archived-shaders

[hallow plover]

is there any way to remove srp batcher compatability without maoving around properties to not be in the cbuffer?

[regal stag]

Using a Material Property Block on the Renderer would break SRP batcher compatibility without needing to mess with the shader itself.

[hallow plover]

does this brak compatability for all shaders / materials or only for a specific one?

[regal stag]

Just the renderers you set the property block on

[sacred patio]

From which version is main light direction node available?

As it seems to be missing in the 2020.3 one

[regal stag]

Seems to be 2022.1+, but can always use Custom Functions in previous versions to get light data.
For URP can use : https://github.com/Cyanilux/URP_ShaderGraphCustomLighting

[sacred patio]

Does this work both with deferred and forward lighting?

[haughty moat]

Unity recommends not using cbuffer to declare constant buffers, but the macro they recommend doesn't work in compute shaders. Anyone would know which platform cbuffer would fail to compile for ?

[broken hemlock]

Can someone explain what shaders really do? I try and read up on Unity docs, like shaderbox and stuff, but I just don’t understand what it’s doing. Is it me calculating lighting and how the light bounces off objects or is that done internally by Unity? If it’s done internally, what are the points of all the pragmas and such? Is there a benefit to HLSL/ShaderLab vs Shader Graph (SRP)

I’ve written compute shaders and that makes a bit of sense, with the parallelism and stuff

[kind juniper]

Shaders are basically small program that run on your gpu and render stuff to screen(or something else).

[broken hemlock]

But when it comes to the render pipeline I get confused. Does the gpu automatically support things like drawing on the screen

[broken hemlock]

Right, but like when I’m writing a shader, am I writing how light bounces off of objects or am I just defining things like normal maps and unity handles that

[kind juniper]

Light calculations are usually done in the shaders, yeah. Unity's standard shader.

Shaders are part of unity as well. You can't really separate them.

[regal stag]

Depends if you use a vert/frag shader where you'd need to write your own lighting models, or surface shaders which can handle it for you (if in Built-in RP).

[kind juniper]

Bad wording... Shaders are part of the rendering process.

[broken hemlock]

I’m assuming frag is where you would write your own lighting?

[kind juniper]

If you write a shader completely yourself without relying on unity Macros and functions and want to have rpoper lighting, then yes, you'll have to write it yourself.

[broken hemlock]

So the pragmas define for me how light bounces off of objects?

Macros

[kind juniper]

Frag is short for fragment, also called pixel. It runs 1 thread per pixel on screen. Lighting is not a one shot function it includes all sorts of calculations both in the vertex and the fragment stage.

[kind juniper]

No. They're just a programming construct, kinda like functions but "evaluated" at compile time . You can do whatever you want with them.

There's really no magic about shaders. It's all just math and logic if you break it down.

[broken hemlock]

Well so is programming, but it’s like different to wrap your head around shaders I feel like

[kind juniper]

Yeah, I felt so too some time ago.

[broken hemlock]

Are there any videos or sources you can recommend?

[kind juniper]

Learning some C/C++ could be quite helpful. Especially with the macros.
I'll let Cyan add to that as he was trying to type something for some time. 😄

[regal stag]

You can probably get the direction in either path. But custom lighting models are usually rendered in forward even in the deferred path. That's due to how deferred works - it uses a shader in screenspace to apply PBR lighting based on the gbuffers. There are ways to override that shader too, but it's separate from the shader applied to the actual mesh renderer and you probably wouldn't use shader graph for that.

[broken hemlock]

I already know C/C++

Like I’m not a professional at it

[kind juniper]

Oh, okay. Then you're settled there I guess.

[broken hemlock]

Yeah I just can’t tie the lighting part together

Compute shaders I can kinda understand

Where I split up processing power on the gpu between threads that are labeled by their index

[kind juniper]

Aside from that, it seems like you have some misunderstanding about the rendering pipeline. So maybe learn how modern computer graphics work.

[broken hemlock]

Yeah I never looked too much into that, you could be right

[kind juniper]

Well, regular shaders are the same. They run some logic in threads.

[broken hemlock]

I know basic stuff like normals, vertices, materials, stuff like that

[kind juniper]

Maybe watch this first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvcAjgMUPUA&t=287s&ab_channel=TheHappieCat

[broken hemlock]

Ok let me watch it, one second

[broken hemlock]

Ok I watched it but it didn’t go too much into shaders really, more about the general render pipeline process

[kind juniper]

Yes. Well, you need to understand that before getting into shaders, because that's what they do. Don't expect to understand everything from just one video though. I've been learning graphics related things for more than a year and there are still things I'm not sure about.

[broken hemlock]

Right, I’m just waiting for it to click and then im gonna be like because I overthought it

[kind juniper]

Maybe try this series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVWsAL37NGw&ab_channel=NedMakesGames
Although it's focusing on urp, but it's pretty in-depth.

[broken hemlock]

Ok sounds good, I’ll have to check it out. Thanks man

[robust path]

Hey, I'm trying to assign a texture to a computeshader, and I'm getting a weird error:

Property (targetTexture) at kernel index (1): Attempting to bind texture as UAV but the texture wasn't created with the UAV usage flag set!```

Which is weird, because it seems it's complaining that they're not readwrite, but I'm creating the textures in code, so they should be

_targetTexture = new Texture2D(_targetTextureSize.x, _targetTextureSize.y);
_shader.SetTexture(1, "targetTexture", _targetTexture);

does anyone have a clue what's going on?

in the shader, it's a RWTexture2D

[kind juniper]

From my understanding it has to be a RenderTexture. At least I didn't find a way to write to a regular Texture2D.

[robust path]

thanks, that works!

now I got another problem - I copied URP's SimpleLit shader, and I'm trying to add a Pass to it, but it doesn't seem to run at all
what I did, is in the first subshader, I added my own pass at the end, filled it with code, and I'm kind of expecting it to just apply after all the previous passes, but it doesn't seem to do that

what am I doing wrong here?

got some progress - it flashes the correct thing for a second, then returns to rendering the main texture

[regal stag]

URP doesn't really do multi-pass shaders like that. (Well, technically it can with the LightMode tag not set but that breaks SRP batcher compatibility so isn't recommended)

If you add a Pass with a custom LightMode tag you can tell URP to render it through the RenderObjects feature though. Or use a separate shader & apply a second material.

[robust path]

I tried applying a second material, actually, but after going into playmode, it got removed from my renderer

how can I fix that?

I actually asked on code general about it

[regal stag]

That's weird, haven't seen that before. Do you have any C# scripts setting materials or something that might be overriding it?

[robust path]

nope, I don't, that's why it's so weird

[robust path]

it is a model, with a material assigned through the model, maybe that can do something?

oh wait, it's just a prefab actually, I don't know then

[teal breach]

You can use SRPBatcher with a non-standard LightMode tag to implement a custom pass - you just have to make sure that the CBUFFER is the same in all passes

[teal breach]

it worked that way all the way through 2019, 2020 and 2021 ... _until like a month ago 😦 _

and now I'm trying to figure out what went wrong on the latest 2021, because it seems like something major changed behind the scenes on a minor URP change number, and I haven't figured out what yet but the SRPBatcher is really broken now 🥹

[regal stag]

Yeah, but you still need to tell URP to render that pass through a feature

[teal breach]

ahh yes, that's true!

apologies, I thought that was also true of built in?

[regal stag]

I think so yeah, but when you have passes without LightMode tag in built-in they get rendered automatically

While in URP that would break SRP Batcher compatibility as it doesn't like "multi-pass" shaders like that

[teal breach]

I used this extensively for outline passing and it worked fine with the batcher before (as I say, until very recently)

and hopefully I can figure out why it isn't working with the batcher now

[robust path]

about that, after trying to apply a second material in playtime, it gets applied to a random nearby object

[teal breach]

it's slightly tedious matching the CBUFFERs with the gibberish produced by shader graph, but it does draw everything in a single SRPBatch even for nonstandard light passes

[robust path]

1 specific object, but unrelated

[robust path]

I got it
I just had to not make it static

but why...

[onyx talon]

I got some problems with my hdrp outline shader. The first image is when I turn on the fog, the second is when I turn it off, and the third one is my code. Is there anyone who can help me to fix this?

[kind juniper]

Static batches(combines) several meshes together and renders them as one object. It would usually batch renderers that use the same material, but perhaps it doesn't work as expected with several materials. Especially if a mesh only has one material slot.

[civic lantern]

I'm making a terrain shader with Shader Graph. How can I access more than the first 4 terrain layers/splat mask channels? I'm currently using _Control as the control texture.

Using HDRP and this is for the Terrain component.

[tawny echo]

How does one make a shader that encapsulates the entire area of inside a cube?

vs just the edges

IE:

shader looks like this from outside

This on inside

Ignore

changed to zwrite not equal

And it works

[paper loom]

Good day I'll just ask why my material is pink

I created a shader graph using steps above

[kind juniper]

Either the shader is broken or incompatible with your render pipeline.

[paper loom]

I followed the procedure in making shader graph using this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfolVBo_2-I&t=195s

[paper loom]

Can I create a shader using circle?

[kind juniper]

Circle?

[paper loom]

sorry I'm not familiar with shader

[kind juniper]

You mean circle texture?

That doesn't matter the shader itself is broken/incompatible

Are you using URP as your render pipeline?

[paper loom]

Yes I am I need a sprite renderer lit graph

[kind juniper]

Are 100% sure you have urp set up properly? Can you create a material with a urp shader and see if it's pink or not?

[paper loom]

I just click the Project Settings > Graphics > URP Global Settings then the button fix

I'll google how to set URP properly

[kind juniper]

Yep, that's not enough. You need to config the RP asset in your graphics/quality settings.

[paper loom]

Oh Thanks one more question if you don't mind

I'm creating a 2D circle but as can you see in the image it looks hexagonal so someone told me to use a sprite renderer shader as a solution

That's why I tried urp sprite renderer shader

[kind juniper]

How are you creating a 2d circle?

[paper loom]

2D object > Sprites > Circles

[kind juniper]

Is it from sprite shapes?🤔

[kind juniper]

That's not the pink circle though

I mean,can you select the pink circle and take a screenshot of it's inspector?

[kind juniper]

I do t know what but there's something really wrong about that circle.

Can you give it a 1 1 1 scale?

[vocal narwhal]

The shader is not appropriate for sprites, as you can see by the warning it's completely ignoring the value

[paper loom]

so how can I make a shader appropriate for sprites?

2D sprites to be exact?

[vocal narwhal]

Use a Sprite shadergraph template if you have access to it, and make sure there is a _MainTex texture property that you use the RGB and A channels from

[spare ermine]

How do I make a texture tile nicely across all meshes, while keeping the texture the same size?
I managed to achieve this with boxes, but it screws up with other meshes, how would I manage to do this with shader graph?

[chrome zinc]

Anyone know of a way/shader to pixelate particle systems? Haven't found a pixelate shader that works, so I am currently rendering to a down-scaled render texture and overlaying with my main camera. The issue with this is it's not compatible with sorting layers, so all of my pixelated particles are on top of everything else, plus the second camera is a big hassle. (Example of what I currently have below, this is in URP. Been stuck on this for awhile with no luck /: )

[shadow locust]

Use a triplanar shader

[spare ermine]

i will try, thank you

nothing changed, the texture is still horribly stretched

maybe i'm using this in the wrong way?

[ebon basin]

https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/shader-graph-tiling-and-offset-2019-3#
Ya using one of these?

Oh, why don't you try exposing a variable for the tiling input for the triplanar node there

[ebon basin]

Probably should give examples of what previous shaders you've tried doing, cause I feel like all my failed shader attempts end up in some pixelated monstrosity lol.

[karmic hatch]

Pixellating is usually done by multiplying the UVs by some integer, rounding (floor/ceiling also work), then dividing by that integer again and using that to sample whatever noise/texture you're sampling

[amber saffron]

Maybe the streched thing you see is the normal, not the albedo texture ?

[compact reef]

You guys certainly know that there is a optional feature of standard shader which is "CrossFade animated transition" ....now the question is ..does this feature have a heavy performance impact if i enable it for a MOBILE project?

because, i dont want my LODs pop up like a weirdo....

[kind juniper]

Crossfade animated transition? What are you referring to?

[kind juniper]

If you're referring to lod groups transition mode, then I'm not sure how much it's related to shaders. It just renders both groups with different alpha.(the docs also mention dithering, but don't mention how it's implemented).

[tardy solar]

I have some interesting bug with render queue on android. Meanwhile it working on my emulator great.

Can somebody help me with it

[wispy edge]

How to keep Shadow Cascades in HDRP?When I press play they vanish

[compact reef]

well in the standard shader script there is a lod crossfade prama ...if u uncomment it ...u will have the crossfade animation on lod transition if u r using the standard shader

[paper loom]

Hi I created a sprite shadergraph still the circle looks hexagon

[amber saffron]

Did you connect the alpha ?

[paper loom]

sorry which alpha?

[amber saffron]

One of those textures you're sampling probably has an alpha mask of the disk, no ?
Connect it to the alpha output of the master stack

[paper loom]

sorry is this the master stack?

is this the alpha mask?

[buoyant spire]

Is there any way to get color from sprite renderer when enabled gpu instancing?
It is vertex color and when enabled gpu instancing vertex color sets to white.
Build-in pipeline.
Pls don't suggest to get any srp.

[regal stag]

Looking at the built-in shader files/includes, I think it's _RendererColor (which is set from unity_SpriteRendererColorArray). Could use these as a template :
https://github.com/TwoTailsGames/Unity-Built-in-Shaders/blob/master/DefaultResourcesExtra/Sprites-Default.shader
https://github.com/TwoTailsGames/Unity-Built-in-Shaders/blob/master/CGIncludes/UnitySprites.cginc

[buoyant spire]

Thx, i will look it

[regal stag]

That is the master stack yes. You want to connect the A output from the Sample Texture 2D node (that is sampling the _MainTex) to the Alpha port on the stack as Remy mentioned.

[lucid oriole]

Hey, sorry I didnt answer before, but the school got the better of me.. The max and minimum values work, but I still cant figure out a way to calculate the actual fill value from the product amount expressed in grams. Could you help out a bit?

[paper loom]

Thank you it works

[knotty juniper]

you need to define what the maximum number of grams the container hollds in grams

in my script that is what is set as MaxNumber

and mind number is in my case 0

[lucid oriole]

lets say 250 grams

[knotty juniper]

i use this forumlar for calulating the fill value
shaderFloat = Mathf.InverseLerp(minNumber, MaxNumber, fluidFill);

in your case this would be
shaderFloat = Mathf.InverseLerp(0, 250, gramsFilled);

[lucid oriole]

oh, okay

[knotty juniper]

shaderFloat is then given to the shader as the fill value

[lucid oriole]

Works like a charm

thanks

And when I want to change the surface from transparent to opaque I need to make a new shader yes? I cant just set a boolean?

[knotty juniper]

correct

you can make your transparent shader non transparent but it still has the shading issues that transparent shader have
only a opaque shader fixes that

[lucid oriole]

and how can I make it non transparent?

[knotty juniper]

the transparency is controlled via the alpha value of the albedo texture in most cases
if you do your own shader just set the alpha value to 1

you can change between the opque and transparent master node when you select the master node

then you should see the options for the shader

(in shadergraph)

[lucid oriole]

yeah but I cant change it via code can I?

[pure fulcrum]

how can i get camera normal in a written shader? tried using unity_CameraToWorld but i just get an "undeclared identifier" error

[buoyant spire]

Thx, looks like it works

[pure fulcrum]

im using hlsl in a post processing shader for birp

[grand jolt]

i dont know much about shaders but i have this shader to make a filling effect for this dropper but the problem is, when i rotate the dropper the filling liqued start to disappear, and i dont want that, i need it to stay as it is only be able to change the filling volume

[worldly crater]

maybe its leaking 🤭

and i dont know much about shaders also, i mostly use nodes, play until i get answer

and my best guess would be that you need to take rotation into consideration also

like you have position

[grand jolt]

lol

[grand jolt]

yes i did guess that too but the question is, how do i do that lol

[worldly crater]

I would try recreating above node and just trial and error. Some YT stuff for inspiration but no, cant help. Didnt use shadergraph much

[amber saffron]

Are you 100% sure you've properly followed the tutorial for this shader ?
Subtracting the scale from the position doesn't make sense ...
You probably want to subtract the object position, to have a "world position centered on object" ?

[karmic hatch]

If you store the positions of both ends in object space somewhere, you can transform both to world space, and then lerp between the y values as your fill level

So when it's 1, it'll be full, and 0 for empty

[outer grove]

Hey guys in the shader graph tool how do i add albedo to the fragments section?

[regal stag]

It is the "Base Color"

[outer grove]

Ahh ok it just had a name change from the tutorial im watching

[outer grove]

Thank you! Also how do i take a 2d texture like this and select just the part that I want?

[regal stag]

Typically the UV coordinates stored in the mesh is responsible for that

[outer grove]

Ahhh ok thank you!

[outer grove]

When i update my graph it goes to this weird blue color until i update another value on the fragments window, is there a way to make it update normally?

[pure fulcrum]

any way to get a full depth texture in shader graph? i need to use it in a for loop in a custom node so the uvs gonna be different for each iteration and i cant just use the scene depth node

[outer grove]

never mind i got it 😄

[chrome zinc]

Here is what I tried to use. The effect worked okayish for a standalone object (had some weird artifacts on the edges) but didn't work at all for particle systems. I even tried using custom vertex streams from the particle system with no luck. (GIF with individual object mostly working, and particles not working)

(Shader)

[digital ivy]

Hi, not sure where to ask this, but is there anyway to replace the sun with a texture in your procedural sky (in URP)

[ebon basin]

Cant really see what's going on in the shader graph there, but the artifacts could be a transparency problem. Perhaps just control the alpha values yourself instead of feeding it in from the texture 2D node, and if that doesn't work, maybe try fooling around with alpha clipping.

[regal stag]

The artifacts would be due to jumps in the UV values, related to mipmaps too. Can either use Sample Texture 2D LOD or a custom function with SAMPLE_TEXTURE2D_GRAD(tex, sampler, uv, ddx(uv2), ddy(uv2)), where uv is your current UV, and uv2 is just the UV node without those jumps.
Some more info here : https://www.cyanilux.com/faq/#sg-pixellated-seams

As for why it doesn't work with particles, that's due to the Object node. Would need to get the particle scale from custom vertex streams as you mention which can then be accessed through the UV node.

[regal stag]

Should be able to include and use functions in https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/blob/master/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/ShaderLibrary/DeclareDepthTexture.hlsl

[river fern]

Hi, is there any shader whizz in here who can answer my question?
I'm looking to get specular highlights on my materials in HDRP. This is obviously fine and easy to do, but I want to achieve specular highlights on my materials with baked lighting.
Could a shader possibly do something like that?
As soon as I bake my lights in Unity, I get no specular from my materials making them look very flat and low-quality.

Thanks

[plain heron]

anyone?

[karmic hatch]

I'm no expert but you could have an identical scene rendered with unlit glowing materials, and then overlay that onto everything else where the flashlight is shining

[vocal yoke]

Hi, I'm having some "problem". I wanted to insert that kind of circle on a plane, but my circle is in fact bigger than my plane. How can I fit the circle inside my plane?

I think it's my Fresnel Effect that's makes it weird

Oh well I found out a way without the Fresnel, but I was wondering if it's still possible flatten sphere effect

[grand jolt]

yeah i did change that i know

[vocal yoke]

Hello guys I'm having a question, how can I get an array of Color Values from a Shadergraph color? I don't need code, maybe just a hint would really help!
I'm thinking of dividing the searching points of color based on the length of my map

[vocal yoke]

Or something like making the resulat of a node into a texture2D

[kind juniper]

You can't. Each shader thread has access to one color that it samples. There are no arrays.

[vocal yoke]

That's really disappointing 😦 So there's no way I can read each of those thread? or any kind of conversion?

[vocal yoke]

I meant I would make my own array of colors for each thread

[kind juniper]

What are you trying to do anyway?

You can't output the result of a node into a texture, but you can render into a texture with a shader. Or create it with a compute shader.

[vocal yoke]

I made this with my nodes in Shadergraph. I wished to be able to use it for spawning object in non-black areas made by the node. The white area is my map generated by a perlin. I want to spawn chest and other kinds of object in the white areas

[vocal yoke]

If I understand correctly, I need to render it or compute it..? Well that's already a huge step towards my goal so thanks lol, I guess I have new stuff to learn
I'll try to know what a compute shader is

[kind juniper]

If you need to access your perlin noise map data in C#, you need to render it to a texture(or a 2d array) first. Then you can reuse that texture for whatever else you're using it in your shader.

[grizzled bolt]

Or if the pattern is kind of simple and doesn't need a visual to go with it, you could produce it entirely in C#

[vocal yoke]

That's my problem. I want it to be shadergraphynamic XD. Like dynamic by shader

[vocal yoke]

How do a render such thing actually? I'm not sure where to start

[kind juniper]

You'd render to a render texture by setting the current render target. Look upsetting render target in unity.

But I'd generate the noise map in a compute shader. It's way more simple and logical for me.

[vocal yoke]

Ok! thanks for all the help!

[north wren]

Hey there
I need an shader to use on quads with transparent textures (for watch hands) on mobile but I don't want it to be translucent (as in I only want the transparency applied where alpha is 0)
Currently I'm getting some clipping issues with Unity particle shaders and they're translucent too
Can anyone point me in the right direction so I Know what to look for?

[amber saffron]

Use an opaque shader with alpha-clip

[proven copper]

thank you so much for the detailed explanation! it was really helpful. What are the final nodes feeding into? Albedo, emission and alpha?

[hallow plover]

grettings. I am making a water shader which uses the vertex shader to create waves. I was wondering if there was a way to make other objects float on the waters surface. Aka to move up and down with the surface of the water.

[robust path]

Unless it's a leaf or something like that, it will honestly look better if the object is partially submerged anyway, and at a flat position, maybe bopping up and down at the same interval as the vertices, but not on top of them

If you really need to, use a mesh collider and raycasts, or add a texture on a separate material or in another pass of the shader

[hallow plover]

Yeah I plan on making it so its a bit under the water. The main issue is that the water will not always move at the same rate. Sometimes it will be calm and sometimes it will move quite a bit.

[robust path]

I think either you have to get that rate, maybe even from the shader, or do the collider and ray way, and just disable collisions of the water with everything in the physics settings

[undone anvil]

can anyone tell me what is this pattern ? i always see in my broken shader

[hushed vigil]

Moiré

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moiré_pattern

[undone anvil]

this is also moire ??

[hushed vigil]

probably

[plain heron]

ok thanks, ill try

[civic lantern]

is this a procedural mesh? I had similiar looking problem until I used RecalculateTangents on the mesh

also, if youre using Shader Graph, make sure that your Sample Texture 2D node for your normal map, has Type set to Normal, not Default

[grizzled bolt]

This happens whenever rendering a pattern that's smaller/finer than what can be displayed

[vapid sparrow]

hi
how can i make ztest only happen inside a object not behind it?
my shader is simple unlit with two pass one is ZTest Greater as red one and one is ZTest Less which is blue one.
how i can I achieve the right result?

[low lichen]

It's not possible with ZTest. There is not enough information in the depth buffer to know how "deep" the sphere is. For all it knows, that sphere might be a very long capsule that extends away from the camera.

The only way to achieve what you want is to pass additional information into the rectangle shader about where the sphere is and what its radius is and use that to calculate which pixels are inside it.

[vapid sparrow]

imagine there's a room that if players enter it other player can see them but if somebody is out of the room they don't get seen pass through
is only way to pass extra information about the rooms? there are so many rooms in my game

[low lichen]

Do you know of any other game that has a similar effect that you can show me, just to make sure I understand what you're imagining?

[vapid sparrow]

apex legends

[low lichen]

I don't play it, so I don't know what to look for

[vapid sparrow]

Just imagine it like

1. You are a sniper and watching over 3 houses in middle of a dessert which contain stuff like gun and health
2. There are 5 other players in game which have to survive from getting killed by you
3. You can't see them but you have a sensor in those 3 houses which if those 5 players step in, you can see them through walls
4. But if they stay behind the room and not stepping in you are not able to see them through walls

[kind juniper]

Maybe add a trigger collider to the rooms/buildings. And when there's a collision, render the players with additional see-through shader?

[vapid sparrow]

Yes that would work but those houses are not box shaped they are spherical domes that makes it hard
there should be a way for this in shader like 3d modeling software when your model intersect another model it highlights the area

[low lichen]

What 3D modeling software has that feature (and can I see it?)

[kind juniper]

But what do they intersect if they're inside the buildings? Are the building meshes "filled" inside?

You could use convex mesh colliders for triggers too. Although not perfect, but I'm sure it's not a big deal if they don't match the mesh perfectly.

[kind juniper]

What you're imagining with shaders is from the realm of raymarching. While not impossible, it's pretty hard and complicated and you will need to have a "filled"(not hollow) meshes anyway.

Basically, approximating with mesh colliders is gonna be 100 times easier and faster than any solution with shaders.

[amber saffron]

This result could also be done using stencil buffer and two passes for the sphere to mask what is intersecting it.

[carmine ivy]

Hello, I need a bit of help. I have some tiles with a black border made with a custom shader (im not using a texture because im adding moving stuff within the borders) but on some specific low resolutions the border dissapears. Is there a way to gaurantee that the border is at least 1 pixel wide? Heres images on how it should look vs how it sometimes looks. And each tiles is a seperate gameobject

[vapid sparrow]

oh thank god, can you explain more?

[amber saffron]

Hum, it's the matter of ordering the passes right.

• Render the boxes
• Render the sphere back faces with ztest and write into the stencil buffer : the stencil has now a mask of the sphere but box pixels are missing
• Render the sphere front faces with ztest again, and invert the values of the stencil bit : the mask should now be only where the box is intersecting the sphere
• Render the "inside" pass of the box

Here's the official stencil buffer doc : https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-Stencil.html

[vapid sparrow]

but stencils are off screen no?

[amber saffron]

No

[vapid sparrow]

Ok so
- Render the boxes is the regular blue shades

[amber saffron]

If you do the borders based on UVs, the further away the tile, the smaller the border, to the point that it gets smaller than a pixel and disapears ...
You can use derivatives (ddx, ddy, fwidth) on the uv values to determine a minimum size for the border to have it always at least 1px wide

[vapid sparrow]

Oh remy this is so complex, I need a separate shader for sphere? how can i access sphere stincel from boxes? and how can i Order this passes they are done by gpu as i know

[pure fulcrum]

how can i get a world to screen space position in a post processing shader?

[amber saffron]

• The stencil is a screen space buffer, accessible from any object
• You can change the draw order of your passes using the queue tag

[vapid sparrow]

is there any example of what i want somewhere?

[amber saffron]

I remember the doc had a very easy sample at some point, trying to find it again :/

[vapid sparrow]

thank you i'm struggling on this for a week :[

[amber saffron]

Not exactly what you want, but two nice examples : https://docs.unity3d.com/2019.3/Documentation/Manual/SL-Stencil.html

[amber saffron]

Multiply by the view*projection matrix UNITY_MATRIX_VP should do the trick 🤔

[mental creek]

Hello why is the following code not working in HLSL
uint ground = asuint(((noise(id.xz) * .5f) + .5f) * cakeSize);

[pure fulcrum]

this is my first written shader so im not sure how to do any of this. also im using hlsl in a custom post processing shader for the v2 package in birp, not sure if that matters

[amber saffron]

HLSL doesn't have a noise function anymore since SM2 😦

[amber saffron]

mul(position, UNITY_MATRIX_VP );

[mental creek]

Thanks Remy.

I have one more question. I currently use the Unity CPU Procedural Mesh where I feed it vertices and triangles. I am wanting to do this on the GPU instead. Do you have any resource where I can see an example of that. I am just confused of the syntax in a Compute Buffer to do this.

[pure fulcrum]

do i need to add another include to the shader or something?

[amber saffron]

Erm, no I don't have this handy

[amber saffron]

Probably. https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-UnityShaderVariables.html

[mental creek]

No problem. I can probably find something.

[amber saffron]

I think UnityCG.cginc but I thought it was kind of included in the whole universe XD

[pure fulcrum]

added that and it doesnt seem to be working

only other one i have is #include "Packages/com.unity.postprocessing/PostProcessing/Shaders/StdLib.hlsl"

[amber saffron]

An include can itself include other files

So UnityCG is probably already there

[pure fulcrum]

why doesnt it have a definition for UNITY_MATRIX_VP then?

[amber saffron]

Maybe it's not including UnityCG, but other stuffs

Try to include UnityShaderVariables.cginc It's the one with this variable

[pure fulcrum]

similar errors

[carmine ivy]

Thanks! This was very useful and I tried it but im still encountering the issue, though it is more rare now. You can see its missing part of the line near the top. Any ideas why?

This is what the end of my shader looks like:

float color = fwidth(IN.uv_MainTex);

if (min(min(1-x,x),min(1-y,y)) <= color) {
    color = 0;
} else {
    color = 1;
}

o.Albedo = color;              
o.Alpha = 0;
o.Specular = 0;
o.Gloss = 0; 

[amber saffron]

Sorry, I think I'm tired and can't figure it out, but it should be possible to do it

[pure fulcrum]

looked at the post processing include and found this note which looks like it could have something to do with the problem

looks like it has its own variable for matrixvp which i assume is the same thing

[amber saffron]

Yes

[tawny echo]

Are there volumetric shaders? One that would encapsulate entirety of pixels in a 3d object? IE a cube.

[amber saffron]

Nothing out of the box in unity, no

[tawny echo]

ah. dang

[brisk lagoon]

How do I get my shadergraph file to go from this blue graph icon to this rainbow s icon?

[tawny echo]

Any unity shader pros that wouldn't mind talking in private to possibly help me solve a problem. Easier to send pics/possibly teamview to show issue

[vapid sparrow]

@amber saffron why did you deleted your post? it was not possible?

[amber saffron]

I didn't delete any post 🤔

[vapid sparrow]

Our posts are gone lol

[sleek estuary]

I'm working on a simulation for an upcoming event, and I need a water shader. I've found one and it looks/works perfectly in scene/game view, but as soon as I run it, it turns pink. I'm trying to use it with VR, and it seemed to work great up until I started incorporating VR elements. I'm not too well versed in shaders at all, so I don't even know where to begin on fixing this. I've been reading up on URP vs HDRP, and it seems vr and HDRP don't mix too well, so I've switched to URP. The shader looks fine when running through URP, just not inplay mode

Normal one is in game view, pink is in play mode

[shadow locust]

could it be a postprocessing issue?

[tough flower]

someone have a good video-tutorial to learn shaders?

[pure fulcrum]

doesnt seem to be working

not sure how to debug with shaders but i did try setting the color to mul(_SunPosition, unity_MatrixVP); and it seems to be displaying a random color on the entire screen, not lerping between values or anything as id expect it to do

[sleek estuary]

It’d seem so. How would I check that? I’ve been mostly 2D for years, but trying to rapidly learn 3D (with mostly success surprisingly lmao). Is there some way to debug this?

[shadow locust]

well first step would be to find and disable any postprocessing volumes in your scene and see if that changes anything

[sleek estuary]

Got ya! I’ll try that. Thanks!

[pure fulcrum]

anyone able to help?

[karmic hatch]

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ddXGD2 just saw this and was reminded of your problem

[ashen linden]

Need help here, Just finished the following tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC91uxRTId8&list=LL&index=12 but the material keeps only creating shadows but not receiving, I try doing the thing I found on the commentary that said to put the Keycodes on the SubGraphs, but still do not work.
YouTube
Ned Makes Games
Toon Shader in Unity Using a Shader Graph with Custom Lighting!
the version is 2021.3.8f1
also did the debug thing but the keycodes were already in there

Anyone knows the problem?

[regal stag]

That tutorial is kinda outdated. Need to use _MAIN_LIGHT_SHADOWS for the first keyword, not the calculate one.
Or https://github.com/Cyanilux/URP_ShaderGraphCustomLighting

[olive hinge]

I'm working on a custom unlit shadergraph function, im getting the following error. Shader error in 'Shader Graphs/fogged-lighting': undeclared identifier 'GetMeshRenderingLayer' at Assets/hlsl/CustomLighting.hlsl(60) (on d3d11)

[olive hinge]

cyan, does your code use light layers?

[regal stag]

Not currently

[ashen linden]

I will try once I get home, thank you

[worldly crater]

I have a question. Was following code monkey tutorial for dissolve shader
His version for some reason doesnt work for me
there is no red outline from bottom row

managed to make it work with adding 2 alpha layers before and again after

but makes no sense

so i have to add 2 alpha channels (yellow) and then AGAIN add them together (red) to make it wok

shouldnt red node do the all work?

this is result without yellow node

[regal stag]

I think it's because you're using the wrong Step node in what goes into the alpha. The red part is being made transparent. Should use the one at the bottom with more white, multiplied with the A output from tex sample, into A on Combine.
But tbh I wouldn't even bother with the Combine & Split, just keep the RGB and Alpha separate, it's usually easier.

[rocky robin]

hello hello, is there a way to change a color emissive by script? I'm using shader labs

[regal stag]

You'd need to use that Color_b9cc627... as the string in the SetColor call. The "Color Emissive" is just for display purposes. (Ideally the property name wouldn't be named so random, I guess it was generated from a shader graph or something. Could go through all of the code and change it to _EmissiveColor or something)

[rocky robin]

well so it's fine if i rename it?

it was generated by the Shader Lab (i used to do shader files by hand, so idk if it's ok)

[worldly crater]

multiply of bottom and tex sample is not solution, tried it
so this works now

and nice tip for separating A and RGB, did that

but shouldnt this last ADD node do the same job? cause below its the same thing as above, well it should be

[regal stag]

The alpha of your Color property might be set to 0, rather than 1. That would explain why the first screenshot works but the second doesn't.

[rocky robin]

is there a way to rename it from the entire file?

it has 5.7k lines

[worldly crater]

OH YEAH! this is my color input for bottom one

[regal stag]

Use a code editor that has a "Find and Replace" function? (Usually Ctrl+H)

[worldly crater]

@regal stag thanks man

this is bit harder to debug than code

[rocky robin]

just did, it doesn't work anymore

might be because of the dependencies

[ashen linden]

Didn't work, I even tried changing the place where the keywords would be in every subgraph and graph, didn't work

I will try remaking the shader with a newer version of the tutorial but I still would like to know what in the hell is wrong in there

I will dowload your version in the github and see the diferences, If I find the problem I will be back

Okay, I manage to fix by using the subgraph you used on your toon shader, thanks for the help

[rigid garden]

Question, I've found out recently how to implement dithered transparency for objects (or screen door transparency) - but I am having trouble figuring out how to apply dithering to shadows, or better put as a question - "how can I dither shadows?"

If someone had a link to some reading materials I could read on it, preferably compatible with URP, that would be awesome

[celest quartz]

Hii does anyone know how to put a shader to the whole camera? In using urp

I'm *

(I'm currently working for a vr project and I have to add the shader so it affects the whole scene)

[ebon basin]

Probably ideal to research it yourself, then ask questions when you're having problems implementing it all.

[celest quartz]

I spent three days researching nothing works heh

Most things work with srp

[kind juniper]

Urp is an srp though.

[shadow locust]

Are you talking about postprocessing?

[kind juniper]

Assuming you mean scriptable render pipeline, which srp is the common abbreviation for.

[latent frigate]

Hey, There!

Is there a HDRP/Lit shader that uses world space texture coordinates instead of local ones?

[shadow locust]

You're looking for a TriPlanar shader, which should be enough to let you find what you want.

[latent frigate]

Before I look into it does it work for moving objects?
Setting base uv mapping to Planar or TriPlanar causes this with HDRP/Lit and thats not the desired effect

[mental bone]

You dont want world space texture coords for moving objects since well they move in the world

[shadow locust]

This is exactly what you'd expect for world space UVs, no?

[hallow plover]

looks like the texutre is sampled in world space uvs. I assume you want the texture to move with the tank and in that case it needs to be sampled in object space uvs.

[mild cobalt]

I have a (hopefully not silly) question. I have a branch that I would like to use as a mask. Is there a way to blur/smooth the hard black and white edges that I get from the branch?

[kind juniper]

Use smoothstep instead🤔

[compact reef]

how to replace alpha blended rendering instead of cutoff in a shader script?

i've a grass sway shader that uses cutoff....but it looks edgy and disappear away over distance

just want to make it look like mobile/particle/alpha blended type of soft-edged

any way?

[amber saffron]

You'll need to change the blending operation, and the rendering queue : https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-Blend.html

But I don't recommand that, as it will probably lead to transparent sorting issue.

[tawny echo]

Object A -         
Stencil
{
  Ref 220
  Comp Always
  Pass Keep
}

Object B - 
Stencil
{
  Ref 220
  Comp NotEqual
  Pass Keep
}

Shouldn't this draw object A where it is supposed to be, and then when object B renders, it not draw where object A is?

[mystic hornet]

Hello! I may be a bit dumb, but how do I get the texture of an object? i'm trying to make an animated shader, but I can't seem to understand what I need to reference in the texture 2D asset.

[cosmic prairie]

The texture file

What do you mean "get" the texture of an object

How does the object "have" textures

Renderer componets reference materials and meshes, materials reference shaders and textures to populate properties exposed by the shader, you are making a shader, you do not have any exposed properties, you are about to hard-code a texture into the shader, on the bottom-left panel click "+" and add a texture property. Switch out "Texture 2D Asset" with the created property.

[mystic hornet]

I don't really now a lot about textures, but don't objects have textures?
What should I put inside that created property?

[abstract adder]

Object A needs to Replace on Pass, no?

[tawny echo]

Object A is just a cull. It's not really doing anything

It's just transparent object that is keeping normal background stuff

[karmic hatch]

the object doesn't inherently have any textures associated with it; you have to give the shader a texture and then it applies that texture onto the object (you can either set the property manually for various materials using the same shader with different textures, or you can have a script take the texture from your assets and give it to the shader on start)

[haughty moat]

Hello 🙂 Anyone would know what a U at the end of an integer literal means in HLSL ? example: '3U'

[tawny echo]

Unsigned Int I believe

[mystic hornet]

I'm starting to get what you mean! So if I wanted to have a shader that is similar to a dissolve, and have it move around, should I reference the dissolve effect into the texture?

[karmic hatch]

The dissolve is done by the shader (though the texture might store information about which areas to dissolve first). The texture basically stores information that the shader can use.

(Brackeys has a good tutorial on making a dissolve effect)

[mystic hornet]

It does, and I tried it on my own project, but I want to add a twist, and have that effect move around the object. But from what I've seen so far, I need a tiling and offset node, as well as a sample texture to do that.

[karmic hatch]

Indeed; the texture is in your assets somewhere though, it's not attached to any gameobject in particular

[mystic hornet]

Alright I'll look for it, and maybe watch a few more videos to see if i can find anything!

[sleek estuary]

I'm really having issues getting this shader to work in VR. It renders just fine in edit/game view, but goes pink in play mode. Additionally, with the headset, the pink shader is only rendering in one eye (the left) the right eye completely hides the object. I'm using URP. Is there a way to convert a shader to work with VR? I'm not too versed in shaders.

[sleek estuary]

Both eyes as seen in VR and what it looks like when not in play mode.

[lime viper]

Did you hand write the shader or is it a shadergraph?

If you hand write it you may need to add some code to support the stereo rendering method: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SinglePassInstancing.html

[sleek estuary]

It's an asset from the store, though it seems to be handwritten.

[lime viper]

I'd try adding support for single pass instancing to it first then

if you wanted to test quickly you could try changing the stereo rendering method to multi-pass to see if that works, but you should not really use that for a VR game if possible

[olive hinge]

im writing a shader that limits the maximum light radiance that certain materials can receive (working of fog of war) but my method for doing so seems to remove details from the normal map, can anyone suggest a better way to limit the radiance or fix the normal issue? You can see the normals look good on the outer edge of the lit area (where radianceMax has not been exceeded) but disappear in the center. Other than radianceMax part, this is a copy of the LightingPhysicallyBased from urp source

half NdotL = saturate(dot(normalWS, lightDirectionWS));
    half3 radiance = lightColor * (lightAttenuation * NdotL);
    
    // attempt to set a maximum radiance for light received by fog of war materials
    float3 radianceMax = normalize(lightColor * (lightAttenuation * NdotL)) * 0.75;
    if (radiance.y > radianceMax.y || radiance.x > radianceMax.x || radiance.z > radianceMax.z)
    {
        radiance = radianceMax;
    }

[lime viper]

Seems like you would want to apply the NdotL to you radianceMax outside of the normalize so the normal information is still applied

[olive hinge]

wow duh, thank you

that looks better

[ashen linden]

Any idea what is making this happen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQyCPaThQnA used this tutorial

the problem is definitly on the following code.
float diffuse = saturate(dot(d.normalWS, light.direction));

float specularDot = saturate(dot(d.normalWS, normalize(light.direction + d.viewDirectionWS)));

float specular = pow(specularDot, GetSmoothnessPower(d.smoothness)) * diffuse;

float3 color = d.albedo * radiance * (diffuse + specular);

[latent frigate]

@civic lantern
Thanks for the help where would the output go?

[civic lantern]

drag from Out(4) to Base Color(3)

but you also need to declare the texture property

and then drag that texture to the Triplanar's texture input

[latent frigate]

Thanks, but now the shader looks like this.
There aren't all the options as on HDRP/Lit.

[civic lantern]

I just tested that shader on a capsule and it works fine

maybe you need to add a Tiling float property and plug it into the Triplanar node's Tile input

and if you want options like in HDRP/Lit (normal map, mask map, remapping...), you need to add them to the shader yourself, or find an existing shader graph

[lime viper]

You may also want to correct for object scaling, you can use the object node and the scale value there to multiply the position input before sending it

[civic lantern]

oh also you want to plug in the local normal too:

@latent frigate

[latent frigate]

How did this not create a HDRP/Lit Shader?

[civic lantern]

It's just a template

It's a bit weird though, how Unity doesn't ship with a Shader Graph that works like HDRP/Lit

so we have to replicate it ourselves

[latent frigate]

Has anyone replicated it?

Btw this does this which is not correct.

[civic lantern]

I haven't used this but could work:
https://github.com/RemyUnity/SG-HDRP-Lit

[civic lantern]

this is what the simple shader looks like on my end:

you should test how it works with primitive shapes too.

maybe your tank mesh is somehow messed up

@latent frigate btw make sure your texture's Wrap Mode is set to Repeat

[latent frigate]

Could be how is that even possible?
It works for the Unity default Cube

[civic lantern]

your tank mesh's normals/tangents are probably somehow messed up

[latent frigate]

I made the model in Blender and uv unwrapped it there.

[civic lantern]

select all vertices in blender, hit Shift+N, and save

to recalculate normals

maybe that helps.. hard to tell whats wrong here

also UV's shouldnt matter here because we aren't using them

and what is the scale of that tank object and its parts? 🤔

[latent frigate]

They range from 100-0.000025
I didn't apply transform when exporting

[lime viper]

so this is the setup I'd recommend:

[civic lantern]

oh jesus okay that probably explains it

do what cameron suggested:
#archived-shaders message

oh hes back

[latent frigate]

Hey, Cameron! Can you send the file?

[civic lantern]

its 2 nodes from what you have now

[lime viper]

all you need is the multiply and the object node, I also threw it together with URP so I'm not sure it will work in HDRP

[civic lantern]

it's nearly identical in HDRP (no bounds in Object node in HDRP)

[lime viper]

I meant WRT to just passing the file

[latent frigate]

@civic lantern , @lime viper
Hey, Thanks!

It looks like that the new shader you guys made fixes the tiling issue!
Just one more question.
How can I expose the texture and tiling so that I can change them in the editor?

[lime viper]

There is an area over on the left of the shader graph called the blackboard you hit the plus there and add in the values you want to expose there, for texture you would add a texture2d and for tiling you would put a float, you can also name those parameters how you would prefer

[latent frigate]

Thank you all so much!
It works now!

[civic lantern]

camoflaged objects is a good use case for this type of shader 😁

[rare charm]

Is there a performance hit for using double-sided shaders?

[lime viper]

Unfortunately the answer is largely "It depends" but I feel pretty safe saying unless you are like looking to squeeze the last drop of performance out of things it is probably fine or a net benefit.

Slightly longer version: Turning it on for a large number of unique materials/shaders will increase your draw calls and the amount of geometry drawn each frame. On the other hand if you are making something that is best served having two sided e.g. you would otherwise duplicate geometry and flip normals, or cause you to have to draw more complex geometry you are probably going to see a benefit.

[grizzled bolt]

The geometry will have to be drawn twice, once for each side

[scarlet crater]

does anyone know a potential solution to the white borders around each "cell" here?

the coordinates are generated using frac(uv * resolution) and then used to sample a spritesheet of the characters

i initially thought it might be because the frac function returns a value in [0,1) range rather than [0,1] , but i tried messing with that and it didnt appear to make a difference

I also have my textures wrap mode to clamp, which lessened the issue but didn't solve it

[tropic quartz]

is there a way to slowly move one color in the sample gradient node?

[regal stag]

This should explain the issue : https://www.cyanilux.com/faq/#sg-pixellated-seams
That's written with URP/ShaderGraph in mind. If you're in Built-in RP should be able to use tex2Dgrad(sampler, frac(uv * resolution), ddx(uv), ddy(uv)). Or disable mipmaps/use tex2Dlod if you don't need them.

[scarlet crater]

ah you are awesome

thank you so much

[tropic quartz]

https://youtu.be/XZ9-ZqHxg2s or do this without a gradient

[cosmic prairie]

Anyone knows a good hlsl syntax highlighter that is compatible with Unity, and how it's file system is set up? I currently use the HLSL tools for Visual Studio plugin, but any shader include is not recognized, as the paths refer to the local path in the assets, and also the local path that refers to unity package cache for like URP shader includes

Or even a way to set up the plugin to work with Unity would be great, I'm just not really experienced with vs plugins. I did check if the plugin has any options to set folders to look inside for includes, but it seems like there is no option

[regal stag]

Use a Step node

[cosmic prairie]

(What my goal would be, is to be able to use the "go to definition" feature of the plugin, so it would be easier to dig inside URP's lighting)

[tropic quartz]

worked. thanks.

[slow chasm]

Is there any way to get a noise gradient from a shader into a c# script? I want to make buoyancy for my water but I need my gradient noise for that, and when I use the shader code in the documentation I don't get the same pattern

[ashen linden]

Cyan, I tryed other tutorials for making the shader work properly the way I wanted and they always carry a problem, the shader on your github was the only one that has worked properly, do you have a tutorial explaining the logic or the process behind making it?

[regal stag]

I don't have a tutorial about it no. There might be some comments in the CustomLighting.hlsl file explaining parts of it and important keywords though.

[ashen linden]

okay, thank you, found your tutorials and I will be using them, you got yourself a new follower

[rare charm]

Does it not cull the side facing away from the camera?

[cloud orchid]

Is is possible to do parallax scrolling on a plane using only a shader?

[rigid sandal]

Could anyone help me with this one?

[grizzled bolt]

I do not know this, but in most cases a mesh will have about half of its polygons away from the camera anyhow, showing the backface

[rare charm]

Oh yeah duh. I was thinking about a plane and missed that.

[lime viper]

Yes, you would need to have a texture sample for each layer you want to support. Then if you wanted to run them off of the view use the fragment view direction transformed into tangent space then multiplied by a depth value. Then you can blend each of the layers to make the final result.

[copper zealot]

What component will let me render in 2d based only off some virtual UVs? I.e. without a texture or mesh required? Just pure shader?

[shadow locust]

You could just use a MeshRenderer with a quad and a custom shader

[copper zealot]

I guess, or a sprite renderer with a blank texture -- but is there really no way to just render based off UVs scaled to the object size?

[shadow locust]

Ultimately GPUs work with meshes (triangles and vertices)

So like you could do https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Graphics.DrawProcedural.html
But you're still providing "mesh data"

just in a different way

[copper zealot]

I don't know that that is true -- thousands of shader examples out there rendering solely in the screen space UVs.

Is Shaderforge and OBS "instantiating a quad" so it can render a shader that only takes in the UVs?

You can call UVs mesh data if you like, but I don't see any reason why you can't just define the UVs without a fake quad in the background. It's just a coordinate system.

[shadow locust]

The UVs have to correspond to vertex positions in a triangle or they're kinda meaningless

the UV values themselves are just numbers 0-1

the position in the uv array corresponds to a vertex

[copper zealot]

I'm well aware what UVs are but they're just a coordinate system that is mapped onto vertices in the context of meshes. In a texture or on a screen space or in a box or a window, the UVs are just the relevant coordinate space.

[shadow locust]

You need some way to define that box or window

[copper zealot]

There is no really a reason for it to be connected to the concept of 'vertices' even if you need a start and end point for the range.

[shadow locust]

the positions are verticees

that's all vertices are

[copper zealot]

You can call them that.

[shadow locust]

it's just vertex data in the GPU memory

"Mesh" is a Unity concept but ultimately you need to put vertex data into the GPU for your UVs to refer to

so yes OBS and Shaderforge are putting vertex data into the gpu

This seems like a semantic argument

[copper zealot]

I misspoke, meant Shadertoy.

Maybe it's semantic but there is extra overhead to instantiating quads and all the associated data beyond literally just the UVs.

[shadow locust]

instantiating quads
This is a loaded term

you don't need a GameObject

Is that what you're asking about?

I already pointed you at one example way to do it without a GameObject

This is another way:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Graphics.DrawMesh.html
And about a dozen more here:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Graphics.html

Yes you need more data beyond just the UVs, you also need the vertex and triangle data.

[copper zealot]

No, I'm saying that a quad mesh comes with a lot of associated overheads (like vertex indices, rotation, and other bookkeeping stuff) that are completely irrelevant to defining a UV space (such as in screen space). And I'm just wondering why there doesn't seem to be a way to define that very basically (and trivially) defined UV space without rendering a mesh.

[shadow locust]

All of that "irrelevant" info is relevant and necessary for the GPU to do it. ShaderToy and OBS are allowed to make assumptions about it being a 2D viewport on the screen. Unity is a 3D game engine so it doesn't get to make that assumption

Those applications are uploading that data to the GPU behind the scenes

[copper zealot]

You can call the coordinates that define the extent of the space 'the vertices' if you want. But there is a difference between providing coordinate pairs as bare numbers and providing a quad mesh.

[copper zealot]

Which is exactly the component I'm asking about, a component that makes assumptions about what and where and how you're rendering stuff (specifically in 2D, as well). If it doesn't exist -- fine. But it seems like a really obvious thing to include.

[shadow locust]

Here you can do this if you want
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Graphics.DrawTexture.html

Under the hood it's doing the same thing, but you get to provide screen space coordinates instead of 3D coordinates

As I said - lots of goodies in the Graphics class.

[copper zealot]

That does seem useful for screen space stuff. Is there a similar one one for world space too?

But you're saying that under the hood that would be loading in a 'mesh', including all the extra irrelevant data?

[shadow locust]

That's how GPUs render stuff so yes

or at least how the graphics APIs (Vulkan, DirectX etc) work

If you want world space, you're providing a mesh

That's how you define the world space object shape to render

[copper zealot]

Well I guess I have no expertise in that but it seems to me pretty ridiculous that anyone would design it that way. Edge and face sets (etc) are completely irrelevant to the kind of thing I want to render. But I guess I'll have to accept that overhead.

[shadow locust]

edge and face sets aren't a thing here

it's just vertices, triangles, and UVs

[copper zealot]

Yes, triangles, as in the sets that define the connected vertex graph and the faces (tris, if you want to call them that).

[shadow locust]

and they are relevant because otherwise it has no idea where and how to draw each pixel

Have you actually tried this and found that there's some level of unacceptable overhead here?

[copper zealot]

The only numbers I need to render 2d screen or world space UV based effects are the 4 vec2 pairs that shape the box (or even the just 1 coordinate + 2 extent values).

[shadow locust]

use DrawTexture then. I'm just telling you under the hood any application that does things that way has to convert that to vertices and triangles to get the GPU to draw it.

[copper zealot]

Oh I accept that you're right, I am just baffled by it.

