The current dither node is really awesome, because you no longer need to write your own dither shader. The current dither node seems to use something like a hard coded Bayer style matrix for its dithering, producing an ordered dither. This is often desirable, but sometimes “Blue noise” dithering is desired since it lacks a recognizable pattern and can seem more “natural” in some circumstances.
Ordered dithering (this is what the current node produces)
Blue noise dithering
Blue noise dithering can look very good when using dithering for things that should look “smooth” or more natural. Lighting for example can look really neat in this style. Obra Dinn is a great example of this, where it mixed the types of dithering within the same scene depending on the needs.
On the left is ordered, on the right is blue noise.
The sphere is dithered using ordered dithering (like the current node), while everything else uses blue noise.
This kind of effect would also work really well for fog-like effects where you might not want such a clear ordered pattern.
Images by Bart Wronski and Lucas Pope
I’m working on a game right now which makes heavy use of dithering as part of the graphical style. While ordered dithering looks great in many circumstances, there’s a few places, such as the clouds and fog, that I think could look better and more natural with an unordered dithering. Right now there doesn’t seem to be a way to do this without creating your own
