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Water Shader Breakdown (Cyanilux)

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Cyanilux

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Description

Water Shader Breakdown on cyanilux.com is a free Unity URP Shader Graph tutorial by Cyanilux (updated 2023). It builds an Unlit transparent plane from scene color and depth, not an underwater camera rig.

Enable Opaque and Depth textures, tint Scene Color, and offset screen UVs with animated noise for distortion. A Branch compares depths so geometry above the plane stays sharp. Caustics add Voronoi on world XZ from reconstructed depth, including Shader Graph v11 View Vector changes.

For intermediate URP Shader Graph users. The post warns the illusion breaks if the camera goes underwater and credits Catlike Coding for the refraction idea.

Intro, Notes, and a Breakdown on Distortion, depth fixes, and Caustics with annotated node screenshots. Content stays free online.

A compact screen-space water walkthrough; Cyanilux URP breakdowns are widely linked in Unity shader circles.