Needed Shaders that are useable by seller in assetstore packs

I am an asset seller here on Unity Store. I create foliage, trees, bushes, flowers etc etc… I need a shader that can go beyond the simple URP/HDRP shader, that gives Translucency and wind controls for leaves and trunks. The basic Unity ones are just too limiting to be anything but basic.

The problem is, any shader I buy or get for free, do not allow their shader to be exposed, copied and reused outside of a game making environment, even though the very few dishonest types, will do it anyways.

The one saving grace, is that shaders are indigenous to the Platform they are created for.

Maybe there is a budding scriptor that understands the workings of such things, that wants to create such a shader that can be used in Foliage Materials by resellers? I am sure the market is big enough to support such an enterprise. Honest people will buy it because it will be so useful to them.

My wish list for such a shader:
Diffuse (with colour picker).
Normal.
Metalness.
Translucency (with colour picker).
Double Sided or Front (so it can be used on bark or leaves) no need for back, pointless.
Height (only for solid surfaces, not masked as its lame).
Alpha Clipping Slider.
Wind Influence (optional) that uses the Vertex colour range.

The only real additions to the standard URP shaders, is the Translucency and the optional Wind Influence. That would cover the basics for me… no doubt others have their wishlist. Translucency is badly overlooked with the Unity Shaders, unless I create a shader myself, which I cannot.

The most vital thing is, the shader must have its EULA transferable to my Studio upon purchase, where any restrictions will be covered in the Unity Store Asset EULA compliance to my customers. All existing shaders I have come across, do not allow for use in Resellers Products. A Massive hole in the marketplace.

I know it’s not a complete solution to the overarching issue, but if you want to commission a shader let me know. Tackling translucency sounds interesting :grin:

I am open to suggestions… It would be a viable seller, should you go down that road. Resellers are in a massive void where add-ons and third party assets are required to show their products…

Not all scene creators can mix products, and fewer asset creators can script.

Let me know how you perceive this going forward.

I think the most interesting way to work around this is to work together with others.
Then the very advanced shader with translucency can be a seperate integration, and you skip the trees without them by default.
Or just have a seperate contact allowing the use of the asset.

The issue I see, unless the editor can consume the shader, and embedding the required scripted portions to be within the output file, so that the feature is almost akin to a standalone material, there is always the potential for theft.

If I could own the shader, I would need to have all rights over it, so I could include it in my product that is destined for an end product. Also, so I could sell it to recoup the cost of production.

One alternative would be, to create the sellable pack, but with a doc included giving details of how to achieve a better look using a shader, with end result pictures/screenshots, with a link to buy the source from the store.

Lets say, I produced a asset pack of foliage, took the usual screenshots, then took a bunch more using the ‘enhanced shader’ that could be bought at that gives those results. I would not include the shader in the sellable packs, but we would both gain exposure and a revenue stream.

You could produce upgrades and even a shader with wider applications, and showcase it using screenshots of actual products that give the enhancement. You do what you do best, I do what I do best, both gain?

I would include a link on each product page that is ‘compatible’ with the shader as a joint venture.
Just thinking out loud.

My enquiry is because I was using MTree for a while, but none of the trees etc could be sold as a resellers pack, simply because of the shaders… Prior to the Pipelines being introduced, the standard shader was capable and expandable with many being given by the community. Now the Unity Pipelines are very limited and lack some of the functionality required. Not to those that create the games etc, but for resellers. As it is, you sell the naked Meshes, textures and scripts, risking a lot of theft. So it needs a more capsulized format that can include all components for ‘transportation’.

I know the FBX format can carry the textures within, negating a external material to render the object in a scene. But, the materials are bland and cannot do the product justice, it is a good start.

If Unity were to make a process where a shader is consumed into the editor for production and somehow ‘frozen’ in export that allows it to be displayed as intended without external assistance, then the shader would be protected as it would never leave the editor it was purchased for. A snapshot if you will. I am sure that is another conversation.

