[Best Tool Asset Store Award] Amplify Shader Editor - Node-based Shader Creation Tool

Thanks for the reply. Its okay, I played with the terrain details settings and managed to get something I like for 2k draws and 20m polys. This is fine now.

In terms of the grass shader ... this is great. I can play with this stuff to get what I want now .

 

Hey guys,

We uploaded a new build into our website.

Here are the release notes.

Release Notes v1.5.3 dev 11:

• Fixes:
  • Fixed issue on not correctly cleaning Undo stack when changing master node
  • Fixed multiple issues with safe normalize operation over world light dir and view dir
  • Fixed world light dir issues over Lightweight SRP
  • Fixed GPU instancing compile issues on Lightweight SRP
  • Fixed issue on Includes/Pragmas/Defines UI not showing when no other modules over a template
• Improvements:
  • Optimizing property block allocation for instanced variables to have less internal padding involved
  • Added custom attributes to 'Toggle Switch' node
  • Added toggle to 'Matrix from Vector' node use each input as column

Hey @Laurens-Paladin-Studios, the issue you reported is already fixed on this build. Please let us know if you stumble into any other one.

Happy shader creations!

 

I'm sorry I deleted it and used something else. I am doing another shader test tonight I will see if I can recreate it.

 

Hi! im working in a custom lighting material, but i cant make work the custom indirect lighting node. If i connect the node to de emissive input (like the wiki shows), nothing happens, the values or properties do not appear in the material. But if i multiply the node or do any other operation and connect that to the custom lighting input, then the node is detected (it doesn't work properly but is detected at least) what could possibly be? Thanks!!!

Working in unity 2017.4.4 and latest version of Amplify

EDIT: Actually, the Emission input is not working at all in the Custom lighting mode.

 

Hi there!
I need some help to archive ground reflection in Custom Lighting.
I voluntary don't use Standard Surface Light node, I want to keep the shader as light as possible.
It's when using the Specular map that it doesn't work...

Anyone have an idea ?

 

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with a sample, we'll be happy to debug it on our side!

Hello, the examples currently shown on the wiki for both Indirect Light nodes are outdated, we'll be sure to update these pages as soon as possible.
Since then, we've added a Custom Lighting port to the Output node for lighting calculations, as the Emission port now is only expecting lightmaps and the sorts.

We apologize for this situation and any inconvenience it has caused, please let us know if you have any further questions, we'll be happy to assist!

Hey there, you'll have to set up an Indirect Specular Light node ( please disregard the image example in the wiki, as it's outdated and the node no longer connects to the Emission port ), which will retrieve the reflections directly from reflection probes. I would also recommend that you use Box Projection in your reflection probes.

Depending on the expected results, it might be ideal to resort to additional scripting instead in order to recreate a flat ground mirror, as exemplified in this article.

Please let me know if this helps, thanks!

 

on this page you may see my Shader Function for water (this have refraction & reflection). Reflect output need connect to emission input on main shader node (over multiply with refraction shrength/power)

PS. Script for RelectionTex may bу used from previous post or planar reflection from environment package

 

Thank you, i know the use of the custom lighting input, but i can't figure out the way to add the indirect specular light node into the aquation, all i got are wrong results, could you provide a simple example? Thanks!

 

No problem! We do offer a sample that makes use of indirect light in its custom lighting setup, you can find it at AmplifyShaderEditor > Examples > Official > CustomLightingToon.

To add to my previous reply, hopefully we'll be able to update the wiki pages for those nodes sometime during the next week, so stay tuned!

Please let me know if the above sample helps, thanks!

 

Thanks for the suggestion!
With the indirect spacular light I manage to get pure metal, but I am unable to use metallic map.
The idea would be to reproduce the metallic workflow and then add the celshading.

I cleaned the nodes to keep only the essentials.

How does the metallic worklow work?

 

So I hate packed textures and I am trying to make a shader that doesn't need them.
Shader type Surface
Light Model: Standard Specular
Render Type: Transparent Cutout

When I Attach nodes for all the texture maps I noticed they have an option for a Default Texture Color.
White, Black, Grey Etc...
Is there a chart somewhere that lists all the Proper Default Texture Colors for all the inputs.

Also as a Noob I am looking for a tutorial on how to add a sliders to adjust all these maps.

And lastly I wanted to double check if I needed to add anything to take advantage of Motion Blur with Alembic files.

 

No problem!

Regarding replicating the metallic workflow, unfortunately, we currently do not offer any sample that could help achieve this.

Building a Custom Lighting solution can be quite complex, and since you are trying to replicate Unity's metallic workflow I would suggest that you download Unity's build-in shaders for the Unity version you're using through their Download Archive, and investigate their shaders in order to try and replicate this specific technique.

