archived-shaders

[ocean blaze]

in graphics?

[vocal narwhal]

Look at the docs I linked

[ocean blaze]

so i should just make a new project

the docs doesnt specify how to reconfigure it

[vocal narwhal]

Yes it does

[ocean blaze]

oh wait it does

i didnt see that part

ok i did the instructions. cool!

it works

thank you so much @vocal narwhal

ty for ur time and help

@vocal narwhal one more thing. there isnt an alpha in the fragment and vertex thing. do u know where it could be?

[vocal narwhal]

Go to the graph settings and change your material's surface type.

[ocean blaze]

kk tysm have a good day

[silver sparrow]

hmmm how is the X and Z axis involved with the top surface though? i thought the Y axis is usually involved with the top surface since it's pointing upwards?

[timid rose]

yeah if anyone has example of a StructuredBuffer/SurfaceShader shader in hdrp, using a shader or even shadergraph please let me know, i assume with a little work i can use a template of that to get what i need

[shadow locust]

Unfortunately ShaderGraph doesn't support StructuredBuffer yet, so you're stuck with manually writing the shaders, and HDRP shaders are nigh impossible to write by hand, at least in my experience

[timid rose]

Well poop

[shadow locust]

Trust me I just spent like two weeks trying to get it to work. The only thing you can do is use a Texture to pack your arbitrary data in. But even then there's no Graphics.DrawMeshInstancedIndirect support (instance ID node doesn't work)

which means no building hundreds of thousands of objects up in a Compute Shader and rendering them with a shader graph shader

So you could pack custom data from a compute shader in a texture, and then use use it in a shader used by a Renderer or DrawMeshInstanced but thats the limit basically for now

[cinder vapor]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1449876995765059586 anyone have experience with either amplify shader editor or just shader graph that can tell me if theres a way to have a shader similar to this?

HiWarp (@HiWarp)

Naiad means ‘flow’ https://t.co/6sRJ0yyuMn

Retweets

378

Likes

2658

▶ Play video

Twitter · Oct 17, 2021, 11:16 PM

i tried messaging the creator but he didnt respond

[shadow locust]

which one

[cinder vapor]

either one that u think i could try and replicate this in

[shadow locust]

I mean

which effect in that video

the water?

The tree growing thing?

SOmething else?

[cinder vapor]

mostly the crayon like shading

[shadow locust]

oh yeah

absolutely possible in either

[cinder vapor]

any tips on how u think i would go about it im very new with amplify

[shadow locust]

never used amplify but it seems like you'd start with something like a typical toon shader, and then do some dithering and/or noise between the two colors in a boundary area between when the shade transitions from one color to the other

[cinder vapor]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1322433177026236416

NaiadGame (@NaiadGame)

Hi! https://t.co/xIRoh3BzNq

Likes

166

▶ Play video

Twitter · Oct 31, 2020, 7:00 AM

this is to get a closer look

[shadow locust]

note I'm not a shader expert (or artist) by any means. Just my amateurish analysis

[cinder vapor]

why not amplify?

[ancient arrow]

how do i make grayscale help

[ancient arrow]

k so, why wont it turn black and white

i folowed the formula like
color.rgb = color.r * 0.3 + color.g * 0.59 + color.b * 0.11;

[vocal narwhal]

you are not adding them together

you are still using RGB as separate channels

Also, there's surely a greyscale node you can use.

[ancient arrow]

oh, so how do i add them then

im so new to graph

[vocal narwhal]

using Add

[ancient arrow]

k so

i added it ig, but how do i contert it in to a rbg then

[vocal narwhal]

just feed it directly into Albedo

or combine it into R G B

also that add with 0 in it is redundant 😄

[ancient arrow]

YO

k now main question, i need somehow apply that to object

[vocal narwhal]

how do you mean? Just make it a material

[ancient arrow]

btw what should i do with

[vocal narwhal]

sample it?

Watch some shader graph tutorials or look at some example shaders

[ancient arrow]

btw how can i put in shader graph object color

[kind juniper]

define "object color"

[ancient arrow]

actually nvm

fixed it

[regal stag]

The face / vertex normals of the top surface may be pointing up, but in terms of positions the Y coordinate is constant so wouldn't be useful for sampling a texture (for that surface, it would still be useful for the sides). For a default cube mesh for example the top 4 vertices are at positions of Y=0.5, with X and Z being 0.5 or -0.5 depending on which side they are on. Technically that's in object space not absolute world, but it should help get the point across.
The coordinates get mapped to the texture where (0, 0) is the bottom left of the texture and (1,1) is the top right. Usually UV values are between 0 and 1 but the texture can repeat infinitely due to it's wrap mode being set to Repeat in the import settings.

[ancient arrow]

I have time value (0-1)
where do i put it to make smooth grayscale shader

graph

[mental bone]

Use a Lerp node to lerp the texture sample and the grayscale and put your time in the t of the node

[vocal narwhal]

You could also replace all this with the Saturate node

feed the texture into that node, and the time into it too

[ancient arrow]

like this?

[vocal narwhal]

yes

0 is desaturated, 1 is saturated

[ancient arrow]

looks fine?

[vocal narwhal]

you don't need any of the following nodes

feed it directly into Base Color

[ancient arrow]

fr?

yo

it works

ty

@vocal narwhal btw how can i make it looks more blue instead of gray

like frozen effect

[silver sparrow]

ok wait so based on my understanding, does this drawing show why the top (and bottom) uses the X and Z axis because the top and bottom are X and the sides are Z.

sorry if this confuses you abit

[vocal narwhal]

Multiply the output with blue

[ancient arrow]

ty

[vocal narwhal]

Or I think the blend node also has varied ways you can combine two colours together

[regal stag]

Sure, it matches the axis shown by the Gizmo in the center

[silver sparrow]

oh wait, i didn't realise the Gizmo

but that is correct right?

[regal stag]

Yes

[silver sparrow]

alright thanks for helping

anyways, do you know where i can start off learning HLSL? i have no knowledge in shaders at all and really wanna learn it

[vocal narwhal]

There's a resource by Cyan pinned to this channel if you're looking for URP specific stuff. It has HLSL more generally in there too

[silver sparrow]

hmmm only seeing 3 pinned messages, none by Cyan

[vocal narwhal]

It's the one labelled "Writing Shader Code for URP:"

[silver sparrow]

oh yes found it, thanks!

[fervent tinsel]

@vocal narwhal btw I don't think that water SG is important enough to be pinned here

[vocal narwhal]

Something like it does get asked often enough, but I agree 😄

[sacred patio]

Hey guys, thought that maybe you could spot something. Why do I not see any output from my vfx shader?(material is assigned but throws purple)

[vocal narwhal]

make sure you have a render pipeline asset assigned in your graphics settings

[sacred patio]

Seems like it is as I opened the project with the URP already

[vocal narwhal]

Hrm. Check your console for errors then. (The warning that's showing isn't important)

[sacred patio]

Failed to destroy windows x) ?

[vocal narwhal]

Not sure what the issue is sorry, maybe someone else would know. Perhaps try the ol' restart to see

[sacred patio]

Is there some sort of parameter I should turn on for Unity to support VFX?

[fervent tinsel]

@sacred patiocan you show the "In Project" view of package manager?

just trying to make sure there's no mismatching packages there, altho it should throw out even more errors then

[sacred patio]

I'm trying to follow this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLWe_Wzc8Xc&t=294s
Stuck right from 4 to 5mins

[fervent tinsel]

have you saved your shader graph after swapping the targets for it?

I know almost nothing about vfx graph itself though

[sacred patio]

Oh I haven't really swapped anything, are they in the wrong order?

[fervent tinsel]

order doesn't matter, I mean now the active targets "Universal" and "Visual Effect"

[sacred patio]

Oh yeah, so I saved and reopened the project and everything

Nvm, I played around with the emmission order and that seemed to work lol

[deep garden]

What's the best plugin for shader nodes ala Blender?

Features I'm looking for:
Alpha transparency
Vertex color texture blending
Multiple UV maps for an object
Multiple vertex colors for an object

[kind juniper]

I think all of that is possible in Shader graph

There's the "Amplify" asset that is probably more powerful, but I'm a bit skeptical if it's worth getting it at this point...

[deep garden]

Thanks. I'll check it out

[timid rose]

Might have to ask you for help on that,
What about using a shader graph that does everything, and using a custom function node specifically for the structured buffer? Is that not a possibility?

Worst case scenario is I try achieve the same effect but as a vfx graph, although I'm sure I'll run into problems trying to get the particles aware of eachother for boid like movement, would have to look into it

https://forum.unity.com/threads/can-you-do-inter-particle-avoidance.1140967/
Gonna try this later - wish me luck

[lusty badger]

Good luck!
If you wanted a official solution you would have to wait quite a bit since the "boid" feature is under consideration.
https://portal.productboard.com/unity/1-unity-platform-rendering-visual-effects/c/123-nearest-neighbor-search

[timid rose]

i was even considering using DOTS but trying to get that working in a existing project was such a pain and was causing so many problems but i think this workaround should be fine

i just need to find an example of someone using this specific work around or just try figure it out myself

[ancient arrow]

does anybody know why particle wont be affected by shader/material?

[kind juniper]

Are they actually using that shader/material?

[ancient arrow]

Yeah, trail material is same as with others

[kind juniper]

I thought we're talking about particles material.

[timid rose]

nvm i dont think i can try use a vfx graph as an output as i have no idea how to get it to output a skinned mesh render, im not sure it can

it just looks odd if it's not animated

[timid rose]

do you have an example of this i could follow perhaps? if not i might go down the insanity speed run route

[shadow locust]

Uhh yeah gimme a minute. I had put together a demo project to show how it doesn't work for DrawMeshInstancedIndirect

[timid rose]

lol

[shadow locust]

But it has a working example with DrawMeshInstanced

[timid rose]

thanks

[ancient arrow]

Particle is fine ig, the only problem is trail

It wont be affected by Shader

[kind juniper]

That's not possible. How do you know that? How is it supposed to look?

[ancient arrow]

Instead of refd

Red*

It should be gray

Every sprite is affected by shader

[kind juniper]

Take a screenshot of the trail renderer material

[kind juniper]

Wdym? Is it a post processing effect? Or do you render with a replacement shader?

[ancient arrow]

Im not so experienced in shaders, i used shader graph with sampled texture and saturation

[kind juniper]

Does the trail renderer use that shader though?

take a screenshot of it's material

[ancient arrow]

@kind juniper cant rn, busy with other stuff, ill send you later k?

But im pretty sure trail and particle have same material

And there is no material property in Trail

Only in Renderer

[deep garden]

It looks like we're working with the Standard render pipeline

[lusty badger]

Btw. I'm using an asset called GPU Instancer with the Crowd animations extension and it works great for rendering large amount of characters

[timid rose]

would probably be a bit overkill for what im trying to do

[silver sparrow]

how come?

[wary horizon]

Im looking at making an effect like Minecrafts end portal / void, Does anyone have a tutorial or know of somewhere where i can research it, or if it has a specific name i can look up?

[plush fog]

Use screen position as the UV to sample the star texture that is applied to the blocks inside the portal

[exotic kraken]

Question. Is it accurate to say that the frame buffer contains all the colored pixels that will be rendered to the screen? As in, when objects are rendered, they are added to the frame buffer one by one until all rendering for that frame is complete, and the full frame is painted on the screen?

[pseudo narwhal]

there are two frame buffers, one that is currently displayed on screen and one that output of the rendering process is written to, when a frame is complete the buffers are swapped. This is called the "swap chain". There can be more than two. A minimum of two is required to prevent visible glitches/stuttering.

[ocean blaze]

can you have three multipliers in multiply node?

[meager pelican]

You don't need three (or 4 or 5).
Just chain them together.
Multiply a x b, and that result x c.

[ocean blaze]

alrighty

ty

[exotic kraken]

So I can have for instance, a custom buffer that renders only certain objects in a special way and combine it with the buffer that renders stuff usually, then swap that to get the complete frame?

