Recently, I started fiddling around with the depth texture of the camera and came across some interesting discoveries. Of course, those discoveries would probably be pretty obvious to any other shader enthusiast, but for me it was something new and exciting. My favorite element of camera depth texture usage is the fact that you get …
Back again with some more bits of code for your shader needs! This time, we’ll see how to get the distance of the camera from our object, as well as the vectors that corresponds to the viewing direction and the model’s normals. Like before, this post will include the code bits for both vertex-fragment and …
Debuting a new post series that will hopefully feature more posts in the future, tonight I just wanted to mention some quick tips that could be really useful for lots of use cases! This time, we’ll see how to get an object’s position in world and screen space, for both vertex-fragment and surface shaders. So …
I recently came across a very interesting GDC talk by Matt Nava on some of the tricks used in the art of ABZÛ, and I was really fascinated by it. Not because it featured anything super-complex and amazingly innovative, but because it featured some great ways technical art was used to solve problems. And those problems …
I always loved the look of a nice glitch effect in games. For a while now, I’ve been researching different implementations of glitch effects in various media, because I just could not wrap my head around how it’s done. The reason for that, is that in many cases it was implemented differently, and it was …
I’m still staying on the subject of manipulating UV coordinates to produce shapes and effects, and this time, I’m throwing a known concept in the mix: displacement. This shader is also going to be pretty simple, but it’s going to be a stepping stone for some of the future effects. Hopefully, it will also help …
It may seem silly, but when I first started working on image effects, I could not wrap my head around something as simple as stripes on a shader. I started by messing around with the color of the whole image and I couldn’t really think of how to use the coordinates of the screen to …
Before I got into shaders, I used to think that I had a good amount of insight for the techniques used in video games, and that I could think of how somebody would approach an effect or a mechanic. However, for a long time I just could not put my finger on how somebody would …
On July 7th-9th, the Prometheus Game Jam was organized in the town of Lavrio. This jam was also a competition, with prizes for the 3 best games, as well as commendations for 4 or 5 categories. I’ll get this out of the way quickly: we didn’t win anything. The reasons (that I believe were responsible) …
Moving once again outside the scope of image effects, today I have a very special shader for you. I hope you have heard of the game “Antichamber” at some point in your life. It’s a game that has one purpose: to mess with your mind. And it does so successfully. Probably one of the most …