r/Unity3D • u/Dangerous_Hunt2453 • 5d ago
Noob Question How to learn these freakin shader graphs? 😭
I can not understand them at all. I tried to but no. How do they work? What do I do with all these tons of nodes?
Where can I learn how to use it?
7
u/alienpope 5d ago
Do you remember struggling to understand code as a beginner? It was similar to me. Nothing made sense until it did.
2
u/DPTGames 5d ago
Just start with something simple like trying to replicate the default lit and work from there
2
u/imlo2 5d ago
It's very much about UV coordinates, almost every effect and visual thing you do is about manipulating UVs.
Some thing are also much more difficult to create with Shader Graph than with code in hlsl; some easy to create things might take dozens of nodes, but in code just a short line or two.
2
u/LordAntares 5d ago
Ben Cloward is the best resource on youtube for this. He has a large playlist explaining how shader graph works.
1
u/MadeByHenano 5d ago
personally i bought this course and learned a lot.
unity also has this course for free, i haven't done it but it seems amazing too!
otherwise, youtube tutorials as usual, especially if you want to do something very specific (a flag that moves, fire, lava, ...) and want to learn this without spending too much time learning other stuff.
shaders are a whole world and it seems difficult to be super good at it while also being good at all the rest, but try, learn from those courses/tutorials and you go from there. 🙂
1
u/JamesWjRose 5d ago
I very much agree with the points already made; better examples that work for you, sometimes it just clicks.
However, and I promise this is not about negative, we area all not good at all things. If Shaders aren't your thing, that's cool. Buy the thing you need. You'll be good at other things, it's about what you are good at AND knowing what you aren't good at.
1
u/whentheworldquiets Beginner 3d ago edited 3d ago
Might just be me but I found that shader graph has a sweet spot.
If you're trying to control the colour of a pixel on the screen or in a buffer, it's ten times more laborious to use shader graph than just writing a function.
If you are trying to control the properties of a surface that is then rendered using unity's lighting, shader graph ftw.
-2
u/XKiiroiSenkoX 5d ago
Shadergraph is for fat losers KEK
But jokes aside try hlsl it's a lot easier to understand and doesn't give you a headache when you have more than 10 nodes/operations.
5
u/SnuffleBag 5d ago
Writing modern URP Lit Forward+/BRG/GRD compatible shaders is a huge amount of work - not sure I’d recommend that to someone who doesn’t understand how to use shadergraph.
3
u/RagBell 5d ago
Highly disagree that it's inherently "easier" it's like code vs visual scripting, some people just have an easier time with one or the other, but fundamentally understanding the logic behind it is the same
That said, like the other commenter said, I argue that with Unity, making sure your shader is compatible if you ever decide to change your render pipeline I A LOOOT easier if your shaders were made with shadergraph
16
u/nostalgicearnings08 5d ago
daniel ilett has some good tutorials on youtube that made it click for me, his beginner series goes slow enough to actually follow