Frameshift Decal Network: How Is It?

News & General Discussion
1

I’d like to get some information on the Frameshift Decal Network,
how does it work, is it easy to use, any scenes that you can show using it and maybe some tutorials?
It looks interesting, but I’d like a better idea of what it is and how it works before buying.

Thanks

2

Hey Don Gray,

i use the framework in my actual project and its just great.
It is easy to use and works fine with unity 3.

For tutorials just look at the Frameshift Decal Package, there is an example project and
two pdfs with descriptions.

In my topdown shooter i use it for bulletholes, explosion burns and blood splatter.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/66359-Sunset-(-Topdown-Shooter-Prototype-)

3

Thanks, can you just paint textures on objects at will for things like posters, dirt, graffiti, etc?

4

Yes you can :slight_smile:

5

Decided to buy it to see if I could use it, will read the PDF tonight at work.
As it is I don’t see how to use it to add decals to the scene in the editor,
only an about option in the Unity Editor header.
One of the reviews said not to import the Standard Asset folder of the package,
I didn’t want to overwrite my own custom scripts, will this cause any issues using it?

6

Ah, ok, found the decal game object in the menu and am on my way.

7

Some time passed… Can you give us any experiences? Is it worth buying?

8

Here is what I have found: Using it for full floor decals gives me problems,
flickering, partial might be ok, but haven’t checked. Ground decals, same thing,
if it is a large enough area there is flickering or Z fighting.
I wanted to use it as dirt on the floor but ran into this problem.
Wall decals seem to work well for the most part, but you have to tweak them sometimes so as not to get issues.
As far as support, it is absolutely non-existent!
I’ve written here on the forum, PM’d and emailed but no response.
You’ll see the last time the individual was on active on the forum was 6-22-11,
I PM’s them on that day ans have yet to receive a response.
I guess it’s up to what you think about buying it,
others may have had better success with it and want to offer a more positive recommendation.
I’ve found I could just use planes with textures on them very near an object and it works fine for many uses.

9

Don Gray,

About flickering, I’ve find out that you have 2 ways to fix this: increasing mesh offset (but this can create irrealistic behaviour, as your decals would be flying a little bit), or using a custom shader with a Offset. Try the shader below (I’ve changed the original Transparent Diffuse for this - If somebody know a little bit about shaders programming, please check this, I don’t know the performance of this)

Shader "Transparent/Diffuse-Depth" {
Properties {
	_Color ("Main Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
	_MainTex ("Base (RGB) Trans (A)", 2D) = "white" {}
}

SubShader {
	Tags {"Queue"="Transparent" "IgnoreProjector"="True" "RenderType"="Transparent"}
	LOD 200
	ZWrite Off
	Offset 	-1, -1
	
CGPROGRAM
#pragma surface surf Lambert alpha

sampler2D _MainTex;
fixed4 _Color;

struct Input {
	float2 uv_MainTex;
};

void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) {
	fixed4 c = tex2D(_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex) * _Color;
	o.Albedo = c.rgb;
	o.Alpha = c.a;
}
ENDCG
}

Fallback "Transparent/VertexLit"
}
10

If you only use static mesh decals (placed in the editor) you can easily roll your own solution for it. Might not be as complex, but maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. Also, instead of a shader modification, you could set a decal height value and tweak vertex-to-ground distance based on it.