UIEffect

UIEffect contains visual effect components for uGUI element in Unity.

<< Description | WebGL Demo | Download | Usage | Development Note >>

What's new? Please see RELEASE NOTE

Description

Let's decorate your UI with effects!
You can control parameters as you like from the script as well as inspector.
AnimationClip is supported as a matter of course!

Available effects

Component	Features	Screenshot
UIEffect	Combine some visual effects. ToneMode: Grayscale, Sepia, Nega, Pixelation, Hue shift, Cutoff (alpha-based), Mono (alpha-based) ColorMode: Multiply, Fill, Additive, Subtract BlurMode: Fast, Medium, Detail NOTE: ToneMode, ColorMode and BlurMode are changeable only in editor. NOTE: Custom Effect feature will be obsolete. Please use `UICustomEffect` component instead. NOTE: Shadow feature will be obsolete. Please use `UIShadow` component instead. NOTE: Hue will be obsolete in the near future. Please use UIHsvModifier component instead. NOTE: Cutoff and Mono will be obsolete in the near future. Please use UITransitionEffect component instead.
UICaptured EffectImage	Capture a screenshot of a specific frame with effect, and display it. This effect is non-realtime, light-weight, less-camera, but be effective enough. ToneMode: Grayscale, Sepia, Nega, Pixelation ColorMode: Multiply, Fill, Additive, Subtract BlurMode: Fast, Medium, Detail QualityMode: Fast, Medium, Detail, Custom Options: Blur iterations, Reduction rate, Target texture, Keep graphic size with canvas NOTE: Use this component in 'ScreenSpace - Camera' mode.
UIShiny	Apply shinning effect to a graphic. The effect does not require Mask component or normal map. Options: Location, Width, Rotation, Softness, Brightness, Highlight
UIDissolve	Apply dissolve effect to a graphic. ColorMode: Overwrite, Additive, Subtract Options: Location, Width, Rotation, Softness, Color
UIHsvModifier	Modify HSV for graphic. Target: Color, Range Adjustment: Hue, Saturation, Value
UITransition Effect	Apply transition effect to a alpha-based graphic. EffectMode: Cutoff, Mono

The following effects can be used with the above components.

Component	Features	Screenshot
UIShadow	Add shadows/outlines to a graphic. Performance is better than the default Shadow/Outline component. See also Development note. ShadowStyle: Shadow, Shadow3, Outline, Outline8 Additional Shadows reduce vertices for multiple Shadows or Outlines.
UIGradient	Change vertex color as gradient with angle and offset. Direction: Horizontal, Vertical, Angle, Diagonal Options: Offset, Color space
UIFlip	Flip a graphic. Direction: Horizontal, Vertical, Both

Demo

WebGL Demo

Effect sample
Transition
Dialog window with blured background
Included in unitypackage

Usage

Download UIEffect.unitypackage from Releases.
Import the package into your Unity project. Select Import Package > Custom Package from the Assets menu.
In Unity5.6+, enable TexCoord1 channel of canvas. See also Development Note.
Add any effect component to UI element (Image, RawImage, Text, etc...) from Add Component in inspector.
Enjoy!

Requirement

Unity 5.5+ (included Unity 2018.x)
No other SDK are required

Development Note

How does UIEffectCapturedImage work?

UIEffectCapturedImage is similar to post effect, but uses CommandBuffer to give effect only on the rendering result (= captured image) of a specific frame.
This effect is non-realtime, light-weight, less-camera, blit only once, but be effective enough.

Camera for processing effect is unnecessary.
Process effect only once after UIEffectCapturedImage.Capture.
Using reduction buffer, keep using memory size small and keep the rendering load are small.
When GameObjects with motion are on the screen, a result texture may be stirred.
You can overlay and display like as:
[Screen] | [UIEffectCapturedImage] | [Dialog A] | [UIEffectCapturedImage] | [Dialog B].
See also Demo.

Why is UIEffect lightweight?

UIEffect pre-generates material from a combination of effects. This has the following benefits.
- Draw call batching If possible, draw calls will decrease.
- Since only the required material and shader variants are included in the build, the build size will be smaller.

How to control effect parameters for uGUI element WITHOUT MaterialPropertyBlock?

In general, you can use MaterialPropertyBlock for renderers to control minor changes in the material without different batches.
However, changing the MaterialPropertyBlock of the uGUI element from the script will cause different batches and draw calls to increase.
So UIEffect encodes multiple effect parameters to UV1 channel with IMeshModifier.
- Pack four 6-bit [0-1] (64 steps) parameters into one float value.
- The parameters are lower precision, but sufficient.

uv1	6-bit [0-1]	6-bit [0-1]	6-bit [0-1]	6-bit [0-1]
x(32bit float)	Tone level	Empty	Blur level	Empty
y(32bit float)	Red channel	Green channel	Blue channel	Alpha channel

Note: Unity 5.6+

In Unity 5.6+, Canvas supports Additional Shader Channels.
Please enable TexCoord1 to use UIEffect.

Note: if you include prefabs / scenes containing UIEffect in AssetBundle.

Use script define symbol UIEFFECT_SEPARATE.
Unused shader variants and materials will be excluded from AssetBundles.

	Combined mode (default)	Separated mode
Script define symbol	-	`UIEFFECT_SEPARATE`
Included in build	Only used variants	Only used variants
Included in AssetBundle	All variants (Heavy!)	Only used variants
Look in editor

How to improve performance?

Use ShaderVariantCollection to preload shader.
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OptimizingShaderLoadTime.html
Set camera's clear flag to "Solid Color".
Enable multi thread rendering.

The issue of default Outline component

Graphic with multiple outline components will generate a lot of overdraw.

This is an overdraw view of image with three outline components.
Because there are many overdraws, it is very bright!
For each Outline component, increase the mesh by 5 times. (In the case of the Shadow component, it doubles the mesh.)
In the image above, 1 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 125 overdraws are generated.

UIShadow's 'Addition Shadow' feature solves this issue by adding only the necessary mesh, 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 13 overdraws are generated.

License

Author

mob-sakai

Hexa566 / UIEffect