[pseudo narwhal]

if you build a custom pipeline, yes... with existing pipelines you have to work with what they give you and even access to the regular frame buffer isn't a given.

[pseudo narwhal]

custom render passes are basically that

[exotic kraken]

You know how there's a depth buffer, stencil buffer, etc. Is it possible to create a custom buffer for any arbitrary data?

[meager pelican]

Color, depth, stencil are more or less hardware design things...in that they are intrinsic.

BUT...when you get to things like motion vectors...well....that's done in shaders with custom buffer information, IIUC.

So Unity allocates a buffer (read Render Texture) and outputs via shaders the information they want to stuff into that buffer. In that case it appears to be a pass.

And then there's MRT (Multiple Render Targets) that let you output to multiple render targets from your shader. Output what? Whatever you calc.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/DepthTextureMode.MotionVectors.html

[worn crane]

Hello, everybody I have a problem. My preview material is not updating when I change colors. Why is that? I'm new with respect to Shader Graph in Unity

[exotic kraken]

I'm still not clear on graphics related terms (I am simultaneously learning web dev and it's all a little overwhelming). "Render target" refers to what basically what's receiving the final output of a renderer right? So for instance, the screen or a render texture?

[meager pelican]

Right....of a rendering from the pixel shader's output.
In the case of a custom buffer, it'd probably be a render texture, later combined or whatever into the final output (frame) buffer (and this implies multiple passes somewhere).

[worn crane]

Sorry for interrupting your conversation, but can you help me, please?

[meager pelican]

Check that you have your pipeline (URP, or HDRP) set up correctly, as a first step.
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@7.1/manual/InstallURPIntoAProject.html

While you're at it, change the "Reference" in the properties in your pic above to "_BaseColor" instead of all that internally generated stuff.

[worn crane]

Thank you so much @meager pelican

It worked, I haven't put the script in the project settings

[silver sparrow]

is this the correct way to modify the V value of a HSV colour? my "Emission Strength" is a slider and when the value is as small as 3, the result is rather odd

however when i set the V value of the "Emission Colour" in the inspector to 3, the result is what i expected it to be

[dim yoke]

well, if I'm not mistaken, Emission Color is still represented as rgba color even if you set it using hsv in inspector... soo no, that's not a correct way. you can first convert it to hsv using Colorspace Conversion node and then convert it back to rgb after you make the modification.

[silver sparrow]

oh

but i can still use HSV in inspector right?

[dim yoke]

you can set the color using hsv, but in shader side (and in c# script too), it's still rgba color

[silver sparrow]

ohhh alright thanks

[dim yoke]

the inspector allows you to set colors using hsv but it's converted to rgba right after you set it because no modern hardware (gpu) uses hsv colors internally to represent and calculate colors

[silver sparrow]

i see i see

hmmm is there a way to adjust the intensity of HDR colours in shader graph?

[dim yoke]

ig you could just multiply the color by some value?

[silver sparrow]

alright would give it a shot

[wary horizon]

I have a heat distortion effect, But its making everything behind it really pixelated, is there something simple im missing?

[dim yoke]

i'm pretty sure it's not problem in shader. if you're using URP (I have no idea how it works in HDRP) you have probably set Opaque Downsampling to 4x or smth (from URP asset).

[wary horizon]

Depending where im looking, It likes to just cut off the particles too

Normal ish i was hoping it would warp the particles too, but it does not

[dim yoke]

I have no clue about that but did you try changing the downsampling mode to see if it fixes the blurriness?

[wary horizon]

i've been testing, the pixelation is fixed if i give it some offset

0 = pixelated

[wary horizon]

I'm also on 4x

[dim yoke]

yup, None is the most sharpest but may hit the performance (if it's pc game, then it's most likely not gonna cause any issues)

[wary horizon]

its just very strange, Its grey / black depending where i look at it from, It should just be transparent and distort

If i lower the heat distortion it works, between 0.1 - 0.4, But thats not alot of distortion

[tiny gale]

Does anyone have a rule of thumb for handling both portrait and landscape rendering within a shader?

[dim yoke]

so what is the current problem?

[tiny gale]

https://youtu.be/SmSQgOcGVs8

So I'm trying to get this to cover my hand both portrait and landscape

Currently, it only works in portrait mode

[tiny gale]

https://codeshare.io/j0kYz3

This is the code

[amber egret]

how do i choose a texture instead of colour in my shader? right now its just a color but i would like it to be a texture

[drifting snow]

hello

I was writing a shader

and I need some help

[kind juniper]

Sure. Just provide a texture to the shader and sample it instead of just outputting color.

[drifting snow]

here is my shader

normally it should just work

but it doesnt work

it doesnt show up my lightmap

also I have a question

[toxic fable]

Is there a way to render the texture used in the material in this URP render feature into UI Raw Image component? https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/blob/master/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/Samples~/URPPackageSamples/RendererFeatures/KeepFrame/KeepFrameFeature.cs

[vivid fable]

I've just updated an older project at work, from 2019.4.21 to 2020.3.20. It's using URP, and there's a custom shader giving me errors. This was written by someone no longer at the copmany, and I don't know shaders.

Shader error in 'Custom/Tile01Test': Invalid conditional expression. at /Immotion/1093_OceanCube_AR/1093_OceanCube_AR/Library/PackageCache/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@10.6.0/Editor/ShaderGraph/Includes/Varyings.hlsl(101)

This looks like an error in Unity's .hlsl?

[drifting snow]

hlslcc class

no

hlsl is a machine shader code

it might be that this file is either outdated or written wrong

[vivid fable]

probably both

https://paste.ofcode.org/GtFMUS7XC3fyv56Wazuenx

How do I debug this and find the issue to fix

[night tiger]

Hey all. Anyone know if we can set Stencil properties in Shader Graph as of 2021.2?

[oak copper]

Hi, Does Unity Shader Graph has a corresponding node for clip() method (the one that discards pixels)?

[winged plover]

hi

I need some help

I made a simple shader and I created a new Gradient Property, but when I save the shader and create a new material, the gradient property disappears any idea how to fix this?

oh wait I just noticed that gradients are not exposable

😐 why?

i really need this

nvm Fixed

[wary horizon]

I have these while lines that scroll down.

When they reach the end, they should be transparent but its not working.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target
            {
                
                fixed2 uvs = fixed2(i.uv.x, (i.uv.y + (_Time.y * -_Speed)) * _TextureScale);
                
                fixed4 col = tex2D(_MainTex, uvs);
                // apply fog
                UNITY_APPLY_FOG(i.fogCoord, col);
                return fixed4(col.rgb * _Color.rgb, col.a * (1 - i.uv.y) * _Intensity);
            }```

[dim yoke]

make sure to have "Queue"="Transparent" and "RenderType"="Transparent" (neither of those is required (iirc) to make transparent tho, only recommended I guess) tags on the shader. You also need to use Blend command to make transparency work.

[wary horizon]

Its also rendering infront of everything, Do you know what causes that

these are the settings for the lines that arnt getting less transparent as it gets further back

[dim yoke]

well, that's caused by transparent object sorting issue, that happens because transparent objects doesn't use zbuffer testing. I'm not sure what would be best solution in your case...

[wary horizon]

I feel like i've just wasted 4 hours

[rigid terrace]

Is anyone using projectors on 2021.2 on Android? Something is seriously broken, Unity is binding random textures to the shader rather than what's supplied.

[regal stag]

Under the Graph Settings you can enable Alpha Clipping, and then use the Alpha and Alpha Clip Threshold ports on the master node/stack. (If alpha is below the threshold the pixel is clipped/discarded). You can probably also use a Custom Function node with the usual code methods (clip() or discard;)

[tacit parcel]

You are using uv for the alpha, so could you show us the model uv mapping?

[wary horizon]

I cannot show that unfortunately, i got my collegue to model it for me, I have zero modelling knowledge

[exotic kraken]

Question. I keep seeing the word "buffer" in regards to shaders such as "frame buffer", "depth buffer", "compute buffer". What does it mean in this context?

[kind juniper]

basically an array of some data.

[oak copper]

Thank you Cyan ❤️

[stone prism]

I'm running into an odd issue with DrawMeshInstancedIndirect

I have here a single quad which I'm feeding into that function and then passing in a big buffer of positions that are randomized

in my shader, I am applying this billboarding logic:

            v2f vert(appdata_t v, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;

                float4 pos = mul(_Properties[instanceID].mat, v.vertex);
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;

                float4 world_origin = mul(unity_ObjectToWorld, float4(0, 0, 0, 1));
                float4 view_origin = float4(UnityObjectToViewPos(float3(0, 0, 0)), 1);

                float4 world_pos = mul(unity_ObjectToWorld, pos);
                float4 view_pos = world_pos - world_origin + view_origin;
                float4 clip_pos = mul(UNITY_MATRIX_P, view_pos);

                o.vertex = clip_pos;

                return o;
            }

but the collection of quads rotates like it's a single mesh with a weird pivot point

Am I misunderstanding how this works here?

[meager pelican]

@stone prism
https://gist.github.com/kaiware007/8ebad2d28638ff83b6b74970a4f70c9a

color math in shader is "just" color values for RGBA.
So add is add. Plus. Sum.
.5 (grey) plus .5 (grey) = 1.0 (white). Double the grey.

Blending, requires that you mathematically MIX the colors, that's what nature is (kind of) doing. In nature, it's really reflective (subtracting) colors as white light hits the material, some frequencies are absorbed and others reflected.

But with RGB output, we basically specify how much is reflected only...how much red, green or blow is sort of EMITTED/reflected. (Not to be confused with actual light from a "bulb" in lighting calcs).

So if you have a blue light reflecting, and your shader tells it to add red light in, you get purple.

Mixing comes in several ways.
Usually it's multiplication....since intensity is represented by the magnitude of the values.

If you have a single only-green light source in your scene, everything will look like some kind of green, that's the only frequency of light available. Red things would look black since there's no green reflecting from them.

It's easy in a shader....you'd just multiply your pixel's albedo value by your light color (myColor * LightColor). And you'd get only the green amount as a result since R and B would be 0.

Alpha blending is another topic and too long for this post but:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-Blend.html

[marsh terrace]

So I have this shader in a material that is applied to both a grass object and the plane object underneath it to give a sway effect

However if I try to apply the same material that has the shader to another plane object in another scene, I get this all black look and the sway goes crazy (like, leave the entire mesh and stuff)

Any idea what might be causing this?

[patent plinth]

Long story short, it's related your object's UV...

most grass sway shader would take UV-0 as the bottom most of the object.. while for plane object as you mentioned above,, well...

[meager pelican]

Move the object origin in the mesh to the bottom.
Use the world-space Y offsets as a height calc for the object. You could do object-space too if you wish, depends on what you're doing externally.
IDK why you're "moving" the plane object, if it is really a plane.
I think this is much of what @patent plinthis saying? But it's not UV related, it's vertex/world space (or object space) related.
The thing is if you use world-space, you get the results of the object rotation and scaling (which you'd do first).

[patent plinth]

I mean, moving the object origin to the bottom while the object itself is just a plane, doesn't make sense still 😃

[vague sinew]

Hey everyone... I've created a simple shader for my models using Lit/Metallic/Opaque however there's this "metallic" reflection. I tried setting the graph to specular but then the models became "darker"... Is there any other way of working around this issue?

[timid minnow]

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to add fresnel functionality to the HDRP lit shader without having to completely recreate it... any ideas?

[meager pelican]

Yeah, I have no idea why they're "swaying" a plane, when they have separate grass meshes, either.

[marsh terrace]

I'm not really the artist who made the shader, but they said it's supposed to be on both the plane object and grass because it has a paint effect

Or something

I'm just trying to maintain the artistic vision intact

[stone prism]

I have the same issue using this code

[stone prism]

Managed to solve the above issue.

Now running into transparency problems

It looks transparent and shows the terrain below

but it's blocking other transparent meshes

using Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha and Tags { "RenderType" = "Transparent" "Queue" = "Transparent+500" } should do the trick but doesn't seem to work for me

You can see the square outline of the mesh

[low lichen]

Did you also do ZWrite Off?

