NovaShader

NOVA Shader: Uber shader for Particle System

Docs (English, 日本語) | Samples (English, 日本語) | Demo (English, 日本語)

NOVA Shader is a multi-functional shader for the Particle System that supports Universal Render Pipeline (URP). General-purpose functions commonly used in visual effects are implemented so you can create high-quality effects efficiently.

Author: @Ugokashiya

It implements some distinctive features like Flow Map, Flip-Book (sequential texture animation), Dissolve, Fade, Rotation, Animated Tint Map, Emission, Distortion, and so on.

Features

For more information, please refer to the following documents, Samples and Demo.

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Requirements
    • Install
• Usage
  • Add Renderer Feature
  • Activate Depth Texture
  • Create and assign the Material
• Uber Unlit Shader
  • Render Settings
  • Vertex Deformation
  • Base Map
  • Tint Color
  • Flow Map
  • Parallax Map
  • Color Correction
  • Alpha Transition
  • Emission
  • Transparency
• Uber Lit Shader
  • Render Settings
  • Surface Maps
• Distortion Shader
  • Render Settings
  • Distortion
  • Flow Mapping
  • Alpha Transition
  • Transparency
• Uber Unlit/Lit shaders( for uGUI )
• Abort Shadow Caster
• Use with the Custom Vertex Streams
  • Set up the Custom Data
  • Set up the Custom Vertex Streams
  • Set up the Material Property
• Use Mesh GPU Instancing
  • Enable Mesh GPU Instancing
  • Set up the Custom Vertex Streams
• Automatic set up the Custom Vertex Streams.
  • Fix Now
• Remove Unused Parameter References
• Reducing Memory Usage with Optimized Shaders
  • OptimizedShaderGenerator.Generate()
  • OptimizedShaderGenerator.Replace()
  • Sample Code
• Editor APIs Reference
• Licenses

Setup

Requirements

This library is compatible with the following environments.

• Unity 2022.3 LTS or higher
• Universal Render Pipeline
• Shader Model 3.5

Note that Shader Model 4.5 is required to use Mesh GPU Instancing. And also, if you want to use Mirror Sampling, your hardware needs to support Inline Sampler States. And if you are using 3D Texture or 2D Texture Array, the compression format must support them.

And this document assumes that you have already set up the Universal Render Pipeline. For more information about the Universal Render Pipeline, please refer to the Unity Manual

Install

To install the software, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Package Manager from Window > Package Manager
2. "+" button > Add package from git URL
3. Enter the following
   • https://github.com/CyberAgentGameEntertainment/NovaShader.git?path=/Assets/Nova

Or, open Packages/manifest.json and add the following to the dependencies block.

{
    "dependencies": {
        "jp.co.cyberagent.nova": "https://github.com/CyberAgentGameEntertainment/NovaShader.git?path=/Assets/Nova"
    }
}

If you want to set the target version, write as follows.

• https://github.com/CyberAgentGameEntertainment/NovaShader.git?path=/Assets/Nova#1.0.0

Note that if you get a message like No 'git' executable was found. Please install Git on your system and restart Unity, you will need to set up Git on your machine.

To update the version, rewrite the version as described above.
If you don't want to specify a version, you can also update the version by editing the hash of this library in the package-lock.json file.

{
  "dependencies": {
      "jp.co.cyberagent.nova": {
      "version": "https://github.com/CyberAgentGameEntertainment/NovaShader.git?path=/Assets/Nova",
      "depth": 0,
      "source": "git",
      "dependencies": {},
      "hash": "..."
    }
  }
}

Usage

Add Renderer Feature

First, set up the Renderer Feature to apply Distortion. Click Add Renderer Feature > Screen Space Distortion from the bottom of the Inspector of the ForwardRendererData asset.

Add Screen Space Distortion

Confirm that Screen Space Distortion has been added as shown below.

Screen Space Distortion

Note
This setting is not necessary if you do not use the Distortion Shader.

Activate Depth Texture

Next, activate Depth Texture to use the Soft Particles or Depth Fade features. Check Depth Texture in the UniversalRenderPipelineAsset Inspector.

Depth Texture

Depth Texture setting is also found in each Camera, so set it as necessary.

Note
This setting is not necessary if neither Soft Particles nor Depth Fade is used.

Create and assign the Material

Next, create a material with the Nova shader. Create a material and set the shader to Nova/Particles/UberUnlit and assign a texture to the Base Map.

Material

After creating a Particle System and assigning this material, you will see particles with the specified texture.

Particle

For more information on each shader and each function, see the sections below.

Uber Unlit Shader

The Uber Unlit shader is a multifunctional shader with no lighting applied. Use this shader for particles that do not need lighting, such as glowing effects.

To use this shader, assign the Nova/Particles/UberUnlit shader to your material. The following is the description of each property that can be set from the Inspector.

Render Settings

The Render Settings control how the Material is rendered.

Render Settings

Vertex Deformation

With Vertex Deformation, you can control the deformation of vertices.

Vertex Deformation

Base Map

Base Map controls the base color texture and its settings.

Base Map