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Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:38 am
by Tiddan
Hi. Attached is a screenshot of WIP shader for hologram models.

Sometimes I see hologram shaders that are semi-transparent but you cannot see the complexity on the other side of the model even though their faces are front-facing.

This guy (https://forum.unity.com/threads/transpa ... ts.149511/) has solved the same problem in ShaderLab code but how can I achieve this same effect using ASE?

Sorry for probably a pretty basic question.

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:31 pm
by Ricardo Teixeira
Tiddan wrote:Hi. Attached is a screenshot of WIP shader for hologram models.

Sometimes I see hologram shaders that are semi-transparent but you cannot see the complexity on the other side of the model even though their faces are front-facing.

This guy (https://forum.unity.com/threads/transpa ... ts.149511/) has solved the same problem in ShaderLab code but how can I achieve this same effect using ASE?

Sorry for probably a pretty basic question.


Hello,

Thank you for getting in touch, we would be happy to help. The overlapping transparency result is expected, you will have to add additional code in order to mitigate the problem. Having a shader that fills in the depth buffer before rendering transparency might be enough to resolve the issue.

Try adding the following after "SubShader {"

Pass {
ZWrite On
ColorMask 0
}

Unfortunately, ASE currently does not offer you any options to create multi-pass shaders, you will have to alter the actual generated file. Please keep in mind that any code changes made to the shader file will be discarded when saving the shader in ASE.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:44 pm
by Tiddan
Thanks Ricardo for your response.
So are there any plans to support multiple passes in ASE in the future? It seems like all similar editors have this limitation. I must admit I hate these kind of workarounds where you have to remember to edit the autogenerated code - but in this case I would miss the benefits from ASE too much to stop using it :)
Hope you work out a solution for this in the future.


No problem, happy to help. Indeed, it's a troublesome limitation given the way shaders are generated. In any case, it should be possible to do this kind of effects with ASE in upcoming versions, we are working on a viable solution.

Thanks!

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 12:00 am
by Tiddan
Hi again Ricardo.

Is there any development on this issue resolved in newest version? It would be awesome to avoid altering the produced script all the time. If making this effect is possible without using multiple passes it would be even better! :)

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 6:37 pm
by Ricardo Teixeira
Tiddan wrote:Hi again Ricardo.

Is there any development on this issue resolved in newest version? It would be awesome to avoid altering the produced script all the time. If making this effect is possible without using multiple passes it would be even better! :)


Hello,

Apologies for the lack of updates in regards to that specific request, we have been a bit overloaded lately.

Not so much an issue, it's really the lack of multi-pass support that's preventing you from creating that specific effect. Keep an eye out for updates, multi-pass support is not far off. Unfortunately, Unity has specific transparency related issues that prevent us from offering a possible workaround for the problem.

Thanks!

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:37 pm
by Bitterman
Very sad to see this hasn't been fixed yet. It seems very convoluted. In Shader Forge, it's just one button press(select additive). Will be going back to SF for the foreseeable future....

Re: Hologram Shader and how to hide faces behind

PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:35 am
by Amplify_Borba
Hello, thank you for getting in touch!

Since the last post on this topic, ASE has been through a considerable amount of updates, including the addition of new parameters such as the 'Extra Depth Pass', which should help achieve effects such as this one without having to manually edit the shader code:

Image

Image

Please let us know if this helps, we take all feedback to heart and it has been pivotal in the development of ASE.