Optional Pass Parameters

The parameters in Pass are mainly divided into two parts: the developer-defined effect parameter and the PipelineStates parameter provided by the engine, this document mainly introduces the parameters related to PipelineStates, all the parameters are case-insensitive.

Parameter name	Description	Default value	Remark
switch	Specifies a power switch for the current pass. Could be any valid macro name that's not defined in the shader, the macro name shouldn't collide with any existing macros inside the shader	*undefined	This property doesn't exist by default, which means the pass is executed unconditionally
priority	Specifies the rendering priority of the current pass, the bigger the number, the lower the priority	128	Could be any number between max(255) and min(0)
stage	Specifies which render stage the current pass belongs to. Could be the name of any registered stage in your runtime pipeline	default	For the built-in forward pipeline, the only available stage is default
phase	Specifies which phase the current pass belongs to. Could be the name of any registered phase in your runtime pipeline	default	For the built-in forward pipeline, the available phases are default, forward-add and shadow-caster
propertyIndex	Specifies the index of the pass to copy runtime property data from. When two passes need to share the same set of properties, propertyIndex can be specified to avoid the need for developers to specify that same set of data multiple times (especially in the material inspector). This could be useful in some cases, e.g.: the forward add pass vs. the base pass	*undefined	Could be any valid pass index. Once specified, all the properties for the current pass will not be visible in the material inspector
embeddedMacros	Specifies additional macro definitions on top of the current shader, could be an object containing any macro key-value pair	*undefined	This parameter can be used to multiplex shader resources in multiple passes only if the macros are defined differently.
properties	Specifies the public interfaces exposed to material instector and runtime API		See the Properties section below for details
migrations	Migrate old material data		See the Migrations section below for details
primitive	Create material vertex data	triangle_list	Options include: point_list, line_list, line_strip, line_loop, triangle_list, triangle_strip, triangle_fan, line_list_adjacency, line_strip_adjacency, triangle_list_adjacency, triangle_strip_adjacency, triangle_patch_adjacency, quad_patch_list, iso_line_list
dynamics	补充说明	[]	An array containing any of the following: viewport, scissor, line_width, depth_bias, blend_constants, depth_bounds, stencil_write_mask, stencil_compare_mask
RasterizerState	补充说明		See the RasterizerState section below for details
DepthStencilState	补充说明		See the DepthStencilState section below for details
BlendState	Mixed state of the material	false	See the BlendState section below for details

Properties

Specifies the public interfaces exposed to material instector and runtime API.
It can be a direct mapping to shader uniforms, or specific channels of the uniform:

albedo: { value: [1, 1, 1, 1] } # uniform vec4 albedo
roughness: { value: 0.8, target: pbrParams.g } # uniform vec4 pbrParams
offset: { value: [0, 0], target: tilingOffset.zw } # uniform vec4 tilingOffset
# say there is another uniform, vec4 emissive, that doesn't appear here
# so it will be assigned a default value of [0, 0, 0, 0] and will not appear in the inspector

Runtime reference is straightforward:

// as long as it is a real uniform
// it doesn't matter whether it is specified in the property list or not
mat.setProperty('emissive', Color.GREY); // this works
mat.setProperty('albedo', Color.RED); // directly set uniform
mat.setProperty('roughness', 0.2); // set certain component
const h = mat.passes[0].getHandle('offset'); // or just take the handle,
mat.passes[0].setUniform(h, new Vec2(0.5, 0.5)); // and use Pass.setUniform interface instead

Shader uniforms that are not in the properties list will be given a default value.

For quick setup and experiment, the __metadata__ feature is provided, which will be the 'base class' for all other properties:

properties:
  __metadata__: { editor: { visible: false } }
  a: { value: [1, 1, 0, 0] }
  b: { editor: { type: color } }
  c: { editor: { visible: true } }

Here a and b will no longer appear in the inspector, while c stays visible.

Property Parameter List

The configurable parameters in Property are shown in the table below, and any configurable field can be omitted if it is the same as the default value.

Parameter name	Default value	Options	Remark
target	undefined	undefined	Any valid uniform components, no random swizzle
value			See the Default Values section below for details
sampler. minFilter	linear	none, point, linear, anisotropic
sampler. magFilter	linear	none, point, linear, anisotropic
sampler. mipFilter	none	none, point, linear, anisotropic
sampler. addressU	wrap	wrap, mirror, clamp, border
sampler. addressV	wrap	wrap, mirror, clamp, border
sampler. addressW	wrap	wrap, mirror, clamp, border
sampler. maxAnisotropy	16	16
sampler. cmpFunc	never	never, less, equal, less_equal, greater, not_equal, greater_equal, always
sampler. borderColor	[0, 0, 0, 0]	[0, 0, 0, 0]
sampler. minLOD	0	0
sampler. maxLOD	0	0	Remember to override this when enabling mip filter
sampler. mipLODBias	0
editor. displayName	*property name	*property name	Any string
editor. type	vector	vector, color
editor. visible	true	true, false
editor. tooltip	*property name	*property name	Any string
editor. range	undefined	undefined, [ min, max, [step] ]
editor. deprecated	false	true, false	For any material using this effect, delete the existing data for this property after next saving

Migrations

Ideally the public interface of an effect should always be backward-compatible, but occasionally introducing breaking changes might become the only option as the project iterate. A smooth data transition would be much desired during the process, which leads to the migration system.

After an effect with migrations is successfully compiled, all the dependent material assets will be immediately updated, new property will be automatically migrated/generated from existing data using specified rules.

