[Best Tool Asset Store Award] Amplify Shader Editor - Node-based Shader Creation Tool

Today I cooked up a small shader for a city level and thought I would share it with you.

The LED Sign Shader takes the Alpha channel as the animation "curve" (I separated them here for convenience) and an extra texture for the LED effects (red = gutter, green = noise, blue = vignette).

Spoiler: Textures

 

@Amplify_RnD_Rick any chance to support 5.5? since it on RC right now.

 

Hi,
So today I'm submitting an update for MegaSplat, my splat mapping system that lets you paint and blend up to 256 different textures across meshes (unlike the regular technique, which only allows 4 or 8 at a time). In this update are several nodes for Amplify, allowing you to use the technique within ASE.
I also submitted a few nodes to Amplify, which I hear are coming in the next patch. Here's a video about the patch, with the nodes for ASE being covered in the middle section of the video.

 

Are all the required nodes coming with ASE, or we find some of them inside MegaSplat and some in ASE?

 

@kebrus Thanks a lot, mate!
Got it working!

Now I gotta work on the mask image to make it smooth.

 

http://amplify.pt/unity/amplify-shader-editor/samples/

just wondering are those the community samples so far?

 

The MegaSplat specific nodes are included with MegaSplat; I did, however, add some nodes to ASE that are more generic and they will ship with their latest update (Mainly, a way to send data from the vertex shader to fragment shader, and exposing texcoord2 and texcoord3).

 

Yes, those are the included community, and some internally developed, samples. There are a few other examples included in the sample package made by the ASE developers. Were you looking for a specific shader? We would be happy to add your request to our growing library.

Thanks!

 

Yes! It should be available soon.

Thanks!

 

I'm dying to get a sprite outline shader.
If you managed to do it, that would be AWESOME.

 

If you look into what the default sprite is doing you can mimick the behavior and even use unity's default outline sprite, you just have to match the names and calculation.

Regardless of that here's an example on how you could do it yourself, works in masked mode as well. I did some extra steps to make sure the sprite doesn't get a fringe when the distance is zero like unity does. It should give you an idea on how to do it.

 

Hello everyone,

I'm considering buying a shader editor and I'm hesitating between Shader Forge and This one.

What I need to do is manga shaders, non photoreal stuff where I control the falloff of the light on the surface as well as the shadow coloration. One of the thing I'd like to do is remaking Unitychan in a shader editor so I can add features (I'm too slow at writing HLSL code).

What is your experience in doing non photoreal shaders, what are the limitations that'd prevent from redoing this particular shader and ... can I change the mip level on the fly? I use this a lot in conjunction with unity's reflection probes to simulate global illumination.

How would you folks do tranlucency, light scattering through solid medium like skin or leaves?

Does it have a toggle to turn an object into faceted the one that turns off interpolation between facet vertex normals? Don't remember the HLSL codeword for it, was very useful to get the low-fi look without re-authoring assets.

Cheers.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your interest, we really appreciate it. The Amplify Shader Editor, although already very flexible and complete, is currently limited to Surface Shaders without support for custom lighting models. You might have a hard time recreating the shaders you mentioned via email using only Surface Shaders. I recommend waiting for a few more updates or, if you are time constrained, definitely look into an alternative.

We don't have a lot of experience with non-photoreal shaders, perhaps our users can contribute to this question. Regarding the MIP level, we currently do not provide a way to control it directly. ASE does offer full source code, you can always customize it to your own requirements.

We offer a sample that you might find useful:

Translucency:
Through this port you can create an approximation of translucency ( DICE model ) which can be used to achieve sub surface scattering effects ( Skin, Marble,etc. ).

Unfortunately, not at the moment.

Be sure to let us know if you have any additional questions, we would be happy to elaborate.

 

Hi,

I've a litlle problem with 2 of my shaders the first one is about a transparent shader for droplets on a window. If I set my directionnal in realtime it works perfectly but I have no need for that, baked is fine. But when I do that the light doesn't pass through the geometry like in realtime mode.



For the second one, it's a multi passes shader wich works perfectly on a Unity quad but not on my mesh (both are static and illuminated by a realtime and baked light to test)

 

I did a quick test on the first one and it seems to work fine for me, I put a unity standard transparent shader side by side with one created in the editor and did a bake, both seemed to do the exact same thing as far as bake goes.