[worn island]

So, I'm not exactly used to unity shaders, but if your texture only uses transparency on the background, you can discard pixels that have a transparency of less than a threshold (i.e. < 0.9), that way they won't cull textures behind them

[stone prism]

@low lichen omg that was it thank you!

[dusky stirrup]

Is there a way to stop my material on this TMP being (instance) ? It breaks and doesn't render but when I switch it back to the non instanced material it renders fine. Very frustrating.

[stone prism]

My sprite doesn't seem to be lit up properly after a certain range

You can see this darker coloring in front - as I move the camera the sprites get lit up differently

You can see after this threshold the outlines of the sprites become white rather than the darker green they are in the first rows

[solid geyser]

https://puu.sh/IoZvT/d41f80c64c.gif
How can I go about creating this overlay effect in a way thats performant?
This example is just behind the character, but I want this to be visible through pretty much everything, as we want to be able to see other player's hearts.

It sounds like a second camera and layer is an easy solution, what would yall recommend?

We are using built in pipeline for light limit reasons

[trim vessel]

idk. kinda like put them in a diff scene or smth, or increase their priority or smth?. similar to what they do with guns in FPS games?.

[solid geyser]

Yeah, like preventing your gun from poking into the wall but still having lighting and all that?

[trim vessel]

light eh?. idk.

[solid geyser]

I tried changing render queue but nothing seemed to happen

I was able to use a simple health bar in place with UI overlay shader, so would that not exist for simple 3d meshes?

We could use the same shader but it doesnt allow texture, turns it all flat

[trim vessel]

Oops. I got no idea tbh.

awww. where are those pros?.

awwww

[solid geyser]

I thought, given your name, you might know a guy 😆

[trim vessel]

but yeah. your game looks great man.

[trim vessel]

lol. I just got here

[solid geyser]

Thanks, i dont know the rules about advertising but if you dm me i can share title/page

[trim vessel]

Whooooo!

okie

[exotic kraken]

Question. If I wanted to add some kind of temporary graphical effect to a mesh, would I need to modify the material of that mesh first? Or is there a work around?

What I mean by "graphical effect" is something like the star power up effect in Super Mario games where the entire mesh glows in various colors.

[acoustic obsidian]

Make another material and swap it while the effect is active 👍

Hey guys any clue why my tessellation shader might have the correct vertices but fragments as if it were a triangle mesh. (tessellated quad mesh on the left, tessellated triangle mesh on the right)

[tacit parcel]

maybe try using a shader with
ztest always

[solid geyser]

After some searching it looks like I could modify standard using that, thanks

[grand jolt]

guys i made a custom forward renderer so i could render some objects on top of eachother
but now the objects in the same layer won't view correctly and go top of eachother when they're behind one another

the parts of the hands that're supposed to be behind the weapon are rendered in front

this is how its supposed to look

[kind juniper]

If you're rendering the gun with a separate camera make sure it's depth is smaller (or was it bigger?) Than the main camera.

[grand jolt]

I was trying to eliminate the second camera but as it seems its the best way for fps games

The render pipeline is too experimental to be used for now

[meager pelican]

ztest always...It's a start. It will write, but could be overwritten.
So you'll (probably) want to control the draw order too. So queues, or like you said even another camera layer. Unless there's no depth to the hearts (E.G. they're basically close to the near plane of the camera, and you write z depth, so nothing overwrites them). Can't tell if you're in 2D or not.

[gleaming robin]

Hi i've some troubles making a compute shader. The error come from the for statement when i try to edit a RWStructuredBuffer<float3> (tris l.360) the compiler don't accept it and I really don't understand why, if someone have an idee .. (error code from compiler : Compiling CSMain: Internal error communicating with the shader compiler process. Please report a bug including this shader and the editor log.) Thx !

[kind juniper]

Not 100% sure, but it could be because you're trying to write to several places in the buffer. I'm doing marching cubes too and I write triangles to a Triangle structure buffer with 3 float3's.

[gleaming robin]

"write in several places in the buffer" ? i'm not sure to understand why is it a problem

I have also tried with other containers and the same error occurs

[kind juniper]

Because other threads could be overwriting values.

Just as an experiment, try writing 1 value only.

[gleaming robin]

like this ? I get the same error. But even if they are some wrong index overwriting it still should be compiled no ?

[kind juniper]

Not like this. Use some unique ID instead of 0. It could be that the compiler prevents such a shader from being compiled. That's still just a guess but it's worth testing it properly.

If I remember correctly, I use .Append in my shader

Aah, right, I'm using append buffer

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3dhlsl/sm5-object-appendstructuredbuffer

Did you write the shader yourself?

[gleaming robin]

Yep

[kind juniper]

Mine is based on Sebastian League tutorial on marching shaders.

And he used append buffer for the triangles.

If you look at the examples on unity docs, they always seem to use the thread ID if they want to write to a regular structured buffer
https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.3/Documentation/Manual/class-ComputeShader.html

[gleaming robin]

I'm trying with AppendStructuredBuffer

[kind juniper]

Yeah, that should be it.

[gleaming robin]

the line tris.Append still create same error

[kind juniper]

Weird

[gleaming robin]

Yes that's the word

[kind juniper]

Wait what's Triangle

Aah

Lol, didn't notice it first

Should work if you ask me.🤔

[gleaming robin]

Removing tris.append line compile the shader well

I really don't get it

[kind juniper]

Is that the whole/only error?

[gleaming robin]

I've also tried with other containers like RWTexture1D and i get the same error

[gleaming robin]

It's the only error yes

Not other errors or warnings occurs

[kind juniper]

Not very useful.🤔

[gleaming robin]

Yep ><

[peak pawn]

Is there anyway to get an objects local position in shadergraph?

[kind juniper]

I think position node has that option.

Wait, you mean local as in relative to the parent?

[fast moon]

why is the main preview always empty when I start a new Lit Shader Graph?

[dim yoke]

Do the shader work at all (in inspector for example)?

[grand jolt]

hiya where would i start in making a portal shader

[crisp nest]

How difficult is it to create a shader that has animations baked into textures and then plays them in a geometry shader?

I think it's called GPU skinning

The DOTS battle/strategy demo rendered thousands of animated characters that way

Although it has nothing to do with DOTS...

[ocean wharf]

i have a simple psx shader i found off of github and i've been trying to properly add emission to it for a few days now

the result i have now is pretty damn alright, the problem being that if i disable the emission texture it keeps the actually map tied to the albedo

(the "face" part is supposed to be completely black)

thats because i have this at the end of my method, but i dont know how else i'd overlay the emission map

does anyone have any advice?

[peak pawn]

Yes, the object node old only has the world position
(no longer require this specific solution)

[ocean agate]

Guys, I'm aiming to make a character sprite that has back and front only, for a 3d game, should I do a billboard sprite shader that changes the sprites depending on the camera angle, or a c# script would be better than a shader for that?

All suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

A very good example of what I'm aiming to create is how the main character on "Here Comes Niko!" looks.

[ancient silo]

Does anyone know why this happens? The water defaults to a y tranform of 0 at certain angles, its made with shader graph.

[kind juniper]

Share the graph

[tacit parcel]

doing it via script might save you from headache at the long run

[ocean agate]

performance-wise, via script isn't it heavier?

[tacit parcel]

It depends, do the billboards only applies at the player, or other npcs/enemies, or the whole objects are billboarded?
But even then, if it's me, I think I'll go by script first until the performance starts to get a hit

[ocean agate]

only characters, the scenery is all 3d, so I'll go with scripts :P thank you so much!

[heavy pebble]

I've been trying to implement portals in HDRP for quite a while now, and there's always something that blocks out whatever I try to do. Currently we have Multiple cameras + Render texture portals, where each camera outputs to a render tex, which is used on the portal view quad. This however, is very hazardous to performance with roughly ~4 portals. (Even after adding multiple layers of optimisaition, like disabling the portal when not in view, reducing tex quality when very far away etc). On a potato system you say hello to <5fps. On a decent one, it drops down to 60-70 fps from 200+

On further research, I've come across this which uses a single camera and no render textures, https://zims-en.kiwix.campusafrica.gos.orange.com/wikibooks_en_all_maxi/A/Cg_Programming/Unity/Portals which I assume is basically a transformation shader.
My first question : Does this implementation require duplicate geometery? The example/explanation given in the blog is for 2 different scenes, whereas my usecase requires the portals for a single scene. Second question : If it does require duplicate geometry, would I have to duplicate the scene for each new portal I want? Is this an arguably "ok" way of doing portals? I'm fine with them not being recursive.

Are there any other helpful links/techniques anyone has to do performant portals?

[clever lynx]

How can I get the animated color/gradient from my built-in particle system to my shader graph ??

[clever lynx]

I've tried _BaseColor, _Color, ... the color does not seem to pass through

[mental bone]

That color is stored in the vertex color of each particle iirc

[clever lynx]

so how do I read it from my shader ?

[mental bone]

With the vertex color node

[clever lynx]

@mental bone Thanks 👍 that did the trick

[mental bone]

Np

[patent plinth]

Anybody has any experience regarding sharp blended terrain shader?

[fervent tinsel]

@patent plinth keywords to use for this are "terrain height blending" or "terrain heightmap blending"

you can find tons of resources on the topic if you need, or find terrain shaders that implement it

[patent plinth]

Thanks! I tried that, already, but it comes out pixelated between seams/textures... I'm still tinkering with it!

not just tiny pixels, but like gigantic squares for no reason...

[tiny gale]

Is there an alternative to OnRenderImage() for URP?

[lilac halo]

I was trying to create a shader effect where the material would be two but getting this weird effect. Any idea why ? I turned off all the lights in the scene but still getting this weird effect

This is my shader

[steel notch]

Anyone know how to create an effect like this? Just the brain specifically (transparent with what I assume to be a fresnel effect?) https://www.instagram.com/reel/CWPjluVlbWD/?utm_medium=copy_link

The thing I'm unsure of how to do is the transparency.

It's transparent, but not rendering any of the internal or back geometry I guess?

[zealous plank]

I've been trying to re-create this reaction diffusion effect in shader code - I don't suppose anybody has any experience doing anything like this? I don't have any experience with this type of conversion https://youtu.be/h2khW5s2AJw

[fast moon]

how can I do this

[feral mist]

I have this chroma key shader that that a discard based on color + range. It does not cull.
Front faces work great, but back faces are leaving a ghost trail around. Anyone have an idea of what I'm missing in the shader to make it behave ( not shader graph, but surface shader 🙂 )

[regal stag]

If you're in SG v10+ double click on an existing connection (or right-click one, should be an option to create a Redirect)

[fast moon]

I see. thanks

[fervent tinsel]

@zealous plank keijiro also has custom render texture example for that effect: https://github.com/keijiro/RDSystem

(not sure if it was mentioned on that video)

[broken swallow]

whats a good place to learn about shading?

[calm aspen]

Is it possible to apply a shader effect to URP terrain? From what I've gathered the URP Terrain Lit shader is drastically different from a URP Lit shader, and most tutorials out there apply a custom "terrain" shader to a mesh.

[fervent tinsel]

there's no "Terrain ShaderGraph" atm... apparently there was some person working on it but this comment doesn't really give confidence this will be finished any time soon: Opening this draft PR early to get eyes on it from ShaderGraph and ShaderSandbox before I leave. Will also be commenting the changeset to make the transition easier for the new code owner.
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Graphics/pull/6056

basically, the guy working on that functionality just left Unity so wouldn't expect anything to happen on the terrain SG in short term

@calm aspen

[calm aspen]

Oh. But is it how it should be done? I mean terrain shader has additional passes, so maybe any effect should be added on top of the terrain shader?

[fervent tinsel]

if URP decals work on top of terrain, I guess you could use them there

there are also tons of third party terrain shaders, even for URP

also are you sure the stock URP terrain setup isn't good enough for your uses?

bit hard to recommend anything without knowing what you are missing

[calm aspen]

To be specific, I elevation need contour lines and I was unable to find anything. Alas I cobbled together a shader, but it works only for meshes.

