UBER - Standard Shader Ultra

Hello All,

First of all i want to thank Tom for this amazing asset !! i really love it !

I need a vegetation shader (shader that can move tree leaves and plants) thant can work with Uber Core Shader (that i use for Rain and Snow witness) do you have any shader to recommande please ?

Thank you

 

Possibly AFS? You'd have to research it; don't take my word on it.

 

Yes, AFS (Advanced Foliage Shaders by forst) do the job and these are solid PBR foliage shaders.

I've got something like UBER vegetation shaders (that is - UBER shaders that integrates with my snow/wetness routines) on my roadmap - no specific release date for it though.

Tom

 

I've just submitted UBER 1.2d to UAS (waiting for approval) with your request implemented.
Included also a few fixes and competibility packages from Unity5.6.1 and Unity2017.1.0f3 (so you'll be able to get the newest UBER 1.2d for Unity 5.6.1 and above).

Tom

 

Is retroreflection such as animal eyes, traffic signs, road markings, reflective vests possible or planned with UBER?

Here's a pretty good explanation and demo in UDK:

Here's a shader showing it in Unity but unreleased sadly:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/3h1q9o/retroreflective_traffic_sign_shader/

I found some others showing how to do it:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/retroreflector-bike-reflector-in-unity.417468/

The only thing on asset store with a retrorefelctive physical shader was this:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/22143

I had to fix an error on line 92's half4 declaration to this:
o.tangentWorld = normalize(mul(unity_ObjectToWorld, half4(v.tangent.xyz, 0)));
and 263 to this:
o.tangentWorld = normalize(mul(unity_ObjectToWorld, half4(v.tangent.xyz, 0)));

It doesn't seem to work right though and only seems to work like a fresnel map on a sphere but not facing the camera as intended.

I do think there's a void in modern environments and clothing without great retroreflective shading on the asset store. I understand that you have to be selective about what does or doesn't belong in an already incredibly versatile shader set. I don't want to use a one-purpose shader without all the nice things already in UBER. Otherwise, how can I have a retroreflective object get covered in running water that freezes into icy glittering snow at night with patches of flashlight-lit retroreflectiveness shining through?

 

To make good working retroreflection we would need to change lighting functions that are part of Unity standard shader. As I'd like to keep it "standard" I'm not much into touching it. However, we could make a quick dirty trick that will use diffuse scattering feature with inverted angle treatment. Retroreflection behavior can be described in terms special fresnel effect that means - surface reactivity to light depends on the angle we're looking at it. Looking straight (orthogonal) at the surface increases reaction. Fresnel/diffuse scatter works inverted - we need to look at grazing angles (parallel) to increase reaction. So, in UBER_StandardCore.cginc find the place we calculate diffuse scattering:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. half scatterNdotV=(dot(normalWorld, eyeVec)+_DiffuseScatteringOffset);
3. half scatter=exp2(-scatterNdotV*scatterNdotV*_DiffuseScatteringExponent);
4. scatter*=scatter;
5. o.diffColor+=lerp(o.diffColor*DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.a)*scatter*4;
6.  

Don't confuse it with the variant with snow a few lines above. The trick I'm giving here isn't meant to be working with snow (street signs are mostly not influenced by snow because they are placed vertical).

replace the above code section with conditionaly compiled code:

Code (csharp):

1. #if defined(FAKE_RETROREFLECTION)
2.            half scatterNdotV = (1 - dot(normalWorld, -eyeVec) + _DiffuseScatteringOffset);
3.            half scatter = exp2(-scatterNdotV*scatterNdotV*(_DiffuseScatteringExponent - 0.5) * 1000);
4.            scatter *= scatter;
5.            o.diffColor += lerp(o.diffColor*DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.a)*scatter * 4;
6. #else
7.            half scatterNdotV = (dot(normalWorld, eyeVec) + _DiffuseScatteringOffset);
8.            half scatter = exp2(-scatterNdotV*scatterNdotV*_DiffuseScatteringExponent);
9.            scatter *= scatter;
10.            o.diffColor += lerp(o.diffColor*DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.rgb, DiffuseScatteringColor.a)*scatter * 4;
11. #endif

Now, it's enough to copy an UBER shader you'd like to use (for example core) and place:

Code (csharp):

1. #define FAKE_RETROREFLECTION

in the defines section (right after properties). Save shader so it gets recompiled after changes done to cginc include. Now you'll be able to control retro reflection effect via diffuse scatter controls. Set color (might be gently tinted, like yellowish) with alpha set to low value (to multiply diffuse color of sign instead of replacing it). Set exponent relatively high and zero offset.

