Shader Forge - A visual, node-based shader editor

Thanks!

Here's how it looks among other nodes
In this case, they are used to control the speed of texture panning, for X and Y separately:

 

Cool. So then in the final shader/material does that translate into a slider control?

 

Yep! All the inputs you can expose as material parameters will be available as nodes

 

Looking awesome Acegikmo, can't wait to play, I have a biggish shader to update in Strumpy that I made last year, not looking forward to it now I know what I could be using soon

 

Fantastic job! Hats off sir!

 

Come on...give us public beta...already

 

Yeah, eager to try out as well!!

 

Beta is coming soon!

Added a MIP level input to textures:
(Connecting this this currently excludes glsl rendering and makes the minimum shader level SM 3.0 though)

 

Hi,

it's awesome. we wait for something make dx 11 related shed-er. can it's make dx 11 supported shed er.

 

Wating for this awesome tool!!!

 

marvelous tool. keep going on.
If this type of future you can make then it will be amazing tool. But i'm interested in dx 11.

 

Nice - this looks really excellent

 

Cubemaps and view/normal/reflection vectors are now in

 

Will there be some sort of manual or example setups in the beta phase? Keep on moving! This is coming together nicely!

 

When the beta is ready I'll most likely only make a short "how to get started" guide. The full documentation + tutorials will come with its release.
That said, you can always write in the forums/PM/Mail me with any questions, during the beta too

 

Transmission and double-sided lighting is now supported

 

This is pretty cool... and the cubemap stuff is looking ace... if you manage to get this working with Marmoset Skyshop, I will definitely buy this...

 

hi,

Realtime refection possible with Shader Forge?

Dev

 

Sure! As long as you have set up the proper cameras and such in code, and pass it into the shader

 

Is there a way to do this without code? (Non-programmer here)

 

I did have a script for realtime reflections before I started using Skyshop.

Hey Ace, Do you think you could include a front/back node? For things such as jackets with two textures on the inside and outside...

 

The Transform node and the Component Mask node are now implemented, so here's a Matcap shader created in Shader Forge:

 

Very nice looking
Its crazy how fast you developing this this, cant wait to see the beta for testing .

 

Matcap looks awesome as well Ace. Please keep all these setups so we can examine those setups in detail later on.

 

Agreed. As a non-shader artist, it's frustrating to me to know exactly the effect I want but never be able to code it or even know where to being in linking up nodes.

Oh, and take my money.

 

This.....
you might want ot keep them also for future reference

 

I'll definitely provide lots of examples, documentations and tutorials once it's released

 

I'm an old virtools hand, and still have lots of love for node base visual programming tools. Love strumpy, for this same reason. And super happy someone stepped up where unity itself is lagging (for now).

I've you'r asking for feature request. I would love to have the option to allow the unity real-time shadows to be added on top of an emmisive shader. (already discussing this on an alternate thread). Not just for the project i'm working on now, which is a game without any texture art, just shaders and vertex colors. But for mobile development or when you'r using hand painted textures, not having any lights but still retain the real time hard shadows from a directional is great.

here's an example of what i mean. currently its a a strumnpy shader outputting to emmisive, and realtime shadows would be great. But I don't want it to actually light the scene just map the hard shadows on top of the emmisive.


I've already got some help to achieve this. But in researching this I've found quite a few posts about people who want either a vertex color or unlit shader that still receives shadows. So having the option to do this in your tool would be ( although quite a niche feature), quite useful. Especially for mobile shaders.

cheers and good luck. I'll definitely buy it when it comes out. (I couldn't find it so assuming it still in the pipeline)

 

Please allow the shader setup/graph to be saved in such a manner that the community can build `packs` of shaders to sell on the asset store ;-)

 

thanks for reply.

 

Now that transmission is interesting, it would be cool if you can show some screenshot of transmission light with human head model ( somehow i'm thinking something like UDK skin shading).
and i see that you have reflection vector node, is it possible to generate a shader like this http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VolumetricLightbeamTutorial.html? just curious

 

Transmission is primarily used for thin objects like foliage, sheets of cloth, paper, where light passes through to the other side. There'll be a separate input for SSS, which will have an example with skin rendering

Fake volumetric light like that is absolutely possible!

 

So are you going with TSD or Pre Integrated for skin shaders?