[shadow locust]

these are 3D graphics apis

they're optimized towards drawing 3d objects

drawing 2D things is just bolted on

There are 2D drawing APIs like Skia: https://skia.org/

But even those use the 3D apis like OpenGL or Vulkan under the hood

[copper zealot]

I guess the whole system is rather inflexible. I just see no reason why it ever had to be that way given that the calculations would be identical in every way? I guess it was 'good enough' for this use case so no reason to make it any more optimal. The story of all technological development.

[lime viper]

So you can apply a fragment shader to the whole screen and only use the intrinsics related to screen space. This workflow is not super easy to use, so you may want to consider just putting a quad in front of the camera, you can still use screen space based intrinsics it just doesn't require you to dive into the blit system.

If you still want to start looking at the blit system you could start with the Unity Documentation: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Graphics.Blit.html

Or if you like I believe this might be a bit less involved
https://github.com/Cyanilux/URP_BlitRenderFeature

As to why it isn't a well supported workflow, screen ratio and resolution can vary drastically between users and platforms, it is better to instead have a layer of abstraction that lets you have absolute measures that are then pushed through to the screen.
Imagine if you will having a character jump, with the abstraction you can say the jump height will be 1 meter and the general process that presents it to the screen will solve all that for you.
However when working in screen space you need to go backwards to figure out what 1 meter is in the current screen context, is 1 meter .25 of the screen? what if the screen ratio is wider? Is the camera distance fixed?

[copper zealot]

Thanks for those docs, I'll have a look at them.

That said I do understand why you wouldn't use screen space coordinates to render world space objects.

What I don't quite get (other than "it's the way things are") is why, in 2d, whether screen or world space, you'd need to provide 4 vertices + the adjacency graph and face presence data (i.e. a mesh) to define the UV mapping which is already uniquely and completely specified by 1 float vec2 coordinate + 2x float width and height, (or potentially all ints in pixel space).

But this isn't my expertise, my expertise is optimising scientific code for HPCs. So perhaps there is some good reason for it, beyond lack of willpower to implement it.

[lime viper]

So what you are taking about are the screen space intrinsics, not sure if you are looking to do this with HLSL or in shader graph but the screen coordinates are readily available in either, they will present a 0-1 2D space that represents the screen, often they will also provide the depth information of the screen as well in the Z component.

In Shadergraph you can use Screen Position in default mode, I've not worked much with HLSL but it looks like you can pass it via semantics here: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-ShaderSemantics.html

Shadergraph also has the Screen node which has the width and height in pixels. That data could also just be passed directly via the material if you want to use HLSL

[meager pelican]

GPU's are designed to be fast polygon rendering machines, massively multi-parallel rendering of millions of polygons. Polygons are composed of 3 verts each, ultimately. Even "larger" polygons (say quads) are broken down into triangles.

The pipeline is designed to take 3 points (verts) and output them into 2D screen space-ish....it's actually called clip space.

Clip space is a -1 to 1 space with (0,0) at the center, and most of the 3D work done to "splat" the 2D or 3D scene onto that flat LOGICAL plane. The physical plan isn't being dealt with yet...it's all just math.

You don't really need more than 3 verts to map and entire view screen into this process. Research "full screen triangle GPU" for some fun. But regardless of how you do it, with 4 verts or 3 verts, you're mapping a logical mathematical space called clip space over the screen. For a triangle at the center of the screen it's not a full screen quad. For a full screen tri/quad...it just happens to neatly cover the whole screen.

THEN....The magic happens IN HARDWARE. The vertex stage is the stage that set it all up...into clip space. The RASTERIZER then maps the results of the polygon's verts onto pixels of the logical screen (which often maps to physical screen size but I supposed doesn't have to). During rasterization, there's a perspective divide that happens where the depth information is taken into account for 3D screens and the farther things are away the more they're divided such that they move toward that (0,0) point.

THEN (and only then) can you get into screen space. Because all the math before that is in LOGICAL SPACE, not physical device space.

Anyway, all you need to do screen space mapping is 3 verts, submitted somehow to the programmable vert stage. AND THAT's IT. No extra overhead is needed, but the GPU has to do its job of mapping the logical space to the physical pixels so it can call the fragment stage shader for each pixel in the resulting polygon...be it some arbitrary area of the screen, or the entire screen. That rasterization is hardware and not programmable. But the input to it (vert stage) is programmable, and the frag processing is programmable.

[copper zealot]

I see, so it's solely a contrivance to deal with the hardware side rasterisation? I know and could tell anyone the entire space (whether it be clip or screen) with a coordinate, width and height. But, we need to convert that into a set of vertices solely so the hardware can undo that conversion and get back to the mapping which we already knew (thanks to the peculiar constraints and symmetries in this specific calculation) and theoretically could have provided to the GPU were the hardware able accept it.

[meager pelican]

I suppose so.
But think of it this way...what API isn't a "contrivance" and abstraction? Isn't that in effect the entire idea behind an API to begin with?

I mean, there is some physical memory on the GPU that maps (probably double buffered) to the physical screen and is output at every frame to the hardware. I suppose we could just write bits to that like in the old days of the most simple "
"graphics cards".

The first graphics cards, beyond just memory-mapped-to-monitor contained some sets of utility functions. Like blits, and fills but the real "GPU"s contained higher level functions that let programmers exploit dedicated hardware. And we moved quickly in the PC realm from 2D to 3D cards, because filling lots of polygons fast is really cool graphics, and all we really could afford with the speeds-feeds of the time. Ray tracing was WAY WAY WAY out of that league and still is mostly....RTX technology is just beginning to appear now.

There are other aspects to consider, like parallelization and math, that are best done on a GPU...so a math-space to device-space construct is needed.

The fragment/pixel shader stage (the meat of screen-space calcs) must be called for each pixel. You can do that in a compute shader too I suppose. Just tell it to run for width x height itterations.

[copper zealot]

Sure, I suppose. But it just seems like there is a whole step you can skip in these specific cases.

There is the projection of the polygon into the flat space (which seems like the computationally intensive part to me) then there is the actual drawing.

Maybe there isn't as much to gain by skipping that first step as I expect there would be... and I get that we, collectively, as a culture, became kind of obsessed with 3d.

But there are still a lot of 2d games out there, (maybe even ones that would even appreciate being able to render a billion more particles, not to mention other more philosophical concerns) so I guess to me it seems like it would be valuable to haver a higher level function to skip that first step and just tell the GPU "here is the mapping, don't worry about it".

[meager pelican]

The vert stage and rasterization is minimal.

But you can use compute shaders.

With them you can write directly to RenderTexture[x, y]

But somehow you have to tell the GPU how to allocate all of those processing units and in what "waves"....so there's still an API for that.

[lime viper]

Modern GPU's don't see much of a difference between vertices or pixels, processing 3-4 vertices to make a full screen quad is a tiny fraction compared to processing 8.3 million pixels

[meager pelican]

Another thing I should mention is that each processor core has interpolators associated with them. So you can set 3 verts in logical space and have the interpolators compute screen space coordinates, or other data FOR YOU, during processing/rasterization, device independent...basically FOR FREE, or at least at a performance level in silicon that is above what you'd get if you were doing it manually in the fragment stage.

[lime viper]

Also GPU's in theory are stateless, that is to say every frame they are given fresh data with no knowledge of what data made up the previous frame, this is less true nowadays where previous data can be carried over, but it is largely in a different format than what the CPU passes in

This ties into the idea that the GPU is about being extremely focused on processing many tiny chunks of data in parallel their programming structure is designed to maximize that vs. the more general programming you would find for CPU based languages

[copper zealot]

Sure but not every object in 2d world space (or screen space) is going to cover 8.3 million pixels and you may very well have thousands, or hundreds of thousands (or whatever you can push the system to) of objects whose polys need to be projected into the flat space.

3 verts rather than 1 coordinate and 2 extents is already 50% more memory per space that needs defining and no idea how much CPU time in the transfer to the GPU. And for whatever is 'free' I suspect we mean in calculation time rather than say, energy cost.

I get that what we have already works well enough for this situation. And of course from the viewpoint of productivity there is no point in optimising before you need to.

But there is also the question of basic competency and arbitrarily doing inefficient things (like say, copying a whole array into a function's memory rather than the 1 value you need from it) just doesn't make sense.

I assumed that since you clearly don't need 'verts' or a 'mesh' as a whole data structure to define the space (mathematically) there would be a clear and obvious way to skip that. I guess not. Or there is in Compute Shaders?

Either way an interesting discussion.

[lime viper]

The whole screen at 4k is ~8.3 million pixels, they all have to be drawn at least once

per frame

[meager pelican]

It is interesting. 🙂
But somehow, unless you have dedicated/known hardware, you have to map logical space to physical-device.

That's rasterization. 2D or 3D, mesh or no mesh, it has to be done.

The center of the screen at offset (widht/2, height/2) isn't a constant. It varies by device that it is executed on.

Whereas in clip space, (0,0) is the center, regardless.

And then there's interpolation in silicon....FAST. A big performance boost.

As to your example of data storage, you could create a buffer of x/y location and 2 extents and the vert stage could use that to output logical math-space info to be rasterized. So really it's already possible to do that. It is done, in fact, for situations where geometry is generateed (procedural geometry can come from anything)

Somehow you have to be able to write to abstract-space and end up in concrete-space.

[copper zealot]

Yeah, but that is always happening and the relative computational time spent on the pixels vs the projection into the flat space will depend on the number of local spaces that need projecting.

0 objects, then 100% of compute time is spent on the pixel loop. A billion objects each with their own local space that needs to be projected into the flat space? Who knows.

In 3d that projection is complex and it makes sense there is highly optimised hardware to do that.

In 2d all subspaces are simple translations.

[meager pelican]

You can write a software based rasterizer on the CPU, but that's slow. And rasterization in a GPU is per the api.

[meager pelican]

You need to check out interpolators. "Simple translations" don't even have to be done in certain cases, if you're using the rasterizer. That's probably not exactly what you're saying. Maybe an example will help.

[copper zealot]

Well what I mean is from local to world to screen, for example.

I get that the logical space differs from the pixel space since there is no way to know a priori how the discretisation grid aligns with the logical space.

[lime viper]

So the other problem is that GPU's want to be given a simple program to run, and they want to run it on every pixel, so if you want to put X number of sprites on screen what happens is that it does a logic check on every pixel to see if X sprite should appear there

[copper zealot]

Yeah, there are many other optimisation issues to be able to put a billion things on screen -- for sure.

[lime viper]

Yeah but by implementing them you are essentially re-implementing the vertex/triangle stage

[meager pelican]

Let's say you want to "smear" a gradient across the screen.

If you do that in a compute shader, where you're in 2D and you pass in the width/height and then calc the value for each pixel at (x, y) and shove the color into the pixel....you can do that.

It's slow.

The faster way is to let the rasterization process smear the colors for you in a device independent way as it is rasterizing anyway. The vertex stage outputs color at each of the 3 verts, let's call it pixelColor.

So in that case, your frag function doesn't even care what its location is, and it can simply return the result from the interpolators. The frag function would just return
return pixelColor;
and pixelColor would be calculated by hardware interpolators in silicon that end up having to dispatch the frag calls anyway.
That's the lowest overhead, and it works on any resolution of device without YOUR program having to know anything because the GPU already knows what to do.

[copper zealot]

Well the kind of sorting you need to do in 3d is just far far more complex than what you need to do in 2d due to the constraints afforded you by the lack of a 3rd dimension.

In 2d you only need to know the order, but in 3d you need to worry about the extent of the polygon which may intersect other polygons in a way that a single polygon-space requires two orderings (one in front and one behind a separate polygon-space).

Or even more orderings, potentially.

[lime viper]

So you can totally do them in order in a painters algorithm, but even more efficient is to write out the color and the depth information, then you can skip drawing things that have a lower depth value

[copper zealot]

I see, but this would work only if the smear you wanted to do was identical to the interp they used in the silicon right? If you had some weird function you wanted to apply it'd be a compute shader, or more vertices?

As many vertices that would be required to approximate the function with lerp or smoothstep or whatever it uses.

[lime viper]

Assuming you have a good 0-1 mapping you can just remap those values as needed

[meager pelican]

I'm using a simple example.
But anything can be "smeared" by interpolators...colors, screen-space coordinates, whatever.

And of course, if your pixel's result is a function f(x), you can still write and call f(x) to set the color. You don't HAVE to interpolate everything. But it is really handy for device-resolution independence of anything that is convenient.

[copper zealot]

Right but in 2d all you need is the order. The depth of the 'polygon' or the depth of 'object'. In 3d the depth of the object isn't enough because of intersections, and the potential for an object to extend in front and behind another object so afaik there is a lot of complex stuff going on when it comes to ordering in 3d, something completely superfluous in 2d.

[lime viper]

What is the sort order except a 3rd dimension?

[copper zealot]

In a way it is a third dimension but the constraints on the situation make it far easier to compute what to render. They're all parallel, don't intersect, can't be both in front and behind at the same time, so you can simply take the top item (and then deal with transparencies).

In 3d, as far as I know, rendering engines usually do a lot of other clever things to correctly order objects because of exactly those things? Feel free to tell me I'm wrong though.

[lime viper]

So in general that is how 3D works as well, things will be sorted back to front from the camera and each submitted to the GPU, by writing out the depth information into a depth buffer shaders have an early out. but the GPU wants floats. Also you have to remember too a CPU tops out at like 16 cores, GPU's are 1000+ each able to process these things far faster than a CPU

[copper zealot]

Sure but the difference with 3d is you don't know the sorting a priori. You have to calculate the sorting because the projection isn't orthographic, the camera can move in 3d, and the objects can move in front and behind each other, or have extents that go in front and behind another object simultaneously.

