SC Post Effects leaves beta

After the initial beta version was released in February 2018 the package has seen many changes in the form of improved effects and fixes. With 14 effects added since then. A huge thanks goes out to anyone who’s provided feedback or reported issues!

The effects were built to extend the Post Processing Stack v2, which in itself went through several changes as well. A beta phase was in order to communicate that things may still drastically change. Which is no longer the case.

The High-Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) ended up integrating post processing into the pipeline. Leaving this package incompatible with its newer versions (5.6.0+).

There are still a great many people using the built-in or Lightweight render pipeline in older versions, they will be able to use these effects from Unity 5.6.1 through 2019.2.

Version 1.0.0

Documentation is now complete. Every effect has a paragraph describing the intended usage and limitations. Parameter description can be viewed in the editor by hovering your cursor over them.

This update focused on tying up loose ends and providing several usability improvements:

• A playable version of the demo scene has been made available for download.
• Gradient textures with incorrect import settings will now display a warning and “Fix” button in the inspector.
• Demo scenes have been rebuild and tidied up and now showcases more effects.
• Shaders have all had an optimization pass where possible.
• Remote package version checking now happens asynchronously and won’t stall the installer or help window GUI on slow connections or time-outs.
• Some effects will now show the chosen solver or method in the title name when overridden

Upgrade guide

A notable change is that several effect parameter names have been altered for consistency. These parameters will be reverted to their default value on any existing profiles. The profiles would need to be readjusted.

What’s next?

This package will continue to be updated to work with the latest released version of Unity. A Trello board is maintained to keep track of development.

Unity 2019.3 is said to feature a new extendable post processing system, once this is available, compatibility will be investigated.

Changelog

When using Unity 2018.1+, the installation screen no longer accepts a GitHub installation of the Post Processing Stack. The Package Manager must be used. Existing projects will not be affected.

Changed:

• Dithering
  • No longer uses a procedural dithering matrix, but uses a 32×32 texture instead. Allowing for greater variety at faster speeds. Several sample textures have been added.
• Fog
  • Color parameter now allows for HDR values, enabling emissive fog
• Sunshafts
  • SunshaftCaster component now has an “infinite distance” toggle, to more accuractly match a skybox’s sun position
• Cloud Shadows
  • Now samples a texture’s Red channel, for easier texture creation
• Refraction
  • Minor visual improvement to usage with normal maps.
• Colorize
  • Now executes after the stack so it takes tonemapping into account
• Kuwahara
  • Distance field is now hidden when method is set to “Regular”
  • Minor shader optimization

Fixed:

• Fog
  • Added skybox color mode support for LWRP 5.7.2+ up to Unity 2019.1.2f1. Existing installations using LWRP need to re-run the installation to activate this. Which can be done through the Help window.
• Refraction
  • Normal map offsetting entire screen in Unity 2017.2 and newer
• Gradient
  • Not respecting alpha values set in color fields, resulting in incorrect opacity behaviour
• Hue Shift 3D
  • Precision artifacts when running the effect for a long period of time
• Color Grading LUT
  • Extracter storing the scene’s luminance in the screenshot’s alpha channel when using FXAA
• Pixelize
  • Was not taking the screen’s aspect ratio into account. Pixels will now always be square. (Note: your existing profiles need to be re-adjusted!)
• Blur
  • (Potential fix) Sometimes receiving the name “Amount” or “Length” when added to the stack
• Lens Flares
  • Corrected behaviour of Threshold parameter in both Linear and Gamma color spaces
• Light Streaks
  • Corrected behaviour of Threshold parameter in both Linear and Gamma color spaces
• Sunshafts
  • Intensity parameter not working with volume blending (Note: your current intensity values need to be re-adjusted!)