Anyone around who wants to do contract shader development for Unity 3D?

[x4000]

This is something that I need occasionally, and in particular now.

Right now the shader I need is something that will work as a regular diffuse shader with alpha blending (which I already have) PLUS which also has the following rule: "If a pixel has 1f opacity, draw it, if it has <1f opacity, do not draw it."

That's something I don't know how to code in their shader language, which really seems poorly documented.  And in an efficient low-shader-level-required way I'm really not good for that.

Any takers?  Draco18, is this up your alley?  Obviously this would be for payment, agreed in advance on an hourly basis most likely.

[Draco18s]

Haha, shaders. XD
I can't write shaders to save my life.  I can edit and tweak shaders sometimes, but that's about it.

What you're looking for is Alpha cutoff.  Unity has a default one under Transparency -> Cutoff.  I think it's a regular diffuse shader otherwise, just ramp the cutoff value all the way up.  Might have to set the value with code (i.e. to make it 0.999999f without it being 1f, which would make even full alpha pixels not draw).

If that's not what you need, I'll need some more info and some examples.  I may be able to modify an existing shader to do what you're looking for (combining two existing shaders, while tricky, is something I've accomplished).

[x4000]

Ah!  Very nice.  Though actually, turns out I can do this with a simple alpha test, which has me slapping my head, heh.

[Draco18s]

Ah!  Very nice.  Though actually, turns out I can do this with a simple alpha test, which has me slapping my head, heh.

At least you know the difference between a shader, a texture, and a material.  Unlike my boss.
"Make it shiny, it should be wet."
*Changes shader to specular*
"Why does it look like it's made out of copper?"
Because it is shiny with a red specular color on a brown texture.

[x4000]

Heh.  Goodness.

Yeah, I actually have a ton of experience with textures and materials from my 3D modeling work, but coding shaders is a foreign thing to me that I've never found wonderful documentation for.

Anyway, thanks!

[Draco18s]

Yeah, I actually have a ton of experience with textures and materials from my 3D modeling work, but coding shaders is a foreign thing to me that I've never found wonderful documentation for.

Supposedly my boss has been 3D modeling for years.  I still have to explain to him the difference between a texture and a shader every time we build something in Unity.

As for coding them:
Exactly.  I haven't found any good reference for coding shaders either.  Which is why I can muck around inside one and tweak things, but can't write them from scratch.

What was I doing the other day..?  I needed the default Unity Bumped Specular shader (which the source for the default shaders are available online) and I was trying to add...something.  It was like "I need this shader, but with bump" and smashed it together with the default bumped specular.

OH!  I remember now, it was a "glow" shader that would put a glow around objects by essentially bluring whatever was being rendered, take that and colorize it.  Because I wanted to do a mouse-over highlight effect on an object that used the default bumped specular shader and losing the bumpmapping was going to be a No Go.

[x4000]

I'm the same way, although perhaps with less patience with mucking with them since it's always guess-and-check.  I don't understand why there is not some sort of consolidated language reference somewhere; I don't know where other programmers are learning this stuff.

[Draco18s]

I'm the same way, although perhaps with less patience with mucking with them since it's always guess-and-check.  I don't understand why there is not some sort of consolidated language reference somewhere; I don't know where other programmers are learning this stuff.

It's because vertex shaders are run on the GPU.
https://developer.nvidia.com/cg-toolkit <-- best resource I can find for doing that....

[x4000]

Sure, but what processor it runs on has nothing to do with whether or not there can be a reference.  Still, there are a few things but there are no real guides to how to do stuff.  And most of this is abstracted through either unity in this case, or through directx or opengl under that.

[keith.lamothe]

I don't know where other programmers are learning this stuff.

I think you have to make certain inscriptions on your front door, and then on the next full moon the shader fairies whisk you away to the land of shadow programming for what feels like 3 months in the space of an hour.

Something like that.

[x4000]

That sounds about right.  Or at best shaders to be an oral tradition.

[orzelek]

I read quite a lot about them in latest OpenGL guide.
I would need to check for the exact title tho.

Sadly my knowledge is only from reading.. don't have occasions to use them yet.
And some of maths there would require me to refresh my knowledge about few topics.

[Draco18s]

I don't know where other programmers are learning this stuff.

I think you have to make certain inscriptions on your front door, and then on the next full moon the shader fairies whisk you away to the land of shadow programming for what feels like 3 months in the space of an hour.

Something like that.[/quote]

Too bad Enochian is a lost language.