Planar reflections probe component for Unity's Built-in Render Pipeline

Repo: https://github.com/eldskald/planar-reflections-unity

Video: https://youtu.be/w84-l3IEhXM

#reflection #vfx #reflectionprobe

How to make particles follow a path

https://youtu.be/hiyv9vZAOvA

#particles #vfx

Procedural Generation with Cellular Automata

A CPU-based approach to procedurally generate cave-like structures. Looks like it can be rewritten with compute shader as an improvement, but don't forget to profile tho if you end up using this or similar algorithm, CPU-based can be absolutely fine performance-wise in your case. And hell of a lot easier to debug.

https://bronsonzgeb.com/index.php/2022/01/30/procedural-generation-with-cellular-automata/

#pcg #generation #cellularautomata

Protobuf In C# .NET – Performance Comparisons

Series about protobuf. My latest blog post with talks from Unite contains the advice about using binary data serialization if native Unity formats are not suitable for your project. So in such cases you can consider protobuf.

https://dotnetcoretutorials.com/2022/01/18/protobuf-in-c-net-part-4-performance-comparisons/

#serialization #protobuf

DynamicResolutionSample: A simple, game usable noscript to drive Unity's dynamic resolution implementation.

Dynamic resolution is a technique for scaling render targets to reduce the number of pixels being processed to adapt to GPU performance concerns. It works by allocating the target resources at full resolution and then aliasing scaled versions over the same memory, which is very lightweight on the platforms/graphics APIs where it's supported. The final present target is unscaled so an upscale blit will always have to happen somewhere in the pipeline before that point.

https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/DynamicResolutionSample

#dynamicresolution #gpu #optimization

18 months of game programming interviews postmortem

One of the best posts in r/gamedev. Three-year old, but became even more relevant due to the global remote work trend, so more and more people got the chance to work in AAA companies.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/9n847g/18_months_of_game_programming_interviews/

#interview #career

How bad are small triangles on GPU and why?

Small triangles are bad for performance. Kinda old post, but still holds true. Keep in mind the vertex density when creating LODs for your meshes, most likely you don't need a lot of different LODs wasting memory and reducing performance. And of course don't forget about imposters for distant objects.

https://www.g-truc.net/post-0662.html

#gpu #rendering #performance

An open source mesh slicer framework for Unity3D Game Engine. Written in C#.

Slice any convex Mesh using a Plane

https://github.com/DavidArayan/ezy-slice

#meshcutter #slicer

Impossible Geometry with Stencils in Unity URP

I have recently discovered a game called Moncage, that heavily uses this technique. For me it looked really interesting and innovative, but maybe I just play too little puzzles. Good breakdown of the effect anyway.

https://danielilett.com/2022-01-05-tut5-22-impossible-geom-stencils/

#stencil #rendering

Unity package to track a hand in realtime. 60 FPS hand detection. 3D Bones world detection

Requires an iPhone with Lidar support. Looks pretty awesome, not so long ago there was stuff like Leap Motion to detect hands and it had even lower accuracy, now it is available to a lot bigger audience.

https://github.com/ogoguel/realtimehand

#xr #ar #tracking

Profiler Extensibility.

Gives the ability to extend the Unity Profiler with custom data and visualisation in order to better measure the performance characteristics of your app. Profiler counters allow you to track the key metrics of an app and make them visible in the Unity Profiler or in other code. This is useful if you want to track performance changes in your application, and it speeds up the investigation of performance issues.
Looks like it could make automatic performance analysis easier with custom tools.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/profiler-extensibility.1119613/#post-7768908

#editortool #profiler

Breakdown of the impact frame effect

A high-level breakdown of the effect. Can be used as a starting point if you want to implement it in your game. Or if you learn shaders, it is a good task to figure out yourself given all the keywords to search step-by-step.

https://twitter.com/Raph_iuk/status/1490762063722995718

#vfx #shader #impactvfx

Shader tips and tricks

https://interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2022/01/22/shader-tips-and-tricks/

#shader #tips

Custom Hierarchy for Unity editor

Looks like can be helpful for big hierarchies, especially during a prototype phase when you can make a lot of changes in your scenes rapidly. Everyone had this issue many times when you miss the game object when reparenting manually. But carefully consider the performance. I used to have tools that looked awesome on a sample project, but significantly loaded the editor when working with big ones. I believe the stuttering editor is a lot worse than having no plugins at all.

https://www.febucci.com/2020/10/custom-hierarchy-for-unity/

#editortool #treeview

Behind the Pretty Frames: God of War

Research of rendering in God of War, including snow deformation and post processing. Also a good list of related videos and readings in the end if you would like to dive into it even more.

www.mamoniem.com/behind-the-pretty-frames-god-of-war/

#rendering #deformation

NativeMemoryArray — A library that takes full advantage of the .NET 6 API to handle huge data of over 2GB

Also supports .NET Standard 2.0/2.1, so can be used in Unity

https://neuecc.medium.com/nativememoryarray-a-library-that-takes-full-advantage-of-the-net-31a2fa61b01

#native #memory #array

Tool that lets you design your own procedural dungeons, with only 5 objects, and it's free.

Video: https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/spens7/ive_made_a_tool_that_lets_you_design_your_own/

Asset store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/213225

#pcg #procedural #generation #dungeon

Stencil Portal in Unity — VFX Breakdown

Portal effect using stencil buffer. A render texture can be used for similar effect, but the author claims stencil variant is faster.

https://shahriyarshahrabi.medium.com/stencil-portal-in-unity-vfx-breakdown-3dd76b60ad07

Repo: https://github.com/IRCSS/Unity-Stencil-Portal

#stencil #shader #vfx #portal

The safest way to use DOTS in your MonoBehaviour project

https://coffeebraingames.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/the-safest-way-to-use-dots-in-your-monobehaviour-project/

#dots #burst #jobs #jobsystem

It begins with light: The definitive guide to the High Definition Render Pipeline

https://blog.unity.com/technology/it-begins-with-light-the-definitive-guide-to-the-high-definition-render-pipeline

#hdrp #rendering