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Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer
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Poiyomi Shaders 10.0 out now!

· 19 min read
BluWizard
Lead Docs Author, Community Helper, Shader Contributor
Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer

After several months of testing and development, we are very excited to welcome Poiyomi Shaders 10.0, our biggest update since the first ever release of Poiyomi Shaders! 10.0 marks a brand new chapter in our overall development cycle.

We have so much to talk about! There's a lot of new features, added improvements to the overall experience in Unity, and a wide assortment of bug fixes. Watch the video attached below to listen in and see all the changes we have made. Otherwise, refer to our Official Changelog for the most detailed list of changes you can expect to see (although it's a VERY LONG post!).

Legacy Shaders Removed

As of this release, versions 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2 have been officially deprecated and no longer exist in this release! This was done to cut down on file size. If you are still using any of these versions mentioned above, PLEASE UPGRADE NOW!!!

Our improved translation utilities have been updated to make this transition as seamless as possible. Any materials detected to use an older version will prompt you to translate them to 9.3. This allows you to choose when to translate your materials to 10.0 at your own convenience.

Be advised, our translation pipeline heavily relies on serialized material GUIDs. For this reason, please ensure you are up-to-date to 9.3. Additionally, make a back up of your materials!

A whole UI overhaul!

The whole UI has received a broad modernized refresh across all sections of the shader.=

Immediately, you will see more compact areas, heavily reduced white spacing, better DPI scaling on headers, and many new decorative elements.

Every single section across the shader have been reorganized to fit the new UI changes. If you don't see a feature that you saw before, don't worry! Material properties remain the same, with only UI-facing changes in it's labeling and it's organization in the UI.

Most notably, some features that come from LilToon now closely match their UI, such as Backlight and Lil Reflections.

You will also see more Helpboxes across the UI. We have began using these in areas that are appropriate. For example, if you attempt to use Back Face feature, it will now warn you if you forget to turn off Culling, which is required for that feature to function.

Additionally, in some sections where the effect needs a Depth Buffer, you will see a new Prefab spawner button that will add the required DepthGet Prefab into the Scene for the shader effect to work.

Upgrade & Translation Pipeline

We have some exciting news to share regarding the process of upgrading to 10.0!

To start, we have overhauled our scripting pipelines to account for both previous and legacy versions of Poiyomi. This means the process of upgrading from 9.3 (or an even older version) straight to 10.0 can be done with minimal to no visual differences!

You have 3 different ways to upgrade your materials...

  1. Use our new Material Upgrade Utility (Recommended). This allows you to do a mass-upgrade of materials on your Avatar to the latest 10.0 version, running each material through our translation pipeline, all at once!
  2. Right-Click on a Material as before, and click Poiyomi -> Materials -> Update Poiyomi Shaders.
  3. Or just swap the shader from the dropdown! Translations now run automatically when moving from an older version to a newer version. If you don't like it, you can turn it off by toggling Poi -> Auto-Translate Materials On Shader Change in the menu bar.

Alongside this, I have been working to account for a variety of configurations. I may not cover all setups, but the baseline is there to help you have a smooth transition. This means if you happen to have had a serialized material (or locked one) that's on a much older version like 8.0, we have added parameters to make sure those are translated smoothly as well. This does have a limitation, however! It relies on GUIDs and original shader name references. So if you want to make sure you are good and damn ready to upgrade, please consider updating your materials to 9.3 first!

Grab Pass Users, Heads Up!

Grab Pass received a large overhaul in this update to make way for the Pro-exclusive Lava Lamp feature, which will be detailed here and in the Changelog. Due to the changes received, much of your appearance settings will not translate accurately.

For this reason, we highly recommend you back up your Grab Pass materials before jumping to 10.0!

Lastly, I've also added more translation parameters for our LilToon pipeline as well. Switching from LilToon 2.3 to Poiyomi 10.0 should be much smoother now!

New APIs

To compliment our newly overhauled translation pipeline, we have added new developer-accessible API endpoints to the C# namespace Poi.Tools.ShaderTranslator.VersionUpgrade to allow developers to use our upgrade pipelines to how they see fit. For more information on how to use these APIs, refer to our Upgrading Documentation.

