A different kind of cel shader

[Lyons Den]

Dude, that is awesome. Thank you for the the examples. It will help out a ton!

[Antidamage]

Bump because of big edit.

[Antidamage]

That shader looks awesome! I'd definitely be interested in it, if you decide to upload it.
A new video of the current version of your level would be nice too. It seems like you've added lots of new stuff in the meantime.

So the cel shader node graph is still a bit of a mess but here's a look. The cel shader is applied as a global post-processing effect. Check Shaders/CelShader/CelShaderDesert for values you can adjust. They're also not entirely fathomable because the shader is pretty complicated, but try adjusting them and see what each change does. Some of the values should be hard-coded so I'll do this in a later version. The undo key is your friend.

The components of the shader are broken down into groups:
Cel Detail draws fine lines using edge detection on the final scene render target.
Cel Outline draws heavy lines using edge detection on the depth layer.
Shadow Shading uses the AO layer to create a posterization effect.

There are several other effects included in this shader such as fog tinting, depth blur and other things that I needed to happen at specific stages in the render pipeline.

Because the cel shader uses edge detection, the best way to control if lines are drawn inside your objects is by modifying their texture. You can reduce lines by blurring/de-contrasting your texture. The benefit of this over cel lines baked into the texture is that the level of detail will increase and the cel shading will change as you get closer, giving you as much detail as you'll ever need. Likewise as you pull away, fine details will no longer be shaded. This just happens with no extra effort. You can also do things like apply falloff to different aspects of the cel shader at different distances, eg. Fine detail near, heavy lines far.

Edit: I just discovered the migrate function. That's really cool. Here's a much smaller package that you can apply to any of the content examples. This one has been tuned for the new Hang-glider Landscape content example.

Download: (Took the link down, going to add some more improvements)

To use it, drag the files into the content folder, add a post-process object, set it to unbound and add a misc->blendable asset. Select "CelShaderWinter". (Example here)

Before:


After:


Before:


After:

[Frenetic Pony]

Very "Borderlands" and very cool looking, nice work!

[Antidamage]

Thanks I've been trying to get a video but Shadowplay stopped working after the first time. Has anyone been using it? What's a good alternative?

[XilenceX]

That shader looks awesome! I'd definitely be interested in it, if you decide to upload it.
A new video of the current version of your level would be nice too. It seems like you've added lots of new stuff in the meantime.

[berna]

Very nice!
I really like all these pencil lines!
Keep up the good work!

[Antidamage]

Cheers! I haven't uploaded a shader, just a test build of the game. I've added a lot since then, if there's some interest I'll put the project up for you to pick through.

This is how it ended up last night. Posterized the AO layer and readded it behind the pencil lines.

[comet]

That "pencil scratch" aesthetic is gorgeous. Is that possible with the shader you uploaded or is it with a new version you're working on?

[Antidamage]

Howdy Antidamage,

Really loving this cel shader. I think that your model may need a pair of pants though. Keep up the great work!

Pants are technically challenging at the moment, but facing away from the camera is in scope.

[AlwysAnrchy]

Howdy Antidamage,

Really loving this cel shader. I think that your model may need a pair of pants though. Keep up the great work!

[Antidamage]

Some more cel shader improvements. As you get closer to pretty much everything in the game, AO becomes subtle lines. I also got the IK sample working with my model, so his feet stay on the ground. I also added a quick and dirty depth blur for fun as the default UE effect is a bit overkill for my needs, but it's probably not going to be that useful apart from as a menu effect.

[GeneBox]

Here's the download link if anyone would like to try it: https://mega.co.nz/#!zIljHIpT!6cPYUB...rqAH8QPR-zgp3g

Thanks! And it looks very good!

[Antidamage]

Here's the download link if anyone would like to try it: https://mega.co.nz/#!zIljHIpT!6cPYUB...rqAH8QPR-zgp3g

[Antidamage]

Made a huge number of improvements today. Discovered the Sky Light object, so got rid of my second fill sun, which basically doubled the framerate. Fixed up all the trees, added some objects to help the flow of the arena and optimised the way I'd done the foliage. Lost the entire level a couple of times due to foliage/editor bugs, thank goodness for Git. Remembered that I wanted to try grass instead of sand and it turned out rather nice; looks less good in stills than the sand but feels nicer when it's in motion.

If I can get it to package, I'd really like to throw up a demo for people to try. There's no gameplay yet, but it's still kinda fun to walk around.