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  • Danielle Elias

2D Hand Painted Desert Pack Manual & Support

Thank you for downloading the 2D Hand Painted Desert Pack, we hope it will boost your game! We designed this pack to contain everything required to create a visually stunning, immersive, and complete environment.

Supports Unity versions 2020.3 and later.

The following document should provide all you need to know to utilize everything the pack offers. Although we have invested significant efforts to provide you with the highest–quality product possible, in case you find something missing, unclear, or have a suggestion, please contact us – we are here to assist, help, and support!

Hopefully, you find this asset valuable; it will mean alot for us if you could kindly rate and share feedback at the Unity Asset Store – we read everything and strive to update the packages as quickly as we can.

Quick Navigation

Getting Started

Installing and configuring this asset is a straightforward and intuitive process. After importing the asset into Unity, the on-screen Installer window will guide you through a simple configuration process. The whole process is automated and performed by the Installer window, and it may take a few minutes.

Installation Steps

After configuring the Universal Render Pipeline and importing the asset into Unity, it will show the Installer window to guide you and configure the project on your behalf.
If the Installer window doesn’t show up, you can open it through the 2D Hand Painted/Install menu.

If you previously installed another pack from the 2D Hand Painted Bundle, the Installer window WILL NOT DISPLAY, and you should be ready to go!

The Installer process has four screens:

  1. Intro – Validate that your render pipeline isn’t configured correctly.
    If not configured properly, a message will appear with a link to a configuration manual; configure the render pipeline as described and upon Unity.
  2. Config – A few options to customize the installation process. It’s best to leave the options as displayed initially.
  3. Install – The performed tasks will be listed and marked when they are complete.
  4. Enjoy – That’s it! You can close the window now; everything is ready for you to start using this asset.

Render Pipeline

This asset requires the Universal Render Pipeline with a 2D Renderer.

Requirements

Besides the Universal (2D) Render Pipeline, there are no other requirements.

Using Sprite Shapes Profiles requires installing the 2D Sprite Shapes package.
The Installer window process will install the dependency on your behalf.
You may opt out of installing it.

Demo Scene

The Demo scene showcases the usage of the pack’s Prefabs, Shaders, and Sprite Shapes.
Navigate the scene at Play Mode using the Arrows or W A S D keys; use Left Shift or the Mouse Wheel to boost speed.

We recommend exploring how the scene is built as it’s a great place to start when looking to learn best practices to utilize all this pack has to offer.

Hierarchy

The scene is divided into three main layers GameObjects: Background, Midground, and Foreground; all Prefabs and Sprite Shapes are placed under one of the three layers.

Demo Scene – Hierarchy

Parallax

To achieve a brilliant Parallax effect, we configured the camera’s projection to Perspective instead of Orthographic.
To prevent Z-fighting (sprites jittering while the camera moves), please configure the 2D Renderer Data asset’s Transparency Sort Mode to Orthographic.

Lights

The demo scene is designed with rich lighting utilizing Unity’s rich 2D light features.

Prefabs

The Prefabs folder contains the main assets to use when working with this package. They are ready to drag and drop into the scene, pre-configured with sprites, materials, scripts, effects, etc.
The prefabs are organized into groups and are laid out for quick reference inside the Spritesheet scene.

Composite prefabs, those containing multiple child objects, have a Sorting Group component to allow changing the sorting for all the child renderers at once.

Some prefabs have variants marked with bracket tags, for example [No Wind] variant for plants.

Spritesheet Scene

Sprite Shapes

Unity’s 2D Sprite Shapes are a flexible and powerful world-building tool that features Sprite tiling along a shape’s outline that automatically deforms and swaps Sprites based on the outline’s angle. It’s great for creating organic and unique art for your games.

To add a shape to the scene, drag a Shape Profile from the Shapes folder. After dragging, add a material (and a component when needed) as described below.
Note that some shapes feature multiple variants – be sure to check those out!

Sprite Shapes usage

Closed Shapes TIP

The closed Shapes Profiles provided by this pack do not define sprites for the corners; therefore, we advise adjusting the shapes’ Spline, using the different Tangent Modes.
The following method will create authentic and organic shapes (for platforms, walls, etc.):

  1. When editing a shape, press on Sprite Shape Controller – Edit Spline Edit Spline.
  2. Select a Control Point; three Sprite Shape Controller – Tangent Modes Tangent Modes will appear.
  3. Select the middle Sprite Shape Controller – Continuous Mirrored Continuous Mirrored mode.
  4. It’s worth checking out all Tangent Modes to find which provides an organic shape.