In 2d you know the sorting a priori because you set which layer the sprite was on and that doesn't (usually) change. (and even if it does change it changes because you told it to, so you still know what the sorting is without calculating it).

The camera also can't move in a way that changes the ordering.

So you don't even need to do 'sorting' in 2d. You can just 'index' the objects instead, no calculations needed.

[lime viper]

Why wouldn't the projection be orthographic?

[kind juniper]

Well, just disable depth sorting in your shader.🤷‍♂️
Then it will render purely on the sorting order that the materials provide.

I'm pretty sure it's a hardware level thing though, so I'm not sure if you're gonna get any boost in performance at all.

[copper zealot]

Not sure what your point is? I'm just pointing out that the constraints of 2d necessarily open up opportunities for far more efficient calculations (whether measured by memory, time, or energy). I don't know whether or not GPUs actually have the hardware to take advantage of that fact or not.

[kind juniper]

Okay..? Perhaps you're right, eo what are you gonna do about it?

[copper zealot]

People usually keep depth sorting on because turning it off often ends up with undesired effects in the rendering because of the problems I mentioned. Those problems don't exist in 2d (or anything parallel to a plane and constrained to move parallel to that plane, and viewed from a camera normal to that plane).

[lime viper]

So most GPUs work with Vec4s in either Single, Half, or Fixed* precision, even if you pass it a vec2 it treats it as vec4

*fixed is rarely used now adays

[copper zealot]

Nothing. It's just an observation.

[meager pelican]

The depth sorting is done at the engine, not at the GPU.
That's probably why Unity has a different 2d system than the 3D system.

By the time it gets to the GPU, like @lime viper just said, there's not much difference between a 2D vector and a 3D vector for performance.

[copper zealot]

Makes sense.

[meager pelican]

Of course there's other factors, but that's programmable BY YOU in your shader.

[kind juniper]

Okay. Well, the reality is that 3d is way more resource-demanding than 2d, so the industry, hardware and graphics apis evolved to make 3d as performant as possible. As a side effect it made any rendering(wether 2d or 3d) faster. You can do almost anything with 2d now a days without experiencing performance issues. Optimizing for 2d is simply irrelevant in most cases.

[kind juniper]

I mean writing/reading from the depth buffer. Isn't that on the GPU side?

[meager pelican]

Sure is.

But it's optional, as you mentioned.

[lime viper]

As a fun kind of aside it is fun to take a look at this as an example of that 2D-3D hybrid: https://twitter.com/UnpackingALife/status/1572704540482469888

Unpacking 📦 (@UnpackingALife)

yes, Unpacking was built in Unity, or as we like to say, by ~secretly using the third dimension~

Likes

5955

Retweets

717

▶ Play video

Twitter · Sep 21, 2022, 9:49 PM

[copper zealot]

Trying to imagine the workflow/tools they would have made to work like that. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do though.

[kind juniper]

It's actually pretty common in 2d games I think.

In the simplest form, just have some utility script that places the sprites at certain z pos based on something(layer?)

[lime viper]

it's probably not bad to automate away with a tool, just do the illustrator style move forwared/move backward, and keep it at units of 1 for each move

[ebon basin]

superliminal was made in unity and that's a large premise to the game

[copper zealot]

Yeah I can see an advantage in being able to use the perspective view to just grab and reorder things in complex scenes like this.

[median kiln]

In 3d, how do I use shaders to render a character's eyes over their hair without then being able to see their eyes through their head when you turn them around? I tried messing with the draw order but realised if I put the eyes on top they'd just show through the head entirely

[karmic hatch]

If you put the eyes on top but have them cull the back face, they should be transparent when they're on the other side of the head

[median kiln]

thank you!!!

[lament scarab]

does anyone know where this background texture comes from in this example?
https://programmer.ink/think/unity-shader-restore-csgo-holographic-sticker-effect.html

there's only two input images, when you look at everything he posted, they are in the green one.. but it doesn't seem to be used in the code, what am i missing?

[acoustic flame]

is there a way to not render vfx particles in certain areas?

I need to use a vfx graph for the snow for performance, but they also can't have collisions, so they show up in interiors

can I somehow have a volume where they don't render?

[shadow locust]

#✨┃vfx-and-particles

[acoustic flame]

oh cool we have a detective

i made a mistake, good job

[slender swan]

Hey, not positive if this is the right chanel to ask this, but I'm having an issue with getting a texture to look correct in unity, when I render it in blender my corners look like this

but in unity they look like this and all the tinkering in my mind hasn't gotten it to look right

I haven't done a lot with texture mapping vefore so I could be totally off on something but I figured I'd see if anyone recognized the issue right away, I can get a similar issue in blender by changing my interpolation mode to linear rather than closest but can't find a similar setting in unity

[slender swan]

Closest thing I've found is changing the filter mode on the texture from bilinear (default) to point (no filter)

but then it introduces these weird lines

artifact of aa maybe?

[karmic hatch]

is there a clamp wrap mode?

actually what do the UVs look like? Is the texture a cube net which it then folds onto the mesh?

[slender swan]

yeah this is the UV I was using

I swapped over to a spritemap that I'm using a script to apply at runtime and this works though

[karmic hatch]

If you just fill all the transparent areas with black, it should work

[slender swan]

i stg

sometimes

I'm just not half there

to be clear that was the perfect solution thanks

[flat hedge]

Hi, could somebody please recommend me a decent directional fade shader video please?
I've tried to ind one my self but wasn't really successful when it comes to 3D.
What I am looking for is an object going from completely visible to transparent top to bottom.

[karmic hatch]

you can make it in shader graph, just plug one minus the y value of the position into alpha

(would be useful to use a remap if the mesh's top and bottom aren't at y=0 and 1)

(also good practice to saturate anything going into alpha)

[flat hedge]

ok, I'll take a look into that, thanks!

[quartz wasp]

does the shader graph tool have a way to "shave" off a collection of floats, like turning RGBA into RGB? Been using split and combine, but I feel like there has to be a better way

[sick pulsar]

is there a way to make fullscreen shaders using the shader graph

[regal stag]

There is a Swizzle node. It has a text field where you could enter "rgb" (or "xyz"). Though if you're in old versions it used a different UI and was very buggy so was avoided.
But note that Shader Graph will also truncate vectors automatically, e.g. if a Vector4 (rgba) is put into a Vector3 port it takes the first 3 components (rgb).

[regal stag]

There's going to be a proper Fullscreen graph target in 2022.2+ I believe, but that's an alpha version of Unity at the moment.
As for current solutions, you can use graphs with a Graphics.Blit / cmd.Blit (e.g. for URP : https://github.com/Cyanilux/URP_BlitRenderFeature/, use _MainTex to get source texture).
Or can set view/projection matrices to Identity then use DrawMesh/DrawProcedural/etc to draw a fullscreen quad.

[sick pulsar]

ight

[dense bane]

Unity is about to mess up again with their new Block Shader, if you don't want another SRP nightmware, I strongly encourage everyone to go support jbooth https://forum.unity.com/threads/block-shaders-surface-shaders-for-srps-and-more-public-demo-now-available.1350497/page-2#post-8528396

[oak ingot]

can I assign any float to the uvs of the mesh, outside 0 and 1, then read that data with a custom node in shader graph?

[kind juniper]

Should be able to, yeah.

[oak ingot]

thanks

[cedar meadow]

guys can you help me with this one

so i created a shader and assigned the material to it, then I put the material into the object

after finishing the shader (which, in its preview, is clearly moving), the object doesnt seem to change, it still has the material's base colour, the material as well seems to be unaffected even though the assigned shader is clearly moving

am I missing something>?

nevermind, I slapped a bunch of buttons and got it fixed (somehow)

[sharp arrow]

Dose anyone have a mirror shader I can use that works instead of using renders because it’s very tedious

[thorny owl]

Library\PackageCache\com.unity.shadergraph@13.1.8\Editor\Generation\Targets\BuiltIn\Editor\ShaderGraph\Targets\BuiltInSubTarget.cs(33,28): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'BuiltInShaderGraphSaveContext' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

I updated to 2022.1.21 today and keep getting this.deeted libraryfolder and rebuilt it,still same error, any tips?

[kind juniper]

Instead of what "renders"?

[scenic agate]

can you split a model so every part has its own matirial

[tame topaz]

Yes, open it in a modeling program and assign materials to the different faces.

[sinful ermine]

hi,
suppose i have a gameobject A that stores a reference to a compute shader.
i have other gameobjects B that access A, in order to assign inputs to the shader then dispatch it

should each gameobject B have its own reference to the compute shader, or does it not matter?

[mossy sun]

Im using Universal renderpipeline and i want to set a texture/sprite onto my mesh. However its... just... transparent for some damn reason, no matter what properties i set. Why ?

I need to use the "Sprite-Lit-Default" shader... however its just transparent, why ?

[sinful ermine]

are the normals in the right direction?

[mossy sun]

I assume so, in 2020 with URP it worked... now 2021 and URP and its just transparent for some damn reason

[sinful ermine]

ah, well, i dont think "sprite" materials are gonna work with meshes

strong emphasis on "Think" though

[mossy sun]

What other shaders might work than ? ^^
It basically downloads an image and should put it onto the 3D plane to display the image... thats the "goal"

[sinful ermine]

try the standard lit ones that come with urp, im not sure if they use texturesamplers or not

[shadow locust]

standard shader does this, you just need to make sure your Mesh UVs are correct

[sharp arrow]

Yea a render texture

Some people use camera and a render texture I’m looking for an actual mirror texture

[kind juniper]

Well, that's how mirrors work. They reflect the view from the perspective of the mirror. There's no more "real" way to do mirrors.

[sharp arrow]

Ok

[kind juniper]

There's no "magic" shader that can reflect the whole scene view without the help of an additional camera.

There are screen reflections and stuff, but they're not perfect.

[sharp arrow]

I know vrchat has it but I’m not finna steal it

[kind juniper]

has what?

[sharp arrow]

Has mirror shader and I think it’s called render too for it

[kind juniper]

There's no magic shader that could just make reflections work without additional setup from C#/Cameras/Render textures.

It's simply physically impossible.

[sharp arrow]

Ok

[shadow locust]

The only way to get "free" reflections is to use raytracing

[lament scarab]

How could I add simple Metallic/Reflections to this frag shader?
https://hastebin.com/lawisafuxu.csharp

Started a bit, but not sure where to go from there..

[mystic hornet]

Hello! Could anyone help me using the Fresnel effect? I'm trying to make it so that the outline is black, but the inside is colored, but when I multiply it with a black color, and plug it into the emission it doesn't change anything.

[karmic hatch]

What does your shader look like?

Sounds like you're taking the Fresnel node output, multiplying it by zero, and then plugging it into emission - which by default is zero - so it comes out looking the same

assuming your object has some base color, you want to multiply the base color by (1 - fresnel) since fresnel goes between 0 and 1

(note that it'll be grey on the edges, not perfectly black, because a lit material with a black base color will still reflect some light. If you want it to be perfectly black, you need to do an unlit graph and do all the lighting yourself)

[grizzled bolt]

Emission cannot make a surface darker than it already is

[karmic hatch]

You can actually have negative emission

(though it probably wouldn't play nice with fog/post processing)

[civic lantern]

How do I access all of the Terrain layers from Shader Graph?

I only managed to find the first 4. How does unity pack the rest?

[mystic hornet]

So I should substract after the multiply?

If I explained incorrectly, I want the orange to be inside, and the black to be the outer color

[grizzled bolt]

You'll probably want to "one minus" before the multiply

[mystic hornet]

I'll give it a try thx!

[meager pelican]

The easy way? Convert it to a surface shader.

The hard way? Temp use a surface shader, generate output and view generated source. Go through the source, figure out all the calls it is doing, all the passes, and you can duplicate the lighting and BRDF functionality for PBR. There's many variants but you only need one, really, and all passes including shadow receiving code in the main part and shadow caster pass, reflection code, color calcs, etc.

[lament scarab]

Can any frag shader be converted to surface shaders?

And how would you go about it?

I'm still quite intimiated by shaders in general haha.. especially when I can't use Amplify Shaders

[subtle cove]

Hey guys, does anyone know how to convert a shader (.shader file) to a lit shader graph (for Universal Render Pipeline)?

This is the actual code:

[meager pelican]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-SurfaceShaderExamples.html

Mostly you'll just do the same things, with a custom vert and custom frag. You'll want a custom vert stage because you pass the original object position (called localPosition) in your fraginput struct.
In the frag you'll do the same calcs and assign the result to the .albedo member. You'll want to set the normal vector, and if using PBR lighting...the metallic and smoothness values even if you just hard code some of them.

With a surface shader, lighting/shadows get auto-generated...it will make all the necessary passes for you.

You could try Shader Graph, it has limited support for the BiRP from what I understand. IDK if it will work though, nor do I know what Unity version you are on. I'm not too familiar with BiRP and SG interop.

[compact reef]

hey....how to have movement shader based on interaction?

like in case of foliages...if u go through it, it will move on interaction

possible by shader script?

and is it expensive for mobile? just to guess...