For the second, try editing your mesh, duplicate and invert their normal, then turn on culling and try baking again. My guess, and looking at your image, is that your normals aren't correct.

[edit] for the second one, does it only happens when baking?

 

Did you set your directionnal light in baked mode ? Look at my result : (left -> my shader & right : standard mat)



For the second one. I did something that gave me a decent result with a realtime light (still black in baked mode). I know it's definitely not the way to do it but I have not idea how to reconstruct a normal for the back. I tried with a COLOR 128-128-255 but no good result :/



And thanks for your help btw

 

Full source is good but it means each iteration I'd have to reintegrate the changes.
Can these things you suggest using the source be done by writing a node?
For example adding Mip control by using UNITY_SAMPLE_TEXCUBE_LOD instead of UNITY_SAMPLE_TEXCUBE? And worldreflection instead of eye reflection?
Or are these things which are not supported by the core of ASE yet.

Regarding the flattening of model, the eyword in hlsl is nointerpolation and the syntax is nointerpolation float4 color : COLOR3; How would I add that to the core of ASE and add a toggle?

The DICE model is the one that needs a texture for thickness?

 

Hello,

Correction: You can control the MIP Level in the latest ASE version. Our developers work faster than I can type

​

Actual editor alterations would require you to integrate our changes but, for most cases, you will only need to create your own separate node scripts. We recommend waiting for the upcoming documentation before diving into advanced development. I will send you additional information regarding model flattening as soon as possible.

That's the one. The texture is optional, you can use other values if necessary.

Let us know if you have any other questions, we would be happy to help.

 

Thanks. It works like a charm, except it doesn't accept a much thicker outline.

 

Yeah thats the problem of using that technique, you can use higher values but you'll start seeing the duplicated images, the best you can do there is using even more duplicates in other axis. Also the effects depends on the sprite mesh so if you have that sprite on a custom sprite packer that creates tight meshes around the sprite to save space you start seeing the outline hitting the edge of the mesh, the solution that is to increase the margin of the sprite packer

if you want a really crazy solution with crazy outline detail and crazy outline thickness you should check "distance fields". That requires an extra image and a pre-processor script that generates the distance fields offline, that barely has anything to do with the editor tho.

 

Well I just caved in and bought it while its still good deal price, though I loathe that unity never bothered to add a native shader editor.. at least this one is still in development and hopefully the roadmap achieves everything one could possibly want in a node shader editor eventually.

As for the samples I thought there would be more (all the xamples I can get really I don't do shaders so everything is good.. also an example on how you go about using this dithering node.. or how you've used it in this ...
https://media.giphy.com/media/l0HlR6hnXhtt5wxRS/source.gif

looking at the site it looks like the samples are a manually added thing and not really built to support a user accounts/ user submitted ase shaders into categories or anything. It would be nice though.

A better glass shader example with refraction would be good aswel like this one.. https://docs.unrealengine.com/lates...aterials/MaterialInputs/RefractionNetwork.png

yeh not working 5.5 annoyingly i just removed 5.4 last week but have installed it again to try this out

I think an account system on the website would be good, if not only for a better user submitted shader area, but also so don't have to put in the order number everytime to get latest beta and is there a place on the site to see all previous change logs? like the ones you have post on this thread in a central location and not over multiple pages back to find.

some bugs.. undo doesn't seem to refresh the last value.. ie adjust a float (which is property), undo, the float number changes back, but the new result won't take effect until you manually adjust the float using slider or enter in number again.

also having 'the automatic save shader when canvas is changed'.. with that turned on (it was also on for the above), and you make slider changes to say again a float (that also is a property).. it interrupts/pauses the smoothness alot as if it was a constant and needing the shader to be compiled to see changes.

the drag adjust value slider has some hit/miss positioning, zoomed into the canvas a lot and it seems very small pixel area near the value where it will change cursor.. and zoomed out. well the area probably should be a bit bigger considering you can barely see the numbers anymore in the canvas. I think it would be nicer if the adjusted values got shown in a larger font while adjusting them if you are zoomed out that much for convenience anyway.

also this error in the default examples "Shader error in 'ASESampleShaders/SnowAccum': Too many texture interpolators would be used for ForwardBase pass (11 out of max 10) at line 22"

the connecting lines.. you can't just select them (maybe they get highlighted yellow like when adding nodepoint to them) and delete them (rmb context sensitive menu with delete item would be nice) it seems minor though.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your purchase, we really appreciate it. You won't be disappointed, we have a lot planned for ASE.

