[Released] Lux URP Essentials

that won't happen in the next weeks, sorry. 12.1. is the version which is supported.
but nevertheless: can you give some more information about the errors?

 

here a screenshot with some of them (directly after importing LUX Essentials):

 

great: they did i once more! thank you unity!

 

i grabbed unity 2021.3.1f1 und created a new project with urp 12.1.6. then i imported lux urp essentials 1.85:
no error. just a few warnings.
so i guess that you do not have version 1.85. unity is very picky and may just do not update the package unless you go to the asset store cache folder and delete previous downloads: C:\Users\accountName\AppData\Roaming\Unity\Asset Store

 

Hi there, I'm wondering about performance of those shaders. I'm trying to replace the Lit shader with a shadergraph from you, not sure if any of you shaders is a 1:1 replica. But probably there is one. I want to use it with virtual textures and it needs to be a shader graph. So my questions are, is there a good replica for URP/Lit shader in this package? And if yes, is it at least as performant as URP/Lit?

 

I dont now what did the trick, I allready deleted all folders except "Assets" and "Project Settings" and recreated my project twice last week. I started with version 1.85 because I bought it 2 weeks ago. Anyway now the Terrain shaders is compiling without any errors. I guess it was really something in my cache, maybe in my urp installation.

Thanks for your support larsbertram1

 

the is no shader graph replica in the package and if so it would most likely not be as performant as urp/lit as shader graph usually creates rather fat vertex data. on the other hand UPR/Lit does not use the best texture layout and you can easily outperform it by using better packing.

 

I see. Well if you ever get bored and want to replicate the URP's default shaders (mostly Lit and simple lit i guess) to shadergraph I'm sure they would be wanted because that's the only way to get VT to work

 

Do any of the shaders support Deferred Rendering Path in URP?

 

custom lighting shaders like skin, hair and cloth or transparent shaders like water will always be forward but they play well with deferred.
grass and foliage are deferred with different approximations for the translucent lighting part.
shaders which do not implement custom lighting work in deferred and forward.

 

Ahh i was trying to see if the toon shader worked with deferred specifically.

 

you can use it along with deferred rendering - but it will be rendered using forward.

 

Hi, I've noticed an interesting issue with the Lux Clear Coat shader. When the asset moves through a shadow cascade threshold, I get what looks like artifacting in the normal map? The image is the car door, sorry I can't share much more as it's client work!

 

and this is related to the shader? not the geometry?

 

Yes, it only happens when the asset has the lux clear coat shader applied to it.

 

hmm, could not reproduce it. maybe you can provide a simple test scene.
looking into the code: these artifacts should either be caused by the shadow caster pass or the claculating the shadowcoords during the lighting. in both cases lux urp 1.85.1 for urp 12 uses "official" code.

 

I misused your water shader a bit I've had a lot of trouble making cave entrances properly dark. No normal map, 0 smoothness, black fog.
Could probably use a much simpler shader for the same result, or perhaps bake AO for the scene. But this looks exactly how I want it.

 

Hi! I'm having trouble using the decal stencil mask in unity using the URP deferred renderer. I managed to set it up in forward but as I understand stencil works differently in deferred rendering... Do you have any tips? Should the Stencil override in my renderer data be active?

 

looking into stencils and deferred rendering a while ago i could not make them work: urp just overrides the settings from the material...
one thing you could try to exclude certain objects from receiving decals:
set the material to transparent.
this will make it being rendered in the forward transparent pass on top of the deferred passes (using the forward opaque pass URP still would override the stencil settings).
this of course is not the full solution as a) you will get forward lighting and b) the object does not write to the camera's depth texture.

solution
use 2 materials: one regular material, then add a 2nd one on top which only writes to the stencil buffer using the transparent render queue so we can actually set the stencil values.

possible outcome
scene view uses forward rendering, so all stencil settings work as expected: white plane and green cube exclude the decal.
game view uses deferred. here all stencil settings are overridden. however the green box still gets properly occluded from the decal as it uses 2 materials: Lux_URP_Stencil_Only just writes to the stencil buffer using the transparent-1 render queue.



it also works the other way around. here the decal needs 1 to be written to the stencil buffer. again in scene view all materials just work. in game view only the green cube using the extra material works properly.



simple shader
attached

 

Wow, interesting solution, looks promising. I'll try it out as soon as I can and let you know how it works!
Thanks a lot
François

 

Hi, I'm wondering about the performance of the decal shaders. How many decals you could have in a scene before seeing a performance loss? I would like to possibly use up to a few hundred at once. The URP decal shader has an option for GPU instancing. Does yours have something like that also?

