From 4c132c581809bb1429b4a714340f99ca3b586ae6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Silas Bartha Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2024 03:21:22 -0500 Subject: blacklight shader post --- content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md | 169 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 169 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md (limited to 'content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md') diff --git a/content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md b/content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a5423a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/blacklight_shader/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ ++++ +title = "creating a blacklight shader" +date = 2024-11-29 ++++ + +today i wanted to take a bit of time to write about a shader i implemented for my in-progress game project (more on that soon™) + +i wanted to create a "blacklight" effect, where specific lights could reveal part of the base texture. this shader works with **spot lights** only, but could be extended to work with point lights + +![example of shader running, showing hidden writing on a wall](./blacklight.png); + +i wrote this shader in wgsl for a [bevy engine](https://bevyengine.org) project, but it should translate easily to other shading languages + +the finished shader can be found as part of [this repo](https://github.com/exvacuum/bevy_blacklight_material) +## shader inputs + +for this shader, i wanted the following features: +- the number of lights should be dynamic +- the revealed portion of the object should match the area illuminated by each light + - the falloff of the light over distance should match the fading of the object + +for this to work i need the following information about each light: +- position (world space) +- direction (world space) +- range +- inner and outer angle + - these will control the falloff of the light at its edges + - outer angle should be less than pi/2 radians + - inner angle should be less than the outer angle + +i also need some info from the vertex shader: +- position (**world space!**) +- uv + +bevy's default pbr vertex shader provides this information, but as long as you can get this info into your fragment shader you should be good to go + +lastly i'll take a base color texture and a sampler + +with all of that, i can start off the shader by setting up the inputs and fragment entry point: + +```wgsl +#import bevy_pbr::forward_io::VertexOutput; + +struct BlackLight { + position: vec3, + direction: vec3, + range: f32, + inner_angle: f32, + outer_angle: f32, +} + +@group(2) @binding(0) var lights: array; +@group(2) @binding(1) var base_texture: texture_2d; +@group(2) @binding(2) var base_sampler: sampler; + +@fragment +fn fragment( + in: VertexOutput, +) -> @location(0) vec4 { +} +``` +(bevy uses group 2 for custom shader bindings) + +since the number of lights is dynamic, i use a [storage buffer](https://google.github.io/tour-of-wgsl/types/arrays/runtime-sized-arrays/) to store that information + +## shader calculations + +the first thing we'll need to know is how close to looking at the fragment the light source is + +we can get this information using some interesting math: + +```wgsl +let light = lights[0]; +let light_to_fragment_direction = normalize(in.world_position.xyz - light.position); +let light_to_fragment_angle = acos(dot(light.direction, light_to_fragment_direction)); +``` + +the first step of this is taking the dot product of light direction and the direction from the light to the fragment + +since both direction vectors are normalized, the dot product will be between -1.0 and 1.0 + +the dot product of two unit vectors is the cosine of the angle between them ([proof here](https://math.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Calculus/Calculus_(OpenStax)/12%3A_Vectors_in_Space/12.03%3A_The_Dot_Product#Evaluating_a_Dot_Product)) + +therefore, we take the arccosine of that dot product to get the angle between the light and the fragment + +once we have this angle we can plug it in to a falloff based on the angle properties of the light: + +```wgsl +let angle_inner_factor = light.inner_angle/light.outer_angle; +let angle_factor = linear_falloff_radius(light_to_fragment_angle / light.outer_angle, angle_inner_factor))); +``` +```wgsl +fn linear_falloff_radius(factor: f32, radius: f32) -> f32 { + if factor < radius { + return 1.0; + } else { + return 1.0 - (factor - radius) / (1.0 - radius); + } +} +``` +next, we need to make sure the effect falls off properly over distance + +we can do this by getting the distance from the light to the fragment and normalizing it with the range of the light before plugging that into an inverse square falloff + +we'll use squared distance to avoid expensive and unnecessary square root operations: + +```wgsl +let light_distance_squared = distance_squared(in.world_position.xyz, light.position); +let distance_factor = inverse_falloff_radius(saturate(light_distance_squared / (light.range * light.range)), 0.5); +``` +```wgsl +fn distance_squared(a: vec3f, b: vec3f) -> f32 { + let vec = a - b; + return dot(vec, vec); +} + +fn inverse_falloff(factor: f32) -> f32 { + return pow(1.0 - factor, 2.0); +} + +fn inverse_falloff_radius(factor: f32, radius: f32) -> f32 { + if factor < radius { + return 1.0; + } else { + return inverse_falloff((factor - radius) / (1.0 - radius)); + } +} +``` + +now we'll have a float multiplier between 0.0 and 1.0 for our angle and distance to the light + +we can get the resulting color by multiplying these with the base color texture: + +```wgsl +let base_color = textureSample(base_texture, base_sampler, in.uv); +let final_color = base_color * angle_factor * distance_factor; +``` + +this works for one light, but we need to refactor it to loop over all the provided blacklights: +```wgsl +@fragment +fn fragment( + in: VertexOutput, +) -> @location(0) vec4 { + let base_color = textureSample(base_texture, base_sampler, in.uv); + var final_color = vec4f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0); + for (var i = u32(0); i < arrayLength(&lights); i = i+1) { + let light = lights[i]; + + let light_to_fragment_direction = normalize(in.world_position.xyz - light.position); + let light_to_fragment_angle = acos(dot(light.direction, light_to_fragment_direction)); + let angle_inner_factor = light.inner_angle / light.outer_angle; + let angle_factor = linear_falloff_radius(light_to_fragment_angle / light.outer_angle, angle_inner_factor); + + let light_distance_squared = distance_squared(in.world_position.xyz, light.position); + let distance_factor = inverse_falloff_radius(saturate(light_distance_squared / (light.range * light.range)), 0.5); + + final_color = saturate(final_color + base_color * angle_factor * distance_factor); + } + return final_color; +} +``` + +and with that, the shader is pretty much complete + +you can view the full completed shader code [here](https://github.com/exvacuum/bevy_blacklight_material/blob/master/assets/shaders/blacklight_material.wgsl) + +have fun! + -- cgit v1.2.3