Introduction

Let's imagine a cube that has been painted white uniformly. Even if the color used is the same on each face, they will all have different shades of white depending on the direction that the light is coming from and the angle that we are looking at it. This extra level of realism is achieved in 3D graphics by shaders, special programs that are mostly used to simulate how light works. A wooden cube and a metal one may share the same 3D model, but what makes them look different is the shader that they use. Recipe after recipe, this first chapter will introduce you to shader coding in Unity. If you have little to no previous experience with shaders, this chapter is what you need to understand what shaders are, how they work, and how to customize them.

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned how to build basic shaders that perform basic operations. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to create just about any Surface Shader.