How the outlines work graphically, the objects that render outlines are stored in a list inside a manager and a command buffer creates a custom depth buffer + color buffer to generate them using a Sobel filter
New postprocess outline shader, gameplay footage
New optimized highlight effect, gameplay footage
Similar to outlines, highlighted objects are stored in a list inside a manager which creates and additional color buffer and renders them out using a solid color, these are overlayed using color addition using a blit pass
Upcoming Effect: Dither Bloom
Upcoming Effect: CRT Lottes Effect with scanline blending
The über shader from Blow-Up features access to writing to the stencil buffer, control over the retro effects, splatter effects (used for the blood on weapons) and simple panning effects. It features a custom material editor to make it less convoluted.
I have been working for Half Sunk Games as tech artist as a background project for some years now, this post is an update on the previous post I made years ago. Context for the people that are reading this now, Blow-Up was a project I started collaborating with when I had to do portfolio to enter the games industry professionally, due to being friends with the team I've continued working on new things and optimizing previous shaders for the final release of the game in 2026.
What's new:
There's now a new accessibility option, outlines, these are rendered on top of enemies and key objects on the scene to separate them even further from the background.
In the future a new bloom with dithering and a new vastly improved CRT effect will be implemented to the game.