But then I picked up Map Magic for a procedural terrain solution, and it requires a terrain shader. 🥲

[fervent tinsel]

you sure your URP shader doesn't work on terrain? I've never tried that on URP, on HDRP people used just HDRP layered lit shader for terrain before Unity actually implemented terrain shader for HDRP 🙂

[calm aspen]

I'm not sure how it suppose to work. According to Map Magic documentation, I need to apply material in the generator itself. And only one based on terrain shader works. However, I do have access to the generated Terrain object, yet it doesn't have Mesh renderer to apply material on.

[fervent tinsel]

you apply custom terrain material into terrain's settings

there's a slot for it

(the small tab with cogwheel or something)

been ages since I've used unity terrains but should be something like that

but if Map Magic hardcodes that to specific terrain shaders then that's another thing (you can still overwrite the setting if you want)

[calm aspen]

I guess it relies on splat textures and other inputs from the terrain shader.

[fervent tinsel]

MM store page suggests it has nodes to provide compatibility with 3rd party terrain shading too

but yeah, you may want to ask about this on their forum thread

[calm aspen]

Yay! I found it, and it gives readable error about tangent gemotery.

It seems I need to rewrite tangents calculation and then replace albedo with my shader in hope that it will act as a texture.

[clear vector]

sorry for noob question, but i want to pass custom UV data to shader, because i'm using sprite atlases. I know that this is a common thing but i can't figure out how to pass sprite data to shader. I have 1x16 texture placed somewhere inside atlas, and Sprite.UV gives me 4 times (0.2, 0.4) and i can't understand why all 4 values is the same, while they should be like ratio rect for texture

[dim fjord]

hey all so i have been stuck on this issue for like 3 days and i can't seem to figure it out. our project makes heavy use of assemblies and for some reason we cannot seem to find the unity shader core code although we have added the dll any ideas>

[clear vector]

I have strange issue. I use really simple shader and in shader inspector i have nice SRP Batcher: compatible label, but when i inspect Frame Debug all my sprites, which uses same textures (2 in shader), produces single drawcall. And Frame Debugger tells me that SRP: Node is not compatible with SRP Batcher on 1st sprite and Objects have different MaterialPropertyBlock set. on all next sprites drawcalls. Any idea what is going on?

And this issue goes with any kind of material wtf

[regal stag]

The shader might be compatible, but afaik sprites are not compatible with the SRP batcher, only regular (or skinned) meshes. I think they render with dynamic batching instead (hence most sprites are still combined into one drawcall).
If you use any Material Property Blocks on the renderer component that also breaks compatibility too.

[sinful shuttle]

Does anyone know if there are any publicly available scripts to downgrade materials from HDRP or URP to the standard pipeline? I accidentally bought an asset which I'd like to use with the standard pipeline which only has materials authored for those two, and I'm not sure what the differences are, having not used those pipelines, though it seems like HDRP supports things like bent normals and has some kinda metallic mask, so I'm not sure how much work I'm gonna have to do in photoshop to make these compatible with the standard shaders.

[dusk cobalt]

So, do you thing guys is possible to create this effect in Unity?

https://youtu.be/gCCYWTAA2wQ

[clear vector]

So there is no way to send data to sprite shader and not break srp batcher at the same time?

[kind juniper]

Probably easier to convert the URP material. It mostly uses the same maps as BIRP.

[lone stream]

anyone know the best way to draw a line with constant thickness ?

[past kraken]

how to make a hdrp ui shader using shader graph for overlay canvas?

[dim fjord]

how do you handle assembly references with shaders

[low lichen]

What do you mean?

[dim fjord]

@low lichen i am currently making use of amplify shaders but i cna't seem to save anything as it says amplifystochasticnode is null. and without that it says i am having these cache errors. and i believe its caused by my asesembly references. i created a new branch and removed all assembly references and it worked. but then we can't have tests

[patent plinth]

Someone just took over 😃

My guess it will be in 2022... hopefully it will be in 2021 as well

[fervent tinsel]

@patent plinth there's 0% change it will go into 2021, Unity doesn't backport features. Even 2022 is super hopeful considering they changed the person working with this. Typically they require like one year of dev time to get anything near to state they want to merge... and considering the Terrain SG work is still very WIP and new person is likely to redo a lot of the past stuff, I wouldn't really count on seeing this on 2022 cycle either

I mean with some luck it might happen but seeing how these things go, I would assume it's not happening next year at all

[patent plinth]

Kinda confusing why they've never seen the importance of doing this since the very beginning of SG.. well, at least we almost got it now... not quite, perhaps

[dim fjord]

any ideas?

maybe this helps as well?

its been 3 days on this 😦

[zealous plank]

thank you so much!!!

[fervent tinsel]

I noticed I didn't actually push the HDRP fork of that to my github

ported that effect a long time to HDRP just for CRT testing

[calm aspen]

Not what I've expected, but at least that's something! 👀

[fervent tinsel]

you want actual hard lines?

[calm aspen]

Yes, I want lines and a vertical gradient. As of now, the entire shader effect is squashed between each "line", so the actual lines from my shader are not visible here.

[fervent tinsel]

like one vertical gradient total or gradient for each step?

[calm aspen]

Preferably the overall UV gradient, although I have to admit these stains per line looks nice.

[fervent tinsel]

for the lines, I suppose you could just put smoothstep there to get rid of the current gradient but have some smoothing to it and then multiply that with the final gradient

I'm by no means good with shaders though so I hope others can chime in

[clear vector]

guys, is there any workaround to using custom data in URP shader with sprites and not break SRP batcher? Can't believe it goes by design!

[calm aspen]

It seems from our previous discussion you know about shader way more than I do. 😅

[random owl]

Been scratching my head for hours because my compute shader didnt work

until i noticed this

[past kraken]

how to make raymarching in shader graph?

[daring dew]

You'll find the solution Here : https://iquilezles.org/www/articles/distance/distance.htm
Enjoy !

[lone stream]

I totally forgot about Iq blog -_-"

@daring dew Thanks for the reminder

[daring dew]

You can do raymarching in shadergraph using a Custom Function Node.
But make sure to add the attribute [loop], above your "for" or "while" loops or shadergraph might display an error !

[past kraken]

I don't know how to write basic shaders on hlsl. Can you send me a tutorial please?

[daring dew]

Do you have a visual example of what you are trying to achieve !?

[daring dew]

Yes, it is totally doable !

[daring dew]

If you are using the URP and shadergraph, there is a Sprite Shader template, that should work with sprite atlases. I have used it, and it works !

[clear vector]

do you mean this?

[past kraken]

something like this

i wanna add something cool to this

this cubes moving backward and forward

[daring dew]

Yes indeed !

[clear vector]

My shader was created from template from the start, the problem no is when i pass custom values inside sprite shaders it breakes SRP batching

i have read some posts on forum describing that sprite renderer construct combined meshes for same sprites every frame for performance purposes, which can't be done if i have different material property block

[clear vector]

Where can i see list of unity default properties name like _MainTex ?

[fervent tinsel]

this depends on the renderer you use

for built-in renderer you can find the shader files on Unity site, before they have been precompiled

each Unity release has built-in shaders as additional download on their site

for SRPs, you can look for Lit.shader file on URP and HDRP to see the properties they have

[sly breach]

any ideas how to add normal map to unlit graph ?

[patent plinth]

My attempt to make a visible kind of wind via shadergraph... basically this is just a volumetric fog but dayum this thing is expensive

[fervent tinsel]

but why? there's no light to reflect from it

[dim yoke]

as olento said, setting normal map into master stack doesn't make sense since unlit shader doesn't calculate any lighting automatically. If you want to implement your custom lighting or smth like that, you can use Normal Unpack node to unpack the sampled normal map texture and then use Transform node to convert the tangent space normal into world space for example. Now you can use the output to calculate lighting etc. using world space normals that's affected by normal map texture.

[worldly drift]

Can anybody help me why this does not work correctly? Trying to get the screen position of the objects center (0-1)

[light anchor]

hey guys, I made a shader for lit sprites in 3D (perpendicular to 3D geometry). I also added an emission map for that HDR glow goodness. Is it possible to make the emissive areas behave as unlit pixels? Right now, if the sprite is put into a deep shadow it darkens down the emissive area and it stops glowing

[dusk cobalt]

iny idea how?

[lusty badger]

Maybe try this.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/is-there-a-way-to-get-an-objects-screen-position-in-the-shader-graph.713885/#post-7159663

[worldly drift]

Yeah thx I also found this. I tried to recreate it but it didnt work as intended. But I figured it out eventually. I was missing the perspective devision part

[blissful dust]

how do i render an object later / last but still behind other objects?

[kind juniper]

No one is gonna be able to answer you just from looking at the inspector part of it...😅

[vivid siren]

yea sorry im really new to this and im struggiling like all hell

but ive moved on from that

so ill just delete it

[sly breach]

before or after light calculation ?

[dim yoke]

well, as I said, you can use the normal you get from Transform for lighting calculations

[sly breach]

got it , thanks

[dim yoke]

atleast I hope it works that way, i'm not very familiar with normal stuffs and I may have forgot something

[drifting edge]

Hey all, a bit of a beginner when it comes to shader(graphs) and i'm trying to make a "team color" shader that also "respects" the texture underneath. The masking part was doable however I'm having trouble combining the greyscale texture with the desired color without the texture looking faded or overpowered by the color.

on the top (the original texture) you can see that the plane has "grooves" but the mask overpowers that.

Now if I change the mask to be more "grey" I'd get more of the texture, but less of the color

I'm looking for a way to create a combination of these red planes

[sly breach]

using a Lambert method for light, do i multiply the world space transformed normal map with the mesh world normal vector , and feed in the result in this method , or would it be rather be additive operation instead of multiplication ?

[regal stag]

I think what you want is to multiply the team colour with the other texture, instead of the mask texture

[sly breach]

hey cyan 👋

[drifting edge]

Wouldn't that also change the color of the non masked areas?

[regal stag]

By transforming the normal map (tangent) to world space it already includes the normal relative to the mesh. It's not additive/multiplication, just replace the normal direction entirely.

[sly breach]

but when using a normal map as well ?

#archived-shaders message ^ this

[regal stag]

Yeah, but should just need a Sample Texture 2D (Normal mode) -> Transform (Tangent to World, Direction), then send it into the Lambert function.
Normal Unpack is only needed if you use the Default mode on the sample instead. The Normal mode already does it for you.

[sly breach]

got it

[regal stag]

No, because the Lerp is already using the mask. I was referring to replacing the Multiply B port only.

[sly breach]

u can use the b&w texture as it is without inverting the colors - just replace the A & B nodes in the lerp

[drifting edge]

thanks!

[sly breach]

also i would use a global scale value that multiplies the TeamColor value or a lerp to greyscale of the same node -
instead of modifying every single mask texture / colored texture to be more or less grayscale

[sly breach]

something like this

( ^ two methods to get greyscale color )

[drifting edge]

Nice tunes 🤘

absolute legends!!! Cyan and Wad1m. Many many thanks

[brisk lagoon]

Anyone have a link to a good course in HLSL for Unity?

[sly breach]

https://cyangamedev.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/urp-shader-code/

[brisk lagoon]

oh my god

you godsend

[visual moth]

I've been having issues importing sketch up files into Unity, previously I was able to "extract materials" for unity to be able to render the model in the scene, but I can't seem to do that anymore. I think sketch up might have updated where the materials are stored in the file. Unfortunately, I did not create these files so I can't remake them in an old version of sketch up.

Does anyone have any idea how I could import these files? I think this is the most relevant channel for this question

For reference, this is what I am seeing now

Right now I'm trying to convert the sketch-up file to something Unity might handle better, like .obj. We'll see if there's a way I can do it without purchasing Sketch-Up lol. All online conversion tools are just getting errors

[drifting edge]

you can get a free trial for SketchUp (Pro) no problem!