[kind juniper]

Pass in some data into the shader representing your character( a capsule/sphere info?) Then do some light math in the vertex shader to get an offset for each vertex and move the vertex by it.

[kind juniper]

Hard to say without testing. It's definitely heavier than not doing it.

[steel notch]

So how do you go about stacking materials/shaders onto something? Like for example imagine you have a shader that makes the object glow, and you have another shader that makes an object dissolve away. How do you make it so you can have the glowing object dissolve away?
Does this require multiple passes? I'm pretty sure URP has trouble with that.
Do I just slap both materials on, with the dissolve after the glow so its effect takes priority?
Is it that simple?

[karmic hatch]

If you put both into the same shader, i think they will be dealing with different parts (alpha vs emission) so it wouldn't require much work to combine them

[grizzled bolt]

I think fundamentally you cannot have two shaders acting together on the same surface
Your realistic options are to have all effects in the shaders that need them (paying mind to complexity)
or swapping effectless shaders to effect shaders on the fly while passing over the properties to reduce unnecessary calculations (might need some extra effort to make sure shaders are compatible)

[cerulean agate]

I'm trying to make a Shader Graph that works as a drop in replacement for URP Lit shader. But I can't figure out what I need to name my Shader Graph parameters. For example URP Lit has a Base Map for the texture. What should I name my texture parameter in Shader graph?

[regal stag]

Can see the property names the URP/Lit shader uses by looking at the shader file in the inspector, or opening it in a code editor. Or use https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/blob/master/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/Shaders/Lit.shader
So for the Base Map / Albedo texture it's _BaseMap
But to clarify, It's not really about the name of the property, It's the reference field in the property settings you want to match.

[cerulean agate]

So this line [MainTexture] _BaseMap("Albedo", 2D) = "white" {} means the parameter name is _BaseMap?

I mean parameter Reference?

[regal stag]

Yes

[cerulean agate]

Thanks

Is it possible to change the Graph Inspector parameters from input parameters? For example Workflow Mode Render Face etc...or you'd have to make a separate graph with these different optinos?

[acoustic mirage]

Hey, anyone know, what happens here or how i can fix it.

After import this Asset Pack i only have these Pink Shaders. Im using URP

[grizzled bolt]

When using URP you must use URP compatible shaders/materials

Make new materials for them, or if you have ASE you might be able to compile them again for URP

[acoustic mirage]

Ah okay sorry. Thanks

[near crater]

Hello!
I have a question on shader graph, as I now am able to get into it as the technical artist on a project.
I have a custom shader master flow from the blank shader template, which includes both metallic and specular color. This is due to stuff I was experimenting with in Blender.
Although I am seeing no change when using the specular color value even when metallic is at 0.
Is their something I am missing or can both not be in the same shader, causing metallic to override specular color?

..or does it require me to go the color and metallic to dielectric spec route to be able to have both values workable at once?

If it is:
Metallic ( black and white map ) - connect to your metallic output
Specular ( greyscale or color ) - for greyscale that will need some extra stuff, but for color that go into the specular color output.
Roughness / Glossiness - a greyscale map you need to connect to the smoothness output
Emission ( black/white or color ) - a black/white mask or color map , with the mask multiplied by a color, with either connecting to the emission output.

Ah, so unlike Blender's supershader or Unreals color/metallic to specular, Unity can not do either at the same time, got it.

I would ask for you if your reflections are based on math values or a mapped image?

From what I have seen in Amplify before, and presumably the same can be said for Shader Graph, if your doing skybox stuff, the skybox math / texture needs to be connected at the end to emission.

Also real quick, if I am using the built-in renderer as my target, will shader graph support metallic and specular, or just metallic.
..or would I need URP entirely to use either master stack outputs?

Ah okay, it just doesn't let me switch to either on the fly like URP, I would have to add in say metallic or spec manually?

For that, I would still connect it to emission from my knowledge.

I would agree, given the game we are bringing to a new engine, ala Unity, used specular, but we have had problems getting the same look in Specular workflow, as we were given only the compiled assets, meaning we can get textures and models all working, but we have none of the shader code.
Ala none of the master files, so until I can get the shader code, reason I am trying to figure out this out by guesswork.

I mean that is easily gotten around by just pointing a texture's correct channel to the right master stack input.
The part were having an issue with is reflections.
In metallic workflow it looks right, but that makes no sense since they did the same thing in specular workflow.
I have been unable to get that color to black reflectivity in specular mode.

Well color to darkened color reflectivity in specular mode anyway.

[hallow plover]

is tessellation possible in shader graph?

[grand jolt]

No.

I am having this exact problem: https://forum.unity.com/threads/writing-to-a-rwbyteaddressbuffer-from-a-pixel-shader-in-a-scriptablerenderpass.995959/

[near crater]

So I started from scratch on all this, and okay, built in render pipeline, added specular color to the stack, it is greyed out, does anyone know why?

I do not have URP installed for reference.

[deep otter]

Quick question, if I have a voronoi node in my shader graph, no time or anything to change it

Is it calculated every single frame?

[regal stag]

Greyed-out nodes in the master stack means it isn't used by the current Target / Graph Settings.
I don't know how the Built-in target works, but there might be something like "Workflow Mode" in the graph settings where you can switch between Metallic/Specular workflows?

[near crater]

Nope, tried to funky with all the graph settings, did nothing.

It exists outside URP, so that tells me it can use specular color, but I do not know how.

[regal stag]

I guess the Built-in Lit graph is Metallic-workflow only then

[near crater]

Then why is specular color there without URP then?

If it wasn't supported or there in code, then it shouldn't even exist in the menu.

[regal stag]

It might also be used in HDRP? idk
Looked at the Built-in target source and found references to the workflow mode (as it's likely just copied from URP) but the UI hides it as the shader generation code probably doesn't properly support it yet. https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/blob/4ccc5351ef4d264e7cf5d4cdab0024770dbc3740/com.unity.shadergraph/Editor/Generation/Targets/BuiltIn/Editor/ShaderGraph/Targets/BuiltInLitSubTarget.cs#L138
It does mention "Temporarily"... but given how long it took the Built-in target to even be introduced into shader graph, I wouldn't really expect it soon.

[near crater]

It is strange too because the 2021 version does show the specular color block in the wiki fragment blocks section.

[regal stag]

Yes, Voronoi (and other noise nodes) are based on maths calculated per-frame.
But shaders are usually pretty good with that so it may not be an issue. Unless you're targeting mobile maybe, then swapping it out for a texture may be more performant.

[deep otter]

Yikes I am trying to use that on shadergraphs and they appear everywhere

So probably ill just bake it?

[deep otter]

Also thanks really appreciate it! Couldn't really find that online

[desert sluice]

https://pastebin.com/SfYGF4YM i'm working on a custom masking shader for my game, but for some reason this is only coming up with the classic error pink. I've double checked with the tutorial i followed, and i can't seem to find any errors. can anyone here help me figure out what's wrong?

So i seem to have narrowed the issue down to compatibility with URP, now i just need to translate it to the URP shader language. Does anyone mind helping me with it?

[visual basin]

Is it possible to make a unity surface/texture that can have arbitrary data on it, like if I wanted to make it show my desktop?

[near crater]

So I have an issue, so in shader graph, I have the base color texture going into base color, but it looks nothing like the texture I have to the right.
Yet, metallic is a 0 without any of my math put in, and smoothness is at .5.
Metallic at 0 should be fully showing the base color no problem...yet it doesn't.
Thoughts?

I'm using this image as the 'cubemap' for reference.

It is called a reflection map, but I am unsure how this would be a smoothness map at that point.

[karmic hatch]

If you're using a custom thing, i would say yes put it in emission

[slim steppe]

I have to convert screen uvs to world positions inside a compute shader, whats the best way to do that?

Should I just lerp between the Frustum Corner?

[swift loom]

    float4 vertex : POSITION;
    float4 color : COLOR;
    float4 uv : TEXCOORD0;
    float3 normal : NORMAL;
};

struct v2f {
    float4 pos : SV_POSITION;
    fixed4 color : COLOR0;
    float2 uv : TEXCOORD0;
    float4 screenPos : TEXCOORD1; 
    float4 worldPos : TEXCOORD2;
};```

I want to be able to access the edges of the mesh of an object with this, but I can't seem to do it other than using uv, but that only works on single image objects.

I was thinking I would just use the vertex value but how do I just get that?

{
    v2f o;
    o.color = v.color;
    o.pos = UnityObjectToClipPos(v.vertex);
    o.screenPos = ComputeScreenPos(o.pos);
    o.worldPos = mul(unity_ObjectToWorld, v.vertex); 
    o.uv = v.uv.xy;

    return o;
}```
Can I add another position/texcoord channel and just do o.vertexPos = v.vertex; or something?

i still don't understand the channels at all tbqh

[quartz flint]

I assume this channel is also for asking questions with shaders made with shadergraph?

[grand jolt]

I just solved a problem I had with a vertex color shader, that was missing shadows, by putting addshadow to the end of the #pragma line but I have no idea what I did besides enable shadows.

[quartz flint]

I'm trying to make a shader that will let me do a texture across multiple planes in world space, if that makes sense? I'm not good at shaders at all, so I have basically no idea what I'm doing half the time. I tried to follow some Unity forum posts on how to achieve what I wanted to do but I can't really get there. The Texture seems fine on the preview, but the result is not at all like that.

This is what I want (I made it in paint quickly)

This is what I get in Unity

This is my graph

[full zephyr]

you dont need to triplanar map it

you can just use a repeating texture with tiling and offset, with an additional vec2 for adjusting the uv scale

and with the world object position added to the offset

[quartz flint]

I'd love to know how to do that.
So I remove the triplanar node, I keep the Position node on world (?), I keep the tiling/offset node and then you say add another Vec2 for offset somewhere?

[full zephyr]

i'll see if i can show you something when i have access to my laptop 🙂

[quartz flint]

Ah. I can show you how I interpreted it, might be close?

[full zephyr]

ahh, world pos to the offset of the tiling and offset node

something like that, make sure your texture import settings has wrap mode to repeat, else set the sampler state to repeat

[regal stag]

The Position node would need to be Split so you can access the two axis you need for the planar texture projection. Probably XZ/RB in this case.
It would also go into the UV port on the Tiling And Offset as you want to replace the UVs, not offset them.
Something like this

[quartz flint]

This leaves me with an entirely one-color texture

I assume I'm doing something wrong

[regal stag]

The Main Preview quad is probably aligned to a different axis. Try testing it in the scene instead.

[quartz flint]

It's also completely yellow in the scene

[deep otter]

Can't you do like a tile map and just adjust the size?

[quartz flint]

I have 4 separate meshes that need to line up

[deep otter]

Thats alright as long as you adjust the size of the uv

[regal stag]

Make sure the plane is pointing up, and make sure the Tiling value on the material isn't set to 0

[deep otter]

If you need anything 3d then a triplanar is probably the way

If only vertical or horizontal then tile map should do the trick

With world pos

[quartz flint]

I tried triplanar at the start but was advised that I didn't need it for what I tried to achieve.

It should also be said that I don't really know what I'm doing in regards to shaders. They are black magic to me.

[full zephyr]

if you can have the uvs setup correctly, triplanar isn't really needed, else triplanar is also an option

[deep otter]

To get this, simple tile map should be fine, given uniformed uv

If not then theres probably a lot of math needed, or a projected uv which i forgot how to do, but its called projected something

[full zephyr]

i think you mean uv camera mapping

[deep otter]

Or a decal, and let it appear only above a certain layrr

Idk

[quartz flint]

I gave up and instead just tried to eyeball it.
It's not perfect, but it's good enough for the purporse

Thanks for trying to help me @full zephyr @regal stag and @deep otter

[deep otter]

Glad it worked out

[full zephyr]

i almost have it hold on

just a bit more tweaking needed

[full zephyr]

yeah... honestly just set your uvs correctly and tile them

[quartz flint]

Lol

Was it too much?

[full zephyr]

the other option is triplanar

[quartz flint]

Right

[full zephyr]

because this isn't working

[quartz flint]

I know that, like, in Unreal for example, you can click an option that tries to line up materials using triplanar. I always thought that was magical. Though I don't know how to replicate that in Unity.

[full zephyr]

let me see if that's possible

[quartz flint]

I guess this is exactly what we are trying to do here; https://youtu.be/MfJ_1LWe2Q4

[swift loom]

to attempt rephrasing, how do i get the edges of a 2D objects mesh on an object using a slice from a sprite sheet? on a single sprite object you can just use UV but in a sheet the UV and texelsizes don't represent the size of the mesh.

I can get the SV_Position output which is -0.5 to 0.5, which is semi-usable, but I have no data to translate this into on screen pixels using texture sizes or anything, for example making a 2 pixel wide outline.

[deep otter]

Depth cel shading is usually good enough for that, or bake a 2pixel wide outline in your sprite to begin with

[full zephyr]

oh wow it was really simple @quartz flint

[quartz flint]

oh

Yeah that is simple

What type of graph is it?

[full zephyr]

that's... shadergraph, the same as yours

[quartz flint]

unlit, pbr, etc...what type?

