TemplBeamProc Shader
Overview
The TemplBeamProc Shader can be used to create very cheap fog light beam effects.
Create a 3D object with a back plane and 4 intersecting planes like this:
Create a texture (all faces share UVs) with the following contents:
It is only gray scale and has no alpha.
The TemplBeamProc Shader can handle fading out rendering faces, that are in a certain angle to the camera. It's best to use sub-materials for the different parts, because you can control the angle of visibility.
So the back plane gets 1 sub-material and the other planes get 1 sub-material.
These are the settings for the shader:
Description
- Although the shader doesn't seem to produce shadows, check the "no shadow" option to make sure.
- The opacity must be set to 100% - the shader itself controls the opacity and you have enough control due to diffuse color, diffuse multiplier, etc.
- With the diffuse color you can set the color and brightness of your light beams. It is suggested to not use only 1 RGB channel, in order to get good results (avoid 255,0,0 and similar stuff). Always try to give every channel at least a small percentage.
- Use the texture with no alpha and gray scale as diffuse.
- The shader params give you control over the blending but also the render size of the beam.
Shader Params | Description |
|---|---|
ColorMultiplier | Increase/decrease brightness and blending. |
EndColor | Set the end color for gradient. |
EndRadius | Set the radius (in meters) of the effect at the end of the object. |
Length | Adjust the scaling of the rendered effect (like scaling of the actual mesh). |
OriginalLength | Scaling factor. If length and original length are the same, the object has scale of 100%. |
OriginalWidth | Same as above. |
Soft intersection factor | Controls softness of surface interaction with other opaque scene geometry. |
StartColor | Set the start color for gradient. |
StartRadius | Set the radius (in meters) of the effect at the start of the object. |
View dependency factor | Controls the blending in and out depending on the facing angle to the camera. |
Shader Gen Options | Description |
|---|---|
Noise map | Gives a nice motion to the beams but cannot be controlled by any parameters. |
Muzzleflash | Option to be used for muzzle flash. |
Final Results
Left: looking straight – until – Right: looking from bottom.
This effect is very cheap. Between 1 and 2 drawcalls, depending on how you set it up. Please make sure that this is only the fog light effect – a light still has to be placed.