[visual moth]

That seems to have worked! I just exported it as sketch up 2019. Now the only issue is if I need to convert more files after a month haha

Here's the model, if you're curious

[night summit]

I've created a halftone shader in shadergraph in URP that I'm quite proud of. However when the camera pulls away the result looks quite messy. Is there any way I can convert this to more of a screenspace effect? Or do I have to make this a post-processing effect?

[vivid needle]

@regal stag Hello again! (I hope i'm allowed to @ people, if not i'm terribly sorry), I'm using the lighting scripts you gave me before and i'm trying to figure out how to implement additional lighting- I may be out of my depth quite a bit here, but I've read the descriptions of how the additional lights and shadows scripts are handled and i'm pretty lost XD. Is there a way to create a node that will output the additional light shadows without using keywords? if this isn't possible or i'm being dumb i'm sorry!

[regal stag]

(I dont mind the @, I'll probably see it either way but it's usually best to keep new questions open to everyone as there's likely others that can answer too)

The subgraphs I wrote (https://github.com/Cyanilux/URP_ShaderGraphCustomLighting) has an AdditionalLights example (and toon version), should just need to Add the result iirc.
The keywords in comments are also required. Without them Shader Graph won't do any shadow calculations.

[vivid needle]

got it! I'll give it a shot- thank you again!

[vivid needle]

Hello again! super weird error- whenever i add the _ADDITIONAL_LIGHT_SHADOWS keyword into a material's keywords in the debug mode, objects with that material assigned black out at random camera angles, even when i haven't added anything into the shadergraph itself

A little more debugging later, it only turns certain obects black when they are within the radius of an additional point light. Also interesting is that objects within this range seem to flicker between pitch black and the appropriate color depending on camera angle?

[steel notch]

So I have a transparent object here with a fresnel effect. The probably I have right now is that I am able to see ALL front faces of the model.

I'd like to only see the first front face from the camera out.

[vivid needle]

@regal stag I went ahead and did even more testing and it seems whenever i add the _ADDITIONAL_LIGHT_SHADOWS to any material, it produces huge fields of black areas, which is alarming because that's what was happening when i used keywords to enable the main light shadows before i found your awesome lighting assets the first time! Any insight to this very weird problem would be appreciated!

[tacit parcel]

Something like the `Transparent shader with depth write' here?
https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.1/Documentation/Manual/SL-CullAndDepth.html

[steel notch]

I ended up figuring it out with 2 materials. One to write to the ZBuffer, and the other to just apply a fresnel effect.

The problem now is figuring out how to apply it to multiple objects.

I dont want to see that middle portion, since the mesh on the right should be covering it

[dull lintel]

Hey everyone. I followed Ned Makes Games's wonderful tutorial on how to make a custom hlsl lighting node (this one here: https://nedmakesgames.medium.com/creating-custom-lighting-in-unitys-shader-graph-with-universal-render-pipeline-5ad442c27276), but it only does diffuse and specular lighting calculations. Does anyone know what I would do to convert it to take metallicity as a parameter for the light equation along with diffuse color and smoothness?

I'm basically looking for this, but with metallicity as a parameter as well:

[inner willow]

Idk bout shaders, but backface culling?

[dim yoke]

I don't think so. transparent sorting problem and backface culling are different things.

[tacit parcel]

then how about using opaque shader instead of transparent?

[dim yoke]

if you're supposed to see through the brain, opaque won't be solution either

[grand jolt]

If you start using screenspace uvs, your pixels will probably shiver. I would suggest checking the distance of the transform to the camera in the shader and switching between 2-3 hatching scales.

[cosmic glacier]

Hi all I am trying to create a shader that forces rendering on top but I also need alpha from the texture to be used (along with blend mode ideally) any ideas what I can change please

{
    Properties{
       _Color("Main Color", Color) = (1, 1, 1, 1)
       _MainTex("Base (RGB)", 2D) = "white"
    }
    SubShader{
        Tags
        {
            "Queue" = "Overlay+1"
            "IgnoreProjector" = "True"
            "RenderType" = "Transparent"
        }

        ZTest Always

        Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
        ColorMask RGB

        Pass {
            SetTexture[_MainTex] {
                constantColor[_Color]
                Combine texture * constant
            }
        }
    }
}```

the render on top works great

[unreal gale]

Hi, I am following this article, trying to make some fog of war effect and I need to plug a render texture into a shader to be used as a mask. Is there a way to do it in shader graph ? If so is there a tutorial I can follow, currently looking but not having any luck.
Also the last bit I don't know where to go, is how to render that shader. As I am using URP, I am thinking maybe making a render feature for the special camera ?
https://crussel.net/2016/06/09/unity-visibilityfog-of-war-effect/

[inland rose]

My very first shader graph results, aoe decal with fill color and multistroke border

The circle on the top is the object with the shader material and I render that to a rendertexture which I then use in the decal shader. seems kind of inefficient.

Also the shader itself seems kind of inefficient, I'm using a few comparison/branch nodes. Tried it with step but couldnt figure that out.

[deep spruce]

Hello people, I am attempting to edit sampler2D _MainTex tiling and offset inside of a surf function of a shader, but I can't seem to get it right and I can't seem to find a solution online. Does anybody know if this is possible?

Specifically these values

[deep spruce]

for more context, I am currently attempting to transform it through ```void surf(Input IN, inout SurfaceOutputStandard o)
{
float2 offset = (0.5, 0.5);
float2 _uv = IN.uv_MainTex * offset.xy + offset.xy;
fixed4 c = tex2D(_MainTex, _uv);

        o.Albedo = c.rgb;
    }```

but this yields unexpected results

[neat hamlet]

the tiling and offset is automatically handled in surface shaders when you us uv_MainTex

oh you mean it further than in the inspector?

the values are inside of _MainTex_ST afaik

[deep spruce]

Yeah, I meant that I want to modify the values I see in the inspector, I got something to work so far through void surf(Input IN, inout SurfaceOutputStandard o) { float2 uv = IN.uv_MainTex; #ifdef UNITY_PROCEDURAL_INSTANCING_ENABLED float4 scaleOffset = texturePositionBuffer[unity_InstanceID]; uv = uv * scaleOffset.xy + scaleOffset.zw; #endif o.Albedo = tex2D(_MainTex, uv).rgb; }

where texturePositionBuffer[unity_InstanceID]; just gives you a float4 that you pass through compute buffer

[faint tartan]

Does anyone know a simple way to get a point lights range in HLSL?

[tacit stream]

HI. I'm very new to shaders and I'm trying to make a very simple shader that will draw mesh based on Matrix4x4 (position) and color (vector4) of buffer.
This is for my modification of game RimWorld (which sadly has no sources for their shaders for me to peek).
And what I don't know is how to get position from Matrix4x4 and turn it into v2f struct.
I make my matrix this way:

                    Vector3 pos = p.ToVector3ShiftedWithAltitude(AltitudeLayer.Gas);
                    Quaternion rotation = Quaternion.AngleAxis((float)(gasGrid.angleGrid[i] + angle + gasGrid.signGrid[i]), Vector3.up);
                    props.mat = Matrix4x4.TRS(pos, rotation, gasGrid.drawSize);

And here is template of my shader. What do I need in ??? part?

            struct appdata_t {
                float4 vertex   : POSITION;
                float4 color    : COLOR;
            };

            struct v2f {
                float4 vertex   : SV_POSITION;
                fixed4 color    : COLOR;
            }; 

            struct MeshProperties {
                float4x4 mat;
                float4 color;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;

                ???

                return o;
            }

It's supposed to support GPU instancing and transparency (but I guess it's irrelevant for question above)

[dim yoke]

so you want to get the position of the origin of mesh in world space right?

[tacit stream]

I guess. I have an array of Matrix4x4 for it

I want it to draw each mesh according to this array

in code above I sent p is IntVec3 which is exact position on map

[dim yoke]

in trs matrices, the position is saved in the last column

[tacit stream]

any tip where I can find example with this maybe?

I have very little idea what code I'm supposed to use to get that last column of matrix

and then assign it to v2f

[dim yoke]

im not very familiar with matrices either but matrixName._m03_m13_m23 should give the position vector (float3) from trs matrix

[tacit stream]

o.vertex = _Properties[instanceID].mat[3];
I guess like this?

matrix is float4x4

as defined in ```
struct MeshProperties {
float4x4 mat;
float4 color;
};

[dim yoke]

matrixName[3] gives only one float which is the first element of last column i guess (I'm not able to find how is matrix[index] defined)

[tacit stream]

hmm, still nothing

                    MeshProperties props = new MeshProperties();

                    Vector3 pos = p.ToVector3ShiftedWithAltitude(AltitudeLayer.Gas);
                    pos.y += gasGrid.layer;
                    pos.x += gasGrid.xGrid[i];
                    pos.z += gasGrid.zGrid[i];

                    Quaternion rotation = Quaternion.AngleAxis((float)(gasGrid.angleGrid[i] + angle + gasGrid.signGrid[i]), Vector3.up);

                    props.mat = Matrix4x4.TRS(pos, rotation, gasGrid.drawSize);
                    props.color = new Color(gasGrid.color.r, gasGrid.color.g, gasGrid.color.b, 255f); //Math.Min(gasGrid.transparencyGrid[i] / 16, 75)

here's how I define my

[dim yoke]

so what are you exactly trying to do with that matrix?

[tacit stream]

just to get mesh in correct position and rotation

[dim yoke]

well, then you need to do vector * matrix multiplication

[tacit stream]

Basically here, I have about from 0 to 100k meshes I need to draw

I figured DrawMeshInstancedIndirect is the only way I can draw it without going into 5 fps zone

mesh is extremely simple plane with gas texture

[dim yoke]

is it like particle system?

[tacit stream]

it's tile based game

I make gas grid

whenever there's red text - means gas is supposed to be drawn

            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag

            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata_t {
                float4 vertex   : POSITION;
                float4 color    : COLOR;
            };

            struct v2f {
                float4 vertex   : SV_POSITION;
                fixed4 color    : COLOR;
            }; 

            struct MeshProperties {
                float4x4 mat;
                float4 color;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;

                o.vertex = _Properties[instanceID].mat[3];
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;

                return o;
            }

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target {
                return i.color;
            }

            ENDCG

here shader

[dim yoke]

first you need to transform the object space position into world space using your trs matrix and then transfer the result into clipping space using UNITY_MATRIX_VP matrix.

[unreal gale]

I have been following the following tutorial https://crussel.net/2016/06/09/unity-visibilityfog-of-war-effect/, and am stuck on what to do after creating my render texture through code.
I have made my shader through Shader graph, hoping it does the same as in the tutorial, and followed all the other steps. But I don't know how to finish piping the render texture into it, and how to get the shader to work as a mask.
I am in URP render, so I tried going for a base camera instead of overlay, and manually piped the Unitview camera into a render texture -> which was put in my shader-> which in turn was used in a material -> which was put as a render object material override in a forward renderer -> which was used as renderer by all cameras -> which didn't give any valid result

[tacit stream]

sadly it says very little to me, so is google

UNITY_MATRIX_VP Current view * projection matrix.

[dim yoke]

ig it's just mul(UNITY_MATRIX_VP, mul(yourOwnTrsMatrix, float4(objectSpacePosition, 1.0)))

[tacit stream]

yourOwnTrsMatrix is float4?

[dim yoke]

it's 4x4 matrix

[tacit stream]

oh, so it's float4x4

[dim yoke]

yup

[tacit stream]

o.vertex = mul(UNITY_MATRIX_VP, mul(_Properties[instanceID].mat, float4(objectSpacePosition, 1.0)));

so I guess

is that it?

