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Question by RealMTG · Nov 06, 2014 at 09:42 PM · shadershadowsinvisible

Unity 5 invisible shadow caster shader

Hi!

I need a shader that allows a object to be invisible but still cast shadows. I found a few shaders but I can not get them to work in Unity 5. So if anyone knows how it can be made, please tell me!

Thanks in advance

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Answer by maxwellzietz · Apr 07, 2015 at 12:31 AM

Unity 5 MeshRenderer->Cast Shadows can be set to On,Off,2 sided or Shadows Only. Use Shadows Only.

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avatar image RogDolos · Oct 01, 2015 at 08:51 AM 0
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The $$anonymous$$eshRenderer->Cast Shadow option added more recently may be the most efficient method, but it's worth noting it does affect the entire mesh and not per material.

One example where per material is useful is for a full-body awareness situation where you might want to hide a character's various body parts but they are all part of the same mesh separated by different UVs / $$anonymous$$aterials.

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Answer by RogDolos · Nov 10, 2014 at 12:45 PM

I'm no shader guru, but here's a workaround. Basically it's a transparent / alpha shader, using addshadow. Note it needs a fallback that casts a shadow, as per this post by Aras: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/fallback-off-turns-off-shadows-in-surface-shader.257430/#post-1703672

If anyone wants to improve on this, feel free.

 Shader "Invisible/InvisibleShadowCaster" {
     SubShader {
         Tags { 
             "Queue"="Transparent"
             "RenderType"="Transparent" 
         }
         CGPROGRAM
         #pragma surface surf Lambert alpha addshadow
 
         struct Input {
             float nothing; // Just a dummy because surf expects something
         };
 
         void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) {
             o.Alpha = 0;
         }
         ENDCG
     } 
     FallBack "Diffuse"
 }
 
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avatar image leewalkergm · Oct 04, 2016 at 07:38 PM 0
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This worked for me, unity 5.x

avatar image pointcache · Dec 03, 2017 at 06:29 PM 0
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Amazing, works in deferred

avatar image bilalakil · Sep 14, 2018 at 01:35 AM 0
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I needed two sided shadow-only shading for mobile, and this worked out of the box (just replace FallBack "Diffuse" with FallBack "$$anonymous$$obile/Diffuse", and use Two Sided shadows from the renderer). Thanks for this awesome solution!

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