Please let us know if this helps and if you have any further questions, thanks!

 

Hello,

I'm receiving an error when I install Amplify in one of my projects in Unity 2018.1.1f1. I do not receive this error in default projects.

"Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Utils/IOUtils.cs(204,34): error CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type `UnityEditor.VersionControl.Asset' to `Asset'"

 

Thank you for getting in touch!

In order for us to best help you figure out what's happening, we're going to need some additional information.

What ASE version are you currently using? Is it the latest from the Asset Store or from our Website?

Did you have any non-ASE related errors present in your project before importing the package?
It's possible that certain errors present in the project might interfere with Unity's package importer, which may lead to all sorts of issues.

We usually recommend users to download the latest builds from our website as we update on a weekly basis, please make sure you've got the latest version, v1.5.3.011 – 6th June 2018.

If you did not have the latest package, please import it into your main project to see if the issue still persists.

If the issue still persists, please try to import it into a new, empty project, and tell us if any errors occur.

Lastly, If the issue is only present in your main project, and there were no errors present before trying to import it, please send us a sample with the issue present to support@amplify.pt, so that we may debug this issue on our side, thanks!

 

I have a couple of questions….

1. Can I add a texture map to a shader which is not exposed on the inspector? (I use figures with a common UV system, and I am multiplying a "nostril shadow map" over almost every image map in the shader to prevent the nostrils from glowing or receiving stray light). Eventually I'd like to share this shader so I am wondering if I can embed the shadow map within the shader.

2. Is there an example of tessellation being used on a surface shader (not terrain)? I'm on a Mac (Metal) and tessellation is still a mystery to me. Is it possible to use tessellation on a skinned mesh? I don't understand what node(s) plug into the tessellation input, or what settings need to be set to get this to work…

Thank you for the Matcap example. I've replaced my fakeSSS with a skincap, and the specularity map with 3D Noise:

 

Hello! You can hide a texture object in the inspector through its attributes, as per the screenshot below:



Regarding Tessellation support, ASE generates Unity shaders and makes use of the Tessellation technique it provides, allowing you to choose between Distance Based, Fixed, Edge Length and Edge Length Cull types in the Output Node's parameters. As long as there are no issues on Unity's side, everything should work as intended. However, you should be aware that you might encounter Unity specific Tessellation issues on Mac with version 5.5 and 5.6. Be sure to use the latest patch available if you are interested in using an older Unity version.

To create a Tessellation shader with ASE, you need to enable this feature in the Output Node parameters. Displacement can be controlled directly via the Local Vertex Offset input port, and for additional control we also offer specific Tessellation Nodes and a specific Tessellation input port in the Output Node.
Feel free to check out our sample of Tessellation being used in a Surface Shader, you can find it in the AmplifyShaderEditor > Examples > Official > Tessellation folder.



It should also be possible to use tessellation on skinned meshes, but do let us know if you come upon any issues.

 

Ahh, it is working! Thank you.... I missed all of those settings, lol. The displacement example helped.

 

Please ... don't go back - it's not 1999. We have 2018. we must have better skin shader
With standard HDRP lit shader we can do better skin. I very like ASE - but sitll waiting for winner in HDRP shader

 

Or just keep going forward to 2029…



If I need plague skin I'll call you.

 

Trying out this asset. A lot of the examples seem to be broken. Is this compatible with 2017.3.1f1?

Are there some lighting settings that are incompatible maybe?

 

Hi
I'm trying to have an UI image that make a "Difference" effect like in photoshop (see screenshot below, where the "a" would be the UI). Is it a way to do that? I guess I have to use Negate node, Compute Grab Screen Pos, Grab Screen Color and Texture Sample, but I can't figure out how to connect them to have this effect.

Thank you in advance,

Vidal

 

Hello, we apologize that you're coming across this issue as you're trying out Amplify Shader Editor for the first time.

ASE is compatible with 2017.3.1f1, I've just double checked it on my end and have experienced no artifacts with that specific sample. I'm going to need a few additional details in order to help you debug this issue.

Are you using the latest ASE version, v1.5.3.011 – 6th June 2018, available for download through our website?

Are you able to replicate it by importing ASE into a new project?

Could you send us a sample with the issue present over to support@amplify.pt, so that we may further debug this on our side?

Hello! We offer a Blend Operations node which applies the selected effect between Source and Destiny inputs, have you had the chance to try it out?

Let me know if it works out for you, or if you need something more specific!

 

Is this working as intended? Any texture channel output is always bigger than 0 even if it's null apparently ^^" I think it outputs 1 if it's null

 

An empty Texture Sample always has a default value, which is White by default, so it always outputs data that will depend on what you've selected in the Default Texture parameter.