[dim yoke]

you need to replace objectSpacePosition by the object space position of vertex (i.vertex in this case ig)

if it doesn't work, i'm out of the game

[tacit stream]

let's hope for the best, testing...

sadge

            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag

            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata_t {
                float4 vertex   : POSITION;
                float4 color    : COLOR;
            };

            struct v2f {
                float4 vertex   : SV_POSITION;
                fixed4 color    : COLOR;
            }; 

            struct MeshProperties {
                float4x4 mat;
                float4 color;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;

                o.vertex = mul(UNITY_MATRIX_VP, mul(_Properties[instanceID].mat, float4(i.vertex, 1.0)));
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;

                return o;
            }

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target {
                return i.color;
            }

            ENDCG

oh, I actually didn't notice

there's some kind of error

incorrect number of arguments to numeric-type constructor Compiling Fragment program Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_COLORSPACE_GAMMA UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR

[tacit stream]

oh wait, float4 should take 4 arguments

do I leave them as 0?

[dim yoke]

oh, you can just replace the float4(objectSpacePosition, 1.0) by i.vertex because i.vertex is float4 already (and w is 1 automatically)

[tacit stream]

oh, it also appears that UNITY_MATRIX_VP is float4x4, meanwhile my v2f.vertex is float4

what part of UNITY_MATRIX_VP do I need?

[dim yoke]

the whole matrix...

[tacit stream]

but vertex is only float4

[dim yoke]

and where is the problem?

[tacit stream]

it doesn't compile

incorrect number of arguments to numeric-type constructor
Compiling Fragment program
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_COLORSPACE_GAMMA UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR

[dim yoke]

I don't understand what's the problem with multiplying 4x4 matrix by vector...

[tacit stream]

Possibly I just need smth else to return

and not v2f where vertex is float 4

but I have very little idea anyway

but the one thing is certain is that v2f.vertex is float4, not float4x4

meanwhile result of this multiplying is probably a float4x4

[dim yoke]

no, float4x4 * float4x4 is float4x4. float4x4 * float4 is float4

[tacit stream]

oh, looks like it's true

at least, it compiled without errors

let's test

nnnope

I guess in order to test it inside of unity I need to use properties instead of ScructuredBuffer?

assuming no render scripts

[cloud orchid]

Is there a way to find every materials that use a specified shader in my project. I know that there's scripts for this but I was wondering if there was a built in alternative.

[dull lintel]

Is there a way to access the skinning transformation process in a shader? Ideally as a custom function in the shader graph? I'd like to prebake some object-space per-texel info on a skinned mesh, and then transform it to its later world-space skinned position/normal at runtime.

[dull lintel]

Or I guess more specifically, I'm looking for a way to transform from unskinned/preskinned object space information to post-skinning object space in a shader (or quickly in a way that I can hand off to a shader every frame).

[echo solstice]

How to use Hidden/something like this shaders?

I have two shaders

One is normal one

And other one start with hidden/

[echo solstice]

And hidden/ shader includes some functions of 1st shader

[regal stag]

Hidden/ just means the shader doesn't appear in the dropdown menu when selecting a shader on a material. Not sure what you are asking here

[echo solstice]

Ooo

But I guess those 2 shaders have connection with each other

And their file extensions also different. They are end with.shadervarients

.shadervarients

Extension

[regal stag]

I think that means they aren't shaders but ShaderVariantCollections (https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ShaderVariantCollection.html). I'm not super familiar with them, but they can record which shader variants the game/scene uses so you can preload them to make sure the required shaders are loaded before they get used.

[echo solstice]

But can shader varient collection has shader code?

That's my question

[regal stag]

I'd assume not. That's what shaders are for, not these collections

[echo solstice]

Hmmm

I'll show those 2 here

Some images

[tacit stream]

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected TVAL_ID What is this error?

Shader "Custom/InstancedIndirectColor" {

    SubShader {
        Tags {"Queue"="Transparent" "IgnoreProjector"="True" "RenderType"="Transparent"}
        ZWrite Off
        Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha

        Pass {
            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag

            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata_t {
                float4 vertex   : POSITION;
                float4 color    : COLOR;
            };

            struct v2f {
                float4 vertex   : SV_POSITION;
                fixed4 color    : COLOR;
            }; 

            struct MeshProperties {
                float4x4 mat;
                float4 color;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;
                float4 pos = mul(_Properties[instanceID].mat, i.vertex);
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(pos);
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;

                return o;
            }

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target {
                return i.color;
            }

            ENDCG
        }
    }
}

[regal stag]

Might be because you have no Properties { } block defined before the SubShader? Not sure if it's a requirement, but I can't see anything else wrong.

[tacit stream]

nah, I actually removed it after error appeared

bruh

it compiled after restarting unity

😩

How to access texture of material in shader?

if I don't define it as property

it won't be used at all?

[tacit stream]

What am I doing wrong? Mesh just gets drawn without applying texture at all.

Shader "Custom/InstancedIndirectColor" {
        Properties
    {
        _MainTex ("Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
    }
    SubShader {
        Tags {"Queue"="Transparent" "IgnoreProjector"="True" "RenderType"="Transparent"}
        ZWrite Off
        //Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha

        Pass {
            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag

            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata_t {
                float4 vertex   : POSITION;
                float4 color    : COLOR;
                float2 uv : TEXCOORD0;
            };

            struct v2f {
                float2 uv : TEXCOORD0;
                float4 vertex   : SV_POSITION;
                fixed4 color    : COLOR;
            }; 

            struct MeshProperties {
                float4x4 mat;
                float4 color;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;
                float4 pos = mul(_Properties[instanceID].mat , i.vertex) ;
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(pos);
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;
                o.uv = i.uv;

                return o;
            }

            sampler2D _MainTex;

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target {
                fixed4 col = mul(tex2D(_MainTex, i.uv), i.color);
                
                return col;
            }


            ENDCG
        }
    }
}

Meanwhile my texture is transparent on edges

[regal stag]

mul() is for matrix multiplication. You probably just want to use the * operator here (in frag, the one in vert is fine). If you want transparency you need to specify the Blend mode, which you've commented out currently. Also make sure the mesh being drawn actually has UVs.

[tacit stream]

mesh I use is some plane

[tacit stream]

oh, switching to * worked

thank you kind sir!

finally

[hearty ledge]

I wrote a shader with Stencil that hides pixels if there is no mask, it works fine, however, the problem is in PostProcessing, namely in Ambient Occlusion, how can this be solved? I would not like to give up this effect.

[low lichen]

Maybe your mask shader has ZWrite On when it shouldn't?

[hearty ledge]

@low lichen
No mask shader has ZWrite off

[meager pelican]

If you're hiding it....just don't draw it?

discard the pixels.

I'm assuming you still draw it, or AO wouldn't be a problem.

[low lichen]

What render pipeline is this in?

[hearty ledge]

Builtin

Properties
    {
        _Color ("Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
        _MainTex ("Albedo (RGB)", 2D) = "white" {}
        _Glossiness("Smoothness", Range(0,1)) = 0.5
        _Metallic("Metallic", Range(0,1)) = 0.0
        _CutOff("CutOff", Range(0,1)) = 0.0
        _Intensity("Emission Intensity", FLOAT) = 1
        _MaxDistanceRendering("Max Distance Rendering", FLOAT) = 1
        _Distance("Distance", Range(0, 200)) = 1
    }
    SubShader
    {
        Tags { "RenderType" = "TransparentCutout" "Queue" = "AlphaTest" "IgnoreProjector" = "True" }
        LOD 200
        AlphaToMask On
        ZWrite Off

        Stencil
        {
            Ref 0
            Comp Less
        }

        CGPROGRAM
        #pragma surface surf Standard fullforwardshadows

        #pragma target 3.0

        sampler2D _MainTex;

        struct Input
        {
            float2 uv_MainTex;
        };

        half _Glossiness;
        half _Metallic;
        fixed4 _Color;
        float _Intensity;
        float _MaxDistanceRendering;
        float _Distance;
        fixed _CutOff;

        
        UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_START(Props)
            // put more per-instance properties here
        UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_END(Props)

        void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutputStandard o)
        {
            fixed4 c = tex2D (_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex) * _Color;

            if (c.a > _CutOff)
                c.a = 1 - (_Distance / _MaxDistanceRendering);

            clip(c.a - _CutOff);

            
            c.rgb *= c.a < 0.01 ? 0 : c.a;

            o.Albedo = c.rgb * (_Intensity * 1000);
            o.Metallic = _Metallic;
            o.Smoothness = _Glossiness;
            o.Alpha = c.a;
        }
        ENDCG
    }
    FallBack "Diffuse"

[low lichen]

Forward or deferred?

[hearty ledge]

Forward

[meager pelican]

Ref 0, comp less....

[hearty ledge]

I'm just learning

[low lichen]

What about the shader that writes to the stencil buffer?

[hearty ledge]

Properties
    {
        _MainTex ("Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
    }
    SubShader
    {
        Tags { "RenderType"="Opaque"  "Queue" = "Geometry-1" }
        LOD 100

        Blend Zero one
        ZWrite Off

        Pass
        {
            Stencil
            {
                Ref 1
                Comp always
                Pass replace
            }

            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag
            // make fog work
            #pragma multi_compile_fog

            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata
            {
                float4 vertex : POSITION;
                float2 uv : TEXCOORD0;
            };

            struct v2f
            {
                float2 uv : TEXCOORD0;
                UNITY_FOG_COORDS(1)
                float4 vertex : SV_POSITION;
            };

            sampler2D _MainTex;
            float4 _MainTex_ST;

            v2f vert (appdata v)
            {
                v2f o;
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(v.vertex);
                o.uv = TRANSFORM_TEX(v.uv, _MainTex);
                UNITY_TRANSFER_FOG(o,o.vertex);
                return o;
            }

            fixed4 frag (v2f i) : SV_Target
            {
                // sample the texture
                fixed4 col = tex2D(_MainTex, i.uv);
                // apply fog
                UNITY_APPLY_FOG(i.fogCoord, col);
                return col;
            }
            ENDCG
        }
    }

writeMask 1 just testing

sry

[low lichen]

I think the issue might be related to the shadowcaster/depth pass of the surface shader. I don't think that ends up using the Stencil block, so the depth-prepass doesn't mask anything.

And the mask shader that's writing to the stencil buffer also probably doesn't get drawn in the depth-pre pass because it doesn't have a shadowcaster pass

And since ambient occlusion relies on the depth-prepass for getting the geometry of the scene, it will see it as unmasked

[low lichen]

what am i looking at here?

[hearty ledge]

And I'm sorry, it seemed to me that you thought that the Stencil itself didn't work for me either.

I have no idea how to solve it yet because I am not strong in shaders

[low lichen]

I'm surprised the ambient occlusion isn't matching the cutout shape (the green stuff?)

Isn't that a separate problem from the masking?

[hearty ledge]

This is most likely a problem due to the fact that the shader is custom, the Stencil itself works well, I just gave as much information as possible

[low lichen]

So for now you're okay with the ambient occlusion being a square, but you want that square shape only visible within the mask?

[hearty ledge]

Maybe the problem is in the alpha

No I don't want her to be seen at all

[meager pelican]

You must be passing ALL the plane's pixels somehow, or it wouldn't be there (wouldn't have been drawn to the depth buffer or whatever).

[hearty ledge]

So that she just disappears

[low lichen]

Her being what? The green stuff or the ambient occlusion? Or both?

[low lichen]

Except through the mask, right?

[hearty ledge]

Let's forget about Stencil to make it easier to understand each other, I deleted the stencil block how do I remove this frame that AO draws

its standart surface shader with alpha

[meager pelican]

Discard the pixels except for the green ones.

[hearty ledge]

I will try

[meager pelican]

But like MS said, watch out for pre-passes.

IDK if using alpha-clipping will work for the pre-passes....might.

[low lichen]

Try adding addshadow to the #pragma surface line. That should make it generate a shadow caster pass with the same alpha clipping.

