World Normal Mix Shader

A shader that mixes two sets of textures based on direction of the world normals. Practical for quick environment texturing.

A Godot 4.0 version of the shader can be found here. https://github.com/Arnklit/TutorialResources/blob/main/world_normal_mix_shader_4/world_normal_mix_4.gdshader

Shader code
// 2022 Kasper Arnklit Frandsen - Public Domain - No Rights Reserved

// WORLD NORMAL MIX SHADER
// This shader can  be used to mix two PBR materials based on a world normal. This is useful for
// effects such as snow on top of an object, or grass growing on top of an object.

// COMMENTS:
// LINE 43 - We unpack the background normal map.
// LINE 44 - Recalculate z-component of the normal map with the Pythagorean theorem.
// LINE 45 - Apply the tangent-space normal map to the view-space normals.
// LINE 46 - Convert the world up vector into view-space with a matrix multiplication.
// LINE 47 - Compare the up vector to the surface with the normal map applied using the dot product.
// LINE 48 - Remap the dot-product to a clamped mask using the smoothstep function.
// LINE 50 - Mix the various textures and apply them, using the mask.

shader_type spatial;

uniform float offset : hint_range(-1.0, 1.0) = 0.5;
uniform float fade : hint_range(0.0, 1.0) = 0.1;

uniform vec3 uv_scale_fg = vec3(1.0);
uniform vec3 uv_scale_bg = vec3(1.0);

uniform sampler2D albedo_texture_fg : hint_albedo;
uniform sampler2D orm_texture_fg : hint_white;
uniform sampler2D normal_texture_fg : hint_normal;

uniform sampler2D albedo_texture_bg : hint_albedo;
uniform sampler2D orm_texture_bg : hint_white;
uniform sampler2D normal_texture_bg : hint_normal;

void fragment() {
	vec2 fg_uv = UV * uv_scale_fg.xy;
	vec2 bg_uv = UV * uv_scale_bg.xy;
	vec3 albedo_tex_fg = texture(albedo_texture_fg, fg_uv).rgb;
	vec3 orm_tex_fg = texture(orm_texture_fg, fg_uv).rgb;
	vec3 normal_tex_fg = texture(normal_texture_fg, fg_uv).rgb;
	
	vec3 albedo_tex_bg = texture(albedo_texture_bg, bg_uv).rgb;
	vec3 orm_tex_bg = texture(orm_texture_bg, bg_uv).rgb;
	vec3 normal_tex_bg = texture(normal_texture_bg, bg_uv).rgb;
	
	vec3 bg_normal = normal_tex_bg * 2.0 - 1.0;
	bg_normal.z = sqrt(1.0 - bg_normal.x * bg_normal.x - bg_normal.y * bg_normal.y);
	vec3 normal_applied = bg_normal.x * TANGENT + bg_normal.y * BINORMAL + bg_normal.z * NORMAL;
	vec3 up_vector_viewspace = mat3(INV_CAMERA_MATRIX) * vec3(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
	float dot_product = dot(up_vector_viewspace, normal_applied);
	float mask = smoothstep(offset - fade, offset + fade, dot_product);

	ALBEDO = mix(albedo_tex_bg, albedo_tex_fg, mask);
	vec3 mixed_orm = mix(orm_tex_bg, orm_tex_fg, mask);
	AO = mixed_orm.r;
	ROUGHNESS = mixed_orm.g;
	METALLIC = mixed_orm.b;
	NORMALMAP = mix(normal_tex_bg, normal_tex_fg, mask);
}
Tags
evironment, pbr, terrain
The shader code and all code snippets in this post are under CC0 license and can be used freely without the author's permission. Images and videos, and assets depicted in those, do not fall under this license. For more info, see our License terms.

More from Arnklit

Wireframe Shader (Godot 4.0)

Particle Flipbook Flowmap Smoothing

Related shaders

Beefed up World Normal Mix Shader v1.1

Triplanar normal mix shader + detail options

[SIG15] Mario World 1-1

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments