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Question by KAYUMIY · Jun 12, 2016 at 10:13 PM · shader writing

Why do I need to write shaders in unity3d?

I watched a tutorial which is Unite 2015 - Writing Shaders. Yilmaz Kiymaz (Nordeus) explains the basics of shaders, how they work and how they're written.

However, I don't have any idea why I have to write shaders? What is point in writing shaders myself? Why do I need to write shaders in unity3d?

I need clear clarification about it.

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avatar image Le-Pampelmuse · Jun 12, 2016 at 11:30 PM 2
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You don't need to write any shaders if you are happy with the functionalities of the included shaders, community provided shaders or asset store paid shader packs.

If at some point you want to have a shader do a specific task, that is not available in all above shaders, you will have to write your own one. Custom lighting, like tanoshimi said, for example.

If you are a beginner, following some tutorials, making some games for the sake of learning it, you will not need any knowledge in writing shaders or how they work.

About 85% (I estimate) of games made with Unity ("Indie" games like slender clones included) don't use custom shaders except the unity-included shaders.

If you want to make a game that is based on custom visual effects and art, it could be time to look into it.

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Answer by tanoshimi · Jun 12, 2016 at 10:17 PM

Shaders are the parts of your program that run on your graphics card and draw pixels to the screen. Without them, you wouldn't have any graphics.

Unity comes with some built-in shaders and you can use them if you only want basic materials. As you start to develop custom lighting models or special effects, you'll probably want to write your own however.

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