[low lichen]

Question: I've implemented this volumetric light effect in a shader and it looks right, but I'm wondering if there's something I can optimize or something I did wrong in translating the math.
https://ijdykeman.github.io/graphics/simple_fog_shader

inline float3 closestPointOnLine(float3 p, float3 lineOrigin, float3 lineDirection)
{
    float t = dot(p - lineOrigin, lineDirection);
    return lineOrigin + t * lineDirection;
}

inline float positionOnLine(float3 p, float3 lineOrigin, float3 lineDirection)
{
    return dot(lineOrigin - p, lineDirection);
}

inline float calculateContribution(float3 lightPos, float3 worldPos, float3 viewDir)
{
    float3 lightLineClosestPos = closestPointOnLine(lightPos, _WorldSpaceCameraPos, viewDir);

    float h = distance(lightLineClosestPos, lightPos);
    float a = positionOnLine(_WorldSpaceCameraPos, lightLineClosestPos, viewDir);
    float b = positionOnLine(worldPos, lightLineClosestPos, viewDir);

    return atan(b/h) / h - atan(a/h) / h;
}

The only thing the blog post gives me is atan(b/h) / h - atan(a/h) / h (as a formula, I translated it to code). The rest of the code is implemented by me, so there's a good chance it isn't the most optimal solution.

[low lichen]

It boils down to this, calculating a, b and h in "light space", where the X axis follows the view direction for the given pixel. The X position of the light is always 0, a is the position of the camera (in this example it would be negative) and b is the world position of the pixel. h is the "y" position of the light, but I'm just calculating it as the shortest distance between the light and the view direction line.

I figured this approach of projecting the positions on the view direction line with dot is more efficient than something like a matrix multiplication, but I haven't tried that.

[stone prism]

Probably a rookie mistake but I have a quad here with a transparent texture that renders fine but shows other quads through it

Is this a setting I need to change?

[tacit stream]

What am I doing wrong?
I set _Matrices only once and it's array of all possible positions of meshes. Meanwhile _Properties is assigned every frame.
Is it even supposed to work?

            struct MeshProperties {
                uint index;
                float4 color;
                float yOffset;
                float angle;
            };

            StructuredBuffer<MeshProperties> _Properties;
            StructuredBuffer<float4x4> _Matrices;

            float4 RotateAroundYInDegrees (float4 vertex, float alpha) {
                    float sina, cosa;
                    sincos(alpha, sina, cosa);
                    float2x2 m = float2x2(cosa, -sina, sina, cosa);
                    return float4(mul(m, vertex.xz), vertex.yw).xzyw;
            }

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;
                
                float4 pos = mul(_Matrices[_Properties[instanceID].index] , i.vertex) ;
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(pos);
                o.vertex = RotateAroundYInDegrees(o.vertex,_Properties[instanceID].angle);

                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;
                o.uv = i.uv;

                return o;
            }

[tacit stream]

hmm, it's not completely nothing

sometimes meshes do appear in a very weird way

[regal stag]

You probably want to do the rotation before converting to clip space and even before the mul too, like on i.vertex instead.

[tacit stream]

Is this part correct tho?
Tiles are using X and Z axises, Y is 0

           float4 RotateAroundYInDegrees (float4 vertex, float alpha) {
                    float sina, cosa;
                    sincos(alpha, sina, cosa);
                    float2x2 m = float2x2(cosa, -sina, sina, cosa);
                    return float4(mul(m, vertex.xz), vertex.yw).xzyw;
            }

better, at least now it's visible all the time xD

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;
                
                float4 pos = mul(_Matrices[_Properties[instanceID].index] , i.vertex) ;
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(RotateAroundYInDegrees(pos,_Properties[instanceID].angle));
                o.vertex.yw += _Properties[instanceID].yOffset;
                o.color = _Properties[instanceID].color;
                o.uv = i.uv;
                return o;
            }

[regal stag]

I said rotate i.vertex. Try

float3 rotated = RotateAroundYInDegrees(i.vertex,_Properties[instanceID].angle)
float4 pos = mul(_Matrices[_Properties[instanceID].index], rotated) ;
o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(pos);

[regal stag]

Whoops, missing ; on first line sorry

[tacit stream]

oh

I missed it too

yay, it works

what is wrong with rotation tho

angle = (Find.TickManager.TicksGame % 720) / 200;

There are 60 ticks in second

but it rotates once in 5 secs or smth

uuugh, rotations are very clunky

ah

nvm

I didn't realise I rotated uint

[regal stag]

That angle calculation doesn't look right. Isn't it's maximum value is around ~3.6 rather than 2*pi which would be a full rotation?
Also something I didn't quite catch earlier, while the naming of your function is RotateAroundYInDegrees it doesn't do anything to convert the value so the angle should be in radians. You'll probably want to rename the function so it's less confusing.

[tacit stream]

nah it's good, I just needed to convert into radians

thank you sir

finally doing some breakthrough after weeks of nothing

[tacit stream]

Is there any way to create some sort of clipping with buffer?

for example, I can have a buffer of matrixes that should cutout my mesh

here's example of my concern

Instead I want it to be cut here completely

[tacit stream]

and I can't change altitude of meshes in this case

[soft jacinth]

Does anyone know an example of a triplanar shader that offsets blending while dealing with planar geometry? The information I've found mostly related to gradual surface changes like a sphere, planar it just sticks to the sharp edges with no offset..

crude example of what I'm after. Any keywords I can look into or even full examples greatly appreciated!

[patent plinth]

I believe this is what you want? If so, I'm trying to find a solution to this as well 🙂

I'm trying to find an answer as well on how Zelda able to do that

[fossil cloak]

Hi Guys, im not sure if Shadergraph questions are allowed here:

I have an image, and i want to change its x-Offset based on its x-Position on the screen.
I need to to this in 0.08 steps, to make sure, the offset is positioned correctly. How can i do this?
Cant find anything about this 😮

Got the Screen Position, splittet into Red Color, so i have the Value of the X-Axis. but now im stuck 😄

[regal stag]

This is probably just achieved through uv mapping the texture to the geometry

[patent plinth]

I sorta managed to get the sharp blending happening between textures, but if you see in the screenshot there's a slight emboss effect/shadow... do you have any idea regarding that?

[regal stag]

There's no blending happening in the wind waker textures. Triangles at the top have a full grass texture while the sides and wall have a wall texture with the grass transition at the top.

[patent plinth]

Yes I noticed that, I was talking in my terrain shader 😃 .. I sorta achieved the sharp blending like in toon shader happening... but how would I get the drop shadow like in the screenshot.. that is if that possible 🙂

[fervent tinsel]

see the channel topic line (yes shader graph is for this channel as well) 🙂

[regal stag]

Similar to the above you could manually UV map to a texture with a grass transition.
If you need a triplanar approach then you could break the mesh up into smaller segments and change the normals of the edges so it blends differently. Or if it's lit and you don't want to affect the shading you could probably use vertex colours to mask it.

[patent plinth]

this part is smart tho mesh up into smaller segments and change the normals of the edges so it blends differently aight, time to update your blog post @regal stag !

[regal stag]

It would probably be similar to how you achieve the sharp edge (step()?) but offset it slightly.

[patent plinth]

Let me boot up my Unity and give it a try

[light lintel]

Hey there I'm having an issue with my height fog and leaves not fitting together well.
The fog renders correctly over terrain and skybox, but not leaves. The fog asset is "Atmospheric height fog" by BOXPHOBIC, and the leaves shader is Azure Nature. both for URP. I've tried changing the rendering order but it doesnt seem to help.

how can I add this height fog node but in script form? I dont have amplify but I have a shader made with it that I can change?

[regal stag]

This should help with adding it to a code-written shader : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIzIHIZ-cSh2ykODSZCbAPtScJ4Jpuu7lS3rNEHCLbc/edit#heading=h.sh4nggbbfb5n, It's the manual linked in the description of the asset on the asset store.

[light lintel]

I have that yes

but I dont know where to place the code

this code goes somewhere but i dont know where

      {
            UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID(i);
            UNITY_SETUP_STEREO_EYE_INDEX_POST_VERTEX(i);

            //Calculate world position in fragment
            //float3 worldPosition = mul( unity_ObjectToWorld, float4( v.vertex.xyz , 0.0 ) ).xyz;

            //Get world position from vertex shader
            float3 worldPosition = i.worldPos;

            float4 finalColor = float4(1, 1, 1, 1);

            float4 fogParams = GetAtmosphericHeightFog(worldPosition);
            return ApplyAtmosphericHeightFog(finalColor, fogParams);
      }

[regal stag]

You need to edit the shader's fragment function to use that code. The first two lines it might already have, I'm not sure if that part is actually important for the tool to work. More importantly is the last 3 lines (and I guess the worldPosition line if you aren't already calculating it in the vertex stage). finalColor should be set to whatever your fragment function is currently returning.
You also need the #include ... as mentioned in the manual so those GetAtmosphericHeightFog and ApplyAtmosphericHeightFog functions exist in the shader. That include can be anywhere before the fragment function, outside of the function scope.

[light lintel]

this shader doesnt have a float 4 frag function in it anywhere

I have the #include placed

[regal stag]

It might be named differently. There should be a #pragma fragment X where X tells you the name of the function.
Or it could be in a different include file, which may make it more difficult to find and edit.

[light lintel]

okay

it's called 'frag'

there is a half4 frag (VertexOutput IN) : SV_Target

[regal stag]

That's the one

[light lintel]

so where do I place the above code?

there is a return color; at the very bottom of the half 4 frag

[regal stag]

Good, so replace that with

float3 worldPosition = IN.worldPos;
float4 finalColor = color;
float4 fogParams = GetAtmosphericHeightFog(worldPosition);
return ApplyAtmosphericHeightFog(finalColor, fogParams);

It may error if the VertexOutput struct doesn't contain already contain worldPos though. Let me know if that's the case.

[light lintel]

that just removed the leaves entirely

invalid subscript worldPos

[regal stag]

There should be a struct VertexOutput { ... } somewhere, can you post what that contains?

[light lintel]

                #if defined(ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_WORLD_POSITION)
                float3 worldPos : TEXCOORD0;
                #endif
                #if defined(REQUIRES_VERTEX_SHADOW_COORD_INTERPOLATOR) && defined(ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_SHADOWCOORDS)
                float4 shadowCoord : TEXCOORD1;
                #endif
                float4 ase_texcoord2 : TEXCOORD2;
                UNITY_VERTEX_INPUT_INSTANCE_ID
                UNITY_VERTEX_OUTPUT_STEREO```

that is inside the vertex output

[regal stag]

Interesting, it does contain a worldPos then. Is there a #define ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_WORLD_POSITION or something similar anywhere?

[light lintel]

#define ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_POSITION

idk

[regal stag]

Try adding #define ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_WORLD_POSITION somewhere near the top, before all the other functions/includes.

[light lintel]

okay

[regal stag]

But still inside the CGPROGRAM that is.

[light lintel]

hmmm

doesnt seem to do anything

the shader already supports unity fog, and the error appears right here

[regal stag]

Hmm, still the invalid subscript worldPos error? File saved?

[light lintel]

yes

[regal stag]

That's a little odd. With the #define ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_WORLD_POSITION the worldPos should now exist.
Maybe make a backup of the file just in case, but I guess we could remove the #if defined(ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_WORLD_POSITION) and #endif around it in the VertexOutput struct. Then in the vertex function (probably named vert?) there should be a line that sets OUT.worldPos with the same #if / #endif to remove again.

Oh wait, there's an IN.fogFractorAndVertexLight in that screenshot though, but that's not in the VertexOutput you posted earlier either.

[light lintel]

do I need to add that?

that'

that's how they just had it

[regal stag]

Just a bit confusing, I'm guessing the IN here is a different struct or something

[light lintel]

ohh

there's two VertexOutputs

one is a struct

the other is a vertexfunction(VertexInput v)

[regal stag]

That's the vertex shader, it's what passes the VertexOutput to the fragment shader

[regal stag]

Was this screenshot in the frag function, or something else?

[light lintel]

that is the frag function

[regal stag]

And what you posted earlier was the whole of the VertexOutput struct?

[light lintel]

correct

[regal stag]

If you search for fogFactorAndVertexLight is there another struct somewhere containing that?

