UBER - Standard Shader Ultra

I saw people using snow feature for this purpose - you can set snow dissolve/normalmap + color to green.

AFAIK 5.5.0p3 works fine with UBER 1.2. But in your case it looks like some script's missing upon package import. Did you imported 2 subpackages in right order ?

Tom

 

Hi, yeah thats what im using just now and it looks ok but would look much better if i could use a texture instead of the green colour though, any chance of you maybe adding a different setup in a future version for if you want to create moss instead of snow ?

 

I had imported the packages in the correct order so I'm not sure what happened there but I went ahead and installed 5.5.0p3 and that solved the issue. Thank you!

 

In future versions - probably .

Tom

 

I really need to use Wrinkle Maps on my character and there is a shader (The Blacksmith: Wrinkle Map) on the asset store. Can Uber support that shader?

 

Uber is shader itself. If you need wrinkle on your character simply use this shader instead of Uber's.

Tom

 

Hi Tom,
I got your package and discovered an issue with your point-light shadow collector pass (UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation). It misses the bias term which add shadows acne to any custom shadow filters. I believe you completely removed it because point light shadows adds an extra hardcoded bias when sampling shadows. While this works fine for standard shadows, looks wrong as soon as you go larger than 4 samplers per fragment. If you look closely when Unity collect shadows they also add "unity_LightShadowBias.x" to it (for that reason).
I got a package on the asset store called NGSS that does custom shadows filtering (PCSS and PCF) and it doesn't look correct with point light shadows because there's no bias.
I've however fixed your UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation, here's the fix:
Look for the line 625:

Code (CSharp):

1. return UnityEncodeCubeShadowDepth((length(i.vec)+rayLength) * _LightPositionRange.w);

And replace it by this one:

Code (CSharp):

1. return UnityEncodeCubeShadowDepth((length(i.vec)+rayLength + unity_LightShadowBias.x) * _LightPositionRange.w);

Then re-import the folder UBER/Shaders.
It will be awesome if you can look to it, everyone using NGSS and UBER can't use point-light shadows right now.
Regards,

 

Thank you for expertise on this. Indeed I forgot to add bias factors when implemented shadow casting with POM Z-write functionality... I'm adding your fix to the next release of UBER.

Looks like great work. I'd be esp. interested in filtering directional light (being able to reduce shadowmap resolution). How your filtering pass ("shadow collector") would compare to regular Unity PCF filter performance ? (i.e. comparing to this soft 5x5 kernal with optimized 9 taps basing on hardware bilinear shadowmap comparison tex fetch).

Tom

 

Awesome,
Regarding performance on NGSS, if you are not GPU bandwidth bound it's quite similar, if your game is quite graphically driven then it will depends by the number of point light shadows frankly. The game we are working on does around 450-550 fps on a 1060 GPU with a regular CPU with 3 spot shadows and 3 point shadows visible at the same time plus some other standard screen effects (TAA, color correction, bloom, HDR, etc). Like any modern game mind you.
For the technique I'm using, it's a pseudo Monte-Carlo algorithm, I'm currently doing random stabilized rotated raycasting kernel sampling (this reduces aliasing and banding) with 25 taps (not 5x5 though) + hardware bilinear filtering for spot/directional shadows (should look fine though with 9taps + hardware filtering as long as the penumbra is small to avoid large banding). For point light shadows just 25 taps without any hardware filtering cause Unity does not provide any way to access depthcubemaps/cubemap hardware filtering (although I'm experimenting right now doing manual filtering to see if I can reduce the number of taps). Upcoming NGSS version will provide a set of 4 versions (9, 16, 25 and 48 taps). If you want to know more about upcoming updates, head to NGSS thread page3 (don't want to pollute yours with my product). ^^
PS: Btw, we are using UBER on our commercial game, really nice framework.

 

Hi Tomas !!!

I have the following problem and do not fix it

I compile my project and when it finishes compiling it I get this error by console:

The compiled project seems to work fine but I do not know if this will give me some unexpected bug.

How can I fix this error?

In other previous compilations Unity did not generate this error, but without knowing why it has started to happen.

My version of Unity is 5.3.5

regards

 

It only refers to dx9 which is limited to 16 texture resources (and samplers can't be reused like in dx11). For dx9 you would need to use less features in UBER. You can exclude dx9 platform from build in player settings.

Tom

 

ok. Thanks

 

Is it possible to add water over a whole mesh (it's raining) when I'm also using a detail mask? It seems like i can only get water on the unmasked area.

Thanks

 

It's probably matter of configuring vertex color cahnnels in shader code. Look at selected shader code. Right after properties block there is bunch of #define - they are commented. You can select which vertex color channel controls detail masking, wetness, snow, droplets, etc. Maybe detail/wetness uses the same channel in the shader.

Tom

 

I have a Problem with the rendering of multiple Transparent Objects behind each other. If i have A window for example, other Transparent Obects behind this window disappear when using the uber refraction core shader. Is there a way to avoid this? The Standard shader also seems to work with multiple transparent Objects.
Of course it could also be due to the 5.6 beta, since i also get a "GL.End requires material.SetPass before!" error when i click on the transparent Objects in the editor. (Of course i don't expect you to fix this before the final 5.6 but i thought it might be helpful to know, and if there is a fix, i would love to know it
Oh and also is it possible to render the backfaces of Transparent Objects?

Thank you

 

Refraction relies on grabpass which is making a copy of target color buffer each time new mesh is drawn. It might be an issue that objects are not correctly sorted for rendering or Unity changed something. However - I've never tried to make multiple refraction objects stacked... If you don't refer to refraction, but simply to transparent objects - order problem is also critical. Might be something changed in Unity5.6 indeed (multiple transparent stacked objects were working in UBER). I'll check this.

For two sided materials you would need to use 2 sided UBER shader variants - would be most easy way to achieve it with proper lighting for backfaces (non 2 sided objects has default culling, you would need to add "Cull Off" in forward and add pass and handle backfaces with VFACE semantics for proper lighting treatment).

Tom

 

Hi Tom, thanks for the detailed information. Yes i was referring to refraction. I couldn't find a 2 sided refraction variant (which is what i'm looking for.) Is there the possibility to use 2 sided and refraction at the same time?

 

It is possible to prepare such shader, but there is still no guarantee Unity with grabpass will work for multiple stacked draws.

To prepare refraction shader with 2 sided variant you need to adjust 4 places in shader code. First open and copy 2sided shader you need. Then in this shader we need to change this:

1. Find #define _REFRACTION
Uncomment it

2.Find "REFR"="Off"
change to "On"

3. Find GrabPass { }
Uncomment it

4.Find this:

Code (csharp):

1. #pragma shader_feature _ _ALPHATEST_ON _ALPHABLEND_ON _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON
2. // transparency turned on permanently for refraction shader
3. //#define _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON
4. //#pragma shader_feature _CHROMATIC_ABERRATION

and change to this:

Code (csharp):

1. //#pragma shader_feature _ _ALPHATEST_ON _ALPHABLEND_ON _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON
2. // transparency turned on permanently for refraction shader
3. #define _ALPHAPREMULTIPLY_ON
4. #pragma shader_feature _CHROMATIC_ABERRATION

Save shader for recompilation. You can optionally uncomment first pass to write into depth (and remove overdrawn artifacts for convex meshes.

Tom

 

Hi, I just updated Uber, and during import of Examples package, I see it contains Cinematic Effects (BETA). Is this required?

 

@Deckard_89 No, you can use uber with or without any post fx.

 

Used for example scene showcase only.

 

@tomaszek @chelnok Ok, thanks guys.

 

I have this strange issue with Translucency with Deferred rendering.

I have a scene setup with using the Uber shader and apply the Translucency effect.

My problem is as follows, when I first start the game I get the following results:



But this is not the results I am looking for, I adjusted them in editor and everything is fine, but if I disable and re-enable the UBER_Deferred Params script on camera WHEN the game is running, it gives me the results I want:



(I am talking about the ceiling light, and the lamp on the desk)

Any ideas how to fix this, with out disabling and re-enabling the component??

 

It's not clear to me if you have tried this in a build yet. I would do that. It could be that there is a Unity bug related to the editor.

 

Yes I have tested a build, same issue

 

Hello,

Im getting an error after build (empty scene), and i think its also hanging the build (when populated).

Errors are:

Shader error in 'UBER - Specular Setup/ Core': invalid subscript 'xyw' at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc(656) (on d3d9)

Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Core': invalid subscript 'xyw' at Assets/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc(656) (on d3d9)

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

Hello,
I would like to achieve a realistic curtain shader and would like your opinion and advice on how to do it!
I'd like to get the effects one can see on this image:
1 - The curtain must have some transparency
2 - The light coming from outside is reflected on the curtains (white tint on the left and right wall)
3 - The light coming from outside pass through the curtain and is 'coulred' by it (red tint on the roof wall)

Is it possible to mimic those 3 points with a shader...and what would be the needed components/steps involved?

Thanks a lot!

 

Need halp!

When I reimport the shaders everything is ok but when i'm trying to make a build i have these errors

Code (CSharp):

1. Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/Refraction/Two Layers': invalid subscript 'xyw' at Assets/_Plugins/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc(656) (on d3d9)
2.  
3. Compiling Vertex program with SHADOWS_DEPTH LOD_FADE_CROSSFADE
4. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING SHADER_API_DESKTOP
5.  
6.  
7. Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Triplanar Selective': invalid subscript 'xyw' at Assets/_Plugins/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc(656) (on d3d9)
8.  
9. Compiling Vertex program with SHADOWS_CUBE LOD_FADE_CROSSFADE
10. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING SHADER_API_DESKTOP
11.  
12.  
13. Shader error in 'UBER - Metallic Setup/ Core': invalid subscript 'xyw' at Assets/_Plugins/UBER/Shaders/Includes/UBER_StandardShadow_Tessellation.cginc(656) (on d3d9)
14.  
15. Compiling Vertex program with SHADOWS_DEPTH LOD_FADE_CROSSFADE
16. Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING SHADER_API_DESKTOP

how can i fix them ?

 

Theoretical question: is it possible to create shader that uses curvature (pointiness) of mesh geometry as mask to blend additional effects/layers? In blender this curvature/pointiness property is very useful in my metal materials to use as mask for roughness/grunge/dust/paint/whatever layers (all done via nodes; user side of that is friendly - only sliders). I've seen that in Lumion3D - it is possible in realtime, but this is different 3D engine... in Unity I've only this but it is offline and based on baking texture masks...

Will be really cool to see that in Uber shaders (maybe additional branch...)!

 

Sorry for delays, somehow forum didn't gave me notifications on queued posts here...

Seems like something clears global texture needed for translucency setup in deferred (Unity itself, 3rd party package?). But as you found how to make it working again - I believe it's enough for you to call disable/enable functions from my script on your level start to rebuild this data ?

Just tested UBER1.2 on U5.5.0p3 making a build from my example scene and it works on both dx9 (forcing d3d9 on build exe start) and on dx11. Which package version do you use ? as problematic line is related to LOD_FADING I see it's compiled using multicompile_keyword which means -everything is included in build, but not necesarilly in scene. That's why it works in editor and not in build. As I said - I can't reproduce it on my example scene build, but maybe your case is more specific ? Can you skip dx9 ? It's quickly decaying target platform. You could try to make build with manual target in player settings - uncheck automatic and remove dx9. Then try to rebuild.

Might be doable but not with single shader. It's showcase of though global illumination...Curtains you can manage with translucent shader, but setup lights for such scene wouldn't be trivial. Red on the ceiling would need to be solved by separate light placed in scene I guess. Reflections - it's pure GI case, out of shader scope. You'd need some kind of mask on wall near the curtain and transmit there some lighting conditionaly.

I'm affraid it's not on UBER roadmap. Would greately increase shader complexity. I know artists would like to have full freedom, always, not having to bake anything. But this is a dream that can't come true overnight .

Tom

 

@tomaszek
I removed Dx9 in player settings and left only Dx11/ now it works / hooray ✨
i mean i can make a build without errors

 

Hi Tom a little UBER question this time

With Unity 5.3 or 5.4 there was the option added to get Smoothness out of Albedo Alpha or Metallic Alpha





I now own a Asset which comes without metallic maps and uses this options to get Smoothness for the Materials.
What is the correct approach if I use UBER Shader with Dynamic Snow effect for this materials? Uber only comes with Specular or Metallic setup but the materials don't have such a specular or metallic map.
If I use Specular setup the Materials look really bad because of wrong smoothness / gloss. By changing it to metallic they look better until they get the water specular / gloss effect. After that they also look not good.

What the author suggested and what I did right now was always using Uber Metallic Dynamic Snow Shader for the material and adding the Albedo map of the material also to the Metallic Slot. With this "workaround" the material looks better with dynamic water / wet effect and it seems that the smoothness is right.

Anyway I just wanted to ask if this solution is intented or there is a better approuch.

Best regards
Ronny

 

Hello

Just a quick check here if the Uber 1.2b is for Unity 5.5 and above as I’m using Unity 5.4.3 and I can’t download it. I can only dl Uber 1.1c ?

ty Jixzer

 

Yes, 1.2 was built for U5.5 (where Unity introduced a lot of rendering pipeline changes)

Tom

 

It's not configurable at this stage, so suggestion of reusing albedo map somewhere else is fine as far as you can accept it. Other option (but that might take some work if you use a lot of tezxtures) is using channekl mixer tool from UBER and prepare textures the way you need it.

 

I've got a question.. Maybe the solution is simpler than I think. I've setup Uber on a current project of mine. However I have 2 issues.

1: Ambient GI (Environmental Lighting) only shows within the occlusion mask I am using for Translucency. Is it possible to have Ambient GI the entire model while having translucency only affect the areas i want?

2: I have my models all under a parent Object while I scale upwards to (30,30,30). Because of how Unity's shadows work, this gives me really good quality accurate shadows (which is vital for this project). However, this creates an issue with Uber. At a scale of (8,8,8) my occlusion map works perfectly. at any scale larger than 8, It diminishes into nothing.

On the Left is the higher scale. For some reason the ear is eclipsed by something (i've checked my mesh and it isn't an object because it is eclipsed regardless of light position.) On the right you see that that eclipse is gone and there is a crisp cast shadow cutting off the Translucency due to the back of the head casting a shadow on the ear.

I can fix this issue by increasing the 'Suppress Shadows' slider but then that gets rid of the cast shadows which is not realistic. And realism is the goal with my project.

http://imgur.com/KU9S6CJ (apparently i cannot embed this image for some reason)

I'm using deferred and dx9 on linear. Can this be fixed or am I out of luck?


EDIT: With further experimentation, it appears that BIAS on the directional light does change the size of the eclipse - perhaps it IS due to object shadowing?? IF i turn the bias all the way down to 0, it is eclipsed regardless of the scale of the objects. Having low bias is essential though, since i want as accurate shadows as possible.

 

1. Maybe occlusion and translucency get values from the same channels (of map or vertex color), bu t it's configurable. Open shader used and look at section after properties - CGINCLUDE...ENDCG There are plenty of configuration #defines.

2. I'm not sure how scaling objects could improve shadow quality, anyway in U5.5 we've got reversed float depth buffer which makes shadows a lot better. What I see on the left image looks like ear casts shadow on itself. On the top of UBER shader material inspector you can select shadow caster culling and we can select missing variant for front culling (triangles facing back the light direction will get included in shadow caster rendering). I found it useful for translucent objects.

There are no more options that come to my mind to help you.

Tom

 

@tomaszek Do you know if anyone has attempted to use the Uber shaders with the HoloLens? I've hear Unity's Standard shader creates performance issues on the HoloLens, thus I was wondering if you did any optimizations that they might not have?

 

Thanks tom. Are you planning to add this feature any time soon? Got another Asset with the same workflow and using albedo maps in metallic slot really look weird for this one. So right now I am not using UBER shader for it only standard shader.

Cheers
Ronny

 

@RonnyDance maybe my Channel Packer can be useful..
take a look here: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/channel-packer-pack-your-maps-in-a-textures-image-channels.456057/

 

UBER is something on the top of Standard Shader. You can try, but I wouldn't expect more for less (I mean UBER can more so it's not supposed to cost less). The problem with HoloLens might be something very specific to Standard Shader alone so you can check it though - Standard Shader is generaly well optimized adn UBER adds only a tiny bit of overhead unless you'd like to use some more expensive features like POM or snow (plan to make it faster in next bigger updates, much faster).

Tom

 

is there a as decal shader option? i saw a very good one in the rome fantasy pack. including pom and vertex/alpha blending. i don´t want to buy the whole pack. since i purchased the uber shader i was wondering if it is capable doing something similar.

 

Currently you might try with forward geom blend shaders shipped with UBER. You could stick some geometry (your decal) to existing one and blend edges using alpha channel of decal mesh vertex color.

Tom

 

Hi,

There is a standard specular material that requires a Specular Alpha source setting. I want to convert it to use Uber, but in the specular setup in Uber, I don't see the Specular Alpha source option.

Am I overlooking a setting, or maybe this feature is not supported?

Please see below of a screenshot of Unity Standard Specular.

Thanks

 

See my question and toms answer some posts above. It's exactly your Usecase with the difference I asked about Albedo Alpha and Metallic Alpha.

 

Hi,
I'm trying to make an extrusion shader, using a transparent PNG as albedo and the same PNG for extrusion (I CAN'T prepare an extrusion image for each logo I'm using)
...without success!
As one can see on the picture the extruded logo seams clipped to the shape boundaries (front view) + 'missing parts' on the rear view!
What am I please missing or doing wrong?
What are the steps involved in creating a nice extruded logo shader?

Thanks very much!

 

Have you followed the way I did it on my example scene ? Look at extrusion object there. You define only flat surface of "front face". When you name mesh sepcial way (like is described in my docs and you can follow the rule looking at name of mesh in my example scene) UBER mesh importer will process mesh to be usable with extrusion shader - it brings object volume along extrusion.

Tom

 

tomas,
Thanks very much for your reply!
I've started again, directly from the example file, simply changing the albedo and extrusion map sources (and adapting tiling/offset option to scale down the logo)
As you can see on picture (blue frame) there's a problem with part of the extrusion being masked!

I began to understand that it was related to the 'UV clip' option. Once this option is unchecked I can see that the part being masked corresponds to another (tiled) occurrence of the logo.

What can be done to ensure that a single logo instance will perfectly display without this "mask"?

Thanks very much!

 

At this point the way UBER realizes UV Clip isn't suitable for the usecase you've got. To solve the issue you'd need to split your extruded logo into 2 meshes - one regular with sidewalls and 2nd placed on top/bottom (if needed) surface to realise extrusion. Correct clipping, although possible at shader level won't be effective and introducing sidewall mesh will be simply faster. Extrusion still you can use to add depth to logo interrior - for example to extrude "Alladin" letters

Tom

 

Tomas,
Thanks again for the reply and for trying to help me the best you can!
When you say "one regular with sidewalls" you mean a mesh with the shape of the logo?
If the answer is yes, this is what I have to avoid (thousands of PNG files to display on screen...and more to come) and the reason why I try to get to the same (approximative) result with a shader!
Unfortunately, it appears that I won't be able to achieve this...thanks again for your kind help!

PS: one last think I'm thinking of: is this possible to manage spaces between tiles? If that was possible I wouldn't surely get the "mask" of the neighbour tiles !?