New Features

Theres a TON of changes in this release! I won't be able to cover all of them here as the changes are just that gigantic. So, I'll cover some of the headlining features you'll notice right away.

  • Dissolve has been rewritten with new features, including a full UI overhaul, more advanced configuration options, and a wide arrangement of new effects are now possible.
    • Use Alpha Only to ignore the Alpha, used for dissolving only the Alpha, our most common usage case.
    • Edge now supports a gradient of two colors.
    • Wave Mode allows the effect to dissolve in a wavy pattern.
    • Added support for outputting the Dissolve effect to a Global Mask
    • And added vertex manipulation with the Dissolve.
  • We've added Chromatize and Tint to Color Adjust to change the intensity of the color's reproduction and quality on how the perceived hue can be affected.
  • OKLab was added to Global Themes, with backwards-compatible legacy values.
  • Each Decal now has their own independent set of Color Adjust settings.
  • Added a Flashing blinking pattern to Emissions.
  • Exposed Alpha to Emissions, which means Alpha can now control the intensity.
  • Added Highlight to Outlines, including Audio Link support for it.
    • This is the exact same function found in LilToon.
  • Outlines now coincide with our modern Color Adjust framework, with backwards-compatible legacy values.
  • You can now set RGBA Color Masking, Decals, and Matcaps to show on Outlines if you want. Enable via a new toggle Show on Outlines, located in their respective sections.
  • In AL Spectrum, we've added new appearance options including UV mirroring, bilateral mode, band range, and improved positioning controls.
  • We've added support for VRC Light Volumes 3.0, and placed Intensity, Shadow, and Normal Bias configuration for Light Volumes within the Light Data module for finer control.
  • We've added Skin, a new experimental LUT coloring module allowing users to apply Skin coloring to the Base Color.
  • Added Bent Normals, which allow specular occlusion and indirect diffuse to affect your appearance.
  • Added Light Falloff an Attenuation curves to compensate for brightness at a distance.
  • Added a Normal Map 2.
    • Why? Because we found most people don't know that Details can act as a second Normal Map. So, here you go. Enjoy.
  • Added Global UV Configuration, which allows you to share consistent UV configuration across all modules.
  • Video Effects can now affect Decals and have Global Masking support. Enabled by turning on Apply Video Effects in Decals.
  • Grab Pass now allows masking, color ramp effects, pixelation effect, bounding circle blur, precomputed Gaussian kernel, and output clamping.
  • Stylized Specular had it's Lil Reflections mode reworked and now supports Tiling, Offset, Panning and UV adjustments.
  • LilFur now supports ALL modules in Poiyomi Shaders, including Emission, Proximity Color, UV Tile Discard, Audio Link, Dissolve, and more!
    • To add to this, LilFur UVs are no longer tied to the main UVs and can be assigned per-texture UV.
    • We've also added a Wind Effect, which is kinda neat!
  • We now support VRChat's Shader Globals for time-synced animations, on by default.
  • Constellation now supports random colors, improved star movement speed, and better Audio Link controls.
  • Proximity Color can now override Emission, check it's influence on the Alpha, and more.
  • We overhauled Glitter with new randomized rotation direction, sprite sheet support, and linear controls.
  • Internal Parallax now supports Global Masks, distance falloff, pan offset, and now behaves more like Decals.
  • Matcaps can now act as a fallback cubemap by using the Reflection Fallback toggle.
  • Backlight now supports Global Masking.
  • And added support for Unity 6, ready for whenever VRChat is ready to unleash their SDK for Unity 6.

New Features in Pro-only Versions

Many of these have already been seen by our Patreon subscribers, but we might as well notate them here as a refresher for our Poiyomi Pro subscribers! If you want to try these effects out for yourself, subscribe to use via Patreon here: patreon.com/c/poiyomi

  • Added Contact Shadows, a screen-space shadowing system.
  • Added Lava Lamp to Grab Pass, a really cool raymarching effect that simulates the physics of a real Lava Lamp.
  • Added Squish, a Vertex-based deformation effect with falloff, color gradient mixing, masking, and supports SPS Sockets.
  • Added Triplanar Projection shader, enabling the ability to use world-space triplanar texturing with edge fading, distance fading, depth clipping, self-mapping, and exposed depth sampling accuracy.
  • Added Self Grab, an experimental Grab Pass effect that uses an outline-like effect to affect Grab Pass onto one's self.

