Shader Garden VFX Toolkit cover
All work

2024

Shader Garden VFX Toolkit

A cross-engine real-time VFX and shader toolkit — node-authored effects that compile to HLSL and GLSL for Unity and Unreal.

Overview

Built a toolkit that lets technical artists author real-time effects once and target multiple engines. The node graph compiles down to hand-optimised HLSL and GLSL, with a shared library of noise, flow-map, and dissolve functions. Wrote a GPU particle system driven by compute shaders for tens of thousands of particles, plus a preview harness that renders effects identically outside the target engine so iteration is fast. Documented every node and shipped a sample pack of stylised fire, water, and magic effects.

Role & impact

My role

Graphics & tools programmer — compiler, compute particles, and docs.

Impact

Adopted by three studio teams and cut VFX iteration time from days to hours.

Stack

HLSLGLSLCompute ShadersUnityUnreal Engine 5