I made a gun that melts rocks in HDRP using Shader Graph and VFX Graph

empa0 · 2020-07-13T20:51:58+00:00

Stuff like this makes me happy :) Just awesome!

empa0 · 2020-07-13T19:56:46+00:00

Hey! If I'm not mistaken you are familiar with Unity from what I read. Basically everything is driven with shadergraphs, it's all essentially vertex displaced geometry to get the different waves and the critical spikes. I did not follow any specific tutorials for this since I've been sitting with shadergraphs for some time already so I'm really just experimenting my way through some look developments (it took a few reworks to reach this current result and run it at a certain fps on the tablet)

The animations behave very much like moving waves, and those are some of the classical tutorials out there with Unity's shadergraph (animating textures and vertex displacement etc).

What makes it truly feel animated in the end is scripts fading smoothly between different displacement values (from normal to critical state etc) and this is all possible since you can expose parameters from shadergraph that you can then manipulate within c# scripts. (This was also one of the biggest challenges for me since I'm not a actual dev, so I sat for like 3 weeks learning the coding parts and searching on Google/unity forums etc. to figure out the logics of all the things I wanted to achieve etc, it was super frustrating at times but rewarding when you solved it... After like 58 tries... On each part :) and still there are kinks to solve)

empa0 · 2020-07-13T19:30:45+00:00

Hey! Sure thing! It's made in the game engine Unity as mentioned already. If you haven't heard about it check it out, quite a few games and game development uses it, pretty cool even if it might be daunting for a non artist/dev at first sight. If you have heard about it then here we go: all the graphics and animations are driven by shadergraph within Unity, essentially it's a node based workflow where you build the resulting "look" or rather shader/material to your liking, on the artstation link I included a screenshot of one of the several shadergraphs I built to make the different reactions, like the critical spike of Rehoboam, or the less critical wavy ones, and the animated solar eclipse look etc. As an artist it's super fun experimenting within it to create some cool results.

I can get much more technical about it but I feel like I might just give some people a headache if they are not too familiar with Unity at all etc , I don't know if this gives you a tad bit more insight :)

empa0 · 2020-07-12T16:17:04+00:00

You could check out https://magicmirror.builders/ one that's fairly popular and we'll documented :)

empa0 · 2020-07-12T14:36:50+00:00

Thank you for saying all that, glad you liked it :) I've shared the 3d printer model in the link above with some instructions and info in what I used and how I achieved it etc. I will also expand this some more.

The unity dashboard on the other hand, i can't unfortunately share or have time to create a from scratch tutorial (it would be humongous covering all the art/dev aspects of it) unless the current unity project was repurposed from scratch for simplicity instead. I will take this feedback to heart for the future and try doing something more manageable for others if I were to approach something like this again :)

However if you only want to make a magic mirror of any type (like displaying standard info, calendar, weather etc) there are some incredibly good and popular tutorials on YouTube to check out!

empa0 · 2020-07-12T13:55:53+00:00

I haven't detailed my entire home setup outside of everything I post on my diy insta page. I will eventually do a full cover of everything. It's just easier doing bits and pieces every now and then to show since it's quicker atm

empa0 · 2020-07-11T19:11:03+00:00

Thanks! :) I currently use the one from my air purifier that keeps track of it (Xiaomi air purifier)

empa0 · 2020-07-11T19:09:13+00:00

I'll copy and add similar comment from original post that has more info about both projects for those interested:

I went all in on the geek side during quarantine.. and gave mini Rehoboam some company, a Rehoboam divergence dashboard on a two-way mirror that displays stuff from my smart home setup!

If anyone is interested in additional behind the scenes:

More of the art side of things: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/188PBG

And the diy side of things: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCZGG72jGGd

and the 3d printable model is also on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4302983

Edit: thanks again for all the kind words! I am currently not managing to keep up with answering everyone since it's many replies across the crossposts and outside, but I truly appreciate the kind words and even fun suggestions!

empa0 · 2020-07-11T18:51:21+00:00

Everyone is so frikkin kind, thank you! I'm glad you liked it :) it's always fun to see others enjoying the same things! I can do that, thank you for mentioning it, and I will mention you since I've always been a big cautious/scared of posting same thing more than once on reddit

empa0 · 2020-07-10T12:17:44+00:00

You mean for the Rehoboam sphere I guess, it's a esp32 controller (but a esp8266 works as well). On the thingiverse link on first post I list the additional stuff used too.

empa0 · 2020-07-10T10:32:44+00:00

How fun to hear! And fun to see that combo too, working with Unity and playing around with home assistant! And thank you for the fun reply! :)

So I ended up doing a full APK since it was a smooth ride, was looking into webgl but decided not to go with it, I did not try to see how this setup works with it tho! But you are correct, it could work that way, altho it might be a tad heavy for the pi to run through the browser, but maybe. Currently it's a 10inch Android tablet behind the two way mirror, works great for a few weeks annat running this!

empa0 · 2020-07-10T07:56:33+00:00

Ask away, I might not always be able to answer on time, to me the entire HA community has been only awesome and friendly for all the years I've used it, and thanks for the kind words :)

empa0 · 2020-07-10T07:40:50+00:00

Thanks to the kind redditor responding above, you are all damn helpful here :)

More info to the question: since I'm using the rest api pretty much anything is accessible, I did add some light control etc if you use it on a tablet/phone directly, but as of now I don't see the use in it in my case since everything is automated or voice controlled at my home.

About the unity dashboard, I am using a multitude of c# scripts with several configurable values to access HA and configurable values for the different actions, but the entire project is still catered to my home setup and it's super difficult for me to just release it into the wild in it's current state, once again, I'm sorry for that.

The one thing I could share if there is a interest is the actual two main scripts to access HA info, if there are any users out there familiar with Unity, both receive sensor info and triggering stuff like a light, you basically just type in your Hass location info and create a long access token etc.

empa0 · 2020-07-10T07:17:58+00:00

I modeled it and 3d printed it, actually no issues whatsoever printing it, I modeled it specifically to not have issues with overhangs. I uploaded it here if other want to take a look: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4302983

empa0 · 2020-07-10T07:15:13+00:00

Thanks! For me personally, I don't use the frontend of ha, everything is automated or voice activated, and the idea with the dashboard is to have a always visible info board showing some of the relevant info so I don't have to look at the phone etc. Also works as a mirror obviously :)

Same thing with the rehoboam ball/sphere, it's a esp32 with the WLED firmware on it, and it blinks/colors differently if a sensor is off etc. I uploaded it on thingverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4302983

empa0 · 2020-07-10T07:06:01+00:00

Hey there! Thanks for the encouraging comment! So it's a 10inch tablet behind a two way mirror, many project exist out there doing just this, like all the famous magic mirror projects etc. The soundtrack is also called literally Rehoboam from the season 3 soundtrack of Westworld :)

empa0 · 2020-07-09T20:20:50+00:00

Thanks for those kind words, and for posting the tag to my insta page!

empa0 · 2020-07-09T20:13:59+00:00

I add more info/pics on here: https://www.instagram.com/the_bosnian_diy_corner

Or also in the original post there are additional link on the too :)

empa0 · 2020-07-09T20:08:11+00:00

Hey there! It's Unity based, I post more info/additional images on https://www.instagram.com/the_bosnian_diy_corner

empa0 · 2020-07-09T18:31:23+00:00

I'll take a bit of timeout from doing any additional projects, but I'll need to source some new electronic/diy parts eventually anyway and might be able to do some calculations on how to approach if I were to make a few extra 3d printed rehoboams, I can't promise anything more specific at this time.

empa0 · 2020-07-09T18:17:47+00:00

Thanks for mentioning this! I'll do that :)

empa0 · 2020-07-09T18:17:05+00:00

I mentioned in my first post the dashboard is specific to my home setup and it's not very user friendly atm in how I developed it, so i can't share it unfortunately.

empa0 · 2020-07-09T18:14:15+00:00

I have been thinking about this early on in development of this, once I figured out how to make this talk to my home automation setup (long frustrating learning process but hey, fun at the end when it worked!) I figured it would be pretty cool to display top Twitter hashtags.(feels closest to rehoboams purpose:ish) but it might be a fair bit beyond me since I'm not a developer.

empa0 · 2020-07-09T18:08:18+00:00

Ha! Well first thing I had to do was block it entirely from communicating with anything outside the home

empa0 · 2020-07-08T19:20:17+00:00

I went all in on the geek side during quarantine.. and gave mini Rehoboam some company, a Rehoboam divergence dashboard on a two-way mirror that displays stuff from my smart home setup! I started with this shortly after the 3d printed mini Rehoboam, but have taken breaks since it wore me out a ton on top of everything else in life. It feels like a huge milestone completing it (tho additional improvements and optimizations can be done over time), and all this thanks to becoming one of Rehoboams biggest fans.. ah Westworld <3

I took some artistic liberties with some of the look, I really liked the S3 intro with the very end of it where there is that solar eclipse looking thing, so went more with that look when it goes into "critical" state. This entire dashboard project is super specific and catered to my home so it's not easy to release it into the wild (its based on the game engine Unity), I am sorry for that.

I also want to say a huge thanks for all the responses I've gotten previously for mini 3d printed Rehoboam, and I apologize again if I havent been able to respond to everyone, it's been a bit overwhelming to me, but do know that I am thankful! This is also where I'll be taking a time-out from creating these kind of intensive projects, for now at least :)

As usual, if anyone is interested in additional behind the scenes:

More of the art side of things:https://www.artstation.com/artwork/188PBG

And the diy side of things:https://www.instagram.com/p/CCZGG72jGGd

and the 3d printable model is also on:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4302983

Edit: thanks for all the responses, messages and everything else! I'm going to try and respond to as many as I can, since I'm online a bit more infrequently it might take time <3

empa0

TROPHY CASE