Hi, maybe the Visual Engine Lite covers exactly what you need. It was designed exacly for this purpuse, for creators who want to focus on art and not on the shader technicalities:

It has support for all render pipelines, PBR + translucency (amplify shader edior based in birp/urp, diffusion profile in hdrp), main layer, second layer (scan/moss), third layer (additional layer/detail), top-down gradient, vertex ao, overlay (snow/sand coverage), emissive, subsurface, advanced wind with vertex color or procedural masks. All layers has suport for uv, uv3, planar and triplanar sampling and global control support. The package also includes impostor shaders so all your billboards can be impostors rather than simple cross meshes.

It is completly free and it has seamless transition to the paid version of the Visual Engine. If you are interested in more details, feel free to contact me. The documentation is lacking now, but this is a never ending task.

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I will give that a try, I have known about this shader, but as always, the standard EULA of Unity, forbids reselling.

To secure the selling chain with my customers purchasing my products, I have to be 100% confident, they will not find themselves being served with a DMA. This will also affect my selling abilities, not just on Unity. The Visual Engine, sells (even though it’s free) under the standard Unity EULA.

Hi,

I have just tried out The Visual Engine Lite.

It looks very intense, with a raft of options, but after an hour, it gives me the impression, even as a lite product, there are 90% more options than I, or my purchasers could ever use.

From the stand point of features, my list is quite small, the standard URP with Translucency and Wind functions is about as complicated as I want to get at this point.

I have the LOD’s both from a LOD Generating Asset I have, and from the Tree creation programmes I use externally of the Editor. I am asked if my models use/have LOD’s and if they are Wind compatible. Most are, but not always good looking using Unity Wind function, as the Materials generated are generic. Which is okay for Unity, but not for other Editors.

What I would want to add to my assets is the translucency, that increases many attributes on the models, including a more natural randomness with leaf colouring range, and that semi-transparency when viewed with the light behind it.

The Visual Engine seems to offer a whole package, which for some users, can take away control over the package. Being an Asset, it must always blend into the scene creators setup scene and not grab any controls away. The One saving grace is that I would only need to provide the shaders as dependencies (I think).

I could see myself using those functions for a Static Shot or Filming Scene.

On reflection, I like the way the scene looks, wind is handled very well. Is wind supposed to be active when I am editing?.. I expect it in the Game/play windows, but it drags my scene work to a crawl as it tries to animate.

Anymore thoughts?

In the interim period I am negotiating to use a licensed product, we shall see… Hopefully it will solve the immediate issue and leave the door open for shaders that can be shared.

I like the collaboration idea… I cannot bring much to the scripting side of things, but can provide samples of foliage with leaves, bark etc and the maps to go with. I am open to more than one solution.

you can turn off animated materials in a drop down in the scene view’s top bar (the one that looks like layers). you can also change the fps of the animation somewhere in the settings.

Hi, sorry for the late reply, holidays and stuff :slight_smile:

The shaders are indeed more complex to accommodate various effects I saw in other asset store packages. That’s why it has 2 extra layers for scan/moss (Nature Manufacture assets), gradient for stylized assets (Azure Nature, BK), subsurface, emissive, overlay for snow. The effects can also be controlled globally so you can have the same props with snow or without depending on the scene. The wind can be controlled/disabled with the TVE Lite manager.

The shaders are designed to be imported alongside the other package, to avoid outdated shaders and to get the latest fixes/features.

I posted earlier about this package.

The biggest draw back, as is for every seller on a marketplace, is that the materials will be exposed within my packs. They do not fit the needs of the Posts Heading of being useable by a seller.

I have been looking at trying to learn the graph system, so I can perhaps make my own materials. I have already started doing that in Unreal. I can see no other way.

Hello
Feel free to stop over in our amplify shader editor discord if you need any help or support for shaders made with ASE, Amplify Shader Editor

As i see you already use editors in Unreal you may wish to consider Amplify shader editor as it will look and feel a lot like the same workflow.

I appreciate your response. The stumbling block is that no product being sold on the Asset Store, is allowed to be included in a sellers pack. Both Unity and Unreal will reject any submission, even if the product is free and covered by a CC license.

Unities own documentation hasn’t reached the rendering pipelines for anyone wanting to learn how to create shaders using them. YT videos are practically non-existent. I love the URP, but the range of shaders are just too limiting.

If perhaps, the system you suggest will lead me to learning how to create these shaders, I will gladly join. Or if they enable me to use shaders created by the system in my sellable asset packs, even better.