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Below are some of the shaders I've created at work, for Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'hoole.


All screenshots and footage are realtime on the XBOX 360.


General Forward Lit Model - Diffuse/Normal/Spec/Fresnel/Cubemap reflection.

High Dynamic Range - Generally goes up to approximately 8x the normal 0-1 range.

Deferred Omni Lights - Customisable near attenuation.

Animated Lava - Cold/Hot rock mixture simulation of different fluid densities. Multiple layers, including full per-pixel normalmap/specular support for surface rock layer.

Pass-through - Membrane light scatter simulation (for foliage/feathers).

Vignette - Subtle corner darkening for more of a film feel. Dynamic scaling based on game events for more dramatic feel or drawing players focus to a specific element.

Iceberg - Forward/back light scatter simulation, fresnel, cubemap reflection.

Soft Particles - Grouped together, can simulate volumetric clouds. Eliminates harsh clipping.

Terrain - Texture blending (up to 4 materials (diffuse/normal/spec) + large/medium/detail normals).

Vertex Animations - Vertex based animation for cloth and foliage with configurable wind direction/intensity. Can also easily be applied to water waves (not done currently).


 
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Some others not shown in the pictures above include:

  • Assisted Joel Styles with rapid implemention of a drastically different rendering pipeline (switched everything from Forward Lit to Light Prepass (foward/deferred hybrid)
  • Screen space refraction (heat haze particle based effects, stealth)
  • Outer glow for mission objectives (with screen space scaling)
  • Chromatic Aberration that is fully scalable and can easily be combined with "camera static" effects when players are knocked about. Amount also scales dynamically based on contrast intensity.
  • Diffuse animated distortion (eg. electricity, distortion amount occurs based on normalmap)
  • Fire animated overlay (fire effect created on the surface of models to compliment fire particle effects)
  • Water complete with dynamic coastline whitewater and edge fading based on depth. Vertex animated waves from specified points (for splashes or general ocean waves)
  • Film grain to assist in getting rid of the digital feel. Can dynamic scale based on game events.
  • LOTS of general special effects

...and many more!
 

All content is the property of Benjamin Darling unless otherwise stated and cannot be used without his permission.