Desert Shapes Profiles

The following is a list of Sprite Shape Profiles provided by this pack.
Please note the recommended configuration for each profile:

Ground – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Ground Closed
  • Desert – Sand
  • 6 sprite variants
Rocks – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Rocks Closed
  • Desert
  • 1 sprite variant
Bridge – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Bridge Open
  • Desert
  • 1 sprite variant
Ground Path – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Ground Path Open
  • Desert – Sand
  • 6 sprite variants
Fence – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Fence Open
  • Desert
  • 1 sprite variant
Spine Skeleton – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Spine Skeleton Open
  • Desert
  • 1 sprite variant
Palm Tree Trubk – Sprite Shape Profile
  • Palm Tree Trubk Open
  • Desert
  • 1 sprite variant

Effects

The Effects folder inside the Prefabs folder contains effects prefabs that can be placed to enrich the environment.
Some effects provide an intuitive editor allowing configuration and customization.

Dust Storm

Clouds of dust.

  • Width – Size in world space, also affects emission rate.

Wind Stripes

The strong winds of the desert paint the sky with lines.

Materials

We geared this pack with the materials pre-configured for all its various assets’ needs. It’s best to use the provided materials instead of creating new ones from the pack’s shaders.

Fog Coloring

Tint a Sprite (or Sprite Shape) according to its Z position.
Tints the sprite by defining a range where From is the position without tint and To is full tint. There is a different color (and range) for background and foreground to allow more stylistic control.
The provided materials are pre-configured with fog coloring to match the pack’s ambiance.

The pack’s shaders don’t rely on Unity’s built-in fog.

2D Hand Painted shader – fog colloring

Wind

The pack’s Wind system is composed of a material and a component.
Materials pre-configured with a Wind-supported shader are located inside the materials folder.

While prefabs are pre-configured with appropriate material and component for static sprites that require wind, Sprite Shapes require manually setting a material and a component for wind support.

Only after adding a Wind Options (Sprite) component, the wind animation will start.
For each instance, you can use it to customize the Speed, Noise which adds a wobble movement, and Sway which determines the amount of movement at the side farthest than the origin. The Sway Origin is the side that isn’t moving.

Sprite Shape Wind

Adding wind to a Sprite Shape is a similar process to a normal Sprite. Note that you should use a material with a name containing wind (shape) and the Wind Options (Sprite Shape) component.

The shader efficiently performs the wind animation; the Wind Options component only configure the renderer instance with the desired behavior via a Material Property Block.
2D Hand Painted – Wind Options component

Desert Materials

The following materials are provided with the pack, alongside additional materials not listed here, and used some of the effects.

Desert

The main material for this pack provides fog coloring.

Desert – Sand

Sand glitters as camera moves, supports fog coloring.

Desert – Wind

Same as the basic Desert material with the addition of wind movement.

Components

Besides the scripts we created for controlling various parts of this pack, we also provide a handful of MonoBehaviour components to enrich your environments.
Components are located under the 2D Hand Painted section of the Add Component menu.

Wind Options

The Wind Options component functionality is described alongside the Wind material.

Camera Controller

A simple camera controller, allowing navigation in the Demo scenes.
Navigate using the Arrows or W A S D keys; use Left Shift or the Mouse Wheel to boost speed.

Animate

Utility components to quickly and easily create simple animations.

Light Flicker

Requires Light/Light2D component.
Randomly dims a light. Useful for an ambiance effect of a torch or a candle.
Adjustable: Speed, Intensity Amount.

Random Frame

Requires Animator component.
Start the Animator on a random frame. Helpful in creating variations when you have multiple instances of a single animation.

Rotation

Spin a Game Object in a full circle repeatedly.
Adjustable: Speed.

Shake

Randomly moves a Game Object around its origin.
Adjustable: Speed, Amount.

Swing

Rotate a Game Object back-and-forth.
Adjustable: Speed, Movement Amount.

Translate Loop

Moves an object horizontally; when it reaches an edge, it relocates to the other edge and resumes movement.
Adjustable: Speed, Left World X, Right World X, Ping Pong (Move back-and-forth instead of teleporting), Wave (Animate vertical position), Flip With Direction (Mirror sprite based on direction).

Structure

After importing the pack, you should have the 2D Hand Painted folder added to your project’s Assets folder. This folder contains assets from all the 2D Hand Painted bundle packs.

