Shader Forge - A visual, node-based shader editor

hey Acegikmo - so I was playing around with the refraction last night. it works very well, but may I make a suggestion?

It would be great to have the refraction as a node instead of embedded into the shader base. That way we can treat the refraction how we like and also use that data to drive other data. We can then use proper alpha and refraction at the same time instead of having to remove alpha strength to see the refraction. Where I work now, we have it as a node that we multiply into the diffuse input of the shader. It works beautifully. I imagine there must be advantages and disadvantages to both performance and usability though.

anyway, just a thought.

keep up the fantastic work!

 

That's already planned

 

excellent!

btw, is there something special to be done to get the parallax to work? everything time i try and add it to my shader, i get a bunch of errors and nothing compiles. Oddly though, the preview boxes update fine.

thanks!

 

nevermind. I see it's because a normal map is required for parallax to function.

 

Hey i just discovered this thread, i have a few questions that probably have been asked but i don't have time to dig through the whole thread Sorry! Mabye you can take this as a suggestion to update the first post with the most important things

How far is the development and how long(estimation is good enough) will it take until this hits the asset store?
What price range are you targeting? For less than 100$ i am interested
Will there be some management tools for bigger shader trees(i.e. compounds, fields, custom labels, routing points for wires...)?

Do you intend to make a documentation for all the nodes in there?
Will you provide examples for more than just the basic shaders?

However, what i have seen looks already very promising and i think it will be a success, keep up the good work

Cheers,
Peter

 

+1 this! I would be very interested in writing a node or module that could render with Skyshop data, specifically RGBM-encoded HDR and mipmapped-gloss cubemaps.

 

I'm estimating a release in about 6 weeks! (Might change)

$100, which isn't less than $100, so sadly you won't be interested. Very close though!

Yes, but that will be made post-release (In an update after 1.0)

Yes, already started: http://acegikmo.com/shaderforge/nodes/

Yes

Thanks!

 

Alpha/Beta signups are now closed!
This is due to having a ton of testers, and the fact that SF is hitting beta very soon!
I will put up SF on the asset store when it's in the beta, during which you'll be able to get a license for a cheaper price than the full $100 at release.
Exciting times

Also, I have a bunch of signups pending, but I'll batch-add you all soon

 

AWSOME !!! ... Please Release and Take off my money As soon as possible !!

I cant Live ( a good Game developer Life ) Without your Extension Anymore ! ...

Lol...

I just have here a Litle Problem ...
Im Always Hitting the ( more than 32 constant registers needed to compile ) Error Way too many times ... LOL ...

Cold you Please Add To Shaders Compilation a :

#pragma profileoption MaxTexIndirections=256

Or Use

#pragma glsl

To translate to GLSL instead which has fewer restrictions... man ?

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/SL-ShaderPrograms.html

I tried To Mess up with the Shaderforge dll Assembly and add it myself / but hey would be cool to have it in Next Beta/Release !

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS AAAMAZING DEVELOPMENT !

Best ReGards !

SOULS​

 

Great news! You've got a guaranteed purchase from me!

 

Awesome i will buy it for sure ^^

 

One word : Amazing

 

I'll repeat: "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

 

Heh, thanks!
Also, fog overrides has now been added to Beta 0.15

 

Acegikmo does this shader package supports making of custom fog or...?

 

You can either use the fog overrides I just posted an image of above, or make it manually using the distance mode, etc

 

Very happy just founding this thread.
Does UnityTechnologies have no plans to implement an own visual shader editor?

 

Not in the near future no

 

However, will buy yours when it´s better than Strumpy

 

Could you post some examples how does your fog looks comparing to Unitys?

 

SF uses the built-in fog that Unity is using, so it should look the same unless you're overriding it

 

Just came across this today and I've got to say, looks incredible. Nice work! Being a Unity novice I've yet to try writing a shader, but this workflow looks very familiar from experience with software like Blender. Skimming the thread, I chuckled a bit at seeing a few go from reasonably skeptical to "I have money at the ready".

Might be a tad out of my price range for the time being, especially since I'm mainly working in 2D at the moment and still just a hobbyist, but I'll keep an eye out for any sales and just wanted to show some support! Any chance of a bare bones trial version or something to learn the ropes in the meantime? Understandable if not, just curious.

And by the way, nice games linked in your sig. Both are polished and gives me confidence you'll not settle for anything less than great with this. Maybe I'll pick up Unmechanical next chance I get to support you that way for now instead.

 

Hey Acegikmo ,

Is there anyway I can sign up for an emailing list? I really don't want to miss out on news or the release of this tool, I'll definatly be buying something like this!

 

Thanks Rirath!
There's no real trial version coming up, simply due to the fact that branching it to disable/enable features based on versions, plus managing that in the asset store might take quite a lot of time etc.
However, there will be a discount when Beta 0.16 is live on the asset store, about 15% or so

There's not really any mailing list at the moment, not sure how many would be interested in that. Perhaps I can have a look at setting one up anyway

 

The top part of the page, right side, under the page numbers is thread tools. The third option subs to this thread. Not sure how it informs when there are updates as I never used it. But if I were to guess it would be email or notifications( above the posts, under the forum name).

 

Stayed up a bit late last night and managed to make real-time spherical area lights with SF

 

That's pretty sweet, are you going to include that as an example?

 

Very awesome Ace! Keep it coming mate

 

It is amazing.

I couldn't do tessellation work with camera view distance, any tips?

Another problem I had with tessellation are the shadows, it is weird, it is like the original models is under it and receiving the shadow. I was trying to create an ocean shader.

