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arXiv · 2312.17587

A Tool for the Procedural Generation of Shaders using Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms

Elio Sasso·Daniele Loiacono·Pier Luca Lanzi
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Abstract

We present a tool for exploring the design space of shaders using an interactive evolutionary algorithm integrated with the Unity editor, a well-known commercial tool for video game development. Our framework leverages the underlying graph-based representation of recent shader editors and interactive evolution to allow designers to explore several visual options starting from an existing shader. Our framework encodes the graph representation of a current shader as a chromosome used to seed the evolution of a shader population. It applies graph-based recombination and mutation with a set of heuristics to create feasible shaders. The framework is an extension of the Unity editor; thus, designers with little knowledge of evolutionary computation (and shader programming) can interact with the underlying evolutionary engine using the same visual interface used for working on game scenes.

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Elio Sasso, Daniele Loiacono, Pier Luca Lanzi. 2023-12-29. A Tool for the Procedural Generation of Shaders using Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms. https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17587

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