 

I've never noticed that before thanks !

 

And this ?

 

Hey guys,

We've just uploaded a new build into our website.
Here are the release notes.

Release Notes v1.5.3 dev 12:

• Fixes:
  • Fixed null pointer exception with texture arrays over shader functions
  • Fixed memory leak on shader functions destruction
• Improvements:
  • Improved templates loading behavior after hot code reload
  • Replaced individual lists for pragmas, defines and includes by a single reorderable list
    • Now user select what each line represents via a dropdown
  • Additional surface options can now be added via the Additional Surface Options tab on the Output node
  • Added custom type for 'Custom Expression' node data type specification

We decided to merge the Additional Pragmas, Defines and Includes into a single reorderable list since order matters between them. This has been done on both surface shaders, templates and shader functions, also giving the extra ability to now specify defines over shader functions.
Besides the three specified directives, there is also a custom option where the text field is copied directly to the shader without adding the #directive type prefix.

We also improved the way templates are handled when hot code reload kicks to decrease its impact. Please let us know If you guys notice some strange behavior over templates loading with this new update, or your current shaders additional include/pragma/defines are not correctly read into the new list.

Happy shader creations!

 

Oooh awesome! I forgot that possibility, thank you Borba!

 

Hello everyone!

I am currently trying to test the post-processing creation possibilities of ASE. However, there is only two examples in the last package.
I am currently trying to do some world based screen effect. Would it be possible to have an simple example of a post processing effect that displays the world position (x red, y green, and z blue) in order to later use it as 3D UVs?

Also, I was wondering if it was to have some shaders that could do multiple iterations based on an input (float or int).
For example, the simple blur only iterate once displacing the uv by one pixel. It would be fantastic if we could ask it to do it 3 or 30 times, simply by entering how many iterations we want somewhere in order to have a really clean blur.
Is it possible so far?

Thank you in advance, and keep up the good work everyone!

 

Any known issues with the outline portion of the master output? Anytime I try to use it it makes any material with it flicker between completely blacked out and visible

The issue I was having with the toon outline was resolved by switching to forward rendering. Is deferred currently unsupported?

 

Are there any tutorials on doing a post processing effect? I know there are two examples in the examples folder but they are a little too complicated for me to deconstruct.

 

No problem, let me know if you have any further questions!

Hey there! I'm afraid I'm having some trouble understand the type of effect you intend to create, could you provide further details, perhaps a screenshot or video example, of what you have in mind so that I may best help you?
Do you intend to get the world position of the objects that are being rendered by the camera?

Regarding your second question, I believe that the Custom Expression node would be the best way to achieve this type of operation.

Hello! Unfortunately, our Outline implementation can only function properly in Forward mode, using it in Deferred may lead to all sorts of issues. Possible workarounds would compromise its usage in Forward mode, so we've limited this feature to "Forward only", apologies for the inconvenience.

I would advise that you set your Render Path to Forward in order to ensure that the Outline works as intended or, if you must use Deferred Rendering, consider implementing a custom screen space solution, which might involve a few additional scripts but it can be much more flexible.

Please refer to the following article for reference: Unity Shaderlab Outline - Screen Space.

Let me know if this helps!

Hello! Unfortunately, at this time we only offer those two samples, and our current tutorials don't touch upon this subject.

However, and even though it may seem a bit overwhelming at first, keep in mind that shader knowledge is interchangeable between editors such as the Unreal Material Editor or similar node-based tools. Given that ASE is based on common shader development standards, you can very well adapt tutorials from other sources to our editor, especially UE4 tutorials!

 

Oh, custom expression nodes seem to be indeed a way to go. Is it possible to code a "iterate X time" in it?


Here is what I am trying to achieve. For the screen shot I am using a surface shader in order to get the world position of the surface. But what I would like to do is create some effect from the camera in world space without having to add it to every shader. For example, a sonar wave coming from a probe. The sonar would be at XYZ position, and I would simply say to the post process shader to use this position as the center of the sonar effect.
An other possibility with that would be to inject a 3d texture for a custom ambient lighting for example. I don't know if it's more clear. Let me know if you understood, I'll try to explain myself better otherwise... (english isn't my first language).

 

Thank you for providing additional details!

Yes, it's possible to iterate by using Custom Expression nodes.

We also provide a shader function that should help you achieve the type of effect you're looking for - "Reconstruct World Position From Depth". Please let me know if this helps, and if you have any further questions, thanks!

 

Good point. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Damn I feel dumb now that I see it. I was searching through the matrix nodes and such, and missed this one... Thank you very much! Since we are here, is there also a node like that to obtain the screen space normals? (basicaly the normal pass)? Or the world normals?

