Lesson 7 - set depth

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Summary

Learn how to move on-screen items to a different visual depth.

Level of difficulty: Easy
Time required: 25 minutes

Video Walkthrough on YouTube
Video Walkthrough direct download link

Objective

Revisit how the illusion of depth is created.
Move the HUD to a different depth, from screen depth.

Quiz

...


Intro.


Talk about depth, and parallax, and why it's +- x.


  • Shader hunting a specific effect
    1. Run The Ball, in 3D with HelixMod installed.



Move the HUD out of the screen.


  • Finding the shader, then moving it into ShaderOverride
    1. Navigate to The Ball's game directory with our shortcut.



That's it! That's all there is to disabling an effect in a game, and even in this simple example, you can see how much difference it makes to disable some effect that is heinous in 3D.

Ready for the Quiz, for you to demonstrate that you successfully disabled this effect?


  • Save and upload before and after 3D snapshots
    1. Edit the shader, and comment out our line of code that fixes the shader: //mov oC0.xyzw, c1.wwww
    2. Relaunch the game, and note that the effect is back, and even more annoying than ever.



Did you successfully disable that annoying effect? Bravo! You can now justifiably call yourself a Shaderhacker!

Disabling effects can salvage a game from being completely unplayable, so don't discount the power of this simple technique.


If you have any questions or suggestions, please use the Discussion tab, and start a new topic.