 

it should support instancing. but if checked the old built in render pipeline system will kick in and render them (instead of the srp batcher). this might be even slower.
so best would be to draw them instanced by script using culling groups e.g.

 

I own this addon, though so far not had a use for it as I've gone back to Built in as it seem Unity doesn't support this anymore... https://forum.unity.com/threads/urp-opacity-and-shadows-is-this-even-supported-anymore.1045252/ is it something you could add?

 

semi transparent, dithered shadows ar kind of a nightmare, visually. so i do not think that i will ever work on these. sorry.

 

They aren't dithered looking at all with built in though... and it's alot better than looking at an object with a material like glass yet it's casting a full hard shadow behind it with no relation to the transparent/opacity of the material the light is coming through (not asking for color translucency or path tracing levels of realism here).. it just seems like a really basic thing to have for any game engine renderer in 2022.. currently URP just looks like a joke that has been really cut back on features that were in built in... seems backwards but then it is URP issue with Unity that seems to be regressing in just about everything.

 

they are dithered. and how bad it looks depends on a lot of factors.

 

Well with 'hard and soft shadows' on, the dithered look doesn't show at all as it is smoothed over.. no sign of dithering.. obviously without soft shadows and low quality shadow resolution they look bad.. I'd rather have smooth dithered shadows for an objects that aren't opaque than hard shadows or none at all..

What about this...

 

I've run into a problem, and I hope someone can help. I am using the Decal Unlit shader and the standard decal prefab from URP Essentials (latest version from Asset Store as of today) to project satellite images onto terrain. Because the terrain is tiled, I had to create multiple copies of the URP Essentials unlit decal material, but the only change I am making from the default is to assign each one the correct (and unique) albedo map. The shader settings are the same for all.

This was working perfectly until recently, and I think the problem is due to having upgraded the URP package from 12.x to 13.x (I didn't realize URP Essentials doesn't yet support 13.x). Fortunately, my builds still work correctly, and in fact everything is fine in the editor until you select any object related to the decals. After that, it's broken until the next restart of the editor.

The symptoms are that the decals render with their UV coordinates mapped incorrectly, producing a strange refraction-like distortion.

Here are some screen shots of the correct behavior, the problem behavior, and my settings. All of these are from the same scene, same project, and same versions of everything (IOW, the working screen shots are not from the previous version before the problem occurred -- they are from today, just like the broken ones).

I spent a lot of time in the documentation (which, btw, is quite good), and at first, I thought the issue might be not having depth texture enabled in the URP settings. But I checked that, and it's definitely enabled, as is the opaque texture.

This behavior replicates in the URP Essentials decal sample scene, with no alterations to that scene.

There are no errors in the console for my settings, but if I attempt to use the HQ Sampling option, there is an error taht identifier DepthX is not defined at (if I recall) line 486 in the shader.

Thanks for any help that can be offered. I have a project deadline of July 29 and would like to get this cleared up before my final build to show the client, but since the built version is working despite the in-editor issues, I am probably okay. I'd like to avoid backtracking the Unity and URP versions if I can, because that's likely to get messy.

Screen shots follow.

Working:


Broken:


Settings:

 

you should not use decals for this but sample the images directly in the terrain shader: 100 times faster

 

I agree, in general. The purpose of the decal mode is to allow the overlay to be dynamic. There are also other decals that I want to use that aren't directly mapped to world coordinates as the UV on the satellite data is, so I was hoping to get the feature "proved out" with this part and then replicate it for the other use-cases.

 

it is never a great idea to use decals with such huge volume. just compare it to what the terrain actually covers.
decals might be handy here. but they are very expensive compared to a proper solution.

 

i had a quick look into urp 13 and it looks that for some unknown reason _CameraDepthTexture_TexelSize.zw does not work as expected.
simply replace it with _ScaledScreenParams.xy

 

Understood. I re-implemented my solution with a full-custom shader that can do the overlays plus the other features I needed, so I'm good to go. I found that the decals still malfunction even when they're small, as in your example scene, so that may be something you need to look at for Unity version compatibility. But the immediate need for my project is solved.

 

Awesome! Notwithstanding my previous comment, I'd still like to use the decal feature (smaller instances) elsewhere, so I'll give this a try and let you know if it works. Thanks!

 

Hi, your Glass shader fails to compile in URP 13. Is this a known issue?

 

yes. urp 13 is not supported yet. might come soon however.

 

btw. lux urp essentials already offers dithered shadows. if you loo into the uber demo and look at the lod transition or camera fade.

 

I did find an updated URP glass shader on Github, but it's no good. Your glass shader is literally the only working URP glass shader, please do update it.

