Differences of the Lit Graphs and Lit shaders

[vague quartz]

How come that using the Lit Graphs requires you to abandon or re-implement features that the Lit shaders give you, (such as detail mapping, triplanar UVs, soft particles, flipbook blending, color modes, clear coat) as well as missing the default properties?

Re-implementing them all just to have the shader do one extra thing them feels like a big ramp up in workload, and without the right community resources can be a huge increase in difficulty too. How exactly would you implement detail mapping back into the Lit Graph from the URP or HDRP Lit shader?

There's been a lot of progress with SG catching up to the Lit shaders (nodes like Parallax Mapping and Emission Node), but it seems it'd be a lot more efficient if there always was parity and no need for catch up. I think in an ideal world the Lit shader itself would be a Lit Graph, with each feature as a block to add, remove or rearraign and to make your own in between.

Even without full parity a maintained node template with default properties and nodes ready to go would also be a big help.

[vague quartz]

I just saw the reply in the other thread about Production Ready Shaders which does answer my question about the templates
Still I'm curious if this is the way forward, or if there's plans to unify SGs and default shaders more in some way

[coarse hollow]

I think I understand what you're referring to here, but correct me if I'm wrong. What you're saying is that the Lit shader that ships with Unity has a whole host of features. If you want to make your own shader with Shader Graph, when you make a new Shader Graph asset, it just starts our completely empty and you have to start from scratch. Is that what you're getting at?

If that is the challenge you're dealing with, then I have good news for you. We shipped a Shader Graph sample set with Unity 6 called Production Ready Shaders that includes a Shader Graph version of the URP and HDRP Lit shaders. It behaves the same as the Lit shader and you can use that graph as a starting place if you want to customize the way the Lit shaders work. Just open the Package Manager in Unity 6, select the Shader Graph package, click the Samples tab, and then Import the Production Ready Shaders sample. There is more information in this blog post: https://unity.com/blog/engine-platform/new-shader-graph-production-ready-shaders-in-unity-6 and in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV79HBv6co4

[vague quartz]

That is indeed precisely what I needed

But I'm also slightly worried that it exists as a separate thing that may or may not be maintained, as it's a wholly separate thing from the Lit shader itself

[coarse hollow]

Nice! Glad we could help. You're not the first person who has asked for it.

Your worry is valid.

I'm responsible for maintaining it, so you're welcome to call me out on it if there's an issue.

[vague quartz]

If there were plans to make the SG and graph bases less rigidly their own independent thing from the Lit shaders, that could solve that issue before it comes up

[vague quartz]

I'll keep that in mind