{"id":582,"date":"2011-01-18T06:54:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T06:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrofra.com\/wordpress\/?p=582"},"modified":"2011-01-18T06:54:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T06:54:11","slug":"gamestart3d-an-introduction-to-the-shader-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrofra.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/01\/18\/gamestart3d-an-introduction-to-the-shader-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"GameStart3D : an introduction to the Shader Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is this Shader Tree thing all about ?<\/h2>\n
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Since its first beta release, GameStart came with an internal abstraction to handle materials (aka shaders<\/em>). 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.<\/p>\n


\nA basic tree example.<\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 :<\/p>\n


\nA grid of experiments with the shader tree.<\/div>\n

Animated Shaders<\/h2>\n
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One of the funny features is a clock<\/em> 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 :<\/p>\n