Can worldspace UI be made to write to the depth buffer?

I’m doing some post processing that requires every visible object write to the depth buffer, or that object’s pixels don’t get rendered. But I’ve got a worldspace canvas with a non-translucent panel and text(mesh pro) in the scene, and they don’t appear to be writing to the depth buffer.

Is there a way to force UI elements to write to the depth buffer? Is there some hidden shader we can edit or something?

 

Did you ever solve this?

 

For UI in general: No, this is not possible, since the UI is always rendered in the transparent pass, in which you can't write to the Z-Buffer.

For TextMeshPro-Objects: The non UI Version can write to the depth buffer, but you will need to modify the shader a bit to do so. When you want to write to the depth buffer, you of course can't use the transparent pass as well, so something like glow won't work either (or only with a second render pass).
Here is a simple example shader that writes to the depth buffer with TMP:

Code (CSharp):

1. // Simplified version of the SDF Surface shader :
2. // - No support for Bevel, Bump or envmap
3. // - Diffuse only lighting
4. // - Fully supports only 1 directional light. Other lights can affect it, but it will be per-vertex/SH.
5. // Modified by Johannes Deml
6.  
7. Shader "TextMeshPro/Mobile/Distance Field (Cutout)" {
8.  
9. Properties {
10.     _FaceTex            ("Fill Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
11.     _FaceColor            ("Fill Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
12.     _FaceDilate            ("Face Dilate", Range(-1,1)) = 0
13.  
14.     _OutlineColor        ("Outline Color", Color) = (0,0,0,1)
15.     _OutlineTex            ("Outline Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
16.     _OutlineWidth        ("Outline Thickness", Range(0, 1)) = 0
17.     _OutlineSoftness        ("Outline Softness", Range(0,1)) = 0
18.  
19.     _GlowColor            ("Color", Color) = (0, 1, 0, 0.5)
20.     _GlowOffset            ("Offset", Range(-1,1)) = 0
21.     _GlowInner            ("Inner", Range(0,1)) = 0.05
22.     _GlowOuter            ("Outer", Range(0,1)) = 0.05
23.     _GlowPower            ("Falloff", Range(1, 0)) = 0.75
24.  
25.     _WeightNormal        ("Weight Normal", float) = 0
26.     _WeightBold            ("Weight Bold", float) = 0.5
27.  
28.     // Should not be directly exposed to the user
29.     _ShaderFlags        ("Flags", float) = 0
30.     _ScaleRatioA        ("Scale RatioA", float) = 1
31.     _ScaleRatioB        ("Scale RatioB", float) = 1
32.     _ScaleRatioC        ("Scale RatioC", float) = 1
33.  
34.     _MainTex            ("Font Atlas", 2D) = "white" {}
35.     _TextureWidth        ("Texture Width", float) = 512
36.     _TextureHeight        ("Texture Height", float) = 512
37.     _GradientScale        ("Gradient Scale", float) = 5.0
38.     _ScaleX                ("Scale X", float) = 1.0
39.     _ScaleY                ("Scale Y", float) = 1.0
40.     _PerspectiveFilter    ("Perspective Correction", Range(0, 1)) = 0.875
41.  
42.     _VertexOffsetX        ("Vertex OffsetX", float) = 0
43.     _VertexOffsetY        ("Vertex OffsetY", float) = 0
44.    
45.     _Cutoff ("Alpha cutoff", Range(0,1)) = 0.5
46.    
47.     //_MaskCoord        ("Mask Coords", vector) = (0,0,0,0)
48.     //_MaskSoftness        ("Mask Softness", float) = 0
49. }
50.  
51. SubShader {
52.  
53.     Tags {
54.         "Queue"="AlphaTest"
55.         "IgnoreProjector"="True"
56.         "RenderType"="TransparentCutout"
57.     }
58.  
59.     LOD 300
60.     Cull [_CullMode]
61.  
62.     CGPROGRAM
63.     #pragma surface PixShader Lambert vertex:VertShader noforwardadd nolightmap nodirlightmap fullforwardshadows addshadow alphatest:_Cutoff
64.     #pragma target 3.0
65.     #pragma shader_feature __ GLOW_ON
66.  
67.     #include "TMPro_Properties.cginc"
68.     #include "TMPro.cginc"
69.  
70.     half _FaceShininess;
71.     half _OutlineShininess;
72.  
73.     struct Input
74.     {
75.         fixed4    color        : COLOR;
76.         float2    uv_MainTex;
77.         float2    uv2_FaceTex;
78.         float2  uv2_OutlineTex;
79.         float2    param;                    // Weight, Scale
80.         float3    viewDirEnv;      
81.     };
82.  
83.     #include "TMPro_Surface.cginc"
84.  
85.     ENDCG
86.  
87.     // Pass to render object as a shadow caster
88.     Pass
89.     {
90.         Name "Caster"
91.         Tags { "LightMode" = "ShadowCaster" "RenderType"="TransparentCutout"}
92.         Offset 1, 1
93.  
94.         Fog {Mode Off}
95.         ZWrite On ZTest LEqual Cull Off
96.  
97.         CGPROGRAM
98.         #pragma vertex vert
99.         #pragma fragment frag
100.         #pragma multi_compile_shadowcaster
101.         #include "UnityCG.cginc"
102.  
103.         struct v2f {
104.             V2F_SHADOW_CASTER;
105.             float2    uv            : TEXCOORD1;
106.             float2    uv2            : TEXCOORD3;
107.             float    alphaClip    : TEXCOORD2;
108.         };
109.  
110.         uniform float4 _MainTex_ST;
111.         uniform float4 _OutlineTex_ST;
112.         float _OutlineWidth;
113.         float _FaceDilate;
114.         float _ScaleRatioA;
115.  
116.         v2f vert( appdata_base v )
117.         {
118.             v2f o;
119.             TRANSFER_SHADOW_CASTER(o)
120.             o.uv = TRANSFORM_TEX(v.texcoord, _MainTex);
121.             o.uv2 = TRANSFORM_TEX(v.texcoord, _OutlineTex);
122.             o.alphaClip = (1.0 - _OutlineWidth * _ScaleRatioA - _FaceDilate * _ScaleRatioA) / 2.0;
123.             return o;
124.         }
125.  
126.         uniform sampler2D _MainTex;
127.  
128.         float4 frag(v2f i) : COLOR
129.         {
130.             fixed4 texcol = tex2D(_MainTex, i.uv).a;
131.             clip(texcol.a - i.alphaClip);
132.             SHADOW_CASTER_FRAGMENT(i)
133.         }
134.         ENDCG
135.     }
136. }
137.  
138. CustomEditor "TMPro.EditorUtilities.TMP_SDFShaderGUI"
139. }
140.  

 

Sorry for necro-ing, but is there a shader like this that works with URP?