Shader Custom Ambient Term

Unity Engine
1

I’m pretty sure this ISN’T possible, but does anyone know if one can create a shader with a custom ambient term? The solid colour that unity provides is not doing it for me. While using a Surface Shader, of course.

I’ve tried using emission, that doesn’t work. I’ve also tried writing a custom lighting pass, but that adds my ambient term for each light that affects the mesh.

Any suggestions? Short of writing my own shader from scratch, that’s plan C :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks!

2

If you stick in a simple CG pass before your surface shader with your custom ambient multiplied by albedo texture, set your surface shader to Blend One One and turn off it’s ambient light using noambient argument then it should work.

Same method I detailed here :slight_smile:
http://www.farfarer.com/blog/2011/07/25/dynamic-ambient-lighting-in-unity/

3

Thanks for the link, Farfarer. I actually read your blog post before I posted here, I should have mentioned that I’m allergic to multi-pass shaders, mostly :wink:

I figured out a single pass method by applying the ambient colour to the emission surface output, then multiplying the emission by the albedo.

I’m also in the process of improving my own ambient probe system (inspired by the Half-Life 2 technique).

Thanks again.