Note: please remember to backup your project before doing any migration attemps!

For a existing effect, declares the following migration rules:

migrations:
  # macros: # macros follows the same rule as properties, without the component-wise features
  #   USE_MIAN_TEXTURE: { formerlySerializedAs: USE_MAIN_TEXTURE }
  properties:
    newFloat: { formerlySerializedAs: oldVec4.w }

Say we have a dependent material, with the following data:

{
  "oldVec4": {
    "__type__": "cc.Vec4",
    "x": 1,
    "y": 1,
    "z": 1,
    "w": 0.5
  }
}

After the effect is compiled, the material will be automatically updated to:

{
  "oldVec4": {
    "__type__": "cc.Vec4",
    "x": 1,
    "y": 1,
    "z": 1,
    "w": 0.5
  },

  "newFloat": 0.5
}

And after the next save operation on this material: (say the content is actually not changed)

{
  "newFloat": 0.5
}

We are just using the w channel here, while in fact arbitrary shuffle is supported too:

newColor: { formerlySerializedAs: someOldColor.yxx }

Or even based on a target macro:

occlusion: { formerlySerializedAs: pbrParams.<OCCLUSION_CHANNEL|z> }

This means the new occlusion data will be extracted from pbrParams data, the specific channel depend on the OCCLUSION_CHANNEL macro of current pass, and default to channel z if macro data not present.
If newFloat property already exists before migration, nothing will happen, unless in force mode:

newFloat: { formerlySerializedAs: oldVec4.w! }

Then the migration is guaranteed to execute, regardless of the existing data.

Note: migration in force mode will execute in every database event, which is basically every mouse click in editor. So use it as a quick-and-dirty test measure, and be sure not to submit effect files with force mode migrations into version control.

Again here are the bottomline rules about preventing potential data losses:

• Property removal will happen if, and only if, you specify the removeImmediately entry explicitly.
• Property override will happen if, and only if, you end the formerlySerializedAs entry with ! (force mode)

RasterizerState

Parameter name	Description	Default value	Options
cullMode	补充说明	back	front, back, none

DepthStencilState

Parameter name	Description	Default value	Options
depthTest	补充说明	true	true, false
depthWrite	补充说明	true	true, false
depthFunc	补充说明	less	never, less, equal, less_equal, greater, not_equal, greater_equal, always
stencilTest	补充说明	false	true, false
stencilFunc	补充说明	always	never, less, equal, less_equal, greater, not_equal, greater_equal, always
stencilReadMask	补充说明	0xffffffff	0xffffffff, [1, 1, 1, 1]
stencilWriteMask	补充说明	0xffffffff	0xffffffff, [1, 1, 1, 1]
stencilFailOp	补充说明	keep	keep, zero, replace, incr, incr_wrap, decr, decr_wrap, invert
stencilZFailOp	补充说明	keep	keep, zero, replace, incr, incr_wrap, decr, decr_wrap, invert
stencilPassOp	补充说明	keep	keep, zero, replace, incr, incr_wrap, decr, decr_wrap, invert
stencilRef	补充说明	1	1, [0, 0, 0, 1]
stencil*Front/Back	补充说明		*set above stencil properties for specific side

BlendState

Parameter name	Description	Default value	Options
BlendColor	补充说明	0	0, [0, 0, 0, 0]
Targets	补充说明	false	false
targets[i]. blend	补充说明	false	true, false
targets[i]. blendEq	补充说明	add	add, sub, rev_sub
targets[i]. blendSrc	补充说明	one	one, zero, src_alpha_saturate, src_alpha, one_minus_src_alpha, dst_alpha, one_minus_dst_alpha, src_color, one_minus_src_color, dst_color, one_minus_dst_color, constant_color, one_minus_constant_color, constant_alpha, one_minus_constant_alpha
targets[i]. blendDst	补充说明	zero	one, zero, src_alpha_saturate, src_alpha, one_minus_src_alpha, dst_alpha, one_minus_dst_alpha, src_color, one_minus_src_color, dst_color, one_minus_dst_color, constant_color, one_minus_constant_color, constant_alpha, one_minus_constant_alpha
targets[i]. blendSrcAlpha	补充说明	one	one, zero, src_alpha_saturate, src_alpha, one_minus_src_alpha, dst_alpha, one_minus_dst_alpha, src_color, one_minus_src_color, dst_color, one_minus_dst_color, constant_color, one_minus_constant_color, constant_alpha, one_minus_constant_alpha
targets[i]. blendDstAlpha	补充说明	zero	one, zero, src_alpha_saturate, src_alpha, one_minus_src_alpha, dst_alpha, one_minus_dst_alpha, src_color, one_minus_src_color, dst_color, one_minus_dst_color, constant_color, one_minus_constant_color, constant_alpha, one_minus_constant_alpha
targets[i]. blendAlphaEq	补充说明	add	add, sub, rev_sub
targets[i]. blendColorMask	补充说明	all	all, none, r, g, b, a, rg, rb, ra, gb, ga, ba, rgb, rga, rba, gba

Default Values

Type	Default Value	Options
int		0
ivec2		[0, 0]
ivec3		[0, 0, 0]
ivec4		[0, 0, 0, 0]
float		0
vec2		[0, 0]
vec3		[0, 0, 0]
vec4		[0, 0, 0, 0]
sampler2D	default	black, grey, white, normal, default
samplerCube	default-cube	black-cube, white-cube, default-cube

For defines:

• The default value for the boolean type is false.
• The default value for the number type is 0, and the value range is [0, 3].
• The default value for the string type is the first element of the options array.