Jump to content

Ultra Software Company Blog

  • entries
    189
  • comments
    1,264
  • views
    726,504

Contributors to this blog

Shader Enhancements in Leadwerks 4.4


Josh

5,393 views

 Share

Leadwerks Game Engine 4.4, scheduled for release soon, features some updated and enhanced visual effects.  In this blog I will talk about some of the adjustments I made.  Having "The Zone" scene that Aggror recreated actually helped a lot to see how shaders could be improved.

Bloom / Iris Adjustment / HDR

The bloom and iris adjustment shaders have been updated to give bloom a wider and softer blur.  Iris adjustment is faster and more intense now, which will make the outdoors areas seem very bright when you are indoors, and the indoors areas will look very dark when you are outdoors.

screenshot79.thumb.jpg.d0b7479732e9eebd8327919c94417f97.jpg

screenshot78.thumb.jpg.3b7da31d6aeddeb6bddb70da3203002d.jpg

SSAO
The SSAO shader has multiple passes added to it, resulting in a much smoother yet crisp result. 
78C219DAE8181DD3184E7313F08ABCBB9400F45B

02D895D6B1E7A266EFCED9C564FDBF150809BF36

543598A48A470EB317E09367A88616C7727751D3

Vegetation Shaders

A new vegetation shader called "groundrocks" will make objects align to the terrain.  This lets you easily paint clusters of rocks all across a landscape, resulting in a nice chunky look that breaks up boring heightmap terrain.

50F8CF2FD29EC0F5E43CAB6BB908CA43BF17BDD3

Built-in Fog
Although several fog shaders have been available in the Workshop for some time, version 4.4 adds a built-in distance fog you can use to make spooky scenes.

screenshot80.jpg

The fog is built into several shaders in order to give correct reflections.  It works great with water.  Notice the reflection is also foggy, and the water itself is affected by fog, giving a nice misty look to the far side of the lake.

screenshot81.thumb.jpg.dcffd712d42c95fac07d69de36086904.jpg

You can try Leadwerks Game Engine 4.4 right now by opting into the beta branch on Steam.

  • Upvote 11
 Share

8 Comments


Recommended Comments

I know the documentation must have taken a lot of time but as I said before, it seems like Leadwerks is getting a lot of good (and relevant) upgrades recently.

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...