It's a growing collection, there's definitely room for improvement. That sample, and any other missing, will be included in the next update.

It's a great idea, definitely something to consider after the BETA period.

We added it to our list of requested shaders, I will let you know as soon as we get a chance to tackle it.

Are you using the latest version? It's not officially supported yet but I did a few tests today with 5.5 and did not run into any issues. Be sure that you are using version v0.2.5 dev 004(or higher, when available).

There's definitely room for improvement but, unfortunately, we will have to stick with the invoice for now. There's a change log file included in the ASE package, be sure to check it out.

Thank you for letting us know, we are actually rewriting the Undo system

Unfortunately, it's currently the only way to actually write the changes to the shader file. Property changes are instantly visible when the automatic update-save is disabled.

Thank you for pointing it out, we will definitely look into that.

Changing the Shader Model to 4.0 should resolve the problem. I will bring it up to the ASE developer tomorrow.

Definitely something to consider.

Thank you for your feedback!

 

Another small interface-related request: When two nodes are very close to each other, just put them in linear-line mode (no curvy ones). I sometimes get a weird white intersection in the middle if they're too close that stays there throughout all zoom levels.

 

Thanks. Will look into it

 

Good point, the line system needs to be tweaked.

 

Just bought this yesterday, I am a ShaderForge user so found some of the methods confusing at first but now I am used to the interface I much prefer it.

I did have an issue with one of your examples though on the latest beta, the sandpom shader gets rather upset about the customUVs node. The lines connected to that node all point towards the top left of the screen and a message pops up saying "Input Port 6 doesn't exist on node 14".

I'm using the version downloaded this morning directly from your site: 0.2.5 dev 004

Nice work though, loving your interaction with the community!

 

Hello,

Thank you for your purchase, we really appreciate it. What Unity version do you currently use? Can you replicate the issue?

Thanks!

 

Hello everyone!

If you have not already, check out the latest package available in the Amplify Creations products download page area.

Release Notes v0.2.5 dev 004:

• Added Parallax Occlusion Mapping node (uses linear search with customizable samples in conjuntion with interval mapping for refinement of sidewalls)
• Added simple snapping behavior when moving nodes (left-control)
• Fixed background grid image sliding when zooming
• Fixed issue with 'Texcoord Vertex Data' on writing
• Fixed issues with default values of 'Virtual Texture Object'
• Fixed issues when drawing 'Matrix3x3' and 'Matrix4x4' nodes
• Fixed compilation error when creating builds

Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM):
Much like parallax mapping this node lets you create the illusion of depth in a surface, but unlike PM which distorts the texture POM actually occludes correctly and doesn't slide as much when the view direction changes.

Our solution lets you change the number of minimum and maximum samples which are faded by the surface angle and correctly smooths out the final result to reduce artifacts on side walls. It also lets you define a reference plane so you can lower or raise accordingly to the heightmap provided (though we recommend lowering to reduce distortion).

Due to a unity bug in surface shader generation you need to check off "Cast Shadows" in the shader property sidebar. We'll keep you updated as soon as this get's resolved. We intend to improve on this node later when we finally add depth writing so we can then cast shadows and have proper penetrations of other objects. Feel free to add your own suggestions.



Happy shader creations!

 

No problem, and yes, every single time. The shader works until I open it in the editor and then I get the error and it becomes unusable. I have to restart unity to be able to edit other shaders after the corruption happens. Once restarted I can once again use the sandpom shader until I attempt to edit it. Other shaders without the custom variable in it seem to work fine and don't corrupt.

Edit, I'm using unity 5.4.2

Cheers - Trev

 

That POM feature is looking great guys. Much needed feature.

However I'm currently having a really hard time with the main terrain shaders RTP and Ultra in unity 5.5 and im getting fed up with losing so much time.