 

may take a few days.
if you need it now you will have to edit the shader manually.
find:
#define _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON
and change it to:
#define _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON 1

and you may have to apply the fix for _CameraDepthTexture_TexelSize.zw too
simply replace it with _ScaledScreenParams.xy

 

I've been encountering an issue with a modified version of the Lux decal scripts projecting onto multiple game objects at the same time, was hoping someone might be able to help identify what's going on.
We're using the decal as a way to highlight areas on this globe asset. I've gone in and physically separated the four quarters of the globe asset to show that they're 4 different individual meshes, but I imagine we'd see similar issues with any number of meshes as long as there are multiple. These strange tears in the decal start flickering constantly, the screenshot shows one over Democratic, near Nambibia, and Madagascar.
When I enter the inspector and disable all but one of the quarters, that quarter does not have any of the flickering effect and renders as it is supposed to render, meaning the issue is being caused by the decal projecting onto multiple meshes at once. I'm not really sure what I should do to try and fix it though. Any thoughts?

 

yeah but that is not something that works with a shader made in shader editor (unity's or amplify) is it... like the opacity option on the material being at 50%/grey would allow light through a cast a dithered shadow like it did in BIRP..

honestly I don't get why URP is this backwards.. now it seemsyou've got to dig into the internals of unity's unfinished URP mess to make dithered shadows work.. its just weird and off putting.

 

look into the draw order using the frame debugger.

 

Not sure what I'd be looking for, here's the debugger output.



The four draw mesh tile visual calls are the four quadrants of the globe, and the three draw mesh untitled polygons are the draw calls that generate the pink decal.

 

these draws are in the opaque queue -> you do not have a valid camera depth texture here as it is from the last frame. try to set the decal shader to transparent.

 

Like this?

 

yes, does it help?

 

Unfortunately not, that was already how it was set up, I didn't change anything.

 

did not see it before but you are using some "stencil do something shaders" there. not sure what these are good for.

 

They're a modified version of the Lux URP Lit Decal shader. I inherited this code from someone who doesn't work here anymore so my understanding of it isn't completely 100%

Here's the three shaders we're using rn

Code (CSharp):

1. // Modified version of 'Assets\External\Lux\Lux URP Essentials\Shaders\Decals\Lux URP Lit Decal.shader'
2. Shader "Lux URP/Projection/Decal Lit/Stencil Volume Incrementer"
3. {
4.     Properties
5.     {
6.      
7.         [Header(Stencil)]
8.         [IntRange] _StencilRef                          ("Stencil Reference", Range (0, 255)) = 0
9.     }
10.  
11.     SubShader
12.     {
13.         Tags
14.         {
15.             "RenderPipeline" = "UniversalPipeline"
16.             "RenderType" = "Transparent"
17.             "Queue" = "Transparent"
18.         }
19.  
20.         Pass
21.         {
22.             Name "StandardUnlit"
23.             Tags{"LightMode" = "UniversalForward"}
24.  
25.             Stencil {
26.                 Ref [_StencilRef]
27.                 CompBack Gequal
28.                 CompFront Gequal
29.                 PassFront IncrWrap
30.                 PassBack DecrWrap
31.             }
32.  
33.             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
34.            
35.             Cull Off
36.             ZTest Gequal
37.             ZWrite Off
38.             ZClip Off
39.  
40.             HLSLPROGRAM
41.            
42.             #pragma vertex vert
43.             #pragma fragment frag
44.  
45.             #include "Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/ShaderLibrary/Core.hlsl"
46.            
47.             struct Attributes
48.             {
49.                 float4 positionOS   : POSITION;                
50.             };
51.  
52.             struct Varyings
53.             {
54.                 float4 positionHCS  : SV_POSITION;
55.             };          
56.  
57.            
58.             Varyings vert(Attributes IN)
59.             {
60.                 Varyings OUT;
61.                 OUT.positionHCS = TransformObjectToHClip(IN.positionOS.xyz);
62.                 return OUT;
63.             }
64.      
65.             half4 frag() : SV_Target
66.             {
67.                 return half4(0, 0.5, 0, 0);
68.             }
69.            
70.             ENDHLSL
71.         }
72.     }
73.     FallBack "Hidden/InternalErrorShader"
74. }

Code (CSharp):