Diffuse scatter will now work inverted way - the more "straight" (orthgonal) is the direction at which we observe surface, the more reaction we get. Notice it's kind of fake solution, mostly because it also takes into account ambient lighting (which has generally no direction) and is not much "PBR" because we artificially increase diffuse color level above 1, but tweaking the parameters you should be able to get convincing results. If you cover your signs with gentle hexagon pattern (diffuse, a bit of glosiness and normals) it should work fine at close distance as well.

ATB, Tom

 

Hi Tom,
saw a new update on the store today and a long open problem of mine came to my mind:
Are you (and if yes when) planing to add this configuration to an update? It's pretty long out there with Unity 5.3. Right now I am not using UBER for some scenes because lot of bought assets don't come with metallic maps and are using the smoothness directly from albedo / metallic alpha source. Only asking if I should give up waiting.

Best regards
Ronny

 

I believe it's not that hard to implement in UBER as well. Only I need some time now to finish other tasks. I'll put this request for "to do" list in UBER.

Tom

 

Hi. I'm currently studying shaders at a university. I wan to buy this to study how does it work and to become more professional with the topic.

In the asset store in Package Contents I see only packages, but not the files inside. Can you tell me in advance, if the shader is provided in open text or is it hardocded in scripts somehow? If it is provided i open text, is it commented?

 

You've got source shader files here.

Tom

 

Hello. I have issue when I try to buld project with UBER standart shader ultra. In editor I can play, it is work fine. But when try to build I havr this errors:
Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Core': undeclared identifier 'i' at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardCore.cginc(1566) (on d3d9)

Compiling Vertex program with DIRECTIONAL SHADOWS_SCREEN LOD_FADE_CROSSFADE _WETNESS_NONE
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP

Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Core': undeclared identifier 'i' at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardCore.cginc(1566) (on d3d11)

Compiling Vertex program with DIRECTIONAL LOD_FADE_CROSSFADE _WETNESS_NONE
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME

 

is there something that i am missing?
hi I just got the UBER shaders today and most of them are not working the spectacular / core is the only one that seems to work right now. here are a few of the error codes for an example

Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/ Two Layers': failed to open source file: '../UBER_ForwardFogType.cginc' at line 493 (on d3d11)

Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/2 Sided/ Core': failed to open source file: '../UBER_ForwardFogType.cginc' at line 494 (on d3d11)

Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/(RTP's Geom Blend)/Core': failed to open source file: '../UBER_ForwardFogType.cginc' at line 511 (on d3d11)

those are just a few examples (23 errors in all)
so what should i do? or is this a result of the shader not being updated for unity 2017?

 

Would be really great to see that in an upcoming update. Since it seems to be Unity default PBR workflow right now (lots of assets are using this workflow by now) and I would like to use UBER for all my scene / assets.

Thanks a lot Tom!

 

Hi, Tom,

After upgrading to the last version of Uber i start getting this compilation error with Unity 2017.1.1p3 :

Code (CSharp):

1. Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Core': undeclared identifier 'i' at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardCore.cginc(1566) (on d3d11)

Thanks for the quick fix

 

Hey.
I found a solution for myself. Concerning

Code (CSharp):

1. undeclared identifier 'i'

.
1. You need to run the application in the editor so that all the shaders that will be compiled are drawn in the camera.
2. It is necessary to make a build twice, after that the application is compiled as well

 

This error will certainly need a code source modification to get ride of it. will wait for tom answer...

Wirred that you get all this erros... if you are using the latest version of uber the only compilation error is the " undeclared identifier 'i' ". I'm using Unity 2017.1.1p3 and everything work great !

 

I submitted UBER 1.2d from U5.6 and from U2017.1. You problem seems to be related to kind of missing file problem (check if UBER_ForwardFogType.cginc in UBER/Shaders folder) - I can imagine problems when using kind of version control system and not synchronize all files maybe. You can compare with fresh Unity2017.1 project installing UBER from the AssetStore - you can check if right version was actually downloaded looking at verinfo.txt file placed in UBER folder.

I'm trying to detect this issue. Is there any specific shader feature used or lighting that causes this?

Tom

 

I found the problem with the error reported by @amynox . In UBER_StandardCore.cginc you can find the place where vertex function for forward add lighting is defined. Looks like this:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. VertexOutputForwardAdd vertForwardAdd (VertexInput v)
3. {
4.    UNITY_APPLY_DITHER_CROSSFADE(i.pos.xy);
5.    UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID(v);
6.    VertexOutputForwardAdd o;
7.  
8.    UNITY_INITIALIZE_OUTPUT(VertexOutputForwardAdd, o);
9.    UNITY_INITIALIZE_VERTEX_OUTPUT_STEREO(o);
10.  

The line where the error happens is:

Code (csharp):

1. UNITY_APPLY_DITHER_CROSSFADE(i.pos.xy);

This is pure wrong line which I added here accidentialy. I didn't notice the problem beause it only happens in forward when we use more lights and LOD cross fading... You can simply remove the problematic line and recompile shaders.

I'm really sorry for the inconvinience due to this regression bug in UBER1.2d. You can fix it now and I'll do my best to submit 1.2e ASAP. I will also try to include the request asked by @RonnyDance.

Tom

P.S. The bug is limited to U2017.1 package version (U5.6.1 version works)

 

Submitted UBER 1.2e for approval. Fixed regression bugs mentioned above and added 2 features (retro reflection switch and smoothness that can be now fetched from Albedo (A) channel (when spec/metal+gloss maps are not present).

Tom

 

Hi,

Anyway to get more sample? maybe a complet work like the asset store picture?

 

You get UBER with example scene (as you see it on my showcase video). AssetStore picture is made using Jakob's Sci-Fi [Modular] package for textures&models. You can get the same results using this package together with my shaders.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/modular-pbr-scifi-pack-22039

Tom

 

Thanks for this really fast update and for adding the Albedo Smoothness feature. Gonna test it tonight or this weekend.

Cheers
Ronny

 

Hello,
Firstly, thanks for this shader which have greatly improved the look of our game
Howerver now I'm working on the mod creator for our game and I have a problem with imported normal maps (in runtime)
I found a solution for the standard shaders which is to replace this line :
o.Normal = UnpackNormal(tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_BumpMap));
by
o.Normal = tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_BumpMap)*2-1;
(Sauce : https://forum.unity.com/threads/creating-runtime-normal-maps-using-rendertotexture.135841/)

But I can't figure out how to do the same thing with Uber...

 

If you provide your runtime textures in right format you don't need to tweak any shader code. Shader assumes normalmaps are compressed as DXTnm. If your normals are in RGB format, do this:

_DXTnm_encodedNormal.r = 1;
_DXTnm_encodedNormal.g = _RGB_normalTextureValue.g;
_DXTnm_encodedNormal.b = 1;
_DXTnm_encodedNormal.a = _RGB_normalTextureValue.r;

thus Z component of the normal texture in tangent space is "reconstruced" from xy components (rg components in regular RGB encoded map).

So - either it's computed in script or in shader to render texture - it's much easier to change the way you compute normal texture than modifying shaders that use it.

