Hi,
I thought I’d post on a feature we added without communicating much about.
In Unity 6.3, along with the Graph Templates for Shader Graph, we introduced a Graph Template Workflow setting in Shader Graph Preferences.
This is used when creating a new shader graph from a context that requires a material instance, such as Decal Projector or Fullscreen Renderer Feature.
If this is the first time you create a shader graph from a context, you should see a prompt, asking for your preference.
Why using a Material Variant is better
Creating a Material instance using the Shader Graph shader initializes the material instance’ properties with default values.
Changing the properties defaults later has no effect on the instances created earlier.
This is analog to any other object with serialized properties. (E.g.: MonoBehaviour instance properties don’t update when the default values are changed).
The Shader Graph Material Sub Asset is read-only and its properties are updated with default values when they change.
As a result, creating a Material Variant based on this asset will allow changes to default values to ripple down the Material Variants hierarchy.
Further Improvements
Create from Template
The menu items to create a new graph “from Template” were added in Unity 6000.5.0a8, and will let you browse templates filtered by material type (Decal, Fullscreen).
Template Browser Filtering
This uses the new filtering and sorting options added to the Template Window, including favorites and graph metadata.
New shader graph from VFX Output.
And we just recently (Unity 6000.6.a4) added the same shortcut in VFX Graph to create a new shader graph from an Output context, showing only templates that support VFX Graph.
As usual, your feedback is welcome.
Should you like to see more improvements in those workflows, please let us know here.
Thanks!