[light lintel]

yes

there is another Vertex Out

            {
                float4 clipPos : SV_POSITION;
                float4 lightmapUVOrVertexSH : TEXCOORD0;
                half4 fogFactorAndVertexLight : TEXCOORD1;
                #if defined(REQUIRES_VERTEX_SHADOW_COORD_INTERPOLATOR)
                float4 shadowCoord : TEXCOORD2;
                #endif
                float4 tSpace0 : TEXCOORD3;
                float4 tSpace1 : TEXCOORD4;
                float4 tSpace2 : TEXCOORD5;
                #if defined(ASE_NEEDS_FRAG_SCREEN_POSITION)
                float4 screenPos : TEXCOORD6;
                #endif
                float4 ase_texcoord7 : TEXCOORD7;
                float4 ase_texcoord8 : TEXCOORD8;
                UNITY_VERTEX_INPUT_INSTANCE_ID
                UNITY_VERTEX_OUTPUT_STEREO
            };```

[regal stag]

So there is two VertexOutput structs? That's odd.

[light lintel]

in separate passes

this is for the forward renderer

it seems

which has the reference to the #include heightfog

[regal stag]

Ohh right. Yeah keep these code changes all in the same pass.

[regal stag]

Hmm this might already be using all the interpolators. Adding another might make the shader not work for certain platforms.

If you search for ase_texcoord7 is it being set to anything later?

[light lintel]

hold please

nope

just set once

[regal stag]

As in it's only used in that struct? Nothing in the vertexfunction?

[light lintel]

correct

that is the only line it is ever typed on

[regal stag]

Good then we should be able to replace it with the worldPos

[light lintel]

TEXCOORD7 is used a lot

[regal stag]

But in different passes probably?

[light lintel]

Texcoord7 is set inside the frag function of this pass

here's an example

                float4 tex2DNode1 = tex2D( _Texture00, uv_Texture00 );
                float4 temp_output_10_0 = ( _Color1 * tex2DNode1 );
                float2 uv0361 = IN.ase_texcoord7.xy * float2( 1,1 ) + float2( 0,0 );```

[regal stag]

Oh it is being used then 😦

[light lintel]

oh wait

crap

my bad lol

so now what

major oofs

[regal stag]

I guess just calculate the worldPos in the fragment stage instead. Can use mul( unity_ObjectToWorld, float4( v.vertex.xyz , 0.0 ) ).xyz; instead of IN.worldPos

Was hoping to do it in the vertexprogram as that's more performant but difficult to edit something with most interpolators being used. Could add a TEXCOORD9 but might cause the shader to not work on certain platforms if they have a lower interpolators limit.

[light lintel]

replace in.worldpos in ever place it is used with the mul thingy

[regal stag]

Just on the one we added at the end of the frag function

The float3 worldPosition = IN.worldPos; line that is

[light lintel]

undeclared Identified 'v'

[regal stag]

Oh right... we don't have the object position either ._.

What about the ase_texcoord8, is that used anywhere?

[light lintel]

checking

o.ase_texcoord8 = v.vertex;

[regal stag]

Is this in the forward pass? In vertexprogram?

[light lintel]

that is forward pass

inside of vertexfuction

o.ase is the vertex output struct

[regal stag]

Okay that's good, we do have v.vertex then. Is the ase_texcoord8 actually used anywhere else (e.g. in frag)?

[light lintel]

                float staticSwitch360 = IN.ase_texcoord8.xyz.y;
                #elif defined(_COLOR2OVERLAYTYPE_UV_BASED)
                float staticSwitch360 = uv0361.y;
                #else
                float staticSwitch360 = IN.ase_texcoord8.xyz.y;```

in frag

[regal stag]

Hmm if that's the only place it's used could probably pack the worldPos together with that y coord.

It's probably just easier to change the v.vertex.xyz in the mul we added to IN.ase_texcoord8.xyz though

[light lintel]

checking

okay

the leaves are back

but they have no color

and are still faded

but turning the fog off turns them back to normal

no fog:

[regal stag]

Hmm, well that's what the asset's manual suggests. I think the 0.0 in the mul should actually be 1.0 instead though (guess they made a mistake). Hopefully that will fix it?

[light lintel]

didnt seem to fix it

[regal stag]

I thought we had already removed v. I assume that error is just from before.

[light lintel]

it returns even if cleared

[regal stag]

What line does it lead to?

[light lintel]

oh wait nevermind

but the fog still doesnt work

[light lintel]

wait it is back but doesnt lead to a line

[regal stag]

Maybe it's just a weird cached issue or something, the shader isn't magenta so should be fine

[regal stag]

I assume the shader doesn't write depth which might be why the fog is like this. I'm not too sure why the trees over the terrain are so white though. Are they still like that even after changing the 0.0 to 1.0?

[light lintel]

still broken even at 1

[light lintel]

there is depth but it is in another pass

should I copy all changes to the depth pass as well as forward?

[regal stag]

Is the main forward pass using ZWrite Off?

[light lintel]

it says ZWrite On for every pass

[regal stag]

Okay hold on, this might be important

For Universal Render Pipeline, the Transparent Render Queue is 3100, the Fog is rendered at 3101 and the objects that have the fog applied in shader directly, the Render Queue needs to be set at 3102 or higher.

But tbh, if it's using ZWrite On I'm not sure why this was a problem in the first place.

If you change the tree material's Render Queue to 3102 does that fix the fog? (I guess currently it's being applied twice, hence why they are so white)

[light lintel]

render queue doesnt change it

[regal stag]

Is the foliage actually transparent? Or just using alpha clipping?

[light lintel]

trees are white even outside of the fog

[light lintel]

alphaclipping I think

[light lintel]

but disabling fog returns them to normal

[regal stag]

If you comment out the stuff we added at the end of frag and go back to return color;, with the material set to the Geometry queue (2000) is it still broken?

[light lintel]

that seems to make the fog work better but still has the issue of being transparent/invisible when anything but the terrain is behind the leaves

[regal stag]

Hmm, does the shader have a pass with LightMode set to "DepthOnly"

[light lintel]

inside the depth pass it does

inside the forward one it's lightmode = universalforward

[regal stag]

Are you using the SSAO feature at all?

[light lintel]

yes

[regal stag]

Is there a DepthNormals pass in the shader?

[light lintel]

well what do you know

disabling ssao fixed it I think

[regal stag]

Guessing it doesn't have a DepthNormals pass then. That's why it's not writing to the depth texture properly.

[light lintel]

okay

so any way to get SSAO back or is it one or the other

[regal stag]

I think you can set the source of the SSAO to "depth" only, rather than using normals too. That might make it a bit less accurate (and maybe more expensive) though.

Otherwise you'll need to manually add a DepthNormals pass.

[light lintel]

okay depth only works

Thanks so much dude

I was worried I couldnt combine these assets

[regal stag]

Glad it's fixed! Sorry it took 2 hours, and all the code we added was kinda pointless (though if you have any actual transparent shaders, now you know how to add that at least)

[light lintel]

lol yeah

that's debugging

change everything only to find you need to change one thing

[regal stag]

Haha yeah. It's difficult when there's extra features affecting things when you don't expect it. Was confused about why it wasn't writing depth until I remembered SSAO can change it to use a different pass.

I've kinda avoided SSAO as I tend to use Unlit Shader Graphs (with custom lighting models, like toon shaded) and they also don't have that DepthNormals pass so only work with the depth-only mode (in v10 at least).

[light lintel]

gotcha

well thank you again

I learned a lot about shaders with little to no previous experience so that's good

[tacit stream]

what are field names for fixed4 type?

I need to edit alpha

where can I even read about how unity shader types are organized?

[deft root]

How do I make a PBR graph shader? It doesnt exist anymore

Trying to make:

What I get:

[regal stag]

You need to have Shader Graph installed (and/or a render pipeline that supports it). It was also renamed to Lit Shader Graph in newer versions of URP.

[deft root]

How do I install Shader Graph?

Is it built into the Unity Registery?

[deft root]

If it was renamed, then why is it still called PBR Graph for me?

[tacit stream]

is it possible to create buffer of array of array?

I need to send X amount of float[]

and then read it in shader

so I guess kinda like float[][]?

[regal stag]

Probably an older version. The version you can install depends on the Unity version too. I think if you're in 2021.2 there is Shader Graph support for the built-in RP (or maybe it's in the beta, can't remember) otherwise you'll need to install URP or HDRP (or set up a project using one of those templates) to be able to use SG. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@12.1/manual/InstallingAndConfiguringURP.html

[deft root]

Ah thanks, I figured that much. Currenctly Changing my project to HDRP from none, will this impact anything major?

As in, mess with my lighting and stuff

[regal stag]

Not very familiar with HDRP, but yes it will probably mess with stuff like lighting. Might be a good idea to read through this : https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition@8.2/manual/Getting-started-with-HDRP.html (and the other pages on the left)

[mental bone]

It will for sure mess with your light setup. HDRP uses real world light and exposure values. So most likely all your lights will be too dim and everything will be dark.

[deft root]

All this work for just adding some clouds pff

[regal stag]

I don't think that's possible. You'd probably need to send it in as a single float[] array, along with another float array to tell you the length of elements to use if it isn't constant for each instance, or it might be better to just pad it with extra 0s.

[tacit stream]

I guess I can send one combined array

so assuming I have 7 arrays

I'll send it as 1 just 7 times bigger

How to access that variable from shader?
material.SetInt("_NumOfArrays", grid.gasGrids.Count);

[regal stag]

Should just need to do int _NumOfArrays; somewhere in the CGPROGRAM.
Possibly also define it at the top in the Properties section (e.g. _NumOfArrays ("Number Of Arrays", Int) = 1), especially if using the SRP Batcher.

[tacit stream]

so just like that and then it's accessable like global variable?

[regal stag]

Yeah, though if you want to set it globally for all shaders you'd also want to use Shader.SetGlobalInt instead of material.SetInt. Both will likely work but if you're in URP/HDRP I know using the latter can cause problems due to batching.

[tacit stream]

only for one shader

and I set it only once

uuugh

now saddest part

gotta figure out the algorithm to transform index of 7 arrays into matrix index

[tacit stream]

material.SetColorArray("_Colors", colors);
What about this one?

[regal stag]

float4 _Colors[n];, where n is replaced with the length of the array.

[tacit stream]

oh

so if I don't know the actual number

I can't use it?

[regal stag]

If you know a maximum length you'd use that.
An alternative might be to use a StructuredBuffer<float4> _Colors; and use material.SetBuffer("_Colors", colors); instead, with colors set to a ComputeBuffer(...). That still needs a length/count, but can be set from C# rather than in the shader.

[tacit stream]

I am using buffer rn

so I can rely on SV_InstanceID

[regal stag]

Then yeah, use another buffer instead of an array.

[tacit stream]

do you know if I can somehow discard drawing mesh?

for example I process buffer

of 7000 values

6900 out of them are 0

so I only want to draw 100 meshes

while all 0 to be discarded completely as soon as I read that 0

[regal stag]

Why send in 6900 values if you're just going to discard them?

[tacit stream]

faster to send whole grid rather than figuring out 0

on cpu

GPU is barely used in this game anyway

[regal stag]

I think one way might be to set all the vertex positions to (0,0,0). The vertex shader will still run but that way it shouldn't produce any fragments afaik.

[grand jolt]

Setting the position to (NaN, NaN, NaN) is also an option.

Confirmed to work on modern desktops and previous gen consoles by Ubisoft.

Not sure about current gen.

[tacit stream]

like o.vertex = float4(NaN,NaN,NaN,NaN);?

[grand jolt]

Yes.

I don't think HSL has a nan constant, I usually just divide 1 by 0 and store it in a temporary variable and fill the vector with it.

[tacit stream]

            v2f vert(appdata_t i, uint instanceID: SV_InstanceID) {
                v2f o;
                uint ind = SV_InstanceID / _NumOfArrays;
                if (_Properties[SV_InstanceID - _SizeOfArray * ind]){
                    o.vertex = float4(NaN,NaN,NaN,NaN);
                    o.color = i.color;
                    return o;
                }

soooo

this part is about figuring out index in combined array and discarding useless mesh

[hearty obsidian]

Can you perform vertex displacement on a mesh with blendshapes? It's yielding unexpected results when the weight is > 0