Block Shaders (Surface Shaders Replacement)
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Summary
Block Shaders introduce a streamlined and modular text-based shader authoring workflow, and allow to override and extend the functionality of existing shaders, without the complexity of modifying the original shader source. Block Shaders also aim to unify shader authoring across render pipeline.
This new workflow introduces the concept of Blocks and Templates:
- Blocks are HLSL functions with a set interface, which can be reused and shared across shaders and projects as assets and libraries.
- Templates correspond to subshaders, and provide public customization points along the shader's execution flow. Users can utilize the shipped templates, or create their own.
Text-based Block Shaders can target the available templates, in order to override and extend the template's customization points using your own custom blocks.
The official forum announcement for Block Shaders includes a public demo, for everyone to experiment with and provide feedback:
Intended Outcome/Usecase
- Block Shaders provide a text-based workflow for authoring shaders in a streamlined, modular and cross pipeline fashion.
- Scriptable Render Pipelines provide a collection of shader templates, including Lit Surface Shaders, to be overridden and extended by user-authored Block Shaders.