Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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✔️ Works in 2020.1 ➕ 2020.2 ➕ 2020.3

I've covered a lot of different types edge detection outlines built in Unity's Universal Render Pipeline Shader Graph. In this video, I take another look at per-object depth and normals outlines to further optimize them, obtaining depth and normals data from a single texture and decreasing texture reads. I also describe some ways to counter-act the loss of depth precision and keep quality as high as possible!

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🎬 Previous videos
► Hull Outlines: youtu.be/1QPA3s0S3Oo
► Edge Detection Outlines: youtu.be/RMt6DcaMxcE
► Depth Normals Outlines: youtu.be/fW-5srSHDMc
► Per-Object Outlines: youtu.be/74AS5DmLe8w

💬 Video transcript
► docs.google.com/document/d/1hDWs1jQu_lJ9zyjQrwC7PZ00pcIVMa4wJFFPaXkKcSQ/edit?usp=sharing

📜 Required scripts
► DepthNormalsFeature.cs: gist.github.com/NedMakesGames/360f900dc86120dda34cc831c823a78e
► OutlinesInclude.hlsl: gist.github.com/NedMakesGames/f5f62f9ff0fb5d3ac478430af16b3cdc
► DecodeDepthNormals.hlsl: gist.github.com/NedMakesGames/3cafdd89b68adb4c167767c4e99ecbf9

📚 Reference scripts
► OutlinesInclude.hlsl final: gist.github.com/NedMakesGames/a7a42f292b5575e9586d64c24313ac86

⏲️ Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:03 Theory
1:46 Project setup
2:42 OutlinesInclude
4:20 Outlines subgraph
8:25 Test graph
10:08 Adding to other graphs
10:39 Wrap up and credits

🎖️ Credits and references:
• Cyanilux: Depth - cyanilux.com/tutorials/depth/#buffer-vs-texture
• Erik Roystan Ross: Outline Shader - roystan.net/articles/outline-shader.html
• Alexander Ameye: Outlines Shader - alexanderameye.github.io/outlineshader.html
• Hanane Rami, Mohammed Hamri, Lhoussiene Masmoudi: Color Edge Detector with Sobel-PCA - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.402.6975&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• Microsoft: DirectX Graphics Samples - github.com/microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples/blob/master/Samples/UWP/D3D12PipelineStateCache/src/EdgeDetectPixelShader.hlsl
• Ben Golus, Keijiro Takahashi: View Direction from Screen UV - forum.unity.com/threads/help-with-view-space-normals.454248
• freepik: Wrinkled paper texture - freepik.com/premium-vector/wrinkled-paper-texture_711440.htm
• James "Nihilore" Opie: music "Moonlit Skyline" - youtube.com/watch?v=iyIjnbP6L2I
• Flytet: Great white shark - turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-big-shark-animation-3d-model/1113550
• Fruitgeoff: Underwater Scene | Folder Exam - Spring 2020 - sketchfab.com/3d-models/underwater-scene-folder-exam-spring-2020-99a3e1a8d5744aa3be9c4592e384acfb

#GameDev #IndieDev #Unity