Tom

 

Oh yeah my bad, I was in the wrong direction indeed, thanks.
Sorry to bother you with that as it's not a problem with your shader but I can't figure out how to find the DXTnm format from code...
If you have time to pick a little look I will be really grateful as I'm stuck with this since 2 days :

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. //Texture loading
3.     public static Texture2D LoadTexture(string fn, bool normalMap = false)
4.     {
5.            Texture2D t2d;
6.             if (normalMap)
7.                 t2d = new Texture2D(1, 1);
8.             else
9.                 t2d = new Texture2D(1, 1, TextureFormat.DXT1, false);
10.             t2d.LoadImage(File.ReadAllBytes(fn));
11.             if (normalMap)
12.                 SetNormalMap(ref t2d);
13.             return t2d;
14.     }
15.  
16. [...]
17.  
18. //NormalMap setting
19.     public static void SetNormalMap(ref Texture2D tex)
20.     {
21.         Color[] pixels = tex.GetPixels();
22.         for (int i = 0; i < pixels.Length; i++)
23.         {
24.             Color temp = pixels[i];
25.             temp.r = 1;
26.             temp.g = pixels[i].g;
27.             temp.b = 1;
28.             temp.a = pixels[i].r;
29.             pixels[i] = temp;
30.         }
31.         tex.SetPixels(pixels);
32.     }
33.  
34.  

 

From a brief glance - SetNormalMap() looks like it should do the job. Not sure why do you set the size of normalmap to 1 (t2d = new Texture2D(1, 1)) though.

Tom

 

It's just for initialization but 0 do also the job (I will change that)
Yeah it should work but I have that result :

And when I change the normal by the same source image but marked as normal map in the editor it look the right way :

 

Good afternoon. I recently bought your asset. we had to switch to the beta version of unity. (which we did not really want))) There were 2 errors in the build. how can I solve them ??? Your help is very necessary.

 

Seems like your normal texture output is still somehow invalid. At shader level it doesn't matter what do you plug into material inspector texture slot. Note that in newest Unity versions we need to fill r and b channels of texture with 1 (with 0 it won't work). It's for auto-compatibility to be able to decode DXTnm and BC formats using exactly the same function. BC encodes (normalX, normalY, 0, 1) while DXTnm encodes (1, normalY, 1, normalX). In deferred lighting you can take a look at debug output in scene view to see what kind of normals shaders outputs. This could be helpful to find the reason.

I'm about to install newest beta because I'm pretty curious to look at new index buffers stuff. However I can't promise I can make UBER working with this beta. It's beta, and it's very early beta which means next beta it can break again while I often need to put a lot of work to make it compatible with UBER back...

Tom

 

I don't think anything in the world is that urgent TBH.

 

Thanks a lot for your answers, they help me a lot to better understand shaders and formats functionalities as I'm not really good with them.
Feel free to tell me if I'm bothering you too much with that or if you want to continue by mp or mail.

So I'm in Unity 2017.1.1f1 with the last version of Uber and in defered lightning. And I have well checked, my DTX encoding is set to (1, normalY, 1, normalX). But when I have checked the debug normal scene (thanks for the tip, I didn't know that mode) I have indeed seen some strange things :

Left is created from code, right is imported in editor

 

What you see is what shader outputs (normals in world space). It's not what shader reads from normalmap (normals in tangent/texture space). If you would place an object that's oriented in in world space exactly the same as in tangent space you could see what shader reads from texture. Try with a plane that is oriented the way its edge that leads along U axis in is oriented along world X axis, V along world y axis.

Still what I can see is that your left object seems to miss detail normals rather than they are incorrect. Looks like they are "zeroed" i.e. all normals decoded in UnpackNormal() give (0,0,1) vector.

Tom

 

Just a little question : Would it be possible to use the POM Extrude and Triplanar Selective altogether ?

 

Okay I tried that (I hope I understand it correctly, english isn't my native language) and the result is really weird :

(Again left is code and right editor)

That's what I'm thought also but I can't figure out why ...

