Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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✔️ Works in 2020.3 ➕ 2021.1

To continue investigating mipmaps, I want to introduce the partial derivative shader functions in Unity URP! These functions, DDX, DDY, and FWidth, seem magical! You can pass any variable to them, and they'll give you the amount it changes over one screen pixel. Let's see how they work, how they relate to mipmaps, and how to use them for interesting effects!

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🎬 Previous videos
► Mipmap settings and custom mipmaps: youtu.be/Vq5T4hu8NWM

✨ Follow up videos
► Mipmips in shaders: youtu.be/2G0Sime3OH0

💬 Video transcript
► docs.google.com/document/d/1UGqju4gDaEjU14KRxxsu6llZldu5wOTPcIb3igMLZ94/edit?usp=sharing

⏲️ Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:02 Behind the scenes
2:55 Reconstructing normals
3:49 Anti-aliasing
5:05 Wrap up and credits

🎖️ Credits, references and further reading:
• Nick Klingensmith: Blended Normals, or Soft Flat Shading - playdeck.net/blog/blended-normals-or-soft-flat-shading
• Giuseppe Portelli: An introduction to shader derivative functions - aclockworkberry.com/shader-derivative-functions
• Ronja Böhringer: Partial Derivatives (fwidth) - ronja-tutorials.com/post/046-fwidth
• Lennart Demes: cc0textures - cc0textures.com/view?id=Bricks059
• Astigmatic: Special Elite font - fontsquirrel.com/fonts/special-elite

Music:
Perspectives by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4207-perspectives
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license

#GameDev #IndieDev #Unity