Optional Pass Parameters

Default value is in bold, all parameters are case-insensitive.

Switch

Specifies a power switch for the current pass, if not enabled, the pass with be skipped completely. The macro name shouldn't collide with any existing macros inside the shader. 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. The default is (128), min is (0), max is (255), arithmetic operations between these constants and integer constants are supported.

Stage

Specifies which render stage the current pass belongs to. For the built-in forward pipeline, the only available stage is default.

Phase

Specifies which phase the current pass belongs to. 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. 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. This is helpful for shader reuse when multiple passes' shader only differs at some macro definition.

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', cc.Color.GREY); // this works
mat.setProperty('albedo', cc.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.

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 generated from existing data using specified rules.
The migration process will not delete any data, and if the new data is visible in inspector, flag the source data as deprecated.
If the new property already exists, no migration will be performed to prevent accidental data override. (except in force mode)

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.

Property Parameter List

All parameters are optional, with its default value in bold.

Default Values

For macros:
Macros with explicit tag declaration default to the first element of the tag parameter.
All other macros default to 0.