 

To quickly get rid of error message and get compiled shader you can change this line in reported UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc file:

Code (csharp):

1. #ifdef SHADOWS_CUBE

(2 lines above the line with error reported)

with this

Code (csharp):

1. #if defined(SHADOWS_CUBE) && !defined(SHADOWS_CUBE_IN_DEPTH_TEX)

Note that the problem's related to pointlight shadows and is produced by the Unity change in DX11 cube shadowmap generation. It's native shadowmap/depth format now. So - above "fix" allows for succesful compilation, but isn't general solution. I don't know yet how exactly is the new shadowmap generation handled and with all dependencies in newest Unity shadow code.

As far as I can see invalid shader code happens now with point light+shadow+transparency used in shader. I need more time to sort it out completely.

Tom

P.S. After you change the line in cginc you need to recompile shader files as well (they are placed in different folder and won't get recompiled automatically). Right click on shader file or whole folder and select Reimport.

 

Nope...

 

This shader seems to be the best for PCs . How is this translating for iOS Metal devices in terms of performance ? Don’t want to use all the nice features but looking for something more performant than the delivered Standard shader.

 

Okay, thanks. It's not so important as I can simply use several UV planes for this (it's for metal fences).

 

If you don't use expensive features like dynamic wetness, snow or parallax occlusion mapping, you can expect similar performance from UBER comparing to Standard shaders. There's nothing for free though.

Tom

 

Hey,

I'm working with Unity 2017.1.1f1 and while building my application for Android phones im getting this error

Error building Player: Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/ Core': '' : 'unityShadowCoord' already defined at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_AutoLightMOD.cginc(13) (on gles)
/
Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/ Core': '' : 'unityShadowCoord' already defined at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_AutoLightMOD.cginc(13) (on gles)

Compiling Vertex program with _WETNESS_NONE _EMISSION_TEXTURED
Platform defines: UNITY_NO_DXT5nm UNITY_NO_RGBM UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_FRAMEBUFFER_FETCH_AVAILABLE UNITY_NO_CUBEMAP_ARRAY UNITY_NO_SCREENSPACE_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF3 UNITY_NO_FULL_STANDARD_SHADER SHADER_API_MOBILE UNITY_HARDWARE_TIER1 UNITY_COLORSPACE_GAMMA

I have the Standard Assets imported and all of the shaders are working perfectly in play mode
hope you can help me out here.

 

Do you target on GLES3? "gles" which means GLES2 is not supported by UBER.

 

Yes I did , Thank you - problem solved!

 

I would like to know how can you set colors by height on the tessellation shader. This is for achieving this kind of cool explosion effect on this video :

I got the tessellation effect right with world mapping, but I don't know how can I set colors depending of the tessellation's heights.

I'd also like to know how to get the emissive property of my UBER material in a script making a sphere grow and shrink in size, so that the emission increases as the sphere grows.

 

Your usecase is very specific one. There is no separate option for this in UER, however you could prepare separate emission texture with desired colors synchronised with heightmap then control emissive color (check the name of the material property in shader code in properties section) which is multiplier for emissive texture as your explosion grows.

Tom

 

Hi,

I have been thinking of getting this asset for a while, but I can't really find my answer related to this asset so I am not sure I should buy this.

Can anyone help me to answer my questions:

1. My work mainly involve with VR, how does this shader perform with VR? Oculus HTC etc.
2. Forget all the wetness, snow effect etc, does this shader look better than Unity standard shader just in general use? Like just a texture and a normal map?
3. I assume it works with forward and deferred rendering path? I was once told that it only with one of the two.

Thanks

 

Thank you for incorporating fake retroreflection into 1.2e! I will test it and provide feedback, thank you again.

 

1.2e version seems to break in 5.5.4 for me: "UnityEditor.MaterialEditor' does not contain a definition for `EnableInstancingField' "

 

1.2e has been submitted from 5.6.1 and 2017.1.0f1.

Tom

 

Hello Tom,
I find Uber a great addon, however I'm intimidated by the learning curve. Besides the documentation, that I found hard to understand, is there any video tutorial that I can learn how to use the package?
Endi

 

Hello Tom, I've recently run into an issue with all Uber shaders throwing a compiler error when I try to build but it seems to be isolated to only this project, any suggestions?