 

Hi,

I'm a 3D artist and for me the better way to develop a visual shader editor is to take inspiration from UDK.
I suggest to support your project with a good number of video tutorials and ready to use shaders.
And update that stuff periodically on a dedicated site.

If you need help for testing and 3D samples, let me know.

Great job.

 

Any idea what ballpark you might price this at yet?

 

Any news/updates on the beta/progress?

 

We'll see! I haven't looked into all the various SSS methods out there yet, but preferably there will be a set of methods you can choose between

Thanks!

Not sure yet, but most likely somewhere in the $50-$100 range! It largely depends on how flexible and powerful the finished product will be.

Not really! I've been dealing with making sure the editor is serializable, as in, survive the assembly reloads when you recompile scripts or hit the play button. I didn't have that in mind when I started working on it, so there has been a ton of refactoring and rewriting code these last few days. There are still a few issues left to fix, but I think I'm almost done with them now

Anyhow, here's an animated mini update:

 

Do you think to support flow maps?

 

Well, yes, you can make shaders that are utilizing flow maps in Shader Forge There will most likely be an example shader with flow maps specifically.
Did you have any specific type of flow shader in mind?

 

This is looking seriously sexy. Great job! My wallet is at the ready

 

Im ready to buy too. Ive been looking for a transparent bumped specular shader with 2 base textures - ill scroll them independently to use for a river. unity has it with 1 base texture and i dont know how to write shaders to create my own. If this is "shaders for dummies" like me it looks like just what i need to create my shader. Keep at it and i'll keep posted for when it gets into the asset store

 

ready to buy +1

 

Something like that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zRdEu0hkKi4

He uses animated flow maps, should be cool the possibility to load a sprite sheet.


Another thing.
I've tried to make this alpha erosion shader with Strumpy, without success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=724ZMiQx200

The problem is in the subtract node, it doesn't work in the same way in Strumpy.
When I animate the shader, looks good in the first part, near the end white color loose power and simply disapper as normal animated alpha.
Maybe this problem can help you to develop your plugin.

Do you think to make optimized mobile shaders? I mean using unlit lighting and similar stuff.


+1 Buy for me if you mantain your promise of a good customers support

 

Let me pay allready!!

 

Here is another cool idea but it might be somewhat complex to implement. Flash has a code snippet library and how it works is for example say you want to make a button go to a URL link. You select the button graphic and go to code snippet and look through the library for "Click to Go to Web Page" snippet code and double click on it which then opens the script editor and applies the action script to the button.

What if you had a similar system? For example if you had a standard default color shader and you wanted to make it have a diffuse texture. All you would have to do is go to node snippet library and drag or double click on the node snippet which would apply it to your default shader. Then if you wanted to add rim lighting to your current shader you just look for the rim lighting node snippet and double click on it to add rim lighting to your shader. Now you have a shader with diffuse texture and rim lighting.
I hope this wasn’t too hard to understand.

 

Sounds a bit like the plans for nested node support!
You'll be able to make a set of nodes and turn them into one. For example, you may have a node setup where you want to do a screen blending mode. Mathematically it's defined as 1-(1-a)(1-b)

Making that node setup would require three OneMinus nodes and one Multiply node:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.                                    iA ---- o-[OneMinus]-i
3.                                   /
4.  o-[OneMinus]-i ----- o-[Multiply]
5.                                   \
6.                                    iB ---- o-[OneMinus]-i
7.  

So then the idea is that you should be able to select all of these, and mark which outputs you want to expose, and turn that into its own node:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.             iA
3.            /
4.  o-[Screen]
5.            \
6.             iB
7.  

I hope it makes sense, I don't have the build here at the moment to give a more clear example
(A set of the default blending modes will most likely be included by default)

 

I understand what your saying. I have used uScripts nested nodes which might be similar to what your saying but uScript nested nodes were extremely helpful when creating your own personal nodes.

 

Hi Acegikmo, I know I asked this before over at Polycount, but any thoughts on being able to make the graph go from right to left rather than left to right?

I know it seems a bit arbitrary but I just don't understand why the graph flows backwards and find it very odd to use that way in Strumpy, Maya (one of the reasons I don't use maya) . and UDK. Is there some logical reason for it to flow backwards?

 

I agree, results on the right please, inputs on the left.

 

powerfull and interesting