What is this Shader Tree thing all about ?
Since its first beta release, GameStart came with an internal abstraction to handle materials (aka shaders). One of the major improvements of the latest release (namely GS Beta 6) is the ability to edit & create a shader with a comprehensive and visual editor.
A basic tree example.
The main benefit of this abstract representation of a shader appears when it comes to port your project & assets to several platforms. No matter its complexity, a shader designed with the Shader Tree editor is fully portable. Each node is basic and independent from any kind of hardware implementation.
As a testbed, and to demonstrate how straightforward and powerful this Shader Tree editor can be, I spent half a day to design random materials. The result is shown below :
A grid of experiments with the shader tree.
Animated Shaders
One of the funny features is a clock node, that allows the user to inject a clock tick inside a shader. Use it to scroll your UV coordinates, to blend colors along time, and so on. Here’s a video capture showing various use of this feature :
The same thing in motion.
Here you are, boys & girls. Feel free to download the source file below, and enjoy !!!