Johannesburg Shader Bash - 16 May 2015
Hey all!
Myself and @Asbestos has organised this Saturday to meet up at the Microsoft office to work on some stuff, we're going to try and figure out how the Ludum Dare shaders I posted elsewhere works in Unity, if it does at all :P
When: From 12:00 16 May 2015
Where: Microsoft Campus Bryanston, 3012 William Nicol Drive, Bryanston, Johannesburg
RSVP: PM @Asbestos your name and phone number
12 noon at Microsoft Office on William Nicol
16 May Saturday
(If you're joining, please PM @Asbestos your name and phone number, but nothing stops you from just dropping in. It's just better for logistics.)
We will likely be playtesting each other's stuff too :) Come for free coffee and good company, experience exchange :)
Cool :)
Myself and @Asbestos has organised this Saturday to meet up at the Microsoft office to work on some stuff, we're going to try and figure out how the Ludum Dare shaders I posted elsewhere works in Unity, if it does at all :P
When: From 12:00 16 May 2015
Where: Microsoft Campus Bryanston, 3012 William Nicol Drive, Bryanston, Johannesburg
RSVP: PM @Asbestos your name and phone number
12 noon at Microsoft Office on William Nicol
16 May Saturday
(If you're joining, please PM @Asbestos your name and phone number, but nothing stops you from just dropping in. It's just better for logistics.)
We will likely be playtesting each other's stuff too :) Come for free coffee and good company, experience exchange :)
Cool :)
Comments
We need more people like you organising these sorts of things - keep up the good work!
Also I really still want to try and get to a level of understanding. Have to admit I still am blind as star-nosed moles around the whole shader thing :(
Thankfully there are some online tutorials and introductions regarding the GLSL shader language.
nehe.gamedev.net/article/glsl_an_introduction/25007/ is one of my favorites.
Their text on the shader language packs a brief but thorough introductory punch for me.
So for my ease of reference I'm posting some links here, regarding resources that I found useful in making Tri-planar and Grass Billboard shaders.
To start with, Unity provides methods for making three kinds of Custom shaders.
docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ShadersOverview.html
The vertex shader pipeline
The Vertex/Fragment shader type has a section called Vertex shading... during which the shader will determine the position of each vertex passed. This is done through a pipeline of transforms and it helps to know what these transforms are, and in which order they occur.
So we can read this link for details on that... en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cg_Programming/Vertex_Transformations
Billboard shaders
The same page also explains how to make a billboard shader with good sample code...
en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cg_Programming/Unity/Billboards
Tri-planar shaders
These are great for texturing large masses with awkward angles... Like a hill with rocks on the sides and grass on top... This following link was a great simple example of how to do this (though it doesn't include light and shadow, just texturing)
gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/53478/how-to-do-triplanar-texturing
And this is an alternative explanation of the idea behind tri-planar shaders.
gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/use-tri-planar-texture-mapping-for-better-terrain--gamedev-13821
Se ya'll later :)
I feel like I was fiddling with unknown forces before...
Today I feel like I actually know a bit more and the walkthrough on the projector was very eye opening!
And thanks to @Elyaradine for providing a breakthrough link that helped tons: http://t.co/xpn5zRZr4p
Here's what came out of my bash today... I call it Memories of a Broken Spelunky (it's a character controller's demo scene) :D
was an awesome day thanks for organising it.
i suggest we do something every week. it will keep our minds fresh and who knows what will come out if, maybe a GAME!
rock on peeps!
(though I *do* think the original one was cooler :P )
Speaking of doing this (or stuff like this) regularly, I think on the one hand I agree, weekly will be great, but on the other hand I don't think weekly is sustainable for most people, and people will run out of steam. So we can talk about it and see what everyone feels, but we shouldn't start with *that* much pressure :)
What does everyone else think? Do YOU (you, yes you reading this, whoever you are) want a weekly meetup where we fiddle with gamedev stuff?
I also think every week will be exhausting.
- I'm happy with once a month on a sunday
maybe twice a month at most.
I prefer Sundays. Because Saturdays I have to give the gardener the day off to make it, or otherwise show up really late... But I don't require or hope for special consideration. Whatever is comfortable for most. :)
The scene is in in:
Assets/2D-CharacterController_Prime31/Assets/CharacterController2D/Demo
The shader's on a script on the main camera.
Also, thanks for sharing your files :)