How do I use a Heightmap in Shader Graph?

Hello,
I would like to add a Height Map to my Shader i created with Shader Graph, but it is missing on the Master. How do I add a Height Map?

 

The original Standard shader's height map parameter is used to drive a version of Parallax Offset Mapping, sometimes just called Offset Mapping, or in Unity's code referred to as Parallax Bump Mapping. This is a simple approximation that basically just smudges the UVs a little based on a height map.

Here's the code Unity uses:

Copied from UnityCG.cginc

Code (CSharp):

1. // Calculates UV offset for parallax bump mapping
2. inline float2 ParallaxOffset( half h, half height, half3 viewDir )
3. {
4.     h = h * height - height/2.0;
5.     float3 v = normalize(viewDir);
6.     v.z += 0.42;
7.     return h * (v.xy / v.z);
8. }

You can add this yourself by building a node graph to do the same. the h is the greyscale value from the height map texture, the height is the scale factor (which should be very, very small; Standard uses a range of 0.005 to 0.08), and the viewDir is the tangent space view direction. The output value should be added to the texture UV.

The HD pipeline's Lit shaders also have a height map, but it uses it for tessellation displacement (which isn't supported by Shader Graph yet), or for Parallax Occlusion Mapping, which is a much more accurate technique that raymarches through the height field to find an appropriate UV, and is much more expensive than Parallax Offset Mapping. It also requires the use of dynamic loops which node graphs aren't great at handling. And by not great I mean cannot be handled at all without a custom node.

If replicating the existing Standard Shader's implementation is good enough, the above code should let you recreate it in your own node graph, or let you create a subgraph you can reuse elsewhere. If you want something like what the HD Lit shaders have you'll have to wait for Unity to add support or you can request a Parallax Occlusion Mapping node.

 

Whole set of nodes for Shader graph
http://u3d.as/1gkf
- SSS Color,
- SSS gradient,
- Parallax mapping,
- Parallax Mapping iterrations,
- Parallax Occlusion Mapping,
- PerturbedNormals (World normal с учетом NormalMap),
- CreateNormalChannel (для каждого канала текстуры),
- CreateNormalFloat (для любого значения float, можно делать нормали из процедурных шумов),
- LightDirection,
- ProceduralRock (процедурный шум),
- Range ,
- TilingShape .

 

I’m a bit confused how to implement a height map in the shader graph, can some one please please provide an example

Thanks so much

 

Hello I would like to know more as well, do you have a documentation somewhere ? I can't seem to find it or reproduce it

 

Hello, instead of documentation there are ready examples, shaders are in the folder "Shaders", you need Parallax.

 

It seems like High map is not supported. Been looking for tessellation without luck.

 

Here is Sub Graph version of this code:

 

This is a great literal conversion - but if the master node doesn't have a parallax input, then where would you plug the output of this sub-graph in your main shader graph?

How would one go about adding some sort of a height field to the LWRP's Master node? Is this just an addition that Unity would be responsible for? The HDRP master lit node doesn't seem to have straight forward parallax support either.

 

As bgolus said, parallax mapping is just a special way of distorting uvs of a texture sample. If you want to add the illusion of height to your shader, you just need to plug the return of the subgraph above into the UVs of your texture sampler.

 

Might be a dumb question, but where could i plug a heightmap texture into this shadergraph?

 

The graph @V0odo0 showed is a Sub Graph, which means it becomes a node in another graph that you would pass the output of other nodes into. To use a texture, add it to the Shader Graph's properties (via the blackboard), then add that texture as a property node along with a Sample Texture 2D node. You'd then pipe the output of that into the Height input of the Sub Shader node.

Alternatively you could just put all of those nodes into your Shader Graph shader directly and replace the Height node with the Sample Texture 2D node.