Beginner's Guide to Unity Shader Graph

Discover how shaders can enhance your game and mesmerize players by making graphic gameplay elements more realistic and attractive. This book provides easy-to-follow recipes that will show you how to leverage the Unity Shader Graph to create more immersive, enjoyable games.

Author Álvaro Alda takes you through each effect step by step, so that you gain a foundational understanding of how they are created using the Shader Graph tool. Practical projects help you put what you’re learning into context, from simple effects like 3D scan lines to more complicated effects such as black holes, bubble particles, water, and even interactive snow. Twelve different effects are demonstrated, to cover almost everything related to shader graph.

On completing this book, you will have a thorough understanding of the Shader Graph tool and samples to replicate and continue learning from. Whether you are an indie game developer or technical artist, Beginner's Guide to Unity Shader Graph will give you the confidence to use the Shader Graph tool to create games that will keep players glued to their screens.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* Understand the purpose and use of every node and function in Shader Graph
* Gain a working knowledge of the mathematics needed to use the fragment and vertex shaders
* Create complex effects with Shader Graph using post processing and taking full advantage of the URP of the Unity 3D engine
* Develop procedural textures using mathematical nodes in Shader Graph

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR

Technical artists, indie developers, and game developers with little to no knowledge of shaders, but who have basic knowledge of Unity. As the Shader Graph in Unity is similar to other shader editors like Amplify, Blender material nodes and Unreal shaders, this book can be used as reference when working with other platforms and game engines different from Unity. ÁLVARO ALDA is a game developer with over 4 years of experience currently working for Popcore, a pioneer German hypercasual game company. He has also worked at LabCave, a Spanish mobile game company. In his spare time, he likes to work on personal projects, which has led to release of his three games, one of them appearing on national Spanish television. He has also created tools for developers and artists for videogames. Chapter 0: Unity Set Up and Guidelines

Chapter 1: Introduction to Shaders

Sub -Topics:

•What is a shader?

•Vertex and fragment shader

•Working spaces (world, object, view, tangent)

•Light in URP

•Create your first shader in URP

Chapter 2: Shader Graph Editor

Sub -Topics:

•Master nodes Connecting nodes

•Properties

•Connecting nodes•Subshader

Chapter 3: Noise

Sub -Topics:

•What is a procedural noise?

•Noise samples (Simple, Gradient, Voronoi)

•Dissolve effect

Chapter 4: Movement and Time Control

Sub -Topics:

•Scanlines 3D

•UI transition

Chapter 5: SciFi Shaders

Sub -Topics:

•Hologram effect•SciFi shield

Chapter 6: Scene Depth

Sub -Topics:

•Water Shader

•Acid Shader

•Ice refraction

•Black hole

Chapter 7: Vertex Deformation

Sub -Topics:

•Bubbles

•Snow deformation

•Stroke Effects

Chapter 8: PBR MaterialsSub -Topics:

•What is PBR?

•Lava Effect

Chapter 9: Bonus Effects

Sub -Topics:

•Retro particles

•Interactive Snow•Toon shader

Appendix A: Maths Review

Sub -Topics:

•Trigonometry

•Vector mathematics

•Matrix and algebra

Appendix B: Shader Graph Nodes

Sub -Topics:

•Coordinate nodes.

•Mathematic operation nodes (add, subtract, multiply...)

•Restrictive nodes (clamp, frac)

•Master nodes (position, base color, normals, smoothness)

•Custom functions•Mix nodes (blend, lerp)

•Color nodes (color, gradient, etc.)