Advanced Unreal Super-Shader

Using the Unreal Development Kit, the SuperShader simulates 3D surface detail using an advanced form of Step Relief Mapping with linear and angular-bias smoothing. It allows for vertex blending two normal and two diffuse four-channel textures. It also allows for vertex blended 'wetness' which uses world coordinates to always flow downward, around the details of the heightmap. The shader can scale down for older/less powerful systems. Future versions of the shader should allow for more vertex effects, cubemap reflection in the 'wet' sections. If you have ideas, please share.

Sorry for the choppy video. The shader runs fine, just the recording software I use does not like Unreal Editor much...

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Unreal
• Shader
• Parallax
• occlusion
• vertex

[appledrum2a]

Any chance you can give us tips? I know about Normal Mapping and Texturing and Have made a set of Texture, Normal and Ambient Occlusion maps but dunno what to do with the Ambient Occlusion and Displacement maps.. O.o

[kazeohin]

@appledrum2a I've played around with AO maps. The best way to implement them is complicated, and requires a custom lighting solution, but I won't get too far into that. Essentially AO maps are designed to give the shader more "pop" in ambient lighting. Ambient Lighting is non-directional, thus normal details don't shine through. Don't over-use the effect, or you get the 'bruised' effect of shaders exhibiting too much contrast in light. Personally, I don't bother with them at all anymore.

[Dskater101]

Compared to dx11 tessellation, how resource heavy is this shader?

[kazeohin]

@Dskater101 : I don't currently have a DX 11 video card, however I can tell you that the shader has 'levels' of power/detail. The highest 'level' is closing in on 200 instructions, however the 'medium' brings it under 120 instructions (whilst still giving a good effect) and all of the 3D bumping can be turned off and just leave the vertex blending with less than 70 instructions per pixel.

[pixphi]

Dislike for non-share.

Have a nice day.

[kazeohin]

@pixphi Nothing would make me happier than sharing my work with the community. However: I'm creating a product; a product that will eventually go for sale. Once that product is for sale, you can feel free to shower yourself in its code like a duck bathing in a fountain.

[Dskater101]

@kazeohin

That is really impressive, do you have any real deadline of when you will release your product?

[DarkKobra0202]

Isn't this the same sort of shader that Crytek used in Crysis to render rocks. If I remember correctly it was extremely resource heavy even for a Nvidia 450 or ATI 5770.

[MidnightSt]

@oliball123 they are used for everything from object materials/textures through environmental effects to just generic effects. the main point being they're able to manipulate 2D image/picture/texture (if we're talking about pixel shaders) like photoshop effects can, and in many many other ways, but in real time.

[icannotfly]

if it's possible to instance geometry on other geometry, you might want to look into adding locusts into this system =D

[hatefuIIkat]

at first I thought it looked below average, worse than bump mapping even, but that was before you modified depth and it looked much more defined.

[AVoiceUnkownOriginal]

Dude that's amazing, good work!

[AngusSG1962]

PERFECT !!!!!!! Great job !!!!

[Travisabyss]

@ThaFunkster100

Erm, no, that's not a steep slope parallax mapping demonstration, it's just a cube with a texture, normal map, and reflection, if you are using parallax, then #1. It's a poor demonstration and #2. It's a lot of wasted resources on something that could easily be done with a normal map instead.

[TheDardanius]

howdy

how did u just create tesselation with bumpmapping depth?

[mckseal]

@MotherRussiasSon

I have seen this in flight sims, to give a 3d effect to the top of clouds in: Rise of Flight, DCS series, Lock on series.

[MotherRussiasSon]

actuallu you cant use this in game cose it is very heavy