For the most, what you are looking for is inside the Prefabs and Sprite Shapes folders.

$Common

Assets and resources that are shared between all the 2D Hand Painted Bundle’s packs.
In general, you shouldn’t have to look inside this folder; we will expressly state if an asset mentioned in this manual is located inside the common folder.

Desert

It contains all the assets dedicated to the Desert Pack.

Scenes

A pack contains two scenes:

  • Spritesheet

    Lays out the pack’s various prefabs, grouped by categories.

  • Demo

    Showcase of the usage of the pack's Prefabs, Shaders, and Sprite Shapes. It’s a great place to start when looking to explore what this pack has to offer.

Animations

Animations and Animation Controllers used to breathe life to some of the objects. Some packs may not include the Animations folder.
All animated objects are configured with an Animation Controller inside a prefab, so you don’t need to connect anything manually.

Editor

Resources we use for providing you with intuitive workflow while using this asset.

Materials

There are a variety of materials for each pack.
The prefabs are pre-configured with material for sprites, but for Sprite Shapes, you will need to manually assign a material (as discussed in the Materials chapter).

Prefabs

This is the main folder to look inside while using this asset. It contains all sprites and effects ready to drop into a scene, pre-configured with materials, scripts, effects, etc.

Scripts

Scripts for controlling effects, animations, etc. If the script is a MonoBehaviour intended to be used by you, it will appear inside the Add Component menu. Otherwise, it is already configured for you inside the appropriate prefabs.

Shaders

The pack shaders are located under the Hand Painted 2D section. As mentioned previously, the pack has pre-configured materials; we advise using them instead of creating new materials.

Shapes

Contains Sprite Shapes Profiles to create beautiful arbitrary-shaped sprites.

Textures

Quality, high-resolution hand-painted sprites next to a few textures used by some of the VFX.

We organized the sprites into sprite sheets, designed to achieve highly optimized GPU draw times by utilizing batching.

TagsLayers preset

A preset with pre-configured sorting layers. The Installer window process will apply on your behalf.
You may opt out of applying it.

READ ME pdf

An offline version of this manual.

PSD Source zip

An archive containing all the source Photoshop PSD files.

We recommend deleting the PSD zip from the project. If required, transfer it to a different location on your computer before deleting it.

_PackMeta asset

This file is required for installing the pack, it will be removed by the Installer. Do NOT delete this file!

_HP2DMeta asset

This file is required for installing updates smoothly in the future. Do NOT delete this file!

Common Issues

The following are some issues we encountered more than once. Try looking for a solution before sending us a question – we may have already answered it.

# I have errors immediately after importing the asset.

Make sure to install the Universal Render Pipeline before importing the asset.

# How can I open the Installer window?

If the Installer window doesn’t show up after importing the asset, make sure to correctly configure the Universal Render Pipeline.
To manually open the Installer, open it through the 2D Hand Painted/Install menu.
If you previously installed a different pack from the 2D Hand Painted bundle, there is no need to rerun the installation process.

# Sprites are all pink.

Please perform the following checks:

  • If you haven't run the Installer – reopen Unity and follow the Installer process.
  • Make sure the pack’s materials are configured with a shader.

# Sprites jitter as camera moves.

Configure the 2D Renderer Data asset’s Transparency Sort Mode to Orthographic.

# How to set up a parallax effect?

Follow those steps:

  1. Configure the camera’s projection to Perspective.
  2. Configure the 2D Renderer Data asset’s Transparency Sort Mode to Orthographic.

# I added a wind-supported material, but it’s not working.

To add a wind animation, both a wind-supported material is required as well the Wind Options component. Please read the Wind manual.

# I’m using the Universal Render Pipeline, but the Installer is asking for a 2D Renderer.

The Universal Render Pipeline has a few renderers; instead of using the Forward Renderer, you should configure it to use the 2D Renderer.
Check out Unity’s documentation on configuring it.

# A Sprite Shaps is not tinted as normal sprites do.

Make sure to add material from the pack whenever creating a new shape, as described in the Shapes section.

# Sprite renderers have missing Sorting Layers.

You may have opted out of applying the provided Tags and Layers preset during the installation process.
Please apply the preset TagsLayers.preset that is provided in this pack in the Tags and Layers manager.

# Stacked sprites slide when they should move in sync.

Make sure they have a similar Z position. Alternatively, add a Sorting Group component to their parent Game Object.

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