Can Unity please try documenting changes to the shader system? This is absurd.

I am grateful to the universe that people like you exist! I will be buying your products.

Thank you for the detailed update on this situation - that is very helpful.

Your Better Shaders looks fantastic:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/better-shaders-standard-urp-hdrp-187838

Regarding your Microsplats project we are going to buy this. But are wondering if it works better/faster with the Standard Pipeline or URP. Your release comments for the URP conversion are a bit concerning: "A total of 20 samplers were removed from the system, and I don't think it's possible to exceed the hardware sampler limit (16) anymore."

So is functionality/appearance/performance for MicroSplats better on the Standard Pipeline? Or URP? Our game is a Civilization/Humankind style game, but also allows the player to zoom into ground-level view, and enjoy the beauty of the terrain (which will be mostly procedural, created Just-in-time, via templates and some simpler/fast randomized/seeded algorithms). Thus we're going to invest into MicroSplats tech, because you've done a great thing, for a very affordable price.

Out of interest, what are your contracting rates?

FYI, I'm the co-founder/co-author of the Visual3D.NET Game engine, put out of business in 2010 (by Unity, damn them). After recovering from our bankruptcy by doing contract work, I'm now back to making games with my son, and recruits. My expertise is C#/graphics/GIS-worldmaps.

 

Performance of MicroSplat is about the same on any pipeline. The internal code is all the same, the differences between SRP's are really just pass semantics and lighting systems, as well as other random things that were implemented differently between the teams writing them.

 

Two years since this post.

 

Speaking about shaders, I don't like how Unity shaders are so basic.

Where are transformation shaders? Where are adjustments like Contrast & Brightness, Levels etc. Where are filters like Blur, Sharpen, Twist etc? Where are proper blending modes (objects blending over other objects in the hierarchy)?

EDIT: I actually meant nodes for those.

 

I don't think you understand what a shader is. Really not on-topic for this thread.

 

None of these things you mention *are* shaders. Some of them can be implemented *using* a shader, though. For instance, blur can be implemented as a post-process pass over the final rendered image.

Blending in 3D engines doesn’t work based on the order objects appear in the hierarchy, that would not make much sense since you can simply move the camera around and then blending wouldn’t work as intended. It works based on the order objects are rendered, which you can influence using passes, render queues, etc. For contrast/brightness/bloom etc, you may want to use postprocessing volumes.

The way you describe these things (and assume they work?) would make sense in a painting app like Photoshop, but not a 3D engine.

Shaders are programs run in the GPU. They can be used to define how light interacts with the surface of a material, transform mesh vertices, generate geometry, blend textures together, and even simulate physics. And as far as shaders go in Unity, you can write rather complex things (or use ShaderGraph if you’re not into writing shaders manually)

 

It's been two years. Did he quit right after you posted this, or what? There's still NO documentation for URP shaders or changing macros etc between versions.