Lighting

Poiyomi 10.0 has introduced a ginormous amount of lighting changes. There's a lot of technical details that I won't mention as most folks watching this may not understand what I'm talking about, so I'll refer to the exact details in the changelogs.

Regardless, many of these changes you will not notice for the most part. So if anything, you will barely see a difference.

However, let's talk about some obvious details you will see!

  • We have decided to rename Shading > Shading into Shading > Shadows to avoid confusion. And to be honest, it makes sense! We will now be referring "Shading" as to "Shadows" for the entirety of this post, so pay attention!
  • Realistic Shadows mode now has a Shadow Strength slider since it didn't have one. Additionally, Realistic now finally uses Unity's dielectrics for the default BRDF.
  • Multilayer Math now uses the main shadow as the main attenuation, with each layer using it's own attenuation. This means the shadows are made to be more subtle.
  • Cloth now uses precalculated indirect color.
  • We have adjusted the Min Brightness behavior with a noise floor and a new minimum light cap.
  • The Max Light count has been lowered, fixing the light loop break as a result.
  • And turning off Shadows no longer breaks modules that don't use the lighting loop.

Modular Shader System

Shader developers, this one's for you!

We are excited to announce that the Modular Shader System, the system that we have used to build Poiyomi Shaders since 8.0, is now fully available to the public! With this, you can now easily install your own modules within the shader using our toolset.

By default, we expose only the Free features in the official public release, while the Pro-only features remain locked away in the Pro-only release.

To learn more about how to develop Modular Shader templates, refer to our documentation here.

Changes & Fixes

Over the course of developing 10.0, it was an opportunity for us to address some long-standing issues and squash as many bugs as possible. These are just some of the bug fixes you will be happy to hear about (see more in the full changelog).

