Replacement for the BasicMaterial in the engine 2.0.0

mvaligursky · July 19, 2024, 3:52pm

This is under the consideration for the engine 2.0.0. Please voice your opinions:

Remove BasicMaterial and allow better ways to create custom shaders using ShaderMaterial

opened 03:49PM - 19 Jul 24 UTC

feature request area: graphics V2

# Current status BasicMaterial is a simple engine-provided material with the …following key aspects: - it generates low cost shader which supports skinning, morphing, vertex colors and a single texture with fog and picker compatibility - it does not support lighting and does not provide a way to add a simple lighting, nor it provides a way for users to customize the generated shader - does not support VSM shadows https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/issues/3298 - internally the engine and the Editor only use it to render lines, which is trivial to replace: https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/pull/6834 # Plan for engine 2.0.0 The plan is to remove BasicMaterial from the engine. There are two replacement paths, one existing and one which will require some further work. ## StandardMaterial StandardMaterial can be used as a complete replacement, when using emissive texture slot with vertex format. It handles all features of the BasicMaterial (and many more), and generates code with very similar / same performance. It is exposed in the Editor inspector / Editor workflow. This should be the main replacement path for users not requiring custom modification. ## ShaderMaterial This is an under development material / shader system allowing users to use custom shaders, by providing a custom shader source code, which the engine implements or helps user to implement additional features. Main features / unfinished work: - [x] internally, the shader code processing in the engine now supports `#include` pragma, allowing an existing shader chunks to be included in the custom shaders. Currently this is used to allow user to easily handle gamma / tone-mapping and fog. - [x] support for handling of render passes was added here https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/pull/6831 - [ ] support for (semi)automatic shader support with skinning and morphing should be added - [ ] easier support to handle shadow and picker pass needs to be added, using `#include` - [ ] support by the batching - [ ] write an engine example demonstrating a most the these features When this is done, it will give users an option to create a custom look shader, which can be skinned, which will handle tone-mapping and fog and many other features, opening a way for custom looking applications (targeting mostly non-photorealistic games here) I look forward to a feedback here.