Is it possible to create a glass shader in Unity Free?

Questions & Answers
1

I want to create a simple shader that will looks like you are is looking trough glass: it will get as input a texture representing current scene, then based on it will apply some distortions (my changing texture coordinates) and will then ouput the result.

Such a shader without any distortion will look exactly the same as a 100% transparent texture, the only difference here : it will be a little blurry because source is a scene capture.

I’m a not sure either this is possible to write in Unity Free, or if Pro version is needed.
I do not need a full shader, only a working example to start with.

Something similar to this : http://techreport.com/r.x/source-engine/multiple-effects.jpg

2

“I want to create a simple shader” - that introduction made me chuckle. Writing shaders is one of the things a lot of people dread, and they’re frequently far from simple :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, the mention of the words “scene capture” pretty much means that you need a render texture, and that’s a Pro only feature. Sure, there are plenty of ways of achieving a glassy material-look on an object in Unity Free, including specular highlights, static cubemap reflections, rim lighting and transparency (e.g. here), but not to portray dynamic reflections or refractions of the scene around it.