Outline a 2D mesh?

Questions & Answers
1

I have a set of 2D meshes that I want to give a simple “stroke” style outline in unity.
As mentioned here, most outline shaders don’t seem to work for 2D objects. I’m using an orthographic camera, trying the above options with a perspective camera had no effect.

I’ve tried the built-in toon shaders, as well as various outline shaders (such as this) to no avail.

Unfortunately, trying the “duplicate and scale up” technique to create an outline doesn’t give satisfactory results for the shape of the meshes (puzzle pieces).

This post seems to have gotten stuck at the same point I am.

Alternatively, if there is a way to create this outline effect directly on the meshes in Blender without drastically increasing the tri count, that would be great, but my Blender experience is limited.

Is there a way to create an outline for a 2D object that follows the curves of the mesh?

2

You could try making two of the object in blender, put one slightly behind the other, make the latter slightly bigger so it outlines the first, and parent it to the one in front in unity. then apply a shader to the one behind, perhaps a particle shader or even just a diffuse for a toon look, or if you have pro a glow effect. then in code, toggle the one behind on and off depending on your function. and even if you just use the additive shader, a simple plane with a texture. and through this option, it could be on-top of the piece object. I’m not sure if any of this will look good but they’re just ideas popping to my head at this moment so test them out if you still don’t have a solution.

PAULLUS