[RFC] Shader Editor

[yaustar]

done

[Nazar_Unloop]

Hi Steven,

Me and my colleague are currently developing a boat simulator in which in some parts of this boat it is necessary to have a mixture of two overlapping materials (one of them with alpha). I don’t know how to write shaders, but I know how to make shaders through nodes. I just found out that your team is developing Shader Editor and I would like to know how I can experiment with making shader nodes on playcanvas.

Thanks,

[yaustar]

@Nazar_Unloop Unfortunately, at the moment, the shader editor is not yet ready to be used with production yet so there isn’t any integration with the Scene Editor.

[Nazar_Unloop]

Thank you for reply. Anyway is it possible in playcanvas blend two materials in one?

Cheers.

[Leonidas]

You can use the detailMap channel to blend e.g. a second diffuse map with the default one.

This setting is not exposed in editor, you can use it in your code. Check the API here:

https://developer.playcanvas.com/en/api/pc.StandardMaterial.html#diffuseDetailMap

[Leonidas]

Check this as well, it may be of help using a custom a shader:

Color to Texture transition

Hi @AnasRahim, Not sure if it can be done without a shader, here is my take by overriding the diffuse chunk: const ColorChange = pc.createScript('colorChange'); // initialize code called once per entity ColorChange.prototype.initialize = function() { const material = this.entity.model.material; material.chunks.diffusePS = 'uniform vec3 material_diffuse;\n'+ 'uniform sampler2D texture_diffuseMap;\n'+ 'uniform float transitionState;\n'+ '\n'+ 'v…

[Nazar_Unloop]

Thank you.
I’ll take a look at this

[Spencer_Lindsay]

@slimbuck this looks super promising. Can we get on the beta as well?

Also, this is WebGL2, correct?

Thank you!

[Adolar13]

I would love to play around with the shader editor as well! Can I get access to the beta as well please?

[somewheresy]

@slimbuck

Hi Everyone!

We’re busy working on a new shader editor for customising materials in PlayCanvas. It is node based and should be familiar to those of you who have experience with node based material editors. Here is a quick screenshot of shader editor:

At launch we plan to support:

• customising material properties like albedo, normal, specular, roughness etc
• have access to surface properties like texture coordinates, position, vertex normal
• sample 2d textures
• support the usual array of math functions
• primarily engine-only workflow with some basic editor support

Post launch we plan to add support for:

• modify vertex offset
• support post-process materials
• add branching and flow control nodes
• in-editor workflow
• modify and customise lighting

Please can you tell us what you most would like to create with a shader editor tool like this in the comments below?

Thanks!

I would love to get access to using the RFC Shader Editor because it would drastically speed up prototyping visual FX / material design for client work [we do a lot of work in AR, most recently, branching into making interactive websites: directory of our work].

I’ve been using PlayCanvas recently to build interactive websites for entertainment industry clients, and the current GLSL implementations are great but a bit time consuming to develop when on “music industry deadlines”. Ultimately having a node-based editor would allow us to bring in more folks to work on these projects who may not have low-level shader code knowledge. This ends up being the most time consuming part of our dev cycle behind designing mechanics, but unlike abstracting game mechanic components often times it’s not practical for us to do so with many of the shaders we make since they only really work “in context” if they’re not basic templates for something common (water, etc.)

Hoping to get access to the open beta!

[yaustar]

I’ve DM’ed you

[somewheresy]

Hey yaustar,

Thanks for giving me access to this! Been excited about it for months.

In the event I find a bug or have a suggestion, where should I report it to? Want to make sure I’m as useful as possible here

[yaustar]

Post in the thread that I linked to in the DM please

[IMDesigns]

Hi Yaustar, can we have access to the open beta? We would love to try and see how we can improve our experiences!

[maungers]

Hi Steven! Can I get access to the beta please?

[Francisco_Bozzo]

I’d also like to get access to the beta if possible!

[hearsepileup]

Ooop, I would love access to this too - at the moment I’m struggling quite a bit with hooking into playcanvas to modify materials on compilation. If there was any way to insert arbitrary shader code using the new system it would be greatly helpful to me!

[Oleg.Gogolev]

Hello! Can i get access to beta shader editor?

[Robotpencil]

Access please! Thanks!

[AnasRahim]

Can I also get access to this project for beta testing?
Thank You