 

Lovely

 

Hmm... even if I set the camera to forward rendering and I change the graphics settings to use forward rendering, I'm still getting flickering. Any ideas?

 

This is nice. I wish I was able to create the shaders like in Alloy, particularly in the Skin shader... I'm nearly done with hair

 

Sadly I have I can't find how to make the Blend Difference work.

 

HI,

I have a small test scene, nothing fancy.
When I use the Surface Standard shader made in ASE I get 100+ FPS (same with the standard shader). When I switch to Custom lighting and I only use a color (or a BlinnPhong lighting model) for the custom lighting port, I get around 60 FPS.
How is the more complex PBR math rendered much fasten than a custom lighting with a color?

Unity Standard or ASE Stahdard


Custom Lighting with color

 

Thanks, it works great now! And thank you for adding the unlit template.

 

No problem, let me know if you have any further questions!

You may get the normals in View Space through the setup in the screenshot below:



Do note that you need to set the Texture Sample as a Global Property.

If you need them to be in World Space, you may use the Transform Direction node, and in terms of depth you can simply use one of the depth nodes ( Screen Depth or Depth Fade ).

I'm not quite sure what to suggest, is your shader set to Forward Only?

Would you be able to send us a simple sample with the issue present over to support@amplify.pt?

Thanks!

No problem, we've set up the following example, for your convenience, which should help you achieve the desired effect:



Please let me know if this helps, thanks!

It seems that the shader with Custom Lighting is not performing batching, from what I can tell by looking at the screenshots.

Would it be possible for you to share both shaders through support@amplify.pt so that we can debug them on our side? Thanks!

Thank you for reporting back, it's always a pleasure to help!

 

Batching is working as expected, it just wasn't enabled. Frame rate is the same. Shaders sent via email

 

Hey everyone,

Thank you for sending the shaders, we'll do a round of tests with the profiler and see what is causing this frame drop.

We've uploaded a new build into our website, and also submitted to the Asset Store so expect to be available over there soon.

Release Notes v1.5.4 dev 01:

• New Shader Function:
  • Fetch Lightmap Value
• Improvements:
  • Simple Terrain sample now support more than four splats
• Fixes:
  • Fixed issue on Node Palette reading incorrect maximized value when opening ASE window

Next week the ASE team will be at the Unite Berlin event. If you guys are also attending, please stop by the Asset Store booth and say hello, we would love to meet everyone personally.

Unfortunately during that week we wont be able to upload new builds and our support will be very limited.

See you guys in Berlin and happy shader creations!

 

I know I will really sound like a clueless person, but I didn't managed to make screen space normals work... Could you send the ASEshader you took the screen-shot please?
But more importantly , I didn't managed to figure what I had to plug into the vector3 input from the "transform direction" node. Could you also show me how to make it work properly?
Promise, those two things are the only things I need now.

I have made a playmaker script that permits to create some 3d textures at runtime that incorporate the gi contribution for the 128*32*128 meters area the player is in (recalculated when the player move more than 16 meters). There are 6 textures (one for each direction).
Now that I have the world space position, I only need to be able to sample the world normal in order to link each texture to its own direction. So once I'll have that, I will be done for a long time

 

Thanks, that's very kind from you!

It's better but I can't see the alpha, there is a circle on the grey line from A to W (UI texture to Append) in your screenshot, that I don't have in mine, maybe it is the issue?

 

I'm halfway developping a game and I created my shaders in Shader Forge which is now deprecated in Unity 2018, so for now I'm still on Unity 2017 but I would like to eventually switch to 2018 meaning I will have to recreate quite a few shaders in another shader tool (either Amplify Shader or Shader Graph).

I'm posting here because I would like to know what your ambitions are with Amplify Shader, is it still going to be supported 2 years from now? I really don't want to lose/have to recreate my shaders again.

Does Amplify Shader feel threatened by Shader Graph to a point where it might stop developping for it in the coming years?

 

Hey Guys,

I needed some help/advice.

Im trying to create a Glass Window shader, which takes in two textures.

I have basically a 'Dirty Grunge' texture, that is partially transparent. This would sit on the glass window and be static.

I also have a 'Rain Drops' texture, that again is partially transparent, but this would also be on the glass and animate downwards.

How would i setup my shader? Im assuming i would setup a Transparent Shader? use the Dirty texture as the Albedo channel, and use the animated rain drops texture on Emission channel? or would i just create both of the textures on the same channel and then Add/Lerp them together on Albedo channel?

Please if anyone can give me some advice on how to approach this, it would be really helpful as ive been stuck on this for over a few days now.

thanks

 

Hi there amplify,

When using the LWRP Unlit shader template, and creating either a_MainTex or _Color node, the shader will not compile and gives these errors:




Anyway, have a great time in Berlin.

Cheers
Laurens