• Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
  • Asset Store
  • Get Unity

UNITY ACCOUNT

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account
  • Blog
  • Forums
  • Answers
  • Evangelists
  • User Groups
  • Beta Program
  • Advisory Panel

Navigation

  • Home
  • Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
    • Blog
    • Forums
    • Answers
    • Evangelists
    • User Groups
    • Beta Program
    • Advisory Panel

Unity account

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account

Language

  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
    • Default
    • Help Room
    • META
    • Moderators
    • Topics
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Badges
  • Home /
  • Help Room /
avatar image
0
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.

Comment
Add comment · Show 8
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image Le-Pampelmuse · Jun 12, 2016 at 11:30 PM 2
Share

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.

avatar image Zitoox Le-Pampelmuse · Jun 13, 2016 at 12:01 AM 0
Share

Le Pampelmuse have you actually made a game?

avatar image Le-Pampelmuse Zitoox · Jun 13, 2016 at 01:40 AM 1
Share

I started with Android, making some simple tools for my phone (Didn't release them because they were for my personal use). After that I began working on some pc projects.

Why do you ask?

Show more comments
avatar image Le-Pampelmuse Zitoox · Jun 20, 2016 at 09:38 PM 1
Share

Sorry for replying so delayed, I was out of the country for a week.

I wouldn't say I know a lot of things about making games. ^^

But the topics I need to know, I try to know well.

For example I was fighting with the unity tree leaves shaders because they weren't casting full shadows, so I learned about basic shader program$$anonymous$$g and was able to edit them so I get shadows from every light.

But I don't know anything about networking or working with $$anonymous$$ac OS, or creating a custom lighting engine.

Also I make my own models, but I don't know how to rig them efficiently so I use mecanim to do it for me.

I have a background as musician, so I know about audio and what is important when creating atmosphere. But I don't know how to create nice textures by hand, so I get reference textures from the internet, which I try to imitate as best as I can.

It's a road of slow progressive improvement, because I work alone and need to learn techniques the same time I use them.

I forget basic stuff too, regularily. That's normal xD

Good luck on your way too! And remember to always have fun in what you're doing ;)

avatar image tanoshimi Le-Pampelmuse · Jun 13, 2016 at 06:00 PM 0
Share

Just curious what data your "85% use inbuilt shaders" estimate is based on? I can't imagine finishing a game using only the supplied shaders! .

avatar image Le-Pampelmuse tanoshimi · Jun 20, 2016 at 09:44 PM 1
Share

Like I said, I'ts a just an estimate ;) I base it on absolutely nothing.

When I think of the hundreds of indie horror games alone, for example.

All the slender clones, the cheap-jumpscare-haunted-house games.

All use the same unity tree without any variation as a forest, and they certainly don't make use of anything custom. It's mostly the user's first published project, so there naturally are some limitations.

Watching Youtube Let's Plays can be very frustrating sometimes. :P

I can't imagine doing without my item outline shader as well!

Show more comments

1 Reply

· Add your reply
  • Sort: 
avatar image
0
Best Answer

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.

Comment
Add comment · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users

Your answer

Hint: You can notify a user about this post by typing @username

Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 524.3 kB each and 1.0 MB total.

Welcome to Unity Answers

If you’re new to Unity Answers, please check our User Guide to help you navigate through our website and refer to our FAQ for more information.

Before posting, make sure to check out our Knowledge Base for commonly asked Unity questions.

Check our Moderator Guidelines if you’re a new moderator and want to work together in an effort to improve Unity Answers and support our users.

Follow this Question

Answers Answers and Comments

7 People are following this question.

avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image

Related Questions

Simple "Render on Top of Everything" Shader? 1 Answer

How Do i achieve a glowing edge shader like this 0 Answers

UI Mask dont aliasing children images 0 Answers

Explain me this light-shader please 0 Answers

_Time in Image Effects 0 Answers


Enterprise
Social Q&A

Social
Subscribe on YouTube social-youtube Follow on LinkedIn social-linkedin Follow on Twitter social-twitter Follow on Facebook social-facebook Follow on Instagram social-instagram

Footer

  • Purchase
    • Products
    • Subscription
    • Asset Store
    • Unity Gear
    • Resellers
  • Education
    • Students
    • Educators
    • Certification
    • Learn
    • Center of Excellence
  • Download
    • Unity
    • Beta Program
  • Unity Labs
    • Labs
    • Publications
  • Resources
    • Learn platform
    • Community
    • Documentation
    • Unity QA
    • FAQ
    • Services Status
    • Connect
  • About Unity
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Affiliates
    • Security
Copyright © 2020 Unity Technologies
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Cookies Settings
"Unity", Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Anonymous
  • Sign in
  • Create
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
  • Default
  • Help Room
  • META
  • Moderators
  • Explore
  • Topics
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Badges