1. // Modified version of 'Assets\External\Lux\Lux URP Essentials\Shaders\Decals\Lux URP Lit Decal.shader'
2. Shader "Lux URP/Projection/Decal Lit/Stencil Volume Render"
3. {
4.     Properties
5.     {
6.         [Header(Stencil)]
7.         [IntRange] _StencilRef                          ("Stencil Reference", Range (0, 255)) = 0
8.        
9.         _Color("Base Color", Color) = (0, 0, 0.5, 0.5)
10.        
11.         _ObjectId ("ObjectId", Vector) = (0, 0, 0, 0)
12.     }
13.  
14.     SubShader
15.     {
16.         Tags
17.         {
18.             "RenderPipeline" = "UniversalPipeline"
19.             "RenderType" = "Transparent"
20.             "Queue" = "Transparent"
21.         }
22.  
23.         Pass
24.         {
25.             Name "StandardUnlit"
26.             Tags{"LightMode" = "UniversalForward"}
27.  
28.             Stencil {
29.                 Ref [_StencilRef]
30.                 ReadMask 255
31.                 WriteMask 255
32.                 Pass IncrWrap
33.                 Comp Equal
34.             }
35.  
36.             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
37.            
38.             Cull Off  
39.             ZTest Off
40.             ZWrite Off
41.             ZClip Off
42.  
43.             HLSLPROGRAM
44.            
45.             #pragma vertex vert
46.             #pragma fragment frag
47.  
48.             #include "Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/ShaderLibrary/Core.hlsl"
49.  
50.  
51.            
52.             float4 _ObjectId;
53.  
54.             uniform float _PixelRaycastWrite;
55.            
56.             struct Attributes
57.             {
58.                 float4 positionOS   : POSITION;                
59.             };
60.  
61.             struct Varyings
62.             {
63.                 float4 positionHCS  : SV_POSITION;
64.             };
65.            
66.             CBUFFER_START(UnityPerMaterial)
67.                 half4 _Color;          
68.             CBUFFER_END
69.            
70.             Varyings vert(Attributes IN)
71.             {
72.                 Varyings OUT;
73.                 OUT.positionHCS = TransformObjectToHClip(IN.positionOS.xyz);
74.                 return OUT;
75.             }
76.        
77.             float4 frag() : SV_Target
78.             {
79.                 if(_PixelRaycastWrite > 0.5f)
80.                 {
81.                     float4 result = _ObjectId;
82.                     if(_Color.a == 0.0f)
83.                     {
84.                         result.a = 0.0f;
85.                     }
86.                    
87.                     return result;
88.                 }
89.  
90.                 return _Color;
91.             }
92.            
93.             ENDHLSL
94.         }
95.     }
96.     FallBack "Hidden/InternalErrorShader"
97. }

Code (CSharp):

1. // Modified version of 'Assets\External\Lux\Lux URP Essentials\Shaders\Decals\Lux URP Lit Decal.shader'
2. Shader "Lux URP/Projection/Decal Lit/Stencil Volume Reset"
3. {
4.     Properties
5.     {
6.         [Header(Stencil)]
7.         [IntRange] _StencilRef ("Stencil Reference", Range (0, 255)) = 0
8.     }
9.  
10.     SubShader
11.     {
12.         Tags
13.         {
14.             "RenderPipeline" = "UniversalPipeline"
15.             "RenderType" = "Transparent"
16.             "Queue" = "Transparent"
17.         }
18.  
19.         Pass
20.         {
21.             Name "StandardUnlit"
22.             Tags
23.             {
24.                 "LightMode" = "UniversalForward"
25.             }
26.  
27.             Stencil
28.             {
29.                 Ref [_StencilRef]
30.                 ReadMask 255
31.                 WriteMask 255
32.                 Pass DecrWrap
33.                 Comp Equal
34.             }
35.  
36.             Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
37.  
38.             Cull Off
39.             ZTest GEqual
40.             ZWrite Off
41.             ZClip Off
42.  
43.             HLSLPROGRAM
44.            
45.             #pragma vertex vert
46.             #pragma fragment frag
47.  
48.             #include "Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal/ShaderLibrary/Core.hlsl"
49.            
50.             struct Attributes
51.             {
52.                 float4 positionOS   : POSITION;
53.             };
54.  
55.             struct Varyings
56.             {
57.                 float4 positionHCS  : SV_POSITION;
58.             };
59.  
60.            
61.             Varyings vert(Attributes IN)
62.             {
63.                 Varyings OUT;
64.                 OUT.positionHCS = TransformObjectToHClip(IN.positionOS.xyz);
65.                 return OUT;
66.             }
67.        
68.             half4 frag() : SV_Target
69.             {
70.                 return half4(0, 0, 0, 0);
71.             }
72.            
73.             ENDHLSL
74.         }
75.     }
76.     FallBack "Hidden/InternalErrorShader"
77. }

 

hmm, looks too complicated to me. if you have 4 decals each covering 1/4th of the globe you should get away without using any stencils here.