  • Emission Theme Color now replaces the Emission Color instead of multiplying it. Emission Color also tints into the Theme Color.
  • Matcaps now default to Replace blend mode.
  • Matcap Border now defaults to 0.5.
    • If using Double Sided mode, set the Border to 0.43 for the intended appearance.
  • Multilayer Math default settings are now updated to match LilToon 2.3.
  • Decals are now rendered before Matcaps.
  • Grab Pass functions are now moved to render in front of Decals and Matcaps.
  • Hue Shift moved after saturation in Global Themes.
  • Default Fur Noise no longer generates mipmaps (otherwise, fur was losing detail at a distance). Smoother fur LOD.
  • LilFur default noise textures corrected to use Linear instead of sRGB, matching LilToon's upstream repository.
  • AO is now applied to the main light and Occlusion is applied to the indirect color.
  • Fixed Latex Matcaps having JPEG artifacts.
    • Latex lovers, rejoice!
  • All included textures using Mipmapping now set to use Kaiser filtering, fully supporting VRChat's DPID filtering algorithm.
  • "lilToon" or "lil toon" is now referred as to "LilToon" for general professional appearance in references areas in the UI.
  • Fixed dynamic_branch fog and variant strippers in Unity 2022.3.
  • Fixed vertexSH, UIElements fixed, ui: changed to uie:, ifdef guards for LOD crossfade.
  • Fixed .NET API compatibility and replaced deprecated/obsolete editor methods.
  • Fixed Unity's corruption of namespaces in various scripts.
  • Fixed Panosphere UV stereo offset.
    • MonoPanoProjection had an eye-dependent Y offset that was being scaled by texture tiling, producing different visual positions per eye with any tiling (especially on Decals, Main Texture, etc.). Mono mode now returns identical UVs for both eyes. StereoPanoProjection keeps eye-dependent behavior for real over-under stereo content.
  • Fixed Panosphere perspective-correct.
  • Fixed camera position inside mirrors.
  • Fixed LilFur visibility bugs in the Mirror/Camera module.
  • Fixed lots of stereo rendering, mirror, and VR-related issues.
  • The Shader Optimizer now wipes out orphaned textures, saving greatly on VRAM.
  • Fixed locking on several modules over the course of development.
  • Subsurface Scattering now behaves the same when locked.
  • Fixed Min Brightness ringing on indirect color.
  • Fixed some lighting mistakes on Realistic Shadows mode.
  • Fixed add lights double-counting attenuation and add light shadows no longer skipped.
  • Fixed spot light support, light clipping, double-add on point/spot lights, and add light contribution in Subsurface Scattering.
  • Fixed ordering of Matcap, Rim Lighting, Depth Rim Lighting, and Cubemap.
  • Fixed Environment Reflection issues while Rim Lighting was enabled.
  • Fixed unassigned referenced Metallic map and fixed texture sampling calling the wrong function in Cloth shadows mode.
  • Fixed Theme Color in AL Spectrum double-multiplying and blend types using Range(0, 1) instead of Int.
  • Fixed Global Themes causing potential NaN at high Saturation and Brightness values.
    • As a side effect, there may be some limits added to prevent over-exposure issues (which look bad on cameras).
  • Fixed Decal 3 having an extra Z field even though it's unused.
  • Fixed mixing Metallics with other modules, as well as masks, anisotropy, and undeclared identifier / redefinition errors fixed.
  • Fixed Lil Reflections in Stylized Specular not rendering correctly.
  • Post Processing now works with Emission and Decals, and with the Add Pass and LilFur.
  • Fixed Render Queues not transferring when upgrading/translating materials.
  • Fixed some Z-fighting issues when exposed to projection shaders.
    • There are only mitigations to prevent it from happing. If you still see it occurring, please let us know!
  • Fixed Ignore Fog function.
  • Fixed Global Mask label indentation, text alignment, and animated property marker vertical alignment.
  • Fixed a LilToon translator write-priming bug causing every write to be primed with a throwaway value first due to a StringComparison bug.
  • Fixed Decal enum mis-mappings in LilToon's translation, and && guard replaced with || guard on HSVG in Outlines. Some corrections from LilToon's sneaky UI tricks.
  • Fixed an issue where cross-edition (Toon <-> Pro) upgrades got borked.
  • Legacy Material Detection and translation scripts improved twice, now using Poi.Tools.ShaderTranslator.VersionUpgrade APIs.
  • Fixed Rim Lighting translation issues from 9.3 to 10.0.
  • Default ShaderDestinations updated for 10.0.
  • Fixed various Decal Positioning Raycaster functionality issues.
  • Fixed Grab Pass preset dropdown being drawn without a label.
  • Fixed GIF support by merging without a System.Drawing dependency.
  • Fixed Receive Casted Shadows not being set to 1 on PBR presets.
  • And an assortment of typos and spelling fixes!

ThryEditor

Our most advanced material inspector interface, ThryEditor, has received a huge amount of updates.

To start off, we have forked it!

What does this mean? Well, basically, we now maintain ThryEditor on our own and many changes are way ahead of the original repository. From this point on, we now will be using poiyomi/ThryEditor on GitHub, instead of Thryrallo/ThryEditor. Because ThryEditor was graciously licensed under MIT, that has allowed us to maintain it on our own and be able to make changes quickly and effectively.

Additionally, ThryEditor will now be supplied as a VCC Package! This is already included in our main Poiyomi Shaders repository and will be auto-installed via VPM when installing 10.0 for the first time. By doing so, we can quickly fix editor-related issues without having to update the whole shader package anymore. This change does not affect the Poiyomi Pro version or .unitypackage versions.

Not only that, but having ThryEditor as a VCC Package will allow other Shader Developers to use it without having to install Poiyomi Shaders at the same time, if they wish to use it.

Alongside that, a lot of New Features have been added to ThryEditor, such as...

  • Global Linking, our replacement to Material Linking. Follows the same principles as Material Linking, but now linked together as a global json value, making it easier to quickly link up materials together without relying on one material as a source of truth.
  • Blueprints, allowing users to generate materials with a pre-determined set of Presets applied. Useful for creators who want things done quickly.
  • Refreshed the Material Lock Manager with a new toolbar for Grouping and Filtering results straight from the UI.
  • Added a Clear button for inline RGBA packers.
  • Added a "dot" indicator on Headers, which will indicate if properties contained are tagged as A or RA.
  • Many new properties, sliders, and decorators for the shader UI such as Headers, Descriptors, improved Helpboxes, and many more surprises!

Additionally, our Shader Optimizer system now sorts Locked Shader files into Assets/_LockedShaderCache. This allows us to cache compiled variants and ensure locked samplers can be shared across materials where possible. As a side effect, Unlocking no longer deletes cache-resident shaders, making Unlocking twice as fast than before.

We've also Fixed the following issues...

  • Fixed VRCFallback tags not being carried over on upgraded materials.
  • Fixed handling of Rendering Presets.
  • Fixed some headers unable to be marked as animated.
  • Fixed an issue where the list and GUI are computed every frame in the Material Lock Manager. It is now computed one per rebuild, saving greatly on CPU.
  • Fixed an issue where script compiling triggered a full project re-scan in the Material Lock Manager.
  • Fixed Inspector Rebuild occurring often in some usage scenarios, especially during Lock/Unlock.
  • Fixed multiple ShaderProperty name collision bugs.
  • The GuessShader levenshtein sweep no longer run constantly and is only executed when absolutely needed.
  • Fixed a NullReferenceException on the Render Queue property when Right-Clicked.
  • Fixed a nasty null element found when running PropertyValueAction, which mainly affected legacy shaders.
  • Fixed some GUI issues if for some reason Thry Editor is being used on very... very old legacy shaders (what are you doing?).
  • Fixed an old regression causing Render Queues to show incorrect readings on custom values.
  • And replaced some dead URLs from prompts and menu items with up-to-date ones.

Removed

In case you didn't see the bright red warning above, I'll show it to you again here...

Legacy Shaders Removed

As of this release, versions 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2 have been officially deprecated and no longer exist in this release! This was done to cut down on file size. If you are still using any of these versions mentioned above, PLEASE UPGRADE NOW!!!

Our improved translation utilities have been updated to make this transition as seamless as possible. Any materials detected to use an older version will prompt you to translate them to 9.3. This allows you to choose when to translate your materials to 10.0 at your own convenience.

And this is VERY IMPORTANT! When you upgrade to this release, your legacy materials must be translated to 9.3. This is our conservative approach to ensure nothing breaks at first, giving you the choice to translate the material to 10.0 whenever you feel comfortable to do so.

To ensure you have the most minimal amount of issues, please make a backup! While we have systems in place (as mentioned above) to ensure older versions can be translated with the old shader files removed, it only works reliably if the materials were properly serialized with their original GUIDs! In case they weren't serialized, PLEASE make a back up of your materials!

And finally, please be prepared for the following items that have been officially deprecated as of 10.0:

  • Removed Raliv DPS integration.
  • Removed Shadow Tint from Realistic Shadows (replaced by Shadow Strength).
  • Removed unused module collections.
  • Removed dead scripts.

Conclusion

That pretty much covers the headlining features. For those tech-savvy creators who want all the spicy details, they are all documented in our changelog. Be advised it's a 25 minute read, hence why I didn't mention everything here. You can find the full changelog here.

A big special thanks to our Patreon subscribers for for helping us iron out all the issues in Poiyomi Pro 10.0 while this was in development. If you want to be the first to try out new and experimental features before anyone else, be sure to subscribe for $10/month on Patreon. No pressure though!

Lastly, a big thanks to our active Discord team members for assisting our users with questions and answers. Y'all rock!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy using Poiyomi Toon 10.0!

How to use the VCC version of Poiyomi Pro

· 3 min read
Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer

The Poiyomi Pro version can now be installed via com.poiyomi.pro VCC package, now available in the main VCC Repository.

This post goes over instructions as well as answering some frequently asked questions. The Download & Install instructions will also be updated with this new information as well.

Setup

The setup of the Poiyomi Pro VCC package is fairly straightforward. It contains a script used to authenticate with your Patreon account in order to install the Poiyomi Pro package into your project. For the most part, you don't have to do much really.

To add Poiyomi Pro to your project using the VCC, ensure you already have added Poiyomi's VPM Repo to your VCC Client. If you haven't done this yet, go here and follow the instructions as we've updated the Download & Install instructions to accommodate this addition.

  1. Under Manage Project, look for the Poiyomi Pro package in the list and click the icon for it. The identifier is com.poiyomi.pro.
    • WARNING: This will also remove any existing installation of Poiyomi Shaders if detected!
  2. Launch your Unity Project.
  3. The script will automatically run and open a webpage in your default Web Browser. It will prompt you to authorize with your Patreon Account.
  4. Upon success, the webpage will say something like "Authentication Successful, you may now close this tab."
  5. Go back to your Unity Project and the script will automatically begin initiating a download of Poiyomi Pro into your project. It's that easy!

These instructions will be similar for other VCC clients such as ALCOM (which we recommend using!).

When importing com.poiyomi.pro to your project, it may automatically remove existing installs of Poiyomi Shaders so that there's no conflicts. There may be some bugs, so in that case you will need to manually remove Poiyomi Shaders folder from your project, followed by going into the Menu Bar and clicking Poi -> Pro -> Download Update to open the UI. Click the button that says Download Poiyomi Pro and it will request you to authenticate with Patreon. If successful, it will begin the process!

Frequently Asked Questions

I have received errors in my project when attempting to use the new package. What do I do?

Please hop into our Discord Server and let us know! Software is not perfect, so there's always a possibility something may have gone unnoticed.

Does the script save my login info for future updates?

No. The script is intentionally designed to ensure you're an active Patreon subscriber in order to obtain updates.

The script doesn't automatically run when I install the package.

You can manually run the script by clicking Poi -> Pro -> Download Update in the Unity Menu Bar. Click the button that says Download Poiyomi Pro and it will begin the process as detailed in Step 3. of the setup instructions above.

New Website Available for Patreon Subscribers

· 2 min read
Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer

Patreon Subscribers, we have something special for you!

As of today, you can now download Poiyomi Pro from our new dedicated website. This will be the new place where you can obtain the latest versions of Poiyomi Pro without needing Discord.

Poiyomi Pro Website Preview Example preview of the Poiyomi Pro website when logged in. You'll also notice it's accompanied by an animated Marisa Kirisame , a character from the Touhou Project.

How To Use The New Website

To use the new website, visit pro.patreon.com and follow these simple instructions...

  1. Click the "Login" button on the header.
  2. Click "Continue with Patreon" when prompted and a pop-up window will appear.
    • If you don't see it, check with your Browser to see if a pop-up window was blocked.
  3. Login to your Patreon Account.
  4. Once Logged In, you will see a page asking to authorize access. Click "Allow".
  5. The pop-up window will close and you will be redirected back to the website.
  6. If you are subscribed to the $10+ Tier or above, you can now access the "Downloads" page! Go there to download the latest version of Poiyomi Pro.
  7. and that's it! Install Poiyomi Pro as per usual into your Unity Project.

There's also a little Easter Egg on the website (more like, a mini-game) that's playable in plain sight. Can you find it?

About Discord

From this point forward, you will still need to link your Patreon with your Discord Account in order to receive tech support on the Pro Shader. As always, linking your Patreon to your Discord will unlock a fancy role, some perks, and access to the #paid-shader channel where you can also download the same package from.

VCC Support Coming Soon!

This new website is the first steps in creating a VCC-compatible version of the Pro shader! Support for this is currently under development and should hopefully be available soon for all Patreons to use in the near future.

We hope you enjoy using the new website! As always, thank you for being a Patreon subscriber!

Poiyomi 9.0 Released

· 7 min read
Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer

I am very excited to announce that version 9.0 of Poiyomi Shaders is now fully available!

This major update contains a vast amount of new features and improvements to the shader. While some areas may look similar to how they were in 8.0, it's worth noting that some sections have significantly changed. I highly recommend you take the time to look them over.

Much of the existing Documentation pages are still relevant, with some notes if applicable. The pages will be updated accordingly to be more in-line with 9.0 in the coming weeks. Some pages have already been updated as well (thanks, BluWizard and Teeh!).

Let's break down the Major Changes:

  • Shader Variants
    • All older versions, including 7.3, 8.0, 8.1 and 8.2, have all been moved under .poiyomi/Old Versions.
      • This means the current main version of Poiyomi Shaders will be .poiyomi/Poiyomi Toon instead.
      • UNLOCK YOUR MATERIALS BEFORE UPGRADING to ensure you have an easy transition to the new naming scheme!
  • RGBA Color Masking
    • RGBA Color Masking has been completely redone from scratch. With this, a much better user interface and workflow is available for you to use.
      • Each Channel has more properties available now compared to before. To see what new areas do exactly, check the Documentation.
  • Matcaps
    • Introducing Gradient UV Mode.
      • This feature works very similarly to Iridescence for those upgrading to 9.0.
      • Use a Gradient Texture in the Matcap texture slot when using Gradient, or use the Thry Gradient Editor to make your own.
    • Increased Matcap Slots from 2 to 4.
    • Added AudioLink to Matcaps.
      • Adjust your Matcap Alpha, Emission, and Intensity with the music Band.
      • This feature was added to accomodate users switching over from using Iridescence.
  • Outlines
    • All Outlines features have been reintroduced to the main shader variant.
      • This means you no longer have to select a separate shader variant in order to use Outlines!
    • Added a new Outline Fixed Size Mode that basically makes Outlines look better at a closer range. This will be on by default on new Materials.
    • Added Color Adjust properties to Outlines.
    • Added more AudioLink settings to Outlines.
      • Enable Color to change the Color of your Outlines with the music Band.
  • Glitter / Sparkle
    • Glitter has received a major UI rework.
    • Added Layers to Glitter.
    • Added Random Rotation Speed Offset to Glitter.
    • Altered the Linear Emission version of Glitter.
    • Added a slider allowing Glitter to scale with Lighting.
      • This would make it sparkly in the light, and dark in the dark.
    • Added AudioLink to Glitter.
      • Play around with Max Brightness, Alpha Mod, Size Mod, Chrono Sparkle Speed, and Chrono Rotation Speed with music Band to create some incredible effects.
  • Iridescence
    • Iridescence has been deprecated in favor of Matcaps. Use Matcaps with Gradient UV Mode instead.
      • This was done because Matcaps can technically do the same thing as Iridescence with a few adjustments.
      • To accomodate users switching over, all AudioLink features have been ported over to Matcaps as well.
  • Rim Lighting
    • Reorganized everything. Same properies, better user experience.
    • Additionally, the Blend Mode property name was changed due to incompatibilities with lilToon naming. Check the Upgrade Guide in the Documentation to see what the default settings were set to.
  • LTCGI
    • Added experimental LTCGI support. Check the Documentation for more information.
      • This marks the first time it is available in the Free Shader version.

Shader and UI Changes:

  • General UI
    • Varous Elements in the Material UI have been redesigned to make things look better and easier to visually distinguish between other sections.
  • Color Adjust
    • Hue Shift is now using the human perception of color.
      • This means better stability of the Brightness and Saturation with your base color.
    • Added Color Grading.
  • Module Toggles
    • Module Toggles let you remove modules from your shader. Handy if you don't want to deal with all the things you don't use or want to be able to check boxes and see a little less cyan.
  • Rendering
    • Reorganized Rendering Options instead of being randomly ordered. The new order of appearance is now: Blending, Outline Blending, Stencil, and Outline Stencil.
  • Global Masks, Themes, UV Settings, and Post Processing are now organized under the Global Data and Masks Category.
  • Changed Min Brightness for Additive Lights to now function with the luminance value of the additive light rather than the direct RGB values.
    • For reference, "additive lights" are Point and Spot Lights.
  • Decals
    • Added Back Face and Front Face Masking.
  • Cubemap
    • Section rework, including better organization.
    • Added Blurring and Color Adjustment.
  • Reflections & Specular
    • Added Global Masking support.
    • Lit Fallback is now On by default to improve lighting in maps with no Reflection Probe at all.
  • Light Data
    • Added Mirror Vertex Lights (Non-Important) Checkbox to Light Data. This enables separate additive lighting to appear on your Avatar's Mirror Clone.
      • This is enabled by default.
    • Adjusted Vertex Lights so they're more in line with how Additive Lights function.
  • Early Z
    • Added Early Z option to almost every shader rather than having it be it's own shader.
      • To use Early Z, enable it under Rendering on your Material.
  • Grab Pass
    • Massive changes to how Grab Pass works in Poiyomi Shaders. It now allows for all features to be used on it with correct lighting for Opaque surface and Transparent shading.
    • Defaults have been changed so they function correctly.
  • AudioLink
    • Added animatable Overrides to the individual AudioLink Bands for debugging and custom AudioLink inputs.
  • Emissions
    • Added Saturation to Color Adjust.
    • Changed the name of the Hue Shift section to Color Adjust.
  • Vertex Options
    • Added a stupid sphere mode to vertex options because someone really wanted it.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed Clear Coat Global Mask Blending.
  • Fixed a bug where Materials de-select themselves after Locking and Unlocking.
  • Fixed a bunch of duplicate named things that was definitely not copy pasted and was forgotten to be changed.
  • Fixed duplicate sampler names.
  • Fixed Vertex Light issues in Shading and Stylized Specular.
  • Fixed Grab Pass blending at various transparencies.
  • Fixed a problem with additive lighting breaking when Point Light Passthrough was set to 0.
  • Corrected a problem with Packed Map behavior.
  • Fixed Object Position being set incorrectly.
    • It was set to 0,0,0 in World Space and is now correctly set tot he Model's position.
  • Fixed Glitter Color Alpha. It actually now does something.
  • Fixed Grab Pass on the Toon Grab Pass shader.
  • Fixed Export Checker throwing a Null Reference Exception.
  • Fixed Point Lights being too dark at longer ranges. They were recalculated to be more correct.
  • Fixed Light Data Maps not having RGBA Packers.
  • Fixed a script error in the Toon Shader.
  • Fixed some buggy UI in Rim Lighting.
  • Fixed an issue where Reset, Copy, and Pasting of sections were not handling the reference properties correctly.
  • Fixed various Shader Warnings.
    • Turns out that sometimes the Shader Warnings can actually crash the compiler!
  • Fixed a bunch of crashes.
  • Fixed an issue where Unlocked Shaders were included in the Upload when they weren't supposed to due to a failed Auto-Lock or other issue. It will now throw a callback to stop the Upload entirely if this situation is detected.
  • A bunch of other fixes that would take ages to document.

ThryEditor

  • Added isPlaying check to Avatar Preprocessor. This should prevent Locking in cases where preprocessing is called for in Editor Test Builds that are not being Uploaded.
  • Added Cross Shader Editor.
    • Use this Tool to edit multiple Poiyomi Materials, all at once.
      • Summon the panel by clicking Thry -> Cross Shader Editor from the Unity Menu.
  • Added organizers which are currently used in Geometric Dissolve and Multilayer Shading.
  • Added Decal Placement Tools, found in the Decal section.
  • Fixed Presets from not functioning or updating correctly.
  • VectorToSlidersDrawer negative support using np. If used all floats in the drawer declaration need to have either n or p in front of it to convert the parameter to a string. n will be converted to a negative float.
  • Fixed a null pointer exception involving the Shader Translator.
  • Various Fixes for Unity 2022.

Poiyomi Toon Shader Now Available via VCC

· 2 min read
Poiyomi
Creator, Shader Developer

2024-06-01: Updated with new links

When utilizing the Poiyomi Toon Shader through VCC, you have the option to set it up for your project. However, there are some essential considerations to keep in mind, and we'll provide a detailed guide to help you through the process.

Setup

To initiate the use of the Poiyomi Toon Shader via VCC, follow these steps to ensure a smooth setup:

  1. Check Existing Installations: Prior to proceeding, it's crucial to verify whether Poiyomi is already installed in your project. This step is essential to prevent conflicts or unexpected behavior.

  2. Adding the Shader to Repo Listing: If you have the latest VCC installed, follow these steps:

  • Go to the Downloads Page http://poiyomi.com/download.

  • Click "Add to VCC" on the instructions for Method 2.

  • Follow the prompts provided to add the shader to your VCC.

  1. Adding Packages to a Project: Within the VPM Interface, perform the following actions:
  • Select your project.

  • Find the "Selected Repos" dropdown.

  • Check "Poiyomi's VPM Repo."

  • Choose the package you wish to add and click the plus button.

Creator Companion VCC Image

If you manage to come accross any issues, don't be shy to join ✨ Poiyomi Shaders Discord ✨ and head to #shader-problems channel!