I think I did something wrong.

Trying to learn DX 11

 

Any possibility of letting some of us test the current beta version of alpha forge? As with most complex projects there are bound to be some bugs a single person would never discover, but a small group of Beta testers would exponintly speed up the process of finding bugs, taking some of the burden off you so you can keep focused on this stunning piece of work.

 

Use the world position, view position node and the distance mode to check the distance, them multiply by some value to scale the tessellation properly
Also, tessellation is very much of a hack, as it doesn't alter the normals of your mesh, unless you're actually using a normal map, which is probably why you're getting all the shadow issues.

The alpha/beta signups were open for quite a long time, but have now closed due to getting close to releasing the beta. There are plenty of testers already, but I'm glad you are interested

 

I’ve been testing shaderforge for awhile, got a few suggestions.

1. The ability for commenting on each node, and having the comment appear above the node in the editor (just like in UDK) Helps when creating large node networks to comment on what nodes are doing.
2. The ability to instantly set the name of a Texture2D node to match unity’s default naming conventions (MainTex, BumpMap, Shininess, etc….) Helps when switching between shaders, the maps remain linked.

I had a 3rd point, but I've forgotten it, i'll post it if I remember.
Looking forward to the beta!, I'll be buying it when you release it on the store.

 

THIS IS COMPLETLY RADICAL !!! Is this DirectX 11 ? Can We add a Bitmap Mask to Mask the lightning Intensity ??

Anyway to add Spherical Harmonics aka Fake Gi in Shader Forge Shaders for Skin Shader other advanced Gi like Lastest Skyshop 1.05 ? http://goo.gl/HABilc

And what about Relief In terrains ? Like Relief SHader pack ? That has snow and alikes ? http://goo.gl/9Nxjjn

I read somewere we can also do Terrain Shaders with Shader Forge ? Can you please show us a example of that ?

THANKS IN ADVANCE !

 

#1 is already implemented in Beta 0.15.

#2 is something I've planned to add in a post-release update

Thanks for the feedback

 

Top notch! Pumped for this one.

 

Thanks,

I did something like that before, what is happening is that it works on the oposite, the closest I am, less the tessellation works, the farther i go, more polygons it creates.

 

Holy...
That is incredible !!

 

This looks awesome. Sorry if I'm a bit slow here(Didn't read the whole thread), when do you plan to release this?

 

Hello.. I am have a little problem.. look at it, what can it be?

Maybe that is why my I am not working DX11 well



Even the example shader is creating this weird model under it, like the real model transparency is nort working, the same thing happened to the plane I was creating.

Unitys tessellation works ok.

Thanks

 

That's probably because you're using deferred rendering or use some weird depth sorting method

 

Yeah, that was it xD hehehe...

I think am understanding how DX11 works now... for waves in a plane, for example, I can't do it only with tesselation, right? I need to move the vertex because the light on the surface works on the original plane, and not on tessellation, is it correct?

Very hacky, as you said hehehehe... It is just an Art Deco for games... xD

One question.. I did that thing about the distance and tessellation, but the closest I am, less the tessellation it has, the farther i go, more polygons it creates.

Thanks

 

You need to reverse it and offset it in that case

For instance, if you do your distance calcs, you might want to do max( 100-(dist), 1) to reverse it, putting the lowest LOD level at 100 meters, multiplied by some constant to control density of the tessellation, and so on!

 

I've been making a shader for blending four textures using vertex colours, for my landscape meshes. Works extremely well. Just one problem at the moment, having 4 diffuse and 4 normal map slots and some extra values means I run out of room on the Properties tab where you can rearrange the order (even with the editor maximized on one screen). We're gonna need some scroll bars in there

 

That has been fixed for beta 0.15

 

I'm going to just go ahead and say that this guy apparently has never used Unreal or understands that this is very similar to how their visual material editor works and is exactly what a HUGE audience of artistic/non-coder developers are used to and looking for with Unity. It sounds more like he's got a very specific and unfounded idea in his head and isn't actually asking developers what they want.

I've worked on art in AAA games for 9 years now and this sort of material editor is what we need and want. All the functionality without needing to look at walls of text. Give us that and we'll love ya for it.

This product is amazing (I'm using the beta) and I can't count the number of us who can't wait for it's final release.

Keep up the great work man!

 

Thanks a bunch for the kind words
The beta should go public as a pre-release on the asset store in about two weeks or so. It's being delayed due to some nasty bugs as of late, sorry about that!

 

Am I correct in reading that this has a light direction node? I'm trying to recreate one of my UDK shaders in Strumpy, but the lack of a light direction node makes it really difficult.

Quick edit: is there anything like the UDK material editor if-node? I use that pretty frequently too, but I might be able to adapt without it.

 

Hello Joachim (and the rest of you). Apologies if this isn't the right thread, but I'm looking for some help in creating a shader setup.

I'm trying to find a good way of blending two textures/shaders by using some kind of projection. I've asked elsewhere and got suggestions of looking into projectors in Unity. But through this I can only overlay a colour, not gradually shift the texture. I hope this image explains it all:



The red cubes have their own texture and when the green cube connects with them it should have it's own texture wiped away by the growing red texture. Would there be some clever way of handling this in Shaderforge?

Thanks for the help!

 

Both light direction and the if node is present in Shader Forge
Here's a list of all current nodes: http://acegikmo.com/shaderforge/nodes/

 

You should be able to use a Lerp where the t value is a texture or value being swept to the side through code on connection, either through UV coords, world coords, or using a texture.