[full zephyr]

i'm using unlit for experimental purposes

[quartz flint]

Alright

[full zephyr]

you just need a seamless texture is all

and wow, this node is useful, i'll tile all my greyboxes with this from now

[quartz flint]

This is Triplanar Mapping btw, if you ever need to do environments and whatnot.
I used a single texture to try and do what you have achieved now, but normally you'd use three different textures so you can make a landscape and whatnot.

[full zephyr]

yep, the built in node just samples the same texture thrice

[quartz flint]

Yea

But at least with the above you have control, I guess

But yeah that kind of texturing is super useful

Especially for procgen UVs

How'd you make the texture @full zephyr ?
Did you make it square where one half is white the other black?

[full zephyr]

rotated rectangle on background, seamless modifier applied

[quartz flint]

Ah cool. I'm terrible at making textures

Lol

Thank you

Been a big help today

[desert sluice]

https://pastebin.com/SfYGF4YM I'm working on a masking shader for a holographic effect in my game, but i believe the tutorial i followed to help make it isn't for URP. Is there a way I can convert this to be compatible with URP, so I can use it for my project? I have the shader script in the linked paste.

[digital pelican]

URP uses ShaderLab with HLSL, this should help
https://blog.unity.com/technology/migrating-built-in-shaders-to-the-universal-render-pipeline

Alternatively if you need at mosf few shaders you can rewrite it in ShaderGraph

The only thing that would require custom editor node is stencil.
This would be best solution in my opinion since it's quite easy starting point, and it should be editor update-proof.

[slim steppe]

How could I convert this to URP?```cs
private void OnRenderImage(RenderTexture source, RenderTexture destination)
{
_computeShader.SetTexture(0, "Result", _renderTexture);
_computeShader.SetVector("Resolution", new Vector4(_renderTexture.width, _renderTexture.height));
_computeShader.SetVectorArray("Corners", _corners);

    _computeShader.Dispatch(0, _renderTexture.width / 8, _renderTexture.height / 8, 1);

    Graphics.Blit(_renderTexture, destination);
}```

Or do something similar?

[knotty juniper]

OnRenderImage does not work in urp

do you want to have a custom post effect?

@slim steppe

[slim steppe]

yep

[knotty juniper]

check out this
https://www.febucci.com/2022/05/custom-post-processing-in-urp/

this is another nice example project with custom effects
https://github.com/togucchi/urp-postprocessing-examples

[slim steppe]

thanks

[desert sluice]

This is getting me closer to what I need, but it's giving me an error when I manually changed it from CG to HLSL:
Shader error in 'Custom/redDot01': Unexpected identifier "fixed4". Expected one of: typedef const void inline uniform nointerpolation extern shared static volatile row_major column_major struct sampler or a user-defined type at UnityLightingCommon.cginc(4)
I can't seem to find a solution on my own or online. Do you have any ideas on how I could fix this?

[digital pelican]

I think HLSL used float4 instead of fixed4

[karmic hatch]

I've used a fixed4 in hlsl before though (iirc)

"unexpected identifier fixed4" makes me think there's a semicolon or similar missing somewhere

[shadow locust]

Looks like you're maybe still importing a cginc file from your hslsl shader or something? The error is in UnityLightingCommon.cginc(4)

(I don't know enough about shaders to know if that makes sense 😆)

[tropic sluice]

6ri9cty7uo bj0l.

[worldly crater]

this is my image, UI image (without text)
Made burnt effect shader but problem is its not scaling or respecting aspect ratio
iam not really sure what to google as shader scale and aspect ratio dont give info about it

this is with shader

can i just "apply shader" to not be stretched

ignore alpha difference, resolved that

[ebon basin]

To preserve the aspect ratios I usually just contain my element and use the full screen stretch anchor presets

[worldly crater]

You mean UI element? Well that banner is much slimmer, i resized it for visual effect but would like for shader to be independant if thats possible

to be like "overlay"

i guess here shader is applied to image and then image is stretched so shader is too

[ebon basin]

Yeah, exactly. Not too sure how you can produce that information back to the shader automatically, you're just stretching the UVs this anyway, but can probably adjust them yourself by changing it in the shader and using fields.

otherwise what you'd probably want to do is encapsulate, use the full image stretch pivot/anchor, then reduce the size to where you want it using content resize elements

Width resize anchors I think would distort it

[worldly crater]

can i make shader certain aspect ratio?

[harsh oracle]

I want to use the Standard shader but just add the noambient pragma to it so it ignores ambient light. is there an easy way to do this?

(I'm using the built-in render pipeline)

[ebon basin]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.shadergraph@7.1/manual/Screen-Node.html
There's that which would match the current ratio

[worldly crater]

@ebon basin that is input node, just as Texel Size which gives height and width

nothing to make shader "wide"

[worldly crater]

this actually makes it work, but my shader graph version is 10.x while there is object node and with 14.0 version you get objects renderer size which would make this process automatic and not hardcoded. why is my shadergraph 4 versions behind? package manager has no answers

oh nvm its part of unity version 2022

[ebon basin]

Texel gives you height and width, but you want the aspect ratio of it

[worldly crater]

Texel gives you size of texture i think which is 1313x111

image is 500x100 on screen

[ebon basin]

The idea is you want your shader to adjust as you change the aspect ratio, which if you're using tiling, you'll have to use that information to change those values

I'm not too sure, but I think that's the idea of it all

Probably some basic arithmetic

You can test this by changing the ratios, and seeing the tiling of the shader being warped with different resolutions

[worldly crater]

yeah, thats what iam saying

this is with texture size

looks bad

because sprite is 1313x111

it would work if image in scene was same aspect

dont think i can make it automatic without unity version 2022.2

with hardcoded aspect ratio, looks nice

[ebon basin]

Yeah, that's what I do. I'm curious now and will probably look into doing it later

probably already solved somewhere on the forums though

[worldly crater]

i have found this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70744159/how-can-i-get-the-actual-size-of-a-gameobject-in-shadergraph

combined with some other google results

hard to find if you dont know what to look for hahahahah

but thanks man, you really helped guide me to solution

iam stupid, i can set aspect ratio as variable and set it from script...

[analog karma]

why do the gradient noise has these pink spots?

[harsh oracle]

how do I remove ambient/environment light from the Standard shader?

[forest sail]

send all of ur nodes.

[analog karma]

its a simple blood pool shader

[deep otter]

Try normalize it?

Ops saturate, or clamp

[digital kelp]

Anyone know how to make this type of glow around a transparent layer in phototshop?

[grizzled bolt]

I believe there's an option called "defringe" in PS which functionally does the same, if the purpose is to remove color fringing
You could also do it manually by duplicating the image layer, doing a blur or a median filter on the layer below, and before merging make a mask from the layer above

[digital kelp]

Thanks! I will look into the defringe option. I tried the duplicate layer method but I loose the details on the outside of the original layer that way.

[digital kelp]

Hum defringe doesn’t seem to be what I am looking for. It’s more like I need an increase fringe around the grass / flower 😆

[grizzled bolt]

That's what it should be doing in for transparent areas

[digital kelp]

Basically I want this plant to look the same as the one above so there is no white / black showing on the edge of the grass. Defringe removes from plant edges, I need to increase the plants edges.

[grizzled bolt]

https://photoshoptrainingchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/defringe-before-after.jpg

I believe that is what defringe is for
If it doesn't work you'll have to do a similar process manually as I described

[digital kelp]

I don't think you are understanding. Basically I don't need to remove any fringe from the around the plant, I need to increase it, or add like a glow around it, this is because when Unity renders the grass shader transparency there sometimes is a white / black border showing due to the clipping. Especially at a distance. So if there is a expanded glow around it, no clipping is noticeable.

[grizzled bolt]

This is what defringe does

[digital kelp]

In your photo above, defringe removes the outer edges.. I need to increase the outer edges... like expand the edge outward.

[ebon basin]

Ah, I think I've done this before with some blur tool but I cant recall

basically need to bleed the blur out, but not affect the picture layer

[digital kelp]

yes, exactly! My first thought was to do some type of blur options, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

[ebon basin]

could be one of photoshops billion filters

[digital kelp]

I haven't found one that expands the blur outwards

[grizzled bolt]

@digital kelp https://docs.unity3d.com/351/Documentation/Manual/HOWTO-alphamaps.html here seems to be a tutorial for how to do the thing manually

The addon is probably not necessary in the modern age since there's the ability to do dilation per-channel

[digital kelp]

Yes! Brilliant. Dilation is what I am looking for 🙂

Thank you!

[grizzled bolt]

Also found by the name "median filter" as mentioned

[hallow plover]

what is the difference between eye space depths texture and raw depths texture?

[torpid void]

I have this shader which stops rendering, but how can I apply a mask to this shader? Such that it only applies blend zero one based on the alpha value of a mask texture?

Shader "Custom/Mask"
{
    Properties
    {
    }
    SubShader
    {
        Tags { "RenderType" = "Opaque" "Queue" = "Geometry-1" }

        Blend Zero One

        Pass
        {

        }
    }
}

[regal stag]

I've got a bunch of info about depth-related stuff in this tutorial : https://www.cyanilux.com/tutorials/depth/

[hallow plover]

cool. I will make sure to check this out

[sinful anchor]

How do I make two transparent tiles/sprites overlap without any overlapping areas becoming more opaque like in the red square below?

[regal stag]

If you want the alpha returned from the fragment shader to be taken into account you'd probably want to use Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha instead.

[torpid void]

where'd I define the mask in this case?

[regal stag]

You'd have a texture property in the Properties section at the top of the shader file, and define, sample and return it in the fragment shader. Should be able to find some examples here : https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-VertexFragmentShaderExamples.html

[torpid void]

thanks bud

[regal stag]

If there's no partial transparency on these tiles, could add a Stencils block to the shader. https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-Stencil.html
Something like this should work iirc :

Stencil {
Ref 1
Comp NotEqual
Pass Replace
}

[teal compass]

hey all, im following this tutorial where ill be able to make speedboard shader
but when i apply shader to material, surface input options where i can insert 2d texture arent showing up

where im doing wrong , can someone point out? Im new to shaders

[grizzled bolt]

Make sure that the Texture2D property is marked "exposed"
and that the graph is saved

[teal compass]

that worked,thank you

[compact reef]

what will be the most performant alpha for mobile?

alpha blend vs alpha fade vs alpha cutoff vs src alpha?

@digital kelp would these be still edgy(zigzag) when inserting in Cutout instead of alpha blend...?

[grizzled bolt]

Fully opaque > alpha clipping / cutout > transparency

[compact reef]

when i am using lambert alpha blending instead of alpha cutout ...it is giving poor performance by a weird spike called Gfx.wait for present

i am not even turned v sync on

idk...but this thing is utterly killing my whole project when i using alpha

[grizzled bolt]

Transparency is expensive due to overdraw

[compact reef]

any alternate solution for this since decades?

[grizzled bolt]

Not many that I know of
On mobile hardware especially you need to keep a track of how many layers of overdraw are on each given pixel, it's probably doable to have some transparency if you avoid such surfaces overlapping
With modern rendering transparency isn't getting any better, and with many technologies it's getting harder, which is why even desktop games often use dithered alpha clipping to replace it, though it won't really look transparent

[compact reef]

what should i do then?

[grizzled bolt]

Hard to say

@compact reef Probably the best option at this point for your sanity is to use opaque effects only, like most mobile games
Or study mobile optimization more until you have a grasp of the options and can decide which one is the most appropriate for your project's specific needs

[compact reef]

im curious how those games like pubg...renders trees they r supposed to using alpha

i have applied This on my 37 foliages

on First LOD it is Cutout on the second LOD it is Alpha blended(which makes it looks better and smooth)

and Got 29 fps on my mobile

Samsung A10

with bloom and Tonemapping post processing effect

i was thinking to make more performance out of it

am i supposed to hope for more performance?

@grizzled bolt...

[grizzled bolt]

That game appears to render only particle effects and the UI with alpha blending
Everything else is opaque cutout or fully opaque
Can't spot any post processing either

[compact reef]

poor game

but why so famous

[slim steppe]

How can I check if the stencil value is even?

[regal stag]

Should be able to use ReadMask to only check the last bit, which would be 0 if even.

Ref 0
Comp Equal
ReadMask 1
...

[slim steppe]

Thanks!

[slim steppe]

Would ref 1 check if its not even?

[desert sluice]

I keep getting this error with a custom shader I used for a red dot sight I made, and can't seem to find any solution for it online. I've checked, and I'm not referencing cginc in my shader. I had manually converted it from CG to HLSL, and I haven't gotten any errors other than this. Does anyone have an idea as to how i could fix this?

Shader error in 'Custom/RDS01': Unexpected identifier "fixed4". Expected one of: typedef const void inline uniform nointerpolation extern shared static volatile row_major column_major struct sampler or a user-defined type at UnityLightingCommon.cginc(4)

[wintry valley]

Is there anything specific that needs to be done for debugging shaders with renderdoc? I was following the documentation for Unity and included the line #pragma enable_d3d11_debug_symbols into the CGPROGRAM block of the shader, but when opening RenderDoc I am unable to find any specifics on this shader. I was needing to debug a variable, as it seems its not being set but I am unable to do that currently.

[compact reef]

is shader graph good for mobile devices?

We all know that now
built in RP supports shader graph too....so...will that be a good choice using in mobile project?

[tame topaz]

It has nothing to do with performance, it's just generating shader code for you.