Is it possible to create a transparent (empty) Texture2D that hides other textures under it?

Question

I have a health gauge that has a sharp 45 degree angle. Basically I need someway to have an area on the screen under which other textures become invisible, but the alpha texture is still see-through.

I already tried rotating groups, etc. It works fine on normal GUI.matrix, but I have changed it so all of my other textures would scale nicely under every resolution.

How do I make the transparent hider texture? Or maybe there is some other approach?

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by tanoshimi · Jun 23, 2014 at 07:34 PM

This should work - assuming that your red "pointy-ended" object is drawn with a transparent shader (and therefore in the transparent queue), then create a new material using this shader and put it on the transparent object that you want to use to mask it.

 Shader "Mask" {
     SubShader {
         Tags {
             "Queue" = "Transparent-1" // Needs to be in a queue *before* the thing that you want to mask
             "IgnoreProjector" = "True"
         }
         Pass {
             Cull Back
             Blend Zero One
             Lighting Off 
             CGPROGRAM
             #include "UnityCG.cginc"
             #pragma vertex vert
             #pragma fragment frag
             v2f_img vert (appdata_base v)
             {
                    v2f_img o;
                    o.pos = mul(UNITY_MATRIX_MVP, v.vertex);
                    return o;
             }
             fixed4 frag (v2f_img IN) : COLOR
             {
                 return fixed4(0,0,0,0);
             }
             ENDCG
         }
     }
 }

alt text

untitled.jpg (52.6 kB)

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PhoenixBlackReal · Jun 23, 2014 at 07:49 PM 0

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This all seems to do exactly what is needed, but I'm new to shaders and obviously I have to go through a lot of tutorials, but, if you could spare another moment, maybe you can explain step by step on how to draw and assign all and overall use this? I draw my textures on screen using OnGUI(), how do I draw them with the shader attached, etc. I'm sorry, must sound as a complete empty-head.

meat5000 ♦ · Jun 23, 2014 at 07:52 PM 0

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Not at all. I'm $hyt at shaders too. Its a completely different kettle of fish to what you've encountered so far. Don't beat yourself up, this is an advanced topic :P

@tanoshimi, did you say the Texture mask I posted would require pro?

(off-topic: P$$anonymous$$d you some info on forum)

PhoenixBlackReal · Jun 24, 2014 at 10:14 AM 0

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I somehow managed to make it work right this morning, thank you so much! I mean really, where else would you find a community so supportive and full of such fine people, thank you all! ^w^

PhoenixBlackReal · Jun 24, 2014 at 10:41 AM 0

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How do I draw these textures on the screen so neatly?

Xtro · Jun 24, 2014 at 02:25 PM 0

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"How do I draw these textures on the screen so neatly?"

This is a separate question but the answer is... select the texture, set the type to GUI in inspector and click apply

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Is it possible to create a transparent (empty) Texture2D that hides other textures under it?

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