famous. What interests me about this is how the particles (vector3 points, if I have it correctly) have a physics characteristicā€“simple gravity for example.

Concerning VFX Graph in the HDRPipeline:

I work exclusively in VR and I do not think I can build out any project at 90FPS using the HDRP; perhaps Unityā€™s VR Lightweight Render Pipeline might work. I assume so. In either case, DepthKit has not yet been written for these render pipelines.

I read your posting about DepthKit integration into Unityā€™s shader graph. That looks promising. Iā€™ve never written a shader, and Iā€™m new to programming except for C# in Unity. Iā€™m an artist, theatrical professional, and composer using Unity since 2013.

Concerning my project:

The aesthetics of the depthKit clips fit well in a surreal or futurist scenario. Consequently Iā€™ve written a narrative that might work well in that context. Iā€™d like to have more compelling effects for the ā€˜charactersā€™ in my scenario, additional ways for them to become disembodied. Iā€™m putting the mp4 texture into Adobe AfterEffects today to see what might be possible with the rgb texture only.

Iā€™m anxious to create something substantial, something more than what appears to be ā€˜fooling around with the new techā€™ ā€“ if that makes sense.

Thank you for the quick reply.

It means a lot,

Nick

Hey Nick! Thanks so much for sharing. Our new developments with the up coming version of the Depthkit plugin would be perfect for what you are describing. We will keep you updated with all news and developments, stay tuned!

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Additonally @NickVenden I recommend you checking out Keijiroā€™s repo here for a taste of what Depthkit will be like in the VFX graph. You can go ahead and get started learning the tool, even though it doesnā€™t directly support your target platform yet:

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@kkukshtel
Thank you for the information.

I imported Keijiroā€™s Unity ā€œSkinnerā€ package and made some Skinner body/mesh objects with animation. The objects need a skinned mesh componentā€“which is referenced for the runtime fx rendering. (If Iā€™m saying this correctly.)
His instruction: https://github.com/keijiro/Skinner
QUESTION:
Do I have access to the mesh of the DepthKit objects?
If soā€“and if they are low poly enough or could be decimatedā€“I could create Keijiroā€™s effects on the DepthKit objects.

@NickVenden For the DKVFX repo you donā€™t need to use meshes and can use the Depthkit Combined Per Pixel video directly. If youā€™re using Skinner, as you mentioned it needs an actual mesh, which isnā€™t provided by Depthkit in Unity right now. Our new SDK is much better about this, but it isnā€™t exactly the same as just getting a mesh.

For now I recommend using the Dkvfx repo instead of trying to do anything with meshes in Unity.

@kkukshtel
I did not have any success with Keijiro Dkvfx-master


There are Git package dependencies (Git support on Package Manager) and other issues with the repo which, for me, make it impossible to use.
Thank you.

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Any luck on using Dkvfx-master ? Iā€™m trying it out for the first time and could use some help, thanks!

@NickVenden I dinā€™t get it working yet but you can clear those errors by changing the manifest file in the Packages folder, see here: https://github.com/keijiro/Dkvfx

Note that the scopedRegisteries need square brackets and a following comma like this ā€¦

ā€œscopedRegistriesā€:[{
ā€œnameā€: ā€œKeijiroā€,
ā€œurlā€: ā€œhttps://registry.npmjs.comā€,
ā€œscopesā€: [ ā€œjp.keijiroā€ ]
}],

Hi all,

Since this is such a popular thread, I wanted to post an exciting update here. We now have full support for Unity VFX Graph (as well as Shader Graph including HDRP & URP) in our Expansion Package for Unity.

Check out the details here: Unity Expansion Package