A8 Postprocessing Shaders + Framework 0.07 (2013-01-24)

Hi guys,
I started the development of something that I want to be in the future called "A8 Postprocessing Shaders + Framework".

The first shader is a Vignette Shader:


It is really nothing big yet and I just want to have some fun again. So, if you have nice and simple ideas of what can be added (I bet you will), please tell me

download
a8-ppsf-0.07-20130124.rar (~12,93 MB; MIT-license)

effects included in a8-ppsf 0.7:
- Vignette
- Grayscale
- Sepia
- Film Grain Overlay
- Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

This workds really nice Maybe I will use this instead of the panel workaround for current project.Nice, easy to use and customizable deffered lightning solution, with point/spotlights?
Deferred lighting - Alien Swarm SDK + Source
Alien Swarm Deferred Lighting Showcase
I know, that you won't do this.. it's too complex I guess, and will need to spend on it too much of your time..
But this would be really useful! And the thing, that I couldn't afford this to myself, makes me sad
Sure, there are some solutions, but they are two slow, or too limited..

Hey 3run, deferred shading and deferred ligthning are postprocessing techniques, but they are not easy to implement and require a G-Buffer. I would like to focus on simpler things.

Yeah, that was some kind of a bad joke dude, I didn't really meant it for you to implement!
I loved vignette shader, thank you for you time you've spent on it and for sharing it with us as well.

Plus, maybe as you've started with vignette (camera) effect, maybe you could go on, and create dynamic lenseflare effect? Which could be easily added to a camera chain effects via pp_add, so we could combine it with other postprocessing shaders, like hdr etc. That would be awesome I think, but I don't know, is that thing complex or not mate. Sorry if it is, that's the only idea I had in my head for now.

I guess that is possible, I'll put that on my list.

I'll be happy to use it in my current horror project and to give you a credit man, your stuff is always great! Thank you.

This could be used for so many things! Awesome.

Another idea could be motion blur, which will blend from camera movement instead of mouse input. Plus, with ability to do not blur some models (for example, world model used for weapon). This could be great!

+1 Thats a really nice Idea
Motion blur is a nice effect!
Also, is there a shader which can fake "zooming" of weapons?
Like a DOF just reversed.

@3run: A full motion blur where every pixel is smoothed over time is possible. What do you mean by "which will blend from camera movement instead of mouse input"? Excluding models would require, that I know at each pixel, that there is something that I shouldn't blur. If you were able to provide that mask, a masked motion blur would be possible, too.

@Ch40zzC0d3r: You mean the blurring of the weapon or the zoom effect in its lens? The zooming would require a re-rendering of the scene of course. The explicit and static blur of things can be done, but as with 3run's suggestion, I would need a mask for that. A shader that draws the content of a target with a mask onto the screen is possible - you would need that too, for your weapon on that screenshot (or you render it onto the model but that would have been done by you).

HeelX@ I guess, I'm not familiar with real motion blur yet Cause at the moment I use simple (native) blur shader, which blurs the screen in the direction of the input values (I use "mickey.x" and "mickey.y", so it blurs the screen in the opposite direction of the mouse movement in my case). But real motion blur effect, will blur the screen from the camera rotation, as it looks like in games (cause I don't know the technique behind it, for me it looks like it blurs from the rotations of the camera). I hope I was more clear now, but my English sucks any way

Sorry for double post, but I got another idea What about dirt, water, blood and other shader effects on screen? I played recently Modern Warfare 2, and just got this idea in my head. Would be really nice to get one shader, which could be used for those needs, just by changing .tga files and adjusting some parameters.

what about a video grain effect and tone mapping?
Simple to create and gives nice results

They already exist man Tone mapping from Wiki and video grain from Slin collection, if you need them, I can get you some links.

Thank you 3run but I'm not really interested in this shader-collection 'cause I'm experienced enough to write my own
...but I have to say it's a nice idea and HeelX will do a great job on it
I just wanted to give some ideas and all these pp-effects could be implemented into one single shader for good performance

The next effect is something easy: a grayscale shader. It supports 8 different modes. This shader is also a nice example how to use the .technique feature of Gamestudio The download link is in the first post of this thread.

Grayscale shader:


P.S: if you use an alpha below 0%, you BOOST your colors by their calculated luminance and if the alpha is above 100%, the colors get INVERTED and are boosted if above 200%!

nice toy, can be really useful sometimes, thanks!

Really useful, thanks!

great work HeelX! Thanks for your efforts

I added a Sepia Tone effect with 4 different modes: Tint, Matrix, Duotone and YIQ. The download link is in the first post of this thread.

- Tint: the pixel is converted to grayscale and an offset is added for each R-, G- and B-channel
- Matrix: the pixel's RGB color is multiplied with a matrix which returns a sepia tone
- Duotone: the grayscale value of the pixel is used to blend beween two sepia'ish colors
- YIQ: the pixel's color is converted from RGB color space to YIQ color space, modified to a sepia color and translated back into RGB color space

Sepia effect:


When adjusting the alpha parameter, you can blend the Sepia tone with the original image to control the style of your game. Especially the YIQ- and Duotone-mode are useful. If you change the YIQ-target color and tune down the alpha, you can make the scene "feel" colder or warmer. With the Duotone-mode you can produce arbitrary duotone images.

Thanks, will be very helpful.

ppMath.c seems to be useless?

Ah, yes. Thanks for the hint. Will be removed with the next shader.

That even is a feature that AAA-Engines still advertise currently, it looks really good!

great to have a pp effect to transform colours colder or warmer, this way my levels have a more integrated appearance, many thanks, I really need it, and merry Xmas!

I added a Film Grain effect. It supports different approaches used in digital photography, films and games. Except simple noise, almost all modes base upon actual film grain samples, as a texture or a video stream. Following is a screenshot, which hardly captures the effect - you have to run the demo in order to recognize the differences; the download is in the first post of this thread.

Film Grain effect:


The first mode is procedural and calculates for each pixel random noise. The other modes tile or scale a grain-texture onto the screen in each different manners. A stream-mode takes a video file from actual film grain footage and streams it on the screen which is done pretty often in the film industry. You can buy footage at Pond5, iStockphoto or Cinegrain.com. Included in the download is a free grain sample.

It's nice to see this progress with always high quality features.

You've done a great job (and I think this will stay the same in the future)

Thanks Kartoffel you were lately into HDR, are you willing to share code so that I can implement it?

Yea, but the code is complex, dirty and needs some optimization

That won't be a problem, I guess

You, Sir, are awesome. I love it. I especially think that your code is beautiful. I can't reason about it, but I'm stunned everytime I have a look at your code about its clarity.

Thanks again for the new update, very nice effect!
It's only me, or the mode = stream use a very high cpu's performance and was running at ~95%?

I didn't look through the code, yet but maybe there's no frame-limitation.

@Uhrwerk: Thanks, very much appreciated

@rojart: I dunno, I just create a bitmap and stream the file onto it; the fps is limited to 60 fps. Nothing special.

Added a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) effect, it renders the screen as if it were displayed on an old fashioned monitor or Television. Modes: scanlines, dot'n'bloom, RGB bars, Magenta/Green bars and RGB triad. It is completely procedural and doesn't need any textures. The image shader was updated, too, you can now move the image as well. All demos support now the possibilty to hide the demo info on the space-key and on 0 you can reset the parameters of the shader.

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) effect:


download
a8-ppsf-0.07-20130124.rar (~12,93 MB; MIT-license)

Have fun!
-Christian

Awesome, now is time to remake my Vaders retro game with your pp CRT shader. Thanks again!


Strange, because if I switch to the stream mode, my cpu performance rises up from ~50% to ~90%, check the pictures.

I can't do anything about this, sorry... And maybe it is a strange combination between the high framerate and the syncing between Gamestudio and the media_play-stream, because I use the streamed texture in the shader.