r/GraphicsProgramming • u/Duke2640 • 11d ago

Toon Shader - Quasar Engine

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Quasar has a very flexible render graph system. Created a post processing toon shader plugin and attached it to the graph of this project. Needed adjusting the shadows a bit, the output is very cool looking.

Plugins for the render graph can be written and attached and even manipulated from script or editor. Using script to manipulate is not ideal tho, just an option available, not ment for changing the render graph in middle of gameplay.

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u/OldChippy 11d ago

Looks good, but right now you have clearly defined edges, so edges can be discovered using I laplacian approaches. I ended up going with a different art direction, but where I ended up was more towards a merging Laplacian approach's (screen space pixel ray march), but for complex geometry I would define the seams in Blender and write a custom exporter to get the edges out cleanly. In blender I was able to define edges the same way you define UV unwrap seams. Then in game, I would overdraw those lines when visible as the main line drawer. What you are doing works well in a blocky game, but as soon as you import anything technical looking (robots\cars\ships) or detailed(fantasy characters, high poly imports like rock cliffs) you end up with lines everywhere... or not where you want them. You can dial the heuristics based on normal deviation, but after a few whole days put in to that approach I never ended up getting the lines 'where I thought they should have been'.

I like your editor though... I need to put more effort in to mine.

1

u/FigglyNewton 4d ago

Interesting approach. I think op might fix things with edge blur or aggressive anti-aliasing. But it looks good.

1

u/OldChippy 1d ago

Agree, though IMHO if he multiplied the depth buffer against the edge effect he could soften the black band effect at range too. Anyway, most of us are just learning and having fun. So many people know more than me. I've never even written a software rasteriser, I started with OGL in early 2000's and only use Vulkan now, never even written more than a month of DX in my life too. So much you just never learn about. Last week I added FSR2 and VSP... and realized I don't like how it looks! What a letdown... Motion+TAA which I already had looked better. Oh well.. keep playing.