My question is this. when do you think you will add a terrain node?

 

Bought it! Glad to be part of this because I think it'll go far.

1. love the navigation, zoom on cursor, right drag to pan - so natural
2. the left and right panel must be open no matter the size of the window on the first time the editor is opened! It's confusing to have an empty canvas.
3. when double clicking on a node the node's inspector should appear if it's hidden
4. when dragging a link, all incompatible inputs should gray out
5. when dragging a link close to a compatible input that input should highlight
6. right click search is a bit glitchy:
   • when dragging a name the last selected node moves! Instead have the search window stay on and the name turn into a node, this way you can drag rapidly a series of nodes
   • click on a name closes the search widget and creates the node is the current behavior and it's fine
7. drag a link then click the right mouse button current opens the search node widget which is cool, except it doesn't autolink the selected node and also there is a missed opportunity to highlight only nodes that are compatible with the output you just dragged from.
8. each node should be color coded or have a label of what data goes through them Texture Coordinates and Tiling have nothing
9. alt+right click on a node should being up <EDIT NODE> to edit the c# of the node
10. doesn't support multitouch gestures on mac (two finger drag to pan, two finger pinch to zoom)
11. 5.5... when?
12. hovering above a socket should pop a tooltip, I'd love to know
13. Right click to bring up the search type something and press down arrow should select the topmost item, top arrow, the bottom item, like unity's selector.
14. nullref bug
    Spoiler: console

    NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    AmplifyShaderEditor.ParentNode.DrawProperties () (at Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Nodes/ParentNode.cs:954)
    AmplifyShaderEditor.TextureCoordinatesNode.DrawProperties () (at Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Nodes/Textures/TextureCoordinatesNode.cs:51)
    AmplifyShaderEditor.ParentNode.SafeDrawProperties () (at Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Nodes/ParentNode.cs:941)
    AmplifyShaderEditor.NodeParametersWindow.Draw (Rect parentPosition, AmplifyShaderEditor.ParentNode selectedNode, Vector2 mousePosition, Int32 mouseButtonId) (at Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Menu/NodeParametersWindow.cs:58)
    AmplifyShaderEditorWindow.OnGUI () (at Assets/AmplifyShaderEditor/Plugins/Editor/Menu/AmplifyShaderEditorWindow.cs:2441)
    System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
15. it's weird a graph editor produces invalid shaders...

 

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback, we really appreciate it.

1. Awesome!
2. The tab visibility is currently saved per-shader. If the shader is saved with both tabs closed, it will show up empty next time it's open. For now, we will leave to the user but there is definitely room for improvement.
3. That could work, we will try it out.
4. 5. Maybe something for a later version, the editor is still heavy on development. Have you seen the Debug Mode? P Key to view, Double Tap the P key to enable it; still in development.
6. Nice catch on the move issue, we will take care of it asap. Nodes on the right-click search box are not draggable.
7. Drag a wire with left click and release it on an empty canvas area, the node list pops up and you can select, and auto-connect, a compatible node; no need to right click.
8. Can you provide an example? The Debug Mode might come in handy for that.
9. Good point, it would be great to edit the node directly.
10. I'm not entirely sure if we can support it but we will definitely look into it.
11. Have you had the chance to test the latest version available on our Download Page? Let us know if you encounter any issues, official support is almost ready.
12. Definitely something to consider. We will polish the editor in future versions, as mentioned in 4. and 5., it's still heavy on development.
13. Good point, noted.
14. We could really use additional, reproducible, information in order to debug it.
15. Hopefully we can eliminate most of those issue with future updates. Ideally, a warning should be displayed instead of allowing users to create invalid shaders.

 

Thanks! It shouldn't be too far off, we will definitely post it here as soon as it's ready.

 

Thank you for the additional information, we really appreciate it. Unfortunately, we can't seem to replicate the problem on our side. Can you replicate it on a new empty project using only the Editor and Samples package?

Looking forward to your feedback.

 

With the new version the error disappeared and it works with 5.5. The debug mode is very useful and so is auto-casting. Do you plan on showing a preview of the opeartion per node like in shader forge?
The Light Model input grayed out which is quite the tease, any timeframe?
Also a few nodes are missing and I was wondering when?

1. ambient SH
2. reflection probe
3. light probe SH

 

Hi,

I'm wondering if is it there already a way to switch the emissive in realtime (with HDR Color) or baked mode in the editor ?

 

I too am greatly looking forward to seeing what ASE can do for terrains (seeing as terrains as they are in default Unity are far too outdated to be viable in any way), but for now I am using the excellent asset, Tom's Terrain Shader. While it doesn't have the flexibility that ASE would provide, it's only $10 and is extremely easy to use, unlike RTP (which I also believe to be a great asset, btw). At the end of the day though, Amplify is just doing Unity's work for them.

 

Oh jeez the shader compile times when I did a build on my project.. ended up cancelling the build and removing the amplify samples that were in that project.. I've since setup another project just for to play with this instead

 

Bought, I can't wait to see what you add in Beta 3 and 4! But for me personally, Substance support is a must. It's a big part of my workflow for my projects.

For now I'll work with exported textures or try to see if I can find a workaround

 

A few dev versions ago the samples and the editor were separated to address this issue. If you download the lasted dev version of the editor the only time you have to wait is for the scripts to compile.

 

the latest site version is the one that was in the project, I just removed the sample pack shaders out and left the editor in. Though seeing as I cancelled the compile on it, I do wonder what the total time would have been had I left them.

 

If you don't plan on jacking up the price past $25 in the next 24 hours, you've sold me on it.

 

Hi Ricardo and all the other guys,

I have an issue with the new POM node and the results I get from it.
I get the following results: Left side is my own POM (surface shader derived from an earlier vertex/fragment version), right side is the POM from ASE. On both shaders I'm using the alpha channel of the same texture as the heightmap information but on the ASE shader it seems to be really noisy (which it is but only a little bit and with very smooth blur).

The texture is imported with bilinear filter, repeating wrapping, auto compression and mip maps disabled, but as I said it is the same texture on both shaders. Am I missing a point on the POM node to use the texture as it is and not in that spikey way or is the ASE POM supposed to be that way?
Referring to the example of the forest ground it looks really great but due to the lack of an example inside the package and especially the textures used its hard for me to figure out what the differences are and where to start adjusting things.

Nonetheless, awesome to see this node got put into ASE this fast =). I really appreciate this tool and they way community input is handled.

A small last issue, very special to my case: Could you implement zooming on the canvas using some modifier key and the middle mouse button? I'm using trackballs all of the time and really struggle to zoom on the canvas. Perhaps like in Unitys scene view using Alt + Right mouse button just to keep it as close as possible to the rest of the interface.

Best Regards
Tobias

 

Hi Tobias, I believe that's being caused by your texture.

Here's my attempt:

As you can see, it's a lot smoother. I used the imaged you provided and the sand example in the samples package. The difference tho is that changed the image to have no compression and I ticked the sRGB bypass option in the advance settings. This is because compression gives the final look a jagged result with small plateaus while the sRGB makes the image scale in gamma space which could explain the noise you are seeing on your side. Also keep in mind that you should use the texture sampler with ddx and ddy inputs or else you'll start seeing some strange fringes.

You probably already know but be advised when using the sRGB bypass since it will change the look of the rest of the texture. Maybe the editor could generate its own sRGB bypass and have it as an option for these kind of cases.

 

Will get it done!

Trev

 

You know what would make Amplify pretty sweet? Lots of templates.

 

Hey, I found something really interesting for you. I did manage to reproduce your problem of the bakes and I found out that if you change the names of the color input that you use to multiply your albedo to "Color" which will generate a "_Color" property the bake will take color alpha into consideration and properly let the light get through

Most likely unity surface generation has that property hardcoded into the baking process, I didn't look too much into it but at least it's a way to solve your problem.

[edit] the same thing happens for the albedo texture, use the property name "MainTex" for it to work with the baking system

 

Oh thank you ! It's working perfectly now

 

Good to know...I will make this change right now

 

Has anyone had any luck (if anyone has tried, that is) creating projection shaders? I saw a pretty cool example here, but I'm having some trouble replicating it in ASE.

Also, are there any plans for deferred/gbuffer decal support? Or would this be beyond what ASE is meant to do?