Alan Zucconi

Hi everyone! 👏 If you follow my work, you know that in the past I have talked extensively about video games and maps. This month I want to show you how you can create your very own interactive web-based map with Unity and LeafletJS. 🗺️ If you have a game and would like to create a zoomable slippy

Hi everyone! 👋 A few weeks ago I posted a long article talking about the rise of generative AI, and what it meant for the many people involved in creative jobs (like artists and game developers). To balance things out, I wanted to talk about some more "classical AI" techniques which are still very

Hi everyone! 👋 The ones of you who have been following my blog for some time, might remember my longest series ever about iridescent shaders in Unity. The series focused on diffraction grating, which is one of the main optical phenomena responsible for iridescent reflections. The last two posts, ho

Hi everyone! 👋 The second part of the tutorial series about topographical maps in Unity is finally out! This article will cover the edge detection, which is the first step necessary to create real-time maps: Part 1: Topographical Maps: Terrain Shading Part 2: Topographical Maps: Edge Detection This

Hi everyone! This is the second part of the online series dedicated to the creation of 360° videos. In this article, you will learn how to create them in Unity. Part 1. An Introduction to 360° Videos Part 2. How to Create a 360° Video in Unity Three additional articles are going to be released at a

Hi everyone! The final part of the tutorial about Journey sand rendering is finally here! In the final instalment, I will focus on how to recreate the ripples that wind creates on sand dunes. I have kept this as the last tutorial as it involves more Maths, compared to the previous ones. I hope you h

Hi everyone! The fifth part of the Journey Sand Shader series is now available for everyone. In this part, Journey Sand Shader: Glitter Reflection, I wanted to focus on one of my favourite effects. Many games, from Astroneer to Slime Rancher, feature glittery reflections just beneath the surface of

Hi everyone! The first four parts of the Journey Sand Shade series are now available for everyone. The fourth part, Journey Sand Shader: Specular Reflection, focuses on reproducing the shiny reflections that you can see in the game. The developers wanted to make the sand look a bit like an ocean you

Hi everyone! The first three parts of the Journey Sand Shade series are now available for everyone. The third part, Journey Sand Shader: Sand Normal, focuses on reproducing the granular feeling of sand. This is done with the help of specially crafted textures, which allow simulating for how light sc

Hi everyone! For months I have been teasing you about the Journey Sand Shader tutorial series. It has finally arrived! This is a six-part series which will cover how to create the stunning sand effect seen in Journey. The tutorial will guide you, step by step, introducing all the necessary concepts.

Hi everyone! The third part of the series about interactive 3D maps is now available! The third part will focus on terrain shading, and how to achieve the correct lighting on meshes that have been deformed using a vertex shader. This is an online course in three parts: Part 1: Interactive Map Shader

Hi everyone! The second part of the series about interactive 3D maps is now available! This is an online course in three parts: Part 1: Interactive Map Shader: Vertex Displacement Part 2: Interactive Map Shader: Scrolling Effect Part 3: Interactive Map Shader: Terrain Shading The complete Unity proj

Hi everyone! This new series talks about interactive maps, and how they can be created using shaders in Unity. You can see below an example of what you can achieve with this technique. This is an online course in three parts: Part 1: Interactive Map Shader: Vertex Displacement Part 2: Interactive Ma

Hi everyone! In my blog, I tend to cover rather advanced topics, from the mathematics of inverse kinematics to atmospheric Rayleigh scattering. Making such complex subjects understandable to a larger audience is something that I find very rewarding. But the number of people who are both interested a

Hi everyone! This second lecture of the online course about parallax shaders and depth maps is now out. Part 1.Inside Facebook 3D Photos Part 2. Parallax Shaders & Depth Maps You will be able to give life to 2D images with this trick, in the same way Facebook does with its 3D photos. You can see an

Hi everyone! This new short series will be about parallax shaders and depth maps. I was originally inspired to write about this topic after seeing Dennis Hotson's Pickle cat website. While I had other tutorials I wanted to publish first, I have noticed how Facebook has recently introduced 3D photos,

Hi everyone! This week's Shader Showcase Saturday is dedicated to Fortnite's self-building structures. Senior Technical Artist Jonathan Lindquist has discussed about this effect back in 2013, during his GDC talked The Inner Workings of Fortnite's Shader-Based Procedural Animations. The talk is very

Hi everyone! During the past few days I have seen hundreds of developers sharing images from the new Spider-Man game. One of the most interesting effects that has captured my attention is the fact that you can see rooms inside every window. It doesn't take long to realise that this effect is faked,

Hi everyone! If you ever placed a strong light source behind your hand, you might have noticed how light is able to filter through the skin. Even more interesting is the fact that light "travels" inside the skin, and can sometimes make the entire hand glow. This optical phenomenon is called subsurfa

Hi everyone! Most of you might be familiar with a technique called billboarding. This is when a 2D quad is rendered as always facing the camera. Billboarding works really well, but it cannot be used on all objects. It is perfect for objects that look similar from all angles (like tree and grass), bu

Hi everyone! After two previous instalments of Shader Showcase Saturday focused on wind and rain, talking about snow was simply unavoidable. Creating realistic snow is a serious challenge, which will be further explored in the following months. This week, we focus on how shaders can be used to add s

Hi everyone! For this week's Shader Showcase Saturday I'll be talking about rain! In particular, I'll be focusing on simulating water droplets and rain streak on 3D surfaces. I've featured the work of: Klemen Lozar Taizyd Korambayil as they both provide very good explanations on how their effects wo

Hi everyone! Every week I am posting an article that focuses on a specific topic in computer graphics. This week is about how to create flames using shaders. This is only the first part of a longer series which will cover fires using particles, line renderers, fluid dynamics and even volumetric rend

Hi everyone! Forests and fields have always been present in video games. These environments are particularly challenging to reproduce with high fidelity, mostly due to the fact that the behaviour of grass and leaves is exceptionally complex to capture. There are three main challenges: *grass placeme

Hi everyone! This week's Shader Showcase Saturday will focus con waterfalls. Historically speaking, they have always had a special place in games. From Super Mario to Tomb Raider, their role has been more than just aesthetic. Often hiding secret caves, waterfalls are now iconic. This is why I believ

Hi everyone! Every day I see dozens of talented people posting their creations. Being a Lecturer and a Technical Artist myself, I feel we should spend some time to pay homage to them. Shader Showcase Saturday starts today, and it will be a weekly discussion on some of the best shader effects that ha

Post: http://www.alanzucconi.com/?p=8100 Making games is hard. Engines like Unity and Unreal have massively lowered the barrier to entry into this industry. And now that making games is easier than it has ever been before, developers are facing a new crisis. More and more people are joining this ind

This is the second (and last) part of the series dedicated to the intriguing topic of GPU sorting. Part 1. GPU Sorting Part 2. GPU Sorting This tutorial comes with two download packages: Standard and PREMIUM. The PREMIUM version comes with a more advanced shader, which can be configured to work with

This is the first part of a new series dedicated to the intriguing topic of GPU sorting. If you did not study Computer Science in the 80s or 90s, chances are you will struggle to understand the excitement some developers have for sorting algorithms. What could seem at first like a minor task, turns

This is the seventh part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere Part

This is the sixth part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere Part 5.

This is the fifth part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere Part 5.

This is the fourth part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere The re

This is the third part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering The remaining parts are available to $5+ patrons

This is the second part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering The remaining parts are available to $5+ patrons on Patreon. Part 3. The Mathematics of Raylei