Volumetric Lines

Volumetric Lines is a fast, GPU-based volumetric line renderer based on a technique by Sébastien Hillaire. It can be used to render lines with a volumetric appearance by smartly utilizing a texture. Through the use of different textures, different volumetric line effects can be achieved.

Some usage examples:

Example 1: A radial gradient texture can be used to render anti-aliased volumetric lines like laser shots or light sabers.

Example 2: A texture with a filled, solid circle positioned in the center of the square texture can be used to create the appearance of pipes.

Technically, the algorithm uses as little as 8 vertices to describe a single line and positions them smartly on the screen to create a volumetric appearance.

This package includes:

- An algorithm to render single volumetric lines, handled by the script VolumetricLineBehavior.cs

- An algorithm to render volumetric line strips, handled by the script VolumetricLineStripBehavior.cs

- Shader files, predefined materials, and presets for different appearances: Light saber, texture with additive blending, texture with alpha blending

- Three example scenes: StaticLines, LineGenerationScripts, LaserCannon

Please note that the used technique has some limitations when used with a volumetric line strip: It will not look good if there are steep angles between line segments. This limitation is inherent to the technique and cannot be overcome. However, nice results can be achieved when wide angles, and possibly a higher number of line segments are used. Please have a look at the LineGenerationScripts.scene for an example for a well-behaved volumetric line strip.

Please have a look at the release notes of version 3 which includes descriptions of various fixes and improvements, but also of a potentially breaking change regarding the line width settings.

A getting started guide can be found in the Unity Forums thread: "[RELEASED] Volumetric Lines"

Volumetric Lines is also available on GitHub where you are welcome to add contributions, create issues, and also have the opportunity to make donations in order to support the development of this asset. Your support is greatly appreciated.

For bug reports, please create an issue on GitHub. For other questions or remarks, please write to [